Living Legends-Living Lies

Early Sunday Morning of the 27th of February, 2011, Frank Buckles died at the age of 110. His life mirrored the US military history of the twentieth century. He lied his way into World War I by claiming to be eighteen when he was a mere 16 1/2. But having done so, he comported himself admirably. His life path led to his eventual capture, as a civilian, by the Japanese in World War II, in the Phillipines, where he spent three years as a POW, close to the amount of actual time the US was in World War II.

He spent his later years advocating for a World War I Memorial at the Washington Mall, but never lived to see this dream accomplished. It should be, for him and all of the other brave soldiers who fought, and the many who died, in the belief that they were saving the world for democracy from the wrath of "the Hun".

In truth, we did save Europe, but in doing so, we set the stage for World War II, which never would have occured had we not entered the war and enabled the French and English to enforce the Treaty of Versailles. If not for that, Germany and Britain, as well as France, and the entire European continent, would have been wholly decimated beyond immediate  or even long-term repair, for at least three decades or more. There would have been casualties as massive, if not more, than the eventual result of World War II. Or perhaps Britain may have asked for terms, if possible, in order to salvage what would have been left, if anything, of their beleaguered Empire, which was already during its last stages anyway.

In the long run, democracy, real democracy, might have risen from the ashes of the old de facto feudal industrial states, while Fascism and National Socialism may never have arose. Communism would have proven unable to answer to the direst needs of a ravaged European poplace, and it too might have withered on the vine.

We could have stepped in at some point and really delivered Europe from the ravages which would have been the results of their own leader's arrogance and insanity. An entire century which followed would have looked entirely different.

Unfortunately, there were two viruses that infested Europe in 1918 in the aftermath of the War To End All Wars. One of them was Vlad Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

The second came cloaked in a flag of red, white, and blue,.

Zenga Zenga Song

From Joshua Pundit comes this video satire of Moammar Qaddafi, which was wildly popular with Arabs. That is, it was up until they found out it was actually made by an Israeli Jew. In answer to a further complaint, he obliged them by creating a second version without the girl. Because, you know, what could be more horrible than to have to look at a nearly nude beautiful blonde dancing girl?

Translation:

Inch, inch. house, house. home, home. zanga zanga

Forward, forward, Revolution, Revolution

(Repeat)

I got millions on my side not from the inside but from other countries. From here i send a call to all the millions of the desert.. from desert to desert the millions will march and no one will be able to stop them.

Fast, fast

(Repeat)

The bell of work has rang!, the bell to march has rang!, the bell of victory has rang!, no turning back!

(Repeat)

Enjoy!! Gaddafi RAP

North Korea, South Korea-Here We Go Again

Apparently, someone in South Korea has decided it would be a good idea to drop leaflets over North Korea encouraging the citizens of North Korea to rebel against the communist regime, in imitation of the rebellions that have been on-going in the Middle East. For their part, the North is threatening a military response, calling the South's actions "dangerous". They are also threatening, naturally, to attack the US. Evidently, there is going to be a new round of joint military exercises of the South Korean and US military, and the North has threatened also to increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons.

If this is true, and not just another Alex Jones conspiracy theory/rant, not much is likely to come of it one way or another. For one thing, what the South is forgetting is that the protests in the Middle East is inspired as much by anti-US and anti-Israeli sentiment as it is a rebellion against the Middle East dictators, such as Mubarrek. Granted, the actions against Gaddafi in Lybia may well be taken at face value, seeing as how he is not now nor has he ever been a friend of the US or Israel.

However, the Libyans are without a doubt being influenced by the same factors as are currently inflaming situations in the Middle East-influences such as Al-Jazeera, various arms of international labor, and even elements within the US State Department, to name a few.

Oh, and by the way, one of the major influences in the Middle East is-the international Socialists movement.

So once you remove the radical Islamists, labor unions, cabals within the US State Department, and student democracy movements from the mix, you have a situation pretty much like you have in North Korea, where nobody has any influence, except of course for one of the applicable groups in question-the communists.

So I think its farily safe to say this isn't going to go much of anywhere. What are the communists going to do in North Korea, encourage their people to rebel against their own rule?

Mishka The Talking Husky

Two And A Half Men Minus Charlie Sheen Equals-Two Men

If the hit TV series remains on the air past this season, Two Men should in fact be what the producers of 21/2 Men change the name of the show to once Charlie Sheen departs, which now seems likely in the face of his latest rant on The Alex Jones Show. He called Thomas Jefferson a pussy, and asserted that Alcoholics Anonymous is a "bootleg cult", but he saved the worst of his ire for show producer Chuck Lorre, who he calls a clown and a turd. He also asserted that Lore's real name is Chaim Levine, evidently a way of casting aspersions on Lorre's integrity by way of his Jewish (read, Zionist) roots.

Sheen, himself a long-time proponent of the "Truther" conspiracy theories regarding 9/11-the government was behind it, possibly also the Israelis-has had a long association with conspiracy theory monger Jones, and he left nothing out in this latest rant, even going so far as to call President Barak Obama "a coward in a cheap suit".

This is due to Obama's refusal to engage Sheen in regards to all of the so-called evidence calling into question the official 9/11 story. I can tell him the answer to that one. It's not that Obama doesn't believe in it. Doubtless he doesn't, but that damn sure wouldn't stop him if it was a politically popular position. Unfortunately, its not, because its pretty well established that people that do believe in Trutherism are fruit cakes, like, well, Charlie Sheen.

Production of the CBS hit show has now been cancelled for the remainder of the season. My response is, its about time. I always wondered how Sheen could be so popular playing such an unabashedly misogynistic, sexist character as he does on this show, and I've always wondered why CBS would promote it for so long. The show, and Sheen, should be an embarassment to them, and to all liberals, but lo and behold, it remains one of the most popular shows on television, and Sheen is undeniably the star who at about a million dollars per episode brings the undoubtedly liberal audience back for more misogynistic and sexist laughs, week after week.

Maybe part of Sheen's problem is he has a problem processing the unadulterated hypocrisy of his audience, and himself. If so, no wonder he is driven to lash out at everybody in sight. Including, again, himself, with the alcohol, the whores, etc. Well, the gracy train may soon be over. If so, it can't happen soon enough, but I'm sure he'll find somebody else to blame for his downfall. The Koch Brothers, maybe.

Listen if you dare.

  
Download now or listen on posterous

022411_sheen.mp3 (22129 KB)

The Book Of Kanye

And then it came to pass that the searching hordes, hungry and thirsty for words of wisdom and knowledge, made their desperate way to the land of Twitter. Finding Kanye, they gathered around him. Seeing them, and discerning their need for guidance, he looked to them and he said-

an abortion can cost a ballin' nigga up to 50gs maybe a 100. Gold diggin' bitches be getting pregnant on purpose. #STRAPUP my niggas!

Kanye's disciples said, "Yeah we feel ya dog!"
And there was unrest and discontent throughout the land.

Won't Back Down

If you ever go to a townhall hosted by Republican Florida Congressman Allen West, a word to the wise. Don't confront him while holding a Koran, because not only will West not back down, he might give you a history lesson you might not want to hear. That is what happened anyway to Nezar Hamze. Who is he, you ask? Why, he's only the executive director of CAIR.

Stray Cat Strut

This video is a pretty good description of my mood and attitudes lately. I used it as kind of an introductory post on my new Posterous blog. Then, all of a sudden, this blog returns from no-blogs land, as unexpectedly and mysteriously as it disappeared. And this is the second time this happened. So I figure, why not use the video here as well, to mark my third coming? I mean, not that I'm bragging, but Jesus Christ only come back from the dead once. Do I have nine lives? I hope I don't have to find out, but I definitely feel like some kind of alley cat of bloggers.

