Two Crackas in My Soup...

Boy Do We Need This!

2006-08-08T13:05:00.000-04:00

Can't wait for it to pass the FDA trials.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German scientist has been testing an "anti-stupidity" pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies, Bild newspaper reported Saturday.

We should pump it into the UN water supply, and probably Washington D.C.'s just for good measure.

Dead or Not Dead

2006-08-02T14:05:00.000-04:00

If you have been in a heat induced coma, or trying to stay cool hiding under a rock, you may not know that Uncle Fidal has taken ill. The MSM is falling all over themselves tying to spin his trip to the hospital.

Miami broke out in parties upon news of Uncle Fidal's situation. But don't break out the champagen yet, he's not dead (official word, if you trust it, is that he is just dandy) and the coup d'tat hasn't started.

Now that's Class

2006-08-02T13:55:00.000-04:00

I guess I am glad I am not starting my collage career after reading this.

At Occidental College in Los Angeles, a mandatory course for some freshmen is "The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie." It's a course where professor Elizabeth J. Chin explores ways in "which scientific racism has been put to use in the making of Barbie [and] to an interpretation of the film 'The Matrix' as a Marxist critique of capitalism."

Huh? Here, I have a new class. Maybe I should float this... Soc 4987 Pooh and the Sociological Ramifications of His Rampant Homosexuality with Piglet.

Or Phil 5867 Charlie Brown and the Economic Impact of Gender Role Reversal with Lucy.

What is wrong with colleges today? Are the leaders, the professors who come up with this crap, and/or the administrators who allow them to get away with it be academically dishonest by foisting this falderal on unsuspecting students (and the parents who foot the bill)? Or are they earnestly this stupid thinking this kind of garbage really passes the intellectual smell test?

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

2006-07-24T15:46:00.000-04:00

When people decry the "disproportionate" use of force by Israel, you need to keep in mind the reason for the disproportionate number of civilian casualties on the terrorist side.

If that doesn't explain it much better than I could...

Picture is from IDF Israel and a hat tip to the Jawas.

U.N. Condemns Allied Overresponse to Nazi Aggression

2006-07-23T12:06:00.000-04:00

VICHY-FRANCE June 7, 1944

A day after the largest bombing raid on civilian targets in support of a massive invasion of France, the United Nations voted on a resolution condemning the Allied response as a disproportionate use of force.

The foreign office minister, who is known for being outspoken, said that it was "very difficult" to understand the "kind of military tactics" used by the allies.

"You know, if they're chasing the Nazi's, then go for the Nazi's. You don't go for the entire French nation," concluded Mr Howells, who will meet with the U.S. foreign minister.

The resolution was vetoed by the U.S. ambassador amidst calls for an end to the fighting and for both sides to sit down to peace talks.

Televised Skin-Flute Concert

2006-07-18T14:36:00.000-04:00

Zamphere's got nothing on this.

Channel 4 is to bring mass public masturbation to the small screen.
The broadcaster - once led by Michael Grade, dubbed "pornographer in chief" by the Daily Mail - has commissioned a documentary about the UK's first "masturbate-a-thon" as part of a series of programmes dubbed "Wank week", MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

Uhm, Ooooooh Kaaaaaaay... I'm not sure what kind of market there is in the UK for watching a bunch of pervs fapping the night away. I'm not sure that I would want to know either. However, I am not sure which is worse, the fact that the Brits would televise this or the fact that its been going on for five years in the U.S!

The organiser of the event, the San Francisco-based Centre for Sex and Culture, has run mass masturbation events in the US for the past five years to raise money for safe sex groups and plans to replicate the formula in the UK.

I've been to charity car washes, dinners and parties, but never a charity beat-off. I really start to wonder about people...

Hmmmm...

2006-07-17T14:17:00.000-04:00

Wonder what this is all about?

DAMASCUS, July 17 (KUNA) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manoushehr Mottaki arrived here Monday and headed straight from the airport to the presidential palace to meet President Bashar Al-Assad and discuss developments on the Israeli assault on Lebanon.

"Discuss developments"?!?! More likely, good ol Manie, is gonna give a vigorous pa- on-the-back to Bashar. It's not a stretch to see this as a huddle so Iran can make sure its lap-dog Syria is on the same page of the "Engulf the world in blood and fire" play book.

Hey, is that coffee I smell...

H/T to Fark

Have We Already Lost the War?

2006-07-16T16:57:00.000-04:00

Or WWIV depending on how you count…

I know it is going to seem like I am jumping on the conservative bloger bandwagon by decrying the events in the Middle East as WWIII. But the fact of the matter is that this wasn’t the beginning of the war. On September 12, 2001, I held a question and answer period in my classes. It didn’t make much sense trying to talk about Pavlov’s dogs (as applicable as that might have been) in the wake of the September 11 attacks. One of my students asked if I thought that the attacks would touch off WWIII. My answer was no, it was already here. The US had been attacked repeatedly prior to the September 11 attacks, yet had not bothered to engage the enemy.

But the question remains, have we already lost the war? Our list of allies so far is rather short. The majority of the world’s nations are trying to either ignore the entire situation, appease the islamofascists in the erroneous belief that it will satisfy their blood lust, or have joined the islamofascists in tearing down civilization.

Look to the latest battle in the on-going war. Hizbullah (who happens to run the Palestinian Authority (what an oxymoron that is)) violates Israel’s sovereignty and kidnaps a soldier of the IDF. Yet, when Israel retaliates and demands its citizen be returned, the world condemns Israel not the Palestinians who started the whole thing, or the Syrians, or the Iranians who put the Palestinians up to it.

Now Israel is left bombing Lebanon to prevent Hizbullah from sneaking two more captured soldiers out to Iran. In the mean time, Iran’s terrorist puppets fire Syrian and Iranian made missiles into Israel targeting civilians, and merchants. Yet, to the international community Israel is still the bad guy. Absurd!

I find it ironic how to the liberal elite Bid Business is the epitome of evil in our time, because companies seek to make a profit. Yet, “enlightened” countries like Germany, Russia, and the paragon of liberal values France, have their hands to far up the cookie jar, you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.

When are they (Europe, and the liberals in the U.S.) going to realize that this is not going to go away. They have been very successful in ignoring their problems for the past forty years. Korea, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Algeria, and dare I say the Balkans. Now the bill is coming due for European and liberal complacency. One day they will wake up and find they no longer have the freedoms they so deeply cherish, and ignore. One day soon, we all will have to make a stand. Is it already too late?

What Happened to the Patriotic Music?

2006-07-05T10:14:00.000-04:00

Wifie and I were watching the Boston Pops Independence Day celebration. We were entertained by what had to be one of the worst performances by Steve Taylor I have ever heard. What we were really waiting for was the fireworks. As Monkey Boy (our youngest, the climber) crapped out early on us, we couldn't head downtown for the fireworks. Not that I am complaining, it is an awful time getting out of downtown once they're done.

Anyhow, as the fireworks started, I kept wondering "where's the patriotic music?" Most of the music was timed to the fireworks, but what the hell does a breathy little piece of pop-star fluff have to do with the Independence of our nation? Where was Proud to be an American, or Born in the USA, or independence Day? They did play They're Coming to America, but that was about it. I understand that the Pops might have played some patriotic music before the broadcast. But why couldn't they save a couple songs for the fireworks. It was a pretty display, but there was something missing.

Independece Day!

2006-07-04T11:33:00.000-04:00

THE 4TH OF JULY

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; Another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, And their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British That he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July Holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

I hope you will show your support by sharing this with your family & Friends. It's time we get the word Out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games!

Author unknown. H/T to Gary

Well, You Asked for It...

2006-06-29T16:22:00.000-04:00

Ah yes, Carty is back.

After putting on his "good Carty" mask for the elections last year, the old Carty is back.

In an exclusive interview with ONN affiliate WNWO's Rob Packard Tuesday morning, police chief Jack Smith said he was stepping down due to differences with Mayor Carty Finkbeiner.

Did Chief Smith and ol' Blood and Guts Finkbeiner have a professional disagreement regarding policy? No, of course not. This is Carty we are talking about here.

Smith says he had a meeting with Carty on gang problems in Toledo. The meeting turned into an argument that nearly became physical.
I guess its a good thing Carty didn't have any coffee mugs to through at the Chief.

The Chief, a marine, and a command officer loved by his subordinates shouldn't have to put up with the petty name calling that is Carty's trademark management style. Carty should be ashamed of himself. What's more, we, the residents and voters in Toledo should be ashamed of ourselves for returning Carty to office. We should be ashamed that in a city like Toledo, the only choices for mayor were Jack "do nothing" Ford and Carty "meltdown" Finkbeiner. Well, when you ask for garbage, that's what you get.

Zarqawi Autopsy Released

2006-06-12T16:48:00.000-04:00

Today the U.S. military released the autopsy of eminant mass murderer Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lived for 52 minutes after a U.S. warplane bombed his hideout northeast of Baghdad, and he died of extensive internal injuries consistent with those caused by a bomb blast, the U.S. military said Monday.

Aparently the two 500 pound bombs which landed on his head weren't obvious enough.

BOOM! Here comes da' BOOM!

2006-06-09T11:12:00.000-04:00

Ready or not...

Well, unless you live under a rock, or a liberal with your head in the sand, you heard the news that the U.S. military capped Abu blahblahblah al'Zarqari in an air raid in Iraq.

I have only one thing to say.

Oooh-RAH!

My hats off to the intelligence persons who found the Butcher of Babylon, and to the pilots who pushed the button, and the ground troops who secured the location. Good work lads and lassies.

Let the liberal moonbatiness begin.

Unintended Hiatus

2006-03-22T10:38:00.000-05:00

Well, anyone who has stopped by the site knows I haven't posted anything in over a month. My work schedule and the time requited to raise a one-year-old have prevented me from doing the research and composition necessary to make any postings. I hope to get back into the swing of regular posting at some point but for the time being, postings will be on an irregular basis.

Hope to see you in the funny papers.

Gun Control is Hitting Your Target

2006-02-13T11:54:00.000-05:00

And not your hunting buddy.

If you are living under a rock and haven't heard already, the media is abuzz with news that Dick Cheney accidentally shot one of his hunting buddies while quail hunting last weekend.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

Ouch!

I'm sure this will spark an inferno of liberal kook conspiracy theories. I can see the DUmmies now. "ChaneyHitler was trying to get rid of Wittington because he knew too much..." I laugh just thinking of it.

Reality it much more dull the furtive imaginations of the DUmmies.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

You see Wittington and Cheney violated the cardinal law of hunting, "Know where your buddies are." Cheney should have been keeping track of Wittington and Whittington should have let them know he was coming up from behind. This is basic hunter safety stuff you learn in your first class.

So, I'm sure the liberals will try to spin this as something its not, but you can't let Wittington and Cheney off the hook. Send them back to hunter safety school.

Looking For Political Satire in the Muslim World

2006-02-09T12:19:00.000-05:00

(originally Posted 2-2-06)
This is probably the strangest turn of events in the war against terrorism. Cartoons are now on the front line.

I'm a little surprised that Europeans have, so far, proven pretty defiant in regards the demands of medieval Islamonuts to cease and desist or risk the usual - decapitation, bombings, and idiotic street demonstrations.

Islamists are also perpetrating faked cartoons in order to further inflame highly flammable Muslims, according to Michelle Malkin and LGF. Isn't that apostasy, however?

You know, it's funny, a film came out a little while ago that sounds like a punchline in and of itself: Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World. Imagine the reviews: "I was in pieces", "I laughed my head off," "I thought it would bomb - and it did!"

But why bother looking for comedy in The Land Without Indoor Plumbing, if even a political cartoon leads to jihad?

**Updated by Cracka Jack 2-9-06**
Ah, yes. The religion of peace, once again takes to the streets in that peaceful manner that only they have mastered. Does anyone else find it ironic that these useful idiots are rioting with signs written in English (not Dutch) and burning Dutch flags? Not to be insulting to the citizens of these countries, but the average American with our wonderful, liberal education system, couldn't write signs like this in Dutch, let alone know what the Dutch flag looks like. You expect me to believe that these relatively uneducated losers could have whipped all that up by themselves?

**Updated by Scattagun 2-10-06**

What's worse is that many publications world-wide are backing down in the face of calculated Islamo-irrationalism. So, what next? Will we have radical Muslims telling the West what it can and cannot read, watch, eat, and say? Watch out, Denmark - soon to be Dhimmimark - the burkas and beheadings are coming.

He's Baaaaaack...

2006-01-30T23:59:00.000-05:00

It didn’t take very long for “Bad” Carty to rear his ugly head, but after hiding for a year prior to the Toledo mayoral election, he has a lot of time to make up for.  Even before Carty was sworn in as mayor, he voice his mighty and wise opposition to the Westgate Village renovation project.

Carty’s opposition to the project centers on the addition of a CostCo to anchor the shopping center.  For those of you who are not familiar with Toledo, the Westgate Village shopping center is one of our West Toledo malls.  In the 1970’s the mall was the height of the shopping experience.  Thirty years later, the mall is dated and is lacking for an anchor store.  Last year the owners of Westgate unveiled a renovation plan that included a major overhaul of the mall and the addition of a new anchor, CostCo.  This move initially met with the approval of former Mayor Ford and the City Council.

However, now that Boss Carty is back in the palace, there will be none of those shenanigans.  God forbid, that a company decide what to do with their own property, or their own business.  So far, Carty has floated four of his own plans for the Westgate shopping center.

At a meeting Jan. 18, Westgate owner Liz Holland said she thought the two sides agreed to work from the original site plan, which is to be reviewed at the Toledo Plan Commission meeting Thursday.

"We didn't seem to be too far apart. [But] the only feedback we've received are other plans," said Ms. Holland, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Abbell Credit Corp., which owns the shopping center. "It's difficult to say what they like or don't like about our plan because they continue to come up with other alternative plans."

