Lots of people have commented on all the ways the war in Iraq differs from the war in Vietnam, but I decided to put my own unique spin on it. Besides, it’s been awhile since I did a Top Ten, and I need a break from getting the thing ready to go. So here goes.
Top Ten Ways You Can Tell Iraq is not Vietnam
10. In all the radio traffic that Fox News has broadcast coming from
Iraq, we haven’t heard the phrase “Charlie” used a single time.
9. Soldiers have had to get by on hand-rolled cigarettes and
the nargileh, rather than on prime marijuana.
8. No swamps. Plenty of sand, but no swamps.
7. Teenagers are wearing color-coded sex bracelets instead of love beads.
6. The Vietnamese hid in hooches and foxholes. The Iraqi militants are hiding in mosques and schools.
5. The popular music of today sucks shit through a soda straw. (Except country. And Eminem.)
4. Sadly, no Bob Hope.
3. 2004: Smallpox vaccines. 1965: Penicillin shots.
2. John Kerry got two paper cuts and a stubbed toe last week, and
hasn’t received a single Purple Heart for his pain and anguish.
1. We haven’t called in a napalm strike on Fallujah. Yet.
I have a thing starting tonight, that’s probably going to suck down most of my time for the next several days (and has been doing so for the past week or so). So, don’t be surprised if there’s NOTHING here for a few days. Duty first.
Happiest of happy birthdays to you, Sgt Hook! May the rest of your journey through life be filled with wonder and hope, love and laughter, and the warmth and blessings of those near and dear to you.
I think I may have finally found a “support our troops” effort that requires a little more … patriotism (?) than I can muster.
Operation Take One For the Country (or O.T.O.F.T.C., as they prefer to be called), has the mission to “organize, discreetly, single girls to frequent bars and restaurants near military bases and, well, Take One for the Country, with members of the military, especially those about to go overseas.”
Frankly, I can’t quite tell if this is for real, or just an elaborate hoax, but it at least has a ring of seriousness about it.
“There are a lot of girls out there like me who would like to do something for the country and really have no idea where to start. Our philosophy is if you are out there partying and engage in casual sex you might as well ‘Take One for the Country’". The nicely built brunette sits cross legged on her chair and delineates what she sees as the benefits of TOFTC, “The men go off into harms way gratified, and because the organization is covert, they get the boost in ego thinking that they scored on their own attributes, they ship out relaxed and confident, with a distinct impression of a grateful nation behind them".
Hat tip to my husband. Not sure if he sent me the link out of amusement, or because he thought I might want to sign up. He described it as a sort of Bloggers with Boobies meets Spirit of America. Or something.
Update: I’ve turned comments off for this post.
The escalating cost of parking, long a premium in Boston, hit home for many when it was learned that a 180-square-foot parking spot sold last month for $160,000 at the Brimmer Street Garage in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
180-square foot. That’s a 10-foot by 18-foot spot of concrete. $160,000. $889 per square foot.
That is just nuts. As if there weren’t enough reasons NOT to live in Boston.
By comparison, a three-bedroom home in Westfield was listed for $159,900 this week, one of several listed under $160,000 in that western Massachusetts city.
[…]
In New York, spots range from $150,000 to $250,000 and in crowded San Francisco they max out at about $200,000, said Dick Delaney, a developer at Chicago-based Mark Goodman & Associates who specializes in the parking market. In Chicago, spots range from $30,000 to $80,000, he said.
Un.
Real.
Kayla: “‘gina here.” (points)
Mom: “That’s right, you have a vagina there.”
Kayla: (grunts in agreement)
Mom: “Where’s your vagina?”
Kayla: (points)
Mom: “Yep, your vagina’s right there. Mommy has a vagina, too.” (ever mindful of opportunities to teach, don’tcha know?)
Kayla: (points in the right general direction)
Mom: “You’re right, Mommy’s vagina is down there.”
Kayla: “Seein’ him?”
Mom: “No, you won’t be seein’ him.”
