A Two-fer (and Plane Pr0n)

The political 'toons are good today at the Usual Source for such things, so good that I had to choose two to steal:

I watched Jerry Springer.  Once.

The plane pr0n...

Air Frame: The Space Shuttle Endeavour, resting atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, departs Edwards AFB, Calif., for the last time on Sept. 21, 2012. The SCA delivered the now-retired Endeavour to Los Angeles International Airport that same day for its remaining journey to the California Science Center in Los Angeles where it will go on permanent display at the end of October 2012. (Air Force photo by Jet Fabara) (Click on image above to reach larger version.)

A sad, sad occasion... but a beautiful photo.  Didja catch the photographer's name?  That's a case of "aptly yclept" if I EVER saw one.

Posted Without Comment

h/t: the usual source.

Psst! Buddy! Wanna Buy a Mosque?

In today's NYT, just below MoDo's editorial on Obama and the Ground Zero mosque.  No, I didn't click the link.  I'm pretty sure there aren't any distressed mosques near me.

More of the Same

We remain enamored with Pandora... if you remember yesterday's post I mentioned that we were so taken with Pandora's eclecticism that we were gonna create a Steely Dan station for the remainder of yesterday's Happy Hour.  And we did, and we continued on with that same station for the balance of last afternoon/evening and into today, as well.  Not to flog a dead horse or anything, but the music on the Steely Dan station is right dead center in my sweet spot.  Not the least of which would be this:

"Hypnotized" is from my second favorite incarnation of Fleetwood Mac... the Bob Welch years, my first being the original Peter Green blues-based Mac of yore.  But we digress.  Here's "Hypnotized" in all its wondrous glory: 

That's some damned good stuff, innit?  I remain amazed at Pandora's ability to hit me right exactly where I live; the selections on the Steely Dan station seem like they've been taken directly from my music library.  There's the Police, James Taylor, the latter-day Doobie Bros, Donald Fagen's solo work, and on and on.  Great good stuff and highly recommended.  And it's the recommendations I'm on about Gentle Reader...

―:☺:―

The Big Story in the political world today is The One's endorsement of the Ground Zero mosque.  Witness memeorandum at this hour:

Has The One truly lost his frickin' mind?  There were three ways he could have gone here... (1) keep his mouth shut, (2) endorse the mosque, or (3) appeal to those proposing this affront to our sensibilities to abandon the project or, at the VERY least, build it elsewhere.  I SO wish he would have exercised his prerogative as President to defuse this issue with a rational appeal for the Muslims to come to their senses and back off of this stupid-ass and needless controversy.   It's indicative of just how out of touch Obama is with the American people that he chose Option Two.  This, Gentle Reader, is his Waterloo.  That's it, it's really and truly OVER now.

This issue is a sticky wicket, to say the least.  The group proposing the mosque/Islamic cultural center is entirely within their rights to build anything they want, anywhere they want from a legal perspective, as long as they comply with zoning regulations and building codes.  But life is much more than legalities; the group proposing the mosque in this location has lost its freakin' mind.  

Forgive me, for I know it's so VERY wrong of me to suggest this or even mention it, but I fervently hope some crazy comes out of the woodwork and firebombs the mosque should it be built.  Burn it right down to the ground.  I KNOW I'm not alone in thinking this, and Obama should have damned well known it, too.  Enough, already.  

To put it another way... if some SOB called your mother a whore to your face would you smile wistfully and say "I wish you'd have chosen other words to describe my mother but I respect your First Amendment right to say any-damn-thing you please"?  No, you wouldn't.  You'd hit that sonofabitch in the mouth as hard as you possibly could, just as soon as the insult left his lips... because them's fightin' words.  It's the same thing with the mosque.

Outages

We were awakened not once but three times in the wee smalls yesterday morning... i.e., 0300 hrs... when our power went off.  People who live in normal circumstances routinely sleep through power outages but those of us who live in RVs don't... we can't.  Our propane systems begin shrieking at us when the power comes back on... the system has an alarm that activates when the system faults and power failures qualify.  So, we drug our tired sleepy ass out of bed three times to re-set the system, but on the third event we simply shut the system down and went back to bed, only because I waited about 15 minutes for the power to come back... and it didn't.  Well... come to find out I could still be waiting for power to be restored:

An estimated 1,800 Portales residents woke to cold and dark homes after a power outage early Saturday morning.

Xcel Energy crews had restored power to most homes by 5 p.m.

Xcel spokesman Wes Reeves said a substation overload cut off power about 3 a.m. and repair crews had to wait for parts to fix the problem.

...

