Back from holiday- Merry Christmas!

I love me some Aly & AJ!

Someone is making a nice little living...

out of this.

Give some speeches, read some books, write some letters, collect some grants...

Wish I were so clever.

Chinese judges

Back when I was assigned to domestics, I went to a larger city where there was already a domestic program running. I met with the domestic ADA, and spent the day following her around. At luncheon there was a treat. Some lefty organization, International Coalition for Women Judges Promoting Social Justice, or some such thing, was in town with some important lady judges from Red China. Since my fellow prosecutor was a woman, too, she was invited to attend and carried me along.

Although there were looks askance at the single differently chromosomed among us, the luncheon was pleasant. There were a half dozen judges and their Chinese KGB minder/ interpreter. I cannot recall the menu, but I do remember that the hosts knew no better than to pass dishes with one hand! I suspect the visitors were used to this gweilo faux pas.

As the meal wound down, one of the organizers asked if anyone had any questions for the Chinese judges. Before we got stuck in some “There aren’t enough woman judges” conversation, my hand went up almost on its own. "In China, I know that the death penalty is used. I know each is different, but generally, in capital cases, how long is it between arrest and execution?”

Now mind I had asked this in the very maw as it were of the American lawyer lobby. So there were dirty looks- here we were having our woman judge festival, and you had to bring up reality! I felt as though I had mentioned hunter safety training at the Cheney’s house.

But the question was out there, and the judges huddled with the minder. After a little whispered confabulation, they broke and the minder said, “Three months.”

You would have thought she had said there wasn't a diversity office at every Chinese law school! In the U. S., the few executions that take place occur ten, twenty, or more years after arrest. The delay is due to appeal upon appeal, and millions are spent in each case paying lawyers and judges. The Bar Association types’ shock that their guests order executions without such a golconda of litigation was visible on their faces, and I could see that I had started a big fight.

So could the judges and minder, when they saw the expressions on the faces around the table. Chinese sensibility abhors open disagreement, so they quickly huddled and whispered again. When they broke, all were beaming that they had figured a way to mollify the crazy white ghosts. The minder said, proudly,

“Not always so quick. Sometimes takes six months.”

Yoda answers the telephone...

I often talk to people who seem not to catch on to what I say the first time. It's as though I'm not even speaking.

Granted, those are usually my bosses, or dates back when that happened.

But sometimes they call me on the telephone at work. But yesterday...

Victim: "I have pictures. Do you want them?"

Staghounds: "No, bring them with you to court."

(Talk about other things)

V: "Should I bring these pictures to court?"

S: "Yes, please do."

(Talk about other things)

V: "Do you want me to bring the pictures now, so you can keep them?"

H: "No, they are evidence for the trial, we don't keep evidence- you keep them safe, and bring them to court on trial day."

(Talk about other things. But I'm getting ready...)

V:"Should I bring these pictures when the trial happens?"

S: "Court pictures bring to, keep them we don't here."

V: ""Huh?"

S: "You didn't understand me the first three times about the pictures, I thought Yoda might get through. "

From now on, the fourth time they ask the same question, they get Yoda.



draft

Thousands of black men would be sorry...

if Sen. Obama won.

Because thousands of black women would say,

"White man keeping you down my foot. Barack got a job, now YOU get a job."

Only Congress is this Stupid...

"How much for the car?"

"Three thousand dollars."

"No, but I'll give you three thousand dollars to take me to the store in it."

"An injection of $3 billion in equity to support a GM acquisition of Chrysler would be roughly equivalent to the current, depressed value of the top U.S. automaker."

Can Negroes elect a President?

Hmmm....

Stimulating the Dead...

So, I thought I made too much money to get stimulated. But then, this came in the mail:



Woo Hoo! I'm feeling tingly already...





And it's definitely a stimulus check, in case I missed the giant red letters on the envelope it says so in two places. Enough to buy a ten dollar gold piece!



Hey, hold hard...




That's right- payable to "My Dam's Name, DECD"



DECD. She's been qualified to vote for a Democrat in Chicago for over a year. The IRS knows it, as required by law I wrote DECEASED across the top of her 2007 return- no smiley faces in the letters. (On the draft, yes, but not on the one I filed. Well, maybe a little one.)

Yes, not content to give money to people who never worked a day in their lives, the government is STIMULATING THE DEAD.

I'm afraid to cash it, in case it works...

A riot bet for all you chickens little...

I'm sick of this riot talk. So here's a bet for any who want it...



The bet is that:

1. in at least five of the 50 states,

2. in non contiguous counties (e. g., Philadelphia and Trenton count as one, not two),

3. armed, uniformed units of the U. S. regular army,

4. will be deployed, in at least battalion strength in each case,

5. to enforce domestic law or to preserve order under declared martial law following actually occurring riot ( as defined by TCA 39-17-301(3)),

6. before midnight on the night between Nov. 17/18, and

7. the deployments will be reported on NBC, CBS, and ABC news.

I'm good to bet against that, up to say $10,000.

Tam can hold the stakes.

Here's something one doesn't see daily...

On the way to hunt recently, I saw this-



Yes, it's a peacock, just stepping purposefully down the rod on a warm Southern morning.





I have learned that peafowl are pretty strong homing birds. So perhaps it knew exactly where it was headed.

Heather Mantovani puts all politics on a 3x5 card...

Domestic politics, anyway- with only two pictures and four words:



Bonus 3x5 explanation of the left's outlook:



The Constitution is pretty much all pole, politics is usually arguing over what kind of fish, how much of it, how rotten, and whose boat it's to be stolen from.

Seriously brilliant.

Live Cannibalism Pictures!

So my friend K and her roommate have animals. Most famously, once a cat that died in labour. There was a terrier on the place that had just weaned a litter, so, why not let her raise the kittens?

"We had to hold her down the first time..."

I'll bet you did. I can hear Fido now-

"What- what are you doing? NO! I'm a DOG!!! This is UNNATURAL!!!"

But this post is about their parrot. Here's its picture:



Hold hard, what's that in its beak?



Yes, a tasty roasted chicken wing! I tried for a picture with a drumstick, but he dropped it when the camera clicked.

I like the baleful expression, and he can talk! When engaged in bird cannibalism, he says "yyyyyOOOOOOOOmmmm yyyyyyyyOOOOOOOOOOOmmmmmmmm".

You read it here first...

It's news today, but you read it here first, two and a half years ago.

And I reminded you in March.

Both of you.

Snapshots- from a Taliban Camp!

GREAT risky investigative journalism...

I wonder why the MSM and its experts can't bring us SNAPSHOTS FROM A TALIBAN CAMP?

Oh, I know- they weren't on a press release!

Coca y Adam Smith...

So I was at Harris Teeter yesterday, looking for some World Harbors Hawaiian Teriyaki. Yes, it's too sweet but goooood.

