:: ::
:: 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
"The Swiss pocket knife of conservative thought on the web..." - Eli Kardrakian
"Bookmark Max and dump your subscription to the newspaper; if you don't have a birdcage you really don't need it anyway..." - Shirley St. James
:: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 ::
Merci Beaucoup!To all French crypto-communists, syndicalists, marxists, trotskyites, leninists, stalinists, national socialists, socialist nationalists, primitivists, Trade Union dinosaurs, student activists, greenie nutters, neo-fascists, old fashioned fascists, quasi-crypto-troglodyte-Pol-Pottist-year zero-flat-earthers, looney tunes and enviro-goons... Merci Beaucoup!!!!
David Carr, Samizdata
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:: Max 12:48 PM [+] ::
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Religion of Peace Update:: Monday, May 30, 2005 ::
This stuff used to make me irate. Now, I just feel a tremendous sense of sadness that any group of human beings - and I use the term only in its biological sense - could be so utterly ignorant and retrograde. I guess the only redeeming aspect of this story is that these morons are so intellectually and emotionally retarded that they tend to self-destruct - just try not to be in their vicinity when they do.
Related: Talk of religious reform is a very faint glimmer of hope for the people of the Middle East. We can only pray wiser men will ultimately prevail over the brainwashed fanatics that have an iron fist on the throat of Islam.
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:: Max 12:23 PM [+] ::
...
"And that, my friends, is professional journalism, Grauniad style. Toodles!"
Scott Burgess reporting from his garden...
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:: Max 11:19 PM [+] ::
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Audiophile Alert
Expand your music horizons today. KBON 101.1 is mainlining Cajun music straight from the bayou; KHYI The Range is a 60,000 watt blow-torch emanating from Plano, Texas playing classical country and western; If you're a fan of Jazz and Blues, go to the source: WWOZ streams authentic New Orleans roots music 24-7. For a whole lot more, John over at Iberian Notes has posted a major update on music on the web - do not miss it.
[I gotta update my pathetic PC audio situation starting with one of these...]
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:: Max 3:29 PM [+] ::
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Chirac, Euro Pummeled:: Monday, May 23, 2005 ::
"France scarred. Chiraq weakened. Socialist Party fractured, perhaps irreparably. Extreme Left exposed as rabidly xenophobic."
For Chirac a "brandy and revolver moment"?
Heads Up: The Dutch will go to the polls on Wednesday and similar results are expected. Watch Zacht Ei for a live-blogging of election returns.
Related: This is classic:"Former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the father of the 448-article constitution, early on in the campaign dismissed complaints about the document's opacity by assuring his countrymen, "The text is easily read and quite well phrased, which I can say all the more easily since I wrote it myself."
The European ruling class is clueless I tell you, absolutely clueless...
Related: The business of America is business. The busines of France is graft and corruption. This is exactly what European socialism-lite begets...
Related: Did bloggers have anything to do with the "non" vote? Of course they did...
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:: Max 12:43 AM [+] ::
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Roadtrip!:: Sunday, May 22, 2005 ::
Hitting the road for a little family get-together so blogging will be light to non existent for the next few days but I'll leave you with this little gem before I go.
[what a scream...]
Adios...
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:: Max 12:04 PM [+] ::
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European Baby Boom?
We blog, you decide...
[this is a textbook example of why rational people have come to distrust the "main-stream-media"]
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:: Max 11:47 PM [+] ::
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The Big Tent is getting smaller and smaller...
Here's a little self help for dissaffected democrats [and if that doesn't do it, this will]
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:: Max 5:47 PM [+] ::
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:: Friday, May 20, 2005 ::Kifaya!
The left/liberal press, in their peculiar compact with radical Islam is working tirelessly to bury the positive news eminating from the middle east. But no matter how the New York Times and Al Jazeera torture logic to derive their perverted version of the truth, it's simply unquestionable the Bush doctrine has fundamentally altered the course of history for the people of the region. History will demonstrate that the casualties of the War on Terror will include not only al Qaeda and their mind-numbed, suicidal Wahabist fanatics but the sputtering liberal propaganda machine as well.