“Police told us that the power might be back on by noon,” said Cynthia Clark, one of those staying at the temporary shelter. “But later the police said they will let us know when the power comes back on.”

 It looks like we dodged a major bullet.  A power outage in winter can be life threatening and there may still be some people without power as I type.  Thank The Deity At Hand we're a lil bit warmer than normal this weekend.

―:☺:―

 

Mark Steyn is good today...

The TSA announced that for the last hour of the flight no passenger can use the toilets or have anything on his lap — not a laptop, not a blanket, not a stewardess, not even a paperback book. I can’t wait for the first lawsuit after an infidel flight attendant confiscates a litigious imam’s Koran as they’re coming into LAX.

You’re still free to read a paperback if you’re flying from Paris to Sydney, or Stockholm to Beijing, or Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow. But not to LAX or JFK. The TSA were responding as bonehead bureaucracies do: Don’t just stand there, do something. And every time the TSA does something, you’ll have to stand there, longer and longer, suffering ever more pointless indignities.

There's much more, of course, in the full article.  Steyn takes down Janet Incompetano (his words, heh), The One, and all the various bureaucracies charged with "keeping us safe" in a fine, fine manner.  I'm thinking of ending each and every post/link/item of this nature with a "Do ya miss Dubya yet?" tag line.  I know I sure do...  I think Chuck Asay may, as well.

Apologists For Evil

That inimitable Brit Pat Condell in a superb rant against "Lefty Liberal Multicultural Appeasement Monkeys:"



His sub-points include things like "words matter," "burqas suck" and Western Culture is worth defending. Mr. Condell and I don't agree on everything, such as the fact he's an adamant atheist and I'm not, but we agree on everything he says in the video above.

In related news...

Adulterers can be stoned to death and homosexuality is punishable by long prison terms under a new law passed in Indonesia's devoutly Muslim Aceh province today.

The regional parliament voted unanimously to adopt the bill despite strong objections from human rights groups and the province's deputy governor, who said the legislation needed more careful consideration because it imposed a new form of capital punishment.

Some members of the moderate Democrat party had voiced reservations, but none voted against the bill.

The law, which reinforces Aceh's already strict Islamic laws, is to go into effect within 30 days. Its passage comes two weeks before a new assembly led by the moderate Aceh party is sworn in after a heavy defeat of conservative parties in local elections.

Now... watch Mr. Condell again.

h/t:  Alison.  I should maybe sub-contract the writing at EIP to her, seeing as how she's given me most of my ideers of late.  (insert smiley-face thingie here)

I'm Baaaack....

Suspicions confirmed:

OK, I don’t code, can barely spell “SysAdmin,” and, like 87% of the Western World, I use a PC…not a Mac. But being nerdy goes beyond computers. And I think that’s what upped my “nerd quotient.” That, and 17 years in the IT Biz.

(h/t: Kris, in New England)

This week’s tempest in a teapot… Doubtless you’ve heard Queen Elizabeth knighted that bête noir of the radical Islamists, Salman Rushdie. And the usual suspects have their knickers in a twist. My language is way too dismissive, however. It’s so far over the top as to be unbelievable when a cabinet-level minister of a government, any government, endorses suicide attacks for any goddamned reason. In the West, that is. Not so in countries dominated by 7^th Century political ideologies, I suppose. Here’s Captain Ed on the subject:

This points up a well-known problem among Muslims, even those considered somewhat moderate and cosmopolitan. They refuse to allow for any criticism of their faith, even from fellow Muslims. While Christians and Jews and Buddhists react to criticism with debate and protest, Muslims react with violence, usually encouraged by governments throughout Asia. Twenty years ago, it was Iran that encouraged assassins to target Rushdie, and now Pakistan has renewed the contract.

Sometimes I buy into the “clash of cultures” meme, sometimes I don’t. Today? I’m buying the whole nine yards. You simply cannot reason with idiots like these, much the same as you cannot reason with a rabid dog. You just gotta kill it.

More from the Middle East…an interesting take on the situation in Gaza. “An Israeli in Ramallah:”

Wearing Ralph Lauren polo shirts and speaking fluent Hebrew, they told hair-raising stories of teenage boys presumed loyal to Fatah being flung from the fourteenth floor of office buildings, their hands shackled and their mouths taped shut. One man said that the Hamas fighters had behaved worse than the Nazis. All this should be taken with a grain of salt, of course: Nazi comparisons are flung around with abandon in the Middle East, and we have not heard from the Hamas fighters what the Fatah guys may or may not have done to them. The unspoken message, though, is interesting: suddenly Fatah represents the reasonable, civilized Palestinians. They speak Hebrew, they look like us and they sound like us, and Islamist militants threaten them just as they threaten Israel.

