21st Century Valerie Solanas

Another woman who hates sports.

BAGHDAD - A female suicide bomber targeted a crowd of soccer fans celebrating Iraq's win in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday, wounding at least 34 people near a cafe north of Baghdad, police said. The young woman, who was covered in a traditional black Islamic robe, was dropped off by a car shortly before the attack as dozens of cheering young men poured out onto the streets after watching Iraq beat China 2-1 on TV in the cafe in the town of Qara Tappah. [...] "The female bomber has spoiled our joy and celebration."

Like, whatever dude. Go Iraq!! Go Lakers, too. They may need a bomb threat to win another game.

Last Two Words on the Subject: Cheney & "Scooter"

Below: Mr. Serious. We wish this crummy library computer had even MSPaint on it, as there is much blank empty space to the late Mr. Russert's right, which (to us) screams to be filled w/ something. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesAlthough some have sympathy for the dead, & for those who survive them, we're cold-hearted here, as well as lazy as all get out. So for "our" last words on the subject, we'll turn to the L. A. Times again. (Please remember, we no longer have the luxury of spending 16+ hrs. a day on the webs of deceit & fabrication, searching for ideas or buffoonery on which to comment, as the up to 4.5 hrs. a day available to us on those webs allows only for checking e-mail & then wasting the rest of our time compulsively typing & retyping this mess you're reading. Once we stop being depressed & murderous/suicidal, we'll work on the anal retention issues. In the meantime, we absorb the dead-tree Times on our bus ride to adult day care for the ill in the head, & while waiting for breakfast at adult day care for, etc. We realize no one else under the age of 65 reads the Times anyway, so we'll continue to pretend we're doing all concerned a favor by picking the very best parts & passing them along.)

We'd planned to say only: "This is all you need to know about Tim Russert:" & copy & paste this:

Early last year, during the perjury trial of Bush administration aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former press aide to Vice President Dick Cheney testified that she often tried to get officials on Russert's show."

Meet the Press" was "our best format," she said, where the administration could reliably "control the message."

But while looking for that, we came across an expansion on the theme by Tim Rutten, who is, we believe, the Times' "media critic." We actually believe that "criticism" should come out of the barrel of a gun, Chairman Mao-stylee, but we'll just have to settle.

Watching the cable news networks in the hours after his death, one was struck by the outpouring of admiration and affection from across the political spectrum and from journalistic colleagues of every sort. It was impossible not to be struck -- once again -- by just how incestuous and claustrophobic the Washington-based nexus of politics and journalism has become.

Thus, in all that gush across four networks in dozens and dozens of voices, hardly a word was spoken concerning Russert's role in the recent trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. That's odd because Libby's conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges was, in some large part, based on Russert's testimony. Like former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Russert was one of the high-level Washington journalists who came out of the Libby trial looking worse than shabby.

Libby testified before the grand jury investigating the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity that he first learned she worked for the intelligence agency from Russert during a phone call on another matter. Russert took the stand to contradict Libby only because he'd been subpoenaed -- a summons he and NBC had strenuously resisted on grounds of journalistic privilege.

As it emerged under examination, however, Russert already had sung like a choirboy to the FBI concerning his conversation with Libby -- and had so voluntarily from the first moment the Feds contacted him. All the litigation was for the sake of image and because the journalistic conventions required it.

If Russert's legacy stands for anything, it's that journalists have an obligation to preserve as complete a record as possible -- and to hold those responsible for that record accountable. In the outpouring of grief, affection and fellow-feeling that followed his sudden death, that didn't happen. Perhaps that's understandable under the circumstances, or perhaps it's another insight into the limitations of the sort of "insider" journalism of which Russert was an exemplar.

So there. Speak ill of the dead? Of course! They don't care any more. And we never did.

Slap Leather, Punk!

Senator McGun at the NRA annual meeting, 16 May 2008, Louisville, KY. Photo: Scott Olsen/Getty ImagesAn L. A. Times article on the NRA's declining clout (mostly because Democrats are so cowardly they barely raise the issue of gun control any longer, even as more states allow more morons to carry guns anywhere, at any time) refers to Senator Barack Obama's April "comments about 'bitter' voters who 'cling to guns or religion.'" If anything, they cling to guns as a religion; there's certainly a lot of faith that packing solves all problems.

And Wayne LaPierre (Wayne, favorite name of serial killers, from John Wayne Gacy on, & LaPierre, what is he, a cheese-eating surrender monkey trying to prove his manhood by playing w/ guns?) confirms the "clinging" thesis:

"Voters have proven election after election that this issue is one of their first freedoms," NRA Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre said in a recent interview. "When people feel uncertain, when people feel unsafe, they run right back to the 2nd Amendment."

Run right back to it, like you run to Jeezis. "What a friend we have in Jesusdevices designed for murder."

Reaction from readers about the Times' earlier story on exercising your rights by walking around like Roy Fucking Rogers (Are these retards going to take up riding horses everywhere too? Uh, maybe not such a bad idea for the poor white trash losers who have to carry guns to feel manly, as most of them won't be able to afford gas much longer.) is amusing as well.

