March 28, 2007
Congress supports the troops
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rule Rue Britannia
Arthur Herman -- the acclaimed author of To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World -- has a great opinion piece in the New York Post.
By this time next year, the once-vaunted Royal Navy will be about the size of the Belgian Navy.
If that wasn't demoralizing enough, last Friday the Iranian Navy seized a patrol boat containing 15 British sailors and Marines, claiming they'd crossed into Iranian waters. They're now hostages and may well go on trial as spies.
The latest report is that the Britons were ready to fight off their abductors. Certainly their escorting ship, HMS Cornwall, could have blown the Iranian naval vessel out of the water. However, at the last minute the British Ministry of Defense ordered the Cornwall not to fire, and her captain and crew were forced to watch their shipmates led away into captivity.
There was a question whether the Blair government would end up leaving Britain with a navy too small to protect its shores. Now it seems to want a navy that can't even protect its own sailors.
[...]
The United States has grown used to doing the fighting and dying the other industrialized democracies refuse to do in order to defend themselves and their interests.
Britain has been an exception. America always looks better when a couple of frigates flying the Royal Navy's White Ensign are side by side with those flying the Stars and Stripes. U.S. sailors also know that in a real fight, the men of the Royal Navy, which our navy men still call the "Senior Service," will never let them down.
That contribution has never been vital to America - yet it was a badge of honor for Britain. It had echoes of past glory as an empire, of course, but also of Britain's historic role as protector of a civilized and stable world order, and specifically the role of the Royal Navy.
The British navy had wiped out the slave trade; it had single-handedly defied tyrants from Louis XIV and Napoleon to Hitler; and it served as midwife to the ideas of free trade and the balance of power.
Now those days are gone for good.
[...]
Today, British politicians seem determined to make the same mistake. They exude the spirit not of Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher but of diplomat and Labor Party stalwart Harold Nicolson, who used to sigh to friends in the dark days after France's surrender in 1940: "All we can do is lie on our backs with our paws in the air and hope that no one will stamp on our tummies."
From the land of Winston Churchill and Adm. Nelson to this.
How sad.
We truly are alone.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Banning Legos; building better Commies
John J. Miller takes a look at the Seattle school where to "teachers" detected signs of capitalism and individualism amongst their students -- so they banned Legos.
In their Rethinking Schools article, teachers Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin describe how the kids at [the] Hilltop [Children Center] built “a massive series of Lego structures we named Legotown.” I sensed that something was rotten in the state of Legotown when I read this description of it: “a collection of homes, shops, public facilities, and community meeting places.”
At Hilltop, however, the teachers strive to make them different. “We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity,” write Pelo and Pelojoaquin. “We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children’s understandings from a perspective of social justice. So we decided to take the Legos out of the classroom.”
The root cause of Hilltop’s Lego problem was that, well, the kids were being kids: There were disputes over “cool pieces,” instances of bigger kids bossing around little ones, and so on.
An ordinary person might recognize this as child’s play. But the social theorists at Hilltop saw something else: “The children were building their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys — assumptions that mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.”
Pelo and Pelojoaquin continue: “As we watched the children build, we became increasingly concerned.”
So they banned the Legos and began their program of re-education. “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation,” they write.
Instead of practicing phonics or memorizing multiplication tables, the children played a special game: “In the game, the children could experience what they’d not been able to acknowledge in Legotown: When people are shut out of participation in the power structure, they are disenfranchised — and angry, discouraged, and hurt. ... The rules of the game — which mirrored the rules of our capitalist meritocracy — were a setup for winning and losing. ... Our analysis of the game, as teachers, guided our planning for the rest of the investigation into the issues of power, privilege, and authority that spanned the rest of the year.”
Great. Just what America needs, more anti-capitalist, anti-private property, anti-individual rights, anti-everything that had made this nation great, subjects.
Subjects, 'cause they sure aren't producing citizens.
And the parents? Well, if those two teachers don't end up on the street, then we'll know how the parents feel about establishing the perfect workers' paradise.
All power to the Soviets, comrades!
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 27, 2007
Wisdom from your local newscasters
Just heard on the 11 p.m. KNBC-4 coverage of today's windstorms throughout the Southland.
Somehow the wind always finds the tree with the weakest roots.
That gem was courtesy of Patrick Healy, standing in front of a tree blown over by the gale-force winds.
How true, Patrick. Banal, obvious and cliche, but very, very true.
Coming next:
Somehow the ocean always drowns the weakest swimmer.
Posted by Mike Lief at 11:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Trouble for McCain, Rudy and Romney?
There's a new conservative straw poll being run, and the early numbers are interesting:
Although the sample is small, former Sen. Fred Thompson is pulling away from the pack -- bad news for the presumptive frontrunners, and a sign of deep-seated disatisfaction in the base.
Check out those "Unacceptable" numbers for McCain; he's second only to the colorless, charisma-free Rino, New York Nanny Gov. George Patxlkjfnb/ -- Wha?!
Sorry 'bout that; I fell asleep typing "Pataki."
Anyhow, I don't think McCain's going to do any better, either, as the season goes on. His relentless hostility to the conservative base negates any advantage to be gained from his hawkish stance on the war.
And Rudy's not looking so hot, either, with his favorability numbers leaving him in fourth place.
Why not cast your ballot and see who may end up with the nomination.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 26, 2007
From the D.A. Files: Case Prep
Part of getting a case ready for trial involves talking to your witnesses, going over the statements they gave to the cops, explaining to them the mechanics of testifying in front of a jury.
This afternoon, I found the phone number for a witness, Barney Fife (would you believe not his real name?), in one of the police reports, and dialed.
"May I please speak with Barney Fife?"
There was a moment's silence on the line, then the guy on the other end said, "Who?"
"Barney Fife," I answered. "My name is Michael Lief; I'm a district attorney in Ventura, California, and Barney is a witness in a case I'm prosecuting. This is the number he gave the police."
"Ventura, huh?" The man paused a moment, then said, "Well, my name is Sam Johnson, and I'm in a call center in Maine. Can I interest you in ordering Enzyte, the amazing male enhancement product?"
I looked at the handset, then glanced around my office, certain I was trapped in Allen Funt's Candid Camera (That's Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd! for us middle-aged fogies).
"Male enhancement drug ... right."
"No, no!" he said, "It's not a drug; male enhancement product," stressing the final word. "We're very careful not to call it a drug. That would imply certain performance-related guarantees."
"Look," I said, desperately trying to steer the conversation North of the belt buckle and away from my shortcomings, "Does anyone there know Barney, or how to get in touch with him?"
"Sorry, man. But I could give you a break on a large order ...."
This guy's good.
Posted by Mike Lief at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sean Penn is insane -- but he supports the troops
More deep thoughts on the geo-political situation, courtesy of the profoundly intense thespian Sean Penn, at a rally in Oakland this weekend.
"You and your smarmy pundits -- and the smarmy pundits you have in your pocket -- can take your war and shove it," Penn said. "Let's unite not only in stopping this war, but in holding this administration accountable."
"Let's make this crystal clear: We do support our troops, but not the exploitation of them and their families."
"The money that's spent on this war would be better spent on building levees in New Orleans and health care in Africa and care for our veterans. Iraq is not our toilet. It's a country of human beings whose lives that were once oppressed by Saddam are now in Dante's Inferno."
I love that last paragraph, especially the part about Iraq not being our toilet. You see, Penn's fellow travelers in Portland showed us where right-thinking America-hating libs should go to the bathroom, and it ain't Iraq.
[A] group of protesters showed its support for “peace” by burning a U.S. soldier in effigy. It exhibited its supposedly pacifist nature by knocking a police officer off his bike — an action that brought out the police riot squad.
Perhaps the most disturbing scene of the afternoon, however, involved the man who pulled down his pants in front of women and children and defecated on a burning U.S. flag. This disgusting act actually elicited cheers from some members of the crowd, but we hope that the emotion it produces in the community is one of revulsion.
And about that "health care in Africa" crack from the actor doofus. It may come as a surprise to Penn, but U-2 frontman Bono and Live Aids's Bob Geldof have lauded Pres. Bush for his committment to helping Africans battle AIDS; Bush has sent considerably more resources (that's money -- our money folks!) than did Clinton to the basket-case continent.
Recognizing that the current occupant of the White House has been willing to do something more than pay lip service to helping Africans? Talk about a really inconvenient truth.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 25, 2007
The Goreacle probably didn't expect this
Novelist, pundit and screenwriter Roger L. Simon had an interesting reaction when he watched the Goreacle's propaganda film, An Inconvenient Truth: he cared less about global warming, and he's not alone.
I have long suspected that Al Gore hurt the very cause - anthropogenic global warming - he is famous for espousing. Now I have some evidence of that in a new Rasmussen Poll saying only 24% percent of Americans consider the former veep a global warming expert. Furthermore, "just 36% of Americans say that Gore knows what he is talking about when it comes to the environment and Global Warming. [caps theirs]"
Gore's problem may stem from the attitude inherent in his remark before a Congressional Committee quoted further down in the Rasmussen article: "Global Warming is 'not a partisan issue; it's a moral issue.'" Wrong, Al. It's neither. It's a scientific issue.
[...]
When I first viewed Gore's Oscar-winning movie, it was that very thing that immediately occurred to me: why am I listening to a politician talk about this? Why not a scientist or scientists? You could cut the inauthenticity of the whole enterprise with a knife, starting with pseudo-self-deprecating joke about his near presidential victory to the recitation of facts that seemed to support his cause (but perhaps didn't, we later learned). The documentary form, of course, allows for these kinds of distortions. How many serious scientific arguments can you fit in an eighty minute film? How deep can you go? Not very far. So someone must select. And with selection comes unscientific bias.
So coming back to the "deconstruction of it all," I will give my visceral reaction to the documentary. After viewing the movie I was less troubled with the global warming issue and more troubled by Gore's narcissism - not exactly the result intended. In fact, the reverse. And evidently, from the poll results, I am not alone. (Something for the Oscar documentary committee to ponder.)
I love the phrase, "There is a scientific consensus about global warming," that the True Believers throw at us Doubting Thomases, as if that should end all debate. As Brit Hume replied this morning to Juan Williams on Fox News Sunday, consensus is what scientists have when they don't have scientific proof.
The commenters to Roger's post make some terrific points: When Al Bore says that the Earth has a fever, what is the planet's normal temperature? What is the best temperature?
How does the Goreacle and his acolytes respond to past fluctuations in the Earth's temperature? When it was cooler, much of North America was under an ice sheet a mile thick. When the planet was warmer than it is today -- before the advent of evil Western, Gaia-raping technology spewing CO2 into the atmosphere -- Rome was at its peak glory, and more than a millennia later, Europe experienced a burst of cathedral building and a flowering of culture, emerging from the Dark Ages.
Does global warming exist? Maybe. Too soon to tell. But if it does, so what? There's no science laying the blame -- or the solution -- at our feet, and if it comes to pass that the Earth is indeed warming up, we'll adapt and persevere.
Hell, we may even prosper. Think of all the bums homeless people who won't freeze to death during the frigid winters in the North East.
Posted by Mike Lief at 09:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 24, 2007
Our Ernie Pyle
A tremendous post from Michael Yon -- the 21st Century's Ernie Pyle -- recounting his reasons for going to Iraq as an independent journalist, and the current problems he's having getting the Army to let him tell the stories the public needs to hear.
