Lynne Cheney Reams Wolf Blitzer a Secondary Asshole -- One He Didn't Realize He Needed

I have been gone the past few days on a birthday jaunt, squired into another state by my beauteous fiance. She ensconced me into a pricey suite at the 8,000 foot level in Nevada, at The Ridge, where she also acquired for me a 90-minute deep tissue massage and various other birthday "gifts." We enjoyed two indoor and outdoor hot tubs on our own floor, with a generous and breath-taking view of the Carson Valley some 5,000 feet below (see above). She took me to a teppan-yaki restaurant where the chefs slice, dice, and create massive fireballs at your table.



It was simply overwhelming. I am so in debt to her kindness.

In the meantime, of course, politics occurred unassailed by the BZ. Please forgive my absence.

It is apparent that Lynne Cheney managed to take apart the CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer, he of the white and clearly senior beard and glasses, following his attempt to back-door her when the point of the interview was to review her children's book. Remarkably, however, Wolf managed to immediately detour the interview from her book to her husband to the Bush Regime and Iraq.

Perhaps a lesser woman would have melted; Dr. Cheney, instead, took Blitzer's Insurgent Propaganda and managed to ram that large pike directly into his own tight heterosexual rectum:


WB: Democrats are now complaining bitterly in this Virginia race. George Allen using novels, novels that Jim Webb, his Democratic challenger, has written, in which there are sexual references. And they’re making a big deal out of this. I want you to listen to what Jim Webb said today in responding to this very sharp attack from George Allen.
LC: Now do you promise, Wolf, that we’re going to talk about my book?
WB: I do promise.
LC: Because this seems to me a mighty long trip around the merry-go-round
WB: I want you to respond. This is in the news today, and your name has come up, so that’s why we’re talking about it. But listen to this:
James Webb: There’s nothing that’s been in any of my novels that in my view, hasn’t been either illuminating the surroundings, or defining a character, or moving a plot. I’m a serious writer. I mean, we can go and read Lynne Cheney’s lesbian love scenes if you want to, you know, get graphic on stuff.
LC: You know, Jim Webb is full of baloney. I have never written anything sexually explicit. His novels are full of sexually explicit references to incest, sexually explicit references…well, you know, I just don’t want my grandchildren to turn on the television set. This morning, Imus was reading from the novels, and it’s triple X rated.
WB: Here’s what the Democratic Party put out today, the Democratic Congressional Senatorial Campaign Committee. Lynne Cheney’s book featured brothels and attempted rape. In 1981, Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne, wrote a book called Sisters, which featured a lesbian love affair, brothels, and attempted rapes. In 1988, Lynne Cheney wrote about a Republican Vice President who dies of a heart attack while having sex with his mistress. Is that true?
LC: Nothing explicit. And actually, that is full of lies. It’s not…it’s just absolutely not true.
WB: But you did write a book entitled Sisters.
LC: I did write a book entitled Sisters. This description…
WB: And it did have lesbian characters.
LC: No, not necessarily. This description is a lie. I’ll stand on that.
WB: There is nothing in there about rapes and brothels?
LC: Wolf, Wolf, could we talk about a children’s book for a minute?
WB: We can talk about the children’s book. But I just wanted to…
LC: I think our segment is like 15 minutes long, and we’ve now done ten minutes, so…
WB: I just wanted to clarify what’s in the news today, give you a…
LC: Sex, lies and distortion. That’s what it is.
WB: This is an opportunity for you to explain on these sensitive issues.
LC: Wolf, I have nothing to explain. Jim Webb has a lot to explain.

Lynne Cheney started right off the bat and so did Wolf:

LC: You made a point last night of a man who had a bookstore in London, where radical Islamists gathered, who was in Afghanistan when the Taliban were there, who went to Pakistan. I think that you might be a little careful before you declare this as a person with clean hands.
WB: You’re referring to the CNN Broken Government special…
LC: I certainly am.
WB: This was the one that John King reported on last night.
LC: You know, right there, right there, Wolf. Broken Government. Now what kind of stance is that? Here we are, we’re a country where we have been mightily challenged over the past six years. We’ve been through 9/11. We’ve been through Katrina. The President and the Vice President inherited a recession. We’re a country where the economy is healthy. That’s not broken. This government has acted very well. We’ve had tax cuts that are responsible for our healthy economy. We’re a country that was attacked five years ago. We haven’t been attacked since. What this government has done is effective. That’s not broken government. So you know, I shouldn’t let media bias surprise me, but I worked at CNN once. I watched the program last night…
WB: You were a co-host of Crossfire.
LC: …and I was troubled.
WB: All right. Well, that was probably the purpose, to get people to think, to get people to discuss these issues, because there are a lot of conservatives…
LC: All right, all right, Wolf. I’m here to talk about my book. But if you want to talk about distortion…
WB: We’ll talk about your book.
LC: Right. But what is CNN doing running terrorist tape of terrorists shooting Americans? I mean, I thought Duncan Hunter asked you a very good question, and you didn’t answer it. Do you want us to win?
WB: The answer, of course, is we want the United States to win. We are Americans. There’s no doubt about that. You think we want terrorists to win?
LC: Then why are you running terrorist propaganda?
WB: With all due respect, with all due respect, this is not terrorist propaganda.
LC: Oh, Wolf…
WB: This is reporting the news, which is what we do. We’re not partisan…
LC: Where did you get the film?
WB: We got the film…look, this is an issue that has been widely discussed, this is an issue that we reported on extensively. We make no apologies for showing that. That was a very carefully considered decision, why we did that. And I think, and I think, of your…
LC: Well, I think it’s shocking.
WB: If you’re a serious journalist, you want to report the news. Sometimes the news is good, sometimes the news isn’t so good.
LC: But Wolf, there’s a difference between news and terrorist propaganda. Why did you give the terrorists a forum?

And not being a blogger or a radio host, she didn't press Wolf Blitzer when she should have:

WHERE DID YOU GET THE TAPE, WOLF?

WHERE DID YOU GET THE TAPE, WOLF?

WHERE DID YOU GET THE TAPE, WOLF?

He never answered.

And that should bespeak volumes.

A "little innocent woman" took his ass apart.

Wolf Blitzer wasn't even Man enough to say that "we got the film from the terrorists." LC has more balls than most all the collected men on the Democrats in the House.

BZ

Flags Of Our Fathers

I went to go see the film "Flags of our Fathers" today and found myself deeply moved. Some persons have quantified this film as "anti-American." I would completely disagree with that conclusion. I found it refreshingly realistic.


Clint Eastwood, still a major, major force in filmdom, directed the cinematic interpretation of the 2000 James Bradley book of the same name. In interviews the 76-year-old Eastwood has said:

As a young man I started out in a lot of action movies, but now I have reached that stage of life where I just felt it is time to address a lot of different things that are more important to me than fantasy characters."

"It is important to realize that war is a futile exercise at best. It doesn't speak so well for mankind that we keep on having wars, but we have had wars since the beginning of mankind. I don't have the answer."

