Bin Laden to McAuliffe: Our fax machine is up and running

...or maybe that goes vice-versa...Does it trouble anyone else that every time this idiot chicken bastard pops up, he's spewing Democrat party talking points? Don't believe me? Here's a partial transcript as printed by Drudge, with loony Donk talking points in brackets provided by me.

...You American people, my speech to you is the best way to avoid another conflict about the war and its reasons and results. I am telling you security is an important pillar of human life. And free people don't let go of their security contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom. He should tell us why we didn't hit Sweden for instance. [The best way for the US to not be hit again is to be weaker, more quiet, insignificant, and pacifist, like Europe.]

Its known that those who hate freedom don't have dignified souls like the 19 who were blessed. [One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.]

But we fought you because we are free people, we don't sleep on our oppression. We want to regain the freedom of our Muslim nation as you spill our security, we spill your security... [The US is at fault for being attacked by terrorists, oh...er, freedom fighters...they're fun freedom loving people too.]

I am so surprised by you. Although we are in the fourth year after the events of Sept 11, Bush is still practicing distortion and misleading on you, and obscuring the main reasons and therefore the reasons are still existing to repeat what happened before. [BUSH LIED!!!!!]

I will tell you the reasons behind theses incidents...I will be honest with you on the moment when the decision was taken to understand. We never thought of hitting the towers. But after we were so fed up, and we saw the oppression of the American Israeli coalition on our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind and the incidents that really touched me directly goes back to 1982 and the following incidents. When the US permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon with the assistance of the 6th fleet. In these hard moments, it occurred to me so many meanings I cant explain but it resulted in a general feeling of rejecting oppression and gave me a hard determination to punish the oppressors. While I was looking at the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it came to my mind to punish the oppressor the same way and destroy towers in the US to get a taste of what they tasted, and quit killing our children and women... [The evil, imperialist, USA started this. If America will capitulate to the will of the terrorists, and contribute to the destruction of Israel, the terrorists will leave us alone.]

We didn't find difficulty dealing with Bush and his administration due to the similarity of his regime and the regims in our countries. Whish half of them are ruled by military and the other half by sons of kings and presidents and our experience with them is long. Both parties are arrogant and stubborn and the greediness and taking money without right and that similarity appeared during the visits of Bush to the region while people from our side were impressed by the US and hoped that these visits would influence our countries. Here he is being influenced by these regimes, Royal and military. [Bush is only President because of his father. America is nothing more than a secret monarchy.]

And was feeling jealous they were staying for decades in power stealing the nations finances without anybody overseeing them. So he transferred the oppression of freedom and tyranny to his son and they call it the Patriot Law to fight terrorism. [The Patriot Act is serving some larger sinister purpose in Ashcroft's oppressive America. Bush is going to knock on our doors, rape our children and burn all of our books under the Patriot Act.]

He was bright in putting his sons as governors in states and he didn't forget to transfer his experience from the rulers of our region to Florida to falsify elections to benefit from it in critical times... [President Bush (41) set up Jeb in Florida to steal the election for President Bush (43).]

We agreed with Mohamed Atta, God bless him, to execute the whole operation in 20 minutes. Before Bush and his administration would pay attention and we never thought that the high commander of the US armies would leave 50 thousand of his citizens in both towers to face the horrors by themselves when they most needed him because it seemed to distract his attention from listening to the girl telling him about her goat butting was more important than paying attention to airplanes butting the towers which gave us three times the time to execute the operation thank God...[Bush's failure to completely panic a room full of school children when the planes hit on 9/11 made the attack even worse because Bush is a stupidhead.]

Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al Qaeda. Your security is in your hands. Each state that doesn't mess with our security has automatically secured their security. [If America will just show them how nice we are and don't go after them, they'll leave us alone. We should be more sensitive.]

My opinion: We so must kill this piece of shit. Kill this coward Bin Laden, not the coward Democrats. I'll be happy enough to beat the hell out of them in the voting booth.

First North Korea, Now Syria

A friend turned me on to this article today, which I found interesting on so many levels. First, who in the hell elected the EU to be coming to any agreements with anybody? Oh yeah, never mind. With the moral authority and ability to militarily enforce these agreements, they should've just mailed the permission slip over to the Security Council in New York City.

Dear Security Council,
Please let the terrorists be terrorists.
Love,
EU

It would've been a lot cheaper. I also noticed that there is no mention of the weapons everybody knows they already have (i.e. the stuff that was shuffled over the border by Saddam prior to the US Military arriving), so I guess they just get to keep it. I'm thinking when terrorists set off a nuke in Paris or Berlin, the Euros will have forfeited their right to complain? Not likely, although I'll put that little happy picture in my brain of President Bush giving them the finger.

Viva Blah Blah Blah...

We went to Las Vegas last week and I returned on Monday to over 800 e-mails (not counting the personal ones) in addition to my regular workload, so needless to say, I’ve been a bit behind. Things will smooth out eventually. First post has to be some stuff on the trip. I managed to read Incubus Dreams by Laurel K. Hamilton while traveling and as T so eloquently stated, it is pretty much a very graphic porn novel highlighted by a weak story line. Laurel, my dear, please get yourself laid so you can go back to writing engaging stories.

We also stayed in the Palace Tower at Caesar’s Palace, which is now a hotel I can officially not recommend to anybody. Visit Caesar’s if you want, but don’t stay there. Here is what happened to us. I made these reservations in July for my family, in honor of my Grandmother’s 80th birthday, which was last week. I made the following requests on my reservation.

3 rooms on the same non-smoking floor; adjoining doors not necessary.
2 of the 3 rooms should have 1 King bed, and the 3rd should have 2 doubles.

Now, I don’t think these are necessarily unreasonable requests. I worked in professional sports for a while, so I have seen some people get unreasonably picky about their accommodations, but I don’t think I did. It all seemed straight forward to me. Apparently, however, Caesar’s disagreed, so here’s what we had when we arrived.

3 rooms on 3 different floors
All 3 rooms had 2 double beds
1 of the rooms (T’s & mine) was on a smoking floor.

Way to go customer service on that. When I inquired about my original requests, I was informed that they were too full to accommodate me. In July? Hardly. To add to the adventure, the rooms weren’t exactly clean. You have to not dust a long time to grow 3 inch long dust bunnies on bathroom light fixtures. My mom’s shower had scunge in the bottom. Word to the wise, just avoid the hotel in this place, they can’t service their clientele. I will say that Caesar’s also owns the Paris, and we had a great experience there on our last trip.

My other great disappointment was with our car rental from Dollar. I don’t rent cars very often, but there must be something to the “we try harder” ads and the like. When we arrived in Vegas, it was pouring rain. We were shuttled to the car pick up lot and I went in to pick up my car. The lady behind the counter told me since I had my paperwork to just go find the car we wanted, the keys were inside, and we could go and check out. Well, I had reserved a full sized car, so we schlep our luggage in the rain, about the length of a football field, only to find that there is not one full sized car in the lot. It was a mini-van jungle out there, and I couldn’t do it. So, we return to the building where clerk #2 instructed us to go to a tent (that didn’t keep out the rain by the way) and wait. After a good 5 minutes, T asked a lady who was hiding out under the tent in a PT Cruiser, “hey, what about that Dodge Durango?” Bingo! Upgrade and out…So why were we waiting again in the freakin rain?