As a commenter to this piece noted… “This is better writing -- and MUCH better reporting -- than we get from The Times.” Agreed.

And finally…a condom ad that’s painfully funny.

And here’s something you’ll probably never, ever see on this blog again: the hat tip goes to LitBrit at Shakesville. Credit where credit is due, and all that. She has more condom ads posted, by the way. Just in case you might be, ya know… interested. In a strictly academic sort of way, of course. (Work safe. And pretty funny, too.)

Today’s Pic: Two scoots, taking a break beside the road in Colorado. I like this pic…a lot. The ‘Zuki looks like it’s same size as Buck’s bike, but it’s not. The fact that she’s parked about six or eight feet behind Buck’s ride conceals the fact that she’s bigger…a lot bigger. Maybe even too big.

May, 2007.

Mostly Filler

Christopher Hitchens, writing in the June issue of Vanity Fair (Londonistan Calling):

In the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, which killed 52 civilians (including a young Afghan, Atique Sharifi, who had fled to London to escape the Taliban) and injured hundreds more, I found that American television interviewers were all asking me the same question: How can this be? Britain is the country of warm beer and cricket and rain-lashed seaside resorts, not a place of arms for exotic and morbid cults. British press coverage struck the same plaintive note. One of the murderers, Shehzad Tanweer, was a cricket enthusiast from Leeds, in Yorkshire, whose family ran a fish-and-chips shop. You can't get much more assimilated than that. Yet Britain's former head of domestic intelligence, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller (and you can't get much more British than that, either), said last year that there are more than "1,600 identified individuals" within the borders of the kingdom who are ready to follow Tanweer's example (including those in whose honor we now all have to part with our liquids and gels at the airport). And, according to Manningham-Buller, "over 100,000 of our citizens consider the July 2005 attacks in London justified."

[…]

In the 1960s, many Asians moved to Britain in quest of employment and education. They worked hard, were law-abiding, and spent much of their time combating prejudice. Their mosques were more like social centers. But their children, now grown, are frequently contemptuous of what they see as their parents' passivity. Often stirred by Internet accounts of jihadists in faraway countries like Chechnya or Kashmir, they perhaps also feel the urge to prove that they have not "sold out" by living in the comfortable, consumerist West. A recent poll by the Policy Exchange think tank captures the problem in one finding: 59 percent of British Muslims would prefer to live under British law rather than Shari'a; 28 percent would choose Shari'a. But among those 55 and older, only 17 percent prefer Shari'a, whereas in the 16-to-24 age group the figure rises to 37 percent. Almost exactly the same proportions apply when the question is whether or not a Muslim who converts to another faith should be put to death …

As usual, Hitch nails it…and damns multi-culturalism as the principal “prime mover” in turning London into Londonistan. I know I’m preaching to the choir, Gentle Reader, but do go read.

And lastly (on this particular subject), I’ll offer you this: The “Islamization” of London has been going on a lot longer than most people think. One small piece of anecdotal evidence: when The Second Mrs. Pennington and I arrived in London in 1980, all wide-eyed and positively amazed at our great good fortune to be assigned…for three whole years!… in the crucible of our cultural inheritance, one of the first things we noticed was the amount of graffiti written in Arabic. And there was lots of it. We then began to notice other things…such as women dressed more appropriately for Riyadh than the West End (no burkhas, but lotsa veils) and many, many more than one or two men walking about in jalabiyas, and certainly not last…the HUGE numbers of kebab stands and shops where English was spoken only to customers, but not amongst the help. (We patronized those kebab stands willingly and often, too, food being what it was—or wasn’t, more appropriately—in 80’s London.) Other than considering the phenomenon(s) passing strange enough to remark upon, we gave them no further thought. But, 1980 was indeed a different time. It all begins in the most innocuous manner, now doesn’t it?

(h/t for the link: Chap)

Dang! I just glanced at my watch and it’s now 1137 hrs (as I type) and my self-imposed posting deadline of “sometime before noon…usually” is hard upon me. And, aside from the one paltry entry above (paltry, in terms of quantity…not quality), I have nothing to show for the last three hours of link-chasing and reading. So, that said, Gentle Reader, you could do a lot worse than clicking on the “Chap” link above…as the greatest part of those three hours of which I speak was spent chasing links from his site. Great, good stuff in great quantities.

Apropos of nothing, and simply to fill space, as it were… I’d be interested in knowing how all y’all blog. Your mental and physical processes of blogging, that is. Most folks post single entries on discrete subjects, one at a time, and make several entries over the course of a day. I do what I call “omnibus posting,” which is to say I usually put up a single post a day with several discrete subjects, all included in the same post. If I come across something that just won’t wait until tomorrow, I’ll post again…but that’s not too common.