Back From Limbo

I don't know what happened, but The Pagan Temple was shut down by Blogger, a second time, this time for a period of about three days. During that time I started a bunch of other blogs, including one on Blogger, and all but one of which is also named The Pagan Temple. The one exception is a Wordpress blog I named Chapter Twelve. I was using that one originally as private blog on which to write Chapter Twelve of a horror novel I was working on at one time. It's a very long, novella length chapter in its own right.

Anyway, I'm back, but I'm taking nothing for granted anymore. There are going to be Pagan Temple blogs eventually all over the blogosphere, on every free blogging platform in existence, but they are all going to be the same. Same name, same exact posts. And really, it won't take up one second more of my time. How is this possible, you ask? Well, I've discovered a blog platform called Posterous, which you should check out. When you post to Posterous, you also post simultaneously to any other blog you set up on your Posterous account.

In other words, most if not all future posts you read on this blog (or any other of my blogs you might happen across) will have been sent here by way of Posterous.

As for why my blog disappeared, that's just the problem. I can guess, but I don't know. I was gone for awhile, removed, and then just as suddenly, I'm back. Who knows when or if it will happen again? Who cares, besides me. The point being, since I've discovered Posterous, I feel more secure. It's not likely every single blog I start will be taken down, is it?

Kick Some Asses, Walker

UPDATE-Death threats against Governor Walker, and his administration, in the midst of a public outpouring of vile and hateful discourse.

Here's some of the highlights of Wisconsion Governor Scott Walker's Budget Repair Bill-

(1) Collective bargaining rights, except for salary, will be eliminated for 175,000 public employees;

(2) Any salary increase greater than inflation will have to be approved by a referendum;

(3) University of Wisconsin system employees will be denied the right to collectively bargain at all;

(4) Union dues will now be optional for state workers.

In other words, just to simplify, Wisconsin state employees are not beleaguered Egyptians being denied access to economic opportunity or any kind of hope, and despite all the crazy rhetoric, Scott Walker is not Hosni Mubarak. He's not even Hosni Lite. Granted, I wouldn't be surprised at this juncture if Iranian warships didn't end up in the Great Lakes, no doubt preparing to dock in Chicago, but Walker is simply an elected official who recognizes his state is broke. Guess what? He's going to do something about it.

And if the Green Bay Packers don't like it, well, that's just tough fucking shit, ain't it now?

Will Walker call out the National Guard in the face of threatened continued strikes? He says he will only if necessary, which it might well be. God I hope he doesn't back down. While he's at it, he should declare the fourteen Senate Democrats wanted fugitives and send somebody to track them down. I'd love to see those fuckers physically dragged into the state Senate just so they could watch in agony and frustration when the Senate Republicans vote for the bill. The next thing they should have to sit and watch is many of their House Democrat colleagues getting gerrymandered out of existence. Now that would call for some gourmet Reddenbacher.

Chicago Blows

Chicago is so far gone even the Tea Party doesn't want to step into the mess. Denying a recent report by the Huffington Post, the leaders of the movement possibly show their average ages by declaring that "Chico Is Not The Man".

In a way, that might be a sign that things haven't yet gotten so bad in the Windy City, compared to places like California and New Jersey. But they're definitely on the way, with more than a billion dollars of unfunded pension liabilities. I guess things have to completely fall apart before people get the message and demand change. And even then, there will be more than a few taking to the streets to demand the status quo.

But for now, Chicago is still living in that old New Deal style American dream world where you just do things because its the right thing to do, dammit, and everything will eventually work out because, you know, its the economics of prosperity where you give the citizens what they want, because a happy citizenry is a productive one.

Of course, eventually the bill comes due, and then-and only then-the citizenry takes to the streets, and then the parties realize they have to retool their political apparatus to accommodate the outrage, only nothing really changes. The Democrats blame the rich and demand higher taxes, while the Republicans blame the entitlements and demand spending cuts. Or, if they are in a really blue area, like Chicago, they just demand marginal spending cuts and well, a slightly lower increase in taxes. That seems to be the case with Gery Chico, and the Tea Party isn't going along.

Most of the time, the people go along with the Republicans in these cases, until they start to feel the pinch, then they vote for the Democrats. Its hard to fault the Republicans in Chicago for wanting to cut their losses at the polls, and its impossible to blame the Tea Party for not wanting to play the game. The only people you can really blame, in the long term, is the people. Well, and maybe Andrew Jackson. Let's face it, most people are pretty fucking simple minded at best, and downright stupid at worse, so when you give the masses the right to vote, and give the political parties the power to control the electoral process, you can expect nothing if not skulduggery.

So These Two Muslims Are In This Juice Bar

So these two practitioners of the religion of peace are in a hooka lounge enjoying a bowl of apple cinnamon…

One says to the other: “Fayaz, have you ever noticed that after having sex with a Western infidel woman, your eyes burn and your nose gets scratchy, and you get all teary-eyed?”

Rafiq: “Yes, I notice that too, all the time, why? What do you think that is?”

Fayaz: “I think it must be the pepper spray.”

Lara Logan probably wouldn't appreciate the whimsy of that little joke I lifted from the comments page of Debbie Schluessels blog, but what the hell.

I don't agree with Schluessel in the sense that Logan deserved it or asked for it, and I certainly take no sadistic pleasure that it happened to her, but on the other hand, it does reinforce what I've always known. These people are fucking animals. Bottom line. They also threatened Katie Couric, and beat up Anderson Cooper of CNN. But the rape of Logan, who might have been killed but for the intervention of some Arab women and some Egyptian soldiers, was the penultimate outbreak of hatred and rage yet against a western journalist. Logan is now in a hospital recovering and for now wants privacy, understandably so.

Here is a picture of Logan

And here is a picture of Logan immediately following her rape-

Oh, I'm sorry, this was not Logan, it was a Muslim woman who was purposely mutilated after she ran away from her family when they tried to force her into a marriage. This is an act that is sanctioned by Islamic law and you can probably count the number of times such crimes against women and girls have been prosecuted by even secular authorities on the fingers of one hand. The perpetrators are never looked down upon by their societies unless it is for having a wayward daughter for whom such punishment is deemed appropriate.

I could go on and on with such examples, some from right here in America, such as the case of the man who murdered his own daughter for being too westernized, or the cable television network owner who beheaded his wife after she sued him for divorce-again, here in America, like the Somalian man who murdered his wife and children in Louisville Kentucky once she also filed for divorce because he was a brutal ass hat.

And now a western journalist, a woman, has come face to face with a brutal example of Islamic tradition. And the worse part of it for the rest of us is, her employers, CBS, and the American political establishment-Republican as well as Democrat-will try to portray this as just an example of a fringe element of Islamic society, by no means representative of a majority, or even of a large minority.

And in a sense, they might be right. But the most important part will never be addressed, but will be avoided-the fact the it is representative of the misogyny which is an inherent and integral part of an Islamic culture which at worse, outright encourages acts such as this, and at best, turns a blind eye to them.

They have to turn a blind eye, though. They, especially the women, have been browbeaten from birth into acquiescence. It's like Stockholm Syndrome. But we should know better than to swallow the line of shit we've been spoon fed for decades, including by Republicans, that Islam is a religion of peace. We've had chance after chance, been given warning on top of warning. It's time now to eschew the political correctness and say howdy to reality.

Otherwise, the cultural and societal rape that our descendants will one day endure will be ongoing and permanent. And no one is going to step in to put a stop to it.

