imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Saturday, June 24, 2006
YOUR SATURDAY INTERBLOGATORY TOUR
Cartoon by Sean Delonas
Who knew that leg irons were considered 'instruments of torture'?
What are we supposed to use, duct tape?: The US Army is importing 5,000 leg irons with attachable belly chains as part of the ‘reconstruction’ of ‘security and justice’ in Iraq. British firms cannot export such kit because since 1997 they have been defined as ‘instruments of torture’. The United Nations ‘standard minimum rules’ for the treatment of prisoners also prohibit their use: UN investigators commonly find leg irons used for torture. The US tender sought 5,000 pairs of leg irons and other chains for ‘three Baghdad, Iraqi detention facilities’ as part of the ‘reconstruction of Iraq’s criminal justice system’.
They can't "export such kit [sic]," so does this mean that Britain gets to keep them all to herself?
8 AJ Strata answers the question: What Is So Scary About 500 WMDs?
8 Spook 86 wants to know What Threat?: In other words (as California Representative Jane Harman told a network interviewer last night) "there's nothing new here." That begs an obvious question, namely what Ms. Harman defines as "something new." Until a couple of days ago, Congressional Democrats were only too happy to remind us that "Bush lied" because we never found any WMD in Iraq. Now, faced with the inconvenient truth that some of Saddam's WMD arsenal is still around, the Dims believe it's time to move along, and the MSM is only too happy to accomodate that request.
8 DJ Drummond notes that Since the 2004 Election, the DNC has been very very quiet on that subject, which tells me they are hearing things they don’t want to have come up in front of a national audience.
8 Chris smells dirty politics in NM. Crooks get a pay raise in New Mexico so they can vote for Democrats: There's an ulterior motive to this move to allow criminals to steal up to $500 and get a free pass in my state - the upcoming mid-term elections.
8 I had no idea that Stuart Smiley was still on the air until I read that Michael Fumento Debated on the Al Franken Show: Turns out I just couldn't win. … If you don't report from where the action is, you're a chickenhawk or chairborne ranger. If you DO, you're pathological.
8 Talk to the hand. Fans Threaten To Sue Streisand: BARBRA STREISAND is reportedly facing legal action from angry fans after she announced her upcoming US tour - as they insist they paid a fortune to see her 'last-ever' performances nearly a decade ago. The furious former admirers of the superstar are planning to file suit on fraud charges. Streisand, who told fans she was quitting touring for good in 1999, kicks off her tour in October (06).
8 Say it ain’t so! Brangelina expected special treatment? BRANGELINA ACTING 'COLONIAL': Namibia's National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is calling [Angelina] and Brad Pitt "colonial overlords" who "used heavy-handed and brutal tactics" to pressure the government into providing extraordinary restrictions on the media. A NSHR spokesman said, "To shut down a national border so she can give birth in peace is a massive abuse of power."
While you're here, scroll down to see my very own Ann Coulter talking doll!
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ANN COULTER'S TROPHY WALL
DogMan surprised me with this Ann Coulter talking doll today.
I opened the box and the first thing she does is bag a trophy!
"Payback," she said.
8 Check out this Ann Coulter cartoon.
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Thursday, June 22, 2006
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
All American First Cavalry Amazon Battalions: Rush teased the giggling studio audience into admitting that PMS existed, and then pointed out that "while in a state of PMS, women get crazy. Some women have even committed murder." Since that's exactly what you want in combat, why not use this syndrome to our advantage? Why not have 52 combat-ready divisions, one a week, synchronized to be ready anytime the nation calls?
That was linked to his website describing an episode of his TV show from 1994. You'll need to be a member to access it (it has a video clip). However, he also wrote about it in his first book, The Way Things Ought To Be, on page 202 (hard cover).
Guess what was found in Iraq? My insight on WMDs would not be brilliant, which is why I leave the subject to better minds than mine. In no particular order ...