I didn’t realize that Carty held degrees in economics, geography, or architecture…

Apparently, Carty is worried that building a business that actually attract customers will draw traffic to the area, and that a “big box” store will be uglier that the empty ‘70’s façade that currently graces the corner.

To top his foray into urban planning, Boss Carty is now displeased with a new law the state government had the audacity to pass.

COLUMBUS - Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner urged Ohio's big-city mayors to fight a new law signed by Gov. Bob Taft yesterday that would prohibit governments from requiring their employees to live where they draw their taxpayer-funded paychecks.

As it stands now, all the working shlubs for the city, have to live in the city, while managers and others with ten years experience have to choice to kiss the glass city good bye.  Boss Carty says that this is so that the workers have an emotional investment in the city.  I have new for you Carty.  I live in Toledo, and I don’t have an emotional investment in the city.  Making the employees live in the city isn’t going to magically make them care for the city.  Perhaps you might try hiring enough police and firefighters to really get the job done.  Maybe you could pay the employees better wages to attract better employees.  Nah, I guess that is just silly talk.

At least I guess that with Bad Carty back, there will be more to write about.

We Don't Need No Education

2006-01-26T15:59:00.000-05:00

People's exhibit #23413461298582375098 in the case for what is going wrong with this country.

"To say that competition is going to improve education? It's just not gonna work. You know competition is not for children. It's not for human beings. It's not for public education. It never has been, it never will be," Holmes said.

Holmes is Florida teacher Ruth Holms.  The quote came in referencee to the Florida Supreme (and I use the term loosely) Court's decision that Florida's educational voucher system was unconstitutional.  If you want a good discussion on how wrong Ms. Holms is, click the link above and read John Stossel's piece on school competition.

I think, however, that this statement is indicative of the faulty viewpoint many people (especially in education) have in regard to our society.  Many people have bought into the idea that competition is bad.  However, competition is what a free market economy is based on.

You see, in a free market, I have to compete against other people for shares of the market.  This drives me to make a new, different, cheaper or better product that the other fella.  If my product isn't new, different, cheaper, or better than the other fella, then the consumer (that's you and me) will buy from the other fella.

Take a look at what happened in the former Soviet Union and other communist countries.  There was little or no competition in their collective economy.  Everyone made dirt low wages, the government owned all businesses and there was no motive to make a new, different, cheaper or better product.  After a time, the government couldn't keep up with the cost of supporting industries that couldn't support themselves and eventually the system collapsed.  China is the one exception, but rather than allow the economy to collapse as happened in the former Soviet Union, the Chinese have allowed a very modest and heavily controlled "free" market to grow (a la McDonalds).

But back to my point.  Without competition to drive people to become better and to make better products, the economy will stagnate.  Thus enters the education system.  Since the 1970's the education system has been purging itself of all vestiges of competition.  Children are no longer given grades*, everyone gets a trophy at the end of the football season (even if their team never won a game), and some places have even tried to outlaw dodgeball, and all in the name of self esteem.

Now, having been on the receiving end of a dodgeball pummeling (and on the "b" team who never won a t-ball game) I know as a parent, we don't want to see our children suffer the same trials as we did.  But games like dodge ball teach kids a valuable lesson.  Namely, that if you stand in one place, you are going to get creamed by someone else.  Life is hard.  That sucks, but that's the truth.  There is someone else out there who wants your job, your product, your market share, even your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse.  If you don't know how to compete, or deal with competition, then you are going to get creamed, just like dodge ball.
So, after decades of allowing our schools to slide into the hole of mediocrity just for the sake of self esteem, then we are going our future generations a great disservice.  I don't mean that as an attack on educators.  I have a lot of respect for educators (being that I am one), but I have seen, first hand, the results of such mediocrity.  Last semester, I had the worse papers I believe I have ever seen.  Many of my students who had either graduated from high school, or at least received a GED, couldn't put a simple sentence together, even after correcting their early work.  We are raising generations of children, who will become our leaders when we are old and grey, who don't know how to deal with a competitive market.  We, as a society cannot allow this to continue.

*Funny story; my son's school grades from K to 4 on a P, S and N scale.  P is praiseworthy, S is satisfactory and N is not satisfactory, and they throw in plusses and minuses just to confuse the parents.  My son brought his grade card home one day last year.  As his mother and I were trying to decipher the codes, my son declared, "that P there, that's an A, the S+ is a B"  If my seven-year-old can figure it out, how is it protecting his fragile self esteem?

WTF is Going Down in Texas?

2006-01-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

Ok, can someone explain this too me?

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas – Men dressed as Mexican Army soldiers, apparent drug suspects and Texas law enforcement officers faced off on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, an FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Andrea Simmons, an agency spokeswoman in El Paso, told The Associated Press that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers chased three SUVs, believing they were carrying drugs, to the banks of the Rio Grande during Monday's incident.
Men dressed in Mexican military uniforms or camouflage were on the U.S. side of the border in Texas, she said.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., reported Tuesday that the incident included an armed standoff involving the Mexican military, suspected drug smugglers and nearly 30 U.S. law enforcement officers. It said Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States.

The Mexican army is now escorting drug smugglers in the U.S.? Now I know that Bush, being a Texan, has a “special” relationship with the Mexican government. But this is unacceptable. Naturally, the Mexican government is denying any involvement and to smoothe things over, Michael Chertoff is trying to play down the whole issue.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that reports of Mexican soldiers frequently crossing onto U.S. soil were overblown, calling many of those incursions innocent mistakes.

Rafael Laveaga, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, declined to comment on Chertoff's remarks. He stood by earlier remarks that the Mexican military has never deliberately stepped onto U.S. soil. He declined to say if there were any unintentional crossings.

Oh, I see, those guys were former Mexican army troops who just happened to get lost and forgot that the Rio Grande markes the border between Mexico and the U.S. Riiiiiight... That would be why the border patrol has to do this.

The U.S. Border Patrol has warned agents in Arizona of incursions into the United States by Mexican soldiers "trained to escape, evade and counterambush" if detected -- a scenario Mexico denied yesterday.

The warning to Border Patrol agents in Tucson, Ariz., comes after increased sightings of what authorities described as heavily armed Mexican military units on the U.S. side of the border. The warning asks the agents to report the size, activity, location, time and equipment of any units observed.

It also cautions agents to keep "a low profile," to use "cover and concealment" in approaching the Mexican units, to employ "shadows and camouflage" to conceal themselves and to "stay as quiet as possible."

Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora confirmed that a "military incursion" warning was given to Tucson agents, but said it was designed to inform them how to react to any sightings of military and foreign police in this country and how to properly document any incursion.

In response to Mr. Lavega’s statement;

"Give me a break," said T.J. Bonner, a 27-year Border Patrol veteran who heads the National Border Patrol Council. "Intrusions by the Mexican military to protect drug loads happen all the time and represent a significant threat to the agents.

We have either, former members of the Mexican military taking their equipment and uniforms with them and providing security for drug traffickers, or else the drug smugglers are using Mexican uniforms to intimidate U.S. Federal Agents. Either that, or units of the Mexican army are coming into the U.S. and firing on U.S. representatives. Whichever the case may be, something MUST be done. If some drug dealer wants to dress like a Mexican soldier, then let him. But let him know that if he does so, he is going to have a Marine hunting his ass. I have never been a supporter of putting troops on the border to deal with law enforcement issues. But this goes way beyond a law enforcement issue. If the Mexican military is coming into the U.S. they should be meeting their American counterparts.

Have I Ever Told You I Hate the Holidays

2006-01-24T14:40:00.000-05:00

I hate the holidays.  There, I said it.  Its not the whole Christmas thing.  I rather like Christmas.  The lights, the decorated trees, the whole compassion and brotherly love thing, give Christmas a lot to look forward to.  I just hate the holiday season.

You see, and Scatta can attest to this, in my life, the holidays always seem to bring angst and stress one way or another.  When I was younger, it was the stress of my mother who always seemed to try to do everything for the holidays.  She would purchase more presents than was reasonable (not that I am complaining about that, mind you) for our income bracket.  She would cook a meal for twenty people, even though there was only four of us for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years dinner.  So the weeks before the holidays would be filled with stress and consternation on the part of my mother, which then flowed over to my dad and I.

Now that I am out of the house, living with my family, and trying to live a little more realistic holiday season, you would think that the holidays would be stress free.  Oh, but no.  Something always seems to happen around the holidays.  This year started out when one of my students was killed in a car accident just hours after she completed the final exam in my class.  To add a cherry to that sundae, she was eight months pregnant and very much looking forward to celebrating the holidays with her husband and two-year-old daughter.  Hearing this news put me in a wonderful funk, just before my family and I left on our vacation (only time I get to get out of Dodge).

The day after we arrived at my in-laws, and working on pulling myself out of my funk, my father attempted a half Gainer in the living room and broke his hip.  This little event brought us home early, but not after having to put up with several days of trying to deal with the stress of two elderly people trying to manage hip replacement surgery over the phone.  You see, mom refuses to drive, dad was the designated driver, and now he is laid up in the hospital.  Thus, mom was forced to get rides from family members who she can hardly contain her disgust of.  And I got the whole thing over the phone.

Then, when we did come back from our abridged vacation, we found out that two very good friends of ours had medical problems too.  However, their medical problems make a broken hip look like a hang-nail.  One had an aneurysm and wasnÂt expected to live (she did, and is making a miraculous recovery).  The other discovered that their eight-year-old daughter had a tumor.

Well now, dad is home (he has already fallen once and mom has been fighting me on the changes we have to make in their home to accommodate dadÂs condition).  The tumor isnÂt cancerous and our friend with taneurysmism is doing much better.  Life returns to what passes for normal in the Cracka house.  So, with any luck, I will start posting more regularly.  Once I have recovered from my ÂvacationÂ that is.

SCATTAGUN: Your holidays always play out like "Stalingrad: The Remix".

What a Dumbass

2006-01-04T16:16:00.000-05:00

Former Toledo mayoral candidate, and city councilman, Mike Ferner was arrested for defacing highway overpasses with idiotic, anti-war slogans.

Mike Ferner, a former Toledo councilman and one-time mayoral candidate, was arrested yesterday with his brother for spray-painting anti-war slogans on overpasses along I-475/U.S. 23 in Maumee and Sylvania Township.

There once was a time when Mr. Ferner was seen as a postitive alternative to the bombastic managerial stylings of Mayor Finkbiner. Despite whatever Mayor Finkbiner’s critics might say, the mayor hasn’t supported a megalomaniac dictator nor has he been arrested for vandalism.

Mike Ferner has been an active critic of U.S. military action in Iraq and, in 2003, took part in a "peace tour" of that Mideast country. He has several previous convictions for civil disobedience related to war protests or other causes he has taken on.

What I don’t understand is what makes a fairly intelligent person, no matter what political views you might hold, think that by spray-painting crap on the side of an overpass is going to change the president’s foreign policy?

Ms. Carter said the graffiti is one of her husband's nonviolent tactics for speaking out against injustice, and he "has always been prepared to go to jail."

In keeping with the great tradition of other non-violent protesters like Gandi and Martin Luther King, Mike Ferner will certainly go down in history for his immortal protest against the war on terror "Bye Bush! Hi Robb!".

Or maybe everyone will just ignore the washed up-has been idiot.

Chalk One Up for the Good Guys

2006-01-03T18:29:00.000-05:00

For anyone who has read this blog for any length of time, you should know that I am a supporter of Scouting by now. I have written in the past about attacks on the BSA as well as attempts by scouts and friends of scouting to protect the institution.

Well, much to the consternation of liberals, the Save Our Scouts act passed the Senate the week before Christmas.

The "Support Our Scouts Act of 2005" was passed as part of legislation titled, Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006. (H.R.2863), passed in the House of Representatives on 6/20/05 and on 12/21/05 passed in the Senate.

The law protects scouting units and activities (such as jamborees) by allowing equal access to government funding and recourses (such as Fort Hood which hosted the 2005 Jamboree).

(Sec. 8173) Support Our Scouts Act of 2005 - Prohibits any federal law from being construed to limit any federal agency from providing any form of support for a youth organization (including the Boy Scouts of America (Boy Scouts) or any group officially affiliated with the Boy Scouts) that would result in that federal agency providing less support to that youth organization (or any similar organization chartered under federal law relating to the Boy Scouts) than was provided during the preceding fiscal year.

Thus, we have moved in a positive direction in protecting the institution of scouting from one avenue of attacks by liberal groups like the ACLU.

This isn’t the end of the war. It is, however, a great victory in one battle to keep Scouting for generations to come.

Vacation Time

2005-12-18T19:21:00.000-05:00

Ah, its time for the annual Christmas trek to see the in-laws. Twelve hours in a car with a sqalling nine-month old and a board eight-year-old. These are the time we will look back upon and think, "What the hell were thinking!?!?"

Well anywho, not that I have been posting a lot of late (our hit tracker can attest to that) but I will be even quieter than usual for the next week or so. I may opine from time to time, but nothing regular.

So, Merry Christmas to y'all!

Nuking Schlomo

2005-12-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

From Newsmax:

Ruling Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani declared Friday that the Muslim world could survive a nuclear exchange with Israel - while accomplishing the goal of obliterating the Jewish state.

"[The] application of an atomic bomb would not leave anything in Israel - but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world," Hashemi-Rafsanjani said, in quotes picked up by the Iran Press Service.

I have to dispute Mr. Ayatollah of Rockenrolla Hashish-ReefaMadness on this one. Has he read accounts of what exactly happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I doubt it. Greece translates more books per year than the entire Islamic world put together. Still, it might be wise of him to try reading a book on the subject as opposed to, say, burning it.

Israel is believed to have somewhere in the range of 300-400 nuclear weapons. This is hard to verify for obvious reasons; is Schlomo serious or is he bluffing? And do we really want to find out? Do you, Mr. H-R?

I'm willing to bet that this is more than enough firepower to "just produce damages in the Muslim world." 300-400 nukes - even a fraction of that - will definitely rock the Casbah. And, judging by the way the Muslim world handles ordinary catastrophes - earthquakes, tsunamis, military defeats, sudden outbreaks of democratic voting - this cracka just can't imagine them shrugging off an all-out nuclear exchange. There's a reason why the US and the USSR avoided it, H-R. They wargamed the event, analyzed the projected results, became very quiet and very pale and on the morrow set out for Rekjavik.