OMFG-George W. Bush Calls Barak Obama "Muslim Scum"

Bush has to be drinking again, and was probably drunk at the time he said this shit. What's even worse, since he allowed himself to be videotaped, on the video below, he can't deny it now, or play it off like he was misinterpreted or like his words were taken out of context.

Get ready for it, I have an idea this is all you're going to be fucking hearing about for days, and days, and fucking days on end.

If You Were Gay-With Bert And Ernie

H/T Titan Uranus

The FDA Is Out To Regulate Your Nuts

The FDA might soon classify walnuts as a drug and regulate them as such based on the claims of one website that sells them. I know it sounds like a joke, but evidently its not. They have even threatened to impose some kind of fine on Diamond Nuts, due to the claims made on their website, which the FDA claims is in violation of FDA Guidelines. Why? Because the use and benefits to which Diamond Nuts ascribes their products, especially walnuts, make them a drug.

Walnuts.org goes into detail as to the health benefits of walnuts.

This is what happens when you allow government to grow too big and give its agencies too much regulatory power. Nothing good comes out of it in the long run. The FDA is one of the first government agencies that should be totally stripped of funding, along with the EPA.

Waller R. Newell: You say you want a revolution?

Here is a pretty good article that describes the processes that surround most revolutions, and the unfortunate aftermath of far too many of them. Consider it must reading, preferably without the rose colored glasses far too many people try to read through. Thanks to Titan Uranus for the link.

Waller R. Newell: You say you want a revolution?

And So It Begins

"The Camp David Accords are finished."

These words, spoken in the aftermath of Mubarak's resignation as President of Egypt, did not come from the Muslim Brotherhood, but from a top opposition leader.

An influential Egyptian opposition figure and likely presidential candidate called Sunday for Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel to be reassessed, the first sign since former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster Friday that the 32-year-old agreement may be in jeopardy.

Ayman Nour, a former lawmaker and chairman of the Ghad (Tomorrow) party, told an Egyptian radio station that the 1978 Camp David Accords were no longer relevant, and said the country’s leadership should at least rethink the terms of the framework agreements that led to a peace deal between the erstwhile enemies the following year...

“The Camp David Accords are finished,” Nour said. “Egypt has to at least conduct negotiations over conditions of the agreement.”

This does not bode well for Egypt or for Israel. One must assume this is a popular attitude among the Egyptians, for a top political leader to come out with it this quickly. If he makes good on his threat, and he has widespread support amongst the Egyptians, the Israelis will have no choice but to either renegotiate or hold firm and demand fealty to the old treaty. What choice do they have? If they renegotiate they will be obliged to consider new terms that are not favorable to them by comparison. Yet, if they refuse, they will be criticized as warmongers. The end result is dependent solely on who has, or gains, power in Israel over the next few months, to couple of years.

This might lead to the first real gains among the really ultra-Orthodox parties like the Kahanists, in the face of what might be seen as mounting and unreasonable pressure and aggressive rhetoric. And it will probably be only a matter of time now before there is another Intifada among the Palestinians, particularly if Hamas sees such a provocation as the only way to keep their people from giving them the same treatment the Egyptians gave to Mubarak. It's the old scapegoat the Jews strategy, an unfortunately time-tested and proven strategy that has proven effective from Spain, to Russia, to Germany, and beyond. What's worse, it might spread beyond the Hamas areas of influence to include the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem. The Baca Valley of Southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights might similarly erupt as well. All of Israel's surrounding nations, not only Syria and Lebanon, but even Jordan and Saudi Arabia, all nations which have experienced their own threats to peace and public order and security, might experience their own upheavals. What better way to get their people off their backs than to encourage yet another round of Israel bashing. The Israelis have a perfectly reasonable right to be concerned, because this time, it might go farther than the leaders of these countries might intend and possibly herald a conflagration which no reasonable person, especially a national leader, wants to be involved with.

And it does bear asking-WWOD? It's a good thing for him he has a teleprompter. If the last couple of weeks is any guide, he's going to be far too busy wringing his hands to be able to read any scribbled notes on his palms.

Atlas Shrugged-The Movie

I never read the novel, and I'm not a Libertarian, but there's no denying the impact of this book or it's author, Ayn Rand. As I understand it, the premise of the book is one in which all the productive members of society, or at least a substantial percentage of them, including captains of industry and skilled professionals, go on strike in protest against government regulations and high taxes. The original, working novel of the novel was, in fact, The Strike.

Now, somebody has finally made a movie out of it (I think for the first time), and in this day and age of the Tea Party, its going to be interesting to see what kind of impact it has. The trailer certainly looks compelling, and I'm sure it's going to be widely discussed over the weeks ahead until its release, and after. Will it have any impact on American political society and culture? We'll have to wait and see, but this seems to be the perfect time for it.

If it is true to the original novel, don't be surprised if it doesn't equal Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ in terms of impact and influence. If I'm right this will be a much bigger deal than the typical big, hyped movies of late, such as Inception. Look for invitations from civic groups to view the movie for free, much like churches across the country screened Gibson's movie.

If it encourages critical thought and discussion throughout the country among those who ordinarily don't think past the days headlines and editorials, it will provide a valuable service.

The Swamp Thing

I guess I should point out, this video is a joke, and I mean that in a good way. It's actually kind of a mean joke to pull on people, but oh well, what the hell.

Hilarious Racist Commercial

Cracked Madness

From Cracked, its how typos could have changed things.

Just some silly fun, what the hell? Here's a few more, but go check out all twenty-eight at the link.

Herman Cain Speech At CPAC

Herman Cain is probably among the least known of the Republicans seemingly making plans for a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Some might know him simply as a conservative talk radio personality, or as the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza. He has an impressive conservative pedigree, however, being arguably the most significant player in the move to derail the Clinton Health Care proposal in the mid-nineties known colloquially as HillaryCare.

Watch the video, well worth the time at twenty eight minutes and forty six seconds, and you will see why so many Republican activists among the GOP base are so taken by him.

Sarah Palin versus Lady Gaga

Natural Gas Is Hazardous To Your Health

The following video reports a natural gas explosion that happened in Allentown Pennsylvania, last night being the latest in a string of such events that have happened, such as in Philadelphia just last month, as well as San Bruno, California where an entire neighborhood was destroyed. Yet this is what some proponents of alternative energy sources are urging us to use for to account for much of our energy needs. In fact, this kind of thing has been happening with increased frequency.

Natural gas is dangerously unstable, and it is worth noting that, in the case of the explosion in Allentown, a routine check of the lines in the neighborhood in just the previous week had revealed no leaks, or any other problems.

Bear in mind, we are not only going to be using more and more of this stuff in our business and residential neighborhoods, we might also be driving with it in our cars in place of gasoline.

I understand that there will probably come a time when we might not have much choice, but frankly, I'd prefer to drive a car powered by neutrons. I say that in all seriousness.

By the way, there was also a recent explosion of a gas line in Israel, the result of a terrorist act in the face of the recent unrest in Egypt, from where the line originated. Although its not quite as dramatic as the video below, the video of the terrorist act offers grim evidence of the dangers involved.

Yeah, this is the part where I say "Drill, Baby, Drill".

The Obama Administrations Secret War Against Toyota

I don't think anybody can blame Obama or the federal government for seeming to come down a tad hard on Toyota when it looked like an electronics problem might have been causing sudden "acceleration syndrome", especially when it looked like it had cost lives, and continued to endanger others. It certainly didn't help that the company seemed to be in denial of its problems and obvious culpability.

Only it turns out they were not so culpable after all, and the problems with the giant auto-maker were not quite what they seemed to be at the time. In fact, a government report exonerated Toyota. The problem, when there really was one at all as opposed to mere driver error, was a problem with the floor mats.