8 Aaron at Lifelike Pundits has some GREAT posts!
8 Check out Mac Ranger, who has been predicting all along that this will be a bang of a summer for the right.
8 Scroll around Airborne Combat Engineer
8 AJ Strata is experiencing blogging problems, but keep checking back as he’s always an excellent source for this subject.
8 I’m waiting for Spook 86 to comment. UPDATE! Back Story: [T]here is a back story that must be told. It's a story of brueaucratic inepitude, apparent political and personal agendas, and the efforts of a few courageous individuals to get the truth out.
While we're in the ballpark of politics ...
8 John B. Dwyer chronicles an amazing list of accomplishments since Zarqawi’s death.
8 Pity poor Dave who endured the LARRY KING HURLFEST for our benefit. A Purple Heart fer sure!
Just for your information
8 TiVo Series2: They’re Giving Them Away
And just for fun ...
8 Father Jack :~)
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NEO-MAXI ZOOM DWEEBIE ... TONIGHT
Nurse G and C.O. have only the basic television cable; they get numbers 2 - 13 on the dial. They must find their entertainment within the paltry parameters of network viewing -- okay, and the WB, too -- while I, in my smugness, revel in the SOPRANOS and RESCUE ME and 24-hour marathons of 24. So imagine my surprise when they introduced me to a quiet little gem on NBC called The Office! Nurse G used to work at Corning Inc., in their research labs, and can totally identify with this program.
We all especially like the office dork, Dwight, played by the very funny, and incredibly brave, Rainn Wilson. In real life, Wilson is married to the author Holiday Reinhorn, who's written some great short stories like this one:
Get Away from Me, David
In a perfect world, i.e., one in which I didn’t work at the Bouquet Canyon Bank of Modesto for Jose Martinson, I would turn to this man I didn’t work for, and when he said something like, “You hang on to your monitor right now,” I would say something like:
“YOUSUCKMYCOCKRIGHTNOW.”
This story is included in Reinhorn's short story collection Big Cats.
Finally, a Thursday night program I can look forward to!
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
GUN CONTROL MEANS USING BOTH HANDS
Nurse G with one of her guns. I think there's hope for Canada. I've been encouraged lately that our neighbor to the North is beginning to accept certain real world realities. Like being nice to terrorists will not protect you and that some of the guns laws will never stop murders.
Canada is bidding Good riddance to the gun registry: From the start, many experts inside and outside government warned the Liberals their long-gun registry would turn out to be expensive yet hollow symbolism. Still, the idea was a vote-winner with the Liberals' central, urban and heavily female base, so even after those warnings proved correct, the Liberals clung to the myth that, eventually, registration would produce tangible results. They preserved it, after two computer systems chewed through over a third of a billion dollars and still produced unreliable information on gun owners nearly a quarter of the time. They persevered, even after the Auditor-General pronounced it to be one of the biggest messes she had ever seen from government.
8 IMAO's Top 10 Gun Safety tips: I think my favorite is #10 :~)
8 Instead of buggering with our Second Amendment, maybe those DC gasbags should try to control spending, as in our hard earned tax dollars. Remember how New York City bellyached about how Homeland Security was cutting some of their funding? Now it's time for the rest of us to bitch, because Gawker discovered how some of the money is being used: New York’s Homeland Security budget may have been tightened, but that’s no problem for the Hampton Jitney — they’ve been given $83K to keep the summer share crew safe, protected in their alcoholic bubble.
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
GOOFIN' OFF
I took this picture of one of the porta potties situated on the street and drew up a fake ad. I posted it on the bathroom door using a Mr. Hanky, the Christmas Poo, magnet. (We were serious South Park aficionados at Dexter's and had a whole collection of magnets. Boss ended up with them when we closed, probably because he had bought them.)
The ad drew lots of comments and laughs. So I sent Ed's Heads a copy and told them they were free to use it if they wanted. I never did hear from them.
Our store was closed for good in October, 2003. At one time, Dexter's had 90+ outlet stores across the country. Most of them are now closed. I heard that a dozen were still in operation, although I think they've become Super Shoe Stores.
