Wednesday, April 2. 2008
Thanks, Buddy.
The remarkable Sylvie Guillem with Laurent Hillaire in a short excerpt from Forsythe's In the Middle Somewhat Elevated:
 Sheffield, MA, in the southern Berkshires, is one of the loveliest villages in New England. It has well-kept horse farms, a few dairy farms, a bunch of quaint bed-and-breakfasts, wooded hills, a 250 year-old Congregational Church, and a population of around 3000.
It isn't too far from Maggie's Farm, and it isn't too far from where Alice's Restaurant used to be (in Stockbridge). The only problem with this fine 1880 carriage barn-home is that it comes with only 6 acres. I would need ten or twenty times that to do what I want to do. The only other downside is all of the Subarus with Obama stickers in the area. (Asking price $740,000). The workshop and office space on the ground level are an appealing feature. (No, we are not in the real estate business: we just like a break from politics.)
This note came in over the transom: Saturday, March 22, 2008 Subject: MARINES' AFTER ACTION REPORT From: Dill Lt Col Jeffrey J (AAMNF RCT-5 1/7 Battalion Commander) Family and Friends of the First Team, As this is the final First Team update from Iraq, I would like to start out by thanking all of you for your endless support, generosity, and most importantly, your prayers. During our entire deployment we were nearly overwhelmed with care packages, letters, and cards from all of you and countless other Americans who just wanted us to know they supported us and our mission. After nearly five years of sustained combat operations, the American people are as supportive and generous as ever. The support, care packages, letters, and prayers were truly appreciated by every Marine, Sailor, and soldier within the TF. I must specifically thank the Battalion's Key Volunteer Network. These incredible women focused on ensuring every family was taken care of while their Marine or Sailor was deployed. Their efforts ensured we could focus on the mission here in Iraq as we knew our families were in good hands. The First Team could not have hoped for a better KVN. We are all indebted to them for all they have done for us and for our families. The past seven months have been very busy ones for your Marines and Sailors. To say I am proud of them and their accomplishments would be an incredible understatement. During this deployment they have driven in excess of 150,000 miles under the constant threat of IEDs, they executed over 12,000 mounted and dismounted combat patrols in the cities, villages, and deserts of our AO, they discovered and removed from enemy hides over 20,000 pieces of ordinance that could have been used to make hundreds of IEDs, and they detained over 200 suspected insurgents. The massive amount of pressure put on the enemy by the TF's sustained surge operations resulted in the tactical defeat of AQI and insurgent groups in our AO. While the units that preceded us certainly set the stage for our eventual success, it was the unrelenting pressure and pace of the Marines and Sailors of 1/7, coupled with the continued development and improvement of the Iraqi Police and Army, which finally broke the enemy's back. But your Marines did a lot more than combat operations, and certainly more than what they were originally trained to do. They worked with the local government officials, mayors, and city councils to improve their processes and efficiencies in running a government and showed them that public service constitutes unselfishness and at times self-sacrifice. They spent hours upon hours teaching classes on the Iraqi Rule of Law, the Iraqi Constitution, and other civic functions to local leaders, police officers, and soldiers.
Continue reading "An Iraq After Action Report"
As if to reinforce our post below, we finally learn why she was fired from the Watergate hearings. This is amazing (but not surprising), at Hot Air. Let's see whether the press is brave enough to be all over this or not. She is a sociopath, just like hubbie - but not as slick as he is. "Birds of a feather..." It's the final nail. She's done. (And I think Obama is done, too, with his Farrakhan story. Unless he tries to explain, once again, that I wouldn't understand because it's "a black thing.") Dems sure can pick 'em. I bet Chris Dodd and Joe Biden are looking pretty good to them now. Update: More on the story here.
re Hillary's lies, from Hitchins at Slate (I like that distinction between the two kinds of lies), a quote: The punishment visited on Sen. Hillary Clinton for her flagrant, hysterical, repetitive, pathological lying about her visit to Bosnia should be much heavier than it has yet been and should be exacted for much more than just the lying itself. There are two kinds of deliberate and premeditated deceit, commonly known as suggestio falsi and suppressio veri. (Neither of them is covered by the additionally lying claim of having "misspoken.") The first involves what seems to be most obvious in the present case: the putting forward of a bogus or misleading account of events. But the second, and often the more serious, means that the liar in question has also attempted to bury or to obscure something that actually is true. Let us examine how Sen. Clinton has managed to commit both of these offenses to veracity and decency and how in doing so she has rivaled, if not indeed surpassed, the disbarred and perjured hack who is her husband and tutor.
 Michelle flipped the switch - on. Speaking of meaningless but vanity-feeding gestures, a great bit from Thompson. A quote:
If not to have a discernible impact, directly or by example, what, then, is the point? What drives this level of anxiety over soft drinks and peanut butter residue? Unless much of this is indeed about seeking out pretentious guilt and then wringing one’s hands for public display and personal gratification? It’s not that I necessarily believe that my eating a KitKat is going to lead directly to the death of a baby in the developing world, or that drinking a Fanta means one more “disappeared” trade unionist, it’s more a case of knowing that if I do these things I’m letting myself down, that I’m going against the standards I’ve set for myself.