Returning the car was a separate adventure. We dropped the car and were shuttled to the airport by this creepy ass mulleted David Hasselhoff looking guy. I learned something from “Mullet Dave”, however; you are supposed to tip your rental car shuttle driver. I honestly did not know that. I thought he drove you to the airport and let you out. So we get out of the car, running a little late and with the airline check-in line a mile long. Dave says, “so are you going to tip me, or what?”

I was a bit surprised at that, as I was always under the impression that a tip was something optionally provided by a customer, not expected. My first thought, was, “dude at this point, you’re just a panhandler, and I don’t give money to panhandlers,” but I decided to be nice (it seldom happens). I reached into my wallet and pulled out the only small bills I had and gave them up. Note to self: every time you’re nice, you pay for it.

I kid you not: Dave held out the money to me and said, “are you really that broke?” I should’ve just taken it back. Were it not for fighting luggage and attempting to keep up with my husband the gentleman, who had already headed toward the terminal, I would’ve slugged the guy. Needless to say, Dollar didn’t make a repeat customer out of me.

Reading this, you’d think I had a miserable time. Not so, at all. We did have a lot of fun. I enjoy spending time with my family and enjoyed the vacation. I have to say though that not being a gambler that I’m pretty much done with Vegas, in that most of the strip is an overpriced mall. Simon, which is the management company that runs the Forum Shops as well as some of the others, is the same management company that runs the Houston Galleria. The Houston Galleria has more to it than walking the miles and miles of strip hotels, so what’s the point? Visit Houston; it is cheaper and you can get more stores in less exercise. No wonder we Houstonians are a bunch of fat-asses.

We also ate at Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay’s restaurant), which was pretty good. I think Bobby is trying waaaay too hard to make every single little thing gourmet-ish with his ancho-chili mayonnaise, his chipotle-garlic crème fraîche, and his cactus pear margaritas. Sometimes simpler is just better, especially with southwestern cuisine. A quesadilla is just that, even with caviar on it.

I think the best meal of the trip was at a restaurant downtown at the Golden Nugget called Zax. We ended up there because we non-planners didn’t make Friday night dinner reservations, and the concierge got us in on the condition we could get there in 20 minutes. It worked out for the best. We had great steaks, D’Andre provided almost New Orleans caliber service, the décor was great, and the atmosphere was lively. If you’re in Vegas, go there. It will make you happy.

I think next round, I’ll be lobbying to go to NYC, LA, or Chicago. We’ll see.

Preaching To The Choir III

So it's less than a week to go before the (insert scary announcer voice) MOST IMPORTANT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF OUR GENERATION. Or did that happen in '80 when Jimmy Carter got beat? I dunno. We're still a little close to things. I realized I hadn't finished my muddled explanation of my presidential choice.

As should be obvious now, I'll be voting for George Bush this time around. There's so many problems with his administration I don't know where to start. He spends money like it's water and has presided over the largest expansion of the Federal government in my lifetime. The current Justice Department seems only passingly acquainted with the concept of civil liberties. I could go on like this, but you get the idea. I have lots of issue with the Bush administration.

However, there is one overriding concern in the current election cycle. For at least the past 25 years, we have been engaged in a war with Islamo-fascists. For the vast majority of that time, we weren't paying attention to them engaging us. We ignored the threat until 3,000 people died on September 11th, 2001. George Bush is the only candidate for President that acknowledges this fact. John Kerry thinks it can be reduced to a nuisance. Badnarik thinks we should withdraw from the world and address 'root causes'. Both of these approaches can be described as fundamentally flawed if you are inclined to be charitable. I, not being inclined to charity, think both approaches are completely fucking insane. I am confident that George Bush will continue to fight the specter of Islamo-fascism. I have no such confidence in any other candidate.

The original Libertarian Party candidate is also going Bush this year. Predictably, this leads to squeals of outrage from the hardcore doctrinaire purists about how he's not really a libertarian, &c, &c. After all, disagreement over an issue means you are no longer one of the true believers, right? This is one of the fundamental issues with the LP as an effective organization. The Party spends so much time worrying about ideological purity it is completely ineffective on a practical level. Frankly, the Cato Institute does more for libertarians than the Party ever will.

For more fun voting opinions, check out this article from Reason.

More United Extortion

There is a fair amount of discontent in my office about United Way, apparently. We have a rah-rah session at the end of the drive next week when the execs will make fools of themselves so the rest of us feel better about contributing our paychecks towards the company's propaganda efforts. People are scheming about how to get out of it already. I may go, just to see one or two people from our other office. I don't get out there much.

I've noticed that no one directly approaches me about United Way. When the raffle ticket sellers come by, they skip my office for some reason. I don't know why. Anyhow, the pledge card mysteriously showed up on my chair while I was on vacation. I looked it over briefly before filing it in the appropriate location. I note that the United Way believes in progressive giving. If your annual salary is up to 10,000 dollars you should give out 0.6% to the extortionists.

Excuse me while I gag. Nothing personal, but I thought the point of charity was to help those less fortunate than yourself. If you make $10K a year, you are not making much. Keep your money because you damn sure need it. The idea that United Way is hitting up poor people is beyond me, but i am a simple creature at best. If you make $10K a year and feel that you can afford to give to charity, do it up. But I think United Way telling you how much you should be giving strikes me as slighty creepy.

Those folks making more than $50K a year should be giving up 2.0%, apparently. I don't see why that same 0.6% doesn't suffice, but the rationale for progressive taxation has always been a little obscure to me, so why should I understand it when applied to charity? Anyhow, I have better organizations to give my money to than United Way, so it ain't my problem.

Books & Stuff

So I finished Hawkwood's Voyage on the plane to Vegas. I'll give it a 4 out of 5. Decent plot, not as much character development as I'd like, but things are moving along nicely. I'd like to read the rest of the series. Unfortunately for me, I have to special order the remaining books from Amazon. They are apparently out of stock and/or print. I'll make the perfunctory attempt to check a local B&N or Borders first, but then it's off to special order hell.

I also watched the Rammstein DVD while packing. Well, the actual music videos, anyway. Haven't gotten to the concert footage. Odd stuff. Fun, in that surreal way watching music videos is. It's even better when the vocals are a deep-voiced guy shouting guttural German. There's absolutely no connection to anything that way. Do the video images have some relation to the lyrics? I dunno. I have no idea what the hell he's saying, but who cares? It's entertaining nonetheless.

I get a lot of the same surrealism on Sunday mornings watching India Vision. Indian music videos! Yay! Once again, I have no idea what the frell is going on, but that diminishes my enjoyment of the process not at all. Actually, I tend to think if I understood them, it would be worse. The lyrics would probably be trite, predictable pop nonsense filtered through another culture. I'm better off not knowing. Besides, half the fun of India Vision is just watching the videos. They always seem to have the classic double standard going on: drop-dead gorgeous women and the men are just schmoes. The women spend all of their time walking or dancing away from the unattractive schlub pursuing them. Much like real life, I suppose.