This is according to a government report, mind you, but one which was not released until a few days ago, even though it has been available for months. Since, in fact, well before the election. It's almost as if the administration wanted to use this as a political issue, huh? Or it could be they were simply trying to engage in the tried and true tactic of destroy the competition, the point being the government is now part-owner of Toyota competitors GM and Chrysler. While this is a valid argument, I think it pales in significance to the fact that an even bigger owner, especially of GM, is the UAW, a staunch supporter and contributor to the Democratic Party.

But hey, its almost a relief that the Democrats might spend some of their time trying to wreck something besides the Constitution. But its also scary to contemplate whether or not this report would have ever seen the light of day if the Democrats had won the election.

Countdown To Irrelevance

Have you been wondering what Keith Olbermann would do after losing his gig at MSNBC. Well, since Countdown With Keith Olbermann is no more, it seems like the Bathtub Boy may have found another gig, at WRVK 1460 AM, home of Renfro Valley. Yes, Keith has landed a position as radio announcer and commentator for WRVK's Friday Night broadcast of the Rockcastle Rockets, the high school football team of Rockcastle County High School. During off season he'll be sweeping the studios, fetching coffee for Pete Stamper, and parking cars and selling tickets for the Renfro Valley Barn Dance.

Okay, okay, jeez, I'm just kidding. It's not even that good. The Olberdouche will instead be working for Al Gore's Current TV.

Yep, now you have to pay to see the little prick melt down.

Strong, Yet Fragile

I originally intended to post this video of a mother kangaroo and its new born baby for Imbolc, but didn't have time. Imbolc, which by the way occurs on Groundhog Day, February 2nd (among other more religiously oriented traditional holidays, such as Candlemass), is a day for the observance of the fragile beginnings of spring. As such, we try to look for and recognize those elements of our lives that need greater nurturing and protection, in the hopes they too might grow and blossom within our lives.

This video then should serve as both a reminder and an inspiration to those who recognize and wish to seek out those qualities. Well, that and its just cool. How could you not love a baby kangaroo being nurtured by its momma?

Doctor Gosnell And His Chamber of Whorers

The headline from Ace of Spades HQ says it best-"abortion should be safe, legal, and rarely used in a negative headline". You have yet to hear a report in the media about the latest undercover investigation by Breitbart in which a Planned Parenthood employee counseled an undercover journalist, disguised as a pimp, on the best way to handle potential problems with what he described as underage foreign sex slaves. But even that almost pales into significance compared to the story of the Philadelphia abortion doctor, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, that went above and beyond the call of duty in performing late term abortions. He induced labor, allowed the children to be fully born, whereupon he murdered them by cutting their spinal cords with a pair of scissors.

The case was so grotesque that he and nine of his employees have been indicted by the Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams-a Democrat-who is the first black DA in Philadelphia history. The vast majority of the doctor's clients and patients were in fact black, and he has been charged with the murder of seven newborn infants, and one woman who also died accidentally as the result of an abortion procedure.

No one in the media seems interested in this story, but that's no surprise. After all, they don't want to be seen as being on the side of the Pro-Life movement, so they have taken the stance they have criticized so many politicians for related to other scandals. They would prefer to cover it up, sweep it under the rug, just ignore the story and pretend it goes away. Otherwise, they might offend the Pro-choice lobby that makes up such a large percentage of their viewers. Also, it might outrage the far right to such an extent there could be riots, or threats to abortion clinics and other abortion providers.

Thus, it has been deemed, obviously, as non-newsworthy, even though DA Williams has stated that he might seek the death penalty.

So what does the left have to say about it? Oh, have no fear, they are truly outraged. Not at the story itself, but because somebody made the statement that Obama, as a black man, should be angry that so many innocent black babies were murdered in this manner.

That outraged the left so much they turned to their tried and true accusation against their opponents. Whoever suggested Obama should be angry at the story is RAAAAAAA-CCIIIIIISSSSSTT!!! This is a perfect example of how the left uses cries of racism as a diversionary tactic. Obama is a known supporter, from his days as Illinois State Senator, of the practice of allowing babies who were born in the aftermath of failed abortion attempts to die. He even co-authored the bill that would have made this a state law.

The dirty secret there, that the Right doesn't care to know, is that these infants are probably so grossly damaged by the procedure that they would have no chance for any quality of life if they were saved. So I tend to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on that one. But this case is vastly different. In the Gosnell matter, babies are born through induced labor, and then unceremoniously murdered.

Gosnell was reported for almost the entirety of his forty years of these practices, yet no one in authority ever did more than cursory investigations at best, even when it was told how he cut off the feet of the infants and kept them in jars, for "research" purposes, after discarding the infants bodies like so much garbage. All of this has been well-known but rarely spoken of save in hushed whispers, until a Grand Jury recently, finally, decided to take action.

The Left, for the most part, has nothing to say, and neither does the media. Unless that is they think these women had given birth to crickets.

I bring this up now, even though the story is actually a couple of weeks old by now, for the simple fact that I am always hearing from the left as to how the media is not partial to the left. Most of them even accuse the media of being conservative, if you can believe it. The only thing conservative about the mainstream media is their inclination to protect their own bottom line by not insulting their mostly liberal audience. After all, they are the only audience they have. Well, they and that undecided, mushy middle that make up the majority of so-called independents-you know, the ones they still manage to bullshit on a fairly regular basis.

I,Me,Mine

This is my brain on drugs, about four years ago, give or take.

Jim is right. And what about the Tailhook scandal? Oh, and by the way, when are they going to get around to disciplining the assholes that tried to push evangelical Christianity on recruits, trying to coerce them with their positions of authority. Strangely enough, that seems to have been swept under the rug.

Oh,and by the way, to the person who asked about how a new recruit would take her, if I was that recruit I would take her dead seriously. I would treat her with the same degree of respect that I would treat any superior officer, male or female. Not one ounce more, not one ounce less.

That’s one of the first things you learn in the military, discipline and respect. If you don’t show the respect, you will learn discipline REAL DAMN FAST!!!!!!!!!

And that is the way it should be, regardless of who the person is. This whole controversy, and the reason it is a controversy, is nothing but a shining example of how people let their sexual hang-ups override their common sense.

Sure you can disrespect some “shameless floozy” that shows her body, but don’t you dare disrespect somebody that tries to shove a damn Bible down peoples throats, or interfere with the pervasive culture that allows it.

That was comment number twelve to a post on Urban Grounds about Michelle Manhart, an Air Force officer who got in a little bit of trouble over posing for Playboy.

I point this out as a means of reminding people that, yes, you can change. It depends on how the change comes about. In my case-and this is important-it come about due to my thoughtfully seeking greater access to a wider variety of information and points of view than what I was traditionally exposed to.

As a result of such greater depth of information, I found myself becoming more and more conservative. I guess my exposure to Fred Thompson during the 2008 campaign was the final pull that brought me over to "the dark side" of Federalism. Where once I was all over the map ideologically, but basically a left of center moderate, I have transitioned to the point I am a fanatical federalist.

More importantly, it pisses me off when I think of how I was sold a bill of goods for such a long time by Democrats, liberal activists, and worse of all, a complacent and seemingly at times bought and paid for mainstream media, who come to find out seem to all but promote RINO Republicans to lead the GOP, then turn on them during general elections. They also tend to ignore things that make their side look bad. But they always find a way to fool you into thinking they're objective.

Lately I got some comments from a person who is a liberal, and I think a liberal pagan, though I'm not sure. He commented on a number of posts, but one in particular he made mention of how two groups of opponents on the gun control issue allegedly decided they had more in common than not, and decided it was something they could compromise on.