And keep on having wars shall we do. Despite this, Eastwood has created an emotional, jarring, realistic and factual film about a different time, a different age, a different generation whose power brokers, in my opinion, did the right things for the right reasons. That is to say, "considering the alternatives."

The film focuses on three of the raisers of the second flag over Iwo Jima: Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon and John "Doc" Bradley (father of the author of the book). Photographer Joe Rosenthal happened to be in the right place at the right time in order to snap "the" photo of World War II.

The movie, more than the book, attempts to make something of the propaganda war effort behind taking these three men back from the Japanese theatre and placing them smack dab into a massive war bond effort -- an effort to raise more money from the civlian populace to produce more bombs, bullets, ships and aircraft for the war.

But this, in truth, should come as no shock to anyone familiar with history; the Germans were Masters of Propaganda (Joseph Goebbels sound familiar?) as were the Russians and certainly every country these days.

In fact, Goebbels had the title of Reichsminister for Propaganda and National Enlightenment. He wrote of his Principles of Propaganda:

1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.

2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.
a. It must issue all the propaganda directives.
b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale.
c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences

3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.

4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.
a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence
b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions
c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself
d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity

5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign

6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.

7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.

8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.

9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.

10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective.

11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.

12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.

13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.
a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.
b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment
c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness

14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.
a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses
b. They must be capable of being easily learned
c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations
d. They must be boomerang-proof

15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.

16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.
a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat
b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves

17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.
a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated
b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective

18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.

19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.

In America this was nothing new; following their successful completion of a 25-mission series, the crew of the Memphis Belle found themselves likewise returned to the US to make a public tour of the nation and a 1944 documentary. The US needed conspicuous heroes and the crew exemplified heroism.

The movie was effective and factual; for those unaware of the effort behind the effort and the personal toll that war takes, it will be relevatory. For me, it was decent storytelling and wonderful cinematography -- the producers being not only Clint Eastwood but Steven Spielberg as well -- many of the beach and land scenes reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan.

Despite this, I do not feel Eastwood's effort is an anti-American film.

It is simply a story that can be told and is being told -- but something that should come as no shock to those familiar with history.

In war, there is always a toll. War is Hell. Make no mistake. But I still feel that, in the overall context, we did what we needed to do, in WWII, because we needed to do it when we needed to do it. And that includes the dropping of two atomic bombs. Truman made the right decision. Sacrifice two cities in Japan, or commit hundreds and hundreds of thousands of American and allied troops to death by making a beachhead and air assault on the nation of Japan.

In retrospect, having years and years to think of alternatives I conclude: there was no alternative. And no right thinking American can believe there was any alternative. Without that sole decision I submit we'd be speaking German or Japanese to this day.

Easy Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

BZ

P.S.
We would do well to read Goebbels. Our enemies certainly are.

Why Liberals Love Islam And Their Uncovered Meat; Why We Need "Smileys"

Lucky that Islam, the religion of peace and, moreover, understanding, has decided that women who are raped absent a hajib (see immediate left) are asking this act to be committed upon them. From The Bangkok Post:

Al-Hilali likened unveiled women to "uncovered meat" in a fasting month sermon in Arabic to 500 worshippers at Sydney's biggest mosque.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem," he said.

Al-Hilali told the congregation he leads that a woman who stayed home and was veiled would be safe from sexual assault. "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hajib (veil), no problem would have occurred."

This comment has become an issue because a number of teenage Australian girls were subjected to hours of sexual degradation during a spate of gang rapes in Sydney that occurred between 1998 and 2002. The suspects in these assaults framed their rationale in ethnic terms, the young victims being informed that they were “sluts” and “Aussie pigs” while they were being hunted down and raped.

As a result of the above comments by Al-Hilali, Australians and Prime Minister John Howard have reacted strongly:

"They are appalling and reprehensible comments," Prime Minister John Howard said. "The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous."

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward accused Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali of inciting sexual assault by excusing the perpetrators while blaming the victims. She said the Egyptian-born Mufti of Australia should be deported. "It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise," Goward said of the leader of Australia's 350,000 Muslims. "I think it's time he left."

From FrontPage magazine:

In Australia's New South Wales Supreme Court in December 2005, a visiting Pakistani rapist testified that his victims had no right to say no, because they were not wearing a headscarf.

And earlier this year Australians were outraged when Lebanese Sheik Faiz Mohammed gave a lecture in Sydney where he informed his audience that rape victims had no one to blame but themselves. Women, he said, who wore skimpy clothing, invited men to rape them.

But these ideas didn't begin in Australia.

Fjordman, in his "Blog about Islam, Scandanavian Affairs and Global Politics writes:

Numbers released in January 2005 indicate a sharp rise in the number of rape charges in Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city:

Alarmed at last week's police statistics, which revealed that in 68% of all rapes committed this year the perpetrator was from an ethnic minority, leading Muslim organisations have now formed an alliance to fight the ever-growing problem of young second and third-generation immigrants involved in rape cases against young Danish girls.

The German journalist Udo Ulfkotte told in a recent interview that in Holland, you can now see examples of young, unveiled Moroccan women with a so-called "smiley". It means that the girl gets one side of her face cut up from mouth to ear, serving as a warning to other Muslim girls who should refuse to wear the veil. In the Muslim suburb of Courneuve, France, 77 per cent of the veiled women carry veils reportedly because of fear of being harassed or molested by Islamic moral patrols.

Clearly, Muslims seem to perceive that many Western Cultures dress and portray themselves precisely as the above illustration to the left -- making them, naturally, subject to whatever resulting "justice" and "incidents" occur.

Do the Logical Extension.

By deciding that you will, for example, vote Democratic and embrace the overturning of the Patriot Act, the abandonment of Iraq, the gutting of call and internet monitoring, the elimination of waterboarding (which I shall freely admit I believe occurs) -- well, you have or you will ensure that Islam comes closer and closer to guiding your life in America. That is, if you happen to survive the CBN event that will result.

It stuns me to think that the very persons who speak of "understanding Islam" and according an attorney to every Islamist captured are those who would first be eliminated under Sharia law. What part of "the United States is a corrupt and secular society and should be completely destroyed" don't you get? How many times do Militant Islamists have to tell this to your face -- literally?

For certainly American women deserve to be raped, do they not? And American women deserve to be the recipients of "smileys," do they not?

A "smiley." Holy Mother of God.

How ignorant can you be?

BZ

Is It The Economy, Stupid?

My ass has been up past my shoulders in alligators, anacondas and reticulated pythons at work. Ever have one of those weeks? This is mine.

In the meantime, the race is on and the Republicans are losing, the Democrats are winning, the Democrats are kicking our butts, no they're not, yes they are, look at this poll, look at that poll. And the economy, Omigod, the economy is absolutely crashing and has been crashing under the Evil Dictator Bush.

Actually, no it's not.

Many people, and certainly most Demoncats, er, Democrats, agree readily that the finest economy ever experienced by this nation was under the Clinton Administration -- finer than at any time in American history (do you see where my tongue is placed?).