The Times portrayed a woefully underrepresented group of law-abiding people who choose to arm themselves for protection and to keep the tradition of personal arms alive in this country.

As pointed out in the article, these people are no more likely to harm anyone with their guns on than without, and they are exercising their rights -- something more of us should do.

Nathan Plant
Santa Clara

Well, certainly tradition is the most important thing. And these "law-abiding people" are "law-abiding" right up to the point where they wig out & turn their hoglegs on someone.

In the article, Utah's Travis Deveraux says, "What we're trying to say is, 'Hey, we're normal people who carry guns.' " Is it normal in Utah to fear for one's safety so much that one needs to be perpetually and publicly armed? I thought we had progressed from the times of Wyatt Earp.

Arnie Moore
Sherman Oaks

Wise up, Arnie. These people haven't progressed since Brigham Young led them to Utah.

Your article about people openly carrying pistols was full of color and sympathy for the nuisances suffered by today's gunslingers, but it ignored the extreme dangers created by the practice.

What happens when an "open carrier" is tired, having a bad day, collides with someone on the sidewalk, and finds himself only two easy steps away from firing his weapon? What about when a criminal sneaks up behind with his own knife or pistol and steals that openly carried pistol? And how about when an open carrier blows cigarette smoke in your face or mine? Who'd dare to complain?

Whether open or concealed, carrying a firearm puts a person within easy reach of tragedy and provides no security one cannot obtain from nonlethal weapons such as mace or Tasers.

Mike Ceaser
Bogota, Colombia

The voices of reason. We'll bet Mr. Ceaser in Bogota has a good idea of what guns everywhere can do to a society.

Flame On!!

Today is Flag Day, just another indication of how shallow & superficial these United States are. Appearances are all that count in the home of the brave. (No other people are brave?) Do we have a Constitution Day? Probably, but much more fuss is made about Flag Day. You tell us which is more important, a piece of colored cloth or the very document whence come our "freedoms?" Does the President-to-be swear to preserve, protect & defend the Flag or the Constitution at the inaugural? Does the First Amendment to said Constitution guarantee the right to free speech & expression? You bet it does!

By the way, these colors may not run, but they certainly fade.

Click the flag at top to burn, baby, burn!!

Won't Have Him to Kick Around Any More

Per MSNBC, Tim Russert keeled over & died at work today, aged 58. One less big-headed Catholic of Irish descent to monopolize the airwaves.

Just Wondering

Below: MorganTsvangirai supporters cheer his bus as the opposition leader pulls into Harare Weds. Photo: STR, EPAHere's a country that has some tradition of democracy (they had a presidential vote & it was close, as opposed to S. Hussein's 98% approval the last time he ran in Iraq). But it looks as if democracy is getting the Orwellian boot in the face over & over & over. Where are the forces of democracy? Britain, as "creator"/former colonizer of Zimbabwe, & the United Snakes, as loudmouthed advocates of "liberty," "freedom" & "democracy," should be right there insuring the upcoming run off election is at least as fair & impartial as American elections. (Little joke there, people.)

Perhaps there isn't enough oil to make it worthwhile. But the invasion & occupation of Iraq wasn't about oil, it was about freeing the Iraqis or something, wasn't it? (Been so long we can't remember.) Golly, it hardly seems possible, but could the "English-speaking peoples," to use Churchill's phrase, be hypocrites?

The secretary general of the party opposed to Mugabe, Tendai Bati, was taken into custody on treason charges Thursday. We suggested above that the U. S. & U. K. might want to help a bit before we even got to this part:

"The treason charges arise from a document he authored, 'The Transition Strategy,' while the other charge is about his inflammatory statements he made after the March 29 harmonized elections," Bvudzijena said.

Authorities allege that in the document, Biti calls on Britain and the United States to topple Mugabe's government. The opposition denies Biti wrote any such document.

Two great minds, one single thought.

World opinion is generally (Mostly? Completely, except for the Chinese hoping for resources from Zimbabwe?) anti-Mugabe, although our cynical view of rightist opinion makes us think that those on the right are actually pretty happy about Mugabe's hideous rule; they think it makes a case that Britain should have kept its empire & that the duskier-skinned among us just can't rule themselves.

They certainly know how to help themselves.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials said Thursday that Zimbabwean authorities had seized a truckload of food aid meant for schoolchildren and distributed it to Mugabe supporters at a political rally.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which contracted the truck, said in a statement that a group of military and police officers, as well as war veterans, threatened the driver, who fled to a nearby police station for protection.

"This unconscionable behavior must stop," said USAID administrator Henrietta H. Fore. "It is unacceptable for the government of Zimbabwe to steal food from hungry children."

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said he did not know when the embassy first reported the June 6 incident or when it was made public.

Last week, Zimbabwe's government banned aid organizations from distributing food in the country, with Mugabe accusing the groups of inciting rural voters to bring down his government. About 4 million Zimbabweans, a third of the population, are dependent on food aid.