As somebody who has always been a supporter of the Second Amendment, even in my most liberal days, I can respond to that flat out by asserting that there is no compromise when it comes to the Second Amendment. But Democrats don't really want compromise. They want to ask for ten times more than what they really want, and then when they get what they actually do want, they call it compromise. But you can't compromise on the Second Amendment, because it means what it says. And what it says has nothing to do with government regulation. Well-regulated means, quite simply, well armed. You can no more compromise on the Second Amendment than you can on the First Amendment, or any of the others. No, you can't cry fire in a crowded theater, and if you do you'll be prosecuted. That's not exactly what I would call a compromise, but okay, if you insist, I'll play along. If you walk up to somebody and shoot them because you don't like them, or hold a gun on them and rob them, you can be prosecuted for that as well. There, how's that for a "compromise"? Well, that's as good as one as you'll get from me.

Okay, just to show I'm reasonable, no one should be allowed to own their own private nuclear bomb.

See, you can't win with liberals, because they hate this country. They'll deny that, but then they'll turn around and in all sincerity do everything they can to increase the role and size of the federal government, and will do so in the name of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Class warfare, you see, is more than a means to an end. In some ways, it is the end. Its a way of transforming American society from top to bottom, by becoming more like the "advanced" European societies they so admire and wish to emulate. That on its own puts the lie to how much they love this country.

I was lucky. I always hated political correctness, something any so-called liberal should also hate if they really believed in the First Amendment, but there again, their hypocrisy shows loud and clear.

I don't know for sure what the final straw was. It might have been the dawning realization that Democrats were craven based on their actions in the days following the 9/11 attacks, their support for such things as the Iraqi invasion and the Patriot Act when it was convenient, but then fought against both tooth and nail at the first opportunity. Yet, they almost all voted for the Patriot Act without even reading the bill. In the 2002 mid-term elections, many Democrats couldn't get too close to George W. Bush. God damn, some of them were almost groping the fucking guy in public, on their own campaign advertisements. They were and still are sickening pukes.

Mainly though, and I say this in all sincerity, I always recognized that conservatives, as a general rule, are just better people than liberals. As an example, I'm always giving conservatives and liberals both hell about abortion. I'm always telling them since liberals are the ones by and large who get the lion's share of abortions, we shouldn't stand in their way. The world needs less, not more liberals.

Guess who gives me the most grief about that. It's hard to figure out, but it shows that conservatives are genuinely sincere in their stated opposition to abortion. They don't even want their worse, most hated enemies, to engage in such a despicable practice, one that will and has lessened the numbers of future liberals since 1973. Conservatives deserve at least some respect for that much.

That's why I don't really feel comfortable with the term conservative. Federalist, not that fits me to a t now. I think it always did, it just took me some time wandering in the darkness to find my natural home.

As for where I've been, that person is a stranger to me.

Criminal Conspiracy

Now that the Obama Justice Department has busted the Mafia-arresting more than one hundred members of five New York crime families-how long do you think it will be before we'll see them go after some of the other criminal goon gangs? Groups like the Crips, Bloodz, Latino gangs like MS-13, maybe some of the Mexican bloodsuckers that have wreaked havoc and turned the Mexican-American border into a war zone.

I think we'll see that in no time at all. See, La Cosa Nortra makes the perfect foil for politicians looking to make an impression. Bobby Kennedy, as AG in his brother Jack's administration, figured that out and played it for all it was worth, even while using some of these same people in plots against Castro. In the meantime, he seemed to all but ignore the Irish Mafia, who naturally stood to gain if the Italians and Sicilians were eliminated.

It's all a fucking dog and pony show that means very little beyond the players directly involved.

Somewhat Authentic Buffalo Wings

I had them for Imbolc, so I probably won't have them again for the Super Bowl, but here's as good a recipe for authentic buffalo wings as you'll find anywhere. Remember, don't use margarine, use real butter for the sauce. And Frank's Hot Sauce is the authentic hot sauce used in original buffalo wings. Those two ingredients, and vinegar, is all you need. Finally, some people like to coat their wings with flour. If you do that, you'll probably have a big mess and the sauce won't work right.

Ignore the bit at the beginning with the salt mixture. Just wash your wings, salt them, then cover them with the sauce after you bake them or grill them. I like to put them back in the oven on low heat for just a few minutes after coating them.

Fag

Don't ask. Don't tell.

A Walk In The Snow

This is a great short film by a beginning filmmaker. There's no story as such, just a guy walking in the snow, at night. But the scenery, the lighting, etc. are exceptional.

Nothing Good Can Last Forever

I just remembered something. This is the first year in more than sixty years there is no Kennedy in Washington. Enjoy the brief respite while it lasts, and pray that it continues, however unlikely that is. But while we do have this brief interval of relief, I'll celebrate with the following video. This band is one of my favorites, even though I don't really care that much for their music. It's just that their name always brings a fucking smile to my face.

Progressive Tolerance On Public Display

The following video is from a progressive rally sponsored by Common Cause. Yeah, according to these fuckwits, Clarence Thomas should be made to work in the fields, or he should be hung, along with his wife. Scalia, Alito, and Roberts don't fare much better, nor does anybody connected with Fox News. This is a perfect example of why I wouldn't give a good fuck if somebody was to drive by cocksuckers like this and spray them with machine gun fire.

UPDATE-All right, I admit that was a little harsh and over the top, but these kind of people piss me off so bad, I just can't help it. Especially grating is the fact that these are the very kinds of asshats that would raise bloody hell over anything anybody on the right said that was one fourth as vile as the shit that spews out of their mouths here.



Come to think about it, I remember now about two weeks before Gabrielle Giffords was shot, I brought a box of Kleenex, because I was fresh out. I still haven't gotten around to opening that fucking box of tissue. Make of that what you will.

H/T Belchspeak

It's All In The Genes

I'm starting to think now I am veering over towards the camp of the Birthers. It's not that I find it so strange that Barak Obama allegedly spent millions of dollars to keep his birth certificate under wraps. Even if that's true, there could be all kinds of understandable reasons he might do that. For example, he might have been an addict, or he might have even been born with an embarrassing disease, such as syphilis.

But no, that's not what I'm talking about. I have other concerns that have recently come to light, things that might explain certain things in Obama's past. Having perused the photographic evidence, I now present THE ANSWER!

What do you get when you cross Ted Kennedy-

With a Klingon Warrioress-

Answer-

Yep, explains a lot.

A Dangerous Game

Now that its come out that Obama, the State Department, and the international AFL-CIO are all largely responsible-granted, allegedly, for now-for the Middle East unrest that has led to violent demonstrations in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt, and threatens to spread even to Syria, what happens from here? Is this some kind of ideological mutation that has metastasized? If so, what is the end game? Obviously, if Mubarak leaves Egypt in the next few days, as Obama seems to want, chaos will reign supreme, making it that much easier for the Nuslim Brotherhood to assume power. After all, they are the only ones, except for the military (and of course Mubarak's government) with the infrastructure, resources, and the will to stand up what would pass for a government. In the urge for stability in the days following Mubarak's premature ouster, the people might turn to them in large enough numbers to give them power. From there on, any election, despite any international monitoring, would be as much a sideshow as the recent rigged elections held by Mubarak.

It's hard to see how this benefits the US, but if this is true, what it suggests to me, is that the Obama Administration has decided the only way to achieve peace and stability in the region long-term is by being on the right side of history and to be perceived as helping it along as much as possible.