And yet, despite that, please compare the finest economy ever in the history of the United States with that of the Evil Dictator Bush.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an average of roughly 3.7% under Clinton. Anything over 3% is considered good, and anything 4% or above is considered excellent. Under EDB, the economy is just about where it was during the best of the Clinton years. And that despite two massive events: first, the bursting of the stock market when most every "dot.com" you can think of tanked. Then, of course, 9/11/2001. That one day was responsible for almost the near-collapse of our entire domestic commercial air industry. Everything took a hit; many people curled into the fetal position and spending came to a lurching halt.

What about unemployment? What about that most heinous of accusations: "It's a jobless economy!" Really? Look above.

Note the hit right around -- you guessed it, 9/11. Things peaked at around 6.0 in 2003, and the unemployment rate now is just above 4%. That's a hair above the finest unemployment level during the president with the most ethical administration ever.

What about inflation? During the most stellar administration ever, inflation got down to around 1.6% in 1998. Frankly, darned decent. But also recall that President Bush stepped into a recession that he acquired from -- guess who?

So, I would posit: it IS terrorism; it IS immigration. But it is ALSO the economy and, clearly, it's NOTHING like what is portrayed in the DEM: the Defeatist, Elitist Media.

In Fornicalia, what's the first thing the Democratic candidate, Phil Angelides, would do? Raise billions of dollars in taxes. Our onerous registrations fees would reoccur. And more. He's said precisely that; it's no secret.

What do you think will occur under a Democratic House, Senate and Presidency? Will they continue tax cuts? Or will taxes increase? Will the military increase, or will it be cut? Will the mantra of "either we attack Islamists on their shores or we'll fight on our shores" continue? Or will we abandon Iran and encourage another Khmer Rouge where millions more will die?

Is it the economy? It is; and more.

BZ

Memories On A Sunday

My five-year-old father, in 1925, sits with his brother Jim in front of their home at 5509 Holmes Street in Kansas City, Missouri.

Here, my eight-year-old father, Richard, stands with his younger brother Jim in front of their 1928 Dallas, Texas home.

Memories from another time.

I sit in reflection of my last two posts and I couldn't help but think of some of the more memorable points when I was a child. Here will follow some of my favorite memories.

I would ask that you, in the comments section, reminisce and write about some of your favorite times as a child.

What are YOUR favorite memories?

My father, in the military, was frequently gone on trips to WPAFB and to the Pentagon when I was younger. Mom and Dad would leave me with my grandparents in downtown Sacratomato.

My most memorable times were at my Grandparents' house. They had a two story home at 2526 27th Street. How simple does that address get if you're a child? My grandfather (on my mother's side) originally owned many acres around his home, which was originally built by his wife's father. I never met Little Grandma; but my older brothers did.

Wait. Do you recall the original phone numbers? Grandma's phone number was GL55483. That meant Gladstone 55483. My original number was Ivy95253. Does this resonate with anyone?

My favorite memories are these:

Going to Grandma's house; having her cook lamb; getting actual butter; sleeping in the upstairs bedroom in a bed twice as big as my own; having stairs to climb; having a fig tree in the back yard to climb and fall from; having next door neighbors like Glenn and Cecil and seeing their DeSoto in the garage; climbing the huge redwood in Grandma's yard and getting past the vast amounts of sap so that I could see over the downtown area; riding my pushy-cart up and down the sidewalks (which we never had in the county) and exploring some distance past Grandma's house; watching Grandma have a dish of peaches and some cottage cheese for lunch; having the entire family over to watch the yearly Wizard of Oz on Grandma's TV and then, even better, realizing that The Wizard of Oz (when she upgraded) wasn't just in black and white; it had some color parts too!

There are so many, so many, many more memories than these when I was a child.

I am comforted by these movies in my mind.

What are your memories on a Sunday when YOU were a child?

BZ

How Did We Do It?

You've seen them plastered all over the net; in concert with yesterday's post I found another internet treat addressing this very same issue with some salient comments intermixed.

If you are in your 40s and 50s, considering today's pampered and coddled children never allowed to fail, don't you wonder how you managed to survive your childhood?

Yeah, me neither.

Consider:

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our cribs were painted with lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our pushbikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick-up on a warm day was a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hoses and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drink with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING.

We would leave home in the morning, play all day and, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on, despite no one being able to reach us all day, we were fine.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times,we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 399 channels on cable, no videotaped movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms -- we had friends, and we went outside and found them.

I bought green plastic soldiers and made wars all over the back yard; headquarters was a cardboard box. The grass was the ocean. I was popular because I had all the Tonka and Matchbox and Dinky cars and trucks.

Myself and the local kids would go down to the Metropolitan Army Navy store at the corner of Fair Oaks and Marconi on our bikes, buy our green helmet liners, web belts, canteens, shovels, ammo pouches, boots, and then ride to Ancil Hoffman park with our plastic handguns and plastic rifles and shoot the crap out of each other, roll down hills, clutch our chests, then argue over who was dead and who wasn't, who got shot and who didn't.

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

If one mother said one thing, it was like our own mother said it. We knew when we were in trouble. We knew the moment it happened one mother was telephoning the other -- and we were in the Doghouse.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, paste from the jar, and no one died.

We were given catapults for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

All the kids in the neighborhood couldn't wait for late winter, when we could pull up the long green weeds in the field behind our houses and have dirt clod wars.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

We built go karts out of Briggs & Stratton engines, and mini-bikes out of the same engines. Pat Green and I built a mini-bike with an engine that had no brakes but we could disengage the clutch; we used our feet to stop.

Our school teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

• Failure is normal; success is the exception.
• Then came the government;
• Then came regulations;
• Then came the hordes of attorneys;
• Then came the lawsuits;
• Then came the "educators;"

And I would posit: what have we created? Are our children better for all of this, are they better equipped to take on a world economy and world competition?

Many of you are parents: I'd like your answer.

BZ

Playing Tag Can KILL

Thank God that, despite these tumultuous times when up is down, white is black, wrong is right, there are still some educators in these United States with an amount of common sense, perspective and proportion.

And despite it being Teddy's state, Massachusetts has clearly set itself to take the lead in terms of childrens' safety:

An elementary school south of Boston has outlawed traditional recess chase games such as tag because they're deemed too rough for kids.

Concerned educators at Willett Elementary School in Attleboro, Mass., are trying to quash unsupervised contact games on the playground out of fear that injured children could hold the school liable.

The risk of children running into each other prompted principal Gaylene Heppe to approve the tag ban, calling recess "a time when accidents can happen."

Let us be thankful for principals such as Geylene Heppe, having the mandate from parents and her surrounding community to consider the overall welfare of the children who, left unto themselves, would proceed with such over-the-top games such as Tag itself, and possibly others as heinous as Whip The Line, Four Square, Tetherball and (gulp!) Hopscotch.

