Naked Shapely Breasts Call For More Penis Exposure...

I am not making this up, it's a genuine news article from my Littermate's kennels!

...campaigning for more male genitalia on public display...

Sex In The Foam...

When you offer liquor to a room full of young drunks in exchange for public sex, don't be surprised when you get it!

"In the heat of the moment, the DJ used the phrase "sex in the foam" which I apologise for..."

Free School Choice, Unless We Don't Like Your Choice...

Many parents of children with ethnic Danish background do not want to send their children to schools where many of the students are Muslim, while Muslim parents are often hesitant to break the pattern of sending their children to the same schools.

If we're going to have real community schools, then everyone in the local districts should be represented...'

World's largest privately built submarine launched...

By a fur-clad woman by the name of Pipaluk.

Asked why he built one in the first place, he said, 'because it's possible'.

My sister is in the closet! Or, you people aren't REAL lesbians, you just stole that name...

"My sister can't say she is a Lesbian," said Dimitris Lambrou. "Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos."

The last line of the story is priceless. Make up your own jokes about lawsuits from Dutch Engineering firms or disgusting meat products.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world's gay women.

Three islanders from Lesbos - home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women - have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.

One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, "insults the identity" of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians.

The three plaintiffs are seeking to have the group barred from using "lesbian" in its name and filed a lawsuit on April 10. The other two plaintiffs are women.

Also called Mytilene, after its capital, Lesbos is famed as the birthplace of Sappho. The island is a favored holiday destination for gay women, particularly the lyric poet's reputed home town of Eressos.

"This is not an aggressive act against gay women," Lambrou said. "Let them visit Lesbos and get married and whatever they like. We just want (the group) to remove the word lesbian from their title."

He said the plaintiffs targeted the group because it is the only officially registered gay group in Greece to use the word lesbian in its name. The case will be heard in an Athens court on June 10.

Sappho lived from the late 7th to the early 6th century B.C. and is considered one of the greatest poets of antiquity. Many of her poems, written in the first person and intended to be accompanied by music, contain passionate references to love for other women.

Lambrou said the word lesbian has only been linked with gay women in the past few decades. "But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years," said Lambrou, who publishes a small magazine on ancient Greek religion and technology that frequently criticizes the Christian Church.

Very little is known of Sappho's life. According to some ancient accounts, she was an aristocrat who married a rich merchant and had a daughter with him. One tradition says that she killed herself by jumping off a cliff over an unhappy love affair.

Lambrou says Sappho was not gay. "But even if we assume she was, how can 250,000 people of Lesbian descent - including women - be considered homosexual?"

The Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece could not be reached for comment."

Today's RAAAAAcist! News Story...

I missed the Martin Luther King day watermelon relay.

But here's a special event for our Latino friends.

Tennessee Democrat Mike Padgett Steals Web Site!

Usually, lefties just take liberty, initiative, money, and the future from their constituents.

But if you're running for office and you're from Knoxville, Tennessee, why not steal the VERY NAME of the second highest traffic blog from the SAME TOWN.*

Those dumb old conservatives won't notice. It's not as though they can read, or use Google, or anything like that. That's why nobody ever heard of Reverend Wright, or found out about the Kosovo runway ceremony.

Good preview of how you plan to deal with Tennesseeans when you get to the Senate, Mr. Padgett.

My prediction of his response-

It's not a blog! It's a Journal!
And he didn't know the other site existed, it's just coincidence.

And there is an extra word in there, so it's not the same title.

And he's sorry, he'll change it.

Too, let's see, how about....

Instantpundit !

*Until last month, when its author moved.

UPDATE!

This Demographics Comparison Thing Is Great Fun!

I ran across this thing and was entranced. Look at all the categories and details!


No wonder people in small Pennsylvania towns are bitter. Look what they have to pay for their houses!

Who knew that there were .0161187448% Episcopalians where I once lived?

Knock yourself out. The comparison thing is hilarious.

Super Slave Zo on Reverend Wright- No, on being an American...

This fellow is great. Welcome to the blog roll!

Black & White on the Grey Matters (Jermiah Wright)

I thought something up! Clinton X and Clinton Y !!!

When the current President Bush took office, some people used 41 and 43 to distinguish him from his father.

If Sen. Clinton is elected, I suggest "Clinton Y" "Clinton X" as the designations!

(Men have a Y chromosome)

Something not political tomorrow.

New Obama Campaign Noise Suggestion...

Was there not one person at the news conference to make the sound of a cock crowing? Not a single one?

I'll bet there will be some at his speeches in future...

As usual, the CNN story has the truth in the last line about the deadbeat bank bailout bill...

For a classic article telling us what to think, with the actual truth in the last line...

God's Response to Campaign Promises...

Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him,

"Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations."

But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.