As for Israel, its easy to read the Administrations aims in that regard. They think that if there is a region wide upheaval that empowers "the people", and this is spearheaded or at least largely influenced by Islamist factions, the Israeli state would have no choice but to adopt what the administration feels is a more "reasonable" posture. Remember, to their way of thinking, in progressive internationalist terms, the problem is a perceived lack of opportunity for the Arab citizens of Gaza and the West Bank, who yearn collectively for nothing more than political freedom and economic opportunity. Once they have achieved these aims, eventually the strife will end, and Jews and Arabs will live together in peace. More or less.

But first, the Jews have to grant at least a limited right of return, remove all barriers to free and reasonable travel throughout the country, and finally, withdraw completely to pre-1967 borders. And of course, work out some sort of solution regarding Jerusalem, or at least East Jerusalem.

It will never happen though, in my opinion, and this is why this is such a dangerous, incredibly short-sighted game. This is eventually going to result in yet another full-scale Intifada, eventually, and it will likely culminate in the loss of more lives, mostly Palestinian, in a shorter amount of time, than at any time of recent history. It is not unreasonable to assume the casualties could result in the hundreds of thousands, and the million mark, while probably unlikely, is by no means impossible.

The key is the Egyptian military. They know they are no match for the Israelis, even on their best days. The annual aid the Egyptian military receives from us is for defensive purposes. If they tried to man an offensive operation against the Israelis, they would get their clocks cleaned, and they know that. So unless an Egyptian Napoleon arises from the rubble and there is support from China or the EU, its probably not going to happen. Besides, they don't want to lose their US support, and they understand full well that Obama, even if he wanted to, would be unable to justify such continued support in the face of any aggressive actions.

Therefore, the most likely targets of Israeli wrath, beyond the Palestinian people and especially Hamas, would be Syria, Lebanon, and by extension, possibly even Iran, because that's the real key to instability in the region anyway. Iran has funded Hzbollah, and is also a major supporter of Hamas, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Right now the Israelis have been relatively restrained in their reaction to recent events. But they're watching, and waiting. And if worse comes to worse, they aren't going to take anything lying down.

And then there's the oil situation.

And oh yeah, China, which is an economic partner of Sudan-which is also facing the same kind of unrest as seen in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and now, possibly Jordan.

Mark the coming days carefully, because you could be viewing the beginnings of a third world war. And if it turns out like I'm afraid it will, you might also start to hear the beginning stirrings of talk of impeachment, and it might be at a bipartisan level at that.

For now, watch Mohamed El-Baredei. He could well be the key to all this. If I'm right, this is something that's going to reach all the way into the corridors of the UN.

So what's Obama thinking? Obviously, he's not thinking of helping a legitimate, stable government to emerge, because if he was, he would accede to Mubarak's stated aims to remain in power until September, and from there to peacefully transition to a more acceptable, more democratic government. Because everybody knows that such a transition, while it would have to allow for some participation by the Muslim Brotherhood, would not on the face of it allow for the kind of chaos that would make their ascension to total power highly probable, if not a definite certainty.

And that's what makes this whole thing so potentially explosive. Even if one chose not to trust in the sincerity of Mubarak, steps could be taken to assure that he kept to the September time-table, and a stable government was set up at the end of that period. That Obama and the administration, as well as the ACLU and probably a cabal within the UN seems to be working more hand in hand with the Muslim Brotherhood (and by extension Iran), bodes no good at all.

The White Stripes

The White Stripes have decided to call it quits. One thing about it, it wouldn't be that big a deal for them to start all over, you know since like there's only two of them and they ARE brother and sister.

UPDATE-Yikes, I fucked up. Meg and Jack White aren't brother and sister, they are former husband and wife. In fact, he took her last name when they were married, and they were divorced either by the time they began recoding together or shortly after.

Needs more doorbell.

A Bag For Me, A Bag For You

Listen carefully, children, as lovable Irish hip-hop artists The Rubberbandits expound on the techniques and joys of sniffing glue.

A bit of a more serious and reverent explanation of the pagan festival of Imbolc than the preceding video.

Witch Boy

Join Witch Boy as he learns all about the sacred pagan Sabbat of Imbolc

The Sun Is Shining Down by Almira Fawn Southworth

I haven't heard a word out of this kid, or about her, since her mother was murdered, so I don't know how she's doing. No word yet on the status of the investigation. I just hope she pulls through.

Katie Holmes For-Well, Anything

I finally got around to seeing the Batman movie The Dark Knight, and I was all like WTF is such the big deal about that? Let's face it, if it weren't for Heath Ledger as The Joker, that would have been one big turkey. They should have just made the movie about The Joker and called it-well, The Joker. Not only was Batman useless, but they had to cram yet another villain, Two-Face, in there and gum up the works, like they usually do with superhero movies any more. Just like two many cooks spoil the broth, so too do too many villains cram the plot and ruin the character development.

Worse, it probably isn't going to get any better than that, so now I know I won't be going to the trouble of the drive and the expense to see the newest Batman, which will feature Anne Hathaway in the role of Catwoman.

But I do have one hell of an idea. Why not cast Katie Holmes as Catwoman, and then go that extra mile by casting Tom Cruise as Batman. Now that would be some intense shit. You would have one psycho character who doesn't believe in psychiatry playing the role of a costumed vigilante that needs one almost as badly as Cruise. And Katie Holmes as Catwoman would be the perfect foil. Unfortunately, Hollywood would be tempted to camp it up with these two and ruin the whole thing, so it might not be such a great idea after all.

In other comics related movie news, sometime this year the new movie Captain America-The First Avenger will be released. He will undoubtedly kick much ass, but here's the real kick in the ass. It will be released worldwide, but in three countries the title will be changed to simply The First Avenger. Those three countries are Russia, the Ukraine, and-South Korea.

Don't get me wrong, I've been aware for some time now that the US is not exactly universally loved in South Korea, to put it lightly. But this? I guess it could have been worse. They could have called it "Capitalist America Swineman", or "Captain Infidel Dog". But you know what? American values just aren't for everyone, not even the screwed up versions as conceptualized by Marvel Comics, which is as left-wing a company as you can imagine.

These are the people who honestly believe that the hero Iron Man represents a true conservative, and on top of that, one of the very few good ones. And even he at one point turns out to be quite the fascist prick. But there again, to Marvel, that's what conservatism is. It's no wonder kids grow up with a screwed up view of conservative values. They're either Bible thumping ignorant rednecks who hate everybody, or crooked business people who could care less about people or the environment, or they are bent on world domination for the sake of their own power and influence, while selling it in terms of American security needs. No wonder the South Koreans hate us, even though they would doubtless have been overrun by the communist North decades ago if not for us. Go figure.

Finally, in other comic book news, the Human Torch is dead. Yeah, I know, they can always bring him back, this is the comics after all. But it just seems wrong. A flaming, flying human is an original concept to Marvel, and though Johnny Storm wasn't the first human torch, he has been the mainstay of the concept for going on fifty years now. With the advent of Marvel superhero movies, including the Fantastic Four, I guess someone is afraid that some little jerk-off will set himself on fire, who knows? No way it could be just another cynical marketing ploy, huh?

Leave That Sphinx Alone!

Well, it happened. During the recent demonstrations in Cairo, somebody broke into a museum and beheaded two mummies, one the great-grandmother of King Tut. I'm guessing they were incensed that her facial wrappings were removed. Oh well, some cooler heads, like Dr. Hawass, are insistent that most Egyptians are opposed to such wanton destruction of the antiquities that constitute Egypt's proud heritage. I hope they're right. On the other hand, remember the Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan?

That's got me so worried about this guy, I wrote a little song for him-

LEAVE THAT SPHINX ALONE (to the tune of Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall).

We Don't Need No Islam Nation
We Don't Need Hajib Control
No Bomb Explosions In The Mass Rooms
Raghead Leave That Sphinx Alone

HEY! RAGHEAD! LEAVE THAT SPHINX ALONE!

