17 August 2006

Counting The Mother[Bleep]in' Hours . . .

. . . till I see that Mother[bleep]in' movie!!!

I've got my tickets already, for the 10:50pm PST Friday night showing, not at Magic Johnson Theatres, however.

As of this post, only a little over 30 hours to go.

As if you weren't geeked up enough already, here's a little copyright infringement theatre (aka YouTube) presentation of Samuel Leroy Jackson's appearance on John Leroy Stewart's Daily Leroy Show shilling Snakes on a MOTHER[BLEEP]IN' PLANE!!!! (courtesy Defamer, sort of, they have a clip, but I linked to a longer clip of the same interview posted by someone else)



16 August 2006

". . . no serious opponent."

Larry Kudlow points to this essay by Thomas Bray on Real Clear Politics that marks the 25th anniversary of a major event in US and World politics.

A quarter century later and the doubters still hold sway, despite the facts.

It's not hyperbole to say that Pres. Reagan presided over a global revolution, yet there are those determined to ignore or forget this.

There are 'no serious opponents' to this viewpoint, only unserious ones.

UPDATE: (via Drudge) A recent interview with Pres. Reagan's immediate predecessor. Yet more proof that the entire world lucked out when the voters of the United States favored Reagan over Carter in 1980. There's so much stupid in that interview, that it's impossible to pick just a few quotes. Read the whole damn thing. Naturally it's an interview with a foreign magazine (Der Spiegel), seems the rest of the world is only happy with the United States when we are weak, and we were never weaker than under President Carter. The only thing dumber than the answers are the questions.

Grrrrr, Arrrgggghhh (sorry, thinking about the Carter years makes me pre-verbal).

Juan and John Are Not the Same

The Coleses, Juan Cole and John Cole, clearly not the same.

John Cole at Balloon Juice opens a can of rhetorical whoop-ass on the ever Zionist obsessed Juan Cole.

All you need to know about the various Ethnic/Religous Studies programs on campuses throughout the globe, is that Professor Juan Cole is considered qualified to head such a department at a major university. (don't even get me started on Prof. Cornel West)

Surprisingly (at least to me), most folks in the comments at Balloon Juice are defending the crazed, repeatedly and objectively anti-Israeli Juan Cole.

The denialism, defeatism and general head-in-the-sandism rampant in some quarters (mostly those with a sinistral leaning) is disturbing.




(he's still too sexy for that shirt, and it's still due to an eeeevil zionist plot!!!!!!!)

You Wish With Every Fiber of Your Being That This Was Somehow a Gross Exaggeration, Or at Least a Missive From a Parallel Goateed Universe . . .

. . . yet, sadly, no, the LGF post title is accurate, and the Reuters report is as described.

Post title:

I guess it's an eeeevil artifact of colonialism to hold the people and leaders of Iran to the same standards that would apply to folks in Germany (where these cartoons would be criminal) or throughout the rest of the west. Instead those folks must be judged by standards that they themselves set, and seem to not include a respect for the truth or the humanity for those that don't pray the way that they do. I blame that whiny-ass son of a diseased camel, Edward Said, may his soul continue to rot in hell for all the harm his awful theories and justification for moral relativism has caused.



(I'd be cool with all this if it were the Mirror, Mirror Reuters that wrote that piece)

Let's Make It a Dozen

I knew I should have posted this earlier. Prof. Althouse beat me to the punch.

The committee deciding the fate of Pluto decided that not only is Pluto a planet, but the large body it shares an orbit with, Charon is as well.

Just to make it an even dozen, they've (they being the IAU committee chosen to sit in judgement of what makes a planet) re-promoted Ceres, the largest asteroid between Mars and Jupiter back to being a planet (creating the designation 'dwarf planet'), and they've indicated their willingness to promote 2003 UB313 'aka' XENA, to the status of Warrior Princess Planet.

So the breakdown now has a certain Goldilockian symmetry (almost, excluding King Asteroid Ceres and its 'dwarf planet' designation). Our Solar System has four (too big) planets of the Jovian variety, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Three (too small) planets of the Pluton type, Pluto, Charon, and Xena with their eccentric and lengthy orbits, and finally the four (just right) Terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

I still think eight is enough, but that's just me (and Prof. Althouse, too it would seem).