This would also be an overarching point to consider, luckily having been addressed in Fornicalia:

In 2002, a Santa Monica school banned unsupervised tag because officials felt it not only led to physical injuries, but could also create emotional injuries and self-esteem problems for the weaker or slower kids.

With luck, saving our childrens' sensitive egos can only be a growing national trend.

THE FALLOUT FROM THIS TREND:

Now back to reality; after all, you didn't think I'd bite on this tripe, did you?

What is next for American children? Shall we raise them in the humid loam of basements with dark lights like mushrooms? Then they'll not come in contact with much of anything -- but certainly they won't be injured.

We've managed to eliminate Dodgeball. We've now eliminated Tag from many schools. There are even, if you can believe it, new schools extant and under construction which do NOT contain any playgrounds whatsoever. Parents are asking: when do you build the playgrounds? Answer from the contractor and the school district admin staff: never.

Are we insane? Have we lost our minds? Do we have any concept whatsoever as to what we are doing to our upcoming generations?

All in the name of that Money Monster called "liability" and, to a lesser degree, "esteem."

But money will win over esteem any day.

And I submit this: it's all about the vaginification and pussification of our current generation of little boys. Many educators, most of them women, will not be happy or satisfied until little boys become precisely like little girls: quiet, verbal, demure, obedient, inactive.

Which is why little boys are being medicated at a higher rate than at any other time in our history, by Ritalin and other drugs, why ADD is a "rampant epidemic."

Little boys don't need Ritalin; ADD isn't an "epidemic." We just have a staff of "educators," mostly women, who don't have the patience or the inclination to deal with the base nature of boys. And these "educators" will not be happy until little boys have been completely feminized.

Little boys NEED recess. They NEED contact and running and yelling and movement. It is the very nature of The Beast. It was my nature. It was the nature of anyone raised in the late 1950s and 1960s.

We were told by both our mothers and our fathers: shake it off. Stop that crying. Get up and walk it off. And we did.

Recess and games and active play are mandatory for little boys. I can remember coming back from recess, in elementary school, dripping with sweat. Educators then were smart enough to realize that little boys and, to an extent, little girls needed to vent all that pent-up anxious blood. We were kids; it's what we all needed.

And now, at a time when Esteem rules all, inactive children are more obese than ever, PE classes have been eliminated, and the outlets for the venting of little boys have been all but eliminated -- well, is it any wonder that little boys are finding themselves medicated in public schools more and more? And it won't stop at this point; it will only become worse.

But even more than that, let's do what I call the Logical Extension:

What kind of generations are we raising? How well are we preparing them for the Reality of not only these United States, but the realities of the World, a World Economy, and those assholes who would do us national harm simply because we are successful?

Whilst the Islamists become stronger, more determined, we are raising and encouraging generations to become weaker, more medicated, fatter, more inactive, less willing to engage in challenging thought: little whining, complaining male pussies.

I think this mother sums it all up:

Celeste D'Elia, a Willett Elementary School parent, said her son feels safer because of the new rule against tag. "I've witnessed enough near collisions," she said.

Oooh. How bad! "Near collisions"??!!?

Give me a fucking break.

BZ

Self Explanatory

BZ

Corruption: One Small Recommendation

There is rampant corruption in American politics.

And clearly there are problems with money and politicians -- with both the Dems and the GOP. The corruption is endemic on both sides of the aisle and no one party can claim it's impervious to the corruptive forces of cash or cash and lobbyists.

There are two types of corruption: there is moral corruption and there is financial corruption. Despite the FACT that Foley committed no crime (unlike Democratic Senator Gerry Studds) he is excoriated in the DEM press and is the Devil incarnate -- and has been for weeks, I might add.

On the other hand, following his passing on October 14th, former House Democratic leader Gerry Studds was lionized in his New York Times obituary as a "Gay Pioneer." Equitable, do you think?

Studds was censured in 1983 for having sex with a 17-year-old male congressional intern. His act was overt and illegal. Studd's himself called the act a "very serious error in judgment."

Foley's act was with text messages to a former page over 18 -- scummy, inappropriate and clearly wrong in any case -- but Foley did not have sex with him, consensual or otherwise. With the name Foley I see the linked adjective "disgraced." I did not then nor now see that word associated with Studds.

Both the acts on Studds's and Foley's part were horribly wrong; Foley may be but Studds was a sexual predator. But you already know my point.

Moral corruption aside, another current point purposely underplayed by the DEM are the fiscally-corruptive issues of Democrat Harry Reid --regarding properties and Christmas bonuses. A screaming silence here.

But all is not lost for I have two solutions; the first is simple, expeditious and can be backed with a second suggestion which will mandate (and here's why the DEM won't go for it) that the Mainstream Media "put up or shut up."

First:

Limit all campaign contributions to no more that $100. Period. End of statement. No contributions can be accepted from corporations. Individual living persons only. If you truly do have a "mandate from the people" then the people shall speak with their individual pocketbooks and their votes.

Second:

The Mainstream Media will provide, for television, airtime on their channels for individual candidates' political statments and debates; this airtime will be credited towards television's federal PSA (Public Service Announcement) licensed mandate. For the print media, they shall provide column inches, as another public service to the country and community, for same.

You, of course, realize that neither shall happen. Just wistful thinking.

But wouldn't it be wonderful? And wouldn't it solve an entire host of issues?

Heavy sigh.

BZ

The Bush Admin Gets It Wrong Again?

Thanks to Rebecca for the "heads-up:"

Go to this site first: Yoni's Blog.

From Rebecca:

If the Bush admin is helping the Palestinians this way it is wrong. Jews will die as a result and who knows if they will use the weapons we give them to topple Hamas? What if they use the stuff we give them to topple the Jews? Democracy in the Middle East spreading is a great idea, but when it comes to who we are dealing with it may end up being a pipe dream. I also agree that it is a "make-believe" mindset to think that there could ever be peace between the Palestinians and the Jews. But, that is my opinion, and evidently it is Yoni's as well.

So, let's examine this on its face.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Palestinians deserve to live better than they do and be "free of the humiliation of occupation" in a state of their own.

"I promise you my personal commitment to that goal," Rice said at a dinner marking the third anniversary of the American Task Force on Palestine.

"There could be no greater legacy for America," Rice told the group, which describes itself as nonpartisan and supportive of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.

"The Palestinian people deserve a better life ... free of the humiliation of occupation," she said.

Rice has made five trips to the region as secretary of state, looking for ways to promote President George W. Bush's advocacy of a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Yoni The Blogger said:

This woman is STUPID.

The Palestinians are the Nazi's of today they don't deserve anything more than a harsh war fought with no quarter given to them.

Rice saying this makes as much sense as saying the KKK deserves to be free of the humiliation of occupation of the USA by normal people so that they can be free to spread their filth and hate.

I'm with Yoni on this one. The Palestinians have made their points clearer than crystal: there can be no Jewish State. And certainly there can be no Jewish State even remotely close to their own. That would be a massive mistake.

In my opinion, it would be a Massive Mistake to lend ANY credence to what the Palestinians want.