If you haven't read Yon before, you really, really need to start now.
His Gates of Fire post is some of the best combat coverage you'll ever see.
See what the MSM hasn't been telling you.
Posted by Mike Lief at 09:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 23, 2007
The Pride of Portland, Oregon
I'm simply stunned.
I just watched video of the anti-American demonstrations from this past weekend in Portland, and my head is spinning, I'm nauseous, and I'm furious.
The chants on the soundtrack are simply infuriating.
Bye-bye, GI
In Iraq you're gonna die!Bye-bye, GI
In Iraq you're gonna die!
It's not just Bush
It's the soldiers too,
Fascist war is nothing new
Build a bonfire,
Build a bonfire,
Put the soldiers on the top,
Put the fascists in the middle,
And we'll burn the fuckin' lot!
It doesn't matter
Which candidate won,
Put down the ballot,
Pick up the gun!
Treason, pure and simple. Explicit betrayal of our nation; aid and comfort to our enemies.
If this be not treason, then treason there not be.
Watch it for yourself, if you can stomach it.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Daring to disbelieve
Commenter Ron says:
You're out of your freaking mind..
While it might be that increases in the sun's output is having some effect, you disregard the reality that carbon dioxide levels haven't exceeded 300 ppm in 600,000 years!!!
With carbon now over 400 ppm - and rising daily - and the clear correlation of carbon with temperature - idiots like you will be the reason for a major devolution of human life on the planet.
Fortunately, Jonah Goldberg has already written the best response to this kind of criticism.
[What to make of] Gore’s relentless talk of “consensus,” his ugly moral bullying of “deniers” and, most of all, his insistence that because there’s no time left to argue, everyone should do what he says.
Isn’t it interesting how the same people who think “dissent is the highest form of patriotism” when it comes to the war think that dissent when it comes to global warming is evil and troglodytic?
“If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor,” Gore said this week. “If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say, ‘Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it’s not a problem.’ If the crib’s on fire, you don’t speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action.”
True enough. But if your baby’s crib is on fire, you don’t run to a politician for help either.
You can tell that Gore’s schtick is about something more than the moderate and manageable challenge of global warming when he talks of sacrifice. On the one hand he wants everybody to change their lifestyles dramatically. These are the sacrifices the voracious energy user Al Gore won’t have to make because he can buy “carbon credits” for his many homes and his jet-setting.
But when asked this week about the enormous and unwise costs his plan would impose on the U.S. economy (according to the global consensus of economists), Gore said that his draconian emissions cuts are “going to save you money, and it’s going to make the economy stronger.”
Wait a second. This is the gravest crisis we’ve ever faced, but if we do exactly as Gore says (but not as he does), we’ll get richer in the process as we heal Mother Earth of her fever? Gore’s faith-based initiative is a win-win. No wonder so many people think it’s mean to disagree.
Fascinating, isn't it? Disagree with the Prophet Al'Gore and his acolytes, and suddenly shrieking, wild-eyed zealots chase you through the streets, shrieking "BLASPHEMER!"
Science my ass -- more like science fiction, with a dose of religious fanaticism. Global warming is the new Scientology.
Posted by Mike Lief at 06:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The official drink of the Highway Patrol
I'm old enough to remember watching Broderick Crawford in the B&W TV series, Highway Patrol. The bulldog-looking actor -- a notorious real-life booze-hound -- played the chain-smoking, hard-drinking Chief Dan Matthews. You just knew that he had a bottle of rotgut whiskey in his desk drawer.
Cops back then were tough guys, and they drank tough-guy drinks.
Today, not so much.
I was parked in my usual corner of the Starbucks when I saw this officer come in to do his paperwork. Being in uniform, a bottle of booze was out of the question, but I was sure he'd be nursing a piping-hot mug of java.
Instead, he sipped on a frothy, whipped-cream topped frozen concoction though a straw as he filled out his reports.
Broderick is spinning in his grave.
Yeah, I know, today's CHP officers are better trained, better educated and more professional than the cops of yesteryear, but still ... fedoras, stogies and hard liquor black coffee sure say "tough guy" in a way "half-caf, soy, lo-fat strawberry mocha-frappuccino" can't quite match.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 22, 2007
All the news that's fit to mis-print
Patterico skewers the L.A. Times over its refusal to issue corrections in its coverage of the U.S. attorneys firings. What's the use of being the "paper of record" for the West Coast, when you won't make sure that the record is accurate?
At least we have guys like Pat to let us know when the MSM is feeding us a line of bunk.
Cancelled your subscription yet? Customer service: (800) 252-9141.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Second largest source of heat in the solar system
A series of images of the Sun, taken by the Japanese satellite Hinode, have left scientists scratching their heads in amazement; apparently the star is acting in ways contrary to the expectations of the experts.
As the big, hot, fireball hanging in the sky is kooky, quirky, and did I mention really, really hot, there are those of us who think that just maybe small increases in its output might have something to do with any increase in the average temperature of the Earth -- as well as recent increases detected on Mars and Jupiter.
But there's another reason why the Hinode images relate to the global warming hoo-ha, something known in the trade as TEDND: The Experts Don't Know Dick
The reality is that scientists are constantly being reminded that what they know -- know, dammit! -- to be true, is often proved wrong by certain, erm, inconvenient truths. Celestial bodies act in ways that the experts assured us just weren't possible (The moon is made of green cheese; Rosie O'Donnell is pleasant and sane).
The same geniuses who assure us that their hockey-stick charts and formulae prove that global warming will accelerate over the next century can't come up with a reliable algoreithim that can accurately forecast the weather next week.
Oh, here's the greatest source of localized atmospheric thermal-dynamic hyper-dynamism in the solar system.
Posted by Mike Lief at 06:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Prius hurts the Earth
Wretchard examines an article claiming that the Toyota Prius is less eco-friendly than the GMC Hummer, and decides that it depends on your assumptions going into the analysis.
One of the most subtle problems in public policy is to decide what exactly one is trying to optimize. By changing the definition of Green-ness to include total pollution rather than simply minimizing a "carbon footprint" it may well be the case that a Hummer is Greener than a Prius. But given that Canada is a friendly country an energy security case might be made for being more dependent on nickel from Ontario than oil from Saudi Arabia. By that measure a Prius might be better than a Hummer. The sage advice of all public policy professors is to redefine a problem until it is expressed in terms favorable to one's self. And, faced with the energy security argument, it might be countered that since a Prius is made by a "foreign" corporation, then that additional factor might make it "better" to buy a Hummer after all. And so on.
The sad fact about most of these environmental question is that it may require us to trade off one set of objectives against another. Maybe the "world" should decide which it values more. In the case of "Global Warming" for example, many of the policies designed to reduce "Greenhouse Gases" may exacerbate poverty in the Third World. How does one rank different goals -- such as for example reducing "greenhouse gases" and reducing hunger -- and combine them into a single policy?
There's always been a strong suspicion that much of the moonbat eco-weenie movement would prefer the Third World-types to avoid the horrors of industrialized modernity and just stay in their authentically primitive agriculture-based societies, progress be damned. I wonder how they'd choose if the choice was between ending hunger -- Give that kid a sammich! -- or global warming.
Posted by Mike Lief at 06:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 21, 2007
Not enough lawyers?
Take it from me, there are way too many lawyers; the increased power wielded by attorneys in all areas of life -- the military included -- is akin to a civilizational parasite, and it's going to take one gigantic pair of tweezers to remove these bloodsuckers.
I didn't realize that California was acting to solve the shortage of legal beagles through the addition of another taxpayer-funded school, but then there's a lot I don't know.
Thomas Lifson has joined forces with one of the top journalists in Sacramento to rail against the creation of the U.C. Irvine School of Law.
How 'bout it, Californians; want to pay for another law school?
Ack.
Posted by Mike Lief at 11:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cathy Seipp, R.I.P.
There are a number of tributes posted online for the writer, who succumbed to cancer this afternoon after a five-year battle against lung cancer.
From the folks at National Review Online, to her political antithesis, Susan Estrich, there is a unanimity of opinion: the world has lost a talented writer far, far too soon.
Seipp considered blogging a hobby, but the informal nature of the posts give a glimpse into her personality, her life, in a way that her more "professional" writing could not.
There are a number of sites I visit every day, and Cathy's was amongst them; I intend to make my way through her posts again. Although we never met, I feel like I know her, and it's a nice way to remember her.
Rest in peace.
Posted by Mike Lief at 09:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Depravity without limit
Whenever you hear self-loathing Americans decrying the outrages perpetrated by the forces of Western oppression, i.e., the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, CIA and Halliburton, take a moment and think about how real bad guys behave.
Insurgents in Iraq detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle with two children in the back seat after US soldiers let it through a Baghdad checkpoint over the weekend, a senior US military official said Tuesday.
The vehicle was stopped at the checkpoint but was allowed through when soldiers saw the children in the back, said Major General Michael Barbero of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.
"Children in the back seat lowered suspicion. We let it move through. They parked the vehicle, and the adults ran out and detonated it with the children in the back," Barbero said.
The general said it was the first time he had seen a report of insurgents using children in suicide bombings. But he said Al-Qaeda in Iraq is changing tactics in response to the tighter controls around the city.
A US defense official said the incident occurred on Sunday in Baghdad's Adhamiyah district, a mixed neighborhood adjacent to Sadr City, which is predominantly Shiite.
After going through the checkpoint, the vehicle parked next to a market across the street from a school, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"And the two adults were seen to get out of the vehicle, and run from the vehicle, and then followed by the detonation of the vehicle," the official said.
"It killed the two children inside as well as three other civilians in the vicinity. So, a total of five killed, seven injured," the official said.Officials here said they did not know who the children were or their relationship to the two adults who fled the scene. They had no information about their ages or genders.
"The brutality and the ruthlessness of this enemy hasn't changed," said Barbero, deputy director of regional operations of the Joint Staff. "They are just interested in slaughtering Iraqi civilians, to be very honest."
We're not the bad guys. Letting the villains who blow up children -- while running away to save their own cowardly skins -- force us out of Iraq would be an act of moral cowardice, and those who favor abandoning our allies to these animals are effectively aiding and abetting evil.
Evil. There's really no other explanation for men who use children -- no, wait, kill children so callously.
That would make them the bad guys.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 20, 2007
Leftists support the troops?
Check out some photos from demonstrations on the Left Coast against the war in Iraq. You'll be quite impressed with the depth of feelings on display when it comes to the troops.
Again I ask, "Is it time to question their patriotism?"
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Have Europeans had enough?
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1980
The natives are revolting
Posted by Mike Lief at 10:16 AM
Best darn barbershop in Paso Robles
Actually, I may be selling the place short; it just may be the best darn barbershop in California.
What does it take to earn the title of "A real shrine to the tonsorial arts"?
Well, let's see.
Car magazines?
Check.
Aviation magazines?
Check.
Fishing, hunting and shooting magazines?
Check.
Magazines with half-naked women on the cover (but only provided to the patrons for the articles)?
Check.
Stuffed animal heads on the walls?
Check.
No-nonsense, older gents not inclined to talk your ear off?
Yep.
And finally, hot shaving cream and a straight-razor for the back of the neck and around the ears?
A very careful check.
Headhunters Barber Services, 1220 Spring Street, Paso Robles, Calif. Three chairs, three old-timers with shears, lots of old timers waiting for a cut, and lots of manly reading, dead critters and sharp razors.
