Category — Uncategorized

I can’t recommend strongly enough that you should not use crack and then go skinny-dipping in a lake with alligators.

The BBC reports on a US man saved from alligator jaws. “Four members of the Polk County [Florida] Sheriff department waded through waist-deep mud in the dark to reach Adrian Apgar, 45, and pull him free from the alligator.”

The 12-foot ‘gator was later captured by a trapper, no doubt based on the fact that in was the only ‘gator in the lake in handcuffs [sorry, local joke referencing Florida police procedures].

As I was speaking of jokes, you might want to see Alliance of Wimpiness by Mark Fiore.

Being a Democratic voter in my neck of the woods is a lonely job, but according to Bark Bark Woof Woof the number of Democrats in Florida is likely to rise considerably, thanks to Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO).

Calling Miami a third-world city because of all of the foreigners living there and complaining about the appointment of Florida Senator Mel Martinez to head the RNC, is certainly a novel way of widening the appeal of the Republican Party in Florida. I don’t expect he’s met the First lady of Florida, or he would have complained about the fact that she is Mexican.

With people like Tancredo speaking publicly for the GOP, the minority status of the Republican Party is solidifying every day.

The problem with history is that you have to actually study it to find out how people messed up their lives, countries, and the planet with their stupid decisions so you can avoid repeating their mistakes.

EBD of Anecdotes from a Banana Republic doesn’t think the current Lebanese young people stayed awake for history class. She is concerned that people seem to be traveling down the same road that lead to the civil war in the 1970s and 80s.

Check Fallenmonk for the strange happenings.

My guess is that the Shrubbery is trying to build a case for the disaster in Iraq being the fault of Maliki. Let’s blame the victim is quite popular among people who refuse to admit any responsibility for anything. I don’t think Mr. Maliki is ready to sacrifice himself for the Bush legacy.

The Associated Press is reporting that: U.S. To Pay $2M For False Terror Arrest.

A lawyer the FBI wrongly arrested after the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings because of a misidentified fingerprint has settled part of his lawsuit against the U.S. government for $2 million.

Brandon Mayfield, who said he was detained for two weeks in 2004, maintained that he was arrested because of his Muslim faith.

They made the guy’s life a living hell and they now have to pay for their incompetence.

This only settles part of the case. He is continuing his suit on the constitutionality of the PATRIOT Act which is at the root of what happened to him.

Thanks to skippy the bush kangaroo for putting up this picture which indicates that Borat is a fan of Discworld. I know about the hat he’s wearing: it’s only found in XXXX.

This BBC article on the Antikythera Mechanism describes a mechanical calculator from the first century BCE that predicted astronomical events using precision gears. It would be a millennium before we regained that level of technology.

The headline says: Truce declared in peace wreath battle.

DENVER, Colorado (AP) — A subdivision has withdrawn its threat of $25 daily fines against a homeowner who put a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the front of her home.

Homeowner Lisa Jensen told The Associated Press on Monday that the board of directors of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association had apologized, called the incident a misunderstanding and had withdrawn its request for the wreath’s removal.

The Homeowners Association went for the Emily Litella defense, when it became obvious that Ms. Jensen was getting a lot of offers of assistance, including some from people with letters like Esq. LLB, LLD, and JD after their name.

There has been a mini blogswarm on the story, so it wasn’t going to disappear, and, apparently, the board was getting calls.

Technically, we wouldn’t call this a truce in the military, we would call it “run away!”

Another reason not to buy in a “planned community:” Peace on earth? Not in our subdivision!

Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs [Colorado].

He said some residents believed the wreath was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

… [snip]

The association in this 200-home subdivision 270 miles southwest of Denver has sent a letter to her saying that residents were offended by the sign and the board “will not allow signs, flags etc. that can be considered divisive.”

The subdivision’s rules say no signs, billboards or advertising are permitted without the consent of the architectural control committee.

Kearns ordered the committee to require [Lisa] Jensen to remove the wreath, but members refused after concluding that it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn’t say anything.

Kearns fired all five committee members.

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Mark Fiore has a new cartoon up: Bush, Still Decidin’.

After that head over and learn Why the Poor Mouth, in which Jams explains about the novel, The Poor Mouth: A Bad Story About the Hard Life by Flann O’Brien, that provides the name for his blog.

While you’re there, don’t miss Give your loved one the clap for Christmas, which introduces you to a new type of plush toys, including the Black Death. The toys will certainly be a conversation starter on Christmas morning and a real test for family members with an annoying ability to say something nice about every present that is received.

The BBC early this morning was reporting that John Bolton was claiming that Syria was behind the death of Pierre Gemayel, so they could engineer a coup. Ignoring for the moment that John Bolton would be hard pressed to explain the difference between a coup and a coupe, it would have been nice if he had provided some indication as to why he thought this, and why such a claim would come from the recess-appointed UN ambassador and not a State Department official who actually had a brief on Lebanon or the Middle East.