If their wants and desires were so incredibly important (and let there be NO MISTAKE about my thoughts on this matter), then various Middle Eastern factions would have designated and accounted for a Palestinian State amongst their millions of acres.

If a soulful Palestine was a priority then Muslims in control would have provided their own territories for this necessary accommodation.

But Muslim countries didn't volunteer an INCH of land.

That bespeaks volumes in and of itself.

Yoni is right.

And Condi is wrong. Flat-ass wrong.

BZ

Muslims Begin to Set the Rules In the US

It's already occurring.

What? you might ask. That could never occur on domestic United States soil.

Get over it; it's here and it's now. Muslims are dictating to our sovereign citizens what will or will not occur.

You may not be aware but there is a numerically-large contingent of Muslims in Minnesota -- of all places. And in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area local Muslim cabbies have decided they will not transport those persons they believe have alcohol with them.

Cabdriver Muhamed Mursal doesn't wear his Muslim beliefs on his sleeve, but he soon may broadcast them via a light on top of his cab.

Mursal and hundreds of other Muslim cabdrivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport refuse to take travelers they know are carrying alcohol. No one is searching bags, but a Napa Valley wine box or a see-through bag from the duty-free store can be enough to leave a fare waiting for the next cab. Airport officials estimate that happens at least three times a day.

There is clearly strength in numbers and the Muslim community in general certainly realizes this. USA Today cites:

Minneapolis-St. Paul is concerned that its taxi service is deteriorating. Citing their religious beliefs, some Muslim taxi drivers from Somalia are refusing to transport customers carrying or suspected of carrying alcohol. It started with one driver a few years ago, but the average number of fare refusals has grown to about three a day, says airport spokesman Patrick Hogan. "Travelers often feel surprised and insulted," he says. "Sometimes, several drivers in a row refuse carriage."

Minneapolis-St. Paul is wondering how to accommodate the drivers.

Really?

Here is how you accommodate the drivers who refuse certain fares:

You fire them and hire others.

From PipelineNews.org:

By Beila Rabinowitz
September 19, 2006 - San Francisco, CA -
PipeLineNews.org - In another sign of increasing Muslim intolerance in the U.S., Islamic taxi drivers - primarily of Somali extraction - at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport are refusing to accept fares whom they suspect of possibly transporting alcohol.

Recent changes at the terminal have proved a boon for the drivers, forcing passengers to use the ubiquitous taxis to get around within the confines of the airport making them ripe for exploitation.

Another angle is that such discrimination by Muslim drivers might make it possible for them to weed out the low fare inter-terminal travelers from those wishing to travel outbound at substantially higher fees, thus assigning themselves all the longer distance fares while the infidels are taking the short ones.

Why airport officials have caved to the unreasonable religious demands of an extremist minority is puzzling but the involvement of the Muslim American Society - an Islamist group whose name pretty much denotes their ultimate intent - in this process may help explain it, MAS being adept at injecting itself into such controversies and always on the side of the extension of Sharia into mainstream America.

Airport spokesman Patrick Hogan though unwilling to tackle the issue head-on, did at least give lip service to the image problem this was causing the airport "Travelers often feel surprised and insulted...Sometimes, several drivers in a row refuse carriage."

Partially addressing the obvious inequities in such behavior, airport authorities are now forcing those who have refused a fare because of the alcohol issue to go to the end of the line in the taxi queue.

Reports have claimed that a system of roof lights might be proposed by the airport as early as today with the idea that for instance a yellow light would indicate a taxi willing to take a fare carrying alcohol whereas one having a red light would not.

So. How much shall we accommodate Muslims in this country? Where will this end? A refusal to carry blind persons with Seeing Eye dogs? No pork in containers? A search of the potential fare? A series of questions about one's political leanings? Or perhaps a complete refusal of all those who refuse to adhere to Sharia law?

And what shall be the terms of our national surrender?

BZ

Thursday's Post for Friday

I was conspicuously absent on Thursday and a good portion of today. That was because I took my father and my fiance on a trip to Apple Hill, in the foothill country of Fornicalia above the Sacratomato Valley. Autumn is the perfect time to visit Apple Hill and its ranches.

Apple Hill lies at about the 3,500 foot level and consists of a number of farms and ranches that produce apples, pears, wines and, oddly enough, one really good beer. I'll get to that in a moment.

I took Thursday off and picked up Dad. We drove his Maxima up Highway 50 to the Camino offramp and so began our Apple Hill journey. First stop: High Hill Ranch.

We took in the various crafts booths; I purchased a fabulous print from Robert Foster, and Dad and my fiance consumed some apple pie a-la-mode. Smiles abounded. I purchased the print "Bearspective" and had it signed by the artist. Check out his site -- fabulous artwork!

They took in some wine tasting at the Lava Cap Winery vineyard, and we drove to the Jack Russell Brewery where I purchased two packs of dog brew and a dimple mug.

We concluded the day with three orders of ribs at Poor Reds in El Dorado County. Poor Reds pours more Galliano than anywhere in the continental United States -- and they are proud of that fact, via their Golden Cadillacs drinks.

When you enter the bar, the light hurts the eyes of those at the bar and you must soothe their savage souls. Buying a drink or two usually massages sufficiently -- as long as you buy yourself a Golden Cadillac as well -- which arrives in the form of a wide martini glass and another backup glass as well. It's as though you've ordered a massive milkshake and acquired the metal mixing glass. You couldn't be more fortunate.

Folks: don't do this at home. Only Poor Reds mixes Golden Cadillacs like this.

If you're lucky you've arrived sufficiently early for dinner. If you're after 6 PM you're hosed. You must wade three-deep to the bar for help. And you must fight for the ribs that fall off the rack and the baked potato and the salad with your choice of dressings -- in a dimly-lighted area insufficient for most nominal bathrooms.

But that's the way it is at Poor Reds.

Today Chris and I mixed and poured more concrete for the vertical posts.

I already took my Ibuprofen. I'll be taking some in an hour or so.

I checked out "Gridiron Gang" last night with my fiance and was impressed. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a remarkably versatile actor. And quite impressive.

BZ

Korea Redux And Jimmy

From the Associated Press:

North Korea stoked regional tensions Wednesday, threatening more nuclear tests and saying additional sanctions imposed on it would be considered an act of war, as nervous neighbors raced to bolster defenses and punish Pyongyang.

South Korea said it was making sure its troops were prepared for atomic warfare, and Japan imposed new economic sanctions to hit the economic lifeline of the communist nation's 1 million-member military, the world's fifth-largest.

North Korea, in its first formal statement since Monday's claimed atomic bomb test, hailed the blast as a success and said attempts by the outside world to penalize North Korea with sanctions would be considered an act of war.

Further pressure will be countered with physical retaliation, the North's Foreign Ministry warned in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Then, the Bush Administration indicated:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion.

Rice told CNN that President Bush has told the North Koreans that "there is no intention to invade or attack them. So they have that guarantee -- I don't know what more they want."

But she also said that the decision by Pyongyang to go ahead with its nuclear program means it likely will see "international condemnation and international sanctions unlike anything that they have faced before."