And the LORD said unto Samuel,

"Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them...

Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them."

And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.

And he said,

"This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:

He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.


He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day."

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said,

"Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."

I Samuel 8.

Be careful what you wish for. Because if you want a Government that can do everything, it will put your asses to work.

French Castle or Chateau in Tennessee...

Love them there Google satellite pictures- here's a French chateau in Tennessee!

Brilliant Publishing Idea!

“What does it tell you when a book with a jacket price of $7.00 goes out of print and then begins to sell for five times the jacket price on Amazon Used & New Books?”

If you are the author (and my girl crush Lynne Scanlon, WWOP and bearder of the mighty Mamet in his very den), you fire your publisher and launch a new business!

We all know of out of print books that bring more on Amazon used than new books do. This is a really brilliant idea!

I've seen this phenomenon repeatedly in history and technical books. "The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships" and "A Rifleman Went To War" were pulling three figures used when finally reprinted, and "The War The Infantry Knew" was topping a thousand pounds.

Once again, an obvious opportunity once someone clever points it out!

Good news for Zimbabwe!

That Red Chinese ship full of ammunition for President Mugabe's enforcers has turned back!

Not much press on this in the U. S., what with Brittany Hilton and all. But the Chinese blame The United States, not the dock workers in Durban who refused to unload, or the South African and Mozambican governments who refused entry. Credit where it is due, there, Jiang Yu.

Surely someone has just ONE Tomahawk or SEAL team equivalent with his name on it.

Nazi Internment Camps and Writer's Block...

I've always liked P. G. Wodehouse, and this is a fun review of a poor book about him. There are worse things that could be said about one than

"Talent + a work ethic that would kill an ox + a sunny temperament free of the tendency to fuck up your own life with a lot of bogus self-dramatizing crap = a fair shot at the kind of success that gets you the whole world."

"Wodehouse found himself, at 59, an internee at a series of Nazi camps, along with all the other ensnared male residents under the age of sixty. His reaction was typical of him: he kept writing. He finished Money in the Bank and outlined his new Blandings Castle novel, Full Moon. He entertained his fellow internees with short stories about camp life that he planned to publish one day in a volume to be entitled Wodehouse in Wonderland. For nine months, with no idea what his own fate would be-trucked from camp to camp-wasting away on a diet of watery cabbage soup and the occasional potato-worrying about what had become of his wife and parrot and Pekingese dog Wonder after their forced separation-cut off from any news of the rest of the world-Wodehouse kept writing. Fellow internees cracked up and attempted suicide but, after helping haul them away from the window ledge, Wodehouse kept writing. Perhaps you're not a writer, or don't know any writers, so you might not quite understand the significance of this fact. Writing, for most writers, is hard. Even at the best of times you'll make any excuse to stop writing. A sore throat, a mildly annoying e-mail, a broken dishwasher, almost anything can provide the rationale for why you can't write anymore that day. Internment in a Nazi camp would be sufficient excuse for most writers to take a break for, say, the rest of their lives. But not Wodehouse. He was a writing Titan."

That's Nazis twice in a row, something non political tomorrow.

Next, Heydrich and Eichmann vie over who's more pro Jews...

Obama, Cinton Battle Over Who's More Pro-Gun

Gay car reviews...

So as I look at reviews thinking which car to buy, I see that there are car reviews from a homosexual perspective. Who knew?

We’re convinced after our test drive that the Liberty is a part of that mythical gay agenda--the part where we infiltrate by stealth. The Liberty drives like it’s heading for a spa day at Burke Williams, while it looks like it’s dressed for a night at the Faultline. It’s so convincing at its straight act that I’m sure a few hets have bought one by accident.

There's a whole site, actually-gaywheels.com.

Have to love that internet!

A creepy product that will sell millions...

Um, gross.



Look! Another version, aimed at the married demographic!



They should put one out for people about to rent an apartment, too.

Lyrics to Everybody is Bitter in a Small Town...

But first, from a small town Pennsylvania church,

"Jesus guards a Rio Grande border crossing".

(Watch out, Site Meter, it's a Tamalanche!)

In the post earlier, today, I nominated Miranda Lambert's

Famous in a Small Town

for The One(tm)'s new theme song.

I like it anyway. And if you look at this version, you'll see proof that all small town people are, as we know, Raaaaaaacist!!!!

And here are the fresh new lyrics I wrote- editing help welcome.

Barack O says life is so much sweeter
through the telephoto lens of fame.
Around here we're mad, we don’t get no attention
from administrations as they change.

I dreamed of going to the steel mill.
Get myself some good old union work.
But it closed down way back in 1980
So I blamed myself and acted like a jerk.

Every broke one, put upon, loser here has a story to tell,
Every trailer livin’, Idol watchin deadbeat bum
maybe knows it just a little too well
If you shoot a deer or you're drunk on beer,
go to church or hatin' on Mexicans,
Everybody is bitter in a small town.