In spite of their Orwellian effort to deny it, winds of change are sweeping over the Middle East:excerpt from Bush Country by Fouad Ajami
"Women are getting the vote in Kuwait, the Lebanese clamor for the truth about the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and about the dark Syrian interlude in their history. Egyptians don't seem frightened of the scarecrows with which the Mubarak regime secured their submission. Everywhere, the order is under attack, and men and women are willing to question the prevailing truths. There is to this moment of Arab history the feel of a re-enactment of Europe's Revolution of 1848--the springtime of peoples"
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:: Max 9:50 AM [+] ::
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[Welcome Gates of Vienna readers! Thanks for dropping by.]:: Thursday, May 19, 2005 ::
Let 'em know what you think
If you've been reading Powerline, you're probably up to speed on Pepsico's Indra Nooyi's remarks at Columbia's MBA graduation ceremony. If you feel compelled to respond or comment, Pepsico's phone number is (914) 253-2000. You can email the board of directors at boardofdirectors@pepsi.com. Here is the corporate website. Here is a partial list of Pepsico brands. Remember, bet you can't eat just one - not a single one:
Lay's potato chips
Pepsi-Cola
Caffeine Free Pepsi
Diet Pepsi
Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi
Pepsi Twist (regular & diet)
Wild Cherry Pepsi
Pepsi Blue
Pepsi ONE
Pepsi Vanilla
Diet Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew Code Red
Diet Mountain Dew Code Red
Mountain Dew LiveWire
Mountain Dew Blueshock
Mountain Dew AMP energy drink
Sierra Mist (Regular & Diet)
Slice
Lipton Brisk (Partnership)
Lipton Iced Tea(Partnership)
Dole juices and juice drinks (License)
FruitWorks juice drinks
Aquafina purified drinking water
Frappuccino ready-to-drink coffee (Partnership)
Starbucks DoubleShot (Partnership)
SoBe juice drinks, dairy, and teas
SoBe energy drinks (No Fear and Adrenaline Rush) Outside North America
Mirinda
7UP (International)
Pepsi Limon
Teem
Pepsi Max
Pepsi Light
Fiesta
Lays Kettle Cooked potato chips
Wavy Lay's potato chips
Baked Lay's potato crisps
Maui Style potato chips
Ruffles potato chips
Baked Ruffles potato crisps
Ruffles Flavor Rush potato chips
Doritos tortilla chips
Baked Doritos tortilla chips
3D's snacks
Tostitos tortilla chips
Baked Tostitos tortilla chips
Santitas tortilla chips
Fritos corn chips
Cheetos cheese flavored snacks
Rold Gold pretzels & snack mix
Funyuns onion flavored rings
Go Snacks
Sunchips multigrain snacks
Cracker Jack candy coated popcorn
Chester's popcorn
Grandma's cookies Munchos potato crisps
Smartfood popcorn
Baken-ets fried pork skins
Rustler's meat snacks
Frito-Lay nuts
Frito-Lay, Ruffles, Fritos and Tostitos dips & salsas
Frito-Lay, Doritos and Cheetos snack crackers
Fritos, Tostitos, Ruffles and Doritos snack kits
Lay's Stax potato crisps
Lay's Fries
Natural Lays
Natural Ruffles
Natural Cheetos
Natural Tostitos
Munchies snack mix
Gatorade Thirst Quencher
Gatorade Frost Thirst Quencher
Gatorade Ice Thirst Quencher
Gatorade Xtremo Thirst Quencher
Gatorade X-Factor Thirst Quencher
Tropicana Pure Premium juices
Tropicana Twister juice drinks
Tropicana Smoothies
Tropicana Pure Tropics juices
Dole juices (License)
Tropicana 100 juices
:: Max 7:38 AM [+] ::
...
Never were truer words spoken:"But it's also real. Like spinning under the moonlight until you fall down, digging your bare toes in a freshly plowed field, letting juice from ripe watermelon dribble down your chin to stain your new white T-shirt. You know, the good stuff in life."
This is kinda complicated so I'll take you directly to the source. We link, you are simply bemused.
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:: Max 10:29 PM [+] ::
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One Year Ago Today...
...I started Praire Fire on a lark. Mostly because it dawned on me I could publish my very own "news paper" to read with my morning coffee. In so doing, I was released from the tedium of the local paper (The Kansas City Star) and nightly news simultaneously; no more black elbows, no more dead tree journalism, no more fatuous talking heads. It was a cathartic moment. When I canceled my subscription to the paper, my first thought was I'll never have to suffer Molly Ivins again and I haven't. Ditto for Rather, Brokaw and Jennings.
In that one year period, I've wittnessed the tremendous power of the blogosphere to factualize the news in a way that was not possible before. I always knew the the "story" was multifaceted but I certainly wasn't seeing anymore facets from the big-guns. [Funny how "real" journalists bristle at that thought; that "some guy in his pajamas" would question the veracity of their reportage! And yes, I have blogged in my pajamas (such as they are)].
Nowadays, if I happen to stumble onto the nightly news by accident, it looks simply anachronistic; like an ossified relic of the bad old days when "journalism" was shoved down our throats take-it-or-leave-it style. Nowadays, when I glance through the plastic window on the paper box and read the headline, I usually find myself laughing at how "yesterday" it looks. The Tsunami is a great example of this phenomenon. With a few notable cable-news exceptions, The blogosphere had all the good stuff before MSM could get their pompous asses out of makeup and into the "anchor" chair [anchor chair? I got yer anchor chair right here...]. Of course, those days are plainly over and it can't happen quickly enough for this blogger.
Happy birthday Praire Fire; long live citizen's new media.
Update: The latest on Toiletgate; just to drive the point home [emphasis added]:"We feel badly": With those insultingly wan words, Whitaker thinks that he has wrapped things up. All of Newsweek's penitential protestations notwithstanding, what emerges from this episode is the image of a profession that is complacent, self-righteous, and hopelessly in love with itself. Is this a terrible generalization? Well, there are 17 people who lost their lives because of the state of journalistic practice at a U.S. magazine. When American journalists do not think of themselves as heroes, they think of themselves as victims; but here they are neither. They are--I mean Isikoff and his editors--simply scavengers.
Martin Peretz - New Republic
[No, I don't read or subscribe to NewsTweak either - not even in the doctor's office. Nope it's so 80s...]
Update 2: It just keeps coming and coming and coming. Hey Libs: Check this [>]
[y'know, this is exactly the asshatted "journalism" that created the blogosphere in the first place. One wonders if they'll ever figure out what's going on here...]
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:: Max 5:24 PM [+] ::
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Tim Blair drops Norman "the Noid" Mailer with a single well-placed kick to the groin.
["Huffleblog" bwaaahaaahaaaa!]
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:: Max 1:41 PM [+] ::
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Palestinian Sheik calls for worldwide extermination of jews.