Demon Weed!

Since I am in the middle of Jacob Sullum's Saying Yes, I found his pointing to today's NORML news release especially timely. I'll just give selected highlights.

• 755,817 people arrested for marijuana violations
• 45% of all drug arrests
• 88% - 662,886 - were charged with possession only

So what's all this costing us? 7.6 billion dollars annually, according to NORML. The US is spending billions of dollars to lock up dope smokers. That's an efficient use of your law enforcement resources, isn't it? I can't possibly think of anything else that might benefit from 7.6 billion worth of law enforcement. Well, except border security.

All other issues you may have with illegal drug use aside, this is a staggering sum of money to spend on arresting potheads. Last time I checked, potheads aren't running out en masse to commit violent crimes. Mostly they sit around the house and smoke dope, much like those of us that sit around the house of an evening and have a drink. Spending billions of dollars to arrest people for smoking demon weed just doesn't strike me as worthwhile. Of course, spending any money at all to arrest someone for marijuana possession strikes me as stupid. Of course, the drug war in general is an idiotic idea pushed by people whose ideology divorced from reality a long time ago.

Where?

While reading this article from the Army Times, I noted something of interest. 10th SF Group has deployed troops to the 'Republic of George'. I just can't seem to find this on a map anywhere, and the CIA World Factbook is failing me yet again.

Try as I might, I am unable to shake the image of an entire nation filled with Jason Alexander look-alikes.

Socialist Thieves

I have problems with my alma mater on occasion. One of my major issues is the socialist nonsense that pervades almost everything on that freakin' campus like a fine fog of stupidity. I spent most of my time in the little corner where UT isolates engineers, so I missed a lot of the more pernicious nonsense.

One thing I did not miss was the PC police deciding I needed to pay for a statue of MLK. Some socialist decided that UT needed statues of people that weren't dead white guys. Something about the statue of Jeff Davis on the South Mall drives PC types batshit nuts, so they wanted a more ethnically diverse statue to balance it out. Fine. I had no problems with this at all. Put up a statue of goddamned Karl Mark if you think it's a good idea and can get the University to go along.

My problem came when the socialists decided that the best way to fund the statue was add an extra student fee on to my tuition bill. Given that a private donor paid for all the dead white guys on the South Mall, hitting the students up to 'redress' imagined 'grievances' struck me as bullshit. Go out and hit up the Exes for some money. Don't take my money to build statues to assuage your guilt/injustice/outrage. Get donations from people instead of using the power of the state to compel someone else to fund your pet issues. I lost that vote, so I moved on and voted for the giant severed head of MLK proposal. (Lost that vote, too.)

Now I see that the socialists are at it again. This time they're taking money from the students to build statues of Cesar Chavez and Barbara Jordan. I can see the logic for a memorial to Barbara Jordan, since she taught at UT forever. What connection does Cesar Chavez have to the University? Is it just that he's hispanic? Or am I missing something?

Furthermore, why do the students need to pay for the damn things? Socialists and revisionists piss and moan about the statue of Jeff Davis being there at all, then turn around and coerce 50,000 people into paying for their pet project. See any inconsistency there? I sure do, but maybe I'm just looking at it differently. Nice to see the precedent has been set that building statues is an appropriate thing for student fees to fund.

The whole idea is theft, pure and simple. Socialist losers don't make enough money to fund their own pathetic obsessions, so they have to get the state to take the money from people that do. Apparently, people aren't fond enough of Cesar Chavez or Barbara Jordan to put up their own money. That more than anything says everything you need to know about this proposal. Each statue will cost $400K. We're talking about a University that received 1.63 billion dollars in donations over a 7 year period. If you can't convince this community to give up $800,000 in 3 years, you have nothing anybody wants. You'd think at least some of the good little pomo socialists UT churns out of the fuzzy studies departments would want to contribute. Oh, wait, I covered that already under 'socialist losers'. Instead of, I dunno, trying harder to sell the idea to the University community, let's just rob the students. After all, now that tuition rates are skyrocketing at Texas public universities, a few more dollars won't hurt, right?

I 'd say more, but all I have left is incoherent profanity.

What Did They Expect?

So I'm sure most of you have heard about Brit-rag The Guardian encouraging our cousins across the pond to send e-mails to voters in Ohio. You hadn't? Well, read up quickly and return.

You're back already. Now go and read the responses. I think the headline sums it up perfectly, don't you?

I think this just demonstrates, once again, two important things. The first is that the vast majority of Europeans don't have a clue how Americans think. The euros watch the telly and view the cinema and think they have some insight into America. Nope. Not in the slightest, but thanks for playing. Go home now and play metric football. What is possibly more damaging and insulting to them is that the vast majority of Americans simply don't care about Europe. It's a nice place to visit, but so what? So is Vegas. The amount of time your average American spends worrying about the denizens of either place is vanishingly small. We just don't care much.

Speaking of Las Vegas, J and I will be departing tomorrow for that lovely city. Viva, etc. More blogging when we return.

Even if they have to cheat...

Seems like the news today is that the Donks know that if they play fair, they’re going to lose; and if current tactics are any indication, apparently they think they’re losing big time. I thought the violence and shooting up headquarters was pretty rough, but they were just getting started.

No, I’m not talking about Kon Ferry prancing about the country lying about President Bush re-instituting the draft and leaving old people homeless and without their Social Security. And forget about John “El Molio” Edwards and his revival-style rant about John Kerry’s ability to enable full mobility for the wheelchaired. I’m not even talking about the sorest loser in American Presidential History, Alberto “VO5 gallons of flop sweat” Gore, and his recent loony comments about President Bush’s “love of power for its own sake that is the original sin of [Bush’s] presidency”. How can we forget all this business about Republicans trying to suppress that all important felony vote? But still, that’s all just stupid talk.

And yes, the rhetoric is as shrill as I’ve ever heard, but I can make fun of the lies. But now, they’re really desperate, they’re not fucking around, and I’m getting honestly scared. They’re turning our Democracy into a fraud. Consider…

Ohio

A guy recruited by employees of the NAACP National Voter Fund is arrested for being paid in crack cocaine for completing fictitious voter registrations. Link

1,000 “suspicious” absentee voter registrations in Lake and Summit Counties are being investigated by officials, with the central figures being the NAACP's National Voter Fund and Americans Coming Together (ACT). Link

Hamilton County is investigating registrations for people who don’t exist, turned in by a low-income advocacy group called Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Link

Pennsylvania

Apparently ACORN strikes again here, but with a group called Citizens for Consumer Justice, intentionally completing duplicate and inaccurate applications. Link

Minnesota

ACORN is a busy bunch, with this now former employee being caught with a stash of over 300 unsubmitted forms in his trunk, in direct conflict with the law. Many of the forms have turned out to be incorrect anyway. Link


And you know we can’t leave out Florida because the legendary Democrat precincts have already set themselves up for all kinds of trouble. Links are here, here and here. This last one is especially fun because it involves both ACORN and a Muslim activist group.