And while we're on the subject, H-R, thanks for considering all your fellow Muslims who apparently have nothing better to do than be flash-burned out of existence and onto a nearby wall for all eternity!

I Don't Know What Victory Is but...

2005-12-12T19:13:00.000-05:00

(Yes, I am getting to a back log of blogging that I haven't done in a few weeks.)

I guess I need to redefine what the word victory means in my vocabulary, because by Howard "Chairman Yeow" Dean's dictionary, I have the word wrong.

Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

Well, if someone were to ask me if we were winning the war, I might mistakenly (according to the scream king himself) answer "yes." I would cite the fact that more Iraqis have electricity today than they did under Sadam. I would cite the fact that free elections have occurred and are continuing to occur. I would cite the fact that the three ethnic groups have, for the most part, put aside their differences and come together to write a constitution. But I guess I would be all wrong.

Now, I may not know what victory is, but I can damn sure tell you one way to lose the war. That would be to pull our troops out. If we follow Dr. Dean's prescription for the war, the U.S. would pull the bulk of our support troops out now, leaving our combat troops to do jobs they were never trained to do.

"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway.

Ok Dr. Dean. Then who do you suggest should take care of the wounded? Or who should transport supplies around the country? Who should be performing the police tasks carried out by the NG MP battalions? I guess we could spare a few infantry men from fighting terrorists to handing out MREs to hungry Iraqis.

But then what happens in two years (which every terrorist will have marked on his calendar with highlighter) when the combat troops pull out? Iraq will surely descend into chaos. The left is so keen to compare Iraq to Vietnam, how-about we take a look at what happened there? The U.S. withdrew all our combat troops and in two years the North Vietnam army and the Viet Cong over ran the unprepared government forces in the South. Thousands of Vietnamese who had worked with the U.S. were murdered, thousands more fled the country in homemade rafts. Then, knowing we lacked the will to fight and prevent another massacre, Pol Pot and the Camar Rouge overthrew the government of Cambodia and murdered millions of civilians.

I may not know if we are winning now, but I know we will surely loose if we leave Iraq as it is.

Fire Up that Tookie and Take a Hit

2005-12-12T18:30:00.000-05:00

Convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams' last plea for clemency was denied by Ahnold, the Govenator of California.

(AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused Monday to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution after midnight in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row.

This was the last hope for the horde of celebrities who (experts in criminal justice every one, I'm sure) have been clamoring for Tookie's death sentence to be commuted to life in prison, short of Jesus returning before 12:00 AM PST. You see, since Tookie formed the violent street gang the Crips, and brutally murdered four people, and ordered the murder of others from behind bars, he has written several children's books and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The only person more deserving of the Nobel Prize would be Osama Bin Ladin.

I guess in the fantasy world of the liberal mind set, writing a children's book expunges your record of all past misdeeds. It worked for Madonna, who has taken license to criticize society for its depraved behavior. So despite the fact that Tookie is a cold blooded murderer, and still asserts his innocence despite volumes of evidence to contrary, these people believe that he shouldn't pay for his crimes.

Well this Cracka ain't buying it. If you really have become a changed man, then stand up like a man, and face the consequences of your actions, ask the families of those you killed for their forgiveness and become an example for kids NOT to follow.

And Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out!

2005-12-12T14:16:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, the neo-Nutjobs, er I mean Nazis decided to show Toledo, once again that there are a host of morons alive in the world.  Aparently, the chaos they caused on October 15th wasn’t enough for them, so they had to come back to a town that doesn’t want them, just to stir the pot.

It was refreshing seeing the leadership of the city acting, well, like leaders.  Unlike the last time the morons came to town, the police, sheriff’s office and state troopers were ready for anything.  (That included an armored personnel carrier from the Lucas County Sheriff’s office.  I didn’t know the Sheriff had an APC…)

The neo-Nazis were vastly outnumbered by police, protesters, and a crowd estimated at about 150. About 700 police officers were on hand to control the crowd.

During the rally, one of the ass-hats demonstrated his complete lack of a clue when he uttered these immortal words.

During the rally, one of the neo-Nazis, speaking through a bullhorn, said, “Why in the world are the opponents out her opposing us? We stand against gang violence and we stand up for the white race.”

It’s not the opposing gang violence thing these people are protesting buck-o.  Its that whole murdering over nine million people (not including the soldiers who laid down their lives stopping thugs like you) thing that most people can’t seem to get past.  Yet these putzs can’t seem to figure that one out.

Let’s all just hope that this will end the whole mess, once and for all, and they will heed the advice of the crowd.

As the white supremacists left the front of Government Center, protesters chanted, “Don’t come back! Don’t come back!”

Its a Christmas Tree, Dumbass!

2005-12-09T11:45:00.000-05:00

Over the years, especially working in education, I have become accustomed to the trend to de-Christianize the Christmas holiday (or should I start calling it a Holy-Day which is where the word originates, wait till the secular liberals realize that).  This year, however, takes the cake in the perversion of the Christmas holiday.  Under the guise of being “inclusive” schools, municipalities and retail outlets have begun discriminating against the 80% of Americans who celebrate Christmas.

Taking this to the extreme, some Lowe’s stores began marketing “holiday trees” rather than Christmas trees.  Now I don’t know about you, but I love to see a nicely decorated Hanukah tree, or a Douglass fur decked out for Ramadan.

WHEN A commotion erupted over the fact that the 48-foot white spruce installed on the Boston Common -- an annual gift from the people of Nova Scotia -- is identified on Boston's official website as a ''holiday tree," the city's commissioner of parks and recreation sided firmly with the critics. ''This is a Christmas tree," Antonia Pollak declared. ''It's definitely a Christmas tree."

What kind of new stupidity is this?  Changing your greeting to “happy holidays” to include Jews, Muslims, Hindus or whatever other group you can imagine is one thing, but to rename a Christmas tree a holiday tree in the guise of inclusion is insane.  I don’t see stores selling menorahs as holiday lamps.  Why then, in the name of inclusion, must the name Christmas be taken off what is perhaps the most recognizable symbol of the holiday?

However, the insanity doesn’t end there.

Sometimes the secularizing impulse goes to laughable extremes, as when the elementary school play is titled ''How the Grinch Stole the Holidays" or when red poinsettias (but not white ones) are banned from city hall. Sometimes it springs from clanging ignorance, as with the New York City policy that prohibited the display of Christian nativity scenes on public school grounds, while expressly allowing such ''secular holiday symbol decorations" as Jewish menorahs and the Muslim star and crescent. And some of it is fueled by anti-Christian bigotry or sheer misanthropic bile.

And how insulting is it for Muslims or Jews to have their holidays labeled as secular celebrations?  Yet again, in a misguided attempt to get a nice liberal warm-fuzzy, the knobs have insulted and discriminated against more than 90% of the population.

So where does it end?  When are we going to stand up and stop groups like the ACLU from trying to expunge any hint of spirituality or religion from our society?

Mmm, Garbage...

2005-12-08T09:27:00.000-05:00

Not so fast, capitalist food-waster! This cracka about choked on his possum reading this at www.timesonline.co.uk.

So, in essence, you, too, can join the proud ranks of scavenging vermin, fermenting bacteria, mold, and other ne'er-do-wells because you're too damned cheap to buy food and too damned arrogant to admit you're basically little more than a bum.

But this part kills me:

Adam Weissman, a freegan activist and sometime security guard in New Jersey, says freeganism grew out of the radical 1960s 'yippie' movement but also has affinities with the hobos of the Great Depression whtraveleded around the country by stealing rides on the railways.

"I have pity for people who have not figured out this lifestyle," he said. "I am able to take long vacations from work, I have all kinds of consumer goods, and I eat a really healthy diet of really wonderful food: white asparagus and cactus fruit, three different kinds of mushrooms and four different kinds of pre-cut salad. And I'm just thinking of what is in my refrigerator right now.

"Essentially, the sky's the limit. We found flat-screen TVs, working boom-boxes and stereos. I have put together most of my wardrobe. Last year's designer clothing in perfect shape is discarded because it's no longer fashionable, so I wear a lot of designer labels."

'Sometime' security guard? 'Long vacations' from work? This sounds more like long, solid blocks of heavy-duty unemployment leavened with intensive bouts of primitive hunter-gathering. Do people really find 'four different kinds of pre-cut salad', etc, amid all that maggot-infested, fermenting rot? And if they do, don't the rats and seagulls have dibs?

And what happens when, in this veritable crapucornia/alternative fashion boutique/heretofore-undisclosed electronics outlet, the occasional authentic and very dead bum turns up ? Do you just pick the really wonderful white asparagus and shittake mushrooms off his bloated face and just think of what's in your refrigerator right now?

Dumpsters are many things; all of them are unpleasant. And they sure as hell aren't your salad bar.

ADDED by Cracka Jack 12-09-05

Back in the day, we called this dumpster diving, discount mall for the cheep-ass bastard. Now I guess you can add grocery store too. I'll be entering Kroger's from the front, thank you very much. However, I won't pass-up a good road kill stew, yummy.

You Numbah Ten, GI!

2005-11-26T05:49:00.000-05:00

Encouraging words from an ally, as reported by insightmag.com:

The overwhelming assessment by Asian officials, diplomats and analysts is that the U.S. military simply cannot defeat China. It has been an assessment relayed to U.S. government officials over the past few months by countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea. This comes as President Bush wraps up a visit to Asia, in which he sought to strengthen U.S. ties with key allies in the region.

Most Asian officials have expressed their views privately. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has gone public, warning that the United States would lose any war with China...

Mr. Ishihara said U.S. ground forces, with the exception of the Marines, are "extremely incompetent" and would be unable to stem a Chinese conventional attack. Indeed, he asserted that China would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against Asian and American cities - even at the risk of a massive U.S. retaliation.

First, but every twenty years or so, everybody who's anybody in another country makes this dismal assessment of U.S. military capability. You know, the same incompetents who rolled up the Taliban and Saddam Hussein in about the time it will take me to finish this paragraph. Interesting to see Mr. Ishihara spared the Marines similar judgment, especially since I don't recall Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, or Okinawa being victories for the Imperial Japanese Army.

Second, how does Mr. Ishihara know that China is willing to risk all-out nuclear war with the United States? There's a funny notion among many people that just because China is a totalitarian state with a lot of people, they'll react to every provocation like a disturbed anthill, regardless of results or casualties. "Oh, hell, so what if we lose 400 million of our countrymen in a nuclear exchange with Uncle Round-eye? We'll just declare it the Year of Cockroach."

I offer by way as example North Korea - a country I consider much more dangerous than China. The Hermit Kingdom has far less to lose by going to war than China does, and possibly much more to gain by invading South Korea.

North Korea makes no bones about using its (alleged) nuclear weapons if someone so much as snickers as Kim Il-Sung's hair. But...it doesn't. And it keeps on not using them. But if you're wondering who the contestants of the world's first nuclear war will be, I'm more willing to bet on India and Pakistan - or possibly, in the future, Israel and Iran.

The governor said the U.S. military could not counter a wave of millions of Chinese soldiers prepared to die in any onslaught against U.S. forces. After 2,000 casualties, he said, the U.S. military would be forced to withdraw.

Thank you, MSM. With your slanted, partisan coverage of the war in Iraq, your cynical inversion of the Vietnam body count, your doting on the anti-war movement, and - in the case of the BBC, especially - your sneaking identification with terrorists, you've managed to convince other countries - allies - that the U.S. really is a paper tiger. Wonder where Ishihara got that 2,000 figure?

I think the MSM could use a little white phosphorous, frankly...

(By the way, Ish, we've fought the Chinese before. In Korea during the '50s. And, you guys also lost at Midway, don't forget.)

"Therefore, we need to consider other means to counter China," he said. "The step we should be taking against China, I believe, is economic containment."

Forgive Daniel-san for saying so, Mr. Miyagi, but I don't think that The Crane is going to work this time.

President of the World...

2005-11-18T11:48:00.000-05:00

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is "The Most Influential Man in the World," according to Esquire magazine.

The magazine has designated him as "the most powerful agent of change in the world" despite his lack of electoral standing and the fact he was laid low by a heart attack ahead of last year's presidential election...

...Esquire editor David Granger argued that Clinton was poised to become "something like a president of the world or at least a president of the world's non-governmental organizations."

OK...but does anyone recall this gem? Same magazine, btw.

President of the world, eh?

Crackpot Theory Number One, French Riots Were Caused by Polygamy

2005-11-17T15:47:00.000-05:00

As the violence begins to subside in France (which means that they are running out of cars to burn) the French politicians are now turning to trying to figure out the causes (lay blame) for the riots which have racked the country for over two weeks. One of these theories caught my eye as I was looking over the news from Frogistan (hehe thanks Ace). Namely, that polygamous families have caused the riots.

Bernard Accoyer, leader of the Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) in the National Assembly lower house of parliament, told French radio many rioters were Muslim youths from polygamous families who had problems integrating into mainstream society.

Perhaps polygamy is a symptom of a more serious problem? Perhaps the erosion of values might have contributed? Perhaps the decline of your own civilization which allowed for the rise of these polygamous families helped fan the flames that erupted in France? Maybe this is a sign of a more wide spread problem in the French culture, than a few people who shack up together? Has anyone considered that? In an attempt to be compassionate to their poor, the French have segregated them in large, walled off communities. The architecture in these communities is more reminiscent of a prison than a home. All the while, rather than trying to stimulate their economy to provide gainful employment for these people, the French government keeps them oppressed by putting them on the dole. This leads these "youths" to feel more as a Muslim foreigners rather than French citizens. Case in point;

Muslim organisations did not immediately comment but anti-racist organisations condemned the remarks, saying they were racist and could further isolate ethnic minorities.