You may not be aware, but there are still over 29,000 US soldiers stationed in South Korea, following the 1953 end of the Korean War. US Army General B. Bell, commander of our forces in South Korea, responded to the threat from North Korea:

Be assured that the alliance has the forces necessary to deter aggression, and should deterrence fail, decisively defeat any North Korean attack against South Korea. U.S. forces have been well- trained to confront nuclear, biological and chemical threats."

Japan is considering additional sactions as well:

National Public Safety Commission Chairman Kensei Mizote said following an emergency security meeting late Wednesday that the government had decided to impose additional sanctions, including a total ban on North Korean vessels.

Of course, due to the nature of the history of the Framed Agreement and the questions regarding Jimmy Carter's role in 1994 when send "behind the scenes" by then-President Clinton, Mr. Carter took it upon himself to write this wonderfully self-serving piece today, with some highlights noted below:

Responding to an invitation from President Kim Il-sung of North Korea, and with the approval of President Bill Clinton, I went to Pyongyang and negotiated an agreement under which North Korea would cease its nuclear program at Yongbyon and permit inspectors from the atomic agency to return to the site to assure that the spent fuel was not reprocessed. It was also agreed that direct talks would be held between the two Koreas.

But beginning in 2002, the United States branded North Korea as part of an axis of evil, threatened military action, ended the shipments of fuel oil and the construction of nuclear power plants and refused to consider further bilateral talks. In their discussions with me at this time, North Korean spokesmen seemed convinced that the American positions posed a serious danger to their country and to its political regime.

Responding in its ill-advised but predictable way, Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, expelled atomic energy agency inspectors, resumed processing fuel rods and began developing nuclear explosive devices.

Time out. Comments: Of course, Jimmy, how horrible is it that we had a president that would lower himself, actually deign to tell the truth about the nature of evil. So I suppose we should have, at that time, continued oil shipments, continued shipping them anything on their Nuclear Shopping List and continued having a nice chat, all the while knowing that Pyongyang just slammed a homer up the previous administration's butt?

And what's the deal, Jimmy, with the line about responding in an "ill advised" but "predictable" way? Predictable then moves "ill advised" into the "acceptable" category?

More:

What must be avoided is to leave a beleaguered nuclear nation convinced that it is permanently excluded from the international community, its existence threatened, its people suffering horrible deprivation and its hard-liners in total control of military and political policy.

Article tag line: "Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, is the founder of the Carter Center and the winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize." Change to read: "Jimmy Carter, universally thought to be the weakest functioning American president of the 20th century, wrote this article to reaffirm the remarkably high esteem unto which he holds himself as the final arbiter of what is proper for the World."

Carter oddly omits the part where North Korea cheated on every aspect of the deal the moment Carter turned back to his limo.

Everyone also conveniently omits the part where North Korea deals in and sells heroin and methamphetamine, and also how it has been systematically counterfeiting ONLY American currency ($100 bills) in such a way as to meet or exceed our printing capabilities.

Just thought everyone might like to know.

BZ

Credible Or Not?

From the WorldNetDaily:

North Korea threatens U.S. with nuke missile;
Official says Pyongyang will fire weapon unless Washington acts to resolve standoff.

Communist North Korea has threatened to fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. takes action to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

The unnamed North Korean official who issued the threat said the intent is to bring Washington to the negotiating table.

"We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," the official said yesterday. "That depends on how the U.S. will act."

The South Korean agency previously reported the North Korean official said that Pyongyang was willing to return to the negotiating table and quit its nuclear program if the U.S. takes "corresponding measures."

"The nuclear test is an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table," official said. "What we want is security of the (North), including guaranteeing our system."

Did the North Koreans detonate an actual nuclear device or not?

Do they mean this or not?

Why does Nancy Pelosi openly denigrate a US missile shield system?

BZ

The Meaning Of The Test

Everyone now knows that North Korea detonated a smaller nuclear device underground in defiance of the world community.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected a 4.2 magnitude tremor in North Korea at 10:35 local time (0135 GMT). The Japan Meteorological Agency said its data showed a tremor took place around Gifu, on the peninsula's northeast coast around 110 km (70 miles) from the Chinese border.

But what does it mean and what steps should be taken?

President Bush said the "United States condemns this provocative act." The UN security council met once already and will meet this afternoon; the UN prepares to review a US draft resolution. And no one on the security council has made any noise of support for North Korea. Oddly enough both China and Russia have condemned the test.

But there's more to the mix -- politics, naturally. South Korea, Taiwan, Japan -- are extremely concerned about this test because, of course, the likelihood of nuclear tipped missiles pointed in a given direction -- well, that direction will be at them -- and us as in US. North Korean missiles potentially targeted at Russia or China? Not a chance.

Kim Jong-il wants to force reunification with South Korea. And the only way to achieve this end is militarily. NK already invaded South Korea once and Seoul was demolished. KJi has an army of more than a million soldiers and they predominantly exist near the southern border. Would KJi think twice about going nuclear against the south? I am not confident he has the ability to understand the ramifications of such a move and that places him into the "beyond dangerous" category.

KJi's NK has a rancid economy and hundreds of thousands of his countrymen and women have perished due to starvation, executions and in "labor" camps. With North Korea now being, what, the 8th Nuclear Nation? -- and dying for cash, what is the "logical extension?" I fear the logical extension may be for NK to sell one of their upcoming nuclear devices to another rogue state or, worse, to terrorist factions such as al Qaeda, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority -- you name it.

What should be done?

Some will consider "economic sanctions" too harsh, due to the overall poor condition of the North Korean populace. I would suggest that is only a place to begin.

We should, in addition, make it clear that we are monitoring NK's airspace, and any missile sites indicating preparations for launch will be hit in a pre-emptive strike.

We should also make it clear that future missile launches, now that North Korea is a nuclear power, will be considered an active attempt at a nuclear strike against the surrounding states (more than likely South Korea) and perhaps even the United States, and will be met with military retaliation up to and possibly including a nuclear response.

And where is China in all of this?

I am unsure. I am, however, sure that China is doing its overt and covert best to ensure the diminishment of the United States; some believe that there will be a war between ourselves and China. We have sworn to defend Taiwan -- and China has sworn to bring Taiwan into line.

China wants to be the world Superpower and has expanded its military shockingly. It too is becoming not only a military powerhouse but an economic one and will, resultingly, more and more want to confront us not only in the petroleum market but with petroleum-producing nation-states. It has to; there is no other option. And do not think that it is not eyeballing the oil under Russia. A Russian/China link? Japan went to war with us when we limited their oil and steel. And China?

These are dangerous, dangerous times. But sooner or later we will have to fish or cut bait. How will we meet this clear and obvious threat and the overarching global threats?

BZ

Train Of Thought

On Sunday one usually leaves the day open for specific posts.

My muse ran from yard line to yard line and then to other places.

