Sunday, December 18. 2005
Luke 1:39-56 39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 56And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
Saturday, December 17. 2005
The ongoing war of the CIA against Bush: Just One Minute Everything you need to know about Pakistan. Gates of Vienna Home for the Holidays and rocking the nest: NYT The fight at Charity Hospital (NO): Drs. vs. Administration. NYT Also, from NO - Tulane Slashes Departments. Too bad NO won't do the same.
Cool jacket: The Federal Agent's Travel Jacket at Hammacher Schlemmer. It could be good in camo. Secret pockets for your X-ray glasses, fake fingerprints, forged passports, underwater breather, pen-gun, and anything else from Q's laboratory. Required Reading: To receive your own personalized Maggie's Farm Membership Card and Official Certificate, suitable for framing, you must show written proof, signed by a parent or guardian, that you have read this , this, and this. Not that you agree with the ideas - just have read them. (There are also other secret requirements, but you just have to guess what they are, unless or until we decide to divulge them.)
The Mighty Kong Saw it last night and although Ms. Yazel's timeline A Timely Guide To 'King Kong' For the Fidgety is simplistic, it is a helpful guide for taking bathroom and concession stand breaks. King Kong, the story of beauty over beast is back in a BIG way and Peter Jackson has paid tribute to the Old Hollywood by using today's special effects with yesterday's comedy and drama and film for entertainment's sake attitude. Is it too long? You bet it is, and you will also need to suspend your level of disbelief when Kong races through the jungle swinging Naomi Watts (the beauty character) like a Barbie who in real life would have had every bone in her body broken and face crushed. Likewise when Jack Black (Carl the spineless movie producer, there's one in every bunch) and the rest of the rescue group are seen running for their lives as Brontosauruses stampede over them, run past them and on every which way around them and yet, most will survive to go on and on and on until some other prehistoric creature bites. Oh yes and I forgot to mention the gruesome cannibals but I recommend you stay sit in your seat and go with it. This is a movie worth seeing on the big screen but you may want to leave the kiddies at home.
The Latin Beat: Mexico The Wall came tumblin' down? President Fox is concerned about the rights of immigrants. Which immigrants is the part I don't understand? Are they the illegal immigrants fleeing his country and running across the US borders or is it the illegal immigrants fleeing our country and running across the Mexican borders? There has been a lot of press about this topic lately and there will be much more to be sure. Discussion is important, conversation is grand, dissension has its place but ignorance is best when it comes to immigration policy here in the US. President Fox should be working on why Mexico cannot take care of its millions of citizens instead of showing indignation. Read more here: "Concerned about the huge numbers of illegal immigrants streaming across the border and worried it could be an entry point for terrorists, a U.S. lawmaker has proposed building two parallel steel and wire fences running from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast. But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said a wall running the length of a border would cost too much. Mexico has expressed indignation at the idea. Fox, speaking in Tamaulipas state across the border from Texas, said such extreme security measures would violate immigrants' rights.US News Article | Reuters.com
Bush is Pissed Click here to see Bush this morning in an unhappy mood. Whoever leaked the NSA intelligence to the NYT may be in deep trouble. Thanks P'line for the link. Atlas has the good rant, and the senate vote.
VDH: We are "lancing the boil": "So at year’s end, what then is happening at home and abroad?
For the last three years we have seen a carbuncle swell as the old Vietnam War opposition rematerialized, with Michael Moore, the Hollywood elite, and Cindy Sheehan scaring the daylights out of the Democratic establishment that either pandered to or triangulated around their crazy rhetoric. The size of the Islamicist/Baathist insurrection caught the United States for a time off guard, as was true also of the sudden vehement slurs from our erstwhile allies in Europe, Canada, and Asia. Few anticipated that the turmoil Iraq would force the Syrians out of Lebanon, the Libyans to give up their WMDs, and the Egyptians to hold elections — and that all the killing, acrimony, and furor over these developments would begin to engulf the Middle East and threaten the old order.
In the face of that growing ulcer of discontent, we quietly kept on killing terrorists, promoting elections in Iraq, pressuring Arab autocracies to democratize, and growing the economy. All that is finally lancing the boil, here and abroad — and what was in there all along is now slowly oozing out, making the cure seem almost as gross as the malady." Read entire.
A Google-AOL relationship? Intel leakers should be prosecuted. Daily Pundit. Dinocrat addresses it well. And Captain Ed covers the silly story here. Writer on trial in Turkey for discussing Armenian massacres. NYT Is there a cure for chronic procrastinators? Most people seem to agree that MADD has become a de-facto prohibitionist movement instead of a reasonable one. TCS Michelle likes the Immigration bill that passed in the House. Looks reasonable to me. A fine review and appreciation of the great, and hipper-than-hip, Dave Brubeck. Orlen at American Spectator. "Hope in Hell": Review of new book on Doctors without Borders. New Horizons. Not sexy enough for the press to cover? RWNH. Why not to get a Christmas puppy. Totally agree. Slate. God on the Internet. A review, by Jonathan Last at First Things.
