Flip Ship

What Democrats Said About Saddam, Iraq, and WMDs While They Were in Power

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
- President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998 | Source
- http://www.cnn.com/US/9802/04/us.un.iraq/

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
- President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998 | Source
- http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/18/iraq.political.analysis/

"We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction."
- Madeline Albright, Feb 1, 1998 | Source
- http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/01/iraq/

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."
- Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998 | Source
- http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/iraq/iraq172.htm

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
Letter to President Clinton.
- (D) Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others, Oct. 9, 1998 | Source
- http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/17/wh.critics/

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998 | Source
- http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:u62ZeSGUfj0J:washingtontimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm+"Saddam+Hussein+has+been+engaged+in+the+development+of+weapons+of+mass+destruction+technology+which+is+a+threat+to+countries+in+the+region+and+he+has+made+a+moc

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies."
- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999 | Source
- http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:u62ZeSGUfj0J:washingtontimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm+"Hussein+has+...+chosen+to+spend+his+money+on+building+weapons+of+mass+destruction+and+palaces+for+his+cronies."&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandate of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and th! e means of delivering them."
- Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002 | Source
- http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/4136328.htm

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 | Source
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/transcripts/gore_text092302.html

"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 | Source
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/transcripts/gore_text092302.html

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002 | Source
- http://kennedy.senate.gov/~kennedy/statements/02/10/2002A07621.html

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..."
- Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002 | Source
- http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:u62ZeSGUfj0J:washingtontimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm+"Saddam+Hussein+has+been+engaged+in+the+development+of+weapons+of+mass+destruction+technology+which+is+a+threat+to+countries+in+the+region+and+he+has+made+a+moc

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary -- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002 | Source
- http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2002_1009.html

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years ... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002 | Source
- http://www.senate.gov/~rockefeller/news/2002/flrstmt0102002.html

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002 | Source
- http://clinton.senate.gov/speeches/iraq_101002.html

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002 | Source
- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DL12Ak02.html

"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..."
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003 | Source
- http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2003_0123.html

The Web 2.0 Explained

Nice summary of the difference between the html version of the web and the XML version. I lost my ass on a stock, Information Architects, that had some of the key patents on XML syndication. Unfortunately, it, and the rest of the tech bubble, went bust long before the Web got to the point where its patents could become relevant.

Now they are. Oh well.

The New Clown Cars

Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

You would think that the illegal alien problem would make this video sad instead of funny, and you would be wrong.

America's Black Hitler

America's Black Hitler - The most popular videos are a click away

CAUTION: NOT SAFE FOR WORK LANGUAGE

Here's "Dr." Khalid Abdul Muhammed, probably the first guy to be kicked out of the Nation of Islam for being too racist against white people.

European Utopianism in Action: Evacuating 873 People from the Airbus A380 in 77 Seconds

In real life, this process will more likely go about as smoothly as the utopian Benetton fantasy has gone in the banlieus.

The most pathetic thing is how all the evacuees give themselves a little cheer once the last person is "safely" evacuated to the ground.

This sort of wishful, hope-and-fantasy-based magical thinking is at work everyday in the ideology of the EU and in our own Peter Pan-based Democratic Party.

Both of them would be funnier to joke about if they weren't so clearly doomed to be so tragic in outcome.

Mr. Hawking's Wild Ride

Physicist and author Stephen Hawking was up, up, and way out of his wheelchair in his recent ride on the Vomit Comet.


I guess the best part of this story is that Hawking "holds" the Newton Chair at Oxford. The physical chair that has made life quite liveable for Hawking is something that you know Isaac would have loved, as is the purity of concept of one so earth-bound experiencing zero-G so joyfully.

He wasn't supposed to live past 25, and here he is at 65, in zero-G, above, and on his third or fourth marriage to a young blonde hottie, below.




Rock on, Rocket Man.

Swing Dancing For Real, Yo

From the 1941 movie, Hellzapoppin.

Political Ads from Brazil

Truly has to be seen to be believed. I'm torn between the guy repeating his own name "Samuel Silva" and the guy rising out of his funeral bier to break into song. Also, Clodovil might actually be Satan.

The Superfriends Vs. The Legion of Doom (in Bizarro Land)

The Legion of Doom Vs. The Superfriends in...