"In God We Trust" Under Attack

2005-11-15T14:59:00.000-05:00

Everyone's favorite Godless atheist Michael Neudow is at it again. After the Supreme Court told him to shove his last attempt to piss God off, Mr. Neudow is now trying to force his beliefs on the rest of the nation again. This time he wants the government to remove the words "In God We Trust" from all currency.

The Sacramento atheist who is suing local school districts to stop them from having students recite the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance has turned his attention to the nation's currency.

So here he goes butting his nose in where it doesn't belong again. Doesn't this guy have a real job?

"I'm just saying, do like you're supposed to," Newdow said to News10. "Stop taking one position, my side or [indecipherable]. You know, if government came out and said God doesn't exist, that's wrong. I would fight that just as much. I just want government to say we don't have an opinion on religion. American citizens do whatever you want."

So Mr. Neudow, forcing the government to go to extremes to avoid all mention of the possibility of some higher being, or Creator isn't forcing the government to adopt your side of the argument? The phrase mentions God, not a specific God. Not Jesus, not Allah, not Jehovah, not Vishnu, just God. That doesn't sound like taking one side of the argument to me. If you are so secure in your belief that God doesn't exist, why are you worried that some weak-minded, superstitious people might put that word on your coinage? And can you explain how some quaint little platitude forces you to believe in a being you don't believe in?

You know Mr. Neudow, if everyone sued the over every thing that gave even the hint of offence, there would be nothing left of our culture and society.

Think About the Muppets. Or Not

2005-11-12T15:41:00.000-05:00

I work a boring night job, and during breaks I read whatever I can get my hands on. Mostly all that is available are various brain-dead gossip rags. But, we have Vanity Fair, and while Vanity Fair is what People might be if it had gone to community college, at least VF has articles.

One such article concerned PBS. I'm not sure how that muppet-crewed Flying Dutchman continues to wheeze along in this era of satellite, DVDs and digital TV, but there it is. The author of the article, James Wolcott, pillories conservatives for generally disliking PBS. OK, fine. I'd prefer conservatives to concentrate on fighting terrorists, anyway. But somehow this led to drilling in the ANWR (Need money, muppets? See you on the rig, then) and Jim's notion that conservatives want to drill up there solely to be mean to liberals. And caribou. And giant mosquito herds. Not because we might need the oil or because America doesn't run on caribou, but because we're just jerks.

The article then ended - and I'm paraphrasing here - on the note that if America had more Cindy Sheehans, we'd be a better, truer country. Right. The radical left's premier stuntwoman. And I'm left wondering, "now where in the hell did that come from?" In all seriousness, the article read better and was more coherent overall than when broken down into the talking points I've presented here, but still, how did Cindy get into it? I was frankly expecting the other Big Bird.

So, anyway, when PBS comes around again rattling the donation can, think of the Muppets. Or the caribou.

Lake Sold Down the River

2005-11-10T14:21:00.000-05:00

In a stunning display of care and compassion, the voters in the Lake Local School District sold themselves down the river by voting down the school system's operating levee for the sixth time.

Lake's levy, which would have brought in $1.8 million annually to the Wood County district that includes a tiny part of Ottawa County, was defeated by a vote of 2,218 (52 percent) to 2,011 (48 percent), according to final, unofficial results. That marks the smallest gap between "yes" and "no" votes in the last five elections.

Now this cracka can understand the feeling of voters who might perceive that they are being unfairly taxed. However, this wasn't a levy to buy the school board president a new car, or even to keep the foot ball team playing (the districts athletics have been privately sponsored for over a year now). This was a levy to raise money to keep the schools operating.

After defeating a five-year emergency property tax levy equivalent to 8.74 mills on Tuesday, the reality is that the district is facing a deficit of more than $1.5 million by the end of 2008 and has lost the chance to collect any new funding next year.

"We don't want the state to come in and mandate what we have to do and make more cuts," board President Margene Akenberger said. "It's bad now, but if the state came in, I just think it would be ugly."

Reduction measures totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few years have eliminated bus service to state transportation minimums, the supplemental positions that oversee sports and extracurricular activities, and four custodial jobs. Board member Eric Hirzel said the district could cut corners to save money by offering teachers early retirement incentives to reduce what the district is paying in wages and benefits or by shutting down the district's Millbury building that contains the superintendent's and treasurer's offices.

This isn't a case of a school board spending the citizen's tax money on extravagant expenditures. This is a school board trying desperately to find the funds to keep the schools open and teach YOUR kids how to read! I just hope that the jugheads who keep voting against these levies wake up and smell the REDISTRICTING which may be down the road if Lake Local doesn't get the funds it needs.

Carty Elected High Potentate of the Fiefdom of Toledo

2005-11-10T14:11:00.000-05:00

After four years of relative quite (because Mayor Ford did little if anything) Toledo once again elected its often histrionic "favorite son", Carty Finkbeiner as mayor.

It is quite sad that a Mr. Finkbeiner, who made a name for himself by verbally and physically assaulting employees and citizens alike, telling the deaf to move to the air port, and other notable gaffes could be the best choice for the lead position in city government.

So, hold on to your hats as Toledo enters yet another era of mediocracy with Carty once more at the helm.

WTF is Bloxing?

2005-11-08T09:46:00.000-05:00

Two Crackas in my Soup... has been selected for something called "Friday Night Bloxing" over at a Polish web site at polblog.pl. Well I don't know nuttin' about no bloxin' but I can trade punches with some wimpy liberal all night long. Head over and take a gander.

SHTURMGRUPPA: Question is, Two Crackas consists of two crackas, ie, two posters as opposed to the usual one poster per blog. So, I'm assuming we have a 2-1 advantage over potential opponents. That is, unless they team up against us, thereby reducing the odds to 1-1, but then we have four guys in the ring at the same time bloxing with each other, which is technically a blog-room brawl, I think.

Violence in Paris Toned Down on 12th Night

2005-11-08T09:30:00.000-05:00

Mind you toned down means that there weren't any more deaths.

PARIS, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Rioting for the 12th straight night in four regions of France left more than 1,100 vehicles torched and 330 people arrested overnight Monday. While Paris had its first relative lull with just 17 vehicles burned, riots broke out after dark in the southern city of Toulouse and the northern city of Lille, and two schools were torched in districts north of Paris -- Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardie.

Yet again, the paragon of liberal values shows the rest of the world how to compassionatly govern its people.

Chirac Fiddles while Paris Burns

2005-11-07T12:20:00.000-05:00

In the U.S. the Muslim riots in France are just now starting to receive serious media coverage, but it may be too late.

PARIS - Rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns overnight, and a 61-year-old man hurt in the violence died of his wounds, the first fatality in 11 days of unrest that has shocked the country, police said Monday. As urban unrest spread to neighboring Belgium and possibly Germany, the French government faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite massive police deployment and continued calls for calm.

The story has much deeper causes than what the media is willing to present. The local causative factor in the unrest that has swept Paris was when two young men were electrocuted while trying to hide from the police. Now, mind you, the police didn't kill the youths, but rather the youths, being pursued by the police, tried to hid out in an electrical sub station. Apparently they forgot the whole, don't touch anything rule when hiding near high tension wires.

In case you thought that this was about police brutality, the police in France are virtually impotent. The police are held in very low regard by the media in France, and the legal system rewards the lazy and penalizes the officer who really wishes to make a difference.

I first saw l'insecurite for myself about eight months ago. It was just off the Boulevard Saint-Germain, in a neighborhood where a tolerably spacious apartment would cost $1 million. Three youths - Rumanians - were attempting quite openly to break into a parking meter with large screwdrivers to steal the coins. It was four o'clock in the afternoon; the sidewalks were crowded, and the nearby cafes were full. The youths behaved as if they were simply pursuing a normal and legitimate activity, with nothing to fear.

The laxisme of the French criminal justice system is now notorious. Judges often make remarks indicating their sympathy for the criminals they are trying (based upon the usual generalizations about how society, not the criminal, is to blame); and the day before I witnessed the scene on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, 8,000 police had marched to protest the release from prison on bail of an infamous career armed robber and suspected murderer before his trial for yet another armed robbery, in the course of which he shot someone in the head. Out on bail before this trial, he then burgled a house. Surprised by the police, he and his accomplices shot two of them dead and seriously wounded a third. He was also under strong suspicion of having committed a quadruple murder a few days previously, in which a couple who owned a restaurant, and two of their employees, were shot dead in front of the owners' nine-year-old daughter. (Quoted from The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris by Theodore Dalrymple)

Thutopiae eutopa of liberal ideals, the nation that socialists, liberals and democrats compare bad old America to, is rotting from the inside out. Add to that, that the violence is spreading. It's not rebellion just in France, it's a more wide spread corruption of society that has been brought about by the decay of the values structure in Europe. Criminality is no longer punished, it's not your fault. Enterprise is frowned upon, how dare you try to improve yourself, make yourself better than anyone else! The government has been entrusted with your entire life, economy and society, and they lost it all. Is this really what we want for ourselves or our children?

Gasp! The CIA has SECRET Prisons for Terrorists

2005-11-04T12:04:00.000-05:00

According to the upright, democratic organization, Human Rights Watch, the CIA has established secret prisons in Eastern European nations, namely Poland and Romania.

BRUSSELS (AFX) - The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has secret prisons in eastern Europe, notably in Poland and Romania, where Al-Qaida suspects may be held, Human Rights Watch said.

And? What's your point?

First, if the HRW can be trusted (and that has yet to be established), so what if the CIA has terrorists holed up in Poland and Romania? These people are not just enemies of the U.S. They are enemies of all Western culture. If you think they don't like us, wait till we are out of the way and they have a free hand to go at the super-secularist governments in Western Europe. Personally, I feel BETTER now that I know that al Qaida thugs are being stuck in small, dank, filthy cubicles in Poland, rather than trying to infiltrate the U.S. to kill our citizens or Iraq, to fight our troops.

When are the hand-wringing liberals going to get it. If these guys get their way, there will be no freedom to complain about the government having secret prisons. There won't be peace demonstrations. Those of us who don't share their extremist views will long for the comfort of a prison like Gitmo, or Poland.

Ruin Ohio Now

2005-11-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

Origonally Posted on Oct 6, reposted for the November 8 Elections by Cracka Jack.

For those of you who live in Ohio, you should become aware that there are slew of issues on the ballot for the November 8 general election. Issues 2, 3, 4 and 5 have been supported by a group calling themselves Reform Ohio Now (RON). My first experience with RON was a T.V. commercial which did a good job of portraying Governor Taft as a goat. What that has to do with reforming the electoral process in Ohio I am not sure, but I have seen tactics like that before. Most notably from political extremist groups like MoveOn where the organization attacks its political opponents rather than actually address what the issues are.

So I felt it was important to actually find out what the issues are. So, I am going to take a look at each of the issues from my admittedly conservative point of view.

Issue 2 would establish a legal basis for allowing people to vote by mail. On the surface this may seem like an ok idea. However, in light of the fact that Ohio already has a process in place for dealing with absentee ballots and provisional ballots this issue seems to be superfluous. Ohio's absentee ballot requirements are sufficiently lenient that anyone who has an even half decent reason for not going to the polls on election day can vote absentee. Additionally, allowing voting by mail would open the door for counting votes from people such as "Superman" or "Cinderella" from people who were offered crack to register new voters, such as happened in the last presidential election cycle.

Issue 3 changes the political donation regulated. This is a response to the Tom Noe scandal. This amendment would limit the amount of money an individual can donate to a political campaign. Sounds good, huh? It also allows for organizations to donate to political campaigns and allows them to keep their donor's secret. This would allow for outsiders (such as George Sorors) to donate large sums of money to candidates without a paper trail. Again opening the system to exploit and abuse by rich contributors.

Issue 4 takes the power to draw political districts from the elected officials to a board of political appointees. In this case, I can't see any potentially good in this issue. Rather than allowing politicians (not an honest lot mind you) who are responsible to their electorate draw political districts it gives this power to a board of appointees who are responsible only to their political cronies. Go to Ohio First to see a map of the potential political districts.

Finally, Issue 5 removes oversight of the elector process from the secretary of state, an elected official, to a "bipartisan" board of political appointees. Again, taking into account the mess the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, a group of political appointees, has gotten into this seems like a very bad idea too.

In my very un-humble opinion, the move by RON to "fix" the electoral system in Ohio is potentially more damaging for Ohio voters and opens the system more extensive voter fraud.

I challenge Ohioans to look, and decide for themselves.

Here is the ballot issues as they appear on the ballot.

Here is RON, the one's who support the issues.

Here is Ohio First, the one's opposed to the issues.

Trick or Treat!

2005-10-31T12:21:00.000-05:00

In a most spooky (at least to liberals) announcement, President Bush has made a new nomination for Justice O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court. Rather than pick an old frat buddy, President Bush actually found a qualified nominee in Federal Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito.

Drawing an unspoken contrast to failed nominee Harriet Miers, Bush declared that Alito "has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years."

Wow, do you think that having some kind of experience in interpreting the constitution might be a good thing for a Supreme Court Justice? I really hope so. Judge Alito is almost a mirror image of Harriet Miers. He is a Yale Law graduate, he has argued cases before the Supreme Court. He has served as an appleals court judge.

Unfortunately for the liberals, he is also a man, and a conservative. Rather than the wishy-washy semi-conservative or blatantly liberal "swing vote" justice that they want. Now its time for the liberal and democrat hatchet men to get out and start pulling up Judge Alito's 5th grade book report on Puddin Head Wilson to make unsubstantiated claims of racism. Chuck Schumer is already putting his foot in his mouth and the MSM are already preparing the nation for a filibuster. Ah, you gotta love politics on Halloween!

Miers is Out, Who's In?

2005-10-27T12:12:00.000-04:00

This morning, the Whitehouse announced that Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers has chosen to remove herself from consideration.

White House counsel Harriet Miers, abruptly withdrew from consideration on Thursday after mounting criticism from the right and the left about her credentials for the lifetime job.