Allah Akbar Just Another Prick On Jihad
Allah Akbar Just Another Prick On Jihad

Just Make Sure She Knows How To Work That Mouth

Courtesy of Breitbart, you know now what to do if any of your underage foreign sex slaves get pregnant, or to check and make sure they don't have any STDs. You just take them to Planned Parenthood. No questions asked. Just make sure your little teenage whore has all the right things memorized so she won't say anything that might obligate any of the highly trained personnel there to report you to the authorities. Like, for example, by giving them her true age, or the true age of the adult that got her pregnant.

Hey, you might even get some good professional advice, such as, during the period following an abortion when your little girl hooker can't have vaginal sex, she can always do other things. You know, like, "from the waist up".

There now, my fellow Americans, doesn't that prove Planned Parenthood deserves 400 million of your tax dollars a year?

Locked And Loaded In Missoula Montana

I want to make something clear to everybody right up front. I don't give a shit if liberal Democrats are sincere in their calls for more civil political speech. I still wouldn't like the direction in which they're trying to take the country, so I would still give them hell even if they did in all sincerity adopt a tone that was all sweetness and light. Let's just say they are still in my cross-hairs. I mean that figuratively, of course, as anybody who isn't intellectually brain-dead or emotionally retarded could figure out without me telling them. But hey, leftards, if you want to take it literally, knock yourselves out, preferably by walking into the middle of on-coming traffic.

Let's face it, its not exactly like progressives are sincere in their demands for more civil political dialogue. If you think they might be, this report from the Wall Street Journal might induce you to think twice about it. During a performance by the Missoula Children's Theater of The Mikado, one of the children in the cast called for the beheading of Sarah Palin. This met with the approval of most members of the liberal Missoula theater audience, but to their credit, The Missoulan published a letter to the editor from an outraged attendee, as follows-

Open letter to MCT director Curt Olds:

First I would like to compliment you and the entire staff of "The Mikado" on the beautiful sets, costuming and professional performance we experienced on Sunday, Jan. 23. However, I must call you on something that was inserted into the play which I am almost positive was not in the original book.

The comments made in such a cavalier and oh-so-humorous way were uncalled for. Now, I realize you play to a mostly liberal audience in Missoula and so, I am sure, felt comfortable in your calling for the beheading of Sarah Palin. I am painfully aware that most in the audience tittered with laughter and clapped because "no one would miss her" but there were some in your audience who took great offense to this "uncivil tone" about another human being.

We are in the midst of a crisis that took place in Tucson where many started pointing fingers at that horrible right wing with all their hatred and targeting and standing for the second amendment and on and on and on. So, here we are in a lovely play with beautiful voices serenading us and we have to hear that it is okay to call for the killing of Sarah Palin because we don't like her and no one would miss her. Unbelievable.

As a professional you should be ashamed of yourself, the audience should be ashamed of themselves and I am ashamed of myself for not standing up and leaving at that very moment. I would like to see an apology from you not because I want to hinder free-speech but for the hypocrisy this so clearly shows.

Rory Page, Clinton

I'll tell you someone else who should be especially ashamed of themselves, but are probably not-the parents of the child who uttered such a heinous line. I find it more likely than not that the parents were informed by one of the adults in charge of the production of this hateful insertion, and gave their approval. If so, the child should be snatched up by Social Services, and the parents subjected to some intense therapy at their own expense before they are ever allowed to see it again. As for the adults responsible, they should be prosecuted for child abuse. If this isn't an example of intellectual and emotional child rape, nothing is.

Unfortunately, this isn't really anything new. It wasn't but a few years ago someone produced a movie that dealt with the assassination of then President George W. Bush. That was different, though, in that as far as I know the film was not encouraging or calling for such an event to happen, at least not overtly. But this, however they might now try to paint it in terms of an unfortunate example of inappropriate humor, is really beyond the pale.

Just another example of liberal hypocrisy, brought to you by your friendly neighborhood civil and progressive citizens of the world, courtesy of the sweet little horrors they indoctrinate on a daily basis. As if that weren't enough, they are even funded in part by the National Endowment For The Arts.

Isn't that grand? Your tax dollars at work, funding humorous little quips calling for the beheading of conservative politicians. Out of the mouths of babes.

H/T Weasel Zippers

Colonel West Reacts To Olbermann's Departure

H/T Moonbattery

Oh, Domino!

Courtney has an interesting post on GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD that goes a long way towards explaining the confusion that underscores US Mid-East policy as expounded by Professor Stephen M. Walt. I would personally describe Walt's assessment as a kind of intellectual brain fart. Unfortunately, it seems the professor is not so much a brilliant observer of history as he is just another one of many suffering from the mass delusion of their own intellectual superiority.

True enough, his credentials would seem to be impeccable.

Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where he served as academic dean from 2002-2006. He previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, where he served as master of the social science collegiate division and deputy dean of social sciences.

He has been a resident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and he has also been a consultant for the Institute of Defense Analyses, the Center for Naval Analyses, and Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

But what else am I to make of a Professor at one of our most prestigious universities who decries America's relationships in the Middle East as based on The Domino Theory.

As many of you are aware (or maybe you're not) the Domino Theory was devised during the Eisenhower Administration as a means of supporting America's anti-communist Cold War policies. It advanced the belief that if any significant nation fell to communism, then all others in the region would quickly succumb, like a line of falling dominoes. As you might suspect, the Professor asserts that our Middle East policy of present is a continuation of the same theme. His proof that it is a "bad idea"?

Various scholars examined the domino theory in detail and found little historical or contemporary evidence to support it.

Uh, okay then, two points-

One, regardless of the validity of the Domino Theory as applied in the past to the communist threat of the Cold War era, recent developments in Tunisia have borne out the theory in regards to the proliferation of the effect in Egypt, as well as Yemen. Who knows where it will go from there? The Middle East is more of a tenderbox than ever and Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, is clutching tenuously onto what is left of his power by his bare knuckles. His son and wife have already fled the country. The former President of Tunisia has similarly fled his nation after abdicating his position in the face of growing unrest and violent disruptions. If they fall completely, and Yemen, what happens then to Jordan? What about Saudi Arabia? Even Syria could conceivably face disruptions. Turkey has already lurched towards Islamist control. And make no mistake about it, Islamist factions are chiefly responsible for the current upheaval, and stand as of now potentially to profit from it the most. The Dominoes might not be falling yet, but they are certainly teetering dangerously close to doing so.

But even if that were not the case, by far the greater proof of the viability of the Domino Theory is to be found in the far distant past, when that ship first set sail-in the seventh century AD. Once Mecca fell to the forces of Mohamed it wasn't long before the entirety of the Arabian Peninsula submitted to the coercion of the Islamic hordes. And from there, it was on to Asia, and Africa. And Europe, where the advance was finally stopped. At least for the time being.

All things being equal, it seems to me like the history of the spread and expansion of Islam is a textbook case in proof of the Domino Theory. The history of Islam IS the Domino Theory, dammit.

But what do I know, its not like I have a Master's Degree or something.

British Baby Doll Commercial

I wish they'd market this doll over here with this commercial, just for the lulz.

Sarah Palin Responds To Obama's State Of The Union

Sarah Palin's response to Obama's SOTU speech is on Facebook, and she damn well knocks it out of the ballpark. "Winning The Future", the title of the speech, is more accurately assessed by its acronym-WTF!-than by the speech's content, according to Palin.

From that point on, she proceeds to rip the President to shreds. Following is a few of her points. For example, with the following she nails the Democratic Party philosophy, from at least the days of Roosevelt, down as concisely as anyone ever has.