Another question remains, are they really going to stick with calling 2003 UB313 Xena?

(and yes, Xena has a moon, which naturally will be called Gabrielle)


UPDATE


A (Red State) Poll, as of this post, the choice, "First thing we do is kill all the astronomers, and then leave it alone" is leading. (my choice of ditch Pluto is the least popular choice at the moment)

Quote of the Day


from James Lileks' Bleat on the 16th of August.

(do you really need to know the context?)

15 August 2006

Been There, Done That


Using this website here's marked in red all the states I remember visiting. Much of the red is owed to lots of summer trips with the grandparents visiting various relatives, friends, and one trip to a Worlds Fair (NO 1984).

Hat tip to Maternal Optimist.

A First Time Event In the Entire History of the Internets?

At Defense Tech, David Axe has been posting a series answering recent criticism of the F-22 (part one, part two, part three, part four (forthcoming: updated, link added today 8/16)).

He also links to an article on the same subject he wrote for Military.com.

The discussion board doesn't get heated exactly, but one poster AGBrina, defends the critics, while nearly every other poster sings the praises of the F-22.

Now to the title of this post, after some back and forth, without any rancor or flaming by the way, AGBrina posts the following.

AirForceAggie:

Good point! Your reply, along with most of what others have said here, ends my argument.


Didn't see that one coming. There's no such thing as admitting that the other guys might be right in a discussion board. The proper netiquette when posting is to defend your position beyond all reason, and when logic fails, resort to ad hominem attacks and non sequitur rejoinders regarding the other posters' preference in hygiene frequency and sexual partners.

Also, I fear that the F-22 may one day be known as the Mahdaviat Martyr Maker for all the Iranians that will get an express trip to the afterlife if their current government keeps pushing the boundaries like they do.

Hopefully sanity will prevail and the F-22 won't be put to the purpose it is so well designed to accomplish.

(photos borrowed from F-22 Raptor Team website)

You Tube Enters the Big Leagues

A website hasn't made the big leagues until it has suffered through an unplanned outage


To celebrate their ascension to big time player status on the web, I thought I'd embed four short videos for your enjoyment and edification.

First up, Victoria dips her toe into the YouTube waters and posts this bit of channel flipping from South Florida.



Next, Gizmodo proves the adage regarding idle hands doing the devils work, because the Treadmill Bike is fiendishly idiotic (yet funny), behold the Treadmill Bike!



As if that wasn't enough, Kat Dennings has posted her second vlog, and this time she tells a tale while sitting in the pink room. And what a tale it is. Once again, I'm engaged by this, still can't explain why.



Finally, while posting all the Arthur Lee related stuff I came across this video of a 2003 performance of Alone Again Or, watch, listen, and be awed.



That's it, hopefully all this linkage won't break YouTube again.

Kudlow & Moxie & Football

Larry Kudlow's been posting his thoughts, and when you're right you're right.

His last three posts take the words right out of my mouth and polish them, granted them a patina of legitimacy, and made my fumbling through my own thoughts along parallel lines unneeded. Those posts are in praise of the Supply-Side Revolution (folks still insist it doesn't worked, yet it's worked every time it's been tried), in praise of the American Consumer, and finally, in praise of British Intelligence and demanding we grow a set and demand from our government the same kind of tools that led to cracking the recently cracked terrorist cell.

He's not shy, his program without the crazed loudmouth has improved (if you're into that sort of thing) and it's about time I linked him in my sidebar.


Moxie's an LA based blogger, unabashedly right wing, and unabashedly sexy. She wasn't blogging on a regular basis for awhile, or else I would have linked her a long time ago, an example of her good works can be found in these musings on Mel Gibson.