Friday, December 16. 2005
Was Mona Lisa happy? Definitely. Norm found this: What are your gender traits? Try to be honest. Paul Theroux on Africa: "There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment." Read entire at NYT. Steyn on Sinatra. Is there anything that Steyn isn't an expert on?
The new Jib Jab. Krauthammer on Iranian fundamentalism and their preparation for Armageddon and the arrival of the 12th Imam. Warming trend continues. Does it mean anything? WaPo The Tobacco Nazis just won't quit. Now it's smoking at home. WFT? How can we get these busy-body jerks to Quit It and to Leave Others Alone? A 12-Step program? A mutation caused white skin. It's sort of a shame for us whitie-mutants, because it's not really a very attractive or healthy-looking skin color. It's a pasty, putty-colored blotchy skin which reveals every defect and requires tanning salons to look half-decent after age 25 and which, in the mature age group, just slumps, lumps, sags, wrinkles, goes to hell and one's face ends up looking like a bowl of dried-out pudding with a strawberry-looking nose in the middle. Being a mutant is a raw deal, even with my 1/16th redskin blood. School choice in Britain encounters the same Socialist hysteria as it does in the US. Samiz. Pottinger on why he left the WSJ to join the Marines. Nantucket Windmill update, from Morrisey. Fact is, though, windmills are catastrophically destructive to birds, and economically non-viable without subsidies. Let's face it: wind power is just a hippy-dippy feel-good thing. Nuclear is what we need: it's a free lunch, or as close as we can get to that. Tammy points out the biggest loser in yesterday's election: Move On - "The Soros Sponsored Voice of the Moonbat Left."
 Ho Hum. Another election in Iraq.
I am not the only one who is puzzled by the low-key press coverage of Iraq's election. I guess it means that peaceful, high-turnout elections for democratic governments in Iraq are now routine. Which means Mission Accomplished. And one hell of a mission, too. No-one predicted all of these lunatics streaming in to try to prevent democracy and freedom and human rights, or Syria behaving in such a hostile manner. Or the US press and the "loyal" opposition behaving in such a hostile and negative manner to our providing human rights, political freedom, and women's rights to a place where sadistic state terrorism reigned under the jackboot of a destructive, anti-American, Hitler-worshipping, megalomaniacal thug. And a greaseball scumbag, too, who truly earned the exclusive services of someone like Ramsey Clark. It is time, America, for us to give ourselves, our tough soldiers, our President, and our allies a big pat on the back for sticking with a nasty situation and creating a major opportunity for freedom and for American interests in an ugly, treacherous, and backward, but important, part of the world. Iraq has been given a great and costly gift. It is going to be up to them to hold it and keep it. I pray that they will, and that someday soon I can visit Iraq and see the great marshes of the Tigris and Euphrates, the ancient ruins of the first cities on the planet, and a free people treasuring their gift, purchased with the blood of many American, Brit, Allied, and Iraqi heroes of human dignity.
Man can believe the impossible but never the improbable. Oscar Wilde
Thursday, December 15. 2005
Prices plunge; production jumps. How bad is that? Many hedge funds to blow off the SEC: Marketwatch WalMart, Ford, ATT, other major corps supporting anti-Alito activity. Why? Human Events Nobody wants to pay for health insurance. Why not require it, like car ins. or homeowners? TCS "Burn the Jews": Hizbollah Academic Symposium. Jihad Watch Why we must get rid of Bush immediately, from The World Can't Wait org. At American Future. Good grief. At first I thought it was satire.
 Fawlty Towers
Now that I have gotten my Christmas present copies, I will provide the link, as if you couldn't think of it yourselves. The Complete. Nothin' better. And it's clouding over and the bad weather is on the way. Bring it on! Does anything beat a fire in the fireplace, snow and sleet falling, Fawlty Towers on the DVD player, Dylan on the CD, and a Grey Goose martini in one hand, one's sweetie-pie in the other, and a good Cuban in one's third hand? Multi-tasking. Except hunting or skiing or... (Bad photo - 3-4 olives minimum, for healthy living.)
Where are the WMDs? Syria. Oh? Big surprise - where else? Watch the anti-war crowd go spastic now, or into clinical conniptions or psychotic hysteria (or, more likely, to ignore facts). P'line found it before we did: NYSun. Ya gotta read the Sun each morning. Online, or they deliver around NYC. They are the next great newspaper, along with the CSM and the Sunday (hate to say it) NYT. Perfect for puppy house-training: LAT - suddenly no longer a national paper - and Boston Globe. But Chicago Tribune? Don't they run Mark Steyn? When the NYT decides to run Steyn and/or VDH, I will re-subscribe - it's a promise - but until then, they are just a Lefty propaganda machine to me, daily destroying our precious trees and forests, to print what? Just see the NYT headline today: "Bush's Path Has Many Ifs" while a higher % is voting in Iraq than votes in the US. Arrogant jackasses always have a "but monkey" when it's not Dems or Lefties. Need a Clinical Depression? A good Africa News source: Afrol News Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: a DVD for the youths. Not brand-new, but sounds like a good goof.