This is what we're up against: an ignorance so profound that it shocks the sensibilities of the modern mind:"The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world - except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquillity under our rule because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew."
--Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris on the Palestine Authority's official television station.
And these guys want statehood?! [and nukes - don't forget the nukes].
good luck getting a plane ticket Mr. Mudeiris...
Related: LGF points to this unsurprising polling result from the Middle East: "Anti-Semitic stereotypes also were noted [Really!? ed.]. Focus group members saw the United States and Israel as synonymous and estimated the proportion of Jews in the U.S. population at up to 85 percent; it is 2 percent."
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:: Max 1:09 PM [+] ::
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Star Wars: Return of the Sith
Review by Ed Driscoll
[This is what happens when artists such as Lucas take their work too seriously; they become boorish and their art suffers for it. I mean, c'mon George - lighten up for chrissakes. It's a fantasy...]
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:: Max 8:08 AM [+] ::
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Love movies but hate the late fees? No it's not Netflix.:: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 ::
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:: Max 7:43 AM [+] ::
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Beats a home-made noose...
"suicide by media" remains a tempting, perhaps even alluring, prospect..."
Consider Amarji Syria's Mark Twain.
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:: Max 10:58 PM [+] ::
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They don't get it...:: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 ::
This is why I love Jeff Jarvis. He gets it.
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:: Max 10:46 PM [+] ::
...
Meet Ahmed"Ahmed is a 21 year old university student. He is very religious, prays five times a day, and sports a 3 year old beard. He always carries a small Quran in his bag to read from in the subway on his way to college. Sometimes he reads it out loud so that people around him will listen to Allah's holy word. He doesn't mind if Muslims who don't want to hear and Christian passengers might not appreciate his squeaky voice, he is uttering Allah's words after all.
"Ahmed is active within the Islamist movement on campus. The university security personnel know him by name and they keep a constant eye on the young man lest he decides to do something they deem will compromise the delicate security situation in the university. Last week, Ahmed's mother had to put drops in his eyes after they got very red and swollen from the tear gas that was used to curb the massive Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations he took part in.
"Our friend Ahmed believes that Egypt's problems stem from its abandoning of the true Islamic law. The full implementation of Islamic law will certainly pull the country out of its miseries, he always admonishes. Ahmed gets very angry when he sees his colleagues not keen on following all the strict religious guidelines he believes they should follow. He wants his male friends to accompany him to all daily prayers and to avoid mixing with the opposite sex, he also demands from them to stop watching Ruby's promiscuous music video clips.
"Ahmed believes that Islam is a religion and a state. The notion of separation between mosque and politics is heresy to him. He wants an Islamic state and so he doesn't comprehend how Islam can function in a secular society. Whenever he hears the words "separation of religion and politics", thoughts of gay marriage in the US and free cannabis in Holland rush through his mind.
"Ahmed hates the US government with every fiber of his being, but sometimes when he is alone on bed at night, he starts to dream about how President Bush's sudden quest for democracy in Egypt might help in empowering "noble righteous" men who will implement "the laws of Allah" in Egypt."
The Big Pharaoh's on a roll. Grab your coffee and drop in for a visit.
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:: Max 3:09 PM [+] ::
...
Adjectives Europeans use to describe...
...the French:chauvinists, stubborn, humourless...(Britons)
pretentious, offhand and frivolous...(Germans)
agitated, talkative and shallow...(Dutch)
cold, distant, vain and impolite...(Spanish)
snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed...(Italians)
not very with it, egocentric bons vivants...(Greeks)
disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty...(Swedes)
It's probably the only issue that the whole damned planet can agree upon. Maybe they ought to vote on a resolution in the UN Security Council to the effect that the French are scumballs.
["Gentlemen - it's unanimous - the resolution passes. From this point forward, the French are indeed scumballs..."]
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:: Max 1:57 PM [+] ::
...
Politically Incorrect Germany
Many Americans still don't grasp the fact that Germany, like many other countries (such as Canada), have a nationalized media. Try to imagine what it would be like if PBS and NPR, as an arm of the Federal Government, controlled all the print and broadcast media in America (God forbid). Some creative Germans have had enough of this sham and are inventing an independent media:"There is virtually no independent electronic news media in Germany. Go to the text pages of ARD and ZDF and compare news headlines. They are usually identical. Imagine what Germans would say if the only news available in the United States came from a government funded source. Not only would it rightly be catagorized as a conflict of interest, it would be dismissed as propaganda. But no one in Germany raises an eyebrow when the entire German media market adopts a position identical with its Chancellor as witnessed during the war in Iraq.
Once again, Germany is a prisoner of its past..."
Bloggers all over the world are having a field day trouncing their nationalized-media counterparts with insightful reporting. Germany's Davids Medienkritik deserves some kinda blog award for their extraordinary efforts. Check in daily.
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:: Max 1:29 PM [+] ::
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The Thought Police:: Monday, May 16, 2005 ::
Sweden is considering legislation to stockpile massive amounts of electronic data on it's citizens:"The idea is to save and store for a period of one to three years information about who we have talked to on the telephone and when, where we are when we use the mobile phone and when, who we have contact with through emails and when, who we chat with by SMS and when, which websites we visit and when. Perhaps also, depending upon the technical solutions, what keywords we type into search engines such as Google. This is all supposed to be for combating crime.
It's not surprising that the government would consider this kind of action when you examine the trendline in violent crime in Sweden. But I wonder: why is crime in on the upswing in Sweden?...hmmm...