Highly recommended.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Capital filled with dunces
According to this story, one-third of the people in Washington, D.C., are illiterate, as compared to one-fifth the populace nationally.
Contrary to my expectations, the article did not reveal that it was Congress that skewed the numbers downward.
Oh, sure, congress-critters are still retarded; they can read -- they just don't understand much of anything. They're kind of like Koko the talking ape, shaved down and in suits.
Except for Barbara Boxer. I'm afraid when it comes to her, the comparison is an insult to idiots and apes.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Expanding the limits of Constitutional protections
People often think that the U.S. Supreme Court has the final say on limits to governmental intrusion into the lives of U.S. citizens.
For instance, in California, search and seizure laws -- defined in the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment and interpreted in a series of cases decided by the high court -- allow police to search a car without a search warrant, if the driver has been arrested.
But lawyers and non-lawyers alike forget that the Supreme Court's rulings don't set a maximum, upper limit; rather, the justices provide a baseline, below which the states may not go, when it comes to the rights of their citizens.
Vermont recently provided an example of a ruling, courtesy of the state supreme court, drastically increasing the protections afforded it's residents -- or reducing police effectiveness, depending on your point of view.
Police need a warrant to search a vehicle even after they arrest an occupant except under extraordinary circumstances, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday in a 3-2 decision notable for its acerbic language and its break with federal precedent.
The ruling, which represented a rare departure from frequent unanimity, said the state constitution provides Vermonters with greater protections from unreasonable searches and seizures than does the federal Bill of Rights.
Legal experts said the decision would force police to adopt new procedures and underscores the state's tradition of promoting the rights of individuals.
"The warrant requirement is robust, alive and well under the Vermont Constitution. It's gasping on life support under federal law," said Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School in South Royalton. "It's a reaffirmation of Vermont -- we're special, we're different -- and the subtext is we're smarter and better than you, United States Supreme Court."
Read the whole thing for the details of the arrest and subsequent search, as well as the court's ruling.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 19, 2007
Bad behavior on the set
Hollywood is an insane asylum, and although most of the time it's the actors who are tagged as the biggest loons, this video, from behind the scenes of I Heart Huckabees, shows that director David O. Russell takes a back seat to no one when it comes to being a foul-mouthed, abusive madman.
Lily Tomlin comes off as the class act here. Well, in comparison to Russell, she's the Queen of Decorum. But I do like the part where she tells Dustin Hoffman to "Shut the f#%k up!" and how he sits, stone-faced, weathering the storm raging between his co-star and the director.
Need I mention that the language is not safe for work?
Posted by Mike Lief at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Knowing what we know now about what we knew then
Longtime-Lefty Christopher Hitchens -- whose status as a skeptic of U.S. foreign policy was cemented during his vocal oppositition to the Vietnam War -- poses a series of questions as we mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War.
Was the president right or wrong to go to the United Nations in September 2002 and to say that body could no longer tolerate Saddam Hussein's open flouting of its every significant resolution, from weaponry to human rights to terrorism?
Was it then correct to send military forces to the Gulf, in case Saddam continued his long policy of defiance, concealment, and expulsion or obstruction of U.N. inspectors?
Should it not have been known by Western intelligence that Iraq had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction?
Could Iraq have been believably "inspected" while the Baath Party remained in power?
Wasn't Colin Powell's performance at the United Nations a bit of a disgrace?
Was the terror connection not exaggerated?
Was a civil war not predictable?
Keeping in mind that Hitchens is anything but an apologist for the U.S., his answers are interesting to anyone claiming to care -- one way or the other -- about the war.
Posted by Mike Lief at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Whoa. I didn't see that coming
This is the best game-related video ever. The gamers get the surprise of their lives, and it's a blast.
Posted by Mike Lief at 05:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Terrible news
Cathy Seipp is in the hospital again, and it looks like there'll be no happy ending.
Her daughter, Maia, is home from college and by her side; she reports that Cathy is sedated and in no pain.
Stop by Cathy's blog and leave a kind word for her and Maia, if you can.
I've loved reading Cathy's writing for what seems like years, but my favorite memories are of her on Dennis Miller's old show, the way she gazed incredulously at Larry O'Donnell as he screamed at her in a fit of insane, neck-bulging rage.
Cathy has been a joy to read, an inspiration, and the relationship she and her daughter have -- filled with love, laughs and respect -- is a model for children and parents everywhere.
The bastards seem to live forever, while the good seem to leave us all too soon.
May G-d bless Cathy, and Maia, too.
Posted by Mike Lief at 01:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 18, 2007
Are Iraqis better off? Depends on who you ask
American Defeatocrats are fond of asking backers of the war -- in the most accusing, snide tone possible -- "So, do you think the Iraqis are better off now than they were before we destroyed their country?"
The answer is implicit in the question: Of course not.
Too bad Iraqis don't seem to agree.
MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today.
The survey of more than 5,000 Iraqis found the majority optimistic despite their suffering in sectarian violence since the American-led invasion four years ago this week.
One in four Iraqis has had a family member murdered, says the poll by Opinion Research Business. In Baghdad, the capital, one in four has had a relative kidnapped and one in three said members of their family had fled abroad.
But when asked whether they preferred life under Saddam, the dictator who was executed last December, or under Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, most replied that things were better for them today.
Only 27% think there is a civil war in Iraq, compared with 61% who do not, according to the survey carried out last month.
By a majority of two to one, Iraqis believe military operations now under way will disarm all militias. More than half say security will improve after a withdrawal of multinational forces.
Well whattaya know? Even them furriners would rather be free in a chaotic, dangerous society with a shot at vanquishing the enemy, instead of just numb members of the walking dead, existing -- not living -- in the illusory safety of a mad tyrant's fever-dream regime.
Do the anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Everything Moonbats ever grow weary of being wrong?
Posted by Mike Lief at 09:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Can you wear the pits off a CD?
I purchased this CD back in 2000 based on a review, having never heard a song by the trio. The day it arrived I popped it into the stereo on the way to work. As the infectious harmonies, yodels and fiddle playing filled the car during Wahoo!, I got a grin so big the corners of my mouth damn near met at the back of my neck (which woulda caused the top of my head to slide right off, as everyone knows).
I enjoyed every song so much that I bought another copy for the office -- obviously before I had a computer with a CD burner -- and I've seen Woody Paul, Ranger Doug, and Too Slim perform live three times.
The concerts were heartwarming -- in an era where vulgarity is all around (another blogger recently told of being stuck in traffic with his wife, kids and his parents, staring at a bumper-sticker that said "Orgasm Donor") -- it's hard to express how nice it was to see three generations having a good time with nary an f-bomb in sight. And to borrow from a recent country hit by a singer I otherwise don't like, it reminded me of a time:
Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack's what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said I'm down with that
Well it meant you had the fluI miss back when.
Me too, buddy.
I hope I get a chance to take Dad to see them.
Anyhow, the CD's always in the car, to help erase the scowl left on my fizz after an awful day. I defy anyone to resist grinning all the way through Wahoo!
Posted by Mike Lief at 08:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
There's got to be an easier way to get an upgrade . . .
From economy to first class.
Don't forget to read about the meaning of "Corpse Cupboards."
Posted by Mike Lief at 03:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why McCain will never get the GOP nomination
Did you happen to catch Sen. John McCain's interview with a British newspaper?
He apparently believes the most important priority for the next president is to suck up improve our image with the dissolute, effete Europeans.
And the best way to do this?
According to The Sunday Telegraph, McCain said this:
"I would immediately close Guantanamo Bay, move all the prisoners to Fort Leavenworth (an army base in Kansas) and truly expedite the judicial proceedings in their cases," he said. "I would reaffirm my commitment to address the issue of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I know how important this is in Europe in particular."
Captain Ed is not impressed.
McCain seems pretty eager to pander to Europe as part of his presidential campaign. I wonder how many votes he expects to win in London.
One would expect more sense from McCain, especially on Gitmo and greenhouse gas policy. On the latter, McCain voted against the Kyoto pact that the Europeans insist on forcing us to adopt; in fact, the Senate shot it down 95-0 before Clinton could even submit it, led by those Ugly Americans, Chuck Hagel and Robert Byrd. Has he now decided that the US should adopt crippling economic sanctions while allowing India and China to remain outside the restrictions?
Closing Gitmo only means that the US has to open a similar facility elsewhere. Non-uniformed combatants seized while at war against the United States have never gained access to our civil court system, ever. They don't belong in American criminal prisons, and I'd prefer they get warehoused somewhere else than Midwestern America.
Having them on an island, where any potential escape means getting eaten by sharks, sounds much better to me.
If McCain locks them up here, it will only increase the attempts to grant the terrorists habeas corpus and have them tranferred to courts designed to handle robberies and fraud, not attempts to conduct war against America.
This takes McCain out of RINO country and into Moonbat Central. He may call himself a Republican, but his views are now solidly of a piece with the Democratic Party.
He's more likely to win the Donk's nom than the GOP's top spot on the ticket.
And politics aside, I agree with Captain Ed's assessment of the mind-boggling idiocy of McCain's positions. They reveal a man clearly out of touch with the realities and requirements of fighting for the best interests of the United States.
Posted by Mike Lief at 03:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 16, 2007
Ingratitude personified
South Korea's highest-grossing movie is Host, the tale of a monster wreaking havoc on the residents of Seoul.
Slate's review notes the essentially anti-American thread that runs throughout the flick.
In a prologue set in the year 2000 on a Seoul military base, an American scientist orders his Korean lab assistant to dump gallons of leftover formaldehyde directly into a sink drain. When the underling protests that the toxic chemicals will run directly into the water system, the arrogant doctor rationalizes that "the Han River is broad. Let's be broad-minded about this."
[...]
[The Korean main characters are] our heroes, our only hope in a world of bureaucratic mismanagement and boneheaded American interventionism (when a Yank in a haz-mat suit arrives to debrief the families, the first thing he does is take a comic pratfall).
[...]
Like all great monster movies, The Host gestures at the cultural anxieties it channels without ever naming them outright. The movie's vision of Americans as oblivious, trigger-happy, and dangerously stupid is a jab at the American military presence in South Korea and, possibly, at the war in Iraq as well.
I rarely curse when posting on this blog, but I'm sorely tempted now.
"Boneheaded American interventionism"?
"[O]blivious, trigger-happy, and dangerously stupid" Americans?
And as for the evil American doctor, the monster's inadvertent creator, and his comment about how broad the Han River is, well, Americans know all about the Han River. They fought their way across it more than once.
A dead Marine lies in the foreground, as a wounded member of I Company, 5th U.S. Marines, is dragged to safety during fighting for the high ground overlooking the Han River. The Marines would soon cross the river to recapture Seoul.
Almost 30,000 American GIs were killed or wounded fighting to push the North Koreans and Chi-Coms out of South Korea. According to the BBC, more than 2 million Korean civilians were killed, a result of the North Korean invasion.
When the Communist forces seized Seoul, they rounded up and murdered civilians. When the North Koreans retreated, they massacred civilians and American POWs; the wounded were buried alive.
More than 50 years later, South Korea's prosperity -- second only to that of Japan -- is a direct result of the blood spilled by American GIs and Marines in the terrible heat of the Korean summers and the unbelievable cold of the brutal winters.
Sure, it's just a movie, but the contempt expressed for Americans in this blockbuster is infuriating -- even if it fails to register with the ever-so-sophisticated Slate reviewer.