What I have seen of the main stream media, they are painting this as the Bush administration falling back on the nomination. That might be. Last week, republican senators made a request for private documents. The senators cited the fact that no one knows anything about Ms. Mier's position on anything. So the question is, what I right when I wrote this;

1) She is a sacrificial lamb. The president knows that the democratic party is going to raise holy hell over whoever he nominates to the job. So, President Bush appeases the blood lust of the left by offering up a nominee who while technically qualified has no judicial experience. As the left tries to rip apart a straw woman, they look more hypocritical with each passing day.

What happened is that the conservatives ripped apart the "straw woman" but the situation is still similar to what seems to be happening in Washington.

The question remains, who's next on the short list. Scruffy the janitor? Word on the street is that the Bush administration approached several, much more qualified female jurists who turned the president down. Is the president going to continue down the list of women candidates? Will the president buck the trend and pick another qualified candidate regardless of their sex? We shall see. While I am not please for the reasoning (and the timing) I am in general pleased with the outcome.

Jeepers Creepers

2005-10-26T16:17:00.000-04:00

Nice peepers there, Condi.

Michelle Malkin and other bloggers have landed on this one with both feet. This cracka just got over a bad sinus infection and is late getting to the stomp. As for that other one, Cracka Jack, well, who knows. Probably got into the anti-freeze again. Or he's treed a possum. Either or.

What kills me is the hilariously BAD job that was done in regards 'modifying' Condi's eyes...I mean, come on, guys, I have and use Photoshop, and this is NOT some filtering or effects mistake. This is a deliberate, though clumsy, attempt to demonize visually Condoleeza Rice. The sclera of her eyes are paper-white. The irises and pupils, meanwhile, are pitch-black, and, to top it off, reptilian in shape, or like those of a cat.

This is not responsible photojournalism. This is album cover art for Black Sabbath.

Anyway, here's USA TODAY'S lame apology/correction/evasion/they're on to us, dive, dive, dive:

Editor's note: The photo of Condoleezza Rice that originally accompanied this story was altered in a manner that did not meet USA TODAY's editorial standards. The photo has been replaced by a properly adjusted copy. Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice's face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards.

OK, but sharpening and brightening in Photoshop do not automatically give people "Exorcist" eyes, Chief, not matter how wildly you slide the little bar left or right. Why not just give Condi horns and put flames in the background?

So fess up, USA TODAY, because I assume - at least hope - someone over there is checking the photos as well as the copy, and if they let this one get past them, they should be bashed over the head with their Mac for incompetence - or, as I suspect, deliberate malfeasance.

For a Counterpoint

2005-10-15T17:47:00.000-04:00

As a counter point to the fun day we are having in that distant country Toledo, Ohio, the Iraqi people have turned out in droves to vote on their very own constitution. Despite threats to disrupt the referendum and the negativity of nay-sayers in the U.S. the voting is going off without much difficulty. I wonder if the liberals will challenge the elections in Iraq like they did the ones here in Ohio?

A Bunch of Lame-Ass Creeps

2005-10-15T17:37:00.000-04:00

A Bunch of Lame-Ass Creeps

Well the Nazis were in town today. As much as it pained me not to be their to see them in all their wimpitude, I stayed close to home and spent time with the wife and kids. Which as it turned out was a good thing.

The Nazis didn’t get to goose-step through North Toledo as they originally planned. Instead, their little shin-dig was canceled when “counter-protesters” started pelting them with stones. Mind you, pitching a rock at a neo-Nazi isn’t on my list of bad things to do. My grandfather spent a couple years putting his ass on the line to stop them from taking over the world in the 1940s. So I have no sympathy for these losers.

However, as you might guess, not all the so called “counter-protesters” showed up with peaceful plans. The International Socialist Organization (i.e. Commies with an attitude) riled the locals up into a frenzy and then split town. In the wake of their fun, the crowd which was estimated at 600 before all was said and done stoned the police and fire units (including an EMS responding to the area) set a business on fire and caused general havoc.

Now in response to the actions of a handful of out of town losers, the city is under a curfew starting at 8 PM, and several local schools had to cancel homecoming events. And these people wonder why no one supports their idiotic pet causes?

Don't Bogart the Hookah, Mahmoud

2005-10-07T12:56:00.000-04:00

Sounds to me that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been taking too many hits on that hookah of his.

'President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God,'' Shaath said. ''God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq ...' And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it,'

Aw, right dude! Right before he turned into a bunch of butterflies and flew out the window, man!

The Nazis are Coming, the Nazis are Coming!

2005-10-05T14:49:00.000-04:00

According to a press release from the national socialist party (I won't stoop to link to the creeps) the Nazi party is going to hold a rally/march in Toledo on October 15. The genocidal maniacs are coming to Toledo to confront (antagonize) local gangs. In particular, neighborhoods in North Toledo have been plagued by a rash of gang activity. The neighbors have taken to video taping the gang members in the commission of various crimes and turning those tapes over to the authorities, which does not please the gangs. So to help the situation, a bunch of racist, white supremacist are going to march through the neighborhood. Sounds like a great plan guys.

President Bush Nominates Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court

2005-10-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

Who?

Yesterday in a jaw dropping, stunning announcement, President Bush nominated his good friend and, well, good friend Harriet Miers to take Justice O'Connor's position on SCOTUS. Ms. Miers just squeaked past Phil, the night custodian of the Whitehouse basement and Torrie an executive office intern who were also on the president's short list.

Ms. Miers list of accomplishments include taking third in her sixth grade spelling bee, being nominated the "most likely to be nominated to the supreme court" in her high school senior class and reading every John Grisham novel ever published.

All joking aside. Most conservatives are either completely confused or totally pissed off at the president's choice. Yes, you don't have to be a judge to be on the supreme court, but it sure as hell helps. Yes, she is technically qualified to be on the court, but she has never written an opinion, she has never even tried a case before the supreme court. Her lack of experience in constitutional law appears to be astounding. I have three possible explanations for Ms. Miers nomination, in no particular order.

1) She is a sacrificial lamb. The president knows that the democratic party is going to raise holy hell over whoever he nominates to the job. So, President Bush appeases the blood lust of the left by offering up a nominee who while technically qualified has no judicial experience. As the left tries to rip apart a straw woman, they look more hypocritical with each passing day.

2) She is a "stealth" nominee in a much more broad way than Roberts was. In this case we have no idea how she might rule on anything, much less the key issues of abortion, gay marriage, eminent domain, the pledge of allegiance etc. This way there is nothing the left can latch on to in attacking her credentials. This assumes that President Bush really knows how Ms. Miers feels on these issues.

3) She was nominated because she is a woman. Many have argued that since Justice O'Connor is stepping down, President Bush MUST nominate a woman in order to maintain the gender balance on the court. This reasoning is specious to say the least. There is nothing in the constitution that says that the court must have a particular makeup. Rather this is the judicial equivalent of affirmative action.

Now a potential fourth option would be that President Bush really does feel that Ms. Miers is fully qualified to do the job of a supreme court justice, and that her interpretation of the constitution falls in line with the promises he made. That is possible.

But be that as it may, I still want a ruthlessly conservative nominee. I want a judge who has a guillotine on his or her bench. I want a judge who has the constitution printed on his or her bed sheets. I want a judicial nomination that will send Senator Kennedy into apoplectic fits. I helped get this president elected. I voted for conservative values in the office of the president and the senate and house of representatives. I, as a voter, citizen and constituent deserve an openly conservative supreme court nominee.

Want Genocide with that?

2005-09-30T12:10:00.000-04:00

What is freaking wrong with some people? I mean I have heard of some stupid ideas for a restaurant (one where you eat locked in a cage and handcuffed, another where you sit on a toilet while you eat though I guess that cuts down on time...), but this takes the cake.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A new Cambodian cafe is offering diners a slice of life under the Khmer Rouge, with a menu featuring rice-water and leaves, and waitresses dressed in the black fatigues worn by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist guerrillas.

Newly opened across the road from Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng "S-21" Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center, the cafe is meant to remind Cambodians of the 1975-1979 genocide in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.

What the hell? For your dining pleasure, we are going to make a tourist experience out of the deaths of over a million people. Come drop some money and marginalize another communist dictator's crimes against humanity.

But the set "theme menu" of salted rice-water, followed by corn mixed with water and leaves, and dove eggs and tea at $6 a time is proving too much to swallow for many visitors.

"Our grandfather and other relatives lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime," said 17-year-old manager Hakpry Agnchealy, whose brother owns the business. "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died."

"We opened two weeks ago, but have only had two Europeans coming here to eat. We don't know how much longer we can go," she said.

Gee, ya think? What, for the love of Pete, gave you the idea that basing a theme restaurant on the murder of thousands of people would every work out? What's your next big idea, open a restaurant at Dachau with a holocaust theme? The patrons can get gassed, literally, at the bar while they wait for a seat in a cattle car. What a couple of numbskulls.

Going Aaron Burr

2005-09-29T15:09:00.000-04:00

And here I thought dueling went out with hoop skirts and cotton gins...

From the Detroit Free Press:

Two Mt. Clemens men who tried to settle a debt dispute with knives will face charges under a 19th-century antidueling law, the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office said.

The dispute was over $30, by the way. Each man - a 19-year-old and his 32-year-old uncle - faces 10 years in prison or a $5,000 fine. The 19-year-old was stabbed in the abdomen during the duel but is in stable condition at the hospital. I personally have no idea as to why they decided to go Aaron Burr on each other; aren't disputes between aggrieved idiots usually resolved on daytime court TV?

Very Interesting Article

2005-09-29T13:58:00.000-04:00

The blog Zombietime has a MUST READ for anyone who is interested in media and media bias in the U.S. The artile deconstructs a photograph of the anti-America protest that took place late last week in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle ran the photo as an lead into a story on the "anti-war" rally as they billed it. Looking at the photo series, there were more than anti-war protesters there. Go and check it out for yourself. Similar protests took place around the world. Makes you wonder what other things the media is keeping from us.

H/T to ACE.

Kermit the Frog 50

2005-09-28T16:24:00.000-04:00

Its hard to believe that an Icon of my childhood, Kermit the Frog, is fifty years old. While I am not quite that old, I have very fond memories of Muppet News Flashes where Kermit would dispense the latest news about the Big Bad Wolf, or some other event of interest to toddlers. Rock on green dude!

And In Some Good News

2005-09-27T10:34:00.000-04:00

From bad news to good, U.S. forces in Iraq capped Al Qaeda's number two man yesterday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces have shot dead the second-in-command of al Qaeda in Iraq, dealing what a U.S. commander called on Tuesday a serious blow to the militant group at the heart of Iraq's insurgency.

Yeah, it's just a quagmire and we are losing the war. Gotcha.

Its The Old Secret Agent Passes Away Trick...

2005-09-27T10:21:00.000-04:00

Actor Don Adams who was best known for his role as Agent 86 in the 1960's TV program Get Smart and his voice work for the cartoon Inspector Gadget died yesterday.

Hollywood, California (AHN) - Smart Agent 86 has passed away after a battle with lymphoma. Don Adams who is best remembered for his role as Maxwell Smart on the 1960s hit TV show "Get Smart", was 82.

It's time to hang up your shoe phone, Max. God speed.

Gays Bash Boy Scouts

2005-09-26T09:57:00.000-04:00

The left's attitudes toward the Boy Scouts at times seems very schizophrenic (yes, I know schizophrenic is not the correct term, what most people think of as "multiple personalities" is more properly known as disassociation, most people don't know that and thus schizophrenic while technically incorrect, conveys the correct sentiment). One minute the left sees the Scouts as a private religious organization which in their eyes can't receive any official, public, political recognition, and at other times is a public organization subject to their zaniest whims. After forcing the military and other government agencies to distance themselves from the private religious scouts, they have swung (pun intended) back the other direction in an attempt to force liberal values on scouting.

A coalition of homosexual activists and atheists plan to march on a Boy Scout camp in San Diego next month demanding the organization open its membership and leadership to them.

Oh yes, lets let a bunch of village people, wanna-bes hike out into the woods to protest the Boy Scouts. Lets see how far they get in their leather vests and high-healed, jack boots. I can see that working out very well.

Beside demanding the Boy Scouts open their ranks to practicing homosexuals and atheists, the group also apparently seeks the admission of girls to the organization.

Ok, so what part of BOY scouts do they not understand? Isn't that why there is a separate organization called the GIRL scouts? Of course if you are gender confused, that might make it difficult to see the difference in the two organizations.

In previous protests, the group has equated the Boy Scouts with the Ku Klux Klan. The group has attracted celebrities in its cause.

Yes, that's why we don our khaki robes and burn a flure de lys on gay couple's front lawns. Just vitriolic hyperbole from the left. Does it really serve any purpose to equate an organization whose goal is to make young men better people with an organization whose sole goal is to eliminate certain races from the American continent?

But this brings me to a question that I have been wondering about for a while. If you are an atheist lesbian teen, why in the world would you want to join a group who's values include a healthy spiritual life (and it doesn't matter which spirits you choose) and traditional American values? You wouldn't. Rather, you would seek to weaken such a group. You would want to dilute their moral values, and subvert their goals in order to make your own values and goals more palatable to the general public. And that is what this is about. Not trying to get the boy scouts to allow gays and girls to go camping in the woods (sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, how many of the female sailors come back pregnant when a ship returns from patrol?). Rather it is to make their extremist liberal views more "mainstream" by weakening institutions who reinforce traditional values.

H/T Kathy Shaidle via Rightwing News

Roberts Approved by Judiciary Comittee

2005-09-22T15:08:00.000-04:00

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts was approved by the senate judiciary comittee today by a vote of 13 to 5.

Roberts won the support of all 10 Republicans on the committee and three Democrats — Ranking Minority Member Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, both of Wisconsin.

