:: ::

:: MAX BLACK ::

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --C.S. Lewis

"He still owes me fifty bucks for that sausage grinder I sold him" - Eli Kardrakian

"As I recall he was an average student but was very good with the girls; they just adored him, and to tell you the truth, so did I..." - Shirley St. James

:: Saturday, May 17, 2008 ::

OMG...roller-coaster from hell...

:: Max 4:41 PM [+] ::
...

---

Welcome to my blog aggragator, Prairie Fire. You must be really bored. I don't care how you got here but feel free to stick around. To the left, you'll find my super-fantastic Blogroll. I try to keep it updated and fresh so I can get to my favorite bloggers quick. Consider it yours; it's usually good for a cup of coffee or two in the morning and a Martini or two in the evening. Thanks for stopping by and don't be a stranger.

:: Max 6:52 PM [+] ::
...

---

Newsweek, April 28, 1975.



Via Lou Minatti. Larger version here.

:: Max 3:49 PM [+] ::
...

---

"As a scientist, I find the current strategy of the global warming crusade to be fascinating. Particularly because I am a scientist, I also find it insulting. Everyone should find it very disturbing.

I am referring to the fact that the global warming issue is now regarded as a "moral" matter by its advocates.

[...]

The message of these pseudo-moralists is that "good" people must start by accepting the pre-ordained orthodox conclusion and then work backwards through the claimed facts, making not an intellectual assessment of whether they are indeed true, but rather a "moral" assessment of whether or not they agree with the conclusion. Things claimed as facts which are "good" (in this moral sense) should be embraced and those which are "bad" (in this same moral sense) should be discarded, not because they are factually false, but because they are "immoral".

In all honesty, this should scare the heck out of everyone. This is an atmosphere in which scientific inquiry is steered not by factual truth, but by a pre-ordained "moral" position. What is at work here is exactly what the liberals have always claimed to condemn. How is this any different from the decree of a radical theocratic dictator who will allow only those scientific conclusions which are approved by his church?"

Via Small Dead Animals

:: Max 11:13 AM [+] ::
...

---

Ya, I'm back. I just couldn't resist linking to this debunking of the recycling myth. Make sure your children see it. That's right, if you're really concerned about the environment, stop recycling now. [language warning]

:: Max 10:12 AM [+] ::
...

---

Rumsfeld's parting observation; a "gathering storm":

There are people who have written that this administration is a victim of its success, due to the fact that there hasn't been another attack inside the United States. I remember shortly after Sept. 11, I met with the Sultan of Oman in a tent. It must have been 150 degrees. We were perspiring through every piece of clothing we had on. He said this terrible thing that's happened might be a blessing in disguise. It may be the thing that will wake up the world to the danger these extremists pose, before those people get their hands on chemical or biological or nuclear weapons where they could kill many multiples of what they were able to kill on Sept. 11.

This was a man sitting in a tent in the desert with that perspective and understanding of the dangers of extremists. It did for a short while, but then that threat diminished in their minds, whereas it not only has not diminished in reality - it has grown because of the advances in technologies. Look at the Johns Hopkins exercise with smallpox called Dark Winter. It was put in three airports in America. Something between 800,000 and 1 million people 'died' in some number of months, or a year, from a disease people are no longer vaccinated against. So there are things that can be done. There's a tendency for a lot of people to be dismissive of this and to ridicule it.

Churchill's phrase about the gathering storm - there was a storm gathering, but there were people in Europe who didn't believe it and who didn't take the periodic storm clouds and the squalls as a real threat. They thought they were transitory and, of course, paid an enormous penalty in treasure and life for their failure to understand the nature of that threat. I worry we are in a gathering storm and we do not, as a society, accept it. Many of the elites of our society, the key opinion leaders, are unwilling or unable to accept what an awful lot of people believe to be the case. The penalty for being wrong can be enormous.

- Donald Rumsfeld

And should a million or so people die from such a stunt, the progressive/liberal kooks will predictably still blame BushCo. It is interesting terrorist attacks around the globe seem to have tapered off considerabley. No thanks to the usefull idiots in Hollywood and MSM [the 'elites of our society'].

:: Max 8:45 AM [+] ::
...

---

I feel sorry for these people. They've got American liberals and the global media to thank for their future that now looks very bleak indeed.

:: Max 9:41 PM [+] ::
...

---

I know Instapundit has already posted this but I thought I would link to it and keep it up here on top for a few days so that all 12 of my loyal readers won't miss it. Make sure and share this as widely as possible.

:: Max 9:11 PM [+] ::
...

---

Blog Alert: For a foray into Orwellian PC excesses that will make your head explode, drop by Political Correctness Watch [ductape optional].

:: Max 10:25 AM [+] ::
...

---

If you wanna get media, read Jeff Jarvis. Well?

:: Max 9:52 PM [+] ::
...

---

If you really want to know what's going on, last place you wanna look is MSM. Instead, look to reliable sources like Michael Totten.

:: Max 9:40 PM [+] ::
...

---

Now Playing: The Eight Rules of Flight Club.

:: Max 9:23 PM [+] ::
...

---

Worried? Maybe you shouldn't be. Things are about as good as they've ever been for vast numbers of people - and - it's only getting better.

:: Max 6:58 PM [+] ::
...

---

Crikey! It's IED Hunter!