Aaaanyway, there I was in the "International foods" section, looking at all the foreign provender, when my eye was caught by a familiar shape- a glass coke bottle!

Hmm, what's that doing here among these heathen kickshaws? Nothing is a more obvious indicator of the cultural imperialism of the Yankee oppressor than Earl Dean's claim to fame.

So I looked a little more closely. It was Coke- Mexican coke, right there in Brentwood!

I've since found out (from food goddess Tam that Mexican coke is a big deal for some people.

Now, I've already proven conclusively in these pages that a centrally planned economy can't even deliver what it promises- basic goods and services- because the quantum of even those basics is unknowable.

No central planning authority would ever have thought of Mexican Coke. *

Heath Robinson and Rube Goldberg working together couldn't have come up with the unknown, unknowable series of desires, information transfers, opportunities, and economic risks which brought that Coca Grande from Sonora to Tennessee. But there it was, waiting patiently to remind an ignorant gabacho of the power of liberty.

Why is that important? Who gives a rat's scabby tail whether one can get sugar in his fizzy drink in one place and fructose in another?

We do. Not "the people", not "the poor", but actual real individual human beings. Even if central planning COULD work, it's evil. Because it only fills the pantry with what someone else thinks you need or want.

That makes us cattle. And cattle never built a bridge, thought up a story, or shipped a Mexican Coke.

Although some central planners are working hard to stop Mexican Coke. In the Coca Cola company for the kind I saw, and we all know THEIR power:



(2.48 if you're in a hurry.)

Good luck with that.

And at DEA, and inside my clothes for that matter. Good luck with that, too.

Bailout math...

I was thinking. If we're going to write a TRILLION dollars worth of bad checks, why not write them to ourselves instead of some bankers?

There are about 200 million adult working Americans. That's $4,000 each. If I'm going to get my currency inflated, shouldn't I get it?

And the FRB cut the rate to 1.5%. Again- if I'm going to create and lend myself money at 1.5%, why should I have to pay another 5% to a bank? I want to borrow it directly!

Just a thought. I wonder why the Bolsheviks aren't suggesting it.

One addition to the bailout bill...

Since everyone is concerned about the "little people", just add to the bailout bill-

"Sec. Next- No payee may receive, and no treasury employee may provide, any aggregate sum in excess of $250,000 under this bill to any single person, corporation,, business entity, single social security number, or single EIN.
"Receive" and "provide" includes payments denominated in any manner, whether loans, purchases of equity or assets, or any other name. "

Speaking of Affirmative Action...

It's not the book that's funny, it's tragic. But the author's name, now...

And yes, it's a genuine book!

Merci, Mlle. Carnivereaux! (Yes I know that's not correct, but it sounds and looks better. Poursuivez-moi.)

Perfect truth about "Affirmative Action"...

"It does noting but inspire division and resentment. Well, it also prevents its beneficiaries from doing anything to better themselves, since they don’t have to. Like all federal do-goodery, it is a magnet for grifters, crooked lobbies, charlatans, shysters, and bus-station rabble. If you need affirmative action, you aren’t good enough; if you if you are good enough, you don’t need it; and if you take it anyway, you are a freeloader."

Via Fred Reed.

Senator McCain just lost the presidency...

Because he didn't say something like,

"The banks and lenders who claim to be in trouble made their own decisions. They are run by professionals in their business, and had access to the best advice available. Some of that advice was NOT to do the things that have gotten them into trouble.

Now, they are are asking the taxpayers to give them money. Huge sums of money, amounts so great that no one can calculate or even name them to any degree of certainty. They are asking the people of this country to take on an unknowable, yet cripplingly tremendous burden, to preserve corporate profits.

NO.

I will not vote to "bail out", "rescue", "protect" "lend to", or otherwise provide the citizens' money to huge corporations who have chosen to make bad business decisions.

These same corporations, when their profits were high, employed thousands of lawyers and accountants to be sure that they paid the very minimum tax possible. They weren't talking then about sharing, and I won't hear them talk about it now.

The only difference between Howard Jameson and AIG is scale. And the fact that AIG gave huge amounts of money to politicians, including me.

But the banks and corporations didn't buy my conscience, or my vote.

I'm sorry, but there will be serious pain and difficulty. It is better that that pain fall on the people who gambled and created it than on the prudent, the modest, the savers. I'm not going to put my name on anything that makes those careful people the chumps and losers in this.

Davy Crockett" was right.

Internet Dating Rejection...

In the aftermath of my Heather Blake experience, I was talked into trying internet dating. I couldn't post a picture on the site, but of course I offered to send one.

I did NOT look forward to it.

More importantly, everybody- even (insert name of most beautiful person you can think of) has been rejected because of his or her appearance on occasion, because no one's appearance appeals to everybody. But we don't know it- we just get dinged, no one ever says "You're too ugly to my eye".

But when we're chatting along fine, and she said send pictures- and the ding followed, I'd KNOW. Ouch! And it would happen, eventually. I'm no great beauty, and I must have done something really bad to Louis Daguerre in a previous life, because his invention is taking a terrible revenge. Pictures of me appear to be of someone entirely different, and uniformly goofy.

And eventually, it did. (Actually it wasn't a ding, just silence. Some people are rude!)

But here's the thing- I expected to be all sad, but it didn't bother me at all!

Because I realised that what was rejected was- my parents' DNA!

My physical body- my appearance- is the ONE THING about me that I don't choose, cannot change, and in fact have absolutely nothing to do with! My manners, my interests, my outlook, my speech, what I wear, my physical fitness- all those things ARE mine and I control them. I can even dye my hair if I like.

But my looks? They were made elsewhere, by people now dead, nine months before I was born.

It was absolutely liberating.

Elder sexual abuse pictures...

No, pervert. I mean pictures used to advertise training about catching people who assault old people. My littermate brought this to my attention:










But this is creepy. What, are those the raped and fondled grandmothers' descendants? Then why are they happy? SO happy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to be an orphan. But if even my dam was assaulted, I'd at least be angry!

Hey, Congress and President Bush...

If you hurry, you can still get a Preakness bet down on Barbaro!

The stupidest investor I ever met didn't buy things AFTER they were already worthless.

September 11, again...

If you haven’t seen “United 93”, rent it and watch. Use a big screen and turn off the telephones so you won’t be disturbed.

Truly an amazing experience. If I owned a theater, it would be on the screen all day and night today, no ticket charge. Like the French theater that ran "Mr. Smith Goes To ashington" the last week before the Germans showed to occupy in 1940.

United 93 ought to be our focus in these memorials. It’s odd and not very old-time American that we concentrate on the people in the buildings- who were just at work- and the professional rescuers. What happened to them was awful, the rescuers were heroes, and I can’t think of them without tearing up.