So anyway…My modus operandi, in condensed form, goes like this:

1. Open my monthly blog file in MS-Word, if’n it isn’t already.
2. Open a new tab in Firefox and begin my daily reads, usually with Lou, Laurie, Lex (that does it for the ells), the two sons, and the rest of the blog roll as I see fit. Most days I don’t come close to hitting them all.
3. Open new tabs in Firefox to chase linkies.
4. Cut ‘n’ paste excerpts and linkage from interesting stuff into the aforementioned Word file.
5. Write my comments to said linkage.
6. Save often.
7. Rinse. Repeat.
8. Open my image editor and peruse the photo galleries for a candidate for “Today’s Pic.”
9. Agonize greatly over the lack of good pictures and swear I’ll take a bunch of new ones, today.
10. Select something, anyway (most of the time).
11. Or not.
12. Copy from the Word file.
13. Paste into Bogger and publish.
14. View post.
15. Edit. (I always miss something…)
16. Close it all out and go do something meaningful, like finish the coffee and smoke a cigar or small portion thereof. Or go riding. Or do laundry. All of which are on today’s agenda, by the way.

Did I say “condensed form?” Yeah, I did. Disregard.

So…how do you do it?

1157 hours…time to POST! (Insert smiley-face here.)

Got an Appropriate Rainy Day Quote?

Coz I need one...a rainy day quote, that is. In the meantime I'll just ramble, if it pleases you. And even if it doesn't...

Wow. This is news!

The News Corporation, owner of the Fox News Channel and The New York Post, has made an unsolicited $5 billion takeover bid for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Dow Jones confirmed today that it had received the offer and said that the Bancroft family, which controls the company, was evaluating the bid. “There can be no assurance that this evaluation will lead to any transaction,” the company said in a written statement.

But some members of the Bancroft family were already mobilizing against the bid. Four hours after Dow Jones made its first statement, it issued a second communication saying that some family members and their trustees planned to vote “shares constituting slightly more than 50 percent of the outstanding voting power of Dow Jones” against the deal.

I don’t have a problem with either Rupert Murdoch or his media empire. But, given my druthers, I’d prefer Dow Jones remain independent. Just sayin’.

Here’s The Journal’s extensive report on the subject, including two very good “at a glance” graphic profiles of both News Corp and Dow-Jones.

“Religion of Peace,” once again. The following was said during a sermon…

Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One." Following are excerpts from the sermon that took place last month, courtesy of MEMRI.

Ahmad Bahr began: "'You will be victorious' on the face of this planet. You are the masters of the world on the face of this planet. Yes, [the Koran says that] 'you will be victorious,' but only 'if you are believers.' Allah willing, 'you will be victorious,' while America and Israel will be annihilated. I guarantee you that the power of belief and faith is greater than the power of America and Israel. They are cowards who are eager for life, while we are eager for death for the sake of Allah. That is why America's nose was rubbed in the mud in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, and everywhere."

[…]

The Hamas spokesperson concluded with a prayer, saying: "Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one. Oh Allah, show them a day of darkness. Oh Allah, who sent down His Book, the mover of the clouds, who defeated the enemies of the Prophet, defeat the Jews and the Americans, and bring us victory over them."

If they’re so damned “eager for death,” then I suggest we accommodate them. Or, in other words… “Crank up the Enola Gay!” And I haven’t even been drinking (yet).

Remember: These are the guys the Euro-Weenies want to reestablish aid to/for, in the form of direct monetary support.

“When it becomes possible to re-engage with a national unity government…we could then hopefully resume support to the Palestinian Authority, ministers and ministries and agencies from which we have had to distance ourselves in the last year,” she said.

Although officials from EU member states indicated that Ms Ferrero-Waldner’s comments were premature, her statement highlights a growing divergence between the EU and the US and Israel.

Premature back in February when the above article was published, that is. One wonders if public statements sermons delivered by Hamas politicians in powerful positions have any affect at all on Euro-policy. I suppose we shall see, eh?

Game Four of what is shaping up to be the Wings’ most epic battle in the 2007 play-offs begins at 2000 hrs MDT this evening. Day before yesterday I said that if Monday’s game was close it would still be a series. Close it was, with San Jose taking the win by virtue of a 2-1 final score. The game shouldn’t have been either close or lost…had the Wings continued as they began. Detroit came out flying in Monday’s game, completely dominating the Sharks.

The Sharks were a bit rusty to begin their first home game in 12 days, and Lidstrom capitalized with a power- play goal on a slap shot from the blue line midway through the first period. The Red Wings captain hadn't found the net since scoring in each of the first two games of Detroit's first-round series with Calgary.