The Challenge of the Super Duper Friends

Starring:

George Bush as "Petro-Man"
Karl Rove as "Doctor Spin"
Barack Obama as "Captain United"
Al Gore as "The Green Solution"
Hilary Clinton as "Reform Girl"
John Edwards as "The Arbitrator"
Dick Cheney as "$"
Condoleeza Rice as "Nine Lives"

The funny thing about Bizarro Land is that everything seems so normal to its inhabitants. I guess why they call it Bizarro Land, eh?

I've signed up for the global premier party in Hollywood. Should be worth a trip.

Burn-Out Outhouse

Going P...PDQ

When Paul Stender, 43-year-old former pit mechanic, feels the need for speed, he straps himself into his jet-engine-equipped toilet and roars off, trailing flame. Stender was running superfast snowmobiles on the drag-racing circuit when he saw his first jet-driven funny car. He liked it so much he bought one, and started building his own outlandishly overpowered vehicles: a jet motorcycle, a jet pickup, a jet school bus. Then one day at a show in Texas, he saw a windstorm blow portable toilets across the tarmac, and it was Newton’s apple all over again.

Powered by a 50-year-old, 750-pound Boeing jet turbine that Stender bought for $5,000, the “Port-O-Jet” can top 46 mph with a tailwind. “It’s not real aerodynamic,” he allows. That said, he’s beaten buddy Tim Arfons’s jet barstool two of the four times they’ve raced [see the barstool at turbinegroup.com].

During his shows at drag strips, arenas and airports across the country, Stender runs the outhouse up and down in front of the crowd, popping the burner and shooting out 30-foot fireballs before making a final high-speed run. (A burner pop happens when Stender hits the afterburner switch while the engine is running at high rpm’s—it dumps volatile JP-8 fuel into the rear burner pipe, which burns quickly, causing a loud explosion. If the engine is running at low rpm’s, hitting the switch sends out a long, loose, yellow fireball.)

Putting the Pi in Piano

This piano piece by Tom Dukich was created by assigning notes to the digits 0 through 9 in the constant known as pi. He plays the scales forwards and back at the top, then the 3, and I'm assuming that honk is the decimal point. Hypnotic.

He has also done another version of pi performed with piano, bass, and flute that is either more interesting or not, depending on your taste.

Right-O, Pat Old Boy

Pat Condell sums up the trouble with some of our Muslim pals in England.

Armed Resistance Vs. Gun-Free Zones

When Mass Killers Meet Armed Resistance.

Great piece about stopping guns with guns, instead of effete utopian nonsense.

And in each of the case documented, guess what the media routinely left out in their reporting of the stories? Yup. Must not include that. Does not fit in with world-view. Must leave out. Delete. Delete. Delete. This does not compute.

John Lennon, Chuck Berry, and, uh, Yoko

The look on Chuck Berry's face when Yoko starts her trademark caterwauling is priceless.

Mark Steyn on the Virginia Tech Shootings

Steyn's piece, "Let's Be Realistic About Reality" is brilliant, as usual.

I think we have a problem in our culture not with "realistic weapons" but with being realistic about reality. After all, we already "fear guns," at least in the hands of NRA members. Otherwise, why would we ban them from so many areas of life? Virginia Tech, remember, was a "gun-free zone," formally and proudly designated as such by the college administration. Yet the killer kept his guns and ammo on the campus. It was a "gun-free zone" except for those belonging to the guy who wanted to kill everybody. Had the Second Amendment not been in effect repealed by VT, someone might have been able to do as two students did five years ago at the Appalachian Law School: When a would-be mass murderer showed up, they rushed for their vehicles, grabbed their guns and pinned him down until the cops arrived.

But you can't do that at Virginia Tech. Instead, the administration has created a "Gun-Free School Zone." Or, to be more accurate, they've created a sign that says "Gun-Free School Zone." And, like a loopy medieval sultan, they thought that simply declaring it to be so would make it so. The "gun-free zone" turned out to be a fraud -- not just because there were at least two guns on the campus last Monday, but in the more important sense that the college was promoting to its students a profoundly deluded view of the world.