Now, let me say I located this this small group of examples in less than 10 minutes. Also notice that just in this small list, all of the activities are in the so-called “battleground” states. They’re not going to places which are (a) predominantly Republican, and (b) considered a lock for a candidates, like say…TEXAS…

To those of you who said to me that that my prior post about how the Democrat party would seize power or destroy us all was a little harsh. Harsh eh? Now you have to think I’m looking prophetic. Republicans will win the war of ideas every time, but I’m honestly not confident we can overcome this kind of crap.

Book Musings

Yay for book clubs! Zooba came through for me on Saturday morning with the new Laurell K. Hamilton novel, Incubus Dreams. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it, and I have one major issue. I have a broadband connection. If I want porn, I can get it. Porn is not why I read books. I really don't need to read one more entirely too graphic description of Anita Blake having sex. I made the joke to J when the book arrived that it was porn for fat goth chicks. I had no idea how true my statement was. I have read less graphic descriptions of sex acts in actual porn magazines. If the trend keeps up, Anita Blake isn't going to have time to kill vampires, fight lycanthropes, or solve murders. Just based on page count, in one or two more books she'll spend the whole novel with somebody's dick in her mouth. As a bonus, it will all be described in loving, graphic detail.

As far as the plot goes, I'm also getting a tad bit bored with the inevitable expansion and mutation of the powers of Anita Blake, et al. Soon, the galaxy will be consumed by hunger of the Dark Phoenix! Oops, sorry, having a flashback to another all-powerful female lead. You get the idea, though. At this point, I'm thinking if Anita just says 'screw it', (literally), and boinks every supernatural male in the city of St. Louis, she'll be pretty close to an incarnate deity. Then, she'll bitch about how godhood interferes with her relationships.

On the whole, I'm willing to give it a provisional 3 stars. The ideas that made the series interesting in the first place are still there, but are being relegated to the back burner as it turns into a pornogoth soap opera. I may revise this opinion if the ending is spectacular, but I'm not optimistic.

I also got some stuff delivered from Amazon. A Rammstein DVD, Lichtspielhaus, because it was cheap and sounded sufficiently odd. Angry-sounding German rock videos, what could be finer? I picked up The Official Handbook of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for J, although I thought she had one already. Don't they issue you a copy when you join as a charter member? Maybe this is the updated one or something. Finally, I got my plane flight book for our vacation later this week, Hawkwood's Voyage. I have no idea if it's any good, but it looked interesting.

Update: I finished Incubus Dreams. The ending was not handled well, but is setting up for the next book. Eh. Still gets 3 stars (out of five).

One More Shamless Plug...

Tune into Sci-Fi Channel on Sunday & Monday at 9/8 c for Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. What in the hell am I talking about? Look here...and then watch!

Debate & Desperation

So I’ve been laying around with a migraine for the past day or so, and didn’t get a timely post on the debate, but I am noticing that, like the VP debate, the major media is calling this last round a draw. Please, allow me to translate “draw”: John Kerry woke up early on Thursday morning to get a good look at the new orifice President Bush tore for him.

Excuse the hell out of me, but I was sitting square in front of the tube. I don’t depend on the pundits, I depend on me. Bush won that one hands down, no questions, no compromises. I knew it before Kerry’s first mention of Halliburton, got it verified by his next mention of Enron, and by the time he got to the Mary Cheney non-sequitur, the game was already over; drag that used up jackass off the stage.

Let me say, by the way that despite what Mary Beth Cowhill has to say, Ms. Cheney’s sexuality is not “fair game”. Neither was Amy Carter’s delinquency, Ron Reagan’s idiocy, Chelsea Clinton’s hideous ugliness, the Bush twins’ drinking escapades, and Alexandra Kerry’s naked skanky horridness. Until they, in their own right, make themselves public figures, it is everybody’s job to respect their privacy. To this bunch, however, privacy only seems to exist for the children of Democrat candidates…oh, and anybody who desires to have sex with a child or murder a baby in the womb.

The donks are just getting more and more hideous. Check this out from Tennessee HouseDonk Craig Fitzhugh. Nice move, jackass. I wonder if they always were so horrid, but getting their asses handed to them time and time again is just cracking them up to the point they can’t pretend to play fair anymore. I mean the scare tactics are nothing new, and their cheating at the polls has always been legendary. Just ask all the dead voters currently voting in Illinois and in Texas back in the LBJ days, and now this whole deal has been discovered, definitively proving, once again, that they don’t care what they have to do, they’re going to either win or destroy us all.

Hmmm...kind of like the commies of the 60’s and the Islamofascist terrorists of today.

Mr. Franklin Has Left The Building

I found out the other day that John Kerry pays a lower effective tax rate than I do. That's pretty damn funny. So he's gonna raise taxes on who, exactly? I have a sneaking suspicion that bullseye is uncomfortably close to me. So Sen. Kerry wants to raise taxes and increase spending? I'm supposed to support this why, exactly? At least Bush will cut taxes. If only he'd cut some spending to go with it...

More Bad News For The RIAA

I see from a variety of sources that the RIAA hit a brick wall at SCOTUS today. I am glad to see a little pushback from organizations that have the resources to fight. I applaud Verizon for telling the RIAA to get bent, and actually backing it through the court system. Because of Verizon, the RIAA can no longer go and pull personal data from ISPs with a subpeona. It almost makes Verizon's piss-poor customer service excusable. On second thoughts, it doesn't. But I feel slightly less loathing for Verizon than before.

My major problem with the RIAA has everything to do with them attempting to destroy any possible means of content distribution that they perceive to be a threat. Given that the business model of the RIAA is substantially unchanged from the 20s, I have a problem with the approach. I also don't like how the RIAA and other media conglomerates are attempting to destroy any vestige of fair use under copyright law by whining about perceived losses. The behavior is not surprising, but it is incredibly annoying, both in principle and practice. The RIAA is desperately trying to maintain an outdated business model because change hurts and leads to uncertainty. I just wish they weren't trying to screw the rest of us in the process.

A Festival of Something Or Other

In addition to the fabulous travel I've taken for work lately, J and I went up to the booming metropolis of Plantersville last Saturday. Some of you in the Houston area know what that means: we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival. If there's any other reasons to go to Plantersville, I am blissfully unaware of them. It rained briefly right when we arrived, but the weather was perfect for the rest of the day. Not too hot, slightly overcast, perfect weather for Texas in October.

I would like to reiterate one of my long-standing complaints about going to events like this. Americans in general, and Houstonians in particular, are not a skinny group of people. In the aggregate, we're not all that attractive, either. So for the love of whatever god you may have, will you people put on more damn clothes? I do not want or need to see your lumpy cellulite-encrusted cottage cheese selves wandering around in a chainmail bikini, a fuzzy faux animal skin thong, or any of the other multitudinous bad fashion choices I saw. Please don't think this rant is directed at any particular gender, either. Both sexes are equally as culpable. I have reached my limit on seeing fat guys wander around shirtless in kilts, just like I maxed out on seeing fat girls wearing belly chains and harem pants. Come to think, I really don't care if you're skinny, either. Skinny does not equal well-built or attractive. The general rules of clothing decorum should still be observed at the Ren Fest. All of the usual parts should be covered, okay? Nobody wants to see more of your unattractive self, despite what you may think.