He was oposed by Senators Biden, Feinstein, Chapaquittic Ted Kennidy, Schumer and terrorist lovin' Dick Turban. Of Judge Roberts, Senator Feinstein said,

"I knew as little about what Judge Roberts really thought about issues after the hearings as I did before the hearing. This makes it very hard for me,"

That is pretty hard to belive considering that your cadre of commie loving buddies grilled Judge Roberts for 17 hours and had access to over 70,000 pages of documents. I guess it rubs Senator Feinstein the wrong way when a judge wants to uphold the consitution rather than rubber stamp abortion from the bench.

When the Strippers Return to the Big Easy

2005-09-22T14:22:00.000-04:00

Well, it might not be quite on the same level as this tradition of the swallows returning to Capistrano, but I guess it is a sign that things are getting back to what is normal for New Orleans.

Erotic dancers and strippers are entertaining crowds of police, firefighters and military personnel instead of the usual audiences of drunken conventionally and tourists in Bourbon Street's Deja Vu club, which reopened this week.

It's the first strip joint to resume business, three weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck in the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States.

G-strings for freedom? Pasties for perserverance? I don't know. But in a city only second to Vegas for its debauchery, its back to the good old days.

Someone's Finally Come Up With a Fitting Legacy

2005-09-22T13:58:00.000-04:00

A condom producer in China has begun making prophylactics with the brand names Clinton and Lewinsky.

"The Clinton condom will be the top of our line," he said. "The Lewinsky condom is not quite as good."

I personally can't think of a better way to memorialize President Bubba than by getting some with a "slick willy" on.

Couldn't Buy a Good Interview

2005-09-16T12:55:00.000-04:00

ABC news ran a special edition of Nightline after the President's speech from Jackson Square, New Orleans on Thursday night. The intent appears to have been to find people who had been displaced by Katrina to offer a viserial, poor-man's criticism of the President's speech. However, the plan backfired on ABC when the people they interviewed, outside the Astro Dome in Houstin Tx. failed to take the bait and blame Bush.

Reynolds elicited reaction from the group sitting in chairs: “I'd like to get the reaction of Connie London who spent several horrible hours at the Superdome. You heard the President say retpeaedly that you are not alone, that the country stands beside you. Do you believe him?”

Connie London: “Yeah, I believe him, because here in Texas, they have truly been good to us. I mean-”

Reynolds: “Did you get a sense of hope that you could return to your home one day in New Orleans?”

London: “Yes, I did. I did.”

Reynolds: “Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?”

London: “No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state government should have been there before the federal government was called in. They should have been on their jobs.”

Reynolds: “And they weren't?”

London: “No, no, no, no. Lord, they wasn't. I mean, they had RTA buses, Greyhound buses, school buses, that was just sitting there going under water when they could have been evacuating people.”

You can almost feel the desperation as Reynolds keeps trying to get Ms. London to blame the President for her prediciment. But there's no bias in Main Stream Journalism now is there? Here's another example where Reynolds doesn't get the answer he wants and he goes fishing again.

Reynolds: “Now, Brenda, you were, spent, what, several days at the Superdome, correct?”

Marshall: “Yes, I did.”

Reynolds: “What did you think of what the President told you tonight?”

Marshall: “Well, I think -- I think the speech was wonderful, you know, him specifying that we will return back and that we will have like mobile homes, you know, rent or whatever. I was listening to that pretty good. But I think it was a well fine speech.”

Reynolds: “Was there any particular part of it that stood out in your mind? I mean, I saw you all nod when he said the Crescent City is going to come back one day.”

Marshall: “Well, I think I was more excited about what he said. That's probably why I nodded.”

Reynolds: “Was there anything that you found hard to believe that he said, that you thought, well, that's nice rhetoric, but, you know, the proof is in the pudding?”

Marshall: “No, I didn't.”

Reynolds isn't trying to lead his interviewee in any particular direction now is he? Nah, no responsable or respectable journalist would ever do that. This final quote seems to seal it.

Reynolds thinks he has lead Ms. London down to a conclusion that would put the blame on President Bush, but Ms. London turns the tables on him

London: “And really it wasn't Hurricane Katrina that really tore up the city. It was when they opened the floodgates. It was not the hurricane itself. It was the floodgates, when they opened the floodgates, that's where all the water came.”

Reynolds: “Do you blame anybody for this?”

London: “Yes. I mean, they've been allocated federal funds to fix the levee system, and it never got done. I fault the mayor of our city personally. I really do.”

She faults the MAYOR for not doing his job, not the President for not doing the mayor's job. Reynold's decides to cut his losses and ends his interview at this point. This has to be one of the most obvious attempts to lead and direct an interviewee I have seen in the very long time. It is refreshing, however, that the MSM were denied their pound of flesh on this one.

Have They Lost Their Minds, or are They Just Plain Stupid?

2005-09-15T17:06:00.000-04:00

Doing a little blog reading and I ran across this from Daily KOS, not a blog I read on a regular basis, for good reason.

This from boingboing

10:57 Raw transcript of comments by NOLA evacuee Clara Barthelemy: "The 17th street levee was bombed by the Army Corps of Engineers to save the more valuable real estate in the city... to keep the French Quarter protected, the ninth ward was sacrificed... people are afraid to speak out... everyone who was near there heard the bombings... they bombed seven times. That's why they didn't fix the levees... 20 feet of water. Gators. People dying in water. They let the parishes go, not the city center. Tourist trap was saved over human life. A six year old girl was raped in here.. 9 year old boy killed. A man in the shower beaten. No hot food. No help for elderly."

Okey, dokey. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers demolished the levees to protect more valueable parts of the city. Right. And JFK orderd the bombing of Pearl Harbor to cover up the faked moon landings. Got it. Now I remember why I don't read Daily KOS.

Hat Tip to Carin.

Toledo Gets What it Deserves

2005-09-14T17:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, the voters of Toledo spoke with a resounding "meh!"

In primary elections held on Tuesday Sep 13, Toledo voters selected former mayor Carty "wild man" Finkbiner and incumbent Jack "who?" Ford to face off head to head in a winner take all death match in November. For a city that is wallowing in its own failure, it is very disappointing to see the voters of Toledo electing to continue the august tradition of mediocrity. Wild man Carty was best known for telling the deaf population of Toledo to move out to the airport and for a grotesque budget deficit. Jack Ford on the other hand is know for, well, not much of anything. His biggest claim to fame is blaming all of Toledo's woes on President Bush (despite the fact that every other major city in Ohio is prospering) and taking credit for economic development that hasn't happened yet (the three, or are we up to four, announcements at Southwyck Mall).

So, rather than vote for new blood and ideas in the form of Keith Wilkowski, or God forbid someone other than a democrat, Ron Ludeman, the people of Toledo have sided with the same failed politicians who have driven this city into the ground.

SHTURMGRUPPA: You can almost see Beavis and Butthead doing "Atlantic City": DAH, DAH-DAH-DAH, DAH-DAH-DAH, DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH!

Ben Stein's Can of Whup-ass

2005-09-07T12:57:00.000-04:00

Bob Frantz has posted an article from Ben Stein defending the president from the unwarranted criticism he has been taking. Rather than repost it, go over to Frantz Rantz and read it yourself.

You go Ben!

President Pleaded for mandatory Evacuation

2005-09-07T12:41:00.000-04:00

The water hasn't receded in a few areas of New Orleans and yet the various political pundits are out and about finger pointing. Naturally, at lot of the fingers are pointed at President Bush. Some for "not caring about blacks" some for not responding quickly enough, and even some for causing the hurricane in the first place. Now, before I start, I know people are going to accuse me of being an apologist for the President. Fair enough. However, I don't think President Bush is completely blameless. That being said, lets look at this little tid bit.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

Ok, that MUST have been after the Hurricane, right? Wednesday or Thursday. Nope, it was on Aug 28, two days before Katrina hit. Thus, President Bush was soooo uncaring about the people (black and poor according to some) that he actually asked Gov. Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation.

Then there is this little tid bit.

The storm surge most likely could topple the city's levee system, which protect it from surrounding waters of Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and marshes, the mayor said. The bowl-shaped city must pump water out during normal times, and the hurricane threatened pump power.

Previous hurricanes evacuations in New Orleans were always voluntary, because so many people don't have the means of getting out. Some are too poor and there is always a French Quarter full of tourists who get caught.

Uhm, I thought the hurricane took the local and state officials by surprise? Why then is the mayor of New Orleans predicting exactly what happens two days before the hurricane? And to top that off, if he knew that a lot of people wouldn't be able to make it out of the flood zone, why did he leave 600 busses to sit idle and get flooded?

Again, I think there is enough blame to go around. I expect there will be several investigations, including a Katrina Commission in the congress. I also expect that, those who are found at fault should get what is coming to them (even if, in the end, President Bush has to take some lumps). Rather than using this as a political stepping stone, lets hope that this becomes a learning opportunity so that the next big disaster to hit, won't be as bad as Katrina has been.

Hat Tips to Ace and Vodkapundit

Justice Rehnquist Dead at 80

2005-09-04T10:48:00.000-04:00

Last night Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died at the age of 80. His conservativism and his staunch belief in states rights set Justice Rehnquist apart from his judicial peers. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Justice Rehnquist's family.

What a Freakin Moron

2005-09-03T20:09:00.000-04:00

It is times like these that show what people are really made of. People in New Orleans out using what little they have left to rescue their neighbors. People from around the country and the world sending support to the victims of hurricane Katrina. But then there are those who would us this catastrophe to further their own twisted political agenda. People like Kanye West.

Mr. West agreed to participate in a "telethon" style fund raiser sponsored by NBC. In the fund raiser several musicians and other celebrities played music and made impassioned pleas for viewers to donate money to the American Red Cross' hurricane relief fund.

When it came time for Mr. West to make his plea, rather than a call for people to send money, Mr. West maid false and racist political claims. First the false claim. After complaining how "his people" are being portrayed in the media (a point which may have merit) he claimed that "we're being shot!" False. The governor of Louisiana gave a "shoot to kill" order for anyone causing harm to another person. This came in the aftermath of several rapes, murders and even some idiots firing on rescue workers. They are not, Mr. West, shooting your people, unless your people are murderers, and rapists.

Then Mr. West ended his little diatribe with a racist shot at President Bush, which forced the producers of the program to cut to Chris Tucker in the green room to finish what Mr. West should have been saying.

So, having the rare opportunity to make something better of himself, by helping his fellow man, Mr. West choose to spout his political agenda to the world. Mr. West, the hurricane isn't a black or white issue. It isn't because President Bush "doesn't like blacks" that the governor of Louisiana waited for nearly a week to get the relief effort rolling. Crawl back under the rock you came from.

KKKannibalism in AmeriKKKa!

2005-09-03T14:30:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when liberals get hold of a keyboard.

KKKannibalism in AmeriKKKa!

Note that Randall Robinson doesn't offer any quotes to back up these 'reports.' Not ONE reliable source is cited. Not ONE eyewitness is interviewed. He just takes a wild rumor at face value and then proceeds in the usual liberal way straight into raw, self-righteous, unchecked emotion.

Doesn't it seem just a BIT unlikely that it only takes 3-4 days following a natural disaster for the situation to descend into Donner Party II? And with the omnipresent 24-7 media coverage of the event doesn't it seem as if any single documented case of cannibalism had emerged (technically necrophagia, in this case) it would be blared non-stop, 24-7 into American homes everywhere and worldwide?

What's worse are the reader comments concerning Randall's post; many are completely credulous. Liberals are so utterly convinced of the unremitting evil of America that they're willing to believe anything bad - no matter how preposterous - they hear about it. Anything. No eyebrows raised, no questions asked. So here's a suggestion to the folks at The Huffington Post before you pound the keyboards with your fists: try some KKKritical ThinKKKing once in a while.

Just What Were They Thinking?

2005-09-02T17:37:00.000-04:00

Now normally, I am pretty skeptical of weather prediction. It ranks close to Ouiji boards and horoscopes in my book. However, when the weather oracles started saying that Katrina was going to be a doozie and hit fairly close to New Orleans, I perked up. Hell, look at the radar for the two or three days prior to Katrina making landfall and just take a guess where she was headed.

Thus, the "powers that be" in New Orleans ordered an evacuation. Good idea. But for the people who couldn't make it out of town, they put them up in the Superdome. Ok, who is the rocket surgeon who thought it would be a good idea to put 20 to 25 thousand people in a big open sporting field with a large suspended roof, in the middle of a flood zone?

Now I know I am being a Monday morning Quarter back to some extent, but it seems like the roof blows off any of these super sport domes when the wind picks up to hurricane force, let alone a category 4 or 5 hurricane. And that isn't mentioning the water and food supply. I figured it would be a giant cereal bowl full of water and corpses after Katrina got done. Thank God it's not, but what has happened is nearly as bad.

GroooAAAaaan

2005-09-02T17:32:00.000-04:00

Sorry for a lack of activity on such an active week. Caught one of those "end of Summer" colds. It is moving down into my chest so I sound kinda like Berry White. Would be cool if I weren't coughing every 30 seconds.

Ook-Ook, Me Vote Conservative

2005-09-01T06:21:00.000-04:00

Are personality tests making a comeback in the world of job-seeking? Looks like it, according to the Detroit Free Press. Most popular among these tests is "The Big Five", which sounds like a war-movie sequel starring Lee Marvin but which actually breaks the human personality down into five broad categories. This allows interviewers to decide if they a future Steve Jobs or mall sniper is applying for the job. Note that this test was developed in the 1970s, which, among other things, gave us pet rocks, mood rings, polyester, and deep-pile shag carpeting. Magic 8-Ball says: take with grain of salt.

The categories are: Extroversion (Not EXTRAversion, Free Press), Agreeability ("Agreeableness"? Guys...), Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to New Experience. Scores per category are totaled. High Scorers in a category like conscientiousness "get chores done right away"; low scorers do "just enough work to get by." High-scoring Extroverts "captivate people." Low scorers keep "in the background."

Openness to New Experience is described as, "wide interests, imaginative, insightful, creative, broadminded. High scorer believes in the importance of art."

"Low scorer tends to vote for conservative political candidates." (My italics.)