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WATCH YOUR STEP
My tendency is to be flip, to say something about that first step being a doozie. However, these two stories are tragic, and both involved taking pictures.8 Marine dies in fall at park: Band member killed Sunday while taking photo during hike in Pa. Grand Canyon.
8 Yellowstone tourist dies in 500-foot fall: A woman lost her footing after stepping over a retaining wall to take a photograph and went over a cliff, falling 500 feet to her death in a canyon, Yellowstone National Park officials said.
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PRIVATE HILLARY
From "The Bimbo Primary," by Joe Klein in New York Magazine, 2/10/92.
That quote by Klein riles me to this day.
Her Royal C must be gearing up for '08 -- getting a tad nervous maybe? -- because she's talking about privcay again. Forget the gag-me-with-a-spoon irony; just what is she trying to hide this time?
HILL IN PUSH FOR PRIVACY: Promoting herself as "an expert on the perils of losing your privacy," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday pushed for a "privacy bill of rights" and a White House czar to protect consumers' personal data.
8 OMG, look who's Defending Hillary (Yes, You Read That Right) Against An MSM Poll Result !!
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NAME THAT BLOGGER!
It's only Tuesday and already I'm bored with current events. It seems like summer school these days. ugh. So is it any wonder I found a diversion?I was surfing the web, gathering my blog fodder along the way, and made my usual stop at HILLARY NEEDS A VACATION. Love the title -- who wouldn't? -- but the guy, who once went by the handle of "boy michael," needs a nickname. "Posted by HILLARYNEEDSAVACATION" or even "HNAV" is just too much. He's got a good thing going, but he needs a nickname. Got any suggestions?
Today he notes that [Y]et another Democrat, who employed RACE as a questionable motive for his prosecution.
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Monday, June 19, 2006
WHAT A JOKE
I did that joke poster more than 10 years ago, during Slick's first term. I was reminded of it when I read this: "Bill Clinton is about as Southern as U.S. Grant or William T. Sherman, in MY humble opinion". h/t Don Surber
And then I did this one (reference) ... :~)
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THEY'RE STILL INFIDELS
'Nice' people finish last: It seems that even the unbearable niceness of being Canadian won't keep you safe in this dreadful new world of ours.
…
We've been had, folks.
All that time we've been employing euphemisms and politically-correct speak so as not to antagonize the Muslim world, the radical Islamist leaders have been recruiting every malcontent and schizoid they can find to kill us and our children. Like a pack of crazed salesmen for jihad, they have been searching for weak minds and strong backs to do their dirty work.
It is clear that to extremist Muslims, we are no more or less than Americans with more snow and a trusting nature. We are white, rich, soft and decadent. We are infidels.
In the meantime, that teorrist-sympathizer Sheehan Supports U.S. Deserters in Canada: The Canadian government has so far denied political asylum to U.S. soldiers who have sought it but appeals are pending.
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WITH HER NOSE IN A BOOK
When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.~ Rita Mae Brown ~
There's a woman in town who reads while she walks all over town. Every day. In all kinds of weather. If it's raining, she drapes a sheet of clear plastic over the top portion of her body. She walks very fast -- guestimate about 4 mph -- with her head in a book. I've often wondered if she walks by the mile or by the chapter. Does she keep on walking if she gets to a really good part of the book? I thought of her when I read this UK article. (h/t Grumpy Old Bookman)
Where can women find real men? In a book, of course…: It's not just slush, my friends; it's not just stuff with embossed pink covers. Women are now outreading men in virtually every category. … They read more action stuff. Wilbur Smith is now more read by women than men, even though his plots are about crag-jawed South Africans who spend their time shooting hippos, foiling hijacks, crashing Israeli fighter planes and wresting golf-ball sized diamonds from the sunbaked veld. I was stunned the other day to discover that Flashman is just as popular with women as with men. Yes, Flashman, the outrageous Victorian bounder who kicks off the first novel in the series by raping his father's girlfriend.
…
The reason women devour so much fiction is that it is the only place where they can find a certain idea of masculinity. It is a spirit that has been regulated out of the workplace and banished from the classroom.