Take a moment and look at the list of Americans awarded the Medal of Honor during the Korean War. Click on their names and read the citations. Note how many were awarded posthumously.
So, you'll pardon me if I say that the South Koreans can piss off.
We need troops for Iraq? Every last "Boneheaded American intervention[ist]" GI should be withdrawn from the Korean peninsula. And should the tyrant Kim decide the time was right to move south of the 38th Parallel, the South Koreans should feel free to call the French.
Posted by Mike Lief at 05:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What the hell?
There are times when I simply cannot -- can not! -- understand what Pres. Bush is thinking.
This would be one of those times.
"My pledge to you and your government, but more important to the people of Mexico, is I'll work as hard as I possibly can to pass comprehensive immigration reform," Bush said during a sun-splashed arrival ceremony that opened two days of meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
No U.S. President should be roaming the world in the best of times, pledging to foreigners that he’ll be working for their interests.
Call me old fashioned, call me parochial, hell, call me a jingoistic, red-blooded American patriotic fool, but the president of the United States -- my president – best be devoting himself morning, noon and night to working as hard as he can for the citizens of his own damn nation.
Pres. Bush has been cut a lot of slack by conservatives, who disagree with his positions on many issues but recognize that the man does what he thinks is right. Unlike his predecessor, no one can reasonably accuse Pres. Bush of sticking a finger in the air and changing policies based upon prevailing winds.
But this is simply incomprehensible. More than 60 percent of Americans support cracking down on illegal immigrants – and the firms that employ them. And they're we're right!
Americans are engaged in a poisonous national debate on the war in Iraq, terrorist regimes are getting nuclear weapons, and people are streaming across our southern borders with little impediment.
Worried about nukes? The best way to get one into the U.S. would be to hide it in a bale of marijuana and strap the drugs to the back of an illegal alien just south of the border.
Don’t give a damn about national security? How ‘bout the economy?
Despite the doom and gloom predictions, in those cities where raids have targeted illegals, businesses have responded by raising wages to levels that appeal to U.S. citizens – and they’re hiring … Americans.
Which is why Blacks are becoming more vocal in their demands for border enforcement; more jobs at decent wages when the Mexican citizens go home.
When Pres. Bush promises “comprehensive immigration reform” to Mexicans, he’s essentially flipping the bird to unemployed Americans – Black, White, and every shade in between.
What makes his statement even more infuriating is that it comes in the same week that a Mexican official recognized that Mexico needs to get its economic house in order, before it starts making demands on the U.S.
Which is a perfect bit of symmetry: A U.S. president telling Mexicans what they want to hear, and a Mexican official telling them what they need to hear.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Stupid, guilt-ridden European liberal alert
Didja hear about the school administrators who were so concerned about the feelings of their Muslim students that they changed the title of The Three Little Piggies?
The new-and-improved title is The Three Little Puppies.
Of course, the self-loathing Western 'tards forgot that Muslims consider dogs to be unclean, vermin-ridden, carrion-eating pests.
Committee member Gill Goodswen, head teacher of Stile Common Junior School, defending the move.
She said: "We have to be sensitive if we want to be multi-cultural. It was felt it would be more responsible not to use the three little pigs.
"We feared that some Muslim children wouldn't sing along to the words about pigs,' she said.
"We didn't want to take that risk. If changing a few words avoids offence then we will do so."
To their credit, the Muslim parents quoted in the article think the title change is quite unnecessary.
I'd institute sharia just to administer 20 lashes to the teachers involved.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2007
Bananas
Casio EX S-600, 1/15 second, f2.7, exposure bias -0.67, 6.2mm.
Posted by Mike Lief at 06:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Freedom of speech for me, but not for thee
Do you remember how the liberals vehemently opposed any laws against burning the American flag? Burning, stamping, folding, spindling and mutilating Old Glory was deemed an essential, symbolic act of speech -- political speech.
After all, what could be more political that to step on the national symbol?
The talking points of the ACLU contained the reflexive clause that those who burn the flag do so, not out of hatred for their country, but out of love and patriotism.
So, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, right? Desecration of a flag – any flag, not just our own – is legitimate political speech. Right?
Not in San Francisco, says David French.
Well, they did it. The San Francisco State University administration and students went ahead with a hearing against College Republicans who had the audacity to step on Hamas and Hezbollah flags during an anti-terrorism rally. Believe it or not, a public university in the United States of America actually put its students on trial for — among other things — desecrating the name of Allah. FIRE is all over the case , and a news story today gives us a first glimpse at the absurdity of the actual proceedings in the university "hearing."
Perfect.
California residents? Your tax dollars at work.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Don't offend the help
The latest efforts by aggressively chauvinistic Muslims to impose their beliefs on the rest of us are accelerating in the Minneapolis area, and John Hinderaker of Powerline has the details.
Some weeks ago, a national news story developed out of the fact that a number of Somali taxi drivers at the Twin Cities airport refused to transport passengers who possessed alcohol, claiming it would be a violation of Islamic law to do so. One curious aspect of the controversy was that the Islamic cab drivers themselves seemed to be split pretty evenly as to whether their religion imposes any such prohibition or not.
We here in Minnesota are on the firing line on these matters of religion. The latest controversy arises over the refusal of some cashiers to ring up sales of pork products:
Beryl Dsouza was late and in no mood for delays when she stopped at a Target store after work two weeks ago for milk, bread and bacon. So Dsouza was taken aback when the cashier -- who had on the traditional headscarf, or hijab, worn by many Muslim women -- refused to swipe the bacon through the checkout scanner.
"She made me scan the bacon. Then she opened the bag and made me put it in the bag," said Dsouza, 53, of Minneapolis. "It made me wonder why this person took a job as a cashier."
In the latest example of religious beliefs creating tension in the workplace, some Muslims in the Twin Cities are adhering to a strict interpretation of the Qur'an that prohibits the handling of pork products. Instead of swiping the items themselves, they are asking non-Muslim employees or shoppers to do it for them.
Once again, there doesn't seem to be any consensus among the Muslims themselves on whether their religion bans scanning the bar code on a package of bacon and putting it in a bag. Somehow, I doubt that the Koran contains anything directly on point.
While most customers have been offended or worse by cashiers' refusal to ring up some of their purchases, others have urged accommodation of the Somalis' customs--or alleged customs, since the Somalis themselves are divided:
Dr. Shah Khan, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Minnesota in Fridley ... urged people to remember the extraordinary adjustments many Somalis have made in coming to the Twin Cities. "Many of these people are refugees. They may have been tortured. And they came here having never held a book in English," he said. "They're already adapting to our society. We need to adapt to them, too."
Sorry, no.
Refugees who come to America need to learn that if you want to be a cashier in a store that sells food, it isn't up to you to critique the customers' purchases. Likewise if you're a cab driver; you don't get to choose your fares based on your approval or disapproval of the contents of their packages.
That isn't how it works here, and the sooner that immigrants learn that they can't erect a little zone of sharia law around themselves, the better off they will be.
Amen to that. The multi-cultural ideal is a disaster; assimilation, an insistence that immigrants become Americans first and foremost, i.e., the melting pot model that worked for my immigrant great-grandparents, is the only basis for a stable society.
The "America: Love it or leave it" paradigm is entirely appropriate for immigrants. If they don't like the way we live in this country, feel free to return to The Islamic Republic of Suckistan, with all the advantages it bestows upon its denizens, like war, famine, pestilence and poverty.
If they want a piece of the American dream, they can damn well learn to live in the 21st century -- even if 7th century culture and customs are more to their liking.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 14, 2007
Life aboard a submarine
The scullery (above left), where I spent many hours washing dishes during meals aboard the Blueback. The galley (above right) was where the cooks worked amazing feats of culinary magic, feeding more than 90 men out of a space barely bigger than three phone booths.
When I was a newbie, non-qual, low-ranking crewman aboard the USS Blueback (SS-581), one of my first assignments was as a “mess crank,” assigned to assist the cooks in the crew’s mess.
That meant I was a dishwasher, busboy, janitor and gofer for the cooks, Chris “Lips” Lipka, John “Hoobs” Huvler, Bob “Pappy” Strong and Kevin “Samurai” Carver.
They worked for Senior Chief Mess Specialist (Submarines) Layon, a dapper Filipino who always managed to sport perfectly-pressed khaki uniforms, no matter how long we’d been at sea. Layon owned a chain of banks back in the Philippines (or as we said, the P.I.), making him a wealthy man by any standard. But he was close to getting his Navy pension and was going to finish his career in uniform, enriching his bottom line.
Layon had an endearing habit: he was driven to paroxysms of apoplectic rage if anyone dared refer to his food as “shit.” His fury was so overwhelming that his normally-accentless English lapsed into an almost pidgin Philippines patois.
It would go something like this.
One of the guys, bored and looking to provide some entertainment, would pause halfway though his meal, nudge his neighbor in the ribs, and call out to Chief Layon, who was standing at the galley entrance, coffee mug in hand.
“Hey, chief! Whattaya call this?”
“It’s pork adobo,” the chief said with a proud smile, “my own recipe.”
“Yeah? Well, this is some good shit!”
Layon froze, his coffee mug inches from his pursed lips. Narrowing his eyes, he slammed it down onto the galley counter, startling Pappy Strong, who was sweating over the grill.
“Chit? You say chit!?” Layon stalked over to the table, jabbing his index finger at the offender. “You call my foods chit? Goddam mudderpucker! I don’ serve chit! You wanna eat chit, I gib you chit, mudderpucker! Goddam. GODDAM! Puck you! PUCK YOU! I gonna kick your mudderpuckin’ ass!”
The rest of the guys would placate the irate senior chief, reassuring him that, no, we most assuredly didn’t think his "foods" was shit. Layon would grab his mug and retreat, muttering, to the Goat Locker, to commiserate with the other chiefs about the ungrateful bastids he wasted all his good food on.
The crew's mess, looking aft (above left). The dreaded supply locker was on the left, just forward of the engine room hatch, visible in the background. Looking across the mess (above right) from the galley entrance shows two of the tables; the ladder in the background was added after the Blueback was decommissioned, eliminating one of the large, six-man tables.
Chow was served family style, on platters passed around to the men, twenty at a time in the mess at four tables, the two closest to the galley seating six each, with two booths next to the port bulkhead, each sitting four men.
I’d be in the scullery, doing dishes when not serving, scrubbing the white plates and bowls with their navy blue trim in scalding water, then dunking them in rinsewater treated with Betadine, a disinfectant that reeked of iodine.
When the meal was done and the crew had left, I’d fill a No. 10 can with hot, soapy water and scrub the deck on my hands and knees with a green 3-M scrub pad, using rags to dry up before moving on to the next section.
The worst part of the job was always after we left port for a long cruise. Before weighing anchor, we’d form a human chain, passing food hand to hand from the pier, across the brow, along the deck, through the hatch and down 15 feet to the main deck, thousands of pounds of supplies, one crate at a time.
Then it all had to be stowed away, the perishables into the reefer and freeze boxes, the canned goods stuffed into storerooms until full, the rest lining the decks from the engine room, throughout enlisted berthing, then forward to the torpedo room.
We’d all be walking hunched over for a while, the boxes of food raising the deck level about 18 inches throughout the boat. It was a hassle, but a full war load-out meant carrying more than five weeks of food in a really small boat.