I’ve started a new project - making cards for a unit led by Sgt. Hook. These will be blank-inside greeting cards, which the soldiers can then use to send back home to their families as the need arises. If any of my readers are card-makers, stampers, or scrapbookers, I encourage you to participate.
I used to support “a woman’s right to abortion.” When I was 18, I got pregnant, and came face-to-face with the decision myself. I was single, living with my sister, earning minimum wage and working an average of 35 hours a week at a combination of two jobs. I had no steady boyfriend, no savings, and the crappiest car known to man (it eventually blew a rod and got abandoned in a parking lot). I decided to keep the baby. A month later, I miscarried.
I weep for that baby. In my mind, it was a little girl. It was way too soon to know for sure, and I hadn’t started any real prenatal care, anyway. Had she lived, she would be almost eleven years old today. I probably would’ve named her something like Britney or Tiffany or Celeste - that’s the place I was in back then. I’d hope she’d forgive me for that when she got older. :)
I wasn’t ready to mother that little girl, and God or fate or nature or whatever knew that, so she wasn’t born. I may not have been the perfect role model for her, but I would have done my best. I would have leaned on my sister and the rest of my family for support. I would have made it work. Even if I were not June Cleaver for her, she would have had a better fate than that offered by a vacuum extraction at eight weeks gestation.
Over the last eleven years, my ideas about abortion have changed. I'm sure it's perfectly normal for a person's convictions to evolve with the rest of their personality. In my teens and early twenties, I was in the "it's a woman's choice" camp. Everybody I knew my age was in the same place. We were all new to adulthood - to making our own choices and dealing (or not) with the consequences - and we wanted to decide for OURSELVES whether or not to have an abortion. I suspect if we'd been given the option, we would have also liked "the right" to smoke pot, run around naked, and not pay sales tax.
In my mid-twenties, I started having children of my own. I now have a son who's almost four, and a daughter who's almost two. My thinking on abortion evolved - whether as a result of being pregnant, or the natural course of aging, I can't say. I do know that the very first time I felt my son's fluttery kicks (at about 14 weeks), he was real to me. He was a person, and his needs superseded my own. His rights were more important to me than mine. I came to the conclusion that I didn't support abortion - and wouldn't support it with my purse or my efforts - but that the government had no role in legislating it.
This year, in August, I will turn 30. By that time, I will be the mother of three children - ages 4, 2, and 2 months. I have continued to think often and deeply about abortion, and about what exactly a "right" is. I've gotten to the same point as everyone else in positing on abortion - it comes down to the point at which a human fetus becomes a person. That is, when does the baby begin to have rights of its own?
It's a common notion that "my rights end where yours begin" - I have the right to free speech, as long as that speech doesn't harm someone else or infringe on their rights. I have the right to peaceably assemble, as long as my assembly doesn't infringe on the rights of a business owner to conduct his or her legal operations. I have the right to free choice in religion, as long as my belief in that religion does not cause me to injure another.
Similarly, a woman should have the right to do with her body as she wishes, as long as in so doing she does not injure or peril another. So, when is a fetus "another"? At conception? At viability? At birth? At six months' gestation? Seven? Five? Eight? Two? When does the state's obligation to protect the life and well-being of the baby take precedence over its obligation to allow a woman to exercise her rights?
Few would argue that a woman who strangles and disposes of the body of her newborn is a killer. So when is the same woman a killer for willfully and knowingly killing her unborn baby? When is a person a person?
I now believe that a person is a person at conception. It's at that point they have all the genetic material to form into a whole human. If left unmolested - and if there are no biological impediments - that fertilized egg will become a baby. And that baby will become a person. And that person deserves the same protection of life, limb, and liberty that you and I enjoy.
This past weekend, there was a march on Washington (thanks to Jeremy for the link) by supporters of legal abortion. It was a huge turnout, and it seems to be a wholly peaceful exercise of one of their freedoms - the right to peaceably assemble - all the while advocating infringement of others' rights.
I thought two quotes from the demonstrations deserved comment.