But the people on 93 were different. They, random ordinary Americans, in the space of half an hour discarded false hope, organised, decided what to do, stood up to our enemies, and sacrificed their own lives to protect others and themselves. They weren’t trained or paid to do it. It wasn’t expected of them- in fact, passive obedience was what they were trained to exhibit. They were supposed to be victims, like the people in the other planes and in the buildings.

They didn’t default to that training.

They defaulted to Lexington and Concord.

We ought to take "In God We Trust" off the currency, and put on it "United 93, motherf*cker!"

And if you haven't teared up today:

My family chicken decapitation story...

Back when Cleveland was President and Victoria Queen, my great aunt Augusta was a little girl. Her father's city house in Wilmington was like the other big places there- the front was display, out back there was a yard surrounded by a high board fence. In the yard were the wash house, privy for the staff, and those sorts of things.

And the chickens.

Aunt Augusta's older brother made the mistake of naming them, and one was yclept for his baby sister.

The day came, and Jerusalem the cook went out back to do the deed. Unfortunately Brother- yes, that's what they called him- saw, and out he went to obstruct dinner.

"No, Jerusalem! Don't kill Augusta! Please don't kill Augusta! Put down that axe! No, No!"

"Mas' Brother, Augusta's time is come! You get back in that house and be quiet, or I'll take this hatchet to you when I've finished with her!"

Unknown to either of them, some one was passing near the back fence, heard the exchange, and ran off to summon a policeman.

Jerusalem completed the task, and hung the bird to drain. Then she went back toward the pump...

The policeman ran back, burst in the gate, and saw a large Black woman approaching him with bloody hands and hatchet...

Fortunately it was 1895 and not 1995, so everyone had time to explain!

Thank you Tam, for reminding me of this story!

First day out!

For us, it was a 7 A. M. meet- misty and not too hot, the forecast was 83 and sunny so we beat the prediction!

Hounds hit the side of "The Knob", and found immediately!

"Good morning, Mr. Coyote! Break's over!"

"Oh #$%^&*, I thought you $%^&*s had quit."

Pushed him back and forth for a while, maybe a half hour. Beautiful cry, between the misty air, the trees, and the hillside it was like the peal of a hundred bells.

"Enough of this, I'm off!"

And so he was, skates on and gone. Hounds tried to keep up for a good distance, but they just couldn't hold on. Then drawing back to the meet, and found again in the same spot! A very typical thing for our coyotes, we'll find several then settle on one, the others will hang around secure in the knowledge that we won't be back. Wrong this time!

Couldn't push one out, scent was dying as the dampness burned off. A good first day for the field, of whom there were 60 or so, a shocking big number for 7 A. M.

It's time...

Hounds, horses, coyotes- BREAK'S OVER!!!

Governor Palin motivationals...

From here.

Punished for exposing criminals...

From Denmark:

"A jeweller in Århus who placed a video on the internet of his shop being burgled and its attendant being assaulted will likely receive a fine for his actions. He was reported to the police by the Danish Data Protection Agency for the clip - which was placed on the YouTube website - because it made public the identities of the three thieves. To add insult to injury, the burglars were acquitted for the robbery in court Tuesday, with the exception of one, who was found guilty of receiving stolen goods."

"Connections" and "The Day the Universe Changed" available on line...

I liked these programs. Television isn't ENTIRELY a stupidity machine.

The best news since my orphanhood...

Sen. McCain was awarded the Navy Cross for outstanding leadership, toughness and endurance.

Today's action shows us that he'll still take a big old risk. I would never have dreamed that he would have dared to offer the nomination to Governor Palin.

All those "I'm a conservative, I'm not voting for McCain" people are saying, "Hold up..."

This will waaaaaay irritate the lefties and the gender politicians, who hate being asked why their lists of great women never include Margaret Thatcher or Liddy Dole.

The lefties will have to make up some new ad feminem attacks-

Chickenhawk! Why aren't your children in Iraq? (Umm, mine and my running mate's are.)

NRA life member! (Yes, just like Saint Jack.)

Sexist! (???)

Raaaacist! (Tell my husband, the Native American. Or my running mate's daughter, the Indian.)

Silver Spoon! (Tell my husband the pipeline worker. Or my children, in public schools like I was, and like our opponents weren't and their children aren't.)

I've already heard that being governor of a state with a "limited population" isn't important. Um, Delaware has only 200,000 people more than Alaska. Damn!

I know- neither Republican candidate is a lawyer!

That will get people mad at them!

My favourite part will, I think, be when they bring up petty, irrelevant stuff. I can imagine it now-

"Governor Palin, our network as found naked pictures of you from 1985, do you have a comment?"

"Yes, I am naked under my clothes just as you are. Next?"

Another more sober reflection- both Republicans have personally engaged in dangerous personal stuff, and have experienced the infliction of death personally. They have seen the elephant.*

That's not meaningless. It seems strange, but follow along. A president has to get metaphorical blood on his hands from time to time, and it's not a bad idea for him to have seen the real thing close up. Bush 1, Kennedy, Truman, and Theodore Roosevelt all did, and they weren't so bad.

A combat veteran, an EMT, nurse, farmer, hunter, or slaughterman know inside what the end of life looks like, what we all come to.

I am reminded of something George Orwell said about Gandhi:

"Even when he was fighting what was in effect a color war, he did not think of people in terms of race or status. The governor of a province, a cotton millionaire, a half-starved Dravidian coolie, a British private soldier were all equally human beings, to be approached in much the same way."

I get the feeling that McCain sees each of us as a person, and Obama sees us as categories. I don't like that, I think it's an evil and dangerous way to think. Its what is behind every terrible political and social outlook, from social exclusion to segregation to Kolyma.

And scarier, that leaves himself as the only individual.

It's his world, and the rest of us just live in it.

Legislatures are full of very successful, very effective, very useful sociopaths. But executive sociopaths are very dangerous indeed.

*"...the whole story begins with the classic American traveling carnival. Back in the early 19th century, the arrival of such a carnival in a small town was a major occasion, affording the town's residents the opportunity to sample all sorts of exotic attractions, from the grotesque denizens of the sideshow to wild beasts from Africa and Asia that many people at that time had only read of in books. The big draw at many of these shows was an elephant, a far bigger and stranger critter than any animal native to North America, and to go to the carnival without "seeing the elephant" would be like going to the Ohio State Fair without seeing the Butter Cow. (Yes, it's a life-size cow sculpted from butter, sort of a giant advertisement for bypass surgery.)

So ritualized was this small-town pachyderm-mania that by about 1835 "to see the elephant" had become a catch phrase meaning "to experience all that there is to see, to see all that can be endured," with the sense that after having "seen the elephant" there was nothing left to see. A related, more general sense arose a few years later, in which "to have seen the elephant" meant "to be worldly, no longer innocent, to have learned a hard lesson." Many young people of the day who left the country for the big city with stars in their eyes only to experience hardship and disappointment were wryly said to have "seen the elephant" in this sense. And by about 1840, "see the elephant" had acquired the specialized military sense you have heard, meaning "to experience combat for the first time," with the brutal loss of innocence that ordeal conveys."