Finally, Little Green Footballs needs no introduction, it's one of the most highly trafficked right of center blogs around. Charles Johnson has been all over the place lately after his catch on the Reuters mess. I don't delve into the comment section much, it gets a bit 'over-heated'. Mr. Johnson himself is vehement in his opposition to radical, nihilistic, fascist Islam, but he never crosses the line into painting all Muslims with too broad a brush (in the comments, on the other hand . . .). He saves his strongest venom for those that apologize for terrorism, like the idiots of CAIR.

So, three more additions to the links on the sidebar, Kudlow, Moxie, and LGF, visit them, or don't, it's up to you.

14 August 2006

Eight Is Enough

I'm not talking about that TV show from the late 70s - early 80s.

I'm talking planets here.

Folks are meeting to decide on an official designation on the object currently known as the planet Pluto. From the website of the IAU XXVIth General Assembly in Prague

The ongoing work on an IAU Resolution to scientifically define the meaning of the concept „planet“ is of particular interest to the public.

The IAU is the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919. The boundary between planets and other solar system objects has never been defined and the recent discoveries of new objects in the solar system has made it necessary for the IAU to address this issue.

The decision process and a draft Resolution for the Definition of a Planet will be published in the conference newspaper during the first week of the General Assembly.

The IAU Executive Committee invites the General Assembly to a Plenary Discussion on the Definition of a Planet issue:

Tuesday, August 22, 12:45 - 13:45 in the Congress Hall.

The press is invited to attend.

If that doesn't sound like a party, I don't know what does.

Given the many irregularities of that solar body compared to the others designated as a planet, and given that 2003 UB313 has as valid of a claim planethood if Pluto continues to be recognized as such, I'm guessing that the various committees that are chosen to decide the fate of that solar body will vote against both Pluto's and 2003 UB313's planethood.

It was fun while it lasted Pluto, the textbooks will have to be rewritten once more.

It seems kind of short shrift to only schedule one hour of consideration for poor little Pluto (and the slightly larger 2003 UB313), given that its been considered a planet for more than 70 years.

Although, truth be told, I lean towards not caring one way or the other.

You'd Get the Joke if You Watch the Show Moments In Other Blogs' Comment Section (Most Likely Not an Irregular, or Regular Series)

As anyone who has read this blog regularly (I think there's about 5-8 of you), you know that I occaisonally post bits from other blogs' comment sections.

Relating to this post at Throwing Things here's this bit of comedy gold
After an episode of Deadwood, I have an uncontrollable urge to call it shuttlecock, sucker.

And anyone who knows anything knows it's pronounced with a MIT in the middle.

Photo In Search of a Caption

Post-coital Bliss (while jointly clutching a recently used 'marital aid')





(and need I add, 'not that there's anything wrong with that'?)

(another take on this photo at Vodkapundit)

(both those gentlemen's filthy faux-populist bastardos totalitarios grins are disturbing, and for a corpse Fidel seems to be pretty lively, and in loooooooooooove)


Pictures pulled from Granma, the official website of the dirty filthy commie bastards who have laid waste to the past, present, and a great deal of the potential of Cuba.

(Cuba Libre hopefully will be more than just an ironically named drink, soon)

Snakes on a What?

I've given as much love to Snakes on a Plane as I think is appropriate.

I can't wait till Friday to actually see the greatest movie of all time, finally.

But some SoaP related products I can't quite get behind.



A novelization ?!? 416 pages ?!? WTF ?!? OMG ?!? LOL ?!? (SORRY CAPS LOCK STUCK)

No, I almost bought it when I saw it while in a bookstore recently, but somewhere you have to draw the line.

I don't want no mother[bleep]in' novelizations of my mother[bleep]in' mindless summer fun action flicks.

13 August 2006

Suddenly, Skepticism


AP doesn't take this recently released photo of Fidel Castro as being above suspicion.

Fidel's still dead or comatose as far as I'm concerned.

Jimmy Kimmel would seem to agree.

If he really was ambulatory, alert and on his way to recovery, they would have provided video and not just a few photographs.

Would the AP have expressed skepticism had it not been for recent events?

Also, Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs has a post about the above Castro photo and states that if it was a photoshop job, it was a well done one with no obvious 'tells' as to being faked. He adds the photo below though, clearly faked, but funny.