Gloria Steinem called the Bush administration, "the greatest danger on earth." Greater, apparently, than the threat of terrorism, global warming, communism, socialism, child neglect, child abuse, famine, disease, Ebola, Islamic fundamentalism, flood, fire, hurricanes, tornados, or mad cow disease. The Bush administration - which has a known life expectancy of four years - that is what you have to fear. If this is the "new feminism", you can keep it.
Carole Mehlman, a 68-year-old Floridian, said, "I just had to be here to fight for the next generation and the generation after that."
This is an assertion I simply cannot understand. You're fighting for the "next generation" by advocating your "right" to murder them wholesale? Seems a little like fucking for chastity to me.
Wednesday is Sgt. Hook’s 40th birthday! If you haven’t already, go sign his birthday card!
Either I’m really, really tired (which I doubt, ‘cuz I had a nap), or Harvey posted his funniest post, ever today. See, he found this site that’s supposed to help you examine your own bias, and make you a more tolerant person. They have a little list of things you can do, to move yourself along the road to Tolerance Nirvana. Turns out, Harv’s already well on his way!
15. Research your family history. Share information about your heritage in talks with others.
Sweden is cold and Socialist. Grandpa left and came to Wisconsin. Which is also cold and Socialist, but they don’t make you draw a line through the letter “o” here, so you save a lot of money on ink.
[…]
17. Think about how you appear to others. List personality traits that are compatible with tolerance (e.g., compassion, curiosity, openness). List those that seem incompatible with tolerance (e.g., jealousy, bossiness, perfectionism).
I read this website without immediately putting the contact e-mail onto a porn-spam mailing list. That’s pretty tolerant. On the other hand, I’ll probably get around to it after I post this entry.
There are many more - go check ‘em out.
… he takes both kids with him to the store to buy you Monistat, so you don’t have to make the drive.
“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.” - Arthur C. Clarke
Like every other patriot in the country today, I’m sad at the death of Pat Tillman, and impressed at his selflessness. I fear, however, that the incessant, repeat notice taken of this one soldier will serve to demean the sacrifices that other fallen servicemembers have made. They are no less admirable, no less deserving of our respect and gratitude, than Pat Tillman, and we should grieve equally as much for those lost but not (so oft-) named.
“Snow White… I’d tap that. I mean, I really got a thing for Ariel, but every man wants a little Snow White now and then.” - Mike
Reason Number 438,017 to homeschool:
Loubert Gabriel said his son, 12-year-old Jules, had been kept out of class since April 2
Why?
school officials accused him of threatening to expose a highly allergic teacher to peanut butter cookies
The really unbelievable part of this story is this:
Gabriel said the boy has not been allowed to return to classes pending a May 13 hearing by the district.
May. Thirteenth.
Suspended on April. Second.
Let’s do the math. That’s twenty-nine school days missed. Because the boy allegedly threatened to “expose” his teacher to cookies. Just how the hell do you “expose” someone to cookies, anyway? Nutter Butters are pretty damn distinctive; it’s not like you can just slip that in on somebody. This is an over-the-top example of school fear gone horribly wrong. This case should’ve been addressed the same day, not allowed to drag on for a month and a half.
Sgt. Hook posts a letter he received from a reader - a Marine Mom - with her rebuttal to Andy Rooney’s recent trash piece on the American military. Her letter is rather long, but well worth the read. A few choice excerpts to whet your appetite:
While America watches Paris Hilton caper around in designer skirts that barely cover what God gave her, my sons’ $30 cammies are covered in sand, oil, smoke, sweat and blood.
[…]
We military families deal with reality every hour. We give our own in support of this fight against terrorism. We’ve raised them with a strong sense of responsibility, patriotism and a heartfelt desire to make the world better. We watch our kids go off to war, and we suck it up and back them 100 percent. They go voluntarily, showing a commitment to their nation that most other young Americans refuse to consider.
[…]
Why are people so worried about offending a few, when they are the minority offending so many?
[…]
Is this the same society that professes love of freedom? What, you think our rights come from the Freedom Fairy waving her star-spangled, red white and blue Freedom Wand? Freedom has a price, people. Those we love are paying for your ticket. So are we - those who wait, also serve.