Here’s the part I hated. Before each meal, the cook would hand his galley slave a list of all the ingredients needed for that days meals; it was my job to find all the canned goods needed to make breakfast, lunch, dinner and mid-rats, scattered throughout the boat.
The crates out in the open weren’t the problem; it was the damn storeroom in the aft, starboard corner of the crew’s mess that I dreaded.
A narrow, L-shaped compartment, it was about 5-and-a-half feet tall inside, with rail-lined shelves along the bulkheads. And it was packed, floor to ceiling – er, deck to overhead – with cans, crates and boxes. I’d start pulling stuff out, burrowing my way in, looking for everything on the list. It’d take hours, and inevitably I’d find myself stuck at some point, contorted in the aft-most corner, sweating and cursing as I tried to free myself, unable to find the freakin’ “corn, creamed.”
It’s hard to imagine how frustrating it was – and in retrospect it seems silly – but I was positively berserk by the time I’d reached the end of the list, ranting and raving to myself loud enough to be heard by passers-by, “Where’s the peas? I can’t find the freakin’ peas! For the love of God, where are the peas?! AAAAGGGGHHHHH!”
Sometimes, tired of the maniacal ravings coming from the storeroom, one of the senior enlisted guys would close the door and lock it. Which really helped. I’d inch backward until my feet made contact with it, then begin kicking, cursing a blue streak, until Pappy would let me out.
I’d tumble to the deck, glaring, wild-eyed around me. Pappy stood there, looking down at me, and said, “You find those peas yet, Leafy? What are you waiting for? Stop screwing around.”
Yo ho, yo ho, a sailor’s life for me.
Posted by Mike Lief at 05:46 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
March 13, 2007
Things look different when you're a million miles from home
This is how a lunar eclipse looks from more than a million miles from the Earth. The picture was taken by a NASA satellite.
"It's like being in the wrong solar system," gasped one NASA scientist after she gazed at the images.
[…]
"What an extraordinary view ... we caught a lunar transit of the Sun," said the NASA scientist, Dr Lika Guhathakurta.
"The images have an alien quality. It's not just the strange colours of the Sun. Look at the size of the Moon; it's very odd."
By pure coincidence the relatively tiny Moon, when seen from Earth, looks exactly the same size as the much bigger and far more distant Sun.
So, during a solar eclipse our only natural satellite can block out the solar disc, bringing darkness in the middle of the day.
But [NASA satellite] STEREO-B is about 1.6 million kilometres from Earth, so to it the Moon looks 4.4 times smaller than it does to us.
The Sun looks different because the spacecraft took the pictures using four different extreme ultraviolet light wavelengths.
If you didn't know it was from our solar system, it'd be easy to believe it was an image from a sci-fi flick.
Posted by Mike Lief at 11:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
An inconvenient truth
I’ve been trying to come up with a name for the Gorebots, one that captures the cult-like devotion to pseudo-science, the fervor, passion and rage they display when confronted by unbelievers.
They’re really religious fanatics – cult members, actually – for whom science and whack-a-doodle new-age theories have provided an explanation for all that is wrong in the world: conservative capitalists, 99 percent Americans, as well as the less-capitalist but still too-much-like-the-Amis industrialized European nations.
Given their resistance to reality, perhaps we should appropriate the term “Scientologists.” After all, Albert Gore is no less a snake-oil salesman than L. Ron Hubbard, and his particular brand of elixir promises to fix the world, using a blend of feel-good blather and groupthink. And, as with the Dianetics crowd, these guys are passionate about their gospel.
Of course, they’re also barking-at-the-moon insane.
Facts are truly inconvenient things for these folks. For instance, at the most basic level, they seem unable to comprehend that the single greatest cause of global warming is the freaking star rising in the east and setting in the west.
An increase in the Sun’s energy output of less than .001 percent is greater than the combined CO2 emissions of all the humans who ever lived. As a matter of fact, each time Mt. Pinatubo erupts in the Philippines, it dumps more CO2 into the atmosphere than the entire human race produces in a millennia.
Global warming is a natural result of a cyclical variation in the Sun’s temperature; the world gets hotter and cooler in response to G-d periodically changing the setting on the cosmic stove from “simmer” to “boil.”
Don’t take my word for it; scientists recently found that Mars was also suffering from global warming, and it wasn’t caused by NASA’s Mars rover explorers. Yeah, it’s that SUV-driving Sun again.
And global warming isn’t always a bad thing; during previous periods of increasing world-wide temperatures, ancient Britons were able to grow wine throughout their warm, sunny land.
But the biggest dilemma for Sir Albert’s disciples is this: global warming is a natural phenomenon, and “natural” is the most important of all qualities. What hubris! Mankind – er, Womynkind, trying to disrupt the natural order of the universe. Mother Nature is having a hot-flash; get over it!
Anyhow, John Hawkins found a great example of the Gorebots resistance to a really inconvenient truth.
A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite.
[…]
Then there was the cold - quite a bit colder, Atwood said, then Bancroft and Arnesen had expected. One night they measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero, and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times, Atwood said.
"My first reaction when they called to say there were calling it off was that they just sounded really, really cold," Atwood said.
She said Bancroft and Arnesen were applying hot water bottles to Arnesen's foot every night, but had to wake up periodically because the bottles froze.
The explorers had planned to call in regular updates to school groups by satellite phone, and had planned online posts with photographic evidence of global warming. In contrast to Bancroft's 1986 trek across the Arctic with fellow Minnesota explorer Will Steger, this time she and Arnesen were prepared to don body suits and swim through areas where polar ice has melted.
Atwood said there was some irony that a trip to call attention to global warming was scuttled in part by extreme cold temperatures.
"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."
Hawkins’ response is terrific.
I guess they didn't manage to get that, "photographic evidence" of global warming because of the cold. But luckily, the very fact that it was colder than they expected is … proof of global warming.
So, by global warming alarmist logic, if [they] go to the North Pole and find melted polar ice, it's evidence of global warming. On the other hand, if they go the North Pole and it's actually much colder than they expected, that's also evidence of global warming.
Well then, what's not evidence of global warming according to "The global warming is going to kill us all, man! We're gonna fry like an egg!" crowd?
You know, I think liberals are right. Religious fanatics are frightening.
Posted by Mike Lief at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Your tax dollars at work
Wondering what’s got the U.N. all worked up? Slaughter in Darfur? Honor killings of women throughout the Muslim world? The suffering of North Koreans under the Kim regime?
What, are you kidding?
The United Nation's Human Rights Council is expected to place Israel under permanent investigation for its "violations" of international law in the territories - until such time as it withdraws to the pre-1967 border - according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
[…]
It's one of at least four anti-Israel actions he expects the council to take during its fourth session, which started in Geneva on Monday and runs through April 5, Neuer told The Jerusalem Post from Geneva.
The UN body was created in June to replace the Human Rights Commission, which was scrapped because it had a faulty membership composition and repeatedly singled out Israel.
But since its inception, the 47-member body - which includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China - has continued to single out the Jewish State. It has issued eight anti-Israel resolutions, and none against any other nation. It has also held three special sessions on Israel.[…]
The Human Rights Council is also set to hear a report compiled by UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard that compares Israeli actions in the territories to that of the former apartheid system in South Africa.
The United States pays the lion’s share of the U.N. budget, so we fund a bunch of anti-semitic diplomats -- representing repressive regimes -- who target the only Western nation in the Middle East.
Where can gays and lesbians live openly? Where can women live the lives of their own choosing, as the equal of any man? Where do the arts, science and technology flourish?
It ain’t in the Arab and Muslim world, my friends.
They do in Israel, though, which makes it all the more ironic that the international civil libertarians -- as well as the pin-striped, smooth-talking diplomatic representatives of thugocracys -- target the Jewish state for "gross" violations of international law.
You think it ought to matter to them, that the Israelis provide more freedom than any other country in the Middle East? That the gays and women who cower in the closet and beneath burqas in Muslim lands are protected in Israel?
But that’s irrelevant, you see, because the moral-equivalence crowd doesn’t hold them to the same standards as the Jews Israelis. Why not? Well, viewed through their P.C.-distorted eyes, they’re Arabs, Muslims, and not the white, European, Western men responsible for all the evil in the post-colonial world -- including the perfectly-understandable behaviour of our hot-blooded brown friends.
The U.N. expects more from the Jews Israelis.
Why do we play host to the U.N.? Why do we pay the bill for this Mad Hatter’s tea party?
Posted by Mike Lief at 06:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 11, 2007
Portfolio: Camp Roberts, California, Part IV
I was driving back to the barracks when I glanced up and did a double take; there were two enormous birds perched atop a power pole. I climbed out of my gas-guzzling SUV (bite me, Al Gore!) to take a closer look.
Gazing down at me were a pair of vultures, aka California Condors, Hekyll and Jekyll. They were so big that I felt a little nervous turning my back on them to get my camera.
I got a little too close and they took off, great sweeping flaps of their giant wings carrying them to more private environs.
A short time later, a magnificent hawk flew by, a twitching mouse hanging from its talons, but I was too slow grabbing for the camera.
The post has numerous areas that have been bulldozed, leaving empty fields bordered and bisected by roads that once ran alongside barracks, but traces of the old buildings remain, occasional pieces of machinery resting amongst the oaks, antique plumbing erupting from the ground.
This fire hydrant has been standing guard since the earliest days of the war, it's housing cast in the still-peaceful days of early 1941. Having outlasted the Krauts and the Japs, it fell victim to the increasing cost of maintaining the buildings it was meant to protect. It seems almost forlorn, moss growing on its edges, slowly corroding, fading from its once-vibrant red into a dull ochre.
Posted by Mike Lief at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Satellite TV sucks
One of the nods to modernity at Camp Roberts is the appearance of small satellite dishes sprouting near the barracks and officers' quarters; the base is too far away from the nearest town to justify running cable, so I guess this is the only way to keep the all-volunteer soldiers entertained.
I've never subscribed to either of the two players in the satellite market, but I can say -- having seen the technology as featured on post -- two things:
Cable ain't got nothing to worry about.
Because satellite sucks.
Constant -- and I do mean CONSTANT -- signal interruptions, digital glitches, artifacts and freeze frames.
And, oh, did I mention that with more than a gazillion channels, there's no ABC programming at all?
So much for staying up to date with Lost. Despite my recent musings after the craptastic episode from a couple of weeks back that the show had jumped the shark in a big way, the message boards say last week's episode was quite good.
Of course, I wouldn't know, would I?
How bad to you have to be to be worse than cable?
Posted by Mike Lief at 11:03 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
March 10, 2007
College days nights in San Luis Obispo
Posted by Mike Lief at 10:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Global warming is killing polar bears!
Everybody knows it's true, right? Global warming is bad for children, kittens, unicorns and other all-natural, wholesome sentient beings. See, the papers have been ejimicating us on the dangers.
You see, everybody knows global warming -- the fault of Americans in their bloody SUVs -- is destroying the planet, and the polar bears are the canaries in the coal mine. And those poor, snowy-white cute fellows don't belong in dank, dark, sooty coal mines.
So, what are you going to do about the scientifically-proven fact that global warming is going to make the polar bears extinct?
Even the U.S. Congress is getting with the program, holding hearings on adding the creatures to the endangered species list.
What?
You heard what?
Pictures of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study.
A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.
In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.
"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.