I live in northern New England, which has a very low crime rate, in part because it has a high rate of gun ownership. We do have the occasional murder, however. A few years back, a couple of alienated loser teens from a small Vermont town decided they were going to kill somebody, steal his ATM cards, and go to Australia. So they went to a remote house in the woods a couple of towns away, knocked on the door, and said their car had broken down. The guy thought their story smelled funny so he picked up his Glock and told 'em to get lost. So they concocted a better story, and pretended to be students doing an environmental survey. Unfortunately, the next old coot in the woods was sick of environmentalists and chased 'em away. Eventually they figured they could spend months knocking on doors in rural Vermont and New Hampshire and seeing nothing for their pains but cranky guys in plaid leveling both barrels through the screen door. So even these idiots worked it out: Where's the nearest place around here where you're most likely to encounter gullible defenseless types who have foresworn all means of resistance? Answer: Dartmouth College. So they drove over the Connecticut River, rang the doorbell, and brutally murdered a couple of well-meaning liberal professors. Two depraved misfits of crushing stupidity (to judge from their diaries) had nevertheless identified precisely the easiest murder victims in the twin-state area. To promote vulnerability as a moral virtue is not merely foolish. Like the new Yale props department policy, it signals to everyone that you're not in the real world.

Note that the name of this blog is the Post-Postmodernist. Back when I was a postmodernist, I found it annoying to even have to explain to the unenlightened how "truth," "facts," and "reality" were delusional constructs, shared hallucinations and fictions we all make linguistic pacts with each other (and within ourselves) to believe in. And so on. And then those planes flew into those buildings, and it made me re-evaluate things a bit, to say the least.

My sensei from PoMo indoctrination camp was incredulous when I explained that I had decided to "take a leap of faith and start believing in reality again." A three-year email argument ensued, with our friendship ending eventually, yet another 9/11 casualty.

I used to think he was the smartest man I had ever met, but suddenly he seemed the most foolish. Steyn's point above -- and you really should read the whole thing -- is that academia does not live in "the real world." Of course they don't. And know for sure that they will still be smirking at you for believing in such a thing... even as buildings and students fall around them.

Proposition Bets: How to Get Free Drinks in a Bar

This one is called, "Two Coins and a Shot Glass."

Tom Mabe's Reverse Prank Call on a Cemetary Telemarketer

This guy is a comedy genius. One reason: he's not afraid to go for the kill.

And neither is the sales guy. Must be heard to be believed.

Education and the Future of Technology

Fascinating collection of facts about the exponential acceleration of growth in technology (and in the human populations of India and China) and its implications for the U.S.

Watch all the way through - interesting right up to the end, with a great punchline.

Best Drum Solo Ever.

"This is rock and roll!"

I don't know why this strikes me as so hilarious, but I just couldn't stop laughing when he got going.

Decomposition, in D Minor

An early-time lapse film experiment done by Dr. Jerry Payne in 1965. The music is from Gorecki's Symphony #3, second movement.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Tonight, I watched drunken teenagers stumble up and down the street, going to and from a party at the end of the block, talking loud, laughing hard, and smoking butts.

I thought about when I was one of those kids, and that was my party, and me stumbling, and loud, and laughing, right here on this same street. Pretty much thirty years ago, on the dot. It gave me an idea for a novel to write, a novel called, "The Death of Immortality."

I smoked what I think was my last cigarette yesterday, a decision made not out of want, but out of need. For air.

Every generation needs to make its own mistakes. I sure made mine. And tonight, watching as the cops inevitably came and broke up the fun and the cars disappeared one by one, I knew that the party of youth was over, at least for me, and I'm not that bitter about having gotten stuck with the Bill.

NSFW: European "Sharking" - A Eurabian Side Effect?

Note: link is Not Safe for Work, for those of you who are acronym-impaired.


Here is the duggmirror link to a viral video entitled "European Sharking" that, at least to me, has Religion of Peace written all over it:

One guy pulls women's shirts or skirts down and runs away while another films it happening. Basically, misdemeanor/symbolic rape.

By definition, this video is "not safe for work" unless your work is documenting the change that's happening in Eurabia. First, "Le Tournant" and now this.

The video reminds me of one that made the rounds last year which labeled "Disproportionate Response," in which one of two Eastern European looking men suddenly smack a Swedish girl in the face, then they both get a whooping by her Swedish boyfriend.

Photos of Pearl Harbor Attack

These photos have been going around recently via email as having been recently discoved in an old Brownie camera in someone's attic. Urban legend. Still, amazing to look at, and a solid reminder of Why We Fight.