"We call on the government, the Zimbabwean authorities, to immediately reinstate permission for all aid agencies to resume their life-saving assistance," Gallegos said. "Failure to do so constitutes the government of Zimbabwean complicity in the assault, suffering and deaths of innocent citizens."

Ooooh, strong talk. Too bad all of Britain's & America's military might is bogged down occupying Iraq & losing Afghanistan (while bombing Pakistan) to do anything about the outright theft of American tax-payer dollars. Where's the outrage? This is worse than Reagan's (mythical) welfare queens!!

Today in History

Friday the Thirteenth comes on a Friday this month.

More from Valerie S.

Just for Friday 13 June 2008:

Money, Marriage and Prostitution, Work and Prevention of an Automated Society: There is no human reason for money or for anyone to work more than two or three hours a week at the very most. All non-creative jobs (practically all jobs now being done) could have been automated long ago, and in a moneyless society everyone can have as much of the best of everything as she wants. But there are non-human, male reasons for wanting to maintain the money system:

1. Pussy. Despising his highly inadequate self, overcome with intense anxiety and a deep, profound loneliness when by his empty self, desperate to attach himself to any female in dim hopes of completing himself, in the mystical belief that by touching gold he'll turn to gold, the male craves the continuous companionship of women. The company of the lowest female is preferable to his own or that of other men, who serve only to remind him of his repulsiveness. But females, unless very young or very sick, must be coerced or bribed into male company.
2. Supply the non-relating male with the delusion of usefulness, and enable him to try to justify his existence by digging holes and then filling them up. Leisure time horrifies the male, who will have nothing to do but contemplate his grotesque self. Unable to relate or to love, the male must work. Females crave absorbing, emotionally satisfying, meaningful activity, but lacking the opportunity or ability for this, they prefer to idle and waste away their time in ways of their own choosing -- sleeping, shopping, bowling, shooting pool, playing cards and other games, breeding, reading, walking around, daydreaming, eating, playing with themselves, popping pills, going to the movies, getting analyzed, traveling, raising dogs and cats, lolling about on the beach, swimming, watching TV, listening to music, decorating their houses, gardening, sewing, nightclubbing, dancing, visiting, `improving their minds' (taking courses), and absorbing `culture' (lectures, plays, concerts, `arty' movies). Therefore, many females would, even assuming complete economic equality between the sexes, prefer living with males or peddling their asses on the street, thus having most of their time for themselves, to spending many hours of their days doing boring, stultifying, non-creative work for someone else, functioning as less than animals, as machines, or, at best -- if able to get a `good' job -- co-managing the shitpile. What will liberate women, therefore, from male control is the total elimination of the money-work system, not the attainment of economic equality with men within it.
3. Power and control. Unmasterful in his personal relations with women, the male attains to masterfulness by the manipulation of money and everything controlled by money, in other words, of everything and everybody.
4. Love substitute. Unable to give love or affection, the male gives money. It makes him feel motherly. The mother gives milk; he gives bread. He is the Breadwinner.
5. Provide the male with a goal. Incapable of enjoying the moment, the male needs something to look forward to, and money provides him with an eternal, never-ending goal: Just think of what you could do with 80 trillion dollars -- invest it! And in three years time you'd have 300 trillion dollars!!!
6. Provide the basis for the male's major opportunity to control and manipulate -- fatherhood.

The People Speak (Or Type)

In response to the John Bolton op-ed piece we dealt w/ earlier, the masses have responded in the pp. of the Times itself. Our favorite:

Bolton may or may not be correct about Nikita Khrushchev's assessment of John F. Kennedy after their first meeting. Interestingly, Bolton conveniently ignores the fact that if Kennedy had listened to Bolton's neocon predecessors, especially Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, we would have initiated a nuclear conflagration. But let's stick with the roaring success of Iraq and our non-diplomatic, preemptive posture. It's worked so far, and at a cost of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi casualties, along with a few hundred-billion dollars and counting.

Tom Fleishman
Valley Glen

Couldn't have put it better ourselves. (Apparently weren't able to, either.)

Photo courtesy Associated Press

More Car Dealer Democracy

The link you may not have bothered w/ in the previous item, to an item in The Consumerist, indicates the Ford dealership rescinded their half-assed apology. We suppose in shitholes like Mojave & Rosamond, where all of life's losers cling to their guns, gawd & queer-bashing, this approach may bring in more customers, but the double-wide demographic is probably not shopping for a new or "pre-owned" pollution device right now, what w/ the price of meth going through the roof along w/ most other commodities. Or, you could refer to The Underground Unbeliever, which apparently first brought this to the world's attention. But if you're like us, you're just going lie down w/ a cold compress on your forehead & eyes, hoping the world goes away.

What Democracy Means to Some of Us

From the Patt in The Hat's column, concerning the Kern County Clerk's decision that the county will no longer perform marriage ceremonies as soon as it becomes legal for Sodomites to get hitched.