Dusty Horwitt , embarrassment for EWG...

Dusty Horwitt is about to start on his 15 minutes, I hope.

He's a lawyer who works for EWG, a lefty lobby group whose goal is to get tax money spent on its customers and contributors. At least they say it directly- "advocates on Capitol Hill for health-protective and subsidy-shifting policies".

In his recent Washington Post piece, he suggests using the power of the state to limit and filter the flow of communication between citizens, using energy taxation as the means. So the Newspapers and Networks can get their versions of what we need to know unimpeded by all those millions of blogs that nobody reads anyway. Seriously, that's what he says.

He asserts that there are only twenty news/politics blogs that reach 100,000 people monthly. That's just a lie, I can NAME more than that myself.

He says plenty of other things, too- suggesting that in this day and age, no one would notice the Selma riots, and that political change can't come from the web. Tell the Swift Boat veterans, or LGF, who broke the Dan Rather / CBS news forgery fraud, with clear, incontrovertible proof.

Comments were closed on the article after 61, uniformly unfavourable. TMI. (Now reopened.)

His company's mission statement?

The mission of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.

His Law School, Georgetown, ought to be ashamed. Or maybe he skipped First Amendment day.

But here's what's funny.

He has other jobs!

He’s a professional Bill Clinton imitator, AND he writes and sings funny songs!

And he has information-cluttering, Gaia-Raping WEB SITES for BOTH:

Not one, but two!

So classic. Information, even trivial information like mp3s of his Clinton imitations, for me but not for thee.

If I were EWG I’d fire this embarrassment, PDQ.

I hope they do.

Any one who advocates that government stifle free communication is an enemy of the human race, and penury is much too mild a fate for him.

And here's something he wrote that I rather like. Found it on the internet, too. TMI!

Confederate Women...

I’m reading a book that has me thinking. It’s called “Mothers of Invention”, and it’s about- by, really- Southern women “of the slave holding class” during the U. S. Civil War. The author has read hundreds of memoirs, diaries, and letters from her subjects, organized her thoughts into categories, and let the women speak. She’s not (so far) all censorious, nor does she demand that these women of 1860 hold bien pensant ideas of today. It’s refreshing, there’s only moderate P. C. jargon usage and explication. I’ve been thinking lately about the “home front” and families in wartime, so seeing this was a fortunate fortuity.

She seems to try to show, and present, as broad a selection of these womens’ experiences and thoughts as she can. It has always seemed to me, pill that I am, that the study of history is anti human. By its insistence on pie charting humanity- “The landed gentry of England opposed parliamentary reform in 1832”. Surely these blanket statements are broadly true, but they deny the real truth that people are usually conflicted. The Grandma’s diary quote is a good example- we need to fight the Japanese and Germans, but I hope not with my beau." I suppose even the most homogenous societies contain people who aren’t so much dissenters as what might be called perspectivists- those who cannot deny outlooks which don’t match even their own actions. We all know that lots of our own fellows, maybe most of them, are like that. Certainly most hunting people think hard and are disturbed by the cruelty inherent in what we do, and I find few people who oppose the Iraq war who also believe that our enemies want to live in peace, or that the retreat they want will help bring about a solution.

I wonder if we concentrated more on this genuine diversity, diversity of thought, it might make a difference. Don’t look for it from lefty academia- those folks seem obsessed with pie charting and the very THOUGHT that people could vary from their category’s assigned thought pattern is inadmissible. Especially designated oppressors and victims- can you imagine class material at Yale suggesting that, for example, lots and lots of German aristocrats despised the Nazis? It’s true, though. And it was often said among enforcers of the Judenrein that everyone- even the “best Germans”- had particular Jews within their own circles whom they considered should be exempt from repressive measures.

Thinking about that might help us get out of our still wired in Marxist view that history is in some way inevitably on some course. You constantly hear people talk about the future as though it will be determined by confrontations and alliances between uniform, homogenously thinking groups. I believe it’s not, though. Maybe history, like life, isn’t changing red to yellow, but instead changing green to brown. Sure, there are some serious Jihadis we have to kill. But I have always thought that the hearts and minds idea was a good one. The tactics we use might be wrong, but most Moslems don’t, personally, want to choose between conversion and martyrdom.

Just a musing, there, on the contrary and unique nature of almost every human.

The place I saw it was interesting, too. I was visiting a house which belongs to somone who makes a habit of buying any book written by a university classmate. This makes for an interesting library. Sort of a postsecret effect- content suggested by the artists, not the viewer.

Hot Nuns !

I thought "Miss Land Mine" was a good idea.

A beauty pageant for actual genuine nuns? Again, words fail.

But the article expands the pageant horizon-

"There is no equivalent contest in Italy for priests. However, for the past four years a calendar featuring handsome young priests and seminarians posing against Rome landmarks has been a bestseller at newspaper kiosks.

Shaping up

— Inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia enter an annual Miss Spring contest, to demonstrate good behaviour and win early parole

— The Mazayin Dhafra festival in Abu Dhabi this year staged a beauty pageant for camels, in a government-sponsored move to remind Emiratis of their heritage

— The Miss Mama Kilo contest in Cameroon is reserved for women weighing 90kg (198lb) or more."

No fooling, the Obama Cheer Project...

A magic chant to go along with a fantasy campaign. My own words fail.

The Gratitude Campaign is a good antidote.

Claiming the Ice Man, New Zealand, and Electric Shutters...

That’s when the Ice Man entered the airless Business School classroom...

I'd not put Isaac Hayes under "coon" on my web page...

Even now, never mind back when he was alive. Because insulting words are common and stupid.

But then, from some candidates "coon" isn't a racial slur, is it? Here's another:



The candidate shown was defeated in his run for the U. S. Senate in a state north of here. But wouldn't these have destroyed his effort if they had been made public? And yes, it is a picture of his genuine Flickr page, I took photos in case it is altered.



It depends, doesn't it? The "coon supper" is an annual political event in Tennessee. You'd think State House Speaker Nafieh, who gives it, would have had the good taste, or been hounded, to change the name.

But no, it's all in good fun and he keeps getting reelected. He has a big old D beside his name.

Something pretty for Sunday...

Why didn't Amanda Marshall ever take off?

But nothing new from her for years. Shame, really, she did all sorts of good stuff.

And there's a hunting horn at 1.46! I'm sure it's a party noisemaker, but it's almost time!

A mechanical mule!

This is just amazing! And it has plenty of jump, too.

Someone said back in the thirties that the Army wouldn't accept tanks until they could be made to eat hay at one end and crap out of the other. It's a good thing these weren't around back then.

And this is making me cry. Miracles and wonders, in a few years there will probably be one that fits under clothing.