HuffPo on Alec Baldwin: Everything is Relative... Even Abusing 11-Year Old Relatives

In the aftermath of last week's Imus Idiocy Incident, we saw the Left attacking the attackers of the precious speech codes that it itself created when one of its own, Don Imus, violated one.

This week at the Huffington Post, we see the Left, here in the form of author STACY PARKER AAB, making excuses for another of its clay-footed idols, Alec Baldwin, asking, "Who Among Us Can Judge Alec Baldwin?"

She's referring to the leaked voice-mail Baldwin left for his 11-year old daughter.

Some choice excerpts from Alec's narcisstic personality disorder tele-meltdown:

"You have insulted me for the last time. You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being... I don't give a damn that you are 12-years old or 11-years old or that you're a child or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass... You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone.... you are a rude, thoughtless little pig, okay?"

After listening to all that, Stacy -- who, according to her HuffPo bio, has a history of working with children, no less -- spins furiously to put all of Alec's vile, abusive vitriol in its proper hey-everything-is-relative-and-contextual Leftist perspective:

Bottom line? We don't know enough to judge. All we know is that one side went public. And I'm sad that the media have once again been glad participants in broadcasting tapes and accusations for someone else's tactical gain--gains that may benefit the participants, but will not benefit the public good.

Personally, I think about the scraps of my conversations, if set apart, that would paint horrifying pictures of the state of my relationships. Now, think of your marriage. Think of your parents. Who is the loved one that drives you craziest? How well do you think you'd fair if transcripts of your phone calls and emails got broadcast all over the nation? I'm sure Professor Smart could come along and analyze the text and divine all sorts of true meaning, but human beings are always bigger than any mere text they produce, no matter how slaved over, how close to perfect reflection of their thought and mood at the time.

This is by no means meant to belittle the hurtful power of words. There is nothing like repeated belittling and threatening to beat a child (or an adult) down to nothing. There is nothing redeemable about the use of the word "pig." I would argue however that we don't have enough evidence or understanding to truly judge whether his visitation rights should be suspended. That it's easy to get caught up in the "gotcha" of "oh, this sure sounds bad!" and not take into consideration the very real human elements involved. We don't have enough evidence to know if this a harmful pattern repeated or a prelude to violence.

Let me repeat again: words matter. They can hurt you in deep ways. They can foreshadow actions to come. But not always. Sometimes, a word is more steam than steel. Steam that evaporates quickly and is soon forgotten. It takes understanding to know the difference. Something that we, as outsiders, with so little to go on, lack.

And even if a word said is truly mean-spirited, said with intent to hurt, that is only one moment in a relationship. Not the whole.

I feel for Mr. Baldwin, because for the sake of his relationship, and for the sake of damage control, he will not be able to explain himself. At least not now while its fresh in our minds. The slur will stay with us, the proverbial bell that can't be unrung.

For his family's sake, I hope this story goes away fast. And I also hope his daughter can later forgive all those involved in making her family pain some very public news copy.

Forgive me for doubting her sincerity -- actually her own cognitive dissonance has probably forced to to brainwash herself into believing it -- but I don't think for a moment that she is hoping for the story to "go away fast" for Baldwin's family's sake... unless she means his "family" of Leftists like herself and the HuffPo gang.

Some final thoughts:

Leftism has become a religion, filling the God-vacuum for Post-Christians.

Alec Baldwin is one of the High Priests of the religion of Leftism.

Baldwin's verbal abuse of his daughter is metaphorically similar to Catholic priests' sexual abuse of altar boys.

Aab and the HuffPo's reaction to his behavior is metaphorically similar to the Catholic Church's historical reaction to abusive priests -- but here, instead of simply telling the priest to "go away fast" to a brand new diocese far, far away, Aab hopes that the story itself will "go away fast."

Replace with word "hopes" with the word "prays" in her sentence, and the metaphorical similarities between the two religions become even clearer.

Alec Baldwin's Absolute Moral Authority

Alec Baldwin, the greatest actor in the world, leaves a charming cel-phone message for his 11-year old daughter.

Don't question his patriotism. Or his patronage. Or his sanity.

Doll Face

Really nice CG work by Andy Huang.

Stonehenge Construction Solved

Wally Wallington has demonstrated that he can erect a Stonehenge-sized pillar weighing 19,200 lbs by himself (with an assist from gravity).