:: Max 1:29 PM [+] ::
...

---

The Venezuealians go to the polls on Sunday. Val Prieto wants your thoughts on the outcome. Go vote.

:: Max 11:22 AM [+] ::
...

---

Researchers discover women talk three times more than men. Greg Gutfeld observes: "What the research doesn't make clear: whether women use more words than men, or just repeat the same ones over and over and over again."

:: Max 10:02 AM [+] ::
...

---

Looks like "The Flying Imams" were [surprise] up to no good after all. Hope someone remembered to thank "Pauline" and the "normal" Muslims that apparently assisted the flight crew on U.S. Airways flight 300. And kudos to U.S. Air for not caving in with a bunch of multi-culti PC backsliding. I got a feeling we're gonna be seeing a lot more of this kind of sh*t in the future.

Related from Tim Blair: "Anti-war leftists are remarkably inclined to fear if they perceive their own lives to be at risk."

:: Max 9:29 AM [+] ::
...

---

Now Playing: Interview with Abdallah Al-Bishi, Mecca's Executioner. Wow.

:: Max 8:53 PM [+] ::
...

---

This makes my blood boil!

OK, so I was thinkin' what would happen if I accidentally disconnected the umbilical to the mother-ship, floated off into the cold, black, vacuum of outer-space, and then [dang] the gasket on my space-suit helmut suddenly ruptured. What would really happen to me then?

[Ha, Ha; don't worry, I'd never disconnect the frikin' umbilical cord to the mother ship!]

:: Max 11:10 PM [+] ::
...

---

Now Playing: Natonal Lampoon's Lost Seinfeld Episode.

:: Max 3:40 AM [+] ::
...

---

No-Knock Raids

Glenn Reynolds has an obvious knack for locating and highlighting some of the most meaningful and important content on the internet. Once in awhile, he creates it. Here's Reynolds on no-knock-raids, a recent phenomenon of community policing that, some would say, pierces the 14th Amendment bubble:

Congress clearly has the power to pass laws, under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, to prevent states depriving citizens of life, liberty or property without due process of law. When cops bust down your door and shoot you without -- very -- good reason for being there, that's a deprivation of liberty and property, and often life, without due process, the very kind of thing Congress was empowered to address. So unless Patterico thinks that the 14th Amendment is itself an improper impediment to federalism, I don't see the problem here. What's more, the no-knock problem stems from federal policies -- the "war on drugs" and the free distribution of military equipment to local SWAT teams -- and thus further justifies a federal corrective. Under federalism, one role of the federal government is to protect citizens' rights against unconstitutional encroachment by the states. That's what the 14th Amendment is about. And the doctrines of official immunity that make lawsuits difficult in such cases are found nowhere in the Constitution, but are the creation of activist judges, reading their policy preferences into the law. They are worthy of no particular deference.

Heh, "official immunity", what a phrase. It's understandable why Americans tend to accept the militarization of their local police departments given the events of 9/11, but, in so doing, many fail to appreciate how the lines of what was once considered "military" have been blurred in the process. This is serious constitutional business and it's good Reynolds is making a serious issue of it.

[Hello. Anybody out there?]

:: Max 6:17 PM [+] ::
...

---

Why Jeff Jarvis is one of my favorite bloggers:

"Here's someone else who doesn't understand what blogs are. [Bloggers] are people talking. Do you suggest you should regulate the speech of people over the phone and set up a complaints commission to deal with that? Or on the street? Or in bed? It's conversation, fool. Believe it or not, bloggers don't want to be newspapers. They want to talk. That's not controllable and that is precisely why it has exploded and why the deposed controllers in media and regulation are so scared of it. But codes and commissions are not the answer. Listening is. If you don't like what you hear, click away and reply because you can now, without having to go through a commission to do so". [Emphasis mine, ed.]

It's not hate speech these busy-bodies, er, hate. It's free-speech they hate. Gladly, guys like Jarvis understand the distinction and have the leverage and cache to move the debate in the proper direction. Will the gatekeepers get it? Apparently, the jury's still out.

:: Max 5:41 PM [+] ::
...

---

Amazing; World's smallest machine gun [video!]

:: Max 4:31 AM [+] ::
...

---

Cuban slaves to sue Cuban Government via US Courts. That's right, Cuban slaves. [hey, where's my Che T-shirt, I've got to get to that G20 rally...]

:: Max 9:07 PM [+] ::
...

---

Now playing: How Cocaine is made in the jungles of Columbia. Must see.

:: Max 10:58 PM [+] ::
...

---

December 2, 2006 a day that will live in infamy [as long as your data does anyway]. Yikes:

"the match that lit all this was struck in March 2000, when then-Vice President Al Gore reported that he could not immediately produce e-mails related to a probe by the Department of Justice into his fund-raising activities."

Figures. The frikin' globe-trotting "inventor of the internet" would indirectly saddle American business with this new burden. I figure if the Feds are gonna hold us to this high standard, they should be held to an identical standard of record-keeping. No? Of course not.

:: Max 10:02 PM [+] ::
...

---

Just check in with Greg Gutfeld's Daily Gut; Daily.

:: Max 9:53 PM [+] ::
...

---

Oooo. Ceasar Chavez 'vows' to kill America. I'm so scared.

:: Max 12:13 AM [+] ::
...

---