All of the factories closed down
Back when Jimmy Carter ruled the land.
We know them there Union wages had no equal,
So since then we’ve been sitting on our hands.

Every beat down, wears a frown xenophobe's got a story to tell.
Every gun nut, bigot, idiot
Maybe knows it just a little too well
If you’re a Jesus freak, turn the other cheek
Don't you blame it on the Democrats,
Everybody is bitter in a small town.

Baby who
Gets their faces in a magazine
Me and you
We've been stuck in this town since we were 17

Let's go on down to the rally,
In our worn out trucks and our
ragged old blue jeans.
And we'll cheer like fools
For Saint Barack Obama,
‘Cause he’s the one who really understands. (who'll save us with his schemes, maybe?)

Every helpless, clueless country hick’s got a story to tell.
And THE ONE will listen, nod and smile
We won’t hate black folks or be scared of hell.
We’re all white red necks, but with special checks,
We’ll know how to vote from this time on
We’ll no longer be bitter in a small town.

Then I found that someone had parodied a different small town song.

I like mine better.

Senator Obama Plays Politics with Gun Owners Too...

As we all listen to The One (tm) mock Sen. Clinton's pandering to "sportsmen" (NOT gun owners, you'll notice. Nor do any ladies shoot.) with her first reference to holding a gun in thirty five years of public life, this might be interesting:

It’s to persuade as many people as I can, across the ideological spectrum, that my vision of the future is compatible with their values, and can make their lives a little bit better. Thus, while I may favor common-sense gun control laws, that doesn’t keep me from reaching out to NRA members...

Speaking of ladies shooting and small towns, I nominate this for his new theme song.

My neighbours are tired of hearing it, it's best loud.Plus, it was filmed near the hunt. And the Miss Lambert looks kind of like Hotgirl, which is funny given that whole story. AND, she's from a small town, and SHOOTS!!!!!

UPDATE! Here are the fresh new lyrics I wrote-

Barack says life is so much sweeter
through the telephoto lens of fame.
Around here we don’t get any attention
from administrations as they change.

I dreamed of going to the steel mill.
Get myself some good old union work.
But it closed down way back in 1980
And I blamed myself and felt just like a jerk.

Every broke one, put upon, loser here has a story to tell,
Every trailer livin’, Idol watchin deadbeat here
maybe knows it just a little too well
If you're shootin’ a deer or you're drunk on beer,
gone to church or hatin'on Mexicans,
Everybody is bitter in a small town.

All of the factories closed up
Back when Jimmy Carter ruled the land
We know that those Union wages had no equal,
So since then we’ve been sitting on our hands.

Every beat down, wears a frown xenophobe's got a story to tell
Every gun nut, bigot, idiot
Maybe knows it just a little too well
If you’re a Jesus freak, turn the other cheek
Don't you blame it on the Democrats,
Everybody is bitter in a small town.

Baby who
Gets their faces in a magazine
Me and you
We've been stuck in this town since we were 17

Let's go on down to the rally,
In our worn out trucks and our
ragged old blue jeans.
And we'll Cheer like hell
For Saint Barack Obama,
‘Cause he’s the one who really understands.

Every helpless, clueless country hick’s got a story to tell.
And THE ONE will listen, nod and smile
We won’t hate black folks or be scared of hell.
We’re just red necks, but with special checks,
We’ll know how to vote from this time on
We’ll no longer be bitter in a small town

How to Create a Rape Victim...

I joke below about my referrals, but one of them led me to The Unapologetic Mexican and his post, How to Create a Rape Victim.

It's a post about the long term effects of requiring children to express "love" on demand. Obvious once it's pointed out, but until now I hadn't thought of it. My brilliant friend K. said it's not obvious to those who haven't gone through it, and certainly not to those going through it now.

"You know all the lines he'll drop on her, and I bet they won't sound too different than her parent's. She'll be inculcated from years of forced affection ("Give your grandpa a kiss...don't be rude," "Tell me you love me, now" "You're hurting my feelings by not saying you love me") and the idea that her own body and feelings are inconsequential in the face of someone else's desires and wants. And then god forbid, should a day ever come when a man forces himself on her, or even coerces her when she'd rather say NO but doesn't feel empowered to—and she comes home absolutely wrecked over it...will the parent ever put 2 and 2 together?

No.

And who will be made to own those feelings of guilt and shame, despite any consequences to the male? The girl who was never taught that her love and her display and expression of that love is HERS to give out at her OWN discretion. And why? So the parent didn't have their poor feelings hurt."

"Love is not a gun. Don't stick up your kids for a feelgood."

And it's pretty well written, too.

"So I bit my tongue and listened to another child being slowly murdered with the toxic sweetness of a parent's insecurities.