Oh. Come. On. Why not just say, "high scorer supports NPR and uses eating utensils, low scorer likely hunter-gatherer who voted for Reagan," or "high scorer speaks in iambic pentameter, low scorer mostly goes 'ook-ook' while grooming other low scorers."

Anyway, the test is here. That is, assuming you aren't a conservative-voting low scorer who uses a keyboard primarily to break the marrow out of the bones of prey-animals, ook-ook.

A Little Help Might be Nice

2005-09-01T05:37:00.000-04:00

Now that Hurricane Katrina has subsided, it seems that the UN is offering help. And Canada. Some other nations are supposedly on board, but my suspicion is that their help will mostly be in the form of pale, underfed undersecretary-undergeneral-types sent to lecture the US on global warming.

On the annoying side, we have boneheads like Venezuela's Hugo "Noriega after Clearasil" Chavez criticizing Bush for basically, well, not doing enough to prepare Americans for Katrina. This, coming from a guy who is so ad-hoc he doesn't even have an official party.

So far I don't know of any celebrities beyond Stephen King and his wife Tabitha offering help to the hurricane victims. Would it be possible to give Cindy Sheehan a rest for a moment, Hollywood? Or give her a break at least until she finally decides whether or not Bush must or must not or must must not or must not must not meet with her?

Robertson Apologized for Stupid Comment

2005-08-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

Well, glory be! Ernie, er I mean Robertson apologized for calling for Chavez's assignation.

"Is it right to call for assassination?" Robertson said. "No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."

Perhaps he should have followed this little bit of advise. When your frustrated, rather than say something freaking stupid, close your eyes, take a deep breath and STFU.

But before issuing his little mea culpa, he tried to dodge the issue with the agility of an intern in Bill Clinton's office.

On Wednesday, he initially denied having called for Chavez to be killed and said The Associated Press had misinterpreted his remarks.

"I didn't say 'assassination." I said our special forces should 'take him out," Robertson said on his show. "Take him out could be a number of things including kidnapping."

So I guess he was suggesting that the CIA take Chavez out for dinner, a movie, or maybe a night of clubbing. Yeah, right. Robertson is about as fruity as some of the moonbats flitting about on the left. I just hope he crawls back into his hole and stays there for a while.

Now, that said, I have a nit to pick with the Com Symps in Venezuela.

"This public call to assassinate a head of state, considered a crime by all modern legislation, is prosecutable by its very nature. That is what the civilized world is expecting of U.S. authorities," the Venezuelan government said on Wednesday.

Maybe in your little, commie, corner of the world. However, in the U.S. we have a right to speak our minds. As small as those might be in this particular case. We cherish the ability of people to speak out on all sorts of issues and it is antithema inprosecuteety to prosicute someone for his statement. So, with all due respect, STFU.

Religious Leader Calls for Assassination of Head of State

2005-08-24T12:05:00.000-04:00

That headline sounds like some mullah over in Outrageistan calling for the head of President Bush. However, and unfortunately, it is actually the Reverend Pat Robertson calling for the head of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club."

First off, I agree that Chavez is an enemy of the U.S. He is an avowed communist. He has chosen to ally himself with Cuban dictator Fidal Castro. He has even made anti-American comments.

Since threatening to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which buys 1.5 million barrels a day from Venezuela, Chavez has been traveling the globe looking for new markets and allies to unite against "the imperialist power." He recently signed energy deals with France, India and China, which is searching for new sources of oil to power its industrial expansion. Chavez also has made a series of arms purchases, including one for military helicopters from Russia.

He even, allegedly, supports terrorists including our buddies in al Queda

Last December a high-level Venezuelan military defector gave sworn testimony that terrorist links exist between al Qaida and the Chavez government. The defector, President Chavez's personal pilot, alleges that one operation involved the transfer of close to $1 million in cash to Osama bin Laden.

Even though I think that Hugo Chavez is a clear and present danger to the United States, I do not think it is, or ever would be appropriate for a prominent religious leader, even an American and a Christian, to openly support the murder of a head of state. All Americans and Christians of good conscience should vehemently denounce Robertson for making such a statement.

Yes, we have the first amendment which protects one's freedom of speech. If Robertson were some shlub cracka on the street saying "Yuk, yuk, I tink we aught to keel that there Cha-vez guy." then yes, that would be stupid, but protected. However, Roberston used his status as a televangelest, a religious leader, through his T.V. program The 700 Club to call for the assassination of the leader of a sovereign nation. That is outrageous. If we are going to get all flustered when an Imam or Mullah calls for the death of the president, we must get pissed when when of ours does it.

Separated at Birth?

2005-08-24T11:56:00.000-04:00

Just Another Sign of the Decline of Western Civilization

2005-08-21T00:22:00.000-04:00

So, Tommy Lee, formerly a washed up has-been musician who is best known for his "private" video tape, has a new "reality" show on NBC about going to college. And people wonder why no one watches network TV anymore? Dude wouldn't last a week in one of my classes.

Whose Responsibility is it?

2005-08-19T11:06:00.000-04:00

I was trying to get a little cracka nourishment this morning, watching CBS's The Early Show. If you are not familiar with the show, it follows the morning non-news, semi-talk show, cookie-cutter format with Com Symp Harry Smith and three of the ditziest women to ever make it to broadcast journalism, Hanna Storm, Julie Chen and Rene Syler.

Anyhow, in between segments on Saint Cindy and doggie liposuction they had a politically charged "human interest" story about, of all things, ATVs.

Now mind you, this cracka doesn't own or drive an ATV, but I found the crux of the argument to be quite ludicrous.

The parents insist the industry needs a wakeup call, reports consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen on The Early Show. Too many kids, they say, are being injured and killed on ATVs. This summer, more than 40 have died while using them.

Ok, putting aside the fact that 40 kids of the entire child population of the U.S. is a fraction of a percent, who's really responsible here? The manufacturer who builds a quality product, provides classes on the responsible use of the product, or the parents who let their kids buzz around at 40 mph on a four wheeled motor cycle? C'mon people, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to realize that putting a 70 lb kid on 5,000 lbs of screaming motor bike is not a good idea.

Twelve-year-old Alex had been riding an ATV in the woods. When the vehicle tipped, Alex was trapped underneath. The vehicle weighed as much as 5,000 pounds, Keezer says.

Naturally, the only reasonable response to this epidemic of tragedy is to have the federal government step in, right.

In May, the group went to Washington, D.C., to lobby the CPSC and congress for stricter safety standards. They want a federal ban on the sale of adult-size ATVs for use by children younger than 16.

And who is letting the under 16 crowd buy and ride these things? I don't know about you, but when I was twelve I didn't have the money to run out and buy an ATV. What is needed is for these parents to exercise some common sense. "Gee, little Billy can hardly get his legs around that monstrous mass of horse power, maybe he shouldn't go riding it through the woods."

What Do Women Want?

2005-08-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

Total confusion on the part of the male of the species, evidently...

I...See, it's like this, women...no, what I mean is...nevermind.

If You Fell off of the Face of the Earth, Would Anyone Notice?

2005-08-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

That's basically what happened of the past couple of weeks. Fighting islamofascist insurgents isn't easy under the best of conditions. But when your in-laws come for a visit and stay a week, that really makes things tough. Naturally, the liberal cabal that runs the world exploited the fact that I was pre-occupied entertaining. Saint Cindy mystically appeared in Crawford Texas and demanded an audience with the president, more unsubstantiated rumors about Judge Roberts surfaced, and gas prices went through the roof.

Well now this cracka is back on the job, protecting all the little crackas out there from the tyranny of, well, whomever.

We're Not Allowed To Ask if They Blow Stuff Up

2005-08-11T15:42:00.000-04:00

The Guardian - England's "leading advocate of cultural destruction," to paraphrase social critic Theodore Dalrymple, apparently decided that playing fluffer to radical Islam is a position too indignant - and too controversial - even for it. Muslim Dilpazier Aslam, Guardian "trainee journalist," and member of the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir (roughly translated, "Burkas and Beheadings For Everyone"), was dismissed from the paper on July 22, 2005.

I know I'm getting a little late to this story - I honestly figured the jerk was going to get to keep his job, so I ignored it for a while. But I guess even the Ingsoc types at The Guardian have their limits - or principles. Aslam wrote a teen-slang-peppered column following the 7/7 London bombings that read like a radical Islamic United Colors of Bombing 'Em advert - more or less excusing the bombers because the current generation of Euro-Muslims 'rocks the boat.' Or bombs the bus, your pick.

The Guardian apparently knew Aslam belonged to Hizb ut-Tahrir, but, well, they have the diversity policy to end all diversity policies. Meaning that if a ficus applies for the job, it'll probably get it. Especially if it rocks the pot, presumably. Though I'd be willing to bet it turns out better print copy than the average Guardian columnist. Not to mention the fact that, if dismissed, it probably won't return later with a grudge and a bandoleer of Semtex strapped to it.

Meanwhile, This Mick's Getting Started Up

2005-08-10T12:47:00.000-04:00

Not you, too, Mick!

I guess one of the songs being considered for The Rolling Stones' first new album in eight years is titled "Sweet Neo-con," or "Neo-con," and is the usual ROCK! attack on Bush I've come to expect from anyone who can put three chords and "Yeah, yeah, yeah," together. The Stones' publicist maintains that the song isn't about W, though. Hmm. Seems like that "man of wealth and taste" the Stones once sang about finally found himself a new gig.

Don't think that I've got something against the Stones. I don't. While I personally feel that the last true Stones album was "Undercover" and their last great album was "Tattoo You," I tend to go deaf upon hearing anything more recently produced by them. I mean, Good Lord, they've been at it for forty-plus years. Keith Richards looks as if he might have wandered out of the Oldavai Gorge - Quest For Fire For Smoke.

I just don't think "Neo-Con," is going to be "Sympathy for the Devil," by a long shot. That part - that genius - of the Stones, belongs to the past. And that isn't my politics talking, that's just my instincts. Ten of any of the current crop of anti-war ROCK! songs aren't even worth a line from Creedence Clearwater Revival's catchy (and engagingly defiant) "Fortunate Son". They're dumb, clumsy, and obvious. Iraq isn't Vietnam, current anti-war rock drops bombs, and the Stones don't really Roll anymore.

And As Long As I'm Here...

2005-08-10T12:34:00.000-04:00

I would like to apologize for the week-long delay in posting to our three or four readers. Cracka business. Translated, this means Cracka Jack is somewhere in Outer Keratosis battling dread terrorist al-Zamboni while armed with no more than a garbage can lid and a broken bottle of Wild Irish Rose, and I am out buying hamburger buns. Wish me luck.

Guys On One Bus, Gals On The Other

2005-08-10T12:14:00.000-04:00

According to Reuters, South Africa, segregated transportation for Muslims is soon to take place in the city of Kano in Nigeria:

Thousands converged on the Pillars soccer stadium to see the vehicles, which include 100 ten-seater minibuses for women only, 100 motorcycle-taxis for men, and 500 three-wheeler microbuses that can carry only men or only women at any given time.

The motorcycles circled the pitch in a jubilant parade as thousands cheered and chanted "God is greater".

"It's a good development for the ease of the transportation problem. It will also reduce social vices," said Umaru Suleiman, who was among the crowd.

Yeah, you go, Umaru. Anyway, Nigeria is that happy-go-lucky country, which, as you may well remember, erupted in violence in 2002 during a hosted Miss World pageant when a commentator made the grave mistake of joking that the contestants were so beautiful that even the Prophet Mohammed might take a wife from among them. As usual, fundamentalist Muslims took this joke about as well as they take anything, Nigeria exploded in riots, people died, and the Miss World contestants absconded for safety in London, England. London being really safe and all these days, you know.

Nigeria is a grab-bag of problems: social, religious, and economic. Somehow, I don't think keeping old Umaru from sneaking a peek at a chick's bare ankle while riding the bus is going to solve much of anything.

I Would've Hated To Take The Final

2005-08-03T15:29:00.000-04:00

Hey, wherever you went to college, at least you didn't have this prof!

WARNING: Potentially offensive language, many uncomfortable classroom moments.

Even the Micks Know When to Stop

2005-07-30T21:27:00.000-04:00

After over thirty years of opposing British rule in Northern Ireland, the IRA has officially ended hostilities.

LONDON, July 28 -- The Irish Republican Army formally declared an end Thursday to its three-decade-long armed struggle against British rule in Northern Ireland and pledged to pursue its aims of a united Ireland through "exclusively peaceful means."
You see the IRA knows when enough is enough. In a world where islamic terrorists threaten our very way of life, blowing up protestant Churches to annoy the Brits is very minor. They know that in a post September 11th world, no one is going to support their terrorist activities. Additionally, I don't think it is coincidence that this announcement has come on the heals of the July 7 and 21 bombings in London.

"All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms," read the message, saying the steps would take effect at 4 p.m. Thursday local time. "All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programs through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever."

I guess if there is a silver lining to the cloud of global terrorism, it is the fact that it has forced the hand of the IRA, making them seek a political, rather than violent, solution.

Tally-Ho!

2005-07-29T10:21:00.000-04:00

The British police have picked up two more of the four TERRORISTS (sense using that term seems to be out of fashion now) who tried to blow up London subways and a double-decker bus.

Two more suspects in the attempted London bombings have been arrested, Sky News has revealed. A total of three of the suspects are now in custody.

It seems that the Brits are doing a bang up (no pun intended) job of getting these psychopathic jack-asses. Tally-Ho lads!

UPDATE: by Cracka Jack 30 Jul 2005
Turns out the Limies nabed all four by the end of the day. Guess the Ministry of Silly Walks is hard at work.

Separated At Birth or The Same Guy...

2005-07-28T16:53:00.000-04:00

On the top is limey hacker-doofus Gary McKinnon who recently hacked into US Army computers (hey, don't hack into Al-Qaeda 'puters, wanker, that might actually help somebody.) Below him is "Night Stalker" serial killer Richard Ramirez.

Separated at birth? The same guy? You decide, America.