He couched his proposals to grow government and increase spending in the language of “national greatness.” This seems to be the Obama administration’s version of American exceptionalism – an “exceptionally big government,” in which a centralized government declares that we shall be great and innovative and competitive, not by individual initiative, but by government decree.

In other words, as far as Obama's concerned-nothing's changed, nor is there any reason to change any of his previous policies, nor will the Democratic members of Congress change any of their policies. They will just allegedly be warmer and fuzzier about the way they present them and the manner in which they debate them. What choice do they have, really?

Palin further elucidates on some of Obama's spending proposals.

And the Obama administration has a lot of half-baked ideas on where to spend our hard-earned money in pursuit of “national greatness.” These “investments,” as the President calls them, include everything from solar shingles to high speed trains. As we struggle to service our unsustainable debt, the only thing these “investments” will get us is a bullet train to bankruptcy.

She might have also added that these investments probably won't even break even, let alone pay any real dividends. They might provide a service for a small sector of society, and even in the best case scenario spur some job creation, but for ever job they create, they'll probably cost two. Or three. And like I said, they won't pay off in the long run, particularly if Obama insists on socking it to the oil and coal industries on which we now depend, something Palin also pointed out-

When it comes to energy issues, we heard more vague promises last night as the President’s rhetoric suggested an all-of-the-above solution to meeting our country’s energy needs. But again, his actions point in a different direction. He offers a vision of a future powered by what he refers to as “clean energy,” but how we will get there from here remains a mystery. In the meantime, he continues to stymie the responsible development of our own abundant conventional energy resources – the stuff we actually use right now to fuel our economy. His continued hostility towards domestic drilling means hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs will not be created and millions of Americans will end up paying more at the pump. It also means we’ll continue to transfer hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars to foreign regimes that don’t have America’s interests at heart.

And she also touched on education.

Take education for example. It’s easy to declare the need for better education, but will throwing even more money at the issue really help? As the Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner notes, “the federal government has increased education spending by 188 percent in real terms since 1970 without seeing any substantial improvement in test scores.” If you want “innovation” and “competition,” then support school choice initiatives and less federal control over our state and local districts.

She was actually being more kind than she needed to be. Not seeing any "substantial improvement" is the least of it. The federal governments initiatives since 1970 has ruined the American education system in far too many states and neighborhood schools, where those students who do get a good education do so from their own initiative and due to parental involvement. What official help they get is derived from oversight from various state and local governments and school boards. Aside from federal dollars, which comes with myriads of strings, the federal government is a hindrance, not a help to public education.

But here might be the most important point of all-

On the crucial issue of entitlement reform, the President offered nothing. This is shocking, because as he himself explained back in April 2009, “if we want to get serious about fiscal discipline…we will have to get serious about entitlement reform.” Even though the Medicare Trust Fund will run out of funds a mere six years from now, and the Social Security Trust Fund is filled mainly with IOUs, the President opted to kick the can down the road yet again. And once again, he was disingenuous when he suggested that meaningful reform would automatically expose people’s Social Security savings to a possible stock market crash. As Rep. Paul Ryan showed in his proposed Roadmap, and others have explained, it’s possible to come up with meaningful reform proposals that tackle projected shortfalls and offer workers more options to invest our own savings while still guaranteeing invested funds so they won’t fall victim to sudden swings in the stock market.

What she didn't go into is the real reason Obama and the Democrats are dead set against entitlement reform, why they are so aghast at the idea of "privatizing" Social Security. Simply put, by keeping Social Security as is, it insures continued dependency, but that's not even the major reason. The real reason is, once those funds are transferred to private accounts, the government from that point on loses control of them. Never mind that there are no funds worth controlling at this stage, they are insistent that Social Security can be made solvent. They are determined to make it so, because it provides a steady stream of funds to borrow from to finance other projects. That's precisely why they don't want to reform the system.

They could in reality care less if the elderly lost their savings in the stock market. In fact, that would be the one bonus to the Democrats way of thinking. If that happened, they could come up with a government program to "save" them and make them more dependent on them than ever. And I have no doubt that if such a privatization program ever is implemented, Democrats will work tirelessly to insure that seniors are able to have free reign over how their money is invested, hoping for a resultant crash, and will do so on the grounds of protecting the rights of seniors to invest their money in the best way they see fit.

Let's face it, whether we are talking about foreign policy, energy policy, education, job creation, or entitlements, the Democratic Party agenda can be summed up as government power and control, and Palin sums it up succinctly.

Consider what his “big government greatness” really amounts to. It’s basically a corporatist agenda – it’s the collaboration between big government and the big businesses that have powerful friends in D.C. and can afford to hire big lobbyists. This collaboration works in a manner that distorts and corrupts true free market capitalism. This isn’t just old-fashioned big government liberalism; this is crony capitalism on steroids. In the interests of big business, we’re “investing” in technologies and industries that venture capitalists tell us are non-starters, but which will provide lucrative returns for some corporate interests who have major investments in these areas. In the interests of big government, we’re not reducing the size of our bloated government or cutting spending, we’re told the President will freeze it – at unsustainable, historic levels! In practice, this means that public sector employees (big government’s staunchest defenders) may not lose jobs, but millions of Americans in the private sector face lay offs because the ever-expanding government has squeezed out and crippled our economy under the weight of unsustainable debt.

That pretty much sums it up. I can't add anything at all to that, and that is precisely what made Sarah Palin, during her all too brief two year tenure, the greatest governor in Alaska history. Its also why she is so despised, not only by the Left, but by the corporatist, establishment Republicans that are really out for their own interests at the expense of all of us. They and the Left are not really ideological opposites so much as they are two sides of the same coin, forged from an alloy or corruption, special interest, and elitism.

And Obama is just more of the same, the same as always.

But mark my words, the most talked about part of Sarah Palin's Facebook response to the SOTU won't be any of her major points. It won't be her ideas, or her assessments of Obama and his big government agenda. No, the media jackals who support the Democrats, and promote the establishment Republicans as the voice of the GOP, will devote most of their response to Palin's use of the phrase WTF!

You can make book on it.

SOTU

Let me see if I got this straight.

Obama claims we have to cut spending. Also, we have to stop giving breaks to oil companies and instead we need to subsidize alternative energy sources. Then, we have to approach education like its this generation's "Sputnik Moment".

So clarify something for me, somebody. Does that mean we have to spend more money on education? And alternative energy? And while we're doing this are we supposed to expect to pay that much more for gasoline and on our electric bills?

If Americans are going to have to make these hard choices, can we assume Obama and the Congress are going to have it as tough as the rest of us?

Jesse "The Full Body" Ventura Has A Groping Hang-Up

Ever since Jesse Ventura, former Navy Seal, professional wrestler and wrestling commentator, and the former Governor of the state of Minnesota, had a titanium hip replacement, he can't go through airport security without setting off alarms. He has been subject to extra scrutiny on numerous occasions. At times, he has had wand scans, at other times subjected to a full body scanner, and at other times-notably one day in November-he has been subjected to intense physical pat downs that involved TSA agents groping his genitals. When he was informed that due to the reaction his titanium implants had on airport security alarms he would always be subjected to either pat-downs or full body scanners, he filed a lawsuit against the TSA, naming Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole as defendants.

His grounds for the lawsuit are that the pat-downs constitute what amounts to-

"unwarranted and unreasonable intrusions on Governor Ventura's personal privacy and dignity . and are a justifiable cause for him to be concerned for his personal health and well-being."

So says the man who rose to fame and fortune by spending years, in the public eye, on video and the televised media, and before audiences of thousands, doing shit like this for a living-

H/T Ace of Spades HQ