[A] Kern County Ford dealership's radio ad [,] declared that "since we all know that 86 out of every 100 of us are Christians who believe in God, we at Kieffe and Sons Ford wonder why we don't just tell the other 14% to sit down and shut up." An early apology from the owner was choice: "We're obviously sorry that it offends a given segment who identifies themselves as atheist."

Ah, the wonder of Xtianity & its love for all mankind, uh, we mean humanity, sorry. We don't mean to offend a given segment who identifies themselves as homophobic closet cases. Nor do we mean to offend that portion of the other 14% who aren't atheists, but are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or what have you. And one other good one that Patt got off.

Her circumlocutions were positively Clintonesque. My favorite was when she said, apropos of the state Supreme Court decision: "It was not unanimous." By that standard, Al Gore should be job-sharing the Oval Office three days a week.

SNAP!! (That's how young people today say "touché," fellow ageing wretches.) By the way, Ms. Morrison seems to have been at The Times longer than any one in our memory, except maybe Ralph Vartabedian, whom we remember from way back as well. Congrats to both of them for resisting all the buy-outs, lay-offs, axeings, etc. Patt is wise enough, however, to have a back-up gig at KPCC wkdy. afternoons.

HOUSE COPS OUT ON KUCINICH IMPEACHMENT BILL; GOD KILLS BOY SCOUTS WITH TORNADO Photo: Matt Miller/APFrom NBC News & news services – The Midwest remained on the lookout for more tornadoes Thursday, after two twisters Wednesday killed six people — four of them Boy Scouts at an Iowa camp where Gov. Chet Culver described the devastation as "horrific."

Self-Righteous Jerk of The Week (So Far)

In the wake of more blather about NBA referee corruption:

On Wednesday, NBA referee Bob Delaney, who worked Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals with Dick Bavetta and Ted Bernhardt, told ESPN that he has not been contacted by the league or federal investigators about Donaghy's allegations that two referees in that Lakers-Kings game intended to assure the series went seven games. Said Delaney, a former New Jersey State trooper: "This is not the first time a known or convicted criminal has lied about me before the judicial system. I have an extensive law enforcement background, and still train police officers. I have dealt with criminals and informants, and I know full well they are capable of doing and saying anything."

OK, Trooper. No police officer has ever lied on the witness stand? The neologisms "testiphony" & "testilying" have no basis in fact? And police brutality? Same coin, different sides, cops & "criminals." Crap like this from some fucking jerk makes me ready to believe everything bad about NBA referees. A New Jersey State Trooper. No corruption there. Shit, pigs invented corruption, didn't they?

Funny Dep't.

What passed for humour in our day. Well, a little after "our day," assuming said day was sometime in the early '60s when we (& some of the rest of America) were still innocent/ignorant.Apparently Art Spiegelman, the comic artist (Maus) was the brains behind the Wacky Packages thing. Now late-blooming boomers & early Xers can re-wallow in this vaguely subversive, Mad magazine stuff. Straight from the Amazon website:

Known affectionately among collectors as “Wacky Packs,” as a creative force with artist Art Spiegelman, the stickers were illustrated by such notable comics artists as Kim Deitch, , Bill Griffith, Jay Lynch, and Norm Saunders.

Sweet fucking Jeezis, you'd think that an on-line bookselling outfit could write at least one simple sentence w/o extra commas or backwards syntax. If they can't do that, how can you expect them to fill your order correctly? There's a reason this web log isn't signed up w/ Amazon to pimp their shit in exchange for whatever pittance they offer. Fuck 'em. That kind of crap is for whores. No name will be mentioned.

Lying Sack of Crap of The Week, Orange County Version

A Republican office-holder lies about his offensive statements. What unheard of event will be next? The sun rising in the east?

Just after Orange County supervisors selected Sandra Hutchens as the first woman ever to lead the county's troubled Sheriff's Department, Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante sidled up to a conservative blogger with a joke. "I kept telling the chief," he said, referring to Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters, who narrowly lost the sheriff's job, " 'Maybe we should get you some implants. Or a water bra.' " [...] Steve Wilkinson, a 26-year veteran sheriff's deputy in Los Angeles County who once worked for Hutchens, said he was surprised by the comments. "It's time for Orange County to get away from this good-old-boy syndrome," he said. Bustamante, contacted Wednesday, denied making the joke about Walters needing implants, though the remark was clearly heard by a Times reporter during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

Emphasis ours, of course. Can't this prick be impeached, removed from office or something for lying like a rug? Of course, if one of the good ol' boys, like the police chief of Santa Ana, had been selected, there wouldn't be enough fainting couches to go around in right wing circles, had anyone dared to say there was bias in his selection.

As The Monk Burns

Speaking of puppet gov'ts., as we were earlier (Told you there'd be a quiz!) it was 45 yrs. ago today (1963, for you innumerates) that Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the policies of the gov't. of Vietnamese (Catholic/colonial) President Ngo Dinh Diem, who of course was assassinated, w/ American approval, in Nov. of that yr. Click for pix, you morbid bastards.