Hat tip to The Rep.

First Nazi Hummels, now this...

The Nazi Hummel post cards were creepy enough, and then I stumbled on this:



Currently for sale on ebay. Why do I suspect this once belonged to Colonel Redl ?

Speaking of Hispanics...

The lefty-approved kind, from south of the Rio Grande. Saw this billboard recently:



Are we ignorant? Do we not know that's Villa, and that Los Dorados were his personal guards and killers?

I suppose byegones are byegones.

Soon to open, Bataan Sushi and Jochem's Schnitzel Haus.

Uncle Ho's Hanoi Hotel is still in focus groups.

I've always liked this picture:



Dotty looking nervous in his new suit, Obregon all spruce, and who knew Pershing ever laughed?

Looting Spanish Gold- From a Museum...

On some of my couple of hundred trips to the City, I visited the HSA. It's full of interesting things, in most places it would be an A list item. There, it's another of those places the guidebooks forgot.

Now, it's being stripped.

Enquirer right AGAIN...

As I said it was.

Liar says Enquirer trash, news.

Enquirer right repeatedly about Liar, not news.

My favourite part of his confession, "I didn't love her".

And now that everyone in the country is talking about it, it's news.

WTFF?

Lying concession speech...

Like all of them.

Just once, I'd like to hear one (since Nixon in California) that's honest. I think Padgett's true speech is on the view from his porch.

...it was good to have been born, just to experience that one thing.

Finding the maiden's prayer picture, I stumbled on this. War is sad, even though this is a funny story.

It's easy to forget that everyone, even the 19 martyrs, loves to see a pretty day.

A simple question for the candidates...

I often think about asking candidates questions. Here's one for every D, and plenty of Rs as well:

"Over the past few months, the dollar cost of gasoline has increased substantially. You have called this a bad thing, a crisis, and have demanded that government do things to keep

GAS PRICES DOWN.

Over the same few months, the dollar cost of a house in some places has decreased substantially. You have called this a bad thing, a crisis, and have demanded that government do things to keep

HOUSE PRICES UP.

I'm renting, and I'd like to buy. Why do you think I should pay more for my house?

I work in a gas station. Why do you think I should not get as much for my product as people are willing to pay?"

No one complained when house or copper "prices doubled". Why is that?

America's Top Clap Quack Can't read...

The Constitution, that is. Dr. Kevin Fenton thinks He thinks the President sets the budget!

It's good there is a quick, easy HIV test now. Miracles and wonders.

Every Maiden's Dream...

No, not a maiden's prayer.

But you're too late, girls- he "was granted bail so he could marry his girlfriend of six months before he goes to jail."

And why does dope cost twice as much to the dark folk of the island continent?

Site Meter shows me some Google weirdness...

1. Do try to follow along. I'm the #2 Google result for (without quotes) "poor people in America". But the first result is a completely different word string!

Try it yourself. And while you're at it, click on my post, maybe I can be #1 for something other than crotchless bibles. Which I'm not any more, and once upon a time I was the sole Google result for the phrase!

2. Lots of people looking to learn about shapely breasts.

3. As usual, several searches for "another word for rape". I suspect I'm being used as a thesaurus, perhaps a post on this is in order.

3. It's orgY, not orgIE, you illiterate perverts.

Cintra Wilson goes to Beretta...

The Critical Shopper goes to Beretta's in the City.

Have to add her and her contributors to the Roll of the Blog, too much good stuff all at once.

The Black Snob...

"Hi. My name is Danielle Belton and I am an official, 100 %, born n' raised American black woman. I popped out of my Mama's womb black. I'm gonna die black. I'm the descendant of slaves and their masters. I say this to let you know that this is the authentic view of one solitary natural born Negro. (Not all, so don't get it twisted.) And this is my message to non-Negroes about a troublesome word so powerful that it makes pretty white girls cry.

So listen close to what I'm about to say..."

Cintra Wilson has a new contributor, Danielle Bolton. Here's her take on the awesome power of the n word. . Well worth a read, and it isn't on her own blog, The Black Snob.

You have to die from something,

"You have to die from something, and it may as well be from heroism.

Lord Anson lost 1672 out of 1854. And all of Scott's people perished.

Animus longa, vita brevis.

The deadly N wrd..

So, Rkns hs wthdrn th ftly ofnsv lcns plts. Lcky thrs stl tm t stp "spk" nd "spd". Bt wt abt th 999 crs wth "dky" n thm? O th ofndns!

I exp "ofy" wl nt b cmplnd abt, nd tht "heb" wsn't.

Nd mnwl, I hv t b ofnd b ths rcl slr vry tm I ps a frwy ext.

UPDT!

Cntra Wlson hs a nw cntrbtr, Dnil Bltn. Hr's hr tk n th awsm pwr f th n wrd. Wl wth a rd, t's nt n hr blg, Th Blk Snb.

Jamey Parkey, HERO...

I don't have to rewrite the Knoxville mass killing. Mr. Parkey and his fellow Unitarians proved the point of my mass killing rewrites.

When you resist, you can STOP THEM.

I did notice that the stupid fat old loser chose a Unitarian, officially anti gun, pacifist denomination.

NOT bitter Baptists.

And he's definitely gay. I mean, he went in with a shotgun and almost a hundred shells, and he got beat up by UNITARIANS.

My Day Wife is COLD...

I had a telephone call from a woman who had her car stolen. It was recovered yesterday. Since she couldn't be reached, the police had it towed to an impound lot, as is the usual procedure.

There's a $150 charge for the owner to get the car back in these cases. (Seems wrong to me, but the City won't pay the private tow truck drivers and after all, it is the owner's car that's being protected, not mine.) The owner wanted to have the defendant pay the fee, but it's a little early in the process for that. Of course if he had $150 he'd be out on bail, he wouldn't waste it on restitution.

I explained all that, and she hung up.

A few minutes later I came back into the office and I heard my day wife on the telephone half way through the same explanation, obviously to the same upset citizen. As I had done, I told her that it seemed unfair to me, and that if convicted the thief would be ordered to pay the fee as restitution.

She then explained, as I had not, that an order and actual payment were two different things, and that more often than not restitution was never paid.

Then she was silent, as the owner spoke for a minute. And then my day wife said.

"Well, I guess that's why they call it victim."

I thought I was the cold one!


I remarked on it later, and she said, "I said with a smile!"

"It wasn't a web cam, she can't see through the wire."

"You know what I meant. If bad things didn't happen to victims, they wouldn't come to court."

Cold.

John Edwards and his Lady Friend...

So all my reader knows that I honestly trust the National Enquirer when it asserts facts, since I've never had a Gell-Mann Effect experience with it.



And everyone knows their reporter caught Sen. Edwards and his lady friend .



But what I love are the file pictures they used to illustrate the article. Her expression, and shirt, are perfect!



It's like she's looking at him, and saying

"I took HIM home? Damn, I ain't never drinkin' agin."

Whoa! My U. S. Senator just called me!

No fooling, it's a telephone call town meeting! This is pretty amazing, a chance to question a Senator live!

I see him occasionally, but the telephone doesn't know that!

So far, people are asking for the government to reduce obesity, stop paying for ethanol, give my son five years to start paying back his medical school loan, use the magic Swiss fuel he thinks he heard about, things like that.

Hitler and Stalin's tanks for sale...

In case you're afraid of carry permit holders, here you go. I know the sale's over, but there are more coming.

But if you want a nice Spitfire, you'll have to wait until September. At least you can fly it home a lot faster than you can drive that T34.

Carry Permit Holders are More Powerful than Bulldozers...

Front end loaders, actually.

And shouldn't that be Digro-American?

I like waking up...

and getting all ready to go to work before I remember it's Saturday. It's like a surprise day off.

The War Nerd and the Exile are back!

And here's a story about giving a car as a sweepstake prize in murderer Lenin's memorial!

Sometimes everyone is having a bad day...

"Trespassing" boys, jackass with a gun, drunk driver, and a nurse wasted on meth, beer, and marijuana.

"That's the first I've heard of that. Man, that really blows my mind right there."

Here's something cheerful then...

I have a weakness for personal, crazy, just because it makes me feel good art.

So go, Matt Harding!

And Stride Gum!



Thank you, rat of musk!

And YouTube sends me to another, and I'd never heard of Regina Spektor!

It's always Rwanda somewhere...

Saving these people would be so easy.

But they are poor dark people who don't have anything to sell us, and lack PR skills.

Hundreds of hours about Tim Russert, but not five minutes for Joshua Bakacheza. (Not for the squeamish.)

Quotes of the evening...

Here are some things I never thought I'd say or hear at a party...

"You can't sleep with pride forever".

"It's not bestiality if only animals are involved."

"How are libertarians ever going to attract politicians who can actually win elections? It's like a convent trying to attract cheerleaders, they don't have anything the target demographic wants."

And this entire exchange between Others and Staghounds, following another's use of the term "midget porn"-

O-Can they even have sex?

S. Of course, where do you think little midgets come from?

O. As opposed to big midgets.

S. I meant baby midgets.

O. And you're not supposed to call them midgets, either.

S. Oh yes, because otherwise they wouldn't know.

A

Hunt scum!

You are really a dork if you are...

You are really a dork if you are having a fight on the internet about the hirings and firings of weather talking heads on the stupidity machine.

I'll bet that Messr.s Dandy, Lawson, Greer, and Weeks between them couldn't name all their State and Federal legislators.

Perverted Roommate...

I just finished another search warrant on some pervert who was taking secret pictures of his roommate through the wall when she washed and dressed.

Instead of putting this character on probation (which is silly), the court ought to order him to submit to some naked photographing. And then putting the pictures on the web.

Sheesh.

Hilarious, "Walk of No Shame"

I don't have television, so I missed this.

Zimbabwe refuses to vote...

Last election, there were all day lines at every polling statiom. Today, for the "runoff"...

Now everybody will have a gun!!!

The Mayor of a city where honest people are disarmed by law said yesterday in response to Heller-

“Does this lead to everyone having a gun in our society?”

Yes, it does.

Just like the First Amendment has lead to everyone having a newspaper subscription, a church membership, and a protest sign.

Or, if you read the Supreme Court 1A cases, p*rn, a burning flag, snakes to handle, and a brown shirt they wore in Skokie.

These people are JPFN**.

We've heard it before.

You see, Mr. Mayor, in America, there are, shockingly, things that are neither prohibited nor mandatory.

We've heard it before though. I'm sure your Great Grandfather said "Now the niggers will be living next door to me!"


** "Just Plain F*cking Nuts". A term a psychiatrist I know often uses. From page 317 of the DSM-IV, I think.

Send Barack your baby!

Be sure to check the FAQs!

Your address is a P.O. box. Is that safe?


Don’t worry, the mailman will not put your baby in the P.O. box itself. There is a separate room in the post office for packages, and one of Barack’s assistants picks babies up from there at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. every weekday.

Doctor Ossian Sweet smiles...

Every American school child knows this house:



They ought to know this one too. Maybe they ought to know it better.



On November 5, 1917, millions of Americans woke up to find that no State, City, or County could use its power to make black folks live in a particular location. The U. S. Supreme Court read the Constitution.


On May 17, 1954, millions of Americans woke up to find that no State, City, or County could use its power to make black children go to segregated schools. The U. S. Supreme Court read the Constitution.

And today, the U. S. Supreme Court told every State, City, and County that it couldn't use its power to force people- specifically, lakhs of black people in Washington, D.C.- to remain unarmed and helpless in their own homes.

If there are ghosts, I think those of the Sweet family , who will always haunt that little house, are smiling.

I was almost gagged!

And not in the fun way, either.

Defence lawyer's criminal was upset that the news sellers described his customer's actions based on the police report, so he filed a "Motion for Gag Order" to command me, the police officer, and the victim not to talk to the press.

My response was that none of us had talked to the press, we didn't intend to, but the Court was welcome to order us not to do what we intended not doing.

Based on that, he didn't issue an order.

I understand that the other Judges and defence lawyers are upset, feeling that the Judge should have issued an order that I not speak to anyone, ever, about anything. Missed opportunities.

And one did not have the chance to ask,

"Ball or Bit? Will the Court order Miss X from the clerk's office to put it in?"

Snarky fashion shop reviewer Cintra Wilson, courtesy of Ann Coulter...

Who would think that Ann Coulter would tell me about an hilarious boulevardier lefty like Cintra Wilson?

Her regular job seems to be reviewing clothing stores for the New York Times. Not the ones at the mall, but Prada and Louboutin:

The Pigalle is not for wearing, but it is the most eloquent visual argument against capitalism since the 19th-century cotton mill.

Back when I was working, I often went into high end stores in the city. It was fun and free amusement, good for her figuring out how to make a buck off it.

Who would have thought that a woman named after an embarrassing nineteenth century treaty would make me laugh?

Bonus giant dismembered lobster exoskeleton picture!



Uh oh, I'll bet I'm Google #1 for dismembered lobster exoskeleton...

Victoria's Secret Thong Expert Testimony...

Snippets from my (very slim and VS customer) friend K's remarks about the Victoria's Secret thong eye injury lawsuit:

K: "I wish I had thought of that. I could buy a pair two sizes too small...

No wait, no I couldn't. They don't make XXXXS."



When I think of how close I wish I had come to blindness...

A truly wonderful piece about policing...

Just read it. Not a lot of laughs.


Oddly enough, this happened to be playing when I read the piece above. Pretty good soundtrack:

World's largest orgy! NYC is paying $2000 a month for rural pasture board!

NYC is paying $2000 a month for rural pasture board! Seriously! $2,500,000/10/12!

Looks as though Ms. Nanninga, Detective DePamphilis, and every single New York City taxpayer got screwed on this one. Maybe they should ship them to Moscow. Or I'll buy a farm in the Millbrook country.

British pistol design thoughts...

In a discussion in comments at a Tam, post, the Empress of Snark quoted someone as saying,

"...most British handguns looked like they had been designed by someone who had not only never held a handgun before, but didn't like them very much, either.

I had the audacity to respond,

"The "never held one" comment is clever, but wrong, if you've ever actually used one yourself. Until the mid 20th century, British handguns were the best, or as good as the best, personal self defense tools available.

(Given the ammunition and state of reliability gunsmithing the time.)

Pick a date between 1800 and the end of the first German war, and a pistol from Britain would probably be your first or as good as your first choice.

Not surprising, British officers were doing a lot of defending themselves during that period and they shared their experiences.

Most people don't know it, but Britain produced almost all the "how to" fighting handgun literature in the 19th century, too. Obvious, really- those frontier subalterns and deputy collectors were both literate and literary.

Those Americans who were pistol fighting in the same period didn't much run to letters, magazine articles, and books."

Since gun nuts like pointless controversy, I thought I'd put it up here in case any one wants to discuss it.

Wooden computers! Wooden Radiators! Slinky Radiators!

Design day here at Kennels...

These people overestimated the demand for a wooden desktop comp.

Wooden laptop!

Plastic laptop? Put it in this wooden case.

Plug it into this big old wooden stupidity machine.

Keep warm with a wooden radiator.

And, the coolest, a radiator shaped like a Slinky. With bonus inquisitive visitor alert feature!

Global cooling causes hot pokers in the ass...

Global warming may be bad, but...

"The dispossessed King Edward II was killed by a red-hot iron poker shoved up his anus. This savagery partly reflected hostility on the part of the Church and other opinion-makers to the king's homosexuality and his favoritism toward his young French male lover, but it also reflected the general malaise, anger, and pessimism of the new age of global cooling."

Thank God Japan has strict gun control laws...

I don't have the energy to rewrite this one. Japan in fact DOES have strict laws against knives, guns, swords, and murder. Predictably, there are calls for increasing gun and knife controls now. Listening for the outcry around the world about Japan's "Elf Culture", but all I hear are crickets.

According to the press they get ten or so of these rampages in a year's time. Zero beatings to death of stabbers as far as I know.

Seriously, he stabbed EIGHTEEN PEOPLE????? How does one stab eighteen people? I know, start with the slow ones. It's not as though he went to the place where the speediest children of Nippon hang out, but you'd think that by the time he was pulling his Rambo knife out of number eight or nine, even the pastiest basement dwelling gamer would have built up a commanding lead.

And how do you say "United 93, motherf*cker!" in Japanese? One knife beats one man every time, and usually two, but it's not much help against four or five, who can then do an Edward II on knifeboy.

No sons or daughters of the Samurai here, looks like just the ethos of the Iwo Jima losers was transmitted.

Turkish Prosecutor and Court are heroes!

Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya's name should be a household word.

For those of my reader who doesn't know, the Turkish Constitutional Court just found that allowing women to wear a head scarf on State University Property is unconstitutionally inconsistent with the secular state, and the APK is under indictment.

Plenty of people safe in the West think, or pretend to think, that this is an issue of religious freedom. It's not, dress means something .

The hijab is a tool of oppression and intimidation, because it marks and separates those who submit to the religion and those who don't.

"So, Mumtaz, where is your hijab today?"

"I don't know who she is, but we'd better not be seen talking to her. My brothers would kick my ass."

"Mrs. Ercek gave me a C because I wear hijab. That's why Faizulla got an A.

"I know your parents back in the village, do they know that you are not wearing hijab?"

"Godless whore."

Then again, some people understand just fine.

Being free is more important than sucking up to the okiphobic EU bureaucrats.

How do you get to the Olympics?

Take the Fuxing Road!

Not far from Fuxingmen Outer Street. If you're interested in that sort of thing.

(Expect a quick rename if this gets well known.)

Thank God Britain Has Strict Gun Control Laws...

No one could make this up, I'm sorry she suffered, and I hate murder. But better her than someone who didn't do her damnedest to put people at the mercy of the meanest and strongest. Talk about reaping what one sows.

I wonder if her last thoughts were "I'm so glad I don't have a gun!"?

I particularly like the use of the term "unrelated" used to refer to the attack on the railroad employee. If the same person did both things, they are pretty related!

Don't have to rewrite the Nevada mass killing...

... because there wasn't one. That's the problem, when they end right there aren't enough corpses to make the front page.

The Tackiest Advert I've Ever Seen...

Marie Digby will become very familiar to my neighbours...

Don't worry, Emmy- you're still on.

Sex with 1000 cars ?

Not only is he a tramp, he's a pervert. I mean, a Ford Ranger?


Update!

My Friend K- "But how does he satisfy the cars?

S- "As though he cares, he is a man after all."

The Muskrat is HILARIOUS...

Following up on a link from Stuff White People Like, I found the Muskrat.

Today at breakfast, we learned from the Tween that her classmates and she are pairing up to raise baby eggs. By the time her name came up, they were apparently out of boys, so she and a friend are playing sisters who are adopting, which, as she pointed out, was a much better scenario than getting stuck with Harrison, the class clown (who never grew out of the glue eating phase), with whom her friend Anna is stuck.

Tween: “Anna has already said they’re getting divorced as soon as the exercise begins next week.”

Me: “But what about the egg?”

Tween: “Dad, it’s an egg!”

Me: “An egg who’s going to feel abandoned when Mommy and Daddy don’t love each other any more.

An egg who starts looking down the aisle towards condiments to smoke and sudafed to turn into meth on its way to frying like those ‘brain on drugs’ ads…

An egg who starts hooking up with other eggs in its carton to fill the love void left by its absent dad…”

Welcome to the Blog Roll.

Sen. Obama says "Lay Off My Wife"...

"...they should be careful because that I find unacceptable, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family."

Wooooo.

This is the United State of America, jackass. You don't get to decide what you will accept.

It's a crime for someone in authority to use his power to prevent or deter citizens from exercising their rights. For a U. S. Senator to tell any one exercising his free speech rights that "they better be careful" is just as wrong as some Mississippi Sheriff telling the NAACP that they "better be careful" about registering voters, or a public school teacher telling his class that they "better be careful" about which church they go to.

A Senator should know that, just as a President should. I was just as angry when President Bush and Senator McCain told the Swift Boat veterans they shouldn't speak, but at least they didn't tell them to "be careful".

I suppose it's the Chicago way, "You got a nice little business here. Better be careful how you vote in the State Senate race, wouldn't want to have licensing problems..."