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:: Max 1:07 PM [+] ::
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Democrat Sausage Machine: Philadelphia
3 polling places are in bars/pubs
9 are in vacant buildings
80 are in private residences
17 are in garages
1 is in a Democratic Party Headquarters
And 2 have NOT YET BEEN established
And one is apparently located in a funeral home. To make matters worse: "the Democratic machine in Philadelphia has continued to systematically make voting more and more inaccessible for city residents. In many places, they have taken away the right to privacy in the voting booth, freedom from intimidation at the polls, and even the ability to vote in a safe, public place."
The Libs pull a page from Mugabe's playbook...
[If you can't beat 'em fair and square; lie, cheat and steal...]
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:: Max 9:55 PM [+] ::
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New UN Scandal Emerging:: Saturday, May 14, 2005 ::
Powerline is suggesting the ongoing 1.2 billion dollar renovation of the UN headquarters in New York (financed, of course, by the American taxpayers) is the latest UN swindle.
Donald Trump comments on the outrageous renovation costs: "there are only two possible explanations for the U.N.'s budget: fraud and incompetence."
[Sigh...]
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:: Max 6:28 PM [+] ::
...
The Uzbekistan Prison Riot
I have a friend who is an Uzbeki and last night we chatted about the protests and riots happening in his country. He summarized by saying "we are afraid of our government but we are more afraid of the Taliban". From conversations with his family, he was convinced the protests were being led by Wahabists and was confident the iron-fisted Karimov will never let the demonstrations continue. If Karimov can't put a lid on the uprising, and should the "revolutionaries" destabilize Karimov's regime, Uzbekistan could end up a Taliban stronghold. At this point, it looks like Bush has no choice but support Vladimir Putin's corrupt puppet dictatorship.
Update: I found this assesment by Peace Corps volunteer Wanderlustress to be very much in line with what I'm hearing:"It would be "reductionist" to interpret this as a purely religious movement, or a drive for democracy. I maintain that the worsening economic situation for the general population, coupled with increased taxation, systemic corruption, and a host of other factors converge into a force of disobedience that leave no other choice, no other outlet for people who need to find a way to improve their lives, even if it means risking it. There's not much else to lose..."
Update 2: Here is an excerpt from a letter from one of the "terrorists" via Publius Pundit. This doesn't look like Talibanspeak to me:"We could tolerate it no longer,...We are unjustly accused of membership of Akramia. We were tormented for almost a year, but they could not prove us guilty in court. Then they started persecuting our nearest and dearest.
...
"If we don't demand our rights, no one else will protect them for us. The problems that affect you trouble us as well. If you have a government job, your salary is not enough to live on. If you earn a living by yourself, they start envying you and putting obstacles in your way. If you talk about your pain, no one will listen. If you demand your rights, they will criminalise you."
...
"Dear Andijanis! Let us defend our rights. Let the region's governor come, and representatives of the president too, and hear our pain. When we make demands, the authorities should hear us. If we stick together, they will not do anything bad to us."
Of course, as Putin is so fond of doing, anyone who challenges the corrupt system is tarred with the catch-all phrase "terrorist", and criminalized. It is interesting, however, that the "terrorists" appear to have crossed the Kyrgistan border near Anjijan with weapons.
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:: Max 8:11 AM [+] ::
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Max's Thought For the Day:: Friday, May 13, 2005 ::
When guns are legalized, only Conservatives, Libertarians and Outlaws will have guns - a comforting thought when you think about it.
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:: Max 1:12 AM [+] ::
...
With all the reliability of a room-temp egg salad sandwich at a church picnic, CBS simply cannot be trusted. I gotta say, on the heels of Rather/Mapes I'm kinda surprised anybody, even the tinfoil libs were watching when Gloria Borger committed this blatant act of journalistic malpractice. I guess we'll see though. If they don't release the unedited version of the Ken Starr interview, Borger, her producers and editors at CBS lied - it's as simple and predictable as that.
I'll be dumbfounded if they do release the full interview and predict here and now they won't because a) it will demonstrate unequivocally how CBS manipulates interviews ala 60 Minutes and b) the News Division can't survive another invasive colonoscopy administered by Dr. Blogosphere.
If I'm wrong, I'll apologize and sentance myself to 30 agonizing minutes watching CBS News with Bob Schieffer. But I predict I won't have to do the time because CBS will never, ever release the unedited version of the Ken Starr interview.
[kinda like John Kerry will never, ever sign Form 180 for the same reason - the truth.]
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:: Max 10:49 PM [+] ::
...
Help WantedThe Department of Defense announced today the establishment of an Internet site to support recruiting efforts for civilians to work in the Afghanistan Reconstruction Group, a joint program with the State Department that assists officials at the highest levels of the Afghan government.
The Afghanistan Reconstruction Group (ARG) is presently recruiting for a number of critical senior advisor and staff positions based in the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, to help in the ongoing reconstruction and stabilization of Afghanistan. The establishment of the ARG recruiting Web site broadens the reach of an ongoing recruitment program.
The Department of Defense oversees the recruitment program, which is led by former Army Secretary Martin Hoffmann.
"We seek and are attracting senior advisors from the private sector," said Hoffmann. "Although these are compensated positions, we are tapping into the vein of volunteerism in America: people want to serve. They know the cause is important. We are finding individuals willing to go where their skills and experiences have great impact, helping to improve the lives of the Afghan people. ARG participants represent the finest American tradition of reaching out to serve in a faraway land."