[…]
It’s very difficult for us to understand an outsider’s worries. We don’t want to hear another mother whining about her son flunking out of college, going to too many parties or wrecking another new car. We don’t care if her daughter makes the sorority rush cut. We want to draw blood when we hear that her baby is “one whole hour away, and only calls when he needs money.” Well my gawd, how can she stand it?
[…]
But if you’re determined to play the fool, by all means throw yourself into the role and visit the theaters of war where our bravest and best stand firm. Go see the people who cry tears of joy as our men roll by. Take a close look at the Navy doc tenderly cradling the screaming, bloody baby whose parents just got blown to bits by a “fellow” Iraqi. Watch the boxes we mothers send to our sons be distributed among the citizens, by our big Marine boys with tears in their eyes at the poverty that surrounds them. Now get more up-close and personal. Get involved, be righteous. Tell the little boy that the Marines who lifted him from his dark, filthy cell are warmongers, not angels. Tell the grandmother whose face is melted by mustard gas she doesn’t need our intervention. Explain to the Afghani woman why it was a mistake to free her from her chadari; that she really hasn’t a right to dress like you, practice law, operate on a dying child, teach school or be unafraid she’ll be beaten to death for no reason. Debate with a mother why we should leave before we rebuild the schools, homes, hospitals and businesses Saddam gutted. Share your poor, little picked-upon life story with one of the twelve-year-old girls raped by Uday. Compare notes with one of the soccer players tortured and scarred by Qusay for losing a game. I’m sure they’ll think you got the short end of the stick.
Really, go read the whole thing.
Like many others, I’ve been occasionally listening to “America Left.” They’re not on in my local listening area, but I have XM Radio so I can hear them that way. Also like just about everyone else who’s been listening, I find pretty much everything they say ignorant, abrasive, and insensitive, but the straw that finally broke the camel’s back was one of the taglines that appeared during this morning’s “Unfiltered.”
Air America… Oxycontin-free since ‘04
Um. ‘Scuse me? First of all, I seriously doubt it. Second of all, I thought the “liberal left” was the ones most in favor of legalizing drug use? I thought the “liberal left” was supposed to be the compassionate ones. This cheap little dig just goes to show how wrong that assumption is. The “liberal left” has become petty, childish, petulant, and completely without substance. Everything they say is uttered with a sneer, and they continue to come off as whiny little brats who didn’t get their dessert back in 2000, and instead are suffering through a four-year time-out.
I’ve listened at all times of day, trying to find one liberal talk-radio host with something worthwhile to listen to, and it hasn’t happened. I’m officially done trying. Maybe the best thing to do would be to ship Air America a case of pacifiers and blankies, and put them all to bed.
(I should also note that I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, or any of the other far-right lunatics. Hannity usually makes sense, and most of those who appear on FoxNews programming at least give their guests (not all of whome agree with them) the courtesy and respect a guest deserves.)
About a week ago, I mentioned a story that suggested John Kerry might not have deserved all of his Purple Hearts, and may have been angling to get out of Vietnam earlier. Now it seems Kerry may be refusing to open all of his medical records, a la Bush and the National Guard service pseudo-scandal. As was the case when Bush balked, this begs the question, “What is he hiding?” I wonder, as does Ed, whether this will prompt a revisiting by some well-read leftist bloggers.
More than 70% of people would reveal their computer password in exchange for a bar of chocolate, a survey has found.
[…]
A separate survey carried out for RSA Security found further evidence of the lax password and security habits of Britons.
It found that many people volunteered important personal information, such as their mother’s maiden name or their own date of birth, when questioned during a street survey.
Such information is coveted by identity thieves as these facts are often used by sites as security checks.
First reaction: People stupid enough to tell strangers on the street their mother’s maiden names and their birthdays deserve to have their identities stolen.
Second reaction: … Just how much chocolate are we talking about here?