San Jose, which jumped to early 2-0 leads in both of the series' first two games, was in full retreat well into the second period, when the fans booed their team's inept power play. After leading the league for much of the regular season, San Jose's power play went 1-of-5 to drop to 4-for-42 in the playoffs.

It looked like a solid performance by the Wings…and at the end of two periods I thought it was in the bag. But the third period was all Sharks…and they deserved the win. Still and even, it was close. We have a series, folks, and a damned good one, too. Let’s hope the Wings re-discover the intensity they showed during the first period on Monday night…they’ll need all that intensity and perhaps a bit more to prevail in this series. I think it’s there…

No motorsickle riding today, I’m afraid. Looks like it’s gonna rain all day. But that’s OK. We need it. I did take the bike out for a putt yesterday, and it was moderately good. I’m still holding my breath where my back pain is concerned, however. The pain has been fairly constant since this past Saturday and shows no signs of letting up. I found some Flexeril I had rat-holed from a previous bout of back pain and am taking that, in addition to the Aleve. It’s beginning to look more and more like the problem just might be another ruptured disk… While the quality of the pain isn’t severe in its intensity, the location of said pain is all too telling, i.e., in my lower back just above my hips…with the occasional twinge felt in my right thigh.

Lord, I hope I’m wrong about this…

Title? We Don't NEED No Steenkin TITLE!

I’m beginning to like this girl… a lot. Mary Katherine Ham, writing at Townhall.com, discusses the ABC/Disney Path to 9/11 flap and provides a number of links to other voices on the Right side of the blogosphere. A very good update on the brouhaha. And now the $64.00 question: will I watch it? Hell, no. I couldn’t care less about any Hollywood made-for-TV “docudrama.” Period.

Almost forgot (heh)…the Left are collectively off their meds about this whole thing, in a big way. I’ll not link to any of them; if you want to read any of their bleats and whines, you can find them at memeorandum. Sometimes I find their whining amusing. But on this subject they’re over the top.

Pretty scary stuff: In The Times (UK), “Can the West defeat the Islamist threat? Here are ten reasons why not.” Normally I dismiss defeatist rhetoric, but David Selbourne, the author of this op-ed, makes several points that ring true. Examples:

1) The first is the extent of political division in the non-Muslim world about what is afoot. Some reject outright that there is a war at all; others agree with the assertion by the US President that “the war we fight is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century”. Divided counsels have also dictated everything from “dialogue” to the use of nuclear weapons, and from reliance on “public diplomacy” to “taking out Islamic sites”, Mecca included. Adding to this incoherence has been the gulf between those bristling to take the fight to the “terrorist” and those who would impede such a fight, whether from domestic civil libertarian concerns or from rivalrous geopolitical calculation.

2) The second reason why, as things stand, Islam will not be defeated is that the strengths of the world community of Muslims are being underestimated, and the nature of Islam misunderstood. It is neither a “religion of peace” nor a “religion hijacked” or “perverted” by “the few”. Instead, its moral intransigence and revived ardours, its jihadist ethic and the refusal of most diaspora Muslims to “share a common set of values” with non-Muslims are all one, and justified by the Koran itself.

Islam is not even a religion in the conventional sense of the term. It is a transnational political and ethical movement that believes that it holds the solution to mankind’s problems. It therefore holds that it is in mankind’s own interests to be subdued under Islam’s rule. Such belief therefore makes an absurdity of the project to “democratise” Muslim nations in the West’s interests, an inversion that Islam cannot accept and, in its own terms, rightly so. It renders naive, too, the distinction between the military and political wings of Islamic movements; and makes Donald Rumsfeld’s assertion in June 2005 that the insurgents in Iraq “don’t have vision, they’re losers” merely foolish. In this war, if there is a war, the boot is on the other foot.

[…]

5) The fifth disablement is to be found in the confusion of “progressives” about the Islamic advance. With their political and moral bearings lost since the defeat of the “socialist project”, many on the Left have only the fag-end of anti-colonial positions on which to take their stand. To attribute the West’s problems to our colonial past contains some truth. But it is again to misunderstand the inner strength of Islam’s revival, which is owed not to victimhood but to advancing confidence in its own belief system.

Moreover, to Islam’s further advantage, it has led most of today’s “progressives” to say little, or even to keep silent, about what would once have been regarded as the reactionary aspects of Islam: its oppressive hostility to dissent, its maltreatment of women, its supremacist hatred of selected out-groups such as Jews and gays, and its readiness to incite and to use extremes of violence against them. Mein Kampf circulates in Arab countries under the title Jihadi.