The ARG recruiting Web site is located at http://www.dod.gov/afghanistan/. The Web site lists position openings, full position descriptions, and application procedures.
It's tempting - really it is but I'm not finding a request for "ARG Senior Advisor - bon vivant". Dang.
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:: Max 6:30 PM [+] ::
...
Maybe there's still hope after all...
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:: Max 6:27 PM [+] ::
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Federal Legislation Research Tool
Somehow, I missed Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet, a research service of the Library of Congress. If you are looking for a particular Bill or legislative language, this is the tool to use. I've belatedly added it to the PrairieFire blogroll under the Government heading. [I have a sinking feeling that the only people who ever really read Federal legislation are the suckers who ultimately suffer from it - and by the time we get it, it's usually too late].
[...hey Mama, looky here - dare callin' dis one da Patriot Act. Vewi clever...]
Note: I just searched "Thomas" for the Patriot Act (HR 3162) and the database returns the following message:The text of HR 3162 has not yet been received from GPO Bills are generally sent to the Library of Congress from the Government Printing Office a day or two after they are introduced on the floor of the House or Senate. Delays can occur when there are a large number of bills to prepare or when a very large bill has to be printed.
Not surprised...
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:: Max 5:45 PM [+] ::
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Flight of the Kookoo Byrd:: Thursday, May 12, 2005 ::
Oh no, Gramps has wandered off the Democratic plantation again. Last seen wielding King James bible and yammering about Haymeenizing the Jeeiuws...
[how'd he get past security?]
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:: Max 8:06 AM [+] ::
...
Hello and welcome to the office. Doctor Blair is with anotherMoonba- ahem - client - but he'll be with you very shortly. Would you like some coffee while you're waiting? Cream? Certainly.
I'll be right back. In the meantime, please read and sign our little disclosure and privacy statement. It's for insurance purposes only I can assure you...
[Let's begin with a little word association, OK? Here we go now. The first word is tinfoil...]
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:: Max 11:24 PM [+] ::
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Red Tape, Incompetance, Corruption
No, it's not France:"Worldwide more than £4.7 billion was pledged in an unprecedented display of generosity. But not all those pledges have been kept, and the disbursement of those funds that have materialised has been choked by the usual pitfalls of developing countries - red tape, internal conflict, political disputes, incompetence and corruption."
[hey, somebody get 60 Minutes on the phone stat - we need a hard hitting piece on the Tsunami corruption thing - whaddaya mean they aren't interested - this is huge! OK, OK, try Michael Moore, we'll do a documentary - wha...how can he NOT be interested - this is about food for chrisake?! - sheesh - awright, awright - give Alda a shot...]
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:: Max 9:08 PM [+] ::
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Libraries to charge for "leisure" services?
[a sign of the times]
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:: Max 8:53 PM [+] ::
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Crawly Amphibian?
[I resemble that remark] Well, I guess it's better than being 7069...
[when you figure there are about 4 million blogs, ranking 7068 isn't all that bad]
True Story: A couple of days ago, I randomly linked to a blog called Naked Knitting and referenced "frustrated school girls" to make a point and, to my suprise, the stat-counter went all hot and steamy.
For the sake of scientific enquiry, and to test the hypothosis that by doing it again Prairie Fire will experience a small but rapid evolutionary mutation (to say 7067), I have repeated the linkage here. [hey - this evolution thing is a tough business...]
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:: Max 5:15 PM [+] ::
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Goggle Bomb? Ask and ye shall receive...:: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 ::
...5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0: Nazi Apologist
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:: Max 5:04 PM [+] ::
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N-e-w-t G-i-n-g-r-i-c-h
"The Newtster" is a respected conservative philosopher, educator and writer but he's political poison should he ever attempt a run for the Presidency. Newt Gingrich is the Hillary Clinton of the Republican party. The only thing worse than a Gingrich candidacy would be a Gingrich candidacy with Guiliani as his running mate (Newt & Rudy? yikes). Rational Republicans can only hope this is just another ingenious Rove plot to throw the Dems off the trail.
[Rational Democrats, on the other hand, can only hope the Republicans would be crazy enough to give the nod to Newt]
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:: Max 10:35 PM [+] ::
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Dennis Miller
I've always been a huge fan of Dennis Miller but never really bought into CNBCs Dennis Miller Show. Now that he's got some time on his hands, he definitely needs his own, well publicized blog and a talk radio show. Lorie Byrd has some other interesting career ideas for Miller over at PoliPundit.
[hey Jonah: Be a guy - give Miller a set of keys to The Corner - you people could use a little SOPACO* humor over there]
*(South Park Conservative)
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:: Max 9:40 PM [+] ::
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Norway Present and Accounted For
Just found this excellant Norwegian blog "...about Islam in Scandinavia, Eurabia, Norwegian affairs, leftist stupidity, global politics and whatever else interests me." Fjordman [>]
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:: Max 5:53 PM [+] ::
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Gosh, those Europeans are so sophisticated!"As the team coaches arrived for the match and the players made their way into the stadium, scores of fans rushed up to the wire fence and shouted 'nigger, nigger' at Daniel Kome, a Cameroon midfielder and Getafe's only black player. In fact, he was the only nonwhite face I saw - except Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Carlos - until I joined a throng of people watching the game for free on a hill overlooking the ground. There, more than half the spectators, mainly kids, were of North African origin. Getafe is an immigrant town, but when it comes to football it is a metaphor for racial segregation. For some bizarre reason, even during the warm-up, Kome was to be seen training on his own, away from the rest of the squad."