Now that I've vented that particular rant, I'll say we had great fun. Some shopping, much drinking, the eating of the fried foods. All in all a great day. You should go if you're within range.

He's Lookin' Out for Something...

So I've be quite busy the past couple of days, but this bit couldn't be overlooked. Apparently, Andrea Mackris, a female producer at Fox News, is suing O'Reilly, NewsCorp, et. al. for sexual harassment and related matters. Details are far more graphic than I like to consider O'Reilly.

You've been warned. I have to go and scrub my brain clean now.

Asshats On Parade

Well, it's been a rich couple of days. I was out of the office yesterday, attending to imaginary events. One of the downsides of my job is the occasional travel involved. Blackfive gets to go to New Orleans and Vancouver for his job. I go on business trips to places like Tatum, Texas and El Reno, Oklahoma. Oil wells just aren't located in interesting places. I'm going back tonight, on the theory that something will actually happen tomorrow.

I see while I was gone, the usual suspects were bloviating mindlessly again. Sean Penn is being condescending and arrogant because someone dared voice an opinion that contradicted the Sacred Writ of the Holy Vote. It's okay for Sean Penn to have and voice an opinion, no matter how vapid and deformed it may be. Everybody else should just shut up. Guess what, Sean? Trey Parker and Matt Stone are right. If you are an uninformed clueless twit (a state Sean should be familiar with), stay home come election day. Don't clog up my polling place with your idiotic self. If you have no idea what the issues are this election cycle, stay home. If you're an undecided voter at this late stage, stay home. If you do not know and cannot articulate your reasons for choosing a candidate, stay the fuck home.

Of course, my reasons here are partly selfish. There are the larger issues about the informed citizenry, voting being a responsibility and a privilege, and blah, blah, blah. I agree with all of those larger points, but I just don't want to put up with the empty-headed mouth-breathers come election day. I do not want to endlessly repeat to people "The voting machine is not a touchscreen". I do not want to have to help people who are unwilling to read the instructions prominently affixed to each voting booth. I do not want to have to listen to endless rants about how the voting machines are too complicated or too expensive or too confusing. I also don't want to deal with the people who spend hours dithering over who they should pick for the 34th judicial position on the ballot. So all the idiots need to stay home and make my life easier.

John Kerry has also made yet another asinine statement. Now he's talking about reducing terrorism to a nuisance and equating it with prostitution and illegal gambling. More precisely:

''We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance,'' Kerry said. ''As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life.''

I'd attempt to disembowel this, but I find Professor Volokh has done it admirably. Kerry is implying there's a certain acceptable nuisance level of terrorism. The problem with this analogy is the obvious one: while prostitution does not threaten someone's life every day, terrorism does. Terrorists kill people. An acceptable level of terrorism leads to dead bodies. Or is there a more complex and nuanced version of this I'm missing?

Asshats.

They should've double bagged 'em...

Vote for Donks and give these vacuous twits veto power over American national security. Although, if Kerry does get elected, this may be the best look for his wife and his VP.

"I Have a Plan": Immediate Reflections on the Debate

I cannot stand John Kerry. That is my primary conclusion from watching the debate tonight. Bill Clinton is a slime, Al Gore is an annoyance; but John Kerry is a pussy-weasel-lying-piece-of crap who should be spewing his useless nonsense from the inside of a padded cell, not on the floor of the Senate, or in a debate for the Presidency.

I mean, at least you know that both Clinton and Gore were void of integrity and principle. Clinton stands for whatever gets him cash or coochie. Gore stands for pretty much nothing except for mental melt downs and flop sweat; but hey, at least it's tangible. Nobody can tell anything with Kerry. Do you have any fucking idea what this doof was on about tonight? I don't.

Ask the man a question and you'll get one of 3 answers.

Answer option 1: I know and talk to a lot of people I think you will think are cool (Michael J. Fox, Christopher Reeve, random military official, mysterious heads of state) because I wield a lot of power and influence,

Answer option 2: Bush has done <fill in the blank blah blah blah> wrong, I would've done it differently/better, and

Answer option 3: "I have a plan".

Number 3 pisses me off the worst. "Warto" used the same phrase over and over on Tuesday while getting his new asshole torn for him by Vice President Cheney, and Herman Munster used it, ad-freaking-nauseum, tonight.

Exactly what is your plan, Senator Kerry? Nobody seems to know. He seems to "have a plan" for every single issue that he perceives is wrong about this nation--and trust me there are many for him, because he hates everything about America--however, he doesn't "plan" to share his "plans", until after elected.

Truth is, if John Kerry actually tells the American public what his "plans" are for a Kerry Presidency, he would not just be beaten silly next month like I believe he already will be, he will get his ass spanked on election day in a way that even "mamma Tuh-ray-za's boy" wouldn't enjoy. Put that ball gag back in your handbag, Teresa, it's not appropriate in front of the heartland of America.

Despite my opinion that Bush came off at times tonight a little defensive, I still believe he tied up this debate. I think the President did everything he needed to do. W stands for "win" tonight. Kerry not only lied with every single word that came out of his scary face, he didn't answer any of the questions, and said nothing with any meaning. In short, Kerry is a disaster: a lying, opportunist name-dropper with nothing to guide him except some blind ambition and a whole lot of mamma's money.

I have a plan: let's send John Kerry straight back to Massachusetts.

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Update: Did anybody notice how, after the debate was over, Kerry had some folks standing around politely shaking his hand, smiling, and nodding; while President and Mrs. Bush were being treated like rock stars? People were crowded around the Bushes asking for autographs, pictures, and hugs...I guess meeting a President is a once in a lifetime deal.

I also noticed a "Lewinsky" in the camera shots around Kerry. There was a fair skinned woman with black hair, keeping a small distance of 2-3 people away from him. She had an almost glowing, proud look on her face, with a hint of enamored expectation. Every time Kerry turned certain angles, she got this glowing look and snapped a picture. Anybody know who is the chick?

Peeve o' the Eve

This has gotten on my nerves for while now, and both candidates have repeatedly used this turn of phrase all night.

There are no "kids" in the United States military. Every single member of the military is an adult. To refer to them as children in any fashion is to imply that they are not fully capable adults who entered into the military of their own free will. It is patronizing and rude. It diminishes them, it diminishes their service and it is incredibly disrespectful.

Of course, my feelings are probably colored by the fact that I joined the Army at 17.

What can brown do for you?

Well not much for this individual, but boy isn't it tempting to try it on your student loan bill, or MasterCard? OK, maybe just me...

School Finance Disasters

Virginia Postrel wrote a great article on school finance here in Texas. For non-Texans, Robin Hood was a flawed attempt to deal with inequities in the school finance system that some judge decided had to be fixed. It was, for the most part, a complete disaster. All it really managed to do was piss people off. Ever since Robin Hood, the legislature has been trying to find a way out of the mess they managed to create in response to a judicial mandate. The key grafs are reprinted below:

To understand why Robin Hood is so destructive, consider the market price of a given house. The home's value depends not just on how big the house is or whether it has walk-in closets and granite countertops. "It also depends on how many property taxes the homeowner is going to pay and what he or she is going to get in return for those property taxes," Professor Hoxby explains.