Photo from Drudge: 
Big Vote in Iraq today. What a beautiful thing to see. What an irony that politics is so dirty and nasty, while voting is such a fine expression of human dignity. Their turnout will be better than ours. Michelle has updated details - she has the time. This is what "Victory" looks like: it must warm the hearts of all of the nations who participated in bringing freedom to a very sad place. 94% of Americans believe there is a God. Ex-Donk. So sorry, Marxists, Leftists, and the ACLU - the more you confront people and make them think, the more they find their beliefs in their hearts and souls. Chicago to ban retired police officers from carrying handguns. WTF? Aren't those the good guys (and gals) we want carrying guns? Alphecca Fooled ya! After all those years of eating bland, disgusting fiber, turns out it doesn't matter for cancer. It probably was all a plot of evil Big Fiber. Why did the NYT go with the forged ballots story? Conf. Yank. And Michelle asks "Which side is the NYT on?" Is secret US diplomacy bringing Sunnis on board in Iraq? Hope so - and it is clear today that something has changed. Debka Canada has second-largest oil deposits in the world. Make Alberta the 51st state? The Prof. A really neat idea: occupy Alberta. Send in the Marines. It's all about oil, right? DNA says North America originally settled by only 70 Asians? Gee whiz, and they talk about inbreeding in Appalachia! No wonder we Indians didn't have wheels and guns and philosophy and Botticelli and like, you know, stuff. US stealing doctors from around the world. NYT Is China eating our lunch? The trade deficit. We need to get smarter.
"Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin' at his last meal
Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield
For dignity
Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass
Young man lookin' in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin' through painted glass
For dignity
Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve
Somebody said dignity was the first to leave
I went into the city, went into the town
Went into the land of the midnight sun Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure
Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
for dignity
Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams" "Dignity," outtake from Oh Mercy, officially released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol 3 and MTV Unplugged. Download a live 2004 version of this song here.
Wednesday, December 14. 2005
Inexpensive, good stocking stuffers: Vt. Country Store. Don't forget their "Tired Old Ass Soak." Also, I like Loolo Scarves. From Candanandada. And an adult stocking stuffer - a necessary handy Breathalyzer - when to call a cab and when to let your "over-served" friend drive you home from Archie's so you don't get the ticket. The cops don't always agree with us when we tink tank we cn driv perfkly perfckly wll wall wull. Buy one for everyone you care about who likes to celebrate in a hearty manner. Another adult stocking stuffer - yuk - as essential as the above - the famous Hammacher-Schlemmer Nose Hair Trimmer - the best in the business. And one important note: In the midst of holiday chaos, be careful of your dogs. Finally - A Merry Christmas, and a Happy Holidays, from Opie! To make the most of it all, see my instructions below:
Continue reading "Last Week of Online Shopping"
Boot compares Boot Camp to torture. Col. Kline on Iraq. John at Pline. Bush speaking on the war today. Put him out there - he's no slick great communicator, but he's got heart and he's got the responsibility. Academia in wartime. NYSun - H/T, Pline.
Comments on Prior Post Our reliable and always enjoyable youthful News Junkie posted this link early this morning: Georgetown and Harvard accept 20 million dollar bribes from Saudi. "For understanding." I think we already understand enough. NYT . For me, the real question is "Do the moslems understand us yet?" Good point, but beside the point at hand. The point at hand is what the great universities will take money for. When Yale turned down the Lee Bass donation for study of Western civilization, I was "mugged by reality," and convinced that academia was truly a scurrilous operation. So here we find our great universities taking money to "understand" moslems, and refusing money to understand ourselves and our own civilization and culture. What's wrong with this picture?
Literary Scholarship: Back to Aesthetics? From an important piece by Lindsay Waters: The problem is not just that literary scholarship has become disconnected from life. Something else more suspicious has happened to professional criticism in America over the past 30 years, and that is its love affair with reducing literature to ideas, to the author's or reader's intention or ideology — not at all the same thing as art. As a result, literary critics are devoted to saving the world, not to saving literature for the world, and to internecine battles that make little sense outside academe. Read entire. It's about time we saw some reason from Harvard.
Will Dunkin Donuts go upscale? Let's hope not. We like them just the way they are: predictably downscale with coffee that tastes very good, with enough sugar and milk. Story in Slate. St. Francis created the first creche in Grecio, according to Curt Jester, to keep lawyers busy in the future. Never realized that he was the Patron Saint of ACLU attorneys. Is the paperless office finally happening? CSM A cool gift to our readers: How to actually reach a human being at a number of major companies. The IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul English. Georgetown and Harvard accept 20 million dollar bribes from Saudi. "For understanding." I think we already understand enough. NYT . For me, the real question is "Do the moslems understand us yet?"
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life. Bette Davis
|