Big Score

ThoseBoth of you paying attention yesterday may have noticed that we hit the motherlode of comedy gold, Rabid Right Wing Weasel stylee!! And this vein is rich in irony & creamy nutritious goodness. (Rich as in "Haw haw, that's rich.")

Yes, it's "Dr. Jack" Wheeler's House of Absurdity. (He, or his webmaster, refers to himself as "Dr. Jack," quotation marks & all. It's not just us mocking his degree in fundamentalism from the Bumfuck, Alabama School of Correspondence Theology.)

Where better to start than a visual? We'll assume the dude on the left w/ the Jack Lord/televangelist pompadour is "Dr. Jack" himself, as the senile load on the right (so to speak) is one of those fools Americans continue to "elect" president. (Doesn't actually say on the site, so who really knows?)Now try this on for size.

"Dr. Jack" predicted the collapse of the former Soviet Union, ten years before it came about - and explained exactly how it would take place. He won a bet with a top-expert [sic] when the Berlin Wall fell. In To The Point™, he'll tell you about the plans the Chinese Underground Church Movement has to send 100,000 Chinese Christian missionaries to the Middle East to convert Moslem Arabs to Christianity.

We don't know about you, but we'd just looooove to hear about converting those Moooslims. In the meantime, don't worry about smarty-pants cynics mocking you.

Want to know why America's culture is not -- not -- going down the drain, why our cultural values are going to start getting BETTER and not WORSE? You must read this excerpt from "The Curse of the Xers" ... "Over the coming years, young Millennials (or Generation Y as some insist on calling them) will be pouring out of their teens and into their twenties to seize control of popular culture away from Xers. Say goodbye and good riddance to crotch-grabbing it's-cool-to-be-a-smartass sleaze. Say hello to music you can actually listen to (i.e., that's actually music), TV shows you can let your kids watch, and baseball caps worn normally. Trust me on this. American culture has not disintegrated, we're not going to keep heading down into a bottomless cultural barrel. We're in the bottom of a generational cycle that our country has gone through before and will again. Our nightmare of degeneracy will soon be coming to an end. Just remind yourself, though, before the next spectacle of Xer cynical ridicule drives you apoplectic, of all the Xers risking their lives right now in Iraq and Afghanistan so that we have the luxury and freedom to get mad at what's wrong with our culture. Some day years from now, one of them may need to become another Patton or Eisenhower, and we'll be quite thankful Xers are who they are."

Praise Jah!! If we'd seen another baseball cap being worn abnormally, we just know it would have been the very end of Western Civilization.

And now let us extend our apologies to "Dr. Jack," who claims "he received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Southern California, where he lectured on Aristotelian ethics." If anyone would like to check on that, don't let us stop you.

Now let's re-examine a couple of the statements we used yesterday, & imagine just where "Dr. Jack" placed in his logic classes.

Liberalism is not a political philosophy or coherent set of beliefs. It is a psychological strategy to avoid being envied.

All forms of leftism and liberalism are based on an atavistic belief in Black Magic. All are based on the primitive fear of the envious Evil Eye.

Grab your DSM-IV(R)s & look for "enviophobia" right now. Oh, & tell this to those "Hollywood Liberals," all of whose "life-style choices" are about keeping a low profile, not drawing attention to themselves, etc.

The only Americans who owe reparations to the descendants of slaves are the descendants of slave owners. These people are one and the same, i.e., American blacks are a racial mix of white slave owner and black slave. Blacks owe reparations to themselves.

So many things wrong w/ that one. As if the slave owners married their slaves out of romantic love. And there are no white descendants of slave owners?

As a professional adventurer, [Wheeler] has discovered lost tribes and led expeditions to every corner of the globe. - U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)

Leave it to a ninny like Rohrabacher to think white guys are "discovering lost tribes." And if "Dr. Jack" is the world traveler he claims to be, we're a bit suprised he's not somewhat more tolerant & understanding of those not exactly like him. Of course he's more in the 19th century "Great White Hunter" model. And the following makes one think he's not very tolerant of those who are exactly like him:

The next insanity to come in the homosexual assault on the American Family will be PHM: Polygamous Homosexual Marriage. Pathologically promiscuous homosexuals will consider their "marriage" a legalism that will in no way prevent them from adultery en masse. To maintain the pretense of "marriage" however, they will have to quickly begin agitating for the legalization of group sodomization as "just another form of the married life-style".

We leave you & "Dr. Jack" w/ his recycled item from today.

It's funny that they call this ceremony a Commencement, for you've all reached the finish line: college, goodbye, we're outta here. Yet of course, "commencement" means a beginning, not an end.

It couldn't be, oh, the commencement of the the grad's productive, pro-capitalist wage-slave life, could it?

And just one more we spotted:

Yes, intimidation often works when your opponent is a pussy. Obambi is indeed a pussy, and voters' suspicion that he is would only be confirmed if he capitulated to Clinton intimidation - which is why he has to reject her, even though he knows she wants to be rejected.