Point number one is self-evident. One sees it everyday in phrases like “the so-called war on terror,” and in actions such as the NYT’s outing of the NSA telecommunications monitoring program and the financial surveillance program. Additionally, the radical Islamists have powerful geopolitical enablers in Russia and China. Selbourne’s first point is very difficult to refute.

Point number two is debatable, but I am beginning to believe Selbourne is correct here, too. I’ve commented in the past that I’m trying to hold on to the belief that it’s only the radical elements of Islam that are the problem. It’s a little like whistling past the graveyard, no?

Point number five is irrefutable. “Progressives” may be the Number One problem, given that the Progressive community is the major source of dissent on the approach the West should take and the major source of opposition to the current war. The Progressives’ cries of “Negotiate!” are so wrongheaded as to be laughable, yet they persist in thinking the radicals are “reasonable” and can be persuaded. Add in the fact that the media are largely “progressive” and thereby set the tone of the public debate and you have a very serious impediment to the West’s success. The Progressive Academy is also indoctrinating the next generation with its doctrine of cultural relativism that forces “acceptance” of ALL cultures, even those that will destroy you. This is profoundly disturbing.

Selbourne’s other seven points are thought provoking, too.

So, should we throw up our hands and surrender? NO! Emphatically, no! I believe to my core that Western values of personal freedom, equality, and tolerance are superior to Islamic values of submission, intolerance, and suppression of “heretical” thought. We in the US have successfully integrated Muslims into our culture. So far American Muslims, unlike their European cousins, have been able to integrate and co-exist within our culture. I believe Selbourne may be viewing the British/European experience as the bellwether for the West; I don’t think it is and most certainly doesn’t have to BE the model. Additionally, there are examples of “successful” Islamic countries (e.g., Turkey and Malaysia) that are friends of the West and have no Islamic Imperial designs or aspirations. Further, it’s my personal opinion that Islamic radicalism’s strength is in the illiterate and economically deprived masses mired in poverty. The West can solve illiteracy and poverty.

As for the radicals waging war upon us, the solution is also pretty straight-forward. Kill them. One doesn’t reason or negotiate with mad dogs, one simply destroys them. The issue is finding the will to act. And Selbourne is correct in the larger sense that we in the West are lacking in will. It won’t always be so.

Today’s Pic: R. C. Gorman sculpture of a Navajo woman. In the courtyard of the R.C. Gorman gallery, Taos, NM. May, 2004.

Let's Build an ARK...

I sorta phoned it in yesterday; Gomen nasai, ne? But it was, well…Sunday. And I had a lot of catching up to do. I’m also a bit surprised no one asked just how I was able to post the beer thing if the network went down and I subsequently rebooted 17 times trying to reestablish my connection. Usually, if you try to post and your connection goes away during the uploading process, your post vanishes into the ether, too. It’s happened to me more times than I’d like to admit. This time, however, I copied the HTML after the third “connection timed out” message and pasted it into a Word document, hoping I could re-use it when the ‘net came back up. It worked. And there’s the answer to a question you never asked.

I’m thinking about doing some serious googling for plans and a Bill of Materials for an ark. The rain continues unabated; yesterday it rained for over six hours straight, which is highly unusual for this part of the world. It was worse in Albuquerque, where there was serious flooding. Reader Reese suggests this is our “Summer of Seattle,” and I agree with him. The last time I saw this much rain was probably in the Philippines or perhaps Thailand…seriously. And it’s raining again as I write this morning.

Even though we’ve had three to four times our average amount of rain in the past week, we’re right at or slightly below our year-to-date precipitation average here in Roosevelt County. I found that just a bit surprising! I’m quite sure the current maps, as displayed this morning, do not include yesterday’s rainfall. It will be interesting to see what we look like by the end of today.

Saturday’s thunderstorms were just a bit too exciting, for more than one reason. The wind was violent, so violent, in fact, that it took a tree down in my neighbor’s yard and deposited it right across the road about 100 yards away from El Casa Móvil De Pennington, narrowly missing another neighbor’s parked cars. The tree was only about eight or ten inches in diameter, small as trees go, and not enough to stop my neighbors with the big-ass 4x4 pick ups who probably cackled out loud (Hey Burt! Watch me go right over this here tree!) as they motored across the thing. But it was enough of an obstacle to stop a Miata, however. Two hours later, after much chain-sawing and general hustle and bustle, the road was clear again. But that wind! It was enough to cause the RV to do some serious, and I mean serious, rocking and create serious apprehension in Yours Truly. After all, any resident of Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, etc., knows trailer parks are tornado magnets. I prefer to do my flying in airplanes, not RVs, thank you.