Standards that apparently serve no objective purpose, whether enacted or not. Could these ineffectual standards then be about something less tangible and more intimate? Could they perhaps be about how a person wishes to seem, to themselves, or in certain kinds of company? I don’t care what anyone else thinks of me.
But of course. What was that about unrecycled peanut butter jars? I usually just give up and throw it in the bin (as long as no one’s watching).
"Punished with a baby..."? True, changing diapers at 3 AM is an annoyance, but is that what Obama meant? Granola strikes out grittily against oppression. Jules Do jails do any good? Betsy The Prophet's pedophilia banned in the Netherlands. If I were a holy prophet, I wouldn't want that advertised either. A note to Alice Walker, from Phyllis Chesler Mugabe is gone! Who'd a thunk it? The rising price of biofuels How to lie with statistics, Swiss style. See how they selected 1961 as their index for the second graph? It's in the fine print. McCain in his own briar patch. Am. Thinker. McCain has been wrong about a few things, but McCain-Feingold has been the worst. As has been widely noted, that law limits the individual's political speech - but not the political speech of media (and, thus far, not the political speech of blogs and websites). It's nuts. I thought Villainous Company was on hiatus, or had retired. I guess not. She has a good piece up about "conversations on race." (h/t, Anchoress) Roger's snaggle-tooth blood-pudding eaters piece (below) effectively fisked the newspaper article. The photos were worthy of Pallywood, and they ignored the aggressive efforts over the past few years of the Dept. of Agriculture to expand the food stamp program.
Tuesday, April 1. 2008
I'm being silly, of course. The feckless Stilton scarfers are actually looking down their aquiline bluenoses at us. The Independent, which is a sort of digital newspaper for wrapping your crappy online fish and chips, says in the Headline: USA 2008 The Great Depression. They've even got the requisite breadline picture: 
Woe is us, huh? Here's the accompanying text. Warning! Englishmen don't know how to pluralize things properly. You know, not like Americans, who are important people, and not doily-fetished tea-slurpers. Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.
The increase – from 26.5 million in 2007 – is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards. But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an economy that is suddenly beset by troubles. Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add to the squeeze.
Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story. Yes, and after all, "telling a story" is exactly what you're attempting to do. You're just not very good at it. But I want to be kind to our friends on that miserable pile of rocks and coal across the pond. I think it's swell that they've taken time from their busy schedule of crushing each other to death against fences at soccer games, throwing up on themselves in the gutter outside pubs, and surrendering to imams to pay any attention to our festering hive of poverty and depravity here in the States. I especially like the fellow that's the centerpiece of their pieta of poverty there in the picture. Let's zoom in on him, shall we? 
You see, in the thumbnail view of the picture, the noble Bob Cratchit figure is holding his poverty-numbed fingers in the universal sign for "Please sir, can I have some more porridge?" It's a shame to ruin it by showing him in closeup, fiddling with his MP3 player to get just the right mix, and shod in elaborate, new, expensive footwear and clothes. Because what we're looking at here, is indeed a line of people who are willing to stand in a line to get free stuff. You're right there, Percival. Unfortunately for you Someone at the National Review Online read the caption on the image you used, and it reads: NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: People wait on line to receive donated coats at the kickoff of the 17th annual New York Cares Coat Drive a the Bowery Mission November 30, 2005 in New York City. Bloomberg helped give out coats to residents of the Mission and the coat drive hopes to collect and distribute 80,000 coats to needy New Yorkers by New Years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
But your point is made, even if fraudulently. Very truthy, Cedric. People are lining up virtually, if not physically, for free food coupons, which you inartfully mention later in your article can be illegally sold to unscrupulous people for seventy cents on the dollar to buy drugs and booze and... well... I don't know, maybe MP3 players. I might mention that this isn't much of a line in a big, strapping adult country like the United States. It might impress you over there in that little dollop of dirt you live on, the remaining wreckage of your "Empire." Do you guys even get to lord it over Scotland anymore? You guys shed power and influence like dandruff, I can't keep up. But let me assure you that if that was a line to get free Hannah Montana tickets, that line would reach to New Jersey. You remember New Jersey, don't you? We beat your inbred monarch-ass-kissing fruity wig-wearing generals like a drum there in the 1700s. With guns we used to shoot squirrels with. But I digress. After all, it's not fair to compare Hannah Montana tickets to Food Stamps, as Hannah Montana is more important than food to a teenage girl. And Hannah Montana is bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of Great Britain. But then again, what isn't around here? In the article, those Malvinas-pestering cold-water-flat-loving hollow-chested Britishers refer to everybody in the picture as "disadvantaged Americans." Fair enough. I'll use their criteria: that queuing citizens trying to get free stuff from the government is a sign of an apocalyptic breakdown of a whole society. Hey, Alfies: 100% of the population of Great Britain gets in line to get their chit to see a doctor. So by your reckoning, your entire country has collapsed. And it's been collapsed since 1948, if you go by the National Health Service. You know, right after we saved you the trouble and expense of German lessons. I was always enchanted when I was a lad to read compelling news stories of daring Britishers swimming the English Channel. Shame you just end up in France, though. Nothing to do there but warm your hands over the burning cars. So I have some advice, you crumpet nibblers. Swim west from now on. You might like it here. I bet the NHS doesn't hand out MP3 players with the calendar you get to plot your wait times for your medical care.