The ‘Noz, a student of Arabic and a traveler to the area, shrugged his shoulders, so I checked in with Pierre at Candide’s Notebooks who is Lebanese, EDB of Anecdotes from a Banana Republic who lives in Lebanon, Pat Lang of Sic Semper Tyrannis who had responsibility for the area at DIA, and Dr. Cole of Informed Comment, who lived there for years.

Lots of shrugging going on, although Pat Lang did sort of indicate that it might have been Pierre’s turn, as assassination has been a frequent cause of death in the Gemayel family.

The problem is trying to figure out who benefits from the death of a minor political figure with a famous name in the fractured political world of Lebanon. There are few truly disinterested parties with the knowledge to unravel the mystery.

So, the visitors have safely traversed the continent and their luggage actually occupied the same ribbon of the space-time continuum as they did at the end of the trip. This involved a three hour round trip by car at the start because the last 40 miles by air costs an extra $500 per person for reasons known only to the demons that haunt the recesses of airlines scheduling and fees.

Then it was time to replace the flapper in the toilet because the chlorine laced local water supply “wrinkles” all flappers after a while which causes slow seepage and the noise of the tank filling every fifteen minutes as well as a spike in the water bill. A simple procedure that takes place every year or so, what could go wrong? Well, the overflow pipe could snap off as you are affixing the new flapper. So, until I can drill out all four of the bolts that attach this ancient tank to its base and fit a new valve, I’m forced to flush the toilet with a bucket. The cats are not amused.

Then there was a minor medical emergency that lasted until 4AM because the patient can’t possibly understand what the problem is and the necessary prescription to deal with the situation. No, there must be bloodletting and IVs and testing to determine that, yes, the patient does indeed need a prescription for an antibiotic course, just like every other time the situation has occurred. Having the documentation for past occurrences of the situation makes no difference. And people wonder why the health system is so expensive.

Via Avedon Carol, Kevin Drum seems to be missing the point that veterans are attempting to make about War And Peace, and the chickenhawks. Obviously veterans need to be clearer about what they are saying.

The group of veterans with whom I identify are not saying that you have to be a veteran to decide on military issues. We took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and that means everyone gets to vote. Everyone’s taxes support the military, so we all have that much of a stake in any action.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not all opinions are equal. If you have a problem with your toilet, the opinion of a plumber would reasonably carry more weight than the opinion of a barber. That is not to say that the barber may not have had the problem, and knew the solution, but the odds are better that the opinion of the plumber is more informed because of his/her experience and training.

The disaster that is Iraq is not simply because the advice of the military was ignored, but the advice of the State Department was also ignored.

Teddy Roosevelt stood foursquare behind the war with Spain and when he was refused acceptance in the regular Army, he formed a volunteer regiment so he could fight it. I’m not saying that the chickenhawks should have formed a regiment to fight in Iraq, but they have made every effort not to fight in any war. If you don’t believe in the war enough to fight yourself, why should your advocacy be accepted without comment?

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Mark Fiore has a new one up that you should view as a cautionary tale. People shouldn’t gloat.

On a much stranger front we have Paul the Spud over at Shakespeare’s Sister talking about the Reptilicon reaction to the new Happy Feet cartoon feature with a link to The Carpetbagger Report coverage of conservative cartoon craziness.

Get a grip. These are children’s cartoons. The commercial cartoons are designed to sell toys and such, not launch a political campaign. If they can hold the attention of a small child for more than a minute and give that child’s parent a moment to relax, they are a roaring success. Having spent most of the last week in the company of a two-year-old I understand what parents are enduring, so I would knight SpongeBob SquarePants if he could provide some peace and quiet, I wouldn’t be questioning his sexuality. And what are these perverts doing watching all of these children’s shows: is The Wheel of Fortune too intellectual for them?

Because we live in a tourist area that has a lot of foreign visitors during the colder months when the Federal government messes around with the rules on entry, we take a major hit.

The Pensacola Beach Blog post, Who Rules, and the Associated Press story, Homeland Security Announces New Passport Rules, highlight something that is going to hurt our local economy, and the economies of the communities along the Mexican and Canadian borders.

After January 23, 2007 American citizens are going to be required to carry a US passport to re-enter the US from any other country. It used to be that you only needed a driver’s license or birth certificate to cross the border.

It costs $110 for an adult and $95 for a child to be issued a passport and it takes months. The days of a quick day trip over the border are gone.

This on top of the reduction in time on the visitors permits that Canadians once received for trips to the US are really cutting into the winter tourist season.

Exactly what problem is being addressed by these new requirements? Nothing in them addresses the real problems of controlling the borders; hell, you can’t even locate the border between Canada and the US in North Dakota as most of the markers have gone missing over the years.

This is another waste of time and money to produce a Potemkin solution for a non-existent problem. They don’t want to really take the time to study the real problems and then plan real solutions; they just want to appear to be doing something. If I were a conspiracy theorist I would wonder how long until we needed to produce a passport at state lines?