Hat tip to SexyHusband for this one (and many others)
We closed on part of our property today. After having a nice, fat cashier’s check cut to our attorney’s trust account, we have officially (or, rather, will officially, when the county certifies the paperwork) become land-owners. This is a very cool feeling. If I were less pregnant, and/or more energetic, I would take a walk down to the part we own, and pick up a handful of dirt, and smear it on my face, just so I could say, “This is mine.” Hopefully, in less than 15 years, the rest of it will be paid off as well, but at least for now I’m secure in the knowledge that as long as I can manage to pay the taxes each year, I’ll always have a place where I can pitch a tent and nobody can kick me off. Luckily, it’s also a place I could forage and/or hunt for food. I very seriously doubt things will ever get that bad, but it’s still nice to know.
Yay, us!
According to a spokesman in the Iraqi city of Najaf, the Shiite cleric praised Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s decision Sunday to pull Spain’s 1,400-plus troops from Iraq.
Well, as long as the blood-thirsty, guerilla-fighting, terrorist-inciting, minority Islamic extremist approves of what you do, you’re good to go, right?
Al-Sadr also is asking that people from all coalition countries put pressure on their governments to follow Spain and recall their forces, spokesman Fuad al-Turfi said.
I’ll just bet he did. Wouldn’t it have been great for Hitler if that would’ve worked for him? “U.K., U.S., Russia, we think you boys should all just go home now, k?”
Spain’s new Socialist prime minister announced the pullout decision – his first since taking office Saturday from conservative U.S. ally Jose Maria Aznar – out of fear that uncertainty would put Spanish troops at greater risk, officials said.
Well, well, another politician who prefers stability to democracy.
[Spanish foreign minister] Moratinos, who heads to Washington this week for talks with Powell and Rice, said the decision was taken once it became clear there was no prospect of a U.N. resolution that would meet Spain’s conditions.
You’re damn straight, because the U.N. can’t keep its balls out of its hands long enough to stay somewhere and fight when there’s actual, real resistance to their presence.
Moratinos said the decision “should not affect bilateral relations between Spain and the United States”
Keep dreaming, Mr. Fairweather.
“We’re not washing our hands” of the situation, he told El Pais, according to The Associated Press.
Bullshit.
Mariano Rajoy, Aznar’s hand-picked candidate who lost to Zapatero in the election, said the decision made Spain “much more vulnerable and weak in the face of terrorism in the face of terrorism.”
You’re damned straight. Sadly, the Spanish voters probably won’t fully realize this until they have a few more bombs planted by Islamic terrorists in a few more public places, but running away does not make you safer, it just makes your ass a better target than your heart.
Well, now this I don’t understand.
A successor to slain Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi has been appointed, but his name is being kept secret for his protection, sources in the group’s military wing said Sunday.
For his protection?? I thought it was such a noble thing to die as a “martyr.” At least, that’s how Hamas has justified sending out dozens (are we up to hundreds yet?) of young men and women with explosives strapped to their bodies, visions of Heaven dancing in their heads. I guess it’s a lot easier to ask someone to give up their lives than to risk your own, at least for some people.
“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” - Bertrand Russell
Osama Bin Laden publicly apologized today for a recently released audio tape in which he attacks Halliburton, accuses President Bush of being a mass murderer, and offers a truce to European nations if they pull their forces out of Iraq. Bin Laden, a Yemeni-born freedom fighter and one-time suspect in the 9/11 attacks, explained that he had made two tapes for two different media outlets, but they somehow were mixed up in the mail. As a result, the recording Al Jazeera received was actually an audition tape meant for Air America, the fledgling progressive radio network.
[…]
“Talk about a total brainfart,” he told reporters at his Berkeley, California home. “This is more embarassing than the time Susan Sarandon and I got our speeches mixed up at a Howard Dean rally. I still get called ‘Thelma’ over that one. Needleless to say, we no longer have the same speechwriter.”
Meanwhile, Air America has stopped airing Bin Laden’s Al Jazeera tape, which they originally mistook for a moveon.org political ad. Once they were informed of the snafu, network executives decided to give Bin Laden a one hour program in an evening time slot.
Ahhh, Tax Day! Christmas for Liberals! I got so excited as I filled out my 1040ez this evening that I nearly wet my Noam Chomsky underoos. It feels so great to do my part to keep the wheels of the government turning.