I am (not) very surprised that a reporter, supposed guardian of the First Amendment, didn't say,

"Hold up, there, Senator. "Better be careful"? Should they expect IRS audits? Will you vote against government programs in Tennessee if they don't exercise free speech the way you like?"

Here's what a Senator SHOULD say. "This is the United States of America. People will say all sorts of things in political life, they have a right to. I am not going to say that anything is "off limits", because I wouldn't want to live in a country where that sort of thing passed an official's lips. The public should be able to hear anyone speak, and judge ideas on their merits."

And if your campaign is flying her around to tell us how to vote, she's you, pal. What she says, you say.

If you don't want her using her brilliance to say what she really thinks about her country, or if she's too stupid to use the language clearly, give her a script or tell her to shut up.

And calling a playing of her words an "attack" doesn't make it one. Not a single person on that video, except "your wife" (When did she stop having a name?), said anything other than good things about our country.

Thank you for the great publicity! The MSM didn't do much with her crack, but you've put this pitiful homemade YouTube all over the front pages. Imagine what a studio can do with the idea and some better spoken people.

Mohammed Altar Piece Photoshops...

The Ro'P is very tough on cartoons, wood carvings, and helpless things generally. The latest threat is to tear up the Dendermonde pulpit.

Of course, immediately there is a photoshop site to inflame them further.

California Church Shooting Rewrite...

HEROIC BYSTANDERS HERNANDEZ AND CLANCY STOP MASS KILLING

Carolina Hernandez and Stephen Clancy bravely stopped a man who shot three people at a Los Angeles Church festival Saturday. The two heroic festival-goers grabbed the would be killer and held him for police, authorities and a church official said.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene, with people screaming and running for the exit after gunfire rang out on a grassy field where the festival was being set up at the St. John Baptist de la Salle Roman Catholic parish. But Hernandez and Clancy didn't panic. Ms. Hernandez, an off duty Burbank police officer, says that the credit should go to Clancy, who is a grocery store employee.

"It's my duty to protect people, and I'm trained in how to do it. But Mr. Clancy isn't- he just came out of nowhere. It's just an accident that I was nearby too. We might have had another Stockton McDonald's but for this man. I told him the BPD is hiring!"

"What, I was going to run away and let him shoot someone else? Or me, in the back while I was running? No way, I've thought about this when I've heard about these things. United 93!"

The coward, whose name and details will never be published in this newspaper, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, said Los Angeles Police Officer Ana Aguirre. He was held in Van Nuys jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

The gutless loser made comments to a KNX-AM reporter before being taken to jail. KNAX has also refused to release his comments. Station Management cited their corporate policy to do nothing that would feed the ego of, or provide a platform for, the pathetic trash who would do this sort of crime."

Jeff Sempelsz, a church volunteer was setting up a prize booth when the shooting started.

"It sounded like balloons popping," he said. "I didn't know what it was but I could see the rifle in his hand."

(Link to AP story not provided, in conformity with Staghounds blog policy.

Those aren't the bystanders' real names. Why? BECAUSE THE NEWS MEDIA IS NOT TALKING THEM UP!!!! No, the AP gives us the criminal's name and thoughts, but God forbid they should stress the actions of the people who held the man.

Thank Goodness Britain Has VERY STRICT Gun Control!

Mainly applied to the police. Looks as though this loser was cranking off his gauge in downtown London for five hours before they got permission to stop him.

Street Security Theatre...

Scotland Yard today announced a new operation to curb knife crime in London.

Police are to set up mobile airport-style metal detectors on the streets to carry out searches for weapons.

"We're the only ones..."

Who can be trusted to keep a secret.

"An Assessment that house prices will fall by up to 10 per cent this year was laid bare today by a blunder.

The secret official verdict was unwittingly disclosed when Housing Minister Caroline Flint strolled into this morning's weekly Cabinet meeting carrying an armful of documents.

Clearly visible on top of her bundle of papers was a printed briefing paper on the state of the property market which said that "at best" prices will tumble this year by five to 10 per cent. It came as inflation jumped to three per cent, way above forecasts."

Quote of the day...

"...that liberal instinct which is so dear to historians that they lay it out like a guideline through the unmapped forests of prejudice and self-interest as though this line, and not the forest, is our history."

Paul Scott, via John Derbyshire.

Whoa! Horse board is $200 in downtown Moscow!

...Fetisova is a member of the tribe of enthusiasts particular to the Soviet Union. People like her are a throwback to back before money eclipsed everything else in Moscow, and are always a pleasure to meet. She looks after 7 horses that live in a clean and very modest stable they share with a dog and a cat. Amazingly, the horses’ owners pay just 200 dollars a month to keep a horse there. That includes food, bathing, exercise, the works, all at prices that most renters in Moscow haven’t seen in years...

Seems like Russian racing is something time forgot.

You know, the largest country on earth, with scores of miles between paved roads even, is so far entirely devoid of a pack of hounds...

Chihuahua Defeats Coyote!

"Bentley, a 2-year old Chihuahua owned by Jessica Ganchou of Bethlehem, is luckly to be alive after he was mauled and nearly killed by a coyote earlier this year. (Jim Shannon / RA)

Bentley the longhaired Chihuahua has a second chance at life thanks to a 9-volt battery, a loving owner and two skilled veterinarians who put him back together after he was attacked by a coyote.

The lap dog with the golden coat and diminutive body was romping behind his owner’s Bethlehem house at dusk Jan. 19 when a coyote snatched him. The coyote’s teeth pierced the dog’s flesh and clamped down as it headed for the edge of the yard.

Technology intervened. Bentley, who was wearing a battery-powered collar tuned to an electric fence in the yard, got an electrical shock as the coyote stepped over the metal wire. The charge zapped the coyote, which dropped Bentley and skulked away.

The little dog was lucky. Wildlife experts and veterinarians across Connecticut say the number of coyote attacks on pets, particularly small dogs like Bentley that appear as prey, has increased in recent years. Suburban sprawl is considered the biggest factor; homes built near hills and streams are in natural coyote habitat. Few disagree coyotes, which resemble small German shepherds, have become more aggressive, and are losing their innate fear of humans, as evidenced by the 2006 attack on two Washington, Conn., residents.

“The bottom line is coyotes are expanding into populated areas and perhaps into areas where pet owners are totally unsuspecting,” said Chris Vann, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection. “They will protect their territories. If it can happen in the backyards of West Hartford and East Hartford, more populated areas, it can really happen anywhere.”

Don't fool with those electric Chihuahuas! Plus, what a great name for a news paper.

Found this article when I was looking at the Shocking! Southern California coyote "attacks".

No, they were coyote feedings . Your dog or child is just a meal, people.

The Chihuahua was in WATERBURY, and the Chicago animal control people catch more coyotes than our hunt does.

Detroit, too.