We're sure that the University of Spoiled Children is proud of this graduate. Southern Cal alums, let's find out if he really is a grad, & petition to have his sheepskin revoked.

Compare & Contrast (A Link Added)

Page A1 of today's (L. A., of course) Times: Iraq officials question need for U.S. troop presence And on page A23, bloodthirsty war-monger Max Boot says:

We need a pact that protects our troops, and Baghdad isn't cooperating.

This may be an indication why people & nations world-wide are a bit suspicious of U. S. attempts to "bring democracy" to other nations. Doesn't "democracy" imply sovereignty? Just a little? Not per Herr Boot.

This bilateral agreement is supposed to provide authority for U.S. forces to remain in Iraq in 2009 and beyond, replacing a U.N. Security Council resolution that is due to expire at the end of the year. President Bush had hoped to finish negotiations by July, but that deadline seems likely to slip. The problem is that Iraqi politicians are resisting many of the conditions that Washington feels it needs.

The absolute nerve of Iraqi "politicians." We all know what a joke "politicians" are, especially when compared to the mighty, manly military Max prefers for problem solving, & when the bastards act as if it's their country or something, well, we can hear the steam coming out of Bootie's ears all the way from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

Sticking points include whether the U.S. will continue to control Iraqi airspace, whether U.S. soldiers and private security contractors will maintain immunity from Iraqi prosecution, and whether the U.S. will continue to have the freedom to carry out combat operations and to detain terrorist suspects without Iraqi approval. From Washington's perspective, these are measures necessary to ensure the safety of U.S. troops as long as a substantial number of them remain in the war zone. U.S. commanders could not in good conscience continue to fight with too many restrictions on their ability to protect their soldiers and accomplish their mission.

"In good conscience." If any U. S. commanders had anything resembling a conscience, they wouldn't be involved in the invasion & occupation of a nation that had not & could not threaten the U. S. of A. And the sticking points? Little things like, well, carte blanche to do anything, anywhere in Iraq w/o the slightest repercussions from the duly-elected by all those purple fingers gov't. of Iraq.

So why are Iraqi leaders trying to hinder the very military operations that have been making their country safer and thus strengthening their own authority?

New! Improved!! U. S. Invasion & Occupation™, now with Authority-Strengthener™©!!! St. Nick on a fucking stick, Boot "is a senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations" (i. e., war-worshipping but never serving chickenhawk). How can he possibly believe, let alone state, that occupation forces strengthen the authority of a gov't. that pretty much serves at the pleasure of the occupiers to begin with? And here's the single "compromise" he's floating. (In today's devalued English, it's a "face-saving work-around.")

For instance, while U.S. units now can detain terrorist suspects on their own, those detentions eventually have to be approved by a joint board of Iraqi and U.S. officers. In the future, the initial detention decision could be subject to the oversight of that same board.

Har har. "Eventually have to be approved." Just how long is "eventually," especially to the detainee? A lot of "detention" can go on before the board decides not to approve. And we're quite sure that exceptions might have to be made, allowing detentions w/o board approval if, you know, there was the slightest danger that the future detainee might get away before the bureaucracy rubber-stamped the whole mess. And never forget:

But the contributions of U.S. logistics people, advisors, air crews, intelligence collectors and other specialists continue to be as important as ever. It will be years before the Iraqis are able to take over some of these functions.

John Sidney McCain III hasn't forgotten. Will it be 100 yrs. before the Iraqis are able to defend their own puppet gov't. on their own? Added Link (11 June 2008 @ 1920 PDT): BTC News has a bit more to say on the subject.

To the Point of Your Head

Continuing the theme of "America: Will it elect a [insert pejorative of your choice]?" encountered in the previous item, we have this gem, from a website that is run by a "Doctor," & has its own "Intel Bulletin," so that the wretched retirees who read & believe it think they have an inside scoop on the dirty wogs trying to steal their bodily fluids. (Very Larouche-like. Lyndon publishes something called the "Executive Intelligence Report" or "Review." Some people are very impressed by the word "executive.") This also gives the old folks more reason to buy gold, stock up on canned goods, & get a few more guns. These people will decry slasher movies (moral decline & all that) but they still love to be scared shitless. Note especially that the website in question calls itself "The Oasis for Rational Conservatives." Isn't an "oasis" some sort of Ay-rab/Mooooslim thingie? Shouldn't we be investigating "Dr." Jack Wheeler? And shouldn't someone get a dictionary & define "rational" to the good "doctor?" Brought to our attention by Sadly, No!, via that frightening Pamela woman w/ all the last names. P. S.: Dipped our toe just a bit further into the To The Point website. Check this out. "Dr. Jack" will explain why:

It is envy that makes a Communist, Nazi, or Moslem Terrorist. It is the fear of being envied that makes a liberal.

Liberalism is not a political philosophy or coherent set of beliefs. It is a psychological strategy to avoid being envied.