Angry Boss

British Doctors: Whatever You Do, Don't Become a Doctor!

Wait, I thought socialized medicine was going to make our world into a Utopia where everything works perfectly, and nobody ever gets sick or dies. Hmm.

Most British doctors would no longer recommend a career in medicine according to a recent poll.

The online survey on morale and National Health Service (NHS) reform, conducted by the medical information service Medix for Hospital Doctor, an online magazine, was completed by over 1,400 GPs and hospital doctors.

The results showed that:

-- Only 2 per cent of doctors rated their morale as "excellent".
-- 54 per cent rated their morale as "poor" or "terrible".
-- 69 per cent said morale had fallen in the last year.
-- 69 per cent said they would not recommend a career in medicine.
-- 47 per cent said they were unhappy with the government's plan to centralize hospitals and move services into the community.
-- 63 per cent viewed changes in workload as damaging to morale.

Many doctors said government targets and reforms were the main cause of their despondency.

Nearly half of the doctors in the survey were very critical of the new Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) and blamed it for the low morale among junior hospital doctors.

One respondent said that the new scheme was destroying doctors' self-governance and "deprofessionalizing medicine". The criteria for selection are centrally determined, giving doctors little freedom to select and interview the candidates they would choose themselves.

Another doctor responded saying that MTAS was "an embarrassment" to the government and to the royal colleges.

Co-founder of pressure group Remedy UK, Dr Matt Jameson Evans, told Hospital Doctor magazine:

"We were told to suspend our disbelief about MTAS and we have since lost all confidence, and this will not be restored by the latest proposals of the review committee."

"The results of this survey show how demoralised so many doctors are feeling and how they believe constant government reforms and targets are taking them further away from their initial vocation - to treat patients."

"The shambolic handling of MTAS has done untold damage to doctors' morale and the government needs to take note and listen and engage with doctors' leaders. A medical workforce that feels so downbeat is not good news for the NHS or patients."

Rosie O'Donnell, Don Imus, and Godwin's Law

You have to love this. Like the ouroboros eating itself, the Left attacks the attacking of its own precious speech codes.

Rosie, Behar, and Barbara Walters -- leftwing feminists all -- come to the defense of poor Don Imus, who has been suspended for two weeks for his slanderous remarks about a college's women's basketball team.

And Rosie gets right to point:

HASSELBECK: I get it. Along with freedom of speech, there's discretion and responsibility. And I feel like we toss those two things out just for the right of freedom of speech.

O’DONNELL: Right, but once we have somebody who’s going to decide what’s the right words to say, and the wrong words to say, we're going down the Nazi Germany road.

In debate, Rosie's rhetorical flourish is called Godwin's Constant, which is roughly summarized as: in a debate, the probability that someone will at some point eventually invoke the name of Hitler or the word Nazi eventually rises to one.

The offshoot of this is called Godwin's Law, which is that the first person to invoke Hitler or make a comparison to Nazi Germany automatically loses the debate.

Godwin's Law is also know as the Reductio ad Hitlerum logical fallacy.

The reason these three very liberal women all have their feminist panties in a bunch over Imus's suspension is because, of course, Rosie O'Donnell is in immediate and well-deserved danger of being fired off the show for her using The View's Disney-owned, advertiser-supported, and publically-regulated platform to espouse lunatic conspiracy theories about our own government being involved in the planning and execution of 9/11 (among other of her asinine, but less societally poisonous remarks).

And so it comes to pass that the radical Left, who invented the speech codes of what can and can't be said on college campuses, hilariously finds itself on the wrong side of that which it invented. "Free speech for me, but not for thee" indeed, time after time.

I wish they had someone on a little smarter than Hassellbeck to put these hags in their places. She is hot, and fun to look at, but a Laura Ingraham or a Tammy Bruce (who wrote the excellent book about speech codes and the radical Left, "The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds") would have absolutely taken Big Rosie apart limb from limb when she started invoking the N-word (Nazi).

Either of those two could have quickly and forcefully made the following points:

1. Absolute free speech is not guaranteed: there are explicit restrictions as determined by various Supreme Court decisions over the years, such as the "imminent danger" doctrine that forbids you from yelling fire in a theater, and for which you can be prosecuted in criminal court, and the using of slanderous or libelous words for which you can be sued in civil court, just to name two off the top of my head.