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Sunday, June 18, 2006
REMEMBERING MY FATHER ON FATHER'S DAY
Not the best picture of him, but that's my father tying my shoe, and that's my friend, Jody, sitting next to me. I was 3 and she was 2.My father died two days after I was married. He was 49 and too sick to walk me down the aisle. How he would love my children and their children. My son Zappa is the spittin' image of his grandfather.
I miss him.
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LIFE AS AN EMBED IN IRAQ
We need more War reporters like Michael Fumento. Twice he’s been an embed in Iraq, and he knows how the War is being covered – or not. The Iraq war is covered mostly by reporters who hole up in Baghdad hotels and send out Iraqi stringers to collect what the reporters deem news, as an article in the April 6, 2006, New York Review of Books described in great detail. The reporters convert these accounts into prose and put them on the wire. Except for that all-powerful "Baghdad" dateline, they might just as well be writing from Podunk. This explains why most of the media believe that Baghdad is where Iraq begins and ends. So naturally, they think Baghdad is the most dangerous part of the country. Wrong. "The sheer scale of violence in Ramadi is astounding..."
So Michael requested to go to Rimadi, where even small mistakes…can lead to pain and death, where the enemy holes up in the sacred minarets and fires upon the troops.
An added "attraction" is the snipers who occasionally pop off a round into the camp from the minarets. They know of Americans' unwillingness to attack "religious" buildings, even when they're clearly being used for military activity. When I asked Col. Clark why Iraqi army or police couldn't be used to make sure nobody entered the mosques with weapons, he was quick to say, "We never hesitate" to fire back when fired upon. "However," he added, "our fight requires strict cultural and religious sensitivity in order to be successful and legitimize the Iraqi government and army." If, he said, "the Iraqi army and Iraqi police established check points and conducted security screens at mosques it would undoubtedly be viewed negatively by the Iraqi people whose trust is vital to our success."
Michael has written a long article, yet a fast read, about his adventures in Camp Corregidor in eastern Ramadi. As you read it, think of all the military fathers who are separated from their families while stationed elsewhere and be thankful, for these men (and women) volunteered.
The New Band of Brothers
With the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in Ramadi.
by Michael Fumento
Ten days before I arrived, during the night of April 9, 1st Battalion suffered its worst casualties of the deployment in a mini-"Black Hawk Down" situation. An IED flipped a Humvee, killing the driver from D Company. An M-1 Abrams tank went to retrieve it. For good reason, Corregidor has a large complement of tanks and other armored vehicles. Unfortunately, another IED made a lucky strike on the tank, cutting the fuel line and setting it ablaze. The men inside scrambled to safety, but now things got really messy.
You can't just abandon an Abrams, because it has unique equipment and armor. If the bad guys get hold of a single vital piece they could use it to determine ways of defeating these otherwise almost invincible behemoths. Further, they could sell the information to anybody with a vested interest in blowing up M-1s. You also can't just call in an airstrike on a tank, as is routinely done with downed aircraft. That's fine for destroying secret electronics, but blasting a tank just spreads out the parts.
To make things even more dicey, the Abrams carries a powerful 120mm main gun and three machine guns. The rounds for these weapons were "cooking off" in the fire, flying in all directions. They would continue to do so for the rest of the night, making retrieval too dangerous.
So the troops set up a perimeter and waited. As with the real downing of the Black Hawks in Somalia, the burning tank attracted bad guys from throughout the city. They kept pouring into the area to kill the infidels. But with their night-vision equipment and laser pointers, Americans own the night. The enemy came in droves and they died in droves. "The insurgents were so desperate to gain momentum against us that they were literally running into the streets to plant IEDs right in front of us or throwing them over walls," says Claburn. "It was purely amazing." By the time the rounds had stopped flying and the tank was recovered, 30 jihadists were confirmed dead. Disaster had been averted. But the price in blood was high.
8 Check out all of Michael's photos he took this year in Iraq!
May God bless all fathers on this Father's Day.
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