Property taxes depress the value of a house. The amenities those taxes buy, including good schools, increase the value. The final price reflects the net value of the taxes the homeowner pays.

Robin Hood essentially raises taxes while reducing benefits, creating a downward spiral in home values and property tax receipts. For each district, the state divides the total assessed value of property in the district by the number of pupils. (Districts get higher per-pupil weightings for such factors as students with learning disabilities or limited English proficiency.)

This is the clearest explanation I've ever seen as to why this system was a disaster. The combination of botched incentives and the eternal assumption that people will not change their behavior in response to tax law changes make up a textbook example of the law of unintended consequences. As a result, property tax rolls are actually declining in the richest school districts. Nice job, guys. This is one of the many reasons property tax reform is such a hot button issue in Texas politics right now. Hopefully, this will be read and understood by the legislature.

United Extortion

It's United Way time again at my office. Once again, it's time to harass the employees into giving up money to a non-profit organization the company selects. After all, when you bully people into contributing money, that's exemplifying the spirit of charity, isn't it? By now, you've probably figured out I have a problem with the United Way campaign.

First off, I don't think United Way is all that wonderful an organization. I realize they supposedly cleaned up their act after the somewhat notorious issues the national organization went through in the late 80s and early 90s. I don't think it's true. The president gets paid $429,555 a year. That's 20% of the organization's administrative expenses right there, going to one guy. Yeah, that reform worked out real well, I can tell. United Way also does a lot of bait and switch on people. You can designate an organization to receive your contribution, right? Well, actually, United Way decides how much money the organization will get from them. If your designated contribution would exceed that amount, the organization doesn't get it. So really, your money can go to anyone United Way chooses. If they show up at your office, look at the list and make sure nothing objectionable to you is on there, because your money can go to any charity on the list. Similarly, United Way quit giving to the Boy Scouts a few years back. However, the United Way forms here still showed the Boy Scouts as a designation option. Nice, huh? I think United Way has gone the way of all entrenched bureaucracies and become arrogant and somewhat divorced from the actual mission.

I have to give them credit for one act of brilliance. The people at United Way conned corporate America into doing the fundraising for them. That was an inspired act of genius. United Way has fundraising expenses any non-profit would envy, because they push the hard work onto the suckers that want to donate. All United Way does is send out mail. However, it leads to people wandering around when they should be working and harassing me about giving money to an organization I don't care about. Corporate America gets a tax write-off, United Way gets money, and the employees get to feel good about themselves and/or harassed. A win all the way around, right?

I have worked for two major (Fortune 500) companies that participated in this shit. I had to put with 10 years of begging from the Combined Federal Campaign, (the government's version of United Way), and Army Emergency Relief. I am really tired of the organizations I work for hitting me up for money so they can have good PR. If I want to give money to charity, I can find charities I think are worthwhile all by myself. (Charity Navigator is a great website to help you in your quest for a worthwhile organization, by the way.) I also resent the strong arm tactics used. My current company will have a giant group hug at the end of this nonsense. Those of us that did not give will sit in a different section than the cheerful donators. Nope, no peer pressure there.

I don't want to give the impression that I am against charity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Given that I feel the government should not be in the charity business, private charities are my preferred service provider. However, I don't think coerced charity is any kind of a moral good. If you decide that Bob is hungry and needs a sandwich, go buy him a sandwich. Don't come to me and coerce me into giving you money so you can buy him a sandwich. Once you start trying to dictate people's choices to them, you have lost the moral argument for charity. (Anybody that thinks there no coercion involved in United Way has obviously never told the happy trolls that come around that you're not donating. You will receive follow-on visits.) Charity has to be voluntary to mean anything on a moral level.

I can also give a practical argument for not donating through your workplace, and I don't even know where you work. The people wandering around begging for money are not engaged in productive activity. This causes the firm's costs to rise. If the firm wants to maintain the same level of income, it will raise the price of product. So what happens? The customer pays more! Remember where I work? That's right, the oil industry. So United Way is directly, albeit in a very small way, responsible for higher gas prices.* If you can't raise the price of the product, that means profits fall and people might get laid off. So higher prices or layoff threats. That's what workplace charity brings. Niiice...

Fuck United Way. I'll send a check to Reading Is Fundamental or a worthwhile local charity first.

*Incidentally, this is the same argument implied when people say "Corporations don't pay taxes, individuals do." You can substitute regulation and lots of other things in the analysis and the net effect is the same. A major effect when you ask the government to impose these costs on organizations is lowering efficiency and increasing transaction costs. The cost is ultimately borne by the consumer. We pay, one way or another.

Plugscape

The soon to air fully fan-funded commercial for Farscape Peacekeeper Wars is up. Take a look at the ad and watch the Sci-Fi Channel only this once…then return to your previously scheduled boycott.

The show is on Sunday 17 October, check your local listings for times.

NewsDonk Trifecta

So not even the DemocRATs were paying much attention to their candidates' poor performances as of late. They're having some fun of their own.

First up: Who in the hell would accept underwear from Foul mega-mooseMichael Moore? I think there is a substantial damage claim potential from any plaintiff who got that kind of proposition.

Next: This is so typical Clinton…break the law and dump the mess on a subordinate. We haven’t seen an Clinton associate brought up on any kind of charges in a while. Honestly, I wasn’t missing the lack of news.

Here I found more peace-loving activities brought by those compassionate, open minded Democrats.

Wow, they're busy. Now if they'd just get real jobs.

The Vice President Debates

So I expected Dick Cheney to completely annihilate John Edwards last night, and the gentleman never disappoints. Now, anyone who reads YPS knows the great admiration I have for the Vice President, so yeah, I go in with a bit of an agenda. However, today I am thrilled to report that it was such an absolute put away that even the liberal media is calling it a draw.

Vice President Cheney pulled out the performance that President Bush should have last week. Now don’t get me wrong, I still don’t concede that Kerry “won” last week. You can’t tell lie after lie and win like Kerry did, no matter how slick you come off on appearance. So, no…Kerry did not outperform. I just think that the President was a little flatter than usual. The President should have finished Kerry off and just didn’t.

Not the man Cheney, however. Ate that boy up like catfish, he did. Edwards threw out all the canned talking points he had in the first 1 or 2 questions and Cheney proceeded to indulge in a late night feast. Behold, the feast of knowledge! Cheney had the facts, the figures, and the optimism to present the face of the country where I live. I was especially glad he pointed out his role as President of the Senate and Edwards' failure to do the work he was elected to do. In short, Cheney again proved himself as steady, sure, and the true statesman.

Edwards ended up in a stuttering twitter, resorting to crying oddities like “Halliburton”, “plastic guns” (how does that work?), and “meals on wheels” (huh?). He also has this hand gesture where he makes a fist, thumb out and up, and proceeds to pump it in a vertical motion, like he’s masturbating. It was far more distracting than “Little John” himself.

To sum up Edwards’ performance: he whacked off, spewed early, got spanked, and passed out. Me? Oh, I was cheering at the spectacle.