2. Imus is an employee of a private corporation that is advertiser-funded. Them taking him off the air is not "censorship." If the federal government demanded Imus be taken off the air, that would be censorship. (The "legal" version of "governemnt censorship" goes by the code-name of "FCC Regulations." Howard Stern's employer, Clear Channel, was fined MILLIONS over the years by the FCC for Howard's violations of FCC regs, but government storm troopers never invaded the studios and turned off the microphones, no matter how much it may have seemed that way in Howard's mind).

Instead of firing Rosie, they should keep her on, fire Behar, who adds nothing, and looks like a bad Bette Midler female impersonator, and replace her with an Ingraham or Bruce. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and to have Rosie spouting the Left's most moonbat talking points is actually useful, since they are so easily debunked and obviously moronic even to the Stepford Wives who endure the Left's daily brainwashing via The View and The Today Show daily lessons in Goodthink.

One final note, just to prove that Godwin's Constant is indeed a constant: Imus apologizing to Al Sharpton for using racially-charged language is like Ahmadinejad apologizing to Hitler for being anti-semitic.

When PTA Meetings Go Bad

Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Oddly enough, these are the parents who are concerned enough to actually show up to a PTA meeting.

We are now going on our third generation of kids who will be raised with gangsta-rap values, aspirations, and role models. The "concerned parents" here are the children of the first-gen.

This is not what Martin Luther King was dreaming about, to understate.

Kate Walsh: Homemade Album Tops iTunes Sales

Kate Walsh is at the top of the UK iTunes charts, and doesn't even own an iPod. She recorded the whole thing in a friend's bedroom, using velvet curtains for sound dampening. Total cost of recording her album, including costs associated with starting her own record company, Blueberry Hill: about five hundred bucks.

(Note: above link goes to newspaper story, which, by the time you read it, may not have the annoying repetitions-of-multiple-paragraphs which made reading it the first time an exercise in real life deja vu and/or Alzheimer's.)

Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Some eternal truths need to be sung, and Rufus Wainwright does the job right here.

File under: Songs Nick needs to learn how to play.

Hunter S. Thompson and Conan O'Brien Shooting Guns and Drinking Hard Liquor

A perfect afternoon. RIP HST.

The Closest Urban Combat Footage from Iraq That You Will Probably See

Some thoughts on this too-real footage of what's going on in Iraq:

1) Democrat party-before-country propaganda to the contrary, we won the war in Iraq.

1a) Militarily, the War in Iraq was won within three weeks, when we had complete operational control of the country.

1b) Governmentally, the War in Iraq was won when citizens of that country dipped their fingers in purple ink, despite death threats for doing so, in order to vote for the first time for a new government.

1c) Spiritually, the War in Iraq was won during the THIRD national vote for a new governement, during which "the insurgent" Sunnis stood guard over Sunni polling to ensure that their faction was able to vote.

1d) Objectively, our goal of shutting down state-sponsored Islamic nuclear terrorism was realized within two weeks of Saddam being pulled out of his spider hole, when Muammar Qaddafi suddenly fessed up to running a nuclear bomb program, funded by the Saudis, staffed by 200 Iraqi scientists, and working with plans provided by Pakistan's AQ Khan (with immoral technical and operational supplies by our "allies" the French and Germans and our pals the Chinese. Where were the WMDs? They were IN LIBYA...in a proxy program aimed at creating "the Islamic Bomb" whose sole intent was to destroy our ally, Israel, but perhaps one of our own cities too. We had vindication, in spades, when Muammar came clean, yet Democrats seem to have flushed that most important development right down the memory holes of their own understanding of what's happened in the ME in the last five years since 9/11.

2) Since the third popular vote, at which Sunni "insurgents" stood guard over Sunni voting places, we have been fighting a different war: a proxy war, funded, supplied, and strategized principally by Iran and Syria, who have a lot at stake (look at a map) in "the War in Iraq" being perceived as a failure -- perceived being the most important word there, since, by any objective definition, the reality is that the war has already been won.

2a) The Iraqi-nationalists we are fighting --- excluding the foreign AQ jihadis who have come into the country like roaches into a Roach Motel --- previously had employment as paid help for Saddam's Ba'athist party, fulfilling such bureaucratic functions as "defiler of women," "torturer of children," and "beheader of dissidents." These "men" have no job-market for their services anymore in the New Iraq.