All forms of leftism and liberalism are based on an atavistic belief in Black Magic. All are based on the primitive fear of the envious Evil Eye.

Islam, including the biography of Mohammed and the text of the Koran, was invented in the centuries after the Arab Conquest as a religious rationale for Arab imperialism.

"Mohammed" is not a name, it is a title meaning The Praised One. His real name was Ubu'l Kassim and he did not come from Mecca. He was a bandit chieftain from what is now southern Jordan.

Saudi Arabia, just like the Soviet Union, is a colonial empire within its own borders. It will break apart just as did the USSR.

China is busy surrounding itself with countries capable of aiming nuclear missiles at it. China is in very serious economic jeopardy, summarized by the Three No's: No water, no wives, no banks. The entire financial and banking system of China is facing collapse. The economic collapse of China will precipitate an attack on either Taiwan or Russia (to seize the Primorski Krai in Siberia which once was China's) as an attempt to overcome economic disaster by appeals to jingoistic Chinese nationalism.

Russia is doomed as a culture due to its inheritance of Mongol concepts of justice and equality.

The only Americans who owe reparations to the descendants of slaves are the descendants of slave owners. These people are one and the same, i.e., American blacks are a racial mix of white slave owner and black slave. Blacks owe reparations to themselves.

The next insanity to come in the homosexual assault on the American Family will be PHM: Polygamous Homosexual Marriage. Pathologically promiscuous homosexuals will consider their "marriage" a legalism that will in no way prevent them from adultery en masse. To maintain the pretense of "marriage" however, they will have to quickly begin agitating for the legalization of group sodomization as "just another form of the married life-style".

The "Original Jurisdiction" clause in the Constitution (Article III, Section 2, Clause 2) offers a way to quickly obliterate Roe v. Wade and teach the Supreme Court a lesson it badly needs to learn: to never again invent non-existent rights in The Constitution.

Uncle Who's What?

From a Slate column on racism in the world of the rest of the world (read it if you give a shit) we link you to the good part, a Kraut fish & chips wrapper w/ an interesting headline/photo. The best part, however, comes at the end of the SpiegelOnlineInternational story.

Although "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is well-known in Germany, ordinary Germans are not always aware of the controversy surrounding the book. Visitors to Berlin are often surprised to find there is even a subway station in the city called Onkel Toms Hütte, after a residential district which was named in tribute to the novel.

Huh? Wha'? When was this residential district named? Pre- or post-Hitler? And why? Uncle Tom's crib wasn't exactly a paragon of comfortable living. (Scheiss like this is why we at Just Another Blog™ don't make too much of our Bavarian ancestry & use a Froggy pseudonym, even though we, sadly, haven't a Gallic gene anywhere in our genome.)

Off We Go, Into the Wild Blu–Ooops!! It's The Back Burner for The USAF

DefSec Gates' selection of a non-fighter jock or bomber-boy as the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force pretty much tells us the cowardly Mighty Murderers of the USAF ("Death From Above!") are going to be getting even more cowardly, as they fly their remote-controlled recon missions (and, soon enough, combat missions – if you call dropping bombs on civilian populations from as far away as you can get "combat") from Stateside bases staffed by weasels raised on video games, & devote most of their other resources to flying real fighters to dirty third world shitholes where they'll be fighting dirty foreigners for – surprise!! – not even oil, but food. Then they'll fly the food back here. Guess how much that'll jack up food prices.


Also, take a look at this geek: The Chief of Staff designate. No adult w/ a hair-do like that is completely normal. This is very worrisome. Is a 'do like that indicative he'd be willing to nuke Iran?

Hoping for The End: Food Riots, High Prices, Bad Harvest

The Times of New York has been running a series entitled "The Food Chain: Rain, Drought and Doubt." Very encouraging for the nihilist crowd (that's us) who'll settle for the end of the human world w/ a whimper if we can't get a bang. Rumor is this was a "nice" planet until Homo sapiens came along & screwed everything up w/ its agriculture & "nation-states."

Today's entry indicates trouble is a-brewin' right now.

In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster.

[...]

Last winter, as the full scope of the global food crisis became clear, commodity prices doubled or tripled, provoking grumbling in America, riots in two dozen countries and the specter of greatly increased malnutrition.

As the world clamors for more corn, wheat, soybeans and rice, farmers are trying to meet the challenge. Millions of acres are coming back into production in Europe. In Asia, planting two or three crops in a single year is becoming more common.

Good idea. More planting so arable acreage decreases in the long run. So long, human suckers! The cockroaches won't miss you one bit. And don't let the door hit your malnourished asses on your way off the planet.

Post #1,000

Oh, what the hell. Let's just wallow in this milestone of meaninglessness, rather than produce anything that might be in the slightest bit interesting. After a thousand of these effing things, why not indulge ourself just this once?