A specific issue that hit me is, that I will need to be looking for the fall out from the HomoDonk contingent, as Edwards proceeded to alienate the hell out of them. When asked about homosexual issues, Edwards backtracked to a previous question, awkwardly talked about Dick Cheney’s daughter, and spent the last 10 seconds clearly stating his opposition to gay marriage. He then meekly played all over the question about domestic AIDS. I don’t think at this point that Kerry/Edwards can afford for any of their loosely aligned factions to stay home, but Edwards performance in this respect may have just kept an influential group of Democrat butts at home on election day.

Out on the news front, I think the best short I’ve heard today was Rush Limbaugh’s comment that last night John Edwards finally found a client (John Kerry) he couldn't defend. Further funny coverage comes today from Hog on Ice, so go and laugh at his stuff from yesterday and today.

No Draft Today

Well, I see from the AP that the House nuked the proposed draft from Charlie Rangel (D-Moonbat). I'm thinking a 402 to 2 defeat is a convincing sign that dog won't hunt. What can you say when the co-sponsors of a bill won't vote for it? Maybe that it's a bad idea that voters will crucify you for when re-election time comes? However, please note the party affiliation of the only two fools that voted for this nonsense: donk & donk. Gosh. The evil efenants will stop at nothing to bring back the draft. Incidentally, a guy that's trying to score points by introducing bullshit legislation probably shouldn't talk about prostituting the legislative process. In my opinion, doing so makes you sound a tad bit hypocritical.

I'd also like to note the interesting headline the AP put on the article: "GOP Gets House To Nix Draft Bill 402-2". Hmm. I see from my handy roll call vote that the final vote was 215 efenants against, 186 donks against, and 1 independent against. That looks an awful lot like strong bipartisan agreement there, but somehow the GOP was responsible for making 186 Democrats toe the line.

Debate Coverage! Not...

I will leave the coverage of last night's debate to my lovely and talented co-blogger. Why? Mainly because I spent most of the debate paying minimal attention. I was reading Terry Pratchett's The Truth instead of paying full attention to the somewhat grisly spectacle of watching Dick Cheney eviscerate John Edwards. From what I saw, John Edwards got the snot beat out of him.

Democrat Party: Your Philosophy Sucks!

"I'd say if you live in the United States of America and you vote for George Bush, you've lost your mind."

--Senator John Edwards (D-Wartworld)

Hmmm...Well here are a few recent stories regarding all of our correct-minded Democrat countrymen…

Story 1: Shots are fired into a Knoxville, TN Bush/Cheney Headquarters.

Story 2: Washington State GOP headquarters broken into and laptops stolen.

Story 3: NBC displays a photo of President Bush next to the words “ILIE”. Remember the "RATS" scandal?

At the outset, I will admit that I am in a cranky mood. I’ve been kind of tired, and I’m having election fatigue. For those of us who follow politics, government, and current events, this time has been exhausting. The Democrat party has successfully expanded the election cycle this full four years, starting with the attempted hijacking of the election process in late 2000, continuing though the “selected not elected” saga, for a war on terror, against a war on terror, and on through an early primary. We didn’t even get a breather between the selection of the Democrat nominee and the convention period, because they just wouldn’t shut the hell up…not for five fuckin’ minutes.

I used to view the Democrat party as a group of well meaning, but incorrect group of folks, who saw a different direction for our country than those of us who tend to vote Republican. However, I have learned something valuable throughout this process; my view was dead wrong. Democrats are crazed, power hungry lunatics. They ignore those who attack us, coddle those who threaten us, and work actively to compromise our national security. They are cold calculating liars. They are void of integrity. They will stop at nothing to get power. If they have to sue for it, so be it. If they have to manipulate the desperate, all the better. Keep people desperate, keep people dependent, keep Democrats in office…that’s all that matters.

Democrats are racists. They’ve lied to a large segment of the black community for half a century to keep them poor, needy, and obedient. For Democrats, blacks must remain on the plantation. For the sake of power, they’ve allowed a few ambitious charlatans to amass great wealth off the toil of gullible people who still think they’re waiting for what is truly an empty promise. Their policies destroy families, perpetuate poverty, and foster criminality. Democrats call this “diversity”.

Democrats hate women. They’ve created a fictitious society where amorality, murder, and self-mutilation are celebrated. A good baby is a dead baby (especially if poor), the children who are lucky enough to get away with their lives are animals to be ranched when convenient, and there are no tough choices in life to be made. If it feels good do it; bear no responsibility. Actions come without consequences and companionship is disposable. To a segment of the Democrat party, men are only rapists, and women who look and behave like whores have a special right to admiration and respect. Democrats call this “empowerment”.

Democrats hate the defenders of our freedom. They use soldiers as pawns, placing them in dangerous situations ill equipped to fight. They protest our military, call our patriots criminals, and spit on these brave warriors returning home from defending us. For eight years a Democrat Commander-in-Chief forbade them to wear their uniforms to their offices. More recently, Democrats have submitted a bill to reintroduce the draft; not for national security reasons (because the military doesn’t want it), but to use it as a tool for blaming Republicans and inspiring fear in young people. All the while they get the added bonus of promulgating a sick lie about class warfare. Democrats call this “patriotism”.

Democrats pit average income earners against higher income earners, black against white, and women against men...for no other reason than they want to have the all money and make all the rules. They honestly think they’re smarter than we are and don’t need to live by the same rules as the rest of us. In their world we should be the serfs and they the masters. Democrats call this “tolerance”.

Democrats want to control the doctors who care for us and control our medical records through nationalized healthcare. They oppose school choice because they must control the teachers who indoctrinate kids with moronic propaganda, keeping future generations dumb enough to be easily controlled while feeling good about it. They hate the new free media because only they should be allowed to provide us with the information they want us to have. Conformity is key and dissention is not tolerated. They want to dictate our needs through government programs, and eliminate our God by suing him out of existence. We are barely good enough to worship at the alter of their immorality, but only if we do it sufficiently reverent, and at an unquestioning distance. Democrats call this “freedom”.

Democrats lie about their agenda when they run for office because the American people won’t vote for the brand of political communism, economic socialism, and personal oppression they truly view as their utopia. The Soviet Union was their model society, and the closet thing they have left is Cuba. The murderer Castro is their hero and in their minds the Soviet system didn’t work, not because it was corrupt and immoral, but because THEY and people like them weren’t running it. If they had the chance, they believe that they’d make it work…at the expense of us all.

Democrats are anti-American and anti-patriotic. There I said it. They’ve accused Republicans of calling them similar terms when I have yet to actually hear anybody use the them except Democrats. I’m not running for anything and I am damned glad to obligingly fill this void that has so needed filling. Notice the words, anti-American and anti-patriotic. I use the prefix “anti” because “un-American” and “un-patriotic” just doesn’t cut it. The “un” implies that they don’t agree with American values and don’t share our patriotism, and that is just inaccurate. They hate us. They hate our patriotism, and they hate America. They want us to fail. They actively stand opposed to the success of this country and will do anything to seize power and forever corrupt our uniquely American way of life. The Democrat ideology is a disease.

I have come to believe over these past four years that if elected, Democrats will destroy our country. They have proven themselves nothing but treacherous and treasonous. My hope is that they will be beaten convincingly enough that they cannot attempt to cheat in the courts, and I hope the defeat will ultimately destroy them. We as Americans have learned since 11 September 2001 that if we don’t destroy our enemies, they will destroy us first. And , the Democrat Party, time and time again, has proven itself America’s enemy.