2b) Scores are being settled for the million-plus deaths, rapes, and torturing of people that occured in Iraq during the last 30-years during Saddam's Ba'athist control of the country. Guess what: people don't forget WHO killed/maimed/tortured/raped their relatives, no matter how many years have elapsed, and human nature being what it is, the scores are being settled. To expect anything less than what we are seeing is a denial of the reality of human nature itself, and yet that is exactly how the Democrats are trying to position "the insurgent movement."

3) The party-before-country Democrats perceive all events in Iraq through the lens of Vietman -- what I have before called, "Sixties Arrested Development Syndrome" (SADS) and "Vietnam Expired Lens Prescription Disorder" (VELP). Iraq is not Vietnam, no matter how forcefully the D's try to make the square peg fit in the round hole.

4) Re-enlistment is at historic highs, because the sort of men you see in this video know that what they are trying to do is RIGHT and MORAL. Hectoring, subverting, wussy anti-Americans to the contrary, they know their cause is just.

5) Sixty years in the future, the middle east will be as transformed as Japan and Germany have been transformed in the last sixty years, and for the same reason: because the model for how societies can positively change remains the American ideal, and it remains so for a reason: because it is most in accord with the essential needs and aspirations of human nature itself. That concept may seem incomprehensible to American leftists who only seem to be able to perceive the imperfections in American society while being blind to the innumerable positive aspects that have made ours the most stable form of government and the most desirable place to live of any society on earth. To the sorts of childish idealists who represent the core of the over-40 years old part of the Democratic party (the younger ones can be forgiven because it's natural and normal to feel that the status quo is insufficient when you're a kid), the imperfections of the American model are only proof of its Evil, since anything less than Utopian perfection is Evil.

6) The American soldiers in Iraq are fighting the good fight, against bad men, and though simplistic that reduction may seem, the truth of it is obvious to anyone but ideologically blinded men.

John Bull Wept: The Wussification of Britain Is Complete

These giggling idiots and cowards are not soldiers and should all be court martialed under UK law.

Disgusting.

For Good Friday, An Easter Prayer from Ricky Bobby

Tom Mabe: The Art of the Reverse Prank Phone Call

Tom Mabe rules.

Would it be bad as to speculate as to the probably political affiliations of the two parties on the phone?

Man Vs. Nature

Cat vs Printer - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

"The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization" - We're Number One One One!

The Post-Postmodernist is now the 111th highest google search return for "decline western civilization" in all of the entire intertubes. Really, I'd be flattered if I weren't so depressed:

"decline western civilization"

Daily Kos Libels Drudge on Child Pr0n Charges

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Ha Ha Ha - it's "satire" right? Get it? You know, if'spart of the big hip tradition where the day after April Fool's day, everyone gets a free pass for posting criminally libelous statements about other people online?

{UPDATE: SCREENCAP ADDED}

Here's the intial article before it was "updated" to clarify that it was "satire." As someone who has been paid to write comedy, satire, and irony most of my life, the "cues" just ain't there for me. It sounds like, well, a straight news story. You be the judge.

Matt Drudge caught with child pornography
by chumley
Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 02:41:05 PM PDT
MATT DRUDGE CAUGHT WITH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
**Exclusive**
Officials say that internet gossip site owner Matt Drudge has been caught with a huge collection of child pornography. Sources say called Drudge's collection "gigantic" and full of "revolting, absolutely illegal porn" involving minors. "I can't believe the foul stuff this man had stashed in a locked room in his basement," said one official.

• chumley's diary :: ::

Drudge has been a convtroversial online presence for over a decade, and remains the source for many mainstream reporters today. Not long ago, ABC political reporter Mark Halperin and Washington Post reporter John Harris (the latter now of Politico.com) wrote a book together where they admitted that, quote, "Matt Drudge rules our world."

One of the main complaints made about Drudge is that he passes on unsourced, unverified gossip as "news" which he claims is "developing."
His "stories" are, in turn, picked up by mainstream media outlets like ABC and the Washington Post -- and the story gains credibility, despite having no basis in facts. Drudge has prominently featured many stories over the years that were later proven to be 100% false, but which were speculated on at length in the media before exposed as fraudulent. The damage was, in fact, already done.
Some have said that Matt Drudge himself makes up these stories, hiding behind his lack of accountability -- as well the support of mainstream cheerleaders like Halperin and Harris.