I did my wash today; I cleaned the deck and loaded wood into my interior rack. I then loaded more wood into the outside rack. I watched my Star Jasmine wind its tendrils towards other hanging pots and then towards the wood overhang.

I heard trains all day.

Sunday is a day of relaxation for me. I usually sleep in to 10 or 11 AM. I ended up doing the previous night's dishes. I then inserted some continuous DVDs. I am watching the Rome series from HBO, and the second season DVDs from Deadwood.

For the first time in at least six years, I somehow managed to light the pilot for my major source of heat on Friday morning. When the temperature dips to 36 degrees at night now, I at least have a source of HEAT.

I finished four fence holes this weekend. I hurt all over. I've taken Excedrin and Ibuprofen. I've thrown some beer in on top of that.

Life is going well for me; I have heat in terms of my pilot. I also have a clean shed and a refurbished hard drive and an inroad for my lower fents. I want to have my fence repaired before the rains commence. Two more weekends and I hope to have this accomplished.

For me, Winter means propane and heat and drifts and difficulties and wood and preparation. Do you have any goals before Winter?

BZ

Who Were They?

How many American five-star generals have existed?

Historically, this designation only occurred during World War II, as an answer to the horde of generals appointed by the German military, and as an answer and response to an American being responsible for the allied forces.

The German military designated so many generals in an attempt to make allied forces believe the great number of generals were required to control a much larger force -- a force the Germans did not have. Their numbers were a sham and a ruse to confuse.

But in truth, how many American designated five-star generals existed?

Initially, that 5-Star rank was to be called Field Marshal, but the designator was withdrawn due to its similarity to Germany's FeldMarshal. General George C. Marshall was the greatest objector to this designator -- due to his name.

The Army had four 5-Star generals:

- General George C. Marshall (see photo)
- General Douglas MacArthur
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower
- General Omar N. Bradley

The US Navy had four 5-Star Fleet Admirals to include:

- Admiral William D. Leahy
- Admiral Ernest J. King
- Admiral Chester Nimitz
- Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey

The United States Air Force (then the US Army Air Corps) had one:

- General Henry "Hap" Arnold

To his everlasting regret, Gen. George Smith Patton only acquired four stars.

The only rank above this would be a General of the Armies of the United States -- the highest military rank of all time, hands down -- beyond even that of Eisenhower.

To date, only George Washington and John J. Pershing have held this position.

BZ

Hard Work!

So here I am; finally clean, upstairs, and writing for my blog.

Today, the first of my three days off (I am lucky enough to work a 4/10 schedule), was spent at "hard labor." Hence I am not posting for Friday until late in the evening because I was, shall I say, "otherwise occupied" for the bulk of the day.

Some asshole in my community managed to back his dually pickup into my fence (I noted the dual acceleration tracks), breaking his taillights, and then left four of my fence posts broken. I can only hope that the damage to his truck ran into the millions of dollars but I suspect not.

In any event, in anticipation of winter approaching, I had to repair my fents (common spelling) but needed assistance. Finding same, he and I took two complete days over the past two weekends to merely demo the fents and attempt to dig out the concrete for the four broken posts.

I live at the 4,000 foot level in the Sierra Nevada mountains. All around me there was mining, hydraulic and otherwise -- to the tune that, earlier this year, a man living in his house, following some rains, was killed when, whilst watching TV downstairs in the living room, the entire floor collapsed beneath him into an extant mining pit sinkhole. Emergency responders were not even able to retrieve his body for two days until the site became manageable and more stable. He left behind a new wife, pregnant with their first child. It was so completely tragic.

And therein lies the problem: this area is rife with round rock mining tailings and worse. Yes, I live in the proverbial Red Dirt area. We tried to dig down over a number of hours and encountered first red dirt, then round rock cobble, then hard-assed clay. It rained over the past weekend so -- instead of what one might first think -- the rain only served to make the clay more determined and resolute against our two modern shovels and two breaker bars. One breaker bar was taller and damned near heavier than me.

I only had to excavate and remove four posts and their concrete footings. Four holes took me two weekends.

With help. Good help. No, great help. Inspired help. Fabulously welcomed help.

Man. Things like this remind me that not only am I not in Kansas anymore, but I'm not 25 anymore. Two guys pushing 60 -- yeah, we were raining sweat. We took some water breaks and shot some shit. But you know what?

We made four holes and we were proud of them.

Where's my Ibuprofen?

BZ

The Right Thing Done

This isn't a religion, it's certified insanity. There is nothing Godly at all, at all, about what Fred Phelps and his concomitant Bin of Certified Loons (FPBCL) do and say. Do you recall, these are the lovely persons from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, who take it upon themselves to appear at the funerals of our military personnel and announce and protest that their departed loved ones "have gone to Hell." Witness the above signs -- signs you'd see at the funeral of your loved one -- signs such as "God Sent The IEDs," "Thank God For Dead Soldiers," "Thank God For Maimed Soldiers."

There is almost nothing more despicable and condemnable than that. I actually find myself bereft of appropriate words to describe this group. If there were any group of individuals deserving to fry and twist in burning Hell, it is anyone even remotely connected to those who appeared at these funerals -- and of course the Supreme Devil himself, Phelps. I'm not providing any links to this asshole and his group of assholes -- you can do that yourself to your own diminishment. And it is clearly these (insert your favorite derogatory word here) who are responsible for lending credence to the Left that the Right consists of religious loons. These people are clearly insane and the best reason I can provide to justify abortion -- if they had been aborted.

Recall the five young girls killed in the Amish schoolhouse this Monday? Can you imagine this: the Phelps crew was planning to appear at that funeral and picket it. What?? For what possible reason did they think this a good idea??

Sick, sick, twisted, soulless, lacking any amount of humanity -- I'm out of words again.

For whatever reason I happened to be scanning the AM band last night and caught the Mike Gallagher show, where he guested the daughter of Fred Phelps, Shirley Phelps-Roper. I had the unfortunate displeasure to hear this absolutely insane, evil woman proclaim over the air that those poor children were not going to Hell, they were IN HELL because they were not Godly and did not adhere to the scriptures. "They did that to themselves," Roper quipped. In what possible way, ladies and gentlemen, can you even remotely feature the Amish not a good, decent or God-fearing segment of persons? What manner of person can say this, open their trash-hole and say this, and not feel this is so, so wrong?

Gallagher then offered one hour of his airtime in exchange for an agreement for the Phelps contingent not to appear at the Amish funeral. And Roper agreed.

Yes, I know you will say, it was nothing more than a radio stunt.

Stunt or not, if Roper keeps her word (and I remain unconvinced) and the funerals are unsullied by the presence of the Phelps' cult's evil, then it will have been worth it.

What an incredible, unmitigated plague and evil is this cult.

BZ

What You Do At Work

When you sit down to your keyboard at work and, for a moment, access the internet, are you being watched by your employer?

More and more, the answer would be a resounding "yes."

Is that wrong or is that right?

I'll go you one further: blogs require massive amounts of time. Anyone associated with a blog knows this clearly. Do you blog at home on your own time? Or do you waste the "company's" time by using their server and the computer at your desk?