...and tolerant!
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:: Max 4:37 PM [+] ::
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Republicans "pulverising Federalism"?
Arch Libertarian Samizdata is an equal opportunity party-basher. Also, don't miss their multiple posts on the "Real Id" act.
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:: Max 4:21 PM [+] ::
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OK, this is a tough one. Is he reaching for the guys wallet or...
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:: Max 3:15 PM [+] ::
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Tiny Netherlands Consumed:: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 ::
Zacht Ei has an update on the most recent islamo-hate crime to come out of the land of Tulips and windmills. Of course, rather than confronting the situation, the hand-wringing liberals are hiding under their beds hoping that by appeasing the luddites, the whole thing will just blow over. Interesting that one of the most courageous people to challenge the fascist thugs in the Netherlands is a woman...from Somalia.
The left have always been useful idiots for tyrants of all stripes. Wonder who they'll call for help when they're finally enveloped by the dark cloud of Dhimmitude.
Update: Wow, it's worse than I thought...
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:: Max 2:10 PM [+] ::
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Architectural Masterpiece"Cities are a product of time. They are the moulds in which men's lifetimes have cooled and congealed giving lasting shape to moments which would have otherwise vanished...in the city, time becomes visible."
(paraphrasing Lewis Mumford because I can't put my finger on the original quote!?)
If you're an architect, Peter Eisenman has to be on your short list of living treasures. Somebody made an enlightened and truly commendable decision to use him for this important project - it's over the top [>]
Update: Roger L. Simon has a nice personal perspective on the monument.
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:: Max 11:18 PM [+] ::
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The Birth of a Blogger
This is interesting on a whole lot of levels. Maybe this (formerly liberal?) journalist - a man who obviously has a mind of his own and is not easily swayed by the opinions of his uninformed collegues - will start a blog of his own and I wish him luck...seriously.
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:: Max 10:52 PM [+] ::
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Davids Medienkritic Hits a Raw Nerve
Looks like Medienkritic is less a burr under the saddle of German MSM than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. This is classic early twenty-first century blogging.
Just go, now [>]
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:: Max 10:39 PM [+] ::
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US Boeing Beats EU Airbus
This is a hoot. Apparently, Air India has agreed to purchase 50 B787 Dreamliners from Boeing to the dismay of Airbus Industrie. Airbus spokesperson Nigel Harwood said of the decision: "We are not disappointed but astonished. We were not given fair and equal treatment..." To make matters even more amusing, Air India is considering legal action against Airbus for "making unfounded accusations against Air India in the media," said Air India spokesman Jitendra Bhargava. Looks like the EU consortium couldn't bribe their way into this mega contract.
via No Pasaran [>]
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:: Max 9:49 PM [+] ::
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Huffingtonia, a Gated Blog Community:: Monday, May 09, 2005 ::
Just dropped in to see what the rich and infamous are bloviating about and as others have reported, HuffingtonPost is a fabulous site darling--real fancy-shmancy. In any case, I clicked on Rob Reiner's ironic rant on the decline of journalistic integrity. Boy, I couldn't agree more Rob - the press in this country is doing a real lousy job.
As an example of how bad things are getting, Mr. Reiner complains that journalists aren't digging into Tom Delay's alleged travel transgressions (no?).
Well, it takes time to concoct phony documents Mr. Reiner. Marla Mapes spent like five years inventing the Bush TANG investigation. Obviously, CBS should have had a more creative and efficient "producer" working on it, like maybe Jason Blair.
But all kidding aside, do you suppose maybe the press is on the take - being paid by the evil Republicans to NOT report on Delay's travel expenses? Hey, its not beyond the realm of possibility; after all, Saddam Hussein paid CNN to NOT report on the 1.3 million Iraqis slaughtered by his murderous regime.
I must say, I do agree with Mr. Reiner; the press isn't doing it's job very well at all. But in all fairness, they've got their hands full right now ignoring the multi-billion dollar UN oil for food scandal, the good news from Iraq (part 27) and Afghanistan, and the Democratization of a vast region of the planet.
Nice site Arianna, and welcome to the Blogosphere Mr. Reiner.
[Hey Rob: there's this guy named Theo van Gogh and I haven't seen much in the main-stream media about him - maybe you could blog about his case. No? Well then, considering your interest in education spending, you might want to blog about this...]
Update: Just cobbed the following HuffingtonPost link from The Corner. Chris Meserole chides his fellow travelers for their knee-jerk support of France. He's right, his post is interesting and it's nice to see a liberal get it. Now if he would just point out that France's involvement in Africa has everything to do with "blood for oil".
Update 2: Lou Minatti makes mincemeat out of Meathead (yecthhh - like I said, welcome to the Blogosphere Meathead).
Related: If you're game for a little more clinical Fisking of Liberal softheadedness Scott Burgess is back...
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:: Max 11:19 AM [+] ::
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Education Report:: Sunday, May 08, 2005 ::
Robert Mandel is a high-school history teacher who maintains blog on educational issues. He also happens to be a self described conservative. If you are unfortunate enough to have children in "the system", I hope you are shoring up their McEducation-Lite with some factual history texts.
If you're not hip to how corrupted High School curriculum has become - especially regarding the rewriting of world history - drop in to Mandelinople for a little continuing education.
Powerline has more [>]
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:: Max 7:32 AM [+] ::
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Thomas Kohl reads the EU Constitution:"For one, it doesn't even look like a constitution - it makes me wonder why they chose to name it so. There are such faux 'rights' enumerated in the document such as the right for a free employment information services, meaning the state is obliged to help you find a job. Such things are the defining traits of the new Europe. Every time I see a new right that the state reserved for me, every time they do that makes me wonder how many other rights I may lose down the road [emphasis mine].