His findings back the claims of Inuit hunters who have long claimed that they were seeing more bears.
Finding facts to be damnably inconvenient, the eco-fanatics explain that the numbers of bears are increasing -- despite global warming -- thanks to the efforts of (wait for it) ecologists!
Sacre merde!
What a load of hooey.
At least Emily Litella had the grace, when proven to be a buffoon, to say, "Never mind."
Posted by Mike Lief at 10:16 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Meet the child molester next door
Go here and enter your ZIP code; click on the red boxes in your neighborhood map to see a photo of the pervert nextdoor.
Powerful stuff, and another truly good use of the internet.
Posted by Mike Lief at 09:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 07, 2007
Cox & Forkum
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
News you can use
Given the story yesterday about the Arab caught with a magnet, wires, and other suspicious objects stuck in his KeithOlberman, Slate resurrected its explainer, How many cell phones can you fit in your rear end?
Cellular telephones were discovered inside the anal cavities of four prison inmates in El Salvador on Tuesday. The director of the prison says the convicts had attempted to conceal four plastic-wrapped cell phones, nine cell-phone chips, and one cell-phone charger. Hang on—how much stuff can one person fit up there?
Quite a bit. "Body-packing" drug runners usually carry several pounds of narcotics in their digestive tracts. These are split up into dozens of tubular packets, each one about the size of an unshelled peanut. Most body-packers swallow the packets along with drugs that induce constipation, but some place the drugs directly into the anal canal.
Objects that can't be divided into small packages pose a bigger problem. In general, it takes a fair bit of training to conceal something that's more than a couple of inches in diameter. As a general rule, the medical literature on "retained colorectal foreign bodies" considers anything bigger a "large object." (Most modern cell phones wouldn't meet that definition. The Explainer's Motorola RAZR, for example, is only 2 inches wide and 3.75 inches long.)
Doctors find retained foreign bodies in both smugglers and recreational body-packers. One experienced pleasure-seeker told an online body modification magazine that it took two years of training before he could accommodate a wine bottle—which is about three inches wide. (Now he can handle 4-inch balls.)
Body-packing can be a dangerous activity. In extreme cases, internal lacerations can lead to sepsis or fatal blood loss. Drug mules can suffer from "cocaine-packer syndrome," which occurs when packages break open and release their contents. (A ruptured packet of cocaine or heroin can be life-threatening; leaking marijuana or hashish is more likely to make you a bit loopy.) A retained foreign body can also cause severe abdominal pain.
"Recreational body packers"? Oy vey.
A high-school buddy did his medical internship at Lenox Hills Hospital in Manhattan; he told me that the attending physician delighted in showing newbies x-rays of patients' lower gastro-intestinal tracts, to see how well they could divine the contents of the junk in the trunk.
Leo said he stared at the x-ray for some time, mystified by what he was seeing. The attending finally snorted derisively, asking, "Whatsamatter, you don't recognize Mrs. Butterworth?"
Upon closer inspection, Leo saw that the patient had crammed an entire maid-shaped glass bottle of pancake topping into his bundt-cake pan.
Interesting, huh?
The security implications are actually pretty serious, as grenades will fit -- as well as bomb-making materials. Given the willingness of suicide bombers to strap explosives to the outsides of their bodies, it's inevitable that they'll soon start exploiting our squeamishness and use fundament-exploiting tactics.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Watch Friday Night Lights, dammit!
Bright lights, big pity
The low-rated but brilliant drama "Friday Night Lights" needs a Hail Mary pass from NBC if it's going to see a second season.
By Heather Havrilesky
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2007/03/07/lights/
I wasn't a huge football fan in high school, but there was something special about a home game on a Friday night. When those glowing lights over the stadium would come on as the sun was setting orange and pink on the horizon, I was always glad that I came. It didn't matter if we won or lost (we usually lost), what mattered was that the field looked bright green under the lights and the fall air had a chill and you could hear a cadence of drums in the distance as the marching band approached. No matter how much I hated high school that day, it all melted away and suddenly it felt good to be 16 years old, to have a taste of that little-fish small-pond romanticism you get when you recognize half the people in the crowd and feel like a part of it all. When the lights came on and the band started up, the world felt big and colorful and full of promise.
Nothing has ever come close to capturing that feeling for me until the premiere of NBC's "Friday Night Lights" last fall (8 p.m. Wednesdays), a drama that tackles the sweetness and the awkwardness of high school like no other show I've ever seen. In fact, compared to the originality and realism of "Friday Night Lights," other TV shows about high school look as idealized and as silly as an Archie comic book. Instead of trading witty banter and landing neat punches to the jaw, the kids on "Friday Night Lights" have stilted, clumsy conversations in which they stare at their shoes and giggle and try to act like they're not completely confused and overwhelmed. Like real teenagers, they hold down crappy jobs, worry about how to act around other kids, second-guess their decisions, and fumble into dysfunctional friendships. They don't know how to talk to their parents, and their parents don't know how to talk to them.
Based on the book by H.G. Bissinger and the movie directed by Peter Berg (who's also an executive producer on the show), "Friday Night Lights" focuses on football mostly as a means of accessing a rich web of relationships in a small town in Texas. That said, the absurd importance of high school football to the townspeople and the arbitrary nature of the wins and losses of the team coincide nicely with the premise that the writers are only beginning to explore, something about the pull of big, unrealistic hopes and dreams on a bunch of kids who are surrounded by evidence that dreams don't come true all that often. At the center of the story is fallen quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter), who became a paraplegic after a bad tackle during the opening game of the season. The team's attempts to get second-string quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) up to speed are presented in parallel with Street's struggle to transcend his apparent fate as a tragic story that ended on the football field that day. Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) is wracked by guilt over Street's injury, but he's forced to push his guys to a state championship at all costs, for the sake of the school and the town, and simply to keep food on the table for his family. The continued presence of Street in the story tells you something about the courageous ambiguity of the show: What other TV show about sports would dare to allow a severely injured former quarterback to linger at the edge of the frame at all times, thereby shedding a nagging light of doubt on the unrelenting thirst for victory on such a small stage?
And what other show would not only take on a conversation between a mother and a daughter about sex, but make it feel honest and nerve-wracking and incredibly charged? After Tami Taylor (Connie Britton), the coach's wife, spots her daughter Julie's boyfriend buying condoms at the drugstore, she tries to have a calm conversation with Julie (Aimee Teegarden), but you can feel her anxiety and she ends up blurting out her worst fears:
Tami: Are you and Matt Saracen having sex?
Julie: No. (Pause.) We're thinking about it.
Tami: You're thinking about it. Are you thinking about pregnancy? Are you thinking about sexually transmitted diseases?
Julie: Well, I mean, obviously that's why he was buying condoms.
Tami: I see, so you're just buying condoms ... so then when you buy condoms that makes you ready to make love with somebody...
Julie: (smiling) Making love!
Tami: (Close to tears) Don't do that! Don't you smirk at me right now, I am very upset! You are not allowed to have sex! You're 15 years old!
Julie: I just, I don't see what the big deal is. It's just one body part going into another...
Tami: No, it's not. It's not just one body part going into another part. And the fact that you think it's just one body part going into another body part makes me real clear on the fact that you really are not ready for this. And I need you to be able to hear that. I need you be able to hear me say that to you.
Julie: I'm listening to you.
Tami goes on to warn her daughter, through tears, that if she starts having sex without taking it seriously, she could end up feeling degraded and hardened and cynical -- all of which would surely seem overwrought, if not for the fact that Britton's performance is mesmerizing and hits so close to the bone, you can feel it. For Tami, this isn't about control -- you can see that in the way she speaks to Julie -- it's about her own past. She knows what a messy road her daughter is about to walk down, and it scares her to death.
As with most scenes on "Friday Night Lights," this one feels incredibly immediate and electric. It's one of the only conversations between a parent and a teenager that I've ever seen on TV where the audience isn't clearly supposed to take one side or the other. We're afforded an affecting, complicated snapshot of the relationship: Julie is a good kid who's already decided to have sex and feels that she has the right to; her mom is a good parent who can't stand the thought of it and can't stop from sounding shrill and overbearing because she can't control her emotions on the subject.
But then, every week "Friday Night Lights" features a truly memorable scene, the kind of scene that you can't imagine working on any other drama. The odd, seemingly improvised dialogue and shooting style of the show, which co-executive producer Jeffrey Reiner described to Entertainment Weekly as "no rehearsals, no blocking, just three cameras and we shoot," brings out the intimacy of each scene. The shaky cameras and extreme close-ups that plague so many other shows actually work here, giving us the sense that we're eavesdropping on a heated conversation between strangers. The dialogue has a natural, halting pace, and the camera movement focuses our attention on the weight and meaning of each word. We don't just watch these interactions, we experience them, getting caught up in the misunderstandings and tensions and longings that are uncovered in the process.
The young actors on the show have really grown into its odd style. While Gilford, who plays the earnest, shy quarterback Saracen, seemed to have a natural talent for the aw-shucks qualities of his role from the start, some of the other actors had a shaky beginning -- Minka Kelly, who plays fallen quarterback Street's girlfriend, Lyla, seemed a little false at first, but now she's utterly convincing as the optimistic but sometimes naive romantic. Similarly, Porter has done a great job evoking the anger and confusion of going from star quarterback to outcast overnight. And Gaius Charles has really shined as hot-shot receiver Smash Williams; he's evolved along with his character into a conflicted, sometimes immature kid with good intentions that are sometimes clouded by his huge ego.
Best of all, though, are the interactions between coach Taylor and his wife, Tami. Every scene between the two is lively and flirtatious but also edgy and snippish, perfectly capturing the imperfect, bickering energy of a good marriage, where two people are good friends and depend on each other completely, but aren't afraid to say it when they disagree. When coach Taylor is faced with a tough decision about whether to fire one of his assistant coaches for making ignorant remarks that many interpreted as racist, he goes to his wife, who's the counselor at the high school, for advice. But as he speaks to her, he realizes that he really wants her to back his choice not to fire the guy.
Tami: As a guidance counselor, I gotta say, that, to me, is a fireable offense. What he said.
Eric: All right, let me talk to my wife. Let me talk to the person who cares about me and cares about the team and also has to understand the relevance and the importance to our future of us winning the regional.
Tami: There is nothing more clear to me. Your team is way more important to you than Mac McGill.
Eric: Is there anyone else I can talk to?
The humor and energy in scenes like this one make other dramas seem limp and silly in comparison. Yet, "Friday Night Lights" continues to struggle for good ratings, regularly getting crushed by "American Idol" on Wednesday nights.
But then, marketing-wise, "Friday Night Lights" is in an impossible position. The show appears to be about football, potentially turning off plenty of possible viewers who aren't into sports. And even with those fans, TV shows about sports have a long history of failing miserably. On top of that, the show actually focuses on far heavier and more complicated subject matter -- parenting, adultery, alcoholism, racism -- potentially turning off viewers who are into football. This is the Catch-22 of any narrative that needs to find a wide audience to survive: The more complicated and difficult to describe it is, the more challenging it is to lure in a big enough audience. If the show had a really bad, obvious name like "Tumbletown, TX" and it appeared on the CW, maybe it would be another "Smallville" or "Everwood" -- a modest hit with a clear group of loyal fans. Forget that "Friday Night Lights" is much better than either of those shows. It's a confusing, complex drama that's sort of about football, but sort of not, and that makes it a hard sell. Americans may love football, but they aren't exactly big fans of ambiguity.