Be honest. Do you?

Isn't the connection faster? Isn't it a matter of a modem vs. DSL or whatever connection your company embraces?

But what if there's more?

What if each and every keystroke were recorded by such a program, and each and every website you visited and each and every e-mail you sent were archived NOT at your home, but on a server at work?

The October 2006 issue of PC World features an ad on page 89 for Specter CNE which displays a banner reading: "RECORD EVERYTHING YOUR EMPLOYEES DO ON THE INTERNET."

A few minutes a day of personal surfing, online shopping and chatting may seem harmless, but consider this. . .

A recent study concluded that employees spend an average of 75 minutes per day using office computers for non-business related activity (surfing porn, gambling, shopping or even searching for sex online). That translates into an annual loss of $6,250 per employee or more than $300,000 per year down the drain for a company of just 50 employees.

At the touch of a button, you can monitor any employee, any time, anywhere on the network. Spector CNE secretly records records and archives chat conversations, instant messages (AOL, MSN and Yahoo), e-mails (including Outlook, Exchange, AOL and web-based mail like Hotmail), web sites visited, keystrokes typed, files downloaded, programs run and more.

And unlike many filtering and blocking tools, Spector CNE records everything they do in exact visual detail. So, you have absolute proof that goes way beyond knowing they visited porn.com.

Would you object to this kind of program utilized by your employer? Would you change your surfing and e-mailing habits if you knew this program was running on your employer's servers?

Would you do anything at all?

If you were an employer, is this right or wrong?

If you are an employee, is this right or wrong?

Are you blogging? And are you blogging against the interests or concerns of your employer? You might want to consider this as an extreme factor for using their equipment -- an issue over which they clearly have control -- and should. After all, it's their equipment and their time. Isn't it?

What are the policies for your agency and your company? Perhaps, before you make one more keystroke into the ether, you should review official policies.

If you visit porn sites you'll go down. As well you should on company time. In my department we've already had one Lieutenant shipped into a startlingly-early retirement for this precise reason.

There is a massive company and agency loss, per year, of work time because of internet access. Are you a suspect or a victim? What are your company's views?

You'd best find out now. Because later is too late.

BZ

If Mexico Says No, I Say YES

Mexico doesn't want the 700 mile border fence built.

Huh. Imagine that. First, that actual American politicians would back a bill such as that (perhaps they are actually receiving the screaming message transmitted by the electorate) and, second, that the Mexican government would not want that to happen.

Hmm. From Reuters:

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly backed a bill on Friday to put up about 700 miles of fence, a project Republicans hope will impress voters calling for tougher immigration control ahead of November 7 congressional elections.

Bush had hoped for broad immigration legislation that would create a guest-worker program, which would match workers with jobs Americans are unwilling to do. But House Republicans had pushed for greater emphasis on sealing the porous frontier.

You bet. First, seal the borders. Seal them completely. At the same time seal and secure the ports and any other methods of transport or trade into and out of this country. At the same time begin to actually enforce laws already present in terms of illegal aliens and deport ANY alien suspected of a crime within our border.

Let's face it: this has worked for the Israelis. I suspect it, and concomitant technology, shall work for us.

This isn't Rocket Science, people. Simply common sense. Are the pols actually starting to come around?

I shall wait to see.

BZ

A Dash Of Reality

PLEASE NOTE: THIS POST IS GRAPHIC.
_______________________________

I belong to "a community of individuals pledged to fight paedophiles on the web. We are committed to the safety and emotional well-being of all children."

This blog is entitled Absolute Zero and it serves to fight the multiple thousands of blogs on the internet advocating child pederasty and worse.

Perhaps too harsh for a Sunday night (which is why I've written it on Sunday but decided to advance-post it to Monday), nevertheless, the information here is such that you need to be aware of its existence because persons such as those responding to the AZ blog need to be recognized for what they clearly are: evil incarnate.

I shall mince no words. There are blogs and websites on the internet which not only hint at but advocate oral copulation with children and complete fornication and sodomy with children, ranging from infants to young teens, boys and girls.

NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association) has a website. Go here if you can stomach the journey. You'll note, however, that NAMBLA is so proud of its ethical stance that its URL is couched only in numbers and not letters. You'll see what I mean.

You need to be aware of these sites.

You have to be aware of these mindsets and proclivities.

If you have children, you need to see this material and realize that some persons viewing your offspring see them as nothing more than sexual toys for their amusement.

I shall now post some responses and statements from various demented individuals taking umbrage with the fact that the AZ site exists at all. There are those extant, you must realize, whose advocacy of child exploitation knows no boundaries at all.

First, from the NAMBLA website:

Freedom is indivisible. The liberation of children, women, boy-lovers, and homosexuals in general, can occur only as complementary facets of the same dream. -- David Thorstad

NAMBLA's membership is open to everyone sympathetic to personal freedom. Our goal is to end the oppression of men and boys who have freely chosen, mutually consensual relationships.

Then from various chunks of the Absolute Zero website:

So, I'm going to issue a challenge to any website that might try to discriminate against us for who we are. We need go to sites like YouTube, that actively destroy our accounts and communities because a vigilante organization tells them to, and we need to start sitting in. We need to create accounts on sites who comply with moral bigotry, and explain that we are childlovers - as is our right - and we need to follow the Terms of service and the Law as is required of us. And if our accounts get deleted, our posts erased, our very presence denied: We need to make new accounts. And we need to keep doing this until it is realized that the effort to deny us our voice is more disruptive than anything that we will ever say.

And I need everyone else - anyone else - who supports the childlovers' RIGHT to free expression and speech, within the bounds of both law and Terms of Service, to sit with me.

Or:

I'm a pedophile. I've been a pedophile for 20 years. The only reason I'm charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms", Philip Distasio told the judge presiding over his trial in Cleveland earlier this month. He stands accused of the rape, kidnapping, gross sexual imposition, and pandering obscenity involving nine autistic boys he was home-schooling.

Or:

Rind Introduction
A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples by Rind Tromovitch & Bauserman was published in the July 1998 edition of Psychological Bulletin, published by the APA. Full text available here. It is commonly referred to as the Rind report or the Rind study . It is the single most important document in existence for the paedophile community because the authors assert that child sexual abuse (CSA) is not harmful to children – particularly to boys.

These are the least of the most recent heinous responses provided by pederasts the world over.

It is a war and Absolute Zero is on the front line -- along with all supporters of AZ, myself included. In this war, entire websites have been deleted and threats have been made. We are dealing with an element that not only believes itself to be incredibly educated and therefore far "above" the average world inhabitant, but an element that couches the rationale for its "hobby" or "diversion" in the wider terms of "freedom" and "expression."

Is it not, then, "freedom" and "expression" that allows an educated, overweight white male to place his erect penis into the mouth or anus or vagina of your child? And who are you to object to this act?

Wake up, America. These people exist and they are placing the crosshairs of their desire on your sons and some of your daughters.

Your ignorance is relished.

BZ