To paraphrase Tom Waits, the large print giveth and that which is not specifically addressed under the articles of "freedom"; line 3, paragraph 4 of the preamble to the constitution taketh away.
[If you manage to make it all the way through without falling asleep, there is this important section on "the ownership of Goldfish"...]
Update: Eurosoc has a definitive, must-read post on the matter.
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:: Max 9:48 PM [+] ::
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The tolerant, peaceful left...
This is just so typically "Liberal"--are you ready? Here goes:
"mob of militant feminists bludgeoned three men as they exited a Stockholm house of ill repute early Saturday morning".
How tolerant and progressive! Well, I'm sure their violent assault was probably a result of PMS (or elevated levels of testosterone--who knows). This story kind of reminds me of another famous female arbiter of morality.
Also, this report from the Netherlands: "American homosexual beat up in Amsterdam"
[Hate crime brought to you by the "religion of peace"].
Update: Armavirumque explores a related and equally convoluted thread...
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:: Max 8:02 PM [+] ::
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Why Hillary Will Not Run in '08:: Saturday, May 07, 2005 ::
The Democrats are a dysfunctional lot but they're not politically suicidal--yet. Time's Joe Klein sums up nicely why Hillary will not be a candidate for President in '08. But whoever the squabling Dems ultimately land on, it looks increasingly likely they'll be running against this Republican Senator.
[I'll go way out on a limb and predict Guiliani will get the Republican VP nod--if he can keep his nose clean between now and the Primary season]
Note to Newt: As the archtypal Cranky Conservative with the Q Factor of somewhere between 0 and 1 you're unelectable--don't even think about it.
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:: Max 9:54 AM [+] ::
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Rejoice; The Democrats have "won" the minority?!
Alan Nathan comments on "thenuclear"constitutional option":The Democrats are apoplectic...and are promising to paralyze the Senate should the GOP move forward with what Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada characterizes as a violation of "checks and balances."
"Checks and balances" is a term of art referring to the inter-dependency of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government. However, referencing this term is not a license for the minority party to have majority sway in the Senate — a chamber that's only one-half of one branch. Democrats want the political force of the Republicans without the numeric force to attain it.
This is the crux of it; Republicans hold the Trump card. If and when the Democrats lose a few more seats in the House and Senate, and hopefully the 2008 Presidential race, maybe they will wake up to the realities of having slobs like Michael Moore doing their dirty work. Conversely, if the Republican majority desires to retain their power, they should figure out how to use it.
Nathan link via No Pasaran [>]
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:: Max 9:35 PM [+] ::
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Arthur Chrenkoff...:: Friday, May 06, 2005 ::
...the man who brings us good news from Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of the hardest working bloggers on the planet. He has a few, concise thoughts on Tony Blair's re-election and MSM's predictable reaction to it. Don't miss it.
Update: Davids Medienkritik has a nice post on Blair's re-election as well. Go [>]
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:: Max 9:16 PM [+] ::
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The way they think...:: Thursday, May 05, 2005 ::
The boys at the control panel of the Google News bot are tinkering this golden internet property into the red-zone with their "new and improved" method of ranking "news" based on its "quality". This is so fantastically illconceived, particularly on the heels of stories like Rathergate, that it defies logic. But this is how liberals think. That by massaging data to some arbitrary standard of their liking, (ala Rathergate) somehow, the "truth" will emerge.
It's a fool's errand.
For all of their hubris and hyperboly, Bloggers are emerging as the arbiters of truth not because there exists some omnipotent Editor & Chief of the World Wide Web, (as Google and the New York Times would arrogantly fancy themselves); or that Bloggers are any more truthful than "real" journalists. Blogs, by virtue of the "wisdom of crowds", submit the "story" to a brutal vetting by a vast pool of knowledgable free agents, each of whom bring a small piece of the news puzzle to the (pajama) party. That the "editors" of Google News don't get this is astonishing. As the blogosphere evolves, I look forward to Google's retrograde, Pravdaesque experiment to fade into the dark, cold recesses of Cyberspace like the millions upon millions of abandoned web-pages authored by frustrated schoolgirls.
Hey Larry and Sergey; Google this:[what's the frequency Kenneth?]
Inside Update: Welcome Naked Knitting enthusiasts! Glad to see you're still alive, unabandoned and knitting in what appears to be a warm corner of the blogosphere!
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:: Max 11:25 PM [+] ::
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Do as I say, not as I do...
Green Peace "criminally negligent by failing to have the proper oil spill response paperwork"? Tim Blair has all the oily details.
Update: Suprise! GreenPeace silent on Chavez' destruction of protected Anaconda/Flamingo habitat. This is reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's destruction of the Marsh Arab wetlands--text-book examples of the real agenda for many corrupt NGOs.
[If you want REAL wetland conservation, give it all to Ducks Unlimited and the NRA and you'll have wetlands coming out of your ears.]
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:: Max 9:57 PM [+] ::
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Rare Numerical Convergence? Hardly
Drudge has just noted that today at both 05:05:05 AM and PM will be 05/05/005 05:05:05 AM/PM, an event that only happens once every thousand years! I guess he finds it less notable that 05/05/2005 at 05:05:05 AM/PM happens only once in all eternity...remarkable.