Another thing I failed to mention this weekend, and should have, given my general dissatisfaction with my ISP/network situation, was some Very Good News: on Friday the fiber-optic cable contractors surveyed and marked beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park for the fiber routes to all park spaces. Two gigabit service to the prem! By the end of the year! I’d have to buy a new network interface card (NIC) to take full advantage of the capabilities, as my current NIC only supports a 100 Mb connection. But, Hell…a 100Mb network connection is almost unimaginable and is certainly sufficient. But then again, wasn’t it Mr. Gates who said 640K of RAM was enough for anybody? “Too much” is just about enough in the IT Biz…

More (un)common sense in Britain… Muslim Labor MP Shahid Malik, writing in yesterday’s Sunday Times (UK):

I believe that as a Muslim there is no better place to live than Britain. That doesn’t mean that all in the garden is rosy; often Islamophobia is palpable. But my message is: whether you are white, Asian, black, Muslim, Christian or Jew, if you don’t like where you’re living you have two choices: either you live elsewhere, or you engage in the political process, attempt to create change and ultimately respect the will of the majority.

Mr. Malik’s comments were in response to a call from Muslim “leaders” for the implementation of sharia and granting of official Muslim holidays. Good news has been in short supply of late; it’s a good thing when a Muslim MP goes “on the record” for his society’s values. Yes!

Mark Steyn was good (as always) in his Sunday Chicago Sun-Times editorial:

Five years on, the United States seems to be back in the quagmire of perpetual interminable U.N.-brokered EU-led multilateral dithering, on Iran and much else. The administration that turned Musharraf in nothing flat now offers carrots to Ahmadinejad. After the Taliban fell, the region's autocrats and dictators wondered: Who's next? Now they figure it's a pretty safe bet that nobody is.

What's the difference between September 2001 and now? It's not that anyone "liked" America or that, as the Democrats like to suggest, the country had the world's "sympathy.'' Pakistani generals and the Kremlin don't cave to your demands because they "sympathize.'' They go along because you've succeeded in impressing upon them that they've no choice. Musharraf and Co. weren't scared by America's power but by the fact that America, in the rubble of 9/11, had belatedly found the will to use that power. It is notionally at least as powerful today, but in terms of will we're back to Sept. 10: Nobody thinks America is prepared to use its power. And so Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad and wannabe "strong horses" like Baby Assad cock their snooks with impunity.

It’s all about the will to prevail. In addition to taking the current administration to task, Mr. Steyn also makes the point, as so many others have, that it appears the Democrats are lacking in the “will to prevail” department. And that, to me, is the issue for the mid-term elections and the 2008 election. I simply do not trust the Democrat party with national security, based upon their words and deeds over the past four years. They just don’t get it.

I’ll leave you with that happy thought…

So Good...

My water came back on around 1:00 p.m. or so. The City might have turned the water back on around midnight, as promised, but my water lines were frozen solid until noon. The temperature rose above freezing around 11:00 a.m. for the first time since Friday afternoon and my water lines unfroze a little over an hour later. Bottom line: it’s good to be clean again, both personally and household-wise! And I also have three liters of emergency water stored for future insanities. Or inanities. You decide.

I watched the US men lose to Sweden in hockey this morning, 2-1. I don’t think the US men’s team is gonna come anywhere close to a medal. This team just doesn’t have near enough offense. And our goaltending is just average, by Olympic standards. In the shocker of the day yesterday, the Canadian men’s team lost to Switzerland, 2-0. The SWISS, fer Gawd’s sake. I’m sure there’s a national crisis of confidence rampant in the Great White North today.

In the Telegraph (UK), Alasdair Palmer quotes one Dr. Sookhedo as saying ‘The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state’. Dr. Sookhedo, a former Muslim with a PhD in Islamic studies, spent a significant amount of time surveying Islamic leaders and Muslims in general in the UK. He finds a lot of support for separatism, and most of that support is in keeping with a long-term strategy to turn Britain into an Islamic state.

Dr Sookhdeo adds that he believes that "in a decade, you will see parts of English cities which are controlled by Muslim clerics and which follow, not the common law, but aspects of Muslim sharia law.

"It is already starting to happen - and unless the Government changes the way it treats the so-called leaders of the Islamic community, it will continue."

Dr. Sookhedo takes issue with the approach and strategy of Mr. Blair’s government vis-à-vis the radical imams and, as he puts it, the “so-called Islamic community leaders.” Scary article.

And then there’s this, also in the Telegraph: Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK

Four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the country, a survey reveals today.

The ICM opinion poll also indicates that a fifth have sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the suicide bombers who attacked London last July 7, killing 52 people, although 99 per cent thought the bombers were wrong to carry out the atrocity.