It's uncertain just what Drudge's fate will be now, after apparently being discovered with what reports have called "an immense amount of illegal, immoral, and downright disgusting material." One local official said: "We've suspected Drudge for years, but finally got the clue we needed. This guy is sick, and dangerous. He should be locked up right away."

Developing...^*

[NEXT DAY UPDATE: ^*In my original copy/paste of Chumley's big "scoop," I initially missed (and have subsequently have re-added) Chumley's last word, "Developing..." at the bottom of the story. This apparently was his attempt to label the story as "satire" since he makes reference to Drudge using that word in his stories. I did catch it the second time, below, that I copy/pasted the story after his "update" For the record, here is a google cache pulled from my referral logs of how the story appeared on Kos's front page:
Cache of crumley/drudge search As you can tell by comparing it to this first google cache of the story, the story's summary remained, unlabeled as "satire" but rather as a news "exclusive," for at least an hour.

Just that in itself is enough for a lawsuit juicy enough that soon The Daily Kos might as well be called, "The Daily Drudge" since all of their labors will go to paying off the settlement with Matt Drudge. For a judgment of libel, the story needsz to be untrue, and it needs to be malicious, and this one qualifies for both quite nicely, thank you. END NEXT DAY UPDATE}

And here's the currently running "updated" version now with clarification that it is "satire."

[UPDATED] Matt Drudge caught with child pornography
by chumley

Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 02:41:05 PM PDT

MATT DRUDGE CAUGHT WITH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

**Exclusive**

Officials say that internet gossip site owner Matt Drudge has been caught with a huge collection of child pornography. Sources say called Drudge's collection "gigantic" and full of "revolting, absolutely illegal porn" involving minors. "I can't believe the foul stuff this man had stashed in a locked room in his basement," said one official.

chumley's diary :: ::
Drudge has been a convtroversial online presence for over a decade, and remains the source for many mainstream reporters today. Not long ago, ABC political reporter Mark Halperin and Washington Post reporter John Harris (the latter now of Politico.com) wrote a book together where they admitted that, quote, "Matt Drudge rules our world."

One of the main complaints made about Drudge is that he passes on unsourced, unverified gossip as "news" which he claims is "developing."

His "stories" are, in turn, picked up by mainstream media outlets like ABC and the Washington Post -- and the story gains credibility, despite having no basis in facts. Drudge has prominently featured many stories over the years that were later proven to be 100% false, but which were speculated on at length in the media before exposed as fraudulent. The damage was, in fact, already done.

Some have said that Matt Drudge himself makes up these stories, hiding behind his lack of accountability -- as well the support of mainstream cheerleaders like Halperin and Harris.

It's uncertain just what Drudge's fate will be now, after apparently being discovered with what reports have called "an immense amount of illegal, immoral, and downright disgusting material." One local official said: "We've suspected Drudge for years, but finally got the clue we needed. This guy is sick, and dangerous. He should be locked up right away."

Developing...

UPDATE: Thanks for the recommends and great comments, fellow Kossacks.

For those who didn't like this diary -- I understand. Humor, satire, and taste are very subjective. As is (ahem) "lameness." Troll-rating the tip jar seems a bit much to me, but...I guess "troll" is subjective, too. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

But in case it isn't crystal clear:

I do not support child pornography. I have two children, and I think it's as horrifying as the most horrified of you here, I assure you.
The purpose of this satire was to show that anyone can be accused of anything -- even something horrifying -- using the Drudge technique. No facts needed.
99.5% of you understood that, so forgive me.

As for those of you who said you hate snark: you have no soul.

Good night and peace to you all, Kosland.

Ah, it's snark. Always wondered what that was. The wiktionary defines snark as "a snide remark." I'll say.

The "comments" section is just as disgusting, libelous, and actionable as the original satirical "scoop."

This lawsuit is going to be fun to follow. The discovery part of Drudge's suit against them should be like turning over a big heavy, mossy rock in the forest....

The left LOVES to go for the ad hominem attack, since the foundational premises of their favorite arguments can be so easily disproven by your average trucker with a cel phone and common sense.

Reminds me of the similar ad hom craziness of that woman (I will not link) who was implying the same thing about Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein last summer.

Get a New Daddy

Children's educational videos really changed, haven't they?