If only more people knew what a rare and beautiful thing they're missing: a drama that sets the bar much higher than it has to, daring to take on the romance and heartbreak of being a teenager with honesty, compassion and wit. The writers don't take shortcuts with pointless fisticuffs and cliques and ironic asides; they stick to the emotional center of the story at all times. As a result, over the course of its short season (which ends on Wednesday, April 11 -- well before May sweeps, which isn't a good sign for its survival), "Friday Night Lights" has evolved from a strikingly original, lively little story about a football team to an evocative portrayal of life in a small American town, a narrative with so much sweetness and authenticity to it that, once you abandon yourself to its undeniable charms, you'll find it has the power to make you cringe and grit your teeth and laugh and cry each week, without fail.
How could a show with so much depth and soul possibly get canceled? Sure, it's happened before, but something about the spirit of "Friday Night Lights" makes me hope against hope that this time, the good guys will bring home the trophy. As the Dillon Panthers say at the start of every game, "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!" Let's hope that this time, they're right.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:02 PM
Speaking of movie songs . . .
Mariah Carey reportedly had the cast and crew of her latest film weeping.
Carey prompted tears on the set of her new movie Tennessee after performing a song she co-wrote with country legend Willie Nelson.
The star, who plays an aspiring country singer in the film, unveiled track "Right to Dream" last week - and the film's director Aaron Woodley admits he was "moved" by the star's emotionally charged performance. He says, "People were weeping on the crew when she sang it. It's very moving, especially in the context of the film and her character."
Of course, the most likely explanation for the tears comes courtesy of the folks at Socialite Life.
He forgot to add that she was chopping onions, wearing a "Precious Moments" sweatshirt and outfitting a three-legged dog with a prosthetic leg at the same time.
Heh.
Posted by Mike Lief at 05:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why can't Oscar sing?
What happened to Hollywood's ear for a good tune? Mark Steyn laments Tinseltown's tin ear, as evidenced in the Oscar for best song.
Hugh Hewitt: Now we switch subjects completely to a bit of music (Que Sera Sera) because you have this very charming column, I think inspired by the Oscars, their music collapse. This is the music of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and it’s very charming. And you’re right. Oscars music has gone right to hell.
Mark Steyn: Well, you never hear Oscar songs except on the Oscar awards night anymore. I mean, this one that won from Melissa Etheridge, the thing from the Al Gore documentary, no one’s ever going to hear that ever again. I mean, even in the movie, you’re hardly aware of the thing. And something has gone very, very badly wrong. Que Sera Sera won the Oscar for best song in 1956. If you look at the first few years of the Oscar awards, they produced The Way You Look Tonight, they produced Thanks For The Memory, Over The Rainbow, White Christmas was an Oscar-winning song. It was introduced in a movie.
HH: Yup.
MS: And it’s nothing to do with changing tastes in music, I don’t think ... films don’t really seem to understand the potency of song, and how to make things work.
HH: Well, are there no Jay Livinston and Ray Evans left?
MS: Well, there are people who can write that kind of song. A lot of the time, I think particularly this generation of filmmakers, you know, it’s the sort of monopoly as a baby boomer nostalgia thing, they prefer to have some kind of big, have a soundtrack of big blockbuster rock hits, rather than try to introduce a new song. But certainly, the dreariest part of the Oscar ceremony these days is when you have the performances of the five nominated songs … because nobody likes them, nobody knows them, nobody cares about them.
It's the same problem with modern Broadway shows and what passes for pop music nowadays: forgettable lyrics and tunes that can't be hummed or whistled.
When was the last time a great song debuted in a Hollywood film?
There's more from Steyn on this topic here.
A sample:
What do these five songs have in common?
“The Way You Look Tonight”, “Thanks For The Memory”, “Over The Rainbow”, “When You Wish Upon A Star” and “White Christmas”.
Answer: They were all Academy Award-winning songs from the Best Song Oscar’s first decade.
And what do these five songs have in common?
“When You Believe”, “You’ll Be In My Heart”, “Into The West”, “Al Otro Lado del Rio” and “It”s Hard Out Here For A Pimp”.
Answer: They were all Academy Award-winning songs from the last decade.
Something has changed – not just in the style of music but in Hollywood’s sense of the possibilities of song, of what you can do with it in a cinematic context. In the first couple of decades, the nominees were mostly from film musicals – that’s to say, actors performed them up there on the screen.
The very first Best Song Oscar – from 1934 – went to a number Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and a cast of thousands introduced in The Gay Divorcee: “The Continental”. There was an embarrassment of riches in those days: “Pennies From Heaven” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” were among the losers in 1936, “Blues In The Night” and “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” in 1941.
In the Fifties, the studio’s music departments figured out a new wrinkle: the big theme song over the titles – “High Noon”, “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing”. Sinatra sang a bunch of them so well that the film itself seems like an afterthought tacked on to the hit opener – “Three Coins In The Fountain”, for example, the winning song in 1954.
I can sing along with both of the songs Steyn says failed to take the prize in 1936, and I know about half the words to one of 1941's nominees -- not bad for songs that have been around for seventy some-odd years.
And those were the losers.
The recent winners? Don't know a word of “It”s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” -- don't want to, either.
Read the whole thing.
Posted by Mike Lief at 04:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 06, 2007
Go tell the Spartans
This week marks the debut of The 300, the film adaption of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 warriors -- facing overwhelming numbers -- fought to the death against the Persian Legions, in defense of Sparta. And when I say, "overwhelming," I mean it; experts believe Xerxes had between 10,000 and one million warriors on the field of battle -- and Spartan leader King Leonidas knew what he and his men faced.
It's a story that has captured the imagination for more than 2,500 years, and it's true.
Historian Victor Davis Hanson says it's a faithful retelling of the battle -- faithful in that it captures the essence of the story, the essential truths, in a way that a more "realistic" film cannot.
There are four key things to remember about the film: it is not intended to be Herodotus Book 7.209-236, but rather is an adaptation from Frank Miller's graphic novel, which itself is an adaptation from secondary work on Thermopylai. Purists should remember that when they see elephants and a rhinoceros or scant mention of the role of those wonderful Thespians who died in greater numbers than the Spartans at Thermopylai.
Second, in an eerie way, the film captures the spirit of Greek fictive arts themselves. Snyder and Johnstad and Miller are Hellenic in this sense: red-figure vase painting especially idealized Greek hoplites through "heroic nudity". Such iconographic stylization meant sometimes that armor was not included in order to emphasize the male physique.
So too the 300 fight in the film bare-chested. In that sense, their oversized torsos resemble not only comic heroes, but something of the way that Greeks themselves saw their own warriors in pictures. And even the loose adaptation of events reminds me of Greek tragedy, in which an Electra, Iphigeneia or Helen in the hands of a Euripides is portrayed sometimes almost surrealistically, or at least far differently from the main narrative of the Trojan War, followed by the more standard Aeschylus, Sophocles and others.
[...]
There is irony here. Oliver Stone's mega-production Alexander spent tens of millions in an effort to recapture the actual career of Alexander the Great, with top actors like Collin Farrel, Anthony Hopkins, and Angelina Joilie. But because this was a realist endeavor, we immediately were bothered by the Transylvanian accent of Olympias, Stone's predictable brushing aside of facts, along with the distortions, and the inordinate attention given to Alexander's supposed proclivities.
But the "300" dispenses with realism at the very beginning, and thus shoulders no such burdens.
[...]
Fourth, but what was not conventionalized was the martial spirit of Sparta that comes through the film. Many of the most famous lines in the film come directly either from Herodotus or Plutarch's Moralia, and they capture well, in the historical sense, the collective Spartan martial ethic, honor, glory, and ancestor reverence (I say that as an admirer of democratic Thebes and its destruction of Sparta's system of Messenian helotage in 369 BC).
Why—beside the blood-spattering violence and often one-dimensional characterizations—will some critics not like this, despite the above caveats?
Ultimately the film takes a moral stance, Herodotean in nature: there is a difference, an unapologetic difference between free citizens who fight for eleutheria and imperial subjects who give obeisance. We are not left with the usual postmodern quandary 'who are the good guys' in a battle in which the lust for violence plagues both sides. In the end, the defending Spartans are better, not perfect, just better than the invading Persians, and that proves good enough in the end. And to suggest that ambiguously these days has perhaps become a revolutionary thing in itself.
And that's what a historian's rave review looks like.
For a review from a fan of the original comic novel, go here.
The 300 will be playing on IMAX screens. Pass the popcorn.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Just a dab'll do ya
As a follow up to the previous post, consider the amazing power of the latest generation of explosives, and how easy it is to conceal them.
Nope, absolutely nothing to worry about.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Did you hear . . .
About the incident aboard American Airline Flight 62 that sounds a lot like a dry run for another terror attack?
Of course you didn't. Because the MSM buried the story.
Flt 62, Paris to MIA [Miami], a few weeks ago. 2 maybe 4 mid-eastern types causing minor disturbance from the get-go. Nothing that the FAs [flight attendants] couldn’t deal with, but, in hindsight, they seemed to be pushing the envelope. Cross-cabin activity, hanging out in the forward galley, complaining about everything, etc. Mid-Atlantic, the FO [First Officer, or Co-Pilot] called to return to the cockpit after his crew-rest break. One of the perps [perpetrators] was in the forward galley, was instructed by a FA to go aft, but didn’t. As the cockpit door opened, another perp suddenly appeared from around the galley, dropped his shoulder into FO while the first one got in the way of the FO’s attempt to block the other…here I’m not certain…so….wait for the movie.
FO (one of our first FFDO’s [Federal Flight Deck Officers*]) was about to pull his flashlight to use as a weapon in a counter attack, but thought better of it not knowing how many more perps he might have to fight, called “lockdown” to the FB [secondary “B” First Officer], inside the cockpit, who slammed the door. As soon as the perps heard the word lockdown, they retreated to their seats.
I’m not doing justice to the story, but, if not an attempt on the cockpit, this was a serious probe.
Crew considered divert, but since the threat diminished and seemed to be contained, they pressed on towards MIA. Flight was met in MIA by FBI, FAMS [Federal Air Marshal Service] (none aboard, by the way), AA [American Airlines] Security suits, etc. During the de-brief, which lasted several hours, the FAMs told the pilots that they would have “dropped” both of the perps with the first shove near the cockpit door. Perps claimed to not understand English, were detained for 4 days and deported, back to Paris, when they are free to attend Sunday school, tell their buddies of their Adventure and plan their next move.
I have so many questions, but let's start with this one: Why were the four provacateurs deported to Paris, instead of a cell at Gitmo? In France, they're free to pass on any intel they acquired during their mission.
The enemy hasn't given up, my friends, even though many of our sob-sister compatriots are ready to raise the white flag. That we've managed to avoid any more attacks since 9-11 seems to be more a function of luck than skill.
Bad times are coming, my friends, bad times.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 05, 2007
Kitchen still life
I was reading on the couch, enjoying the quiet moment, Sinatra playing softly in the background. The new poster next to the table drew my eye -- and I reached for the camera, the dark red in the print and the Gerber daisies on the table seeming to pop! through the viewfinder LCD screen.
Casio EX-S600, 1/8 second, f5.2, focal length 18.6mm.
Posted by Mike Lief at 05:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ex con love (Or, Scenes from a Starbucks)
Last night . . . .