JUDEO-CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES | NEW AGE GUIDELINES | The Ten Commandments | Ten Suggestions for a More Guilt-Free Life | 1. You shall have no other gods before me. | 1. You should feel comfortable in believing in whatever feels good to you. | 2. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. | 2. You really should not be bothered with Things. | 3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. | 3. You should not swear unless you really have a bad feeling about something and swearing helps you get in touch with it. | 4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. | 4. Sunday is a good day to sort out how you really think about stuff. | 5. Honor your father and your mother | 5. Never forget to send HallmarkÔ Mother's Day or Father's Day cards. | 6. You shall not murder. | 6. You should not kill anybody, but if they really oppress you or have possessions that you need and you feel they really deserve it and you do not know what you are doing (and can swear to it) then, maybe OK. | 7. You shall not commit adultery. | 7. What's "adultery"? If you have a good feeling about someone and they have a good feeling about you and it is really beautiful, that must be OK. | 8. You shall not steal. | 8. It is illegal to steal but if you or your cultural affinity group were oppressed or put down by somebody else or by another member of their cultural affinity group, taking what might rightfully have been yours is not really stealing anyway. | 9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. | 9. It is against the law to lie in court but you can tell the media anything (if they pay). | 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, or his wife, or his possessions. | 10. If you want your neighbor’s house or his possessions, marry his wife after she gets them in the divorce. |
 As readers know, The Friends of Blackwater NWR in Cambridge, MD have two live BirdCams, one on a Bald Eagle nest: Click here: Friends of Blackwater NWR - Bald Eagle Cam (I only see one little eaglet in the nest) and the other on an Osprey nest: Click here: Friends of Blackwater NWR - Osprey Cam.
Photo is an eagle with a fish, perched on a not-yet used Osprey nest platform.
A remarkable short video. Who knew where penguins really spend the winter?
This is a photo of Gunnhilde, a fine example of this family-friendly and versatile sporting breed. K nown
best for pointing and ptracking ptarmigan in the far north, the hardy but socialist Norwegian is also useful for ptracking lost reindeer, aquavit, herring, blonds, and boiled potatoes. I had one of these dogs once, but he ptracked a lovely smoked herring on a truck on its way from Nova Scotia to North Waddlefield, MA, where he picked up the scent and followed it south to Waterbury, CT. I heard that he and the smoked herring got married, settled down, and opened a successful dry-cleaning shop in Torrington, CT.
In no way do I believe that Dems have a monopoly on lying and other sins, but I just want to focus on one thing: What do Dems tend to lie about most? I would suggest that they lie most often to conceal their Leftist agendas from the mass of voters. It's a gramscian tactic, and well-understood and accepted by the Left. (By any means necessary..") Hillary's latest whopper was an effort to claim, essentially, that she is tough and comfortable with war. Obama's lie du jour is about his responses to the political questionnaire he completed. I wish they would decontaminate and simplify our lives by running on what they really want to do. Ah, but they're too "smart" to do that.
In the WSJ, Peggy Noonan begins thus: I think we've reached a signal point in the campaign. This is the point where, with Hillary Clinton, either you get it or you don't. There's no dodging now. You either understand the problem with her candidacy, or you don't. You either understand who she is, or not. And if you don't, after 16 years of watching Clintonian dramas, you probably never will.
Read the whole thing, which I think sums it all up.
 Link to Maggie's Farm or we will drown these puppies. (Thanks to Sipp for this brilliant blog marketing concept from his I'm the only serial killer in MA)
"I'm just so sick of this world, and Obama can fix it." Cinnamon. Also, Obama busted. What the clean energy scam is doing to Brazil. Heartbreaking Media "selling us on fear and recession for years now." Speaking of which, The Independent declares with glee: US heading for a great depression. That is ridiculous, but schadenfreude sells papers. Speaking of schadenfreude, Leftists claim that the GOP coalition is terminally broken. Our friend Right Wing Prof takes a look. Something in Rick Moran wants to walk away from Iraq. And something else in him doesn't. As Never Yet Melted notes, nobody is saying about Europe, "After 60 years they still can't stand up for themselves." I hope we will still have troops in Iraq in 10 years. Tiger has a good take on the Basra deal. Zimbabwe "election" update: The Independent (h/t, Norm) "Poll shock: America not like Hollywood." Steyn Crime update, in the UK A quote from the always-interesting Mediocracy: The idea that we should seek to equalise outcomes between the "highly motivated" and the "less well motivated" is interesting. It suggests that giving everyone the chance to do well means (in the minds of people like Baroness Blackstone) neutering "doing well" to the point where everyone does well, regardless. Demanding that all universities have resources "concentrated" on them, across the board, is equally vacuous.
Man-made global black holes: Be very afraid. Al Gore should take this crisis on: The End of the World Picking a VP for McCain. Blackburn? (h/t, Insty)
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