Tales of Whitesnake Glory

Below: This fool, a 24-year-old graduate student in ancient languages at the University of Colorado at Boulder, "packs" when he goes to his local Starbucks, easily one of the most violence charged spots in Boulder, what w/ all those other grad students jacked up on caffeine & soy lattes. Photo: Ellen Jaskol/L. A. TimesThis'll crack you up. After it sends you cowering under your bed in abject yet "irrational" fear.

From Column One of the cat pan-liner, fished out for your edification.

Those who wear their guns in full sight are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm a common accessory.

A few quotes:

What we're trying to say is, 'Hey, we're normal people who carry guns,' " said Travis Deveraux, 36, of West Valley, a Salt Lake City suburb. Deveraux works for a credit card company and sometimes walks around town wearing a cowboy hat and packing a pistol in plain sight. "We want the public to understand it's not just cops who can carry guns."

[...]

As Clachelle pushed the shopping cart holding their two young children during a recent trip to Costco, her husband admired the new holster wrapped around her waist. "I like the look of that low-rise gun belt," he said.

The Jensens' pistols were snapped into holsters attached to black belts that hug their waists. Guns are a fact of life in their household. Their 5-year-old daughter, Sierra, has a child-sized .22 rifle she handles only in her parents' presence.

Clachelle is the daughter of a Central California police chief and began shooting when she was about Sierra's age. She would take her parents' gun when she went out and hide it in her purse because the firearm made her feel safer.

"I love 'em," Clachelle said. "I wouldn't ever be without them."

[...]

Jensen kept as many as 10 guns in the couple's 1930s-style bungalow in Santaquin, 21 miles southwest of Provo. In January 2005, he decided to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, mainly for self-defense.

"I'm not going to hide in the corner of a school and mall and wait for the shooting to stop," he said.

Nope, he's going to get as many many innocent bystanders as his cartridge belt allows.

Travis White, 19, who has ear and chin piercings, congratulated Brandon Trask, 21, on carrying openly for the first time that night. "Just wait until you get confronted by a cop," White said. "It'll make you feel brave."

Oh yes, you'll feel like a real man, for once in your empty life. It'll be almost as kewl as playing a video game, except it will be real, numbnutz! And you're much more likely to be the dead one when the game's over.

Days later, Jensen was still thinking about the reaction and the man's belief that guns are unsafe.

"People can feel that way and it doesn't bother me," he said. "If they have irrational fears, that's fine."

Certainly you can't accuse someone who feels he must carry a gun openly wherever he goes to have "irrational fears." Seems like the most sensible idea in the world. It was good enough for John Wayne in many of his classic films. Some varmint or a rustler may show up at the Applebee's or the T. G. I. Fridays, drunk on lite beer & ready to shoot up the place at any minute.

"I love this," he said. "I want people to be aware that crazy people are not the only ones with guns. Normal people carry them."

We can attempt to define "normal" until the cows come home, but as the vast majority of Americans do not carry guns, open or concealed, we doubt if any of these people are anywhere near normal. You have to imagine that these are the sorts of people to whom "honor" & "respect" are driving forces, and that bumping carts in the aisles at Costco, let alone a fender bender, would escalate to gunplay like the crummiest horse opera.

Seriously, there's little attempt by these pindicks even to explain any necessity for being strapped 24/7, other than to feel brave when confronted by the police, or to fantasize about saving a classroom full of teen-age girls from a crazed school-shooter. At least we were spared the "An armed country is a civil country" chestnut. You know, civility at the point of a gun. Not unlike democracy at the point of a "shock & awe" on the other side of the world. Bogus, that is. Most adults who speak of defending one's house & whatnot w/ firearms advise that you had bloody well better be ready to do it, & be ready to deal w/ the psychological aftermath of killing someone, no matter what your fervid imagination thought the intruder was going to do to you, but no mention of this aspect of the "Guns, Guns Everywhere" movement by any of these open-carriers.

We recently mentioned at Fire Megan McArdle that Americans are a bunch of sad frightened losers; this certainly throws a few more rounds in the fire.

WTF??

The Intar webs are a very strange place. Today appeared a comment to an item from 23 June 2007 (yes, seven) consisting of links to two sites. One of them, ENTROPY4U, is not unamusing, the other was to a "blog not found" by Blogger™. Thank you, Jorge Soros (we guess).

New on the Bogroll [sic]

this recording, which for some reason has us on their roll, never heard of them but thanks... And actual friend BTC News. (We've met Weldon in person, an actual act of human contact from the innnerwebtubes!!) Not sure why they weren't there before. They're local, too!! And locals rule!!

"Tired of Living, Scared of Dying"

OK, we'll admit it. There is such a thing as a drive-by knifing. Not nearly as likely as a drive-by shooting. But in a crypto-fascist, over-populated anthill society like Nippon (w/ its repressive anti-gun laws) what the fuck-tuck-tucking hell do you expect?

"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. "He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything," Akaogi said.

Who doesn't know that feeling?

Annals of Homelessness

Note to self (& others in this predicament): Don't sleep in front of the Public Storage bldg. on Pontius Ave., unless, unlike ourself, you enjoy having big-ass roaches crawl all over you.