Hot Air America

2005-07-28T13:54:00.000-04:00

It seems the libies have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. The Radio Equalizer is reporting on a story that the legacy or main stream media (MSM) are trying desperately to ignore. Evan Cohen the former CEO of Air America took a "loan" from a community center in the Bronx, which he just happened to sit on the board of.

Yes, only because of a New York Daily News tidbit do we know that Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club nearly shut down major programs recently, because almost $500,000 in governmental grant money was instead diverted to Air America's liberal radio network.

So, the compassionate liberals took money, earmarked for some of the most "at risk" people in the U.S. and chucked it in the black hole of Air America. The problem is so bad, that several outreach programs were nearly canceled for lack of funds.

So I guess that insane rantings about conservative conspiracies trumps inner city youth and elderly programs.

Michelle Malkin is on the job too.

Over Where?

2005-07-27T14:31:00.000-04:00

The soldiers aren't too keen on 'Over There', and, frankly, neither is this cracka.

UPDATE 7-28 by Cracka Jack

When I heard about this show I thought it sounded interesting, but my "cracka senses" were tingling. And I guess for good reason. This morning Glenn Beck read a letter from a servers-person (blech, I am getting PC) ripping the program a new hole. It sounds like a lot of our soldiers in Iraq are very irate over the whole thing.

Did She Bring Flowers?

2005-07-25T09:45:00.000-04:00

Oh, the party of care and compassion (that is the democratic party, if you didn't already know) have displayed just how much compassion they have. Catherine Barker Knoll, the Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania showed up at the funeral ceremony for a marine who fell in the line of duty in Iraq. Aw, wasn't that compassionate of her? I bet she spent most of her time trying to comfort the family in their time of loss.

Hell no.

The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war.

Oh, so the ever so compassionate democrat used this family's time of pain as an anti-war campaign? Really, you must be kidding.

Rhonda Goodrich of Indiana, Pa., said yesterday that a funeral was held Tuesday at a church in Carnegie for her brother-in-law, Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, 32.

She said he "died bravely and courageously in Iraq on July 10, serving his country."
In a phone interview, Goodrich said the funeral service was packed with people "who wanted to tell his family how Joe had impacted their lives."

Then, suddenly, "one uninvited guest made an appearance, Catherine Baker Knoll."

So, Ms. Knoll wasn't invited by the parents to disgrace the memory of their son by turning his funeral into some kind of sick anti-war protest? I can't believe it.

She sat down next to a Goodrich family member and, during the distribution of communion, said, "Who are you?" Then she handed the family member one of her business cards, which Goodrich said she still has.

"Knoll felt this was an appropriate time to campaign and impose her will on us," Goodrich said. "I am amazed and disgusted Knoll finds a Marine funeral a prime place to campaign."

The sad thing is, that this sick and disgusting behavior doesn't surprise me one bit. The democrats have made an art out of finding the wrong time and place to make a political statement. I guess once you get yourself into the habit of protesting everything, you loose perspective and nothing, not even a funeral is sacrosanct anymore.

What really upset the family, Goodrich said, is that Knoll said, 'I want you to know our government is against this war,' " Goodrich said.

Yes, that is just what a family wants to hear at the funeral of their son. "Your child sacrificed his life in vane, and I don't support that sacrifice." Someone needs to remind Ms. Knoll, and the rest of the liberals that this isn't Vietnam, despite their attempts to loose the war.

Goodrich said she is positive that Knoll was not invited to the funeral, which was jammed with Marines in dress uniform and police officers, because the fallen Marine had been a policeman in McKeesport and Indiana County.

"Our family deserves an apology," Rhonda Goodrich said. "Here you have a soldier who was killed -- dying for his country -- in a church full of grieving family members and she shows up uninvited. It made a mockery of Joey's death."

You are damn right the family deserves an apology. And for a group who, as a whole, has coniptions when Karl Rove opens his mouth, I would expect democrats to denouce Ms. Knoll's behavior. Mind you, I am not holding my breath for that.

Lance beats the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys for a Seventh Time

2005-07-25T09:26:00.000-04:00

Not a big supprise, but Lance Armstrong won the Tour d' France for a record seventh time. So, maybe we can't play soccer like the rest of the world, we can at least beat them at their silly little bicycle riding game.

And Hollywood Wonders...

2005-07-24T12:46:00.000-04:00

... why they aren't making money like they used to.

The wife was out of town for a couple days. This left this ol' Cracka at home with his oldest youngin' cracka. And before you start thinking strippers and kegs, he's only eight, so that kind of stuff was out of the question. Anyhow, I was looking for something to do with my offspring on a Friday night. Harking back to my days of freedom (and noting the inability to do the aforementioned) I thought maybe we would go to a movie.

Do you know how many kid-friendly movies there are out right now? In Toledo, exactly two. Everything that was playing in the city was PG-13 or above. Now, I am not some stick in the mud cracka who won't take his kid to anything with PG-13 or above rating. But I'm not going to spring some kind of dis-memberment fest on my son a la Revenge of the Sith. I considered Batman Begins, but knowing how Bruce can get kinda moody especially when it comes to seeing his parents murdered before his eyes. And then there is the Fantastic Four. My son was interested in that one, but the description said something about Adult Themes or some such, and I didn't feel like trying to explain what Mr. Stretch could be doing with the Invisible Girl. Though seeing Jessica Alba in a skin tight outfit might make up for her mediocre acting ability.

So anyway, I keep hearing the Hollywood types complaining that American audiences are not sophisticated enough for their movies. And each week, the box office receipts for the latest "big hit" is reminiscent of earlier days, despite the rising cost of tickets. Well, what do they expect? Hollywood keeps foisting upon us, the movie-going public, increasingly mediocre movies at increasingly higher ticket prices. For the price of watching the latest sequel or prequel (thanks for that new trend George) I could buy it on DVD, and watch it in the comfort of my own home. Yet Hollywood still cranks out this crap, and movies like March of the Penguins kicks Fantastic Four and War of the Worlds in the teeth.

That is based on how much March is making per showing compared to the other two. March of the Penguins is showing in far fewer theaters because it is listed as a foreign film and thus is only being shown in art house theaters. You can guess which movie we went to see.

Another Unconfirmed Report

2005-07-21T09:03:00.000-04:00

Fox news and Sky news are reporting that "armed" police officers have surrounded and entered a hospital near the Waren Stree station in London.

Copy-Cat of July 7?

2005-07-21T08:52:00.000-04:00

Reports are now coming in saying that there was an incident on a bus, as well as at three tube stations.

The reporters are speculating, without confirmation I might add, that the detonators went off in one or two locations without detonating the entire bomb. Complete speculation at this point, but seems to be in line with the eye-witness reports.

Sky News Reports "Incidents" on London Trains

2005-07-21T08:28:00.000-04:00

There have been unconfirmed reports of an apparently minor explosion on the London Underground.

A series of incidents have been reported near Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd's Bush stations on the London Underground.

The stations have been evacuated.

Lets hope its not happening again.

Train passenger Ivan McCracken told Sky News he spoke to an Italian man who witnessed an explosion.

"He told me he had seen a man carrying a rucksack which suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open his rucksack. Everyone rushed from the carriage. People evacuated very quickly. There was no panic.

"I didn't see anyone injured but there was shock and fright.

"There was a smell of smoke."

"The man who was holding the rucksack looked extremely dismayed.

He's Dead, Jim!

2005-07-20T14:20:00.000-04:00

LOS ANGELES — James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Trek" TV series and motion pictures who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday. He was 85.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.

"The word is given..." God speed Mr. Scott.

Bush Sandbags Just About Everyone

2005-07-20T14:07:00.000-04:00

I love it when the media drop the ball. I reported yesterday that Edith Clement would be nominated to replace O'Connor on the SCOTUS. However, Bush actually nominated John Robert's Jr. instead. Not a bad piece of work the Bu$hHitler/Chimpy incompetent president. Of course I am sure the moonbats will blame Rove but that is another article.

While Republicans are praising President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Judge John G. Roberts Jr. most Democrats say they are "keeping their powder dry" until Roberts' background is thoroughly investigated.

Let's translate that. In other words, the republicans are happy with a nominee who has a proven track record as a conservative/constructionist jurist. The democrats on the other hand are waiting for their bully-boys to get done digging up every little black mark from Judge Robert's past. Such as the time he cheated on his math homework in the first grade, or the time he cut in line at lunch in highschool.

I can already hear the well practiced screeches and howls from the left. This is just the beginning of the muck raking and character assassination. I feel bad fro Judge Roberts, he sounds like a nice guy. But now he has to put up with the political bull crap in his confirmation hearings.

SCOTUS Watch

2005-07-19T14:15:00.000-04:00

That's Supreme Court of the United States for those not in the know.

President Bush plans to announce his choice for SCOTUS this evening.

The name at the top of the list appears to be that of Judge Edith Clement, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. Activists have already prepared a video testimonial from long-time lawyer friends of Clement, who is known by the nickname "Joy."

FOX News has learned that Clement has already been interviewed by Vice President Dick Cheney, a possible sign that she is the choice for the high court.

That was a lot faster than I expected. But considering that there could be a couple more vacancies in the near future, I guess GW doesn't want the work to back up. Oh, and I am sure the Democrats are practicing their outraged faces right now so they will be ready.

Republicans: White. Christian. And Now...Killers

2005-07-18T07:56:00.000-04:00

For a long time I was fairly sure no one on the other side of the fence could possibly out-kook the O.G. Moonbat, Screamin' Demon Howard Dean. Then I read what Clinton-era flack Paul Begala had to say at the first-ever Campus Progress National Student Conference, as reported in its entirety by CNS News:

Begala's presence on the panel created a stir when he declared that Republicans had "done a p***-poor job of defending" the U.S.

Republicans, he said, "want to kill us.

"I was driving past the Pentagon when that plane hit" on Sept. 11, 2001. "I had friends on that plane; this is deadly serious to me," Begala said.

"They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted -- that while they didn't protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won't have to pay any money on the money they inherit," Begala said. "That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that."

Got that? Terrorists don't want to kill us. Republicans do. And I'm not even sure what The Noggin means by "us." Who, Americans? Liberals? His family? Ex-Clinton era flacks with a marked inability to form a logical thought, one that does not, as Ann Coulter put it, inevitably devolve into Bambi vs. Godzilla? From the above I gather this: The Noggin was driving past the Pentagon when it was hit by terrorists because the Republicans were too busy trying to kill him and kill or comfort his kids via tax relief (possibly both) resulting in a p***-poor bulls*** national defense that he needs to say something deadly serious about. Or deeply stupid, anyway.

This is precisely why I think all Clinton-era stooges, hangers-on, toadies, wretches, perps, felons, kneepad-earners, blackguards, scoundrels, poltroons, varlets, leeches, lickspittles, consultants, bed-jumpers, Hollywood producers, Al Gore-enablers, scam artists, drug-dealers, odometer-resetters, FALN bomb-throwers, stain-moppers, cat-kidnappers, bimbo-defusers, diminutive advisors, berserker Cajuns, somnolent VPs, cattle-future riggers, and Paul Begala should NOT be killed, but instead removed to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic. Ask Napoleon how that went, Paul.

Can Someone Please Explain?

2005-07-16T15:44:00.000-04:00

The irrational fear the liberals have of Karl Rove.

I just don't get it. Yeah, so he helped GW win the presidential election in 2000. So, he helped GW win again in '04. So freaking what! I can not recall when any side has so vilified a person, for no apparent reason. One of my cow-orkers (that's not a typo) earnestly asked me if I thought the Imperial March (aka as Darth Vader's Theme) should play when Rove walks into a room.

First it was V.P. Dick "Dr. Evil" Cheney. He was the puppet master behind GW. However, after four years of not getting baseless allegations to stick, the liberals have shifted their focus to Darth Rove. He has been accused of all sorts of kooky plots from the non-sensical to the treasonous. And for what, because he led a successful presidential campaign?

If the liberals would put half of the effort they have put into smearing Cheney and Rove into composing a coherent plan for improving America, or hell into self-evaluation to figure out why they hate America so damn much, they could make some serious political inroads.

Yeah, I Know...

2005-07-12T14:15:00.000-04:00

I know this appears to be on the Republican (and Democrat) talking points but it just stumps me. Why the hell is everyone making a big deal about Valerie Plame? First off, there is quite a bit of debate as to her status with "The Agency." In order to have leaked the name of a covert operative, the operative has to be covert.

Writing with First Amendment lawyer Bruce Sanford in the Washington Post recently, former Assistant Deputy Attorney General Victoria Toensing explained that she helped draft the law in question, the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Says Toensing, "The Novak column and the surrounding facts do not support evidence of criminal conduct."

For Plame's outing to have been illegal, the one-time deputy AG says, "her status as undercover must be classified." Also, Plame "must have been assigned to duty outside the United States currently or in the past five years."

Since in neither case does Plame qualify, Toensing says: "There is a serious legal question as to whether she qualifies as 'covert.'"

In fact, the myth that laws were violated in the Plame case began to unravel in October 2003, in a column by New York Times scribe Nicholas Kristof, who explained that Valerie Plame had abandoned her covert role a full nine years before.

"The CIA suspected that Aldrich Ames had given [Plame's] name [along with those of other spies] to the Russians before his espionage arrest in 1994. So her undercover security was undermined at that time, and she was brought back to Washington for safety reasons."

She had abandoned, or was pulled as a covert operative for safety reasons. Hmmmm.

Additionally, in the conversation cited by Cooper, the journalist in question, Darth Rove didn't even reveal her name, or that she was supposedly a covert operative, which she wasn't.

Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"ÂCIA Director George TenetÂor Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip."

So, this becomes a non-issue. A non-issue that could be spun in a way that might tarnish the Bush administration. Ah, there is the story. Not that Darth Rove outed a covert CIA agent, who wasn't covert, in realiation for her husband's criticism of the administration, but rather that the liberals have an opportunity to confuse the public and discredit their great scapegoat, Karl Rove. So, I guess it's time for Dan Rather to create some more fake documents in MS Word to keep the non-issue alive.