…

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "It shows we have a long way to go to win the battle of ideas within some parts of the Muslim community and why it is absolutely vital that we reinforce the voice of moderate Islam wherever possible."

A spokesman for Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said: "It is critically important to ensure that Muslims, and all faiths, feel part of modern British society. Today's survey indicates we still have a long way to go… [but] we are committed to working with all faiths to ensure we achieve that end."

I wonder if Mr. Blair’s Home Secretary and the loyal opposition read the other Telegraph article? It is definitely a time to worry.

Song of the Day

Song: Private Idaho
Artist: B-52s
Album: Wild Planet
Year: 1980
Source: Radio Paradise.

Makes Me Think of & etc.: This is just a great party song. It doesn’t really make me think of anything specific, except England, perhaps, which is where I was living when the album came out.

Lyrics:

Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo
You're living in your own Private Idaho
Living in your own Private Idaho
Underground like a wild potato.
Don't go on the patio.
Beware of the pool,
blue bottomless pool.
It leads you straight
right throught the gate
that opens on the pool.

You're living in your own Private Idaho.
You're living in your own Private Idaho.

Keep off the path, beware the gate,
watch out for signs that say "hidden driveways".
Don't let the chlorine in your eyes
blind you to the awful surprise
that's waitin' for you at
the bottom of the bottomless blue blue blue pool.

You're livin in your own Private Idaho. Idaho.
You're out of control, the rivers that roll,
you fell into the water and down to Idaho.
Get out of that state,
get out of that state you're in.
You better beware.

You're living in your own Private Idaho.
You're living in your own Private Idaho.

Keep off the patio,
keep off the path.
The lawn may be green
but you better not be seen
walkin' through the gate that leads you down,
down to a pool fraught with danger
is a pool full of strangers.

You're living in your own Private Idaho,
where do I go from here to a better state than this.
Well, don't be blind to the big surprise
swimming round and round like the deadly hand
of a radium clock, at the bottom, of the pool.

I-I-I-daho
I-I-I-daho
Woah oh oh woah oh oh woah oh oh
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Get out of that state
Get out of that state
You're living in your own Private Idaho,
livin in your own Private.... Idaho

See all y’all tomorrow!

A Few Good Reads

Paul Levian, a former German intelligence agent, posits a likely scenario for an Iranian war. The lede:

Judging from the rather frantic behind-the-scenes efforts of Russia and China in Iran, they seem to appreciate that the Iranian leadership is in for a big and probably deadly surprise. The Bush administration has not only handled its Iran dossier much more skillfully than Iraq, but also managed to set up Iran for a war it can neither win nor fight to a draw.

This is an interesting article that deviates from the current received wisdom.

Mark Steyn, on the subject of those cartoons depicting Muhammad, writes “'Sensitivity' Can Have Brutal Consequences.” Sample paragraph or three:

The rule for "brave" "transgressive" "artists" is a simple one: If you're going to be provocative, it's best to do it with people who can't be provoked.

Thus, NBC is celebrating Easter this year with a special edition of the gay sitcom "Will & Grace," in which a Christian conservative cooking-show host, played by the popular singing slattern Britney Spears, offers seasonal recipes -- "Cruci-fixin's." On the other hand, the same network, in its coverage of the global riots over the Danish cartoons, has declined to show any of the offending artwork out of "respect" for the Muslim faith.

Which means out of respect for their ability to locate the executive vice president's home in the suburbs and firebomb his garage.

Don’t miss this one. And there’s more great commentary on the cartoon flap at Maggie’s Farm.

h/t for all three of the above links: The Anchoress.

And finally, the last word of the day. Have you visited Mr. (WO-1) Mike Fay lately? The USMC’s artist-in-residence in Iraq has some great new drawings and word pictures up on his blog. Unbelievably GOOD stuff. Your loss if you don't go.

Update 02/06/2006 1815 hrs: While I was out running around the countryside this afternoon, Laurie posted the following comment:

Just got an e-mail update from the American Family Association. NBC has pulled the Cruci-fixin's piece. In fact, they did a bit of backpeddling saying they didn't know how that info got released, they had no script, blah, blah. But that apparently was a bit of deception. More info here for those interested.

It's good to see NBC (that's almost an alliteration!) back down on this one. One gets very tired of the gratuitous shots taken at Christians. Furthermore, this particular scenario was a case of appalling taste, period. When one can't imagine another religious group being taken to task in the same manner, e.g., Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists, then you know it's wrong. I'm not a religious man, but I do know where the boundaries are...or should be.

Thanks for the update, Laurie!