My sandwich was delicious. But I did not enjoy it."

Mining My Referrals...

I recently discovered that it's possible to use the site visit counter to find what searches have led my many reader to these pages. I can only look at the last hundred, so I figure six months is a pretty good picture.

Anyway, what is of interest? Let's see.


my-hirsi means something in Finnish.

I'm not just #1 in Google for crotchless Bibles, but for my light in my head.

Only fourth for naked lifeguards, though.

And I forget where I stand in searches for amish in iowa pay english to have sex with girls.

There are several for English language law, gay police, and such.

I expect that whoever put in "common sense gun law CHICAGO OR ILLINOIS" had a bit of a surprise with my mass killing rewrite on the NIU shooting.

And of course Jenna Jameson is a popular young lady. I had no idea of the depth of interest. But three people came to me from a Google search for her name. I'm on page NINE HUNDRED AND SOMETHING. So they had to page past over more than nine thousand other hits to get to mine! And still they clicked. I feel honoured.

$%^&*() Defense Lawyers...

They mystify me. Last week I tried a preliminary hearing, a brutal home invasion robbery. Victim was about 60 or so, soft spoken man. (As so often happens in my work, every participant was Black.)

V came home after taking his rent money to the landlady, and was surprised by two masked men emerging from his bathroom! One had a pistol and demanded money, but V resisted- he grabbed the unarmed man, the defendant in the trial. Deft immediately told his partner, "Shoot him!"

Disobeying, partner forced V to the floor, beat him in the head, and caused injuries which resulted in brain surgery.

V was able to recognise Deft because a week before, V had been late paying for drugs, and the dealer had brought Deft over to help get the $45 from V with threats of violence. (He paid up the next day.)

So, after it was over, Defense Lawyer said,

"You're going to have trouble at the trial, your V was buying drugs".

Staghounds- "I expect in every jury there are at least four people who have, or do, buy a little weed. They won't think it's no big deal to rob and brain damage Grandfather there because he gets high now and again."

DL- "Yes, but still, he was buying drugs!"

S- "Did you miss the part with the last week encounter? Old man buying reefer versus THUMBBREAKER FOR THE MAN WHO SOLD IT TO HIM. One wins that sympathy battle."

DL- "And he didn't have the gun! And V attacked him!"

S- "After he broke in and was robbing him! And he told the man who DID have the gun to shoot him! Old man hitting home invader versus home invader who tells partner to shoot old man. Again, advantage State."

DL- "Well, your guy is Gay..."

Really. Here's someone who day in and day out defends drug users and dealers- victimless crime, tragedy of lives ruined by drug prohibition...

But as soon as drug use by a victim is a weapon to help a violent predator get away with an unprovoked attack on an inoffensive old man, it's "dope fiend!"

One despairs.

Snarque de la Louvre...

So on my visit to the Atlanta travelling Louvre exhibit, I stopped for a few minutes in front of the yew, silver, and silver gilt wash stand that Bienne made for Bonaparte, and a lovely example of the Corsican's taste it is.



Pretty cool to think that the first modern mass market tyrant washed his face in this thing for years, and it stood beside him while he died on St. Helena. Here's a man who killed millions, and flattered himself that he owned it- yet he is dust and the wash stand still lives.

Aaaaanyway, I noticed that there's a presentation inscription around the bulge of the ewer. I could just read it, and my French is barely equal to puzzling out, "Given to the Emperor by his Sister Caroline..."

At which point I said,

"MY sister Caroline never gave ME a yew wood, silver, and silver gilt washstand..."

At which point my Museum visit sharer T said,

"Well, did YOU ever give HER the Grand Duchy of Berg and Cleves?"

I had my revenge later. There was an exhibition on Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle, art which leaves me unmoved. So strolling through, there was a section of pictures that were very crude, including one of a house and yard.

T: "That looks like an eight year old did it."

(I looked at the card, which said "Georgia Englehard, 1906-1990, Watercolor, 1916." Quick mental math...)

S: "Give her a break, she was only ten."

T: "It looks like it should be on a refrigerator."

S: "It was 1916, they didn't have refrigerators in houses. And magnets won't stick to a wood icebox. Don't you know anything about art?"

Crazy Mexican car dealer uses strippers in the advert...

So, I'm sending a link to a youtube from Used Cars, which is a very funny movie.



And YouTube pops this up. The people filming it are as good as the advert!



Very well, then...

And more from Used Cars, if you haven't seen it.





Even Jimmy Carter is in it!

Michael Steele being Black...

There's a Lt. Governor Michael Steele for Vice President boomlet. Here's a little movie of him talking with a crowd of Black folks, at least they hear him out.

Competing with REAL JOURNALISTS(tm) is DANGEROUS!!! Stop now!!!!

I haven't seen so many warnings and negative terms per sentence since the NYT last wrote about trans fat laced cigarettes and Bibles being included with assault weapons sold to children by Karl Rove.
Blogging is: vicious, exhausting, a sweatshop, stressful, toil, fattening, fattening again, unsustainable, has a downside, traps you in your house, 24 hours, vicious again, doesn't pay well, has no breaks, like being a salesman, keeps you awake (third time for that one, or fourth), keeps you from eating, makes you pass out, exhausting some more, orture, like being punched in the face, pressured, not journalism (Whew! The suspense was killing me, I was afraid they had left that out!),unhealthy, kills your vital friends, and it will kill you! Stop competing with us right now!

That's a lot of warning in a two page story, and I've left some of it out.

Priceless sentence- "It is unclear how many people blog for pay, but there are surely several thousand and maybe even tens of thousands."

Shame I'm not a Real Journalist (tm)- it took me 58 seconds to find out that Google Adsense, all by itself, had over a quarter of a million blogs in 2005!

Dinocrat has a different take on the article. He's probably in Silver Hill by now, with his one or two posts a day.

Stock tip- Sell that Pernod short, after the Mexican Absolut Ad...

And it's not even in Spanish!

Last Saturday's pretty day's hunt...

So on our penultimate Saturday, the weather was gorgeous. So as all hunting folk know, it was about to be a dull day, just a trail ride. Of course our field is full of riding people, so they were thrilled. And it is better to be out on a pretty day than not out at all, next paws?

So off we went. 60 or so in the field. As we moved off, I saw our senior Master's groom (my successor, after all, with many others intervening) sitting by the truck. She looked a bit bored with polishing brass, I asked her to ride along.

So, off we went. Nothing for an hour or so, then BANG- they hit and off we went!

Two giant loops, all the way to the freeway on the second one, before we lost him. And only six subscribers left at the end!

Interesting modern thing- one of our visitors had a GPS thing. He set it to measure the distance, eleven miles on the first smaller loop, at which point he was thrown out! I would never have estimated it as so far.

Stunning display of obsessive cleverness...

I swear, a hunting report tonight. Meanwhile, this man moves an EIGHT STALL WITH CENTER AISLE BARN and a NINETEEN THOUSAND POUND STONE- ALL BY HIMSELF. Using only his own brain and muscle power, rope, wood, and rocks. No power equipment, no pulleys, no wheels.



UPDATE!!

Mr. Wallington's web site- plenty more pictures, movies, and explanations.

American Voters Can Learn From The Ones In Zimbabwe...

But they won't.

Unless they can come up with real solutions for the economy, they are finished. The problem with promising us the mines or ownership of other businesses (or whatever it is they have robbed from Peter to give to Paul today) is we have the experience of the land behind us now: we know that redistribution doesn’t have anything to do with the people; that all benefits go to the elite and the economy falls apart at the seams as a result. There is nothing left to dangle before our noses.

No more politics for a while, a hunting report tomorrow.

The elusive, crafty wild turkey...

I always had a giggle when I saw a program on the television about wild turkey shooting. The camouflage, the whispering, the calls. Because they are elusive and crafty.

So I thought I'd put up a picture of this, which appears every morning within a short distance of our hunt:



But then, this morning, I drove past this:



That's not some isolated house, it's in a half acre per house subdivision. The adjacent county has over a million residents.

Hunters slaughtering wildlife. Terrible.

Busted!

So on the way back from hunting a couple of months ago, and earned a speeding citation. So yesterday I went to court. The fine was less than the cost of the gas to get there...

Interesting to watch the procedure in a different place. This particular court had four separate dockets at once- jail overnights, on bail criminal, traffic citation, and review. The Judge started with the standard lawyer speech, got lawyer request affidavits to the people who asked for them, called the on bail criminal docket and set the DA to work there, and then did the traffic citations.

I found it refreshing that the court ran its docket to get things done, rather than to make sure the lawyers were served first.

The Judge also told us traffic citation defendants what the result of a guilty plea would be, and so it was easy for us to decide to take our medicine.

BMW uses less fuel than a Prius in the real world....

"The BMW doesn’t have the external look of a green car and you don’t get the same self-righteous glow when you are driving it." But if you drive one from London to Geneva, you'll need less fuel.

AFP story less biased than AP on HELLER...

It's pretty bad when Agence France Presse has a more even handed story than the

AP does about the gun rights case.

Although neither is as badly biased and directive as they would have been just a few years ago. The cultural tide might be turning.

Ben Stein is very wrong about the Eliot Spitzer case...

Mr. Stein, who is usually dead on and about whom I've often raved, is very wrong here about both his points.

First, he seems bothered that investigators looking for evidence of one crime, finding evidence of a different "minor" crime, investigated that offense and eventually brought charges based on what they found.

Doe Mr. Stein seriously want the reverse to happen? "Yes, we've found evidence that a man is committing a crime. But he's the Governor, so we'll just not notice". That's not the Ben Stein I have heard before.

(There are really two things here. One's easily disposed of, and that's following the investigation where it leads. It happens all the time- police stop someone who runs a red light and find the driver is drunk. Or the police ticket a car and discover a multiple murderer's identity. I'm sure Mr. Stein doesn't oppose that sort of thing, and if the $4,000 had gone to a hit man or a legislator he'd have no complaint with a murder or bribery charge.)

The real problem seems to be that the investigators dared to charge someone Mr. Stein considers important with an offense he doesn't.

I suppose if it's just a plumber with a wife and family, it's alright to wreck his life with the truth about prostitution. Or an actor- I don't recall Mr. Stein being upset when Hugh Grant's picture was all over the news. Or is it just elections, rather than families or careers, that are sacred-ish? How about a Mayor smoking crack, am I supposed to give him a pass? A Congressman's roommate who is running a prostitution ring?

Everyone stayed quiet when another Governor ordered State Policemen on duty to fetch a state employee to an hotel room for an attempt at sex. Is that the way it's supposed to work?

Mr. Stein is frightened that "a few career civil servants" did exactly what they are sworn to do- investigate and charge a crime. Even though the criminal is powerful.

But he is not scared by the idea that the same "few career civil servants" decide whether to do their duty based on their personal judgment matrices of the criminal's importance and severity of the offense?

We have people to do that, and they do it in the open, not in the DA's office in secret.

As a prosecutor, I rightly have a very limited responsibility. When investigators bring me credible evidence of a crime, I present it to the courts. That's what the people chose me (through my boss) to do, and I won't deny them that election. It's not my place.

The legislature decides what crimes are. If the people think patronizing prostitution shouldn't be a crime, they can elect legislators who agree. It isn't up to a f.c.c.s. to deny the people their laws.

Courts decide whether a particular defendant committed a crime. Judges apply the defendant/offense balance in sentencing. It isn't up to a f.c.c.s. to deny the people their due constitutional process.

Mr. Stein's second point confuses me. He says that Gov. Spitzer was "kicked out of office". He wasn't, he quit. The public knowledge of the fact that he was a patron of prostitutes had no legal effect on his position, any more that the public knowledge that President Clinton was a perjurer.

The investigators didn't nullify Governor Spitzer's election, Governor Spitzer did. He could have hung on, but unlike President Clinton he had enough sense of shame, honor, fitness, respect for the citizens, or whatever to quit.

The Aspen Daily News' motto is, "If you don't want it printed, don't let it happen".

If you don't want to be caught, don't do it. And if your man gets caught, don't blame the catchers.

Eliot Spitzer in 1974?

I swore I wouldn't deal with this Spitzer thing, but after I saw this advert the name coincidence was too much.

The best Home Schooling thing ever is 80 years old...

Clever people often think along similar paths.

As before, click on each picture to blow the page up to readable size.




From:


No one reads APH any more, and it's a shame.

(And just in case one of my reader isn't familiar, these are sarcastic reports of fictional law cases dreamed up by the author to illustrate legal and social problems. Sort of like a proto-Onion, or my mass killing rewrites. Just so no homeschooler thinks the story is fact.)

It's now Federal Reserve policy to destroy the currency...

In case you hadn't heard, the United States Government will be creating some $200 billion (just to start with) to "lend" banks to cover worthless loans.

We send bankers and company executives to prison for fraud when they do this.

And as a bonus, it looks as though we might get the 401(k) Tax Forgiveness Act of 2012 a little bit ahead of schedule.

I thought it was just mad stupidity, but even an idiot child can see that it's intentional now.

I suppose we'll be hearing some of those old hits from President Nixon's dollar destruction speech of 1971. From the days of $35 gold, $6000 Cadillacs, and $25,000 average houses.

An 890 Dow Jones, too. Yes, your money has lost 90% of its value since 1971.

And I suspect that this sort of event is happening in D. C. right now:

President Nixon expressed grave concern that if he gave his speech during prime time on Sunday, he would preempt the tremendously popular television series Bonanza, thus potentially alienating those addicted to the adventures of the Cartwright family on the Ponderosa ranch. But his advisors convinced him that the speech had to be given before the markets opened on Monday morning, and that meant prime time. A few of the advisors would recollect that more time was spent discussing the timing of the speech than how the economic program would work. Indeed, there was virtually no discussion of what would happen after the initial 90-day freeze or how the new system would be terminated.

Just one question...

Just what is the certification procedure?

No Media Bias Here...

So, AOL has a little slideshow about political sex scandals. I wonder which are identified by party? Let's see:

Elliott Spitzer- a big mystery.
Larry Craig- Big R by his name.
David Vitter- Another R.
Mark Foley- R for all to see.
James McGreevey- We don't need to know.
Bill Clinton- Party unknown.
Bob Packwood- Clearly we DO need to know he's an R.
Donald Lukens- Another name followed immediately by that R.
Barney Frank- #9 is the first identified Democrat.
Gary Hart, another Democrat named as such.
Studds and Crane, one each, identified.
And in the era of black and white photography, Wilbur Mills gets his D.

Only three of 13 not identified by party, all D. Just a coincidence.

Politically correct bird seed...

The last time I bought finch food it was still Niger seed, but the political correction actually occurred in 1998.

Some other actual offensive terms (rather that perfectly correct geographic ones with different spellings)are still proudly adopted as trade names. Here are the retailers currently being vilified and boycotted.

Meanwhile, I still have to see this racist wordconstantly.

Ricin recipe...

My ScienceGirl is hilarious. Or scary. We were discussing something a group of people had done to upset one of her friends.

SG- If they do anything more to her, I'll be making up some ricin in the attic.

S- Maybe not making it, but at least getting the recipe and ingredients.

SG- No, I already have some...  errr... ahh... ummm...


Maybe K and kennelman C should compare notes.

North Carolina School Shooting...

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — A campus security officer is dead and several Elizabeth City State University officials are in jail charged with murder following a bizarre incident at the college campus yesterday.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported in Wednesday's editions that an armed man burst into a classroom Friday, threatening to kill students. According to several people who were in the room, as he ranted at them and waved a gun around, the students and teacher responded in a way the gunman did not expect.

Assistant professor Jingbin Wang, whose American foreign policy class was held hostage. "I was not prepared to die at that moment," Wang said Tuesday of the moment the gunman entered the room. "I know from the study of history that it is better to resist than to submit. My ancestors were driven from their homes by warlords and communists, but I'm an American. And Liviu Librescuwas on the cover of every magazine in the country- I just followed his example."

"Professor Wang was incredible", said George Hanover, one of the students. "While he was telling us to line up against the wall, he just launched himself at the guy, and it was on. One of the students grabbed a chair and hit him, and Lizzie grabbed onto him and dragged him down. It was like United 93, we just pounded on him until we got the gun away."

The attacker died from his injuries.

Unknown to the students, they had been unknowing participants in an "emergency response drill". The man who attacked them was a campus security officer, ordered to assault the students in the "drill". The gun was only a red plastic model, but Wang and others said they didn't have time to examine it as they were being attacked.

Following a brief investigation, ECSU Chancellor Willie J. Gilchrist, Anthony Brown, vice chancellor of student affairs, and Samuel Beamon, director of public safety, were arrested. Each was charged with eleven counts of aggravated assault, eleven counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and one count of murder, listing the security officer as the victim. No students were charged.

"Look here, in North Carolina, when you go into a room full of innocent people and tell them you're going to kill them, I HOPE they resist", said Sheriff Andy Taylor. "None of those people did anything wrong. They were placed in reasonable fear of imminent death, and did what the law allows and human nature demands. The days of lining up like sheep are over. With people like Adam Walburger and LaShanda Quantrell being all over the news, people know what to do now. I'm proud of them."

District Attorney Mike Notnifong explained the charges. "Entering the classroom and threatening the students with what appeared to be a weapon is aggravated assault, a felony. All three of the defendants conspired together to make that happen, and ordered their employee to commit the crime. Even if no one had been hurt, they would have been charged, as would the security officer if he had lived.

In North Carolina, when someone is killed during the perpetration of a felony, the person committing the underlying felony is criminally responsible for the death as a murder. It's called the felony murder doctrine. Usually it's applied to robbers and burglars who kill their victims, but it has been used to convict accomplices when a co conspirator was killed by a resisting victim, too.

Look, this was incredibly foreseeable. Just a week ago, the NIU attacker was beaten to death by resisting students. The defendants knowingly and intentionally put twelve people in peril, and one died. These defendants killed him, and if a jury agrees they will do life in prison."

Just a dream... But they SHOULD charge the people who did and ordered this.

Seriously, click on the Gilchrist and Beamon links- in light of this incident, their previous sayings are hilarious.

And sorry, Miss C- you were wrong. Too much Rosa Parks and M.L. King, not enough Peter Salem and Nat Turner.

A book for children...

I had forgotten all about this book until I bumped into it by accident recently. But when I saw it, I well recalled reading it when I was quite young. It made a big impression.

On reading it now, I had some thoughts that of course would never have occurred to six year old me.

Starting with, shock. Actual, internal surprise. This would NEVER win the Newbery Medal today. Are you joking? It would never even be published. Only its Newbery keeps it in print.