Then something happened which completely spoiled my good mood. After completing my return, I was dismayed to discover that I will be getting a “refund” of $432 this year. It didn’t make sense. Last year, I actually owed money. Something had to be wrong with my math.
[…]
I encourage all my readers to follow my lead and send their “refunds” to a man who will use his power as president to insure that no American ever receives such an undeserved, untargeted pay-off from the government again.
Speaking as someone who had to write a five-figure check addressed to “IRS” today (that’s right, ya liberal bastards, I’m one of the elusive “rich” - as IF), I think Tax Day sucks, and we should all observe a subsequent three days of mourning. Or better yet, do what Teresa does and buy a gun.
April is a TOUGH time to sell the notion of additional funding for Medicare and Social Security here on the farm. Can ya tell?
Not quite sure what to make of this story questioning the validity of John Kerry’s three Purple Hearts, but it will be interesting to see if anything more comes from it.
Kerry’s commanding officer at the time, retired Lt. Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, told The Boston Globe that Kerry basically awarded himself a Purple Heart after receiving a superficial scratch in what Hibbard said was not even a firefight.
[…]
Though Hibbard says he did not want to give in to Kerry’s insistence that he be considered for a Purple Heart - “I don’t think he deserved one,” Hibbard told The Post yesterday - he eventually did so.
It’s not hard to imagine why.
Even then, Kerry had strong ties to the Kennedy machine in Massachusetts (Bobby Kennedy speechwriter Adam Walinsky wrote Kerry’s famous 1971 anti-war Washington speech).
[…]
Kerry did leave Vietnam six months ahead of schedule - thanks to those Purple Hearts.
And he refuses to make public the detailed medical-treatment records relating to his wound - none of which, significantly, took him out of service for more than a day or two.
I don’t know if there’s any validity to these claims or not, but if there is, it needs to come to light. After all, it seems at LEAST as important as the “Bush/AWOL” fairytale.
I think I may have gotten my first weblog death threat. You tell me; does “I Kill you” count as a death threat? I doubt it was even seriously-intended, since the person who posted it listed treehuggersmustdie.com as their URL, and were responding to this post about welfare, but still… lil bit creepy. Harvey recently asked for a cup o’ troll - you can have this one. :)
Oh, incidentally, if the “threat” was serious, I’ll just quote our President: “Bring it on.”
*locked and loaded*
Let it be known that Kenny Chesney has the most apple-icious ass in country music. MM-mm-mm….
Well, he finally did it. The President has finally issued an apology for events surrounding 9/11 and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. ’bout damned time!
“Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.” - John F. Kennedy
I watched the press conference. While I was somewhat annoyed at the reporters’ repeated insistence that he take personal responsibility (only the terrorists should have to do that), I have to say that I was singularly uninspired by anything the President had to say tonight. It was a disappointment.
As is our wont, Mike and I were sitting around, discussing the more philosophical aspects of life (in this case, Islamic rules about sex acts and alcohol). As I am a former Shi’a Muslim (surprised?), and Ayatollah Sistani was my mullah, I was clarifying some of the finer points of what is permissible-but-discouraged (anal sex, oral sex), and what is forbidden (masturbation, ejaculating during oral sex, alcohol). Mike concluded:
“I think that if we all just got drunk and spanked the monkey everything would be ok.”
troll - v. To fish for by trailing a baited line from behind a slowly moving boat.
In the weblog community, you can think of an inflammatory, usually irrelevant, remark or snide comment as the bait, and one’s intellect as the boat. Trolls will not be tolerated here. If I want to have a pointless argument with someone who founds their reasoning on fantasy, I’ll chat with my three-year-old.
Thatisall.
It’s a known fact that statistics can be used to prove just about anything you want, if you get real selective about which studies/reports/measurements/what-have-you to include, and which to leave out. There’s nothing new about politicians using “fuzzy math” to prove their point. But usually, politicians don’t take it so far as to redefine an accepted benchmark to do so. Kerry, however, seems to have no problems with recalculating the “Misery Index” (which I’d never even heard of before, by the way) to his own liking, and calling it the “worst ever.” Well, considering you just decided, um, TODAY to calculate it that way… isn’t it also the BEST ever?
[Kerry] eliminates the two statistics that have traditionally been used to measure “economic discomfort” the inflation and unemployment rates.
Instead, Kerry combines private sector job growth, median family income, health costs, gas prices, college tuition, bankruptcies and homeownership rates to come up with his “Middle Class Misery Index.”
His solution? Well, of course, it’s his much-touted, magical, completely undefined plan to create 10 million jobs in four years. What I want to know is if joblessness is such a big problem, why is that one of the things he took OUT of the index?
A closer look, however, reveals that Kerry’s promises echo mainstream economists and the Bush administration. The White House predicts an average growth rate of 3.5 percent annually between now and 2009. Economists and Kerry too are on par with those calculations.
Kerry’s desperately trying to find something - anything - to run on. He looks more and more desperate every single day.
This is a scary story, and makes me wonder what kinds of legal responsibilities hospitals have to protect the safety of their patients.
A 13-year-old girl was taken from her room at Bellevue Hospital on Friday morning and sexually assaulted by an unidentified man, police said.
The victim was led into a conference room at approximately 7:15 a.m., where she was assaulted, they said.
I find this particular quote highly relevant to this post (link removed):
“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.” - Herbert Spencer
I listen to a lot of XM Radio, and they’re really pushing their “Real Heroes” series with Oliver North, and it struck me - that man sounds just like John Kerry! Has anyone else noticed a disturbing similarity?
We primates are, of course, mostly covered in fur. For some, it’s this fine downy type hair (and TheFetus already has his). Others have the shag carpet effect going on, but I digress. There are a few spots on the human body where hair stubbornly refuses to grow. They include the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and… the belly button!
Think about it… it was an umbilical cord, a strong rope of veins and arteries connecting you to, once upon a time, your mom. When you get pregnant, your swelling belly slowly pushes “innies” outward. Now, I never get to the full “turkey timer” look, but I definitely get shallower and shallower as my belly swells and swells. It’s so SOFT, that skin inside the belly button! I forget about it after every pregnancy, but last night I noticed it again, and decided you might like to know.
Or not. :)
Ever since NSA’s testimony yesterday before the 9/11 Commission, I’ve heard whining that Dr. Rice didn’t say, “I’m sorry” to the victims of 9/11. As could have been expected, the Democrats have turned this into a blame game, rather than a real attempt to examine where our vulnerabilities were, and how (or if) they can be plugged in the future.
Ed says it best:
[H]e (Democratic Senator Charles Schumer) might have missed this part of Rice’s testimony:
…by definition, we didn’t have enough information, we didn’t have enough protection, because the attack happened – by definition. And I think we’ve all asked ourselves, what more could have been done?
That’s the heart of what the commission is looking at - it’s very reason for existance. Not to extract a pound of flesh. (That’s the role of the Democratic leadership.)
I only heard part of the testimony National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice delivered this morning, but I did hear one of the commissioners hassling her about making the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing declassified. I think this goes way beyond the pale of “cooperating with the commission.” The commission has the document; why do they need to make it public.
“To justify the conclusions of the commission to the American people” just doesn’t pass muster; the commission has no doubt reviewed thousands of documents that have been, and should continue to be, kept classified. We are still a nation at war. Nixon’s PDB’s are still classified, thirty years after his resignation. This stinks badly of election-year politicking, and does nothing to enhance the credibility of those commissioners calling for its publication.
UPDATE: Well, now it looks like the Bush Administration may declassify the memo after all. Probably just to prove that it’s less important than administration critics have been intimating.
Looks like Will of A Minute Longer is hanging up his keyboard, and won’t be blogging anymore. I haven’t often commented on his posts, but I’ve read every single word of what he had to say. He’ll be sorely missed. Welcome home, Kev.
Hear ye! Hear ye!
Liberal Larry is a satirical genius.
You see, the good Senator from Massachussetts knows that with matters as important as national security, you can’t just dive in headfirst without a plan. We should take our time, lie on the grass a while, smoke a cigarette, and think things through. We must seek the help of our friends, allies, lawyers, etc. and discuss the possible political ramifications of our actions. Then, and only then, should we report the accident.
Wait… we were talking about Iraq, weren’t we?
[…]
In other words, you can’t just put on a phony neck brace and expect people to believe your sob story, Mr. Bush! Your rich and powerful daddy won’t protect you now! You must level with the American People, and take responsibility for your actions, before the truth comes floating to the surface like the bloated corpse of your dead brother’s secretary.
You know that OxiClean guy? He has GOT to be the
single most annoying individual on the face of this planet. Who decided
that HE should be the one to do those ads? Seriously, the OxiClean guy
needs to get his speed cut off. Definitely crosses my “lazy ass/lost
remote” threshold.
So the former commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda, a Canadian, says it’s the West’s fault that there was genocide in that country in the 90s. By “the West", he means, of course, the U.S., Britain, and France. Couldn’t be the Hutus and the Tutsis with the hatchets in their hands, oh, no. Brutal savagery committed in some far-off nation? MUST be the West’s fault!
Suicide bombings in Israel? Blame the west.
Slave wages in third-world countries? Blame the west.
Four civilians killed, burned, and mutilated in Falluja? Blame the west.
Even when nineteen men resolved to fly four planes into buildings in the United States, killing everyone on board and thousands more on the ground, what do we do? We can’t decide whether to blame Bush, Ashcroft, Rice, Clinton, or the ubiquitous west.
Here’s a thought. How about WE BLAME THE PERPETRATORS. Let’s blame the Hutus. Blame the Taliban. Blame al-Qaeda. Blame the al Aqsa Brigade. Blame the jihadists. Blame the al Mahdi Army.
Blame the killers.
Stop blaming the victims.
And stop blaming the West.
Every now and then I run across a piece that lampoons both liberals and conservatives, and actually pulls off an even treatment. It’s rare, but it does happen. Here’s one such instance.
In order to eliminate all possibility of trans-partisan conversation, I really think it’s time we stopped flying together. It’s time to set up two different airlines: Liberal Air, with direct flights between Madison, Berkeley, Ann Arbor and the New School for Social Research; and Right Wing Express, which will have planes with no oxygen masks in case of emergencies because anybody who can’t handle a little asphyxiation doesn’t deserve to live.
[…]
[On LiberalAir] After the safety teach-in, mandated by the F.A.A. ("All bike messenger bags must fit in the overhead rack . . . in case of a water landing, your moral vanity may be used as a personal flotation device . . .")
[…]
Right Wing Express flights will not only land at airports, they will occupy airports. Passengers might sometimes find the flight attendants a tad abrasive ("You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall . . ."), but the cigarettes will be free and plentiful, and each passenger will be greeted with an appropriately conservative mantra, “Welcome to Right Wing Express, how can I help you help yourself?”
It’s almost too perfect. Go, check out the whole thing!
Link via Heretical Ideas
You may have noticed the new icon to the right of the home page here. To find out what it’s about, read this entry at Kate’s (to which I was alerted by Miss Apropos).
“You haven’t lived till you’ve seen your woman walk down the stairs in a short skirt, push you back in your chair and hold your hands to the chair while she climbed on your face. Um….hypotheically speaking.” - Name withheld to protect the innocent
“Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.” - Iris Murdoch
“I’ve eaten things that didn’t complain this much!” - Diego, the saber-tooth tiger, in the movie Ice Age.
For my Texan readers: I’m proud to report that among the words Kayla learned while in Texas was “Coke.” She demonstrated this fact on Thursday, when we were at Subway. The object she was pointing at when she spoke the word, “Coke"? A Pepsi soft drink machine. That’s my girl. ;)
Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Aylward on the new baby Wizbang! Coochie-coochie-coo!!
… say things like this:
While Mark modestly says his post is “[h]ugely oversimplified history and wild speculation", it’s worth a read.
Appropriate for, say, a Harry Turtledove book, or maybe some historical sci-fi, but not for a “serious” entry about politics and/or history.