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:: Max 5:05 PM [+] ::
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Germans Playing With Fire
Davids Medienkritic has a revolting report on German Labor magazine metall's protrayal of American businessmen as bloodsucking parasites. The not-so-veiled antisemetic bitch-slap harkens back to the good old days in prewar Germany when the brownshirts, jacked-up up on the Hitler's maniacle rantings, were planning Krystalnacht. Here's a little quote from the madman himself. After reading it, hop on over to Medienkritic for a little compare and contrast. Bear in mind that the magazine Metall is a main-stream, contemporary, German trade publication while this quote is from the 30s:"The Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end.......spying on the unsuspicious German girl he plans to seduce..........He wants to contaminate her blood and remove her from the bosom of her own people. The Jew hates the white race and wants to lower its cultural level so that the Jews might dominate."
"Was there any form of filth or crime...without at least one Jew involved in it. If you cut even cautiously into such a sore, you find like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light - a Jew."
Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf
As the highly socialized German economy stalls and unemployment rises, labor looks for a scapegoat and of course, surprise, it's all America's fault (read evil Zionist plot).
Had the Germans faced up to the Holocaust instead of burying it deeply in their collective subconscious, maybe the spector of anti-semitism and demented zenophobia might have been averted. Look for more of this shameful rubbish as their "economy" sputters into recession.
[Note to POTUS--Pull ALL of the US troops out of Germany NOW]
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:: Max 4:45 PM [+] ::
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Is the Afghan Burka Band for real?:: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 ::
We link, you decide. Here's their soon to be chart-topping, hit single Burka Blue. Via Jeff Jarvis [>]
[oh geez, now I can't get the damn thing out of my head...]
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:: Max 7:35 AM [+] ::
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New Blog Alert:: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 ::
Roger L. Simon digs this brilliant jewel out of the blogosphere dirt: Syria Exposed (bookmark it).
The blogs really are having a major impact on the political climate of the planet. I hope the people at Syria Exposed can keep it up--it's tremendously important.
[somebody get these guys a sponser or two--blogging's hard work and dangerous business if you happen to live in Syria]
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:: Max 10:27 PM [+] ::
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Workarounds and the Poetry of Data
I dropped in to Jeff Jarvis and he pointed me to Matt McAlister who's engineered a really notable news-aggregating hack. However, in scanning McAlister's site, I also noticed his precient observation that Firefox usage was eroding Explorer's usage on his site's traffic logs. Given Microsoft's death-grip on the browser, this is a fascinating statistic that deserves broader coverage. I guess savy bloggers like McAlister are more suited to such tasks than the local newspaper's tech columnist. This is just another instance where MSM seems so inept and distant from the mosh-pit that is the blogosphere. I mean, why haven't I read this in my newspaper? [oh, forgot...I don't read the newspaper anymore].
It's a jillion little epiphanies like this, by a jillion free-agents that continues to inflate the blogosphere to such unimagined proportions--was there once a time without a blogosphere?! I can't even imagine it now, I really can't.
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:: Max 10:29 PM [+] ::
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Volker's a pig...
...and the UN is a pigstye. Go roll in the pigsh*t here [>]
Paul Volker is one of GWB's greatest mistakes. [Think maybe Colin Powell made the recommendation? Just asking (oink).]
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:: Max 9:48 PM [+] ::
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This looks really interesting (and timely)::: Sunday, May 01, 2005 ::
World Premier, Royal Opera House London Opening May 3rd, 2005, An Opera in Two Acts: George Orwell's 1984
Conductor Lorin Maazel on "political correctness": "Just the fact that we accept this term demonstrates how far we've gone..."
I look forward to the left's total and complete misinterpretation of the Opera as an obvious statement against America. Socialists--they're so predictable (and clueless).
Via No Pasaran [>]
Update: Via Wonkette's father: [Whitehouse Press Corps] "just let Bush roll over them. We would be better off with no reporters - at least we would all know that it was government pap. 1984."
Clueless I tell you, clueless...
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:: Max 8:55 PM [+] ::
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The "nuisance" of France
The meddlesome, perfidious and breathtakingly corrupt Jacques Chirac is quickly driving the Gallic empire into a ruinous state. If you're looking for a succinct historical overview of the trainwreck that is now France, Denis Boyles' quick little read "Vile France--Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice and Cheese" is a good place to start:"What we mistakenly see as a craven, anti-Semitic, insecure, hypocritical, hysterically anti-American, selfish, overtaxed, culturally exhausted country, bereft of ideas, fearful of its own capitulation to Islam, headed for demographic cul de sac, corrupted by lame ideologies, clinging to unsupportable entitlements, cripled by a spirit-stomping social elite and up to its neck in a cheesey souffle of multilayered bureaucracy is actually worse all that. It's vile."
And if that's not enough to sate your craving for a little shadenfreud, David Pryce-Jones's "special report": "Jews, Arabs and French Diplomacy" in the current issue of Commentary is also a must read. Get it from Powerline [>]
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:: Max 11:08 AM [+] ::
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Got Firefox?
I've been alternating between Explorer and Firefox for about a month now and still can't decide which browser I prefer. Assuming for a moment that Firefox is a more secure environment, and if pressed on the issue I'd probably choose Mozilla over Microsoft. In any case, If you're a Firefox user, here's a nifty config tweak via Lifehacker.
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:: Max 9:41 AM [+] ::
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Into the deepest, darkest recesses of cyberspace...
One Man Safari gets his game...
Via BoingBoing [>]
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:: Max 12:57 AM [+] ::
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