If somehow it DID see the light of day, its author would be hounded out of the scribblers' guild. I cannot imagine any public or government school librarian permitting it to be added to the stacks. Other Newbery winners have been sanitized, but this entire book is thoughtcrime.

I've asked three librarians in different parts of the country to see if it was in inventory. The only one who said it was, after looking at it, expressed surprise at its presence.

The America of the time this book was published was a very different place. It was in its physical world- genuine poverty, segregation, sound(ish) money, no welfare, nationally engulfing war right off shore, men with neckties at the ball game, and the criminals always losing in the movies.

But that mental America must have been different from this one too. Some of those differences will scream at you when you imagine what would happen if this book magically appeared on the shelves at a school in Berkley or Westport. They are too obvious for even I, the Earl of Obvious, to point out. But there are a LOT of them.

That America was different from the way we have been taught, and are told, to imagine it as well. A couple of things from the book bring that home to me.

I won't talk about them here, for fear of spoilage. I've put most of the book in the post immediately preceding this one, and so that post- from March 4, 2008, is big- 40 pictures. Click on each picture to make it large enough to read. It will take a while to load if your machine is slow. I've left out the preface (which is for adults), most of the illustrations, and the last chapter. That's fair use, and if you want to discover what happens...

But if the owners ask me to take it down, I will.

I've got a couple of thoughts at the end of that post that might be not entirely obvious.

The Matchlock Gun, by Walter Edmonds

Thank you, Tam, for the link!! Haven't had so many visitors since I almost got blown up.

I had forgotten all about this book until I bumped into it by accident recently. But when I saw it, I well recalled reading it when I was quite young. It made a big impression.

On reading it now, I had some thoughts that of course would never have occurred to six year old me.

Starting with, shock. Actual, internal surprise. This would NEVER win the Newbery Medal today. Are you joking? It would never even be published. Only its Newbery keeps it in print.

If somehow it DID see the light of day, its author would be hounded out of the scribblers' guild. I cannot imagine any public or government school librarian permitting it to be added to the stacks. Other Newbery winners have been sanitized, but this entire book is thoughtcrime.

I've asked three librarians in different parts of the country to see if it was in inventory. The only one who said it was, after looking at it, expressed surprise at its presence.

The America of the time this book was published was a very different place. It was in its physical world- genuine poverty, segregation, sound(ish) money, no welfare, nationally engulfing war right off shore, men with neckties at the ball game, and the criminals always losing in the movies.

But that mental America must have been different from this one too. Some of those differences will scream at you when you imagine what would happen if this book magically appeared on the shelves at a school in Berkley or Westport. They are too obvious for even I, the Earl of Obvious, to point out. But there are a LOT of them.

That America was different from the way we have been taught, and are told, to imagine it as well. A couple of things from the book bring that home to me.

I won't talk about them here, for fear of spoilage. I've put most of the book in this post, and so it is big- 40 pictures. Click on each picture to make it large enough to read. It will take a while to load if your machine is slow. I've left out the preface (which is for adults), most of the illustrations, and the last chapter. That's fair use, and if you want to discover what happens...

But if the owners ask me to take it down, I will.

I've got a couple of thoughts at the end of that post that might be not entirely obvious.

Click on each picture to make it large enough to read.

It's a shame that we live in a world where every single bit of this story is subversive of the established theology.

One thing I like about this book is the author's spare, relaxed style. The book is full of incident, yet it feels like he's describing the making of a sandwich or some other fairly ordinary event. There's not the slightest attempt at hyperbole. The people, all of them, just cope.

Perhaps that's why the lessons and points of the book were so effective for me as a child. They aren't presented didactically, but are part of the background. Many modern books for children (like many old ones) are preachments, and that's just not so effective. With me, anyway.

One of the things most subversive of orthodoxy is partly what this book presents, but mainly the fact that it presented it in 1941.

We're told that women in those dim, pre-Friedan days were kept barefoot and pregnant. That they were the household skivvies of men, prevented from any contribution or decision making. And further, that the eeeeeeeevil patriarchy reinforced that outlook at every turn.

But look at the Gertrude children are shown in 1941! Talk about a strong, independent, intelligent, capable woman. She even refuses her husband's command to go to the brick house, and he just accepts it! It's almost as if she's a respected equal!

Current feminist thinking often pretends that girls (and boys) back in the bad old days weren't shown powerful examples of women. That's a lie, and this book is a demonstration.

This book is still under copyright, and I encourage you to buy it. Even if you are profoundly cheap. Certainly everyone who can read the second amendment and has a child whom he or she knows ought to think about it as a present. You might want to discuss aspects of it with them, but it should be in the nursery.

Something just occurred to me- I wonder if new versions ARE altered? Don't see how they could be, but the bien pensants are clever. I'll have to buy one and see.