If all goes well next month, American voters will eradicate this enemy so that we can begin to have some honest discourse about the true issues that complement our American system, not conflict with it. The Democrats have moved way beyond the realm of incapable of honest discourse, and that is why the vast majority of current policy innovation and debate occurs between the conservative right and the libertarian right in this country. This major shift is the only suitable inevitability, because it is at this direction of the political spectrum where the vast majority of Americans are, in terms of opinion and way of life.

With an honest debate, we could again have the healthy two party system we need, but that is a post for another day. I have heard a few young people comment that it doesn’t matter who wins, because not much will change. Let me just say that people who honestly believe that lie are the ones, like Mr. Edwards, who have really lost their minds.

Bring Out Your Dead...

Well, this has to be one of the more frightening hospital stories I've read lately.

The cause of William Rardin's death was "removal of his internal organs by an organ recovery team," Montrose County Coroner Mark Young said.

Oops. I'm sure somebody besides me is thinking of the sketch in Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life where the medics cut out the donor's liver in the kitchen with bolt-cutters. It appears that this may actually be some sort of administrative technicality, but it's still pretty goddamned terrifying.

Nowhere But Texas

The alert reader will have deduced that I am not a Texas native. I love Texas, but I'm not originally from here. I occasionally find the state baffling and entertaining because of this. People who live elsewhere probably think the tourism slogan the state uses, "It's like a whole other country", is typical hyperbole. Trust me when I say it's truer than you know. I've spent the majority of my adult life here (off and on), and they are not lying to you in the slightest.

Anyhow, we went to the Pasadena Rodeo on Saturday night. One of our friends had VIP passes to a contestant's BBQ Cook-Off tent because his company sponsored the team. VIP passes mean free BBQ and free booze. It's a hard thing to pass up. So we went and ate and drank and talked and made fun of the rest of the people there, because that's what we do here at YPS: we mock. At some point late in the evening, one of those quintessentially Texas moments occurred. The DJ played David Allen Coe's "You Never Even Called Me By My Name". For some reason I don't fully understand, everyone who lives in Texas long enough will eventually learn all the words to this song. The corollary is that most people will also sing along in any public place where alcohol is being consumed. So there we are, drinking beer and eating barbecue at the cook-off at the rodeo, singing David Allen Coe with the rest of the drunks. It doesn't get more Texas than that. The whole moment was made even funnier by two of the people we went with, who are not at all Texas natives and haven't lived here nearly long enough. They looked at us and the rest of the crowd like we had all lost our damned minds. It was one of those moments that make me remember why I enjoy living here so much.

WOO-HOO!

The X-Prize is a done deal. Scaled Composites has won it!

Excellent Debate Analysis

Mark Alexander over at the Federalist Patriot has the best and most insightful debate coverage I have read or heard today. Check out the newsletter and subscribe. You will be glad you did.

Debate the First

J has given the overall rundown for YPS, so I'm going to focus on two things Senator Kerry said. These are the two that stand out the most for me. First off is the flaming middle of finger of love he shot the rest of the Anglosphere:

Secondly, when we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That's not a grand coalition. We can do better.

WOW. What a big fuck you to some of the most loyal allies we have. Plus, it's completely wrong. We really can't do better than the Aussies and the Brits. Name to me another country besides those two that have troops worth a damn. Like the French Foreign Legion would've made a difference? Please. Peddle that BS to someone else. We had the best troops in the world going into Iraq. All anybody else could have offered us was quantity.

In quantity terms, the other countries with significant militaries are either untrustworthy (China, North Korea), are not going to work against their vested interests (France, Germany, Russia, Turkey), or simply unwilling for internal political reasons (India, South Korea). Have I missed anybody? Now explain to me how John Kerry is going to get any of these countries on board. Since the answer is 'he can't', how can we do better?

The next one is the most rampantly insane thing I have heard from a presidential candidate in my life. Admittedly, I wasn't paying much attention to Moonbat Mondale, so he may have spouted something more egregiously nuts, but I doubt it. With reference to Iran:

I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes. If they weren't willing to work a deal, then we could have put sanctions together. The president did nothing.

We should give Iranians nuclear fuel? So when somebody says they want to kill you, you should buy them a gun? Is that the logic here? You are completely out of your goddamned mind. You have no business being in the United States Senate if your head is that far up your fourth point, much less President. STFU and get off the stage.

Debate Coverage: The World According to John Kerry

I’ve watched and listened to more than a few of the babbling hairdos regarding the debate last night and as T noted, the DNC got their talking points up around 5p yesterday so that everybody would have time to digest and spew. Congratulations to all those “journalists” for their fine memorization skills.

Sure, I wish President Bush came out better in terms of telling Kerry that almost everything that came out of his mouth was either an exaggeration, a distortion, or outright lie; but hey, Bush only had 2 minutes, 1 ½ minutes or 30 seconds respectively to get out what he wanted to say.

From my view, I must admit that the debate last night was very educational for me personally. John Kerry informed me of a lot of things I didn’t know. I have attempted to list some of them here, in no particular order.

First things first: John Kerry fought in Vietnam.

Great Britain, Australia, and Poland, three among our best allies, are not a “grand coalition and not good enough”. Apparently, “we can do better.”

Kerry knows exactly where Osama Bin Laden was and is, and is just not telling us.

“From each according to his means to each according to his needs,” works when it comes to taxes, but if countries who want to help out can’t afford to commit themselves at equal levels to the United States in terms of monetary and troop levels, then their contributions are not good enough.

Kerry has much better plans than President Bush, but is too articulate to tell us what they are. Maybe we’re all just too stupid to understand.

Protecting America requires the passage of a “Global Test”. The verdict is still out on whether this test is written or oral.

Kerry is answering questions regarding specifically what he's going to do when he's telling us everything that Bush is doing wrong.

If you’re not a Western European country, then you don’t deserve for America to fight for your right to democracy, unless the tin-pot despots of the world will meet and give you permission.

We should bribe ("what will it take") the French and Germans to join us in international entanglements they’re monetarily benefiting from (Iraq), but tell them to piss off because we don’t need help when we don’t want them (North Korea).

World summits with miscellaneous despots and other Anti-Americans gets more accomplished for American defense than actually getting on the ground and doing something to defend America.

Kerry’s preferred lipstick color is MAC Cosmetics’ Crème de la Femme. Ooh la la, how French.

We should give nuclear fuel to Iran.

It is Bush’s fault that North Korea didn’t hold up its end of the bargain that Clinton made.

John Kerry has never changed a position in his life.

John Kerry has more experience dealing with world leaders than George W. Bush because he’s been doing it longer. I don’t think however, this is really what Kerry had in mind.

Kerry never used the words “Bush lied", except for twice in New Hampshire in September and December 2003.

George W. Bush misled us to go to war in Iraq, although when asked how specifically, Kerry didn’t seem to know.

There are no WMDs in Iraq, except for the WMDs in Iraq.

John Kerry is very Senatorial; George W. Bush is very presidential.