I'm sitting in the Starbucks in Paso Robles, listening to an empty-headed, giggling, simpering excuse of a young woman, tell the ex-con scamming on her from the neighboring table that his "prison tatoos are really neat!"
"Gosh! What makes prison tattoos different?"
"That one's cool!"
"What was it like in Atascadero?"
The rat-like ex-con is wearing a white t-shirt, baggy, knee-length shorts, black Vans and ankle socks. His head was shaved recently, and the dark hair has started growing back, a five o'clock shadow covering his head -- but not completely masking the tats on his dome. Did I mention his wispy, shadow of a moustache?
He's sporting a variety of ugly, crude-looking tats, from the back of his skinny calves, to his thin arms, over the backs of his hands, onto his knuckles, and rising to some spooky spiderwebs (ooooo, spiderwebs!) on his elbows.
He is every father's nightmare, and the woman who is seemingly mesmerized by this turd on stilts is unbelievably stupid, vapid, irritating, and making me rethink the idea of ever having kids; she'd break her father's heart, if he could see his little girl flirting with this sociological missing link.
Zippy's sipping on a fruity, pink iced-drink, through a slim green straw, now standing to raise his shirt and show his appreciative audience the tats on his stomach -- thankfully hidden from view, as I'm sitting near the windows, away from the swinging singles.
Oh, it gets better. Brain-damaged Betty's girlfriend shows up, small child in tow, and they meet her new friend, the little girl politely shaking his claw hand.
Now they're showing each other photos on their cell phones.
Ack.
I'm outta here.
Posted by Mike Lief at 04:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why even fight?
A great opening line from Rob Long's essay in the new issue of National Review.
Somewhere around the time Broward County circuit judge Larry Seidlin began weeping, inexplicably, as he read his decision in the Anna Nicole Smith case, I thought to myself, “What are we fighting so hard for? Let the terrorists win. They have a point.”
And Rob has a good point, too, doesn't he?
At times it feels like we're living in the midst of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, only the Barbarians aren't at the gates -- they're on E!
Posted by Mike Lief at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 04, 2007
Lonely tree
Somewhere between Camp Roberts and Paso Robles, Calif., a lonely tree stands beneath darkening skies.
Casio EX-S600, 1/60 sec, f4.6.
Posted by Mike Lief at 05:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Encouraging news from Iraq
U.S. Army Lieutenant Michael Bradbury, on patrol with the 7th Cavalry somewhere in Iraq.
A friend passed along this e-mail from his nephew, a U.S. Army lieutenant in Iraq. He gave me permission to post it on the web, and it's worth reading for two reasons.
First, it's a chance for you to get to hear from a brave young man who clearly cares about his mission and his troops -- and about the Iraqi people, too.
Second, it gives you an opportunity to hear about how things are going, unfiltered by the bias of the America-Last media, who are eager to proclaim the war lost, the task impossible, and the Iraqi forces incapable of bravery in the face of the enemy.
I realized that I have once again been neglecting my correspondence, and I apologize for falling behind, but I figured I could pull myself right out of that hot water with another mass email, so here it is. You are all now required to forgive me for not responding sooner, it’s in the Geneva Conventions.
Life in Iraq continues to be hectic but interesting. Due to a series of internet problems, we have been forced to find more physically demanding ways of entertaining ourselves in what limited down time we get, ranging from the traditional (football, basketball, and dodgeball, yes, dodgeball, it's because
we're cool), to the creative (donkey racing and hitting golf balls at the gate guards), to the idiotic (letting the bomb sniffing dogs attack us as part of an ongoing debate over the relative merits of wrestling alligators and bears -- it’s a long, complicated story).
Last week somebody decided that our morale needed building, so we made a tactical movement into the city, successfully kidnapping eight prime examples of the famed Iraqi donkey and transporting them back to base for questioning.After a long night of making tack (my headstall and saddle were the best, mainly because I say so), we raced them in front of the motor pool. The results were inconclusive, and I believe the race was rigged, so we claimed a moral victory for Demon Company. The golf ball thing really doesn’t require any in-depth explanation, we just figured that helping them stay awake was part of our civic duty after we caught them sleeping when we returned from a raid one night.
We continue to make progress in our many missions here in Northern Iraq, against increasingly heavy resistance from the Anti-Iraqi Forces. Although their activity has increased, it is much more chaotic, and lacks the focus and direction it had a few short months ago. Obviously, I cannot delve into this too deeply for security reasons, but I do want you all to know that we are making headway in this fight.
For the first time since I arrived in Iraq, I can honestly say that I am proud of the Iraqi Police (in the past they have been anything but reliable, and rife with corruption), and the change in their conduct is, I believe, indicative of a change that is slowly taking hold across the city’s population.
Last week an Iraqi Police station was attacked and virtually destroyed by an SVBIED (Suicide Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, the Army’s nifty way of saying “car bomb”) a couple hundred meters from my vehicles while we were set in a cordon on a raid site, immediately followed by RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) and automatic rifle fire.
Within minutes, Iraqi Policemen from the other side of the city had responded, packed into the beds of their Chevy pickups, some of them having obviously just climbed out of bed, and threw themselves into the work of rescuing the wounded from the rubble, while at the same time providing their own perimeter security, leaving us free to maneuver against the attackers, and quickly transporting their wounded comrades to the nearest hospital.
Within half an hour, all survivors had been pulled free of the destruction and were receiving medical care, and all of this was done by Iraqis, with only minimal assistance from our Soldiers.
You might be curious as to why I would go into so much detail about this incident, but I believe it is important for you to understand the progress that the Iraqis are making here.
In contrast, a month and a half ago, I was present at another AIF ambush targeting Iraqi soldiers, and, rather than treat their wounded themselves (all of the necessary tools had been provided to them), the casualties were carried to my position to be treated by Uncle Sam.
The self reliance displayed by the Iraqis this past week is what they need if their country is to succeed, and, as I said before, I am proud of them.
I continue to be exceptionally proud of our Soldiers here. Day after day, these kids, many of them 18 and 19 years old, leave the wire to confront an enemy who can only rarely be seen and engaged, and must maintain their bearing under constant threat of attack by a hidden and cowardly force, while showing compassion for a civilian population that seldom shows any gratitude for their sacrifice.
These Soldiers continue to prove themselves capable and willing to accomplish these missions, and every day I am thankful for the opportunity to serve with them.
Before my tendency to ramble catches up with me, I will close this out here, and I wish the best for each of you, and hope that this finds each of you and your loved ones safe and well, and thank you for your emails and letters, I appreciate every one of them. Take care of yourselves,
One love, homies,
Mike [Bradbury]
We have a thousand reasons for failure but not a single excuse.
-Rudyard Kipling
If you'd like to tell LT Bradbury that Americans care about him and his men, that we're deeply grateful, you can e-mail him at michael.bradbury@us.army.mil.
Posted by Mike Lief at 04:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Adventures in advertising
Want to get rid of those annoying cowboys? Have I got a recommendation for you!
Seen on the streets of Reseda, Calif., February 2007.
Posted by Mike Lief at 03:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 03, 2007
Detroit's dreadful finances
Paul Ingrassia, who used to cover Detroit for The Wall Street journal, had an opinion piece in that paper recently, DaimlerChrysler: The Divorce.
Buried in the middle of his account of the troubled union of the German and American automakers is this information.
Added evidence of Detroit's devaluation comes in the bond ratings of General Motors and Ford, now generally at Single-B-minus. that's just one notch above the dreaded Triple-C rating that defines debt as "highly speculative."
Thus GM and Ford bonds are deemed safer than Ecuador's, which are rated Triple C, but riskier than Venezuela's, which has petro wealth but also has loco-lefty president Hugo Chavez. The Detroit companies have the same debt ratings as Argentina, which is still recovering from the largest sovereign default in history a few years ago.
Things are no less encouraging when Detroit's latest offerings are compared to the competition. Sure, they've improved their quality and design in an effort to catch up to the Japanese, but the imports haven't rested on their laurels.
In the new issue of Consumer Reports, the annual auto issue, the top recommendations in all seven categories are Japanese.
Not a single American make takes best-in-class.
And in an interesting look at all the brands sold in the U.S., Consumers' Union gave each automaker two scores: the first an average of the scores for its vehicles after testing; the second figure is the percentage of models recommended by CU to its readers.
The two halves of the DaimlerChrysler union have a lot in common -- unfortunately.
Mercedes had the highest test score average; its cars have great fit and finish, and drive well. But it had the single worst score in the second category: CU recommended 0 percent of the Benz models, a result of terrible reliability.
And Chrysler -- scoring in the middle of the tests, came in second to last on the purchasing recommendations.
The Japanese -- and, increasingly, the Koreans -- are producing class-leading vehicles, and Detroit's Big Three look like they're falling farther behind.
Posted by Mike Lief at 08:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dad -UPDATE
Dad is back home with his loving wife, Jane, after much poking, prodding, testing and anesthesia-assisted exploring.
The prognosis is good; our worst fears were not confirmed, and Dad will be with us for hopefully a long time.
Thank you for all the kind words, thoughts and prayers.
Posted by Mike Lief at 09:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Confirming the obvious
But it still hurts to hear it from the experts.
Your score sir: 66 percent.
Overall, you got a "C" for completely boring.
Vanilla. That's all you are. Average, lukewarm, mediocre. Women hardly notice you, your job could go on without you, and the world barely needs you.
Then the analysis got mean.
Another bit of edgy marketing from one of America's older brands. I was amused, but I'm still not dabbing manfume behing my ears.
Posted by Mike Lief at 09:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 01, 2007
Dad
Got back from court yesterday afternoon to find the message light glowing on my office phone; it was Dad: "Give me a call, son."
He answered his cell phone after about six rings -- longer than usual for him -- and there was a lot of noise in the background. I figured he was at Costco, calling for advice on the purchase of some sort of electronics.
"Son, I'm okay, but I wanted you to hear it from me: I'm in the hospital."
Dad has a twenty-year history of not wanting to burden me with his ailments; in college, he didn't tell me until weeks after the fact that he'd nearly bled to death after surgery, because he didn't want to worry me during finals.
Anyhow, Dad had been in the hospital since yesterday morning, but waited until the day was nearly done to let me know.
I told him we'd be driving down to Los Angeles to see him, and he responded -- as I knew he would -- that it wasn't necessary.
"Dad, yes it is," I said, "trust me, it's non-negotiable."
When we arrived, he was in sitting up in bed, I.V. lines in both arms, glasses perched on top of his head, oxygen blowing gently up his nose, surrounded by his newspapers, a book laying on his legs, TV on.
His face lit up when he saw me, but of course he had to start by telling me that I didn't have to make the drive.
Sigh.
We visited for about an hour, as nurses constantly came by to check on him, fussing with his I.V.s, checking his stats, poking and prodding, before he told me to hit the road.
I kissed him and told him I loved him.
"I love you too, Son."
Dad's undergoing more testing today, so if you have the time, I'd appreciate all good thoughts and prayers for him.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:31 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Our GIs deserve the best
Delta Force has it. Seal Team 6 has it.
So why won't the Army give the regular dogfaces the best carbine in the world?
Army Times has the answer, in an article that is as informative as it is infuriating.
And don't forget to check out this animation detailing the differences in operation between the best gun our guys won't get, and the jam-o-matic that's good enough.
Posted by Mike Lief at 12:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack