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February 28, 2009

Definitely not normal times

I received the following update this morning from the CMP -- the Civilian Marksmanship Program -- the organization responsible for selling surplus M1 Garands, M1 Carbines and Springfield 03A3s to qualified members of the American public.

ORDER BACKLOG. Normally, we average receiving 2,000 - 3,000 sales orders per month and ship an order in 2-3 weeks.

However, these are not normal times.

Since October, 2008 we have been receiving 5,000 - 10,000 orders per month, which is several times normal. As a result, we are very backlogged and running several weeks behind on processing orders.

Our staff is working up to 12 hours per day 7 days a week, and only today finished the 4,000 orders we received on 1 December alone.

Customers with outstanding orders should expect orders to ship approximately 100 days from the date the order was received by CMP.

We expect to recover from this surge in another 3-4 months (assuming the number of orders being received drops somewhat).

It warms the cockles of my heart to know that the mere election of Obama -- who promised not to take our guns -- has spurred Americans who believe in the plain meaning of Second Amendment to buy more guns.

A lot of guns.

The speech by Attorney General Eric Holder this week, calling for a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban, should be good for millions of additional sales of scawy bwack wifles.

Notwithstanding the backlog, I encourage you to head over to the CMP's website. There's no better place to acquire a piece of American military history at a reasonable price; I got my Garand, a very clean 1942 Winchester that may very well have helped defeat Japan and Germany, for about a third what they were selling for before we elected the Gun Banner in Chief.

If you've never heard of the CMP, you're either a gun-hating moonbat, or a conservative living in gun-hating, moonbat territory.

The CMP was established by Congressional act in 1916, as a result of the poor marksmanship of American military recruits. For 80 years, the Army ran the program, until Congress turned it over to a not-for-profit, the Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice & Firearms Safety, Inc.

I intend to show my support for our new president and his economic stimulus porkulus package(s) by going to the local gun show this morning and making a purchase from a purveyor of fine armaments, as well as ordering another rifle from the CMP, too.

It's my patriotic duty, like paying taxes.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 26, 2009

Dogbert: Speaking truth to power

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Obama to institute gun ban

li⋅ar   [lahy-er]
–noun
a person who tells lies.

Origin:
bef. 950; ME lier, OE lēogere.

Synonyms:
falsifier, perjurer, prevaricator.

Example:

LINK

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

"As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters.

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.

"I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum." Holder said at a news conference on the arrest of more than 700 people in a drug enforcement crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6960824&page=1

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bailout fatigue

I have yet to meet anyone happy about Obama's mortgage bailout plan, which basically consists of the 92 percent of us who have been living within our means being forced to give money to the 8 percent who purchased more home than they could afford -- or simply didn't give a damn about paying their bills and honoring their debts and obligations.

Anyone who has kids, pets, or works in the criminal justice system knows that if you reward bad behavior, you get more of it.

That's what this does: It not only rewards bad behavior, it punishes good behavior, too. It essentially says to the vast majority of Americans, "You chose not to over-leverage your assets? You stayed in your smaller, cheaper house, opting to forgo the McMansion? You're paying your bills on time?"

"Suckers."

There's a growing anger amongst the 92 percent, people wondering what we can do, given that no one in Congress seems to be listening.

Donald Sensing has an idea that makes sense.

There is already a widespread "American Tea Party" movement with growing momentum and big publicity. Piggyback a mortgage revolt on it.

Incorporate into the Tea Party movement this item: everyone who opposes the mortgage welfare plan ask for a three-month extension on filing their IRS forms 1040.

This extension to file is granted automatically to any tax filer who asks. It does not give you three additional months to pay income taxes, which is a shame, but consider: If the administration and Congress learn that millions of taxpayers, nay, tens of millions, have filed extensions, then the impact will strike home. A postcard from each mortgage rebel to their representatives and senators stating why they've extended will amplify the protest. This simple protest gesture will also be amplified if already associated with the general taxpayers' Tea Party revolt movement.

I contracted to pay my mortgage on time and in the last 14 years have done that every month. I will for the rest of the note, too. Short of actually "voting the bums out," we have to get a signal to our political overlords that we are watching, we are paying attention. Mass filing extensions, accompanied by postcards to Members and already linked to a mass movement, can help fill the gap.

I think this is a simple, effective, legal means of putting our Congressional Overlords on notice, without undermining the very system of laws and contracts that Congress -- and the deadbeats -- want us to throw overboard, at least for the 8 percent.

And so the Tea Party begins.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 25, 2009

Our Glorious Leader: Costco Edition

Flanked by his grim faced lieutenants, Obama told the listening nation of the dramatic restructuring that lay ahead, the work to be done to remake this nation into something profoundly different.

Like Chris Matthews, I felt a thrill run down my leg.

Or was that my bladder letting go?

The shoppers seemed mesmerized, the crowd growing by the minute, as the dulcet tones of The Glorious Leader's voice drew onlookers in, shopping lists forgotten in the uncontrollable urge to listen ... and institute Hope and Change.

Afterward, we shuffled over to the book section, to pick up multiple copies of Obama's Little Blue Book to pass out to friends, family, and strangers. I bought one for my nightstand, one for my wife's, and one for Bogie.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:44 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 24, 2009

The Colonel

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:23 PM

February 23, 2009

Favorite Movies: Local Hero

Local Hero is perhaps my favorite film, a movie that features nary an angry word nor a single gunshot or car chase, but rather interesting characters, beautiful scenery, a fantastic soundtrack (by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame), and Burt Lancaster, lighting up the screen with his offbeat portrayal of an oil tycoon who wants to buy an entire picturesque Scottish village, to make way for a refinery.

Released in 1983, it's gathered something of a cult following over the years, myriad viewers taken with its quiet charm.

I mentioned the soundtrack; it was one of the first CDs I bought, a rare import at the time, but one I've nearly worn the pits off of. According to IMDB, more copies of the soundtrack have been sold than the film itself, but that's no knock on the movie, just a testament to how great the score is.

It's a character-driven film, each part perfectly cast, with Peter Riegert as Mac, sent from Houston, Texas, by Lancaster to negotiate with the locals for their village. Mac is a fish out of water, a brash Brooklyn-born businessman, intent on getting in, making the deal, and jetting back to his bachelor pad in the big city.

But soon enough, Mac -- and the viewer -- is seduced by the beauty of the Scottish coast, the sound of the surf and gulls, the Northern Lights, and the people who welcome him into their community.

It's also an example of a filmmaker with the integrity to tell the studio executives that he'd rather kill the project than screw it up to satisfy their misguided notions of what's "wrong" with the idea.

In this case, writer/director Bill Forsyth dug in his heels when the studio said that Peter Riegert, best know at the time for his role in Animal House wasn't hot enough to star. The executives wanted -- I kid you not -- Henry Winkler, "The Fonz," to play Mac.

According to the The Press and Journal (Aberdeen, Scotland):

Warner Bros thought having sitcom star Winkler as central character MacIntyre would cement box-office success in the US.

Glasgow-born director Bill Forsyth told executives that he would pull the plug on the film if the Fonz was cast, however. He demanded that actor Peter Riegert get the part instead.

In a new BBC documentary about the making of the film, Bronx-born Riegert, whose most successful film appearance before Local Hero was Boon in Animal House, said that Forsyth threatened to walk if he was not in the film.

Riegert said: “I said, ‘Look, Bill, I understand that you want me to do this, but I also understand the politics of Hollywood and the fact that you want me means a lot to me, but I’ll understand if something terrible happens’.

“He said something along the lines of, ‘Look, I wrote it and I'm directing it. If you’re not in it, there’s no movie’.”

In the Movie Connections documentary, to be shown next week, Local Hero producer Lord David Puttnam agrees that Winkler was not right for the part.

Lord Puttnam said: “My impression was that Henry at one point was extremely keen.

“I remember a meeting in the office with everybody sucking their teeth and thinking that, on the one hand he secures the movie, on the other is it right actually, tonally what we want for the film.”

He added: “We are talking about a film which is a classic movie because it has got absolute integrity.”

I can't imagine anyone but Peter Riegert as Mac; thank goodness Bill Forsyth felt the same way.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 22, 2009

Hummingbird tales: What's for brunch?

In the last 24 hours the chicks seem to have begun swapping their lizard-like scales for the beginnings of feathers. The mostly-black beaks are continuing to grow longer and thinner, morphing into a needle-like probe, good for reaching the nectar in the farthest recesses of the local blooms. (Click on image for full-size version)

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Africans against aid for Africa

Or should I say, just one particularly well-qualified African against Western aid for the ramshackle, corruption-plagued continent.

The New York Times (of all places!) interviewed Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian Harvard and Oxford-educated economist, whose new book Dead Aid argues that Africa is worse off as a result of the do-gooding antics of liberals and celebrities.

Q: As a native of Zambia with advanced degrees in public policy and economics from Harvard and Oxford, you are about to publish an attack on Western aid to Africa and its recent glamorization by celebrities. ‘‘Dead Aid,’’ as your book is called, is particularly hard on rock stars. Have you met Bono?

A: I have, yes, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year. It was at a party to raise money for Africans, and there were no Africans in the room, except for me ... I’ll make a general comment about this whole dependence on “celebrities.” I object to this situation as it is right now where they have inadvertently or manipulatively become the spokespeople for the African continent.

Q: You argue in your book that Western aid to Africa has not only perpetuated poverty but also worsened it, and you are perhaps the first African to request in book form that all development aid be halted within five years.

A: Think about it this way — China has 1.3 billion people, only 300 million of whom live like us, if you will, with Western living standards. There are a billion Chinese who are living in substandard conditions. Do you know anybody who feels sorry for China? Nobody ... Forty years ago, China was poorer than many African countries. Yes, they have money today, but where did that money come from? They built that, they worked very hard to create a situation where they are not dependent on aid.

Q: What do you think has held back Africans?

A: I believe it’s largely aid. You get the corruption — historically, leaders have stolen the money without penalty — and you get the dependency, which kills entrepreneurship. You also disenfranchise African citizens, because the government is beholden to foreign donors and not accountable to its people.

[...]

Q: Why didn’t you get a bond issue going in your native Zambia or other African countries?

Many politicians seem to have a lazy muscle. Issuing a bond would require that the president and the cabinet ministers go out and market their country. Why would they do that when they can just call up the World Bank and say, “Can I please have some money?”

[...]

Q: For all your belief in the potential of capitalism, the free market is now in free fall and everyone is questioning the supposed wonders of the unregulated market.

A: I wish we questioned the aid model as much as we are questioning the capitalism model. Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is just say no.

Translation: God saves us from anti-capitalist, muddle-headed, guilt-ridden wealthy Westerners.

All Moyo wants is the opportunity for Africans to succeed through their own sweat equity, freed from the shackles of governmental corruption and the indolence bred of continued showers of unearned cash.

If only there was someone making the same plea on behalf of Americans.

Posted by Mike Lief at 12:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Better not be sitting down when you read this

Here's a headline that'll make you leap to your feet: Boy Killed Anally When Office Chair Explodes.

What a way to go.

I'm going to switch to kevlar skivvies, at least for the work week.

Posted by Mike Lief at 12:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 21, 2009

Hummingbird tales: What's for breakfast?

The chicks continue to grow at an amazingly fast pace, and the physical transformation in their anatomy is quite interesting. Their beaks just a week ago were short, blunt and yellow; they've turned dark in a little more than a day and are already lengthening into the flower-probing proboscis that is the little bird's trademark feature. Five days ago their heads were bare, wrinkled black skin; now, the beginnings of feathers -- looking a lot like scales -- cover their domes. If you take a close look at the tip of the beak, you'll see a drop of saliva the chicks worked up in anticipation of breakfast. They're also beginning to open their eyes, too. (Click on image for full-size version)

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 20, 2009

What're they thinking in the Iowa National Guard?

Did you ever get the feeling that there's more going on than meets the eye? That you're not getting the whole story?

Check out this report from Carroll, Iowa, Daily Times Herald and see if you don't feel vaguely unsettled after reading it.

Guardsmen to conduct urban training at Arcadia in April

The Carroll National Guard unit will train on urban military operations by holding a four-day exercise at Arcadia.

The purpose of the April 2-5 drill will be to gather intelligence, then search for and apprehend a suspected weapons dealer, according to Sgt. Mike Kots, readiness NCO for Alpha Company.

Citizens, law enforcement, media and other supporters will participate.

Troops will spend Thursday, April 2, staging at a forward operations base at Carroll. The next day company leaders will conduct reconnaissance and begin patrolling the streets of Arcadia to identify possible locations of the weapons dealer.

The primary phase will be done Saturday, April 4, when convoys will be deployed from Carroll to Arcadia. Pictures of the arms dealer will be shown in Arcadia, and soldiers will go door to door asking if residents have seen the suspect.

Soldiers will knock only at households that have agreed to participate in the drill, Kots noted.

"Once credible intelligence has been gathered," said Kots, "portions of the town will be road-blocked and more in-depth searches of homes and vehicles will be conducted in accordance with the residents' wishes.

"One of the techniques we use in today's political environment is cordon and knock," Kots explained. "We ask for the head of the household, get permission to search, then have them open doors and cupboards. The homeowner maintains control. We peer over their shoulder, and the soldier uses the homeowner's body language and position to protect him."

During this phase of the operation, troops will interact with residents and media while implementing crowd-control measures and possibly treating and evacuating injured persons.

The unit will use a Blackhawk helicopter for overhead command and control, and to simulate medevacs.

[...]

In addition to surveillance, searching and apprehension, the exercise will also give the troops valuable experience in stability, support, patrol, traffic control, vehicle searches and other skills needed for deployment in an urban environment.

"This exercise will improve the real-life operational skills of the unit," said Kots. "And it will hopefully improve the public's understanding of military operations."

The pre-drill work with residents is as important at the drill itself.

"It will be important for us to gain the trust and confidence of the residents of Arcadia," said Kots. "We will need to identify individuals that are willing to assist us in training by allowing us to search their homes and vehicles and to participate in role-playing."

"We really want to get as much information out there as possible, because this operation could be pretty intrusive to the people of Arcadia."

Outdoor Channel host Michael Blane says he can't imagine a situation requiring the National Guard -- and not local law enforcement -- to seek out and arrest an illegal weapons dealer. Bane also notes that the Guardsmen will be asking residents to open cupboards for inspection.

Why would they do that if they were looking for a person? Bane points out that it's as if the troops aren't looking for a person, so much as they're looking for contraband that will fit in small places.

Guns, maybe?

I suppose that some people will say that this is a reasonable way to prepare the troops to conduct urban operations overseas, but I'm skeptical, especially given the stated scenario for the exercise.

Strange, very strange.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:07 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 18, 2009

What was the damn rush?

Steven Green, aka Vodkapundit, with a not-so-random observation:

Let me get this straight. The Pork Package was too important to actually read, debate, or let the public see before Congress approved it. But not so important that it couldn’t wait a few days for President Obama to sign it at a big campaign rally event in a swing state.

Did I get that right?

Yeah, Steve, you did. It wasn't that it needed to be passed quickly to be signed quickly; it needed to be passed fast so we, the great unwashed masses, didn't have enough time to read it, get pissed off, and demand the heads of any crooked pol willing to vote for it.

Casting a principled, knowledgeable vote?

Why would that matter?

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Attorney General: You racist cowards

Want proof that Pres. Obama's administration is truly dedicated to beginning a new era in race relations?

Look no further than this report from the Associated Press, covering Attorney General Eric Holder's speech to Justice Department attorneys for Black History Month.

Here's the AG's thesis: When it comes to race "we're essentially a nation of cowards".

Attorney General Eric Holder described the United States Wednesday as a nation of cowards on matters of race, saying most Americans avoid discussing unresolved racial issues.

In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," said Holder, the nation's first black attorney general.

Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, Holder said, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."

He urged people of all races to use Black History Month as a chance for frank talk about racial matters.

[...]

He told Justice Department employees they have a special responsibility to advance racial understanding.

Here's some "frank talk": We already spend way too much time talking about race, in an ongoing monologue (often verging on a a diatribe) wherein we're berated by race pimps for failing to feel sufficiently awful about our alleged hidden racist natures.

This is especially rich, coming from the nation's first black AG, serving at the pleasure of the nation's first black president.

Clearly, if we're interested in bringing "hope and change" to race relations, what better way to start then to tell us that we're a "nation of cowards."

The Obama administration has gone from zero to insufferable in less than a month.

It truly is a new day in America.

The nation of cowards.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Attorney General: You racist cowards

Want proof that Pres. Obama's administration is truly dedicated to beginning a new era in race relations?

Look no further than this report from the Associated Press, covering Attorney General Eric Holder's speech to Justice Department attorneys for Black History Month.

Here's the AG's thesis: When it comes to race "we're essentially a nation of cowards".

Attorney General Eric Holder described the United States Wednesday as a nation of cowards on matters of race, saying most Americans avoid discussing unresolved racial issues.

In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," said Holder, the nation's first black attorney general.

Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, Holder said, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."

He urged people of all races to use Black History Month as a chance for frank talk about racial matters.

[...]

He told Justice Department employees they have a special responsibility to advance racial understanding.

Here's some "frank talk": We already spend way too much time talking about race, in an ongoing monologue (often verging on a diatribe) wherein we're berated by race pimps for failing to feel sufficiently awful about our alleged hidden racist natures.

This is especially rich, coming from the nation's first black AG, serving at the pleasure of the nation's first black president.

Clearly, if we're interested in bringing "hope and change" to race relations, what better way to start then to tell us that we're a "nation of cowards."

The Obama administration has gone from zero to insufferable in less than a month.

It truly is a new day in America.

The nation of cowards.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 16, 2009

Hummingbird tales: What's for dinner?

Ventura was drenched by a series of cold storms that rolled through over the last couple of days; thunder and lightening and hail made an appearance, along with high winds and low temperatures. I spotted the mother hummingbird in the Golden Raintree between storm cells, so I grabbed the ladder and the camera and headed for the side of the house. The chicks sensed my presence -- although their eyes are still shut -- and immediately lifted their heads and opened their beaks, waiting for their next meal, apparently having weathered the storm in grand fashion beneath their mother. (Click on image for full-size version)

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Neuroscience according to Janeane Garofalo

Whackjob website Ecorazzi interviews "actress" and "comedienne" Janeane Garofalo, who clues us in as to what's wrong with conservatives' brains.

The reason a person is a conservative republican is because something is wrong with them. Again, that’s science – that’s neuroscience. You cannot be well adjusted, open-minded, pluralistic, enlightened and be a republican. It’s counter-intuitive. And they revel in their anti-intellectualism. They revel in their cruelty. [F]irst you have to be an asshole and then comes the conservatism. You gotta be a dick to cleave onto their ideology.

Dr. Garofalo then uses Sarah Palin to further explain and explore the physiological deficiencies of the conservative mind, sounding ironically like one of those phrenologists who lectured on the difference between Aryan and Jewish skulls.

[Palin's behavior is] not even nutty . It really is neuroscience. I truly believe that it has something to do with their limbic brain. I really believe that some people’s limbic brain dominates more than others. Our limbic brain controls all our emotions and it causes us to be irrational. Our limbic brain goes into action when we’re ecstatic, frightened, when we’re having sex. I really believe that if a neuroscientist examined the brain of somebody who identified as a conservative, they would find it’s wired differently.

Yeaaaaah.

[crickets]

Ah, the tolerance and superior intellect of the Hollywood leftard.

Janeane, please, go back to being funny. I know that'll require a time machine and extensive tattoo removal, but you were funny once -- about twenty years ago. Now, you come off like a barking-at-the-moon, batshit-crazy loon.

But I love you in 24.

Ahem.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Transmission? We don' need no stinkin' transmission!

While automakers and gearheads have long debated the pros and cons of frontwheel drive versus rearwheel drive -- no transmission hump for fwd, massive straight-line acceleration in rwd -- I've long wondered why we remain tethered to the massive, heavy, engine-gearbox-transmission paradigm.

My submarine operated using a diesel-electric generator set for propulsion. Rather than having a complex mass of reduction gears transmitting power from the three enormous locomotive engines to the shaft and the screw, the wizards at the Naval Design Bureau had the engines turn massive direct-current generators, the electricity routed through a control panel in the maneuvering room, aft of the engine room, where electricians mates directed the power to the huge direct-current motor wound around the sub's shaft.

Why not do the same thing with a car? Use the engine to turn an electric generator, ditch the transmission completely, and install electric motors on each axle -- or in each wheel.

Well, the boffins at Michelin have apparently been thinking the same thing.

According to Engadget:

Michelin's Active Wheel Technology ... puts two electric wheels inside the hub -- one for motive power, one for active suspension -- a design that negates the need for gearboxes, drive shafts, and conventional suspension assemblies. The design has previously been tested in the Venturi Volage concept car....

Given the computing power already in modern cars, it'd be no great feat to have an onboard 'puter control each wheel, monitoring speed and adjusting the power output as needed to maintain speed and stability -- while losing hundreds of pounds of metal gears and greasy fluids.

The other beneficiary of this technology will be the designers, who will have greater freedom to maximize the interior space, now that the drivetrain has essentially become invisible to the occupants.

Given that this is a French engineering project, the combination of electric motors and computer-controlled suspensions mean their tanks and other military vehicles -- sure to be the first recipients of the technology -- can retreat quickly and quietly from the MLR (main line of resistance, i.e., the front).

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Good clean fun

Good clean fun -- and stylish too -- when you install the Aquavolo showerhead from Bossini. I like the waterfall setting, a nice change from the boring shower (been there, done that, every damn morning).

Via Gizmodo.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It's a Facebook world

I was chatting with an old friend tonight, via Facebook, the greatest invention ever to find people you haven't seen in decades -- and cyberstalk them.

I kid, I kid.

He told me that he and his wife had recently separated on less than amicable terms, but they still remained Facebook friends; neither had worked up the nerve to "defriend" the other.

It's a strange world: A marriage can fall apart, but defriending someone on Facebook crosses all sorts of lines.

Welcome to the future.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2009

Seven broken promises in one GIGANTIC bill

My, how quickly Obama has shown us that he's no different from any other lying politician, quick to tell the voters whatever they want to hear.

The seven lies broken promises in this one speech? Broken by the passage of the Porkulus Bill?

1. Make government open and transparent.
2. Make it "Impossible" for congressmen to slip in pork barrel projects.
3. Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public.
4. No more secrecy.
5. Public will have 5 days to look at a bill.
6. You'll know what's in it.
7. We will put every pork barrel project online .

Still feeling sanguine about President Hope 'n Change?

New pol, same as the old pols.

I didn't vote for him, so I don't feel like a sucker. For those of you who did, have I got some prime Florida real estate for you.

On the other hand, I -- and the rest of my fellow Americans -- are still well and truly screwed for the foreseeable future, as the troika of Pelosi, Reid and Obama proceed to remake this nation into something unrecognizable to the Founders.

The next four years are going to be awful; hell, the first three weeks are ulcer inducing.

Where's the Maalox?

Found via American Digest.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hummingbird tales

The Hummingbird chicks made their debut yesterday; in this shot you can see a piece of the shell still on the chick's right eyelid.

I think you can make out the edge of the yolk sack on the far left of the chick's body; it and its sibling were slowly moving around the nest when I peered in.

When I emerged from the side of the house, I found the backyard deserted, all the birds gone. All but one. The hawk had returned, moving from the fence to a tree while I watched. Suddenly, the Hummingbird zipped out from its nest and took up a position, hovering in the middle of the backyard.

The Hummingbird positioned itself between the hawk, sitting in the Golden Raintree, and the nest containing its chicks, seemingly taunting the raptor, who was likely considering if such a small bird was worth its time and effort. I found myself growing anxious at the prospect of the newborn chicks becoming orphans. When the Hummingbird dove down and headed for the bushes, I decided it was time to alter the dynamic and began walking toward the hawk; it decided things were getting too unpredictable and took off, powerful wings lifting it quickly out of sight.

Posted by Mike Lief at 01:59 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

This Week's roundtable: The Porkulus

I checked out the roundtable at the tail end of This Week With George Stephanopoulos, where I saw some remarkably awful political analysis from everyone but the prim and prissy George Will.

Donna Brazile, the knee-jerk lefty Democratic Party hack, had this to say about the Porkulus:

Most Americans out there understand that Congress had to do something. This may not be the appetizer -- and I blame George Will, he had an opportunity to feed Barack Obama, and you gave him that lean pork chop or lamb chop, (LAUGHTER) and it's your fault, so don't blame the rest of us when we go and put some added pork in the bill to help stabilize the economy and provide jobs to those who are losing their jobs, and of course, additional income: Thirteen dollars every other week! Most Americans will see that, they will be able to get maybe some more bread, and some more meat, some more gas. This is good!

I'm glad Brazile and her fellow panelists found so much to guffaw about in the Porkulus; I wasn't moved to crack a smile at the pork chop/lamb chop line, much less chuckle aloud. As to her substantive point, such as it was: Thirteen dollars? Thirteen dollars?! Almost a trillion dollars and we're supposed to give them a standing ovation because, in the opinion of a Democratic Party insider, we're tossing $13 bucks twice a month at American families?

How cheaply do they think we can be bought? I knew the politicians were openly contemptuous of us, the People, their ostensible bosses, but I hadn't realized the depth of their contempt, that they can whore us out, buy our support for $26 a month.

George Will began to point out the dishonesty of the president's charge that the Porkulus had to be passed Right Now!, that there was no alternative to a "Yes" vote, before he was interrupted by Sam Donaldson, who contributed a galactically-stupid metaphor, one that drew an all-time great putdown from Will.

George Will: But that is the fallacy of the false alternative, and the president has been wielding it promiscuously, quite frankly. He says it's either this or nothing. That's just not true. There are lots of things that could have been done, that weren't, and lots of things that are done in this bill that shouldn't be done ...

Sam Donaldson: But George, you're right, no doubt. But that's the bill we had, so the question was, do you at the end of the day, vote for the bill --

George Will: Of course not --

Sam Donaldson: (Throws hand up in the air) Oh, of course not! George, let me just say, so the big rolling stone following Indiana Jones is coming down, and somebody says, "Let's go to the left and escape it!", "No, that's the wrong direction. Let's go to the right!" And you just sit there? No! You go to the left, if that's what the majority wants to do.

[...]

Sam Donaldson: Going back to the central point, doing nothing can't be right for the country --

George Will: Fallacy, fallacy --

Sam Donaldson: -- can't be right for the country politically, and politically means something, because one of the great factors is people's confidence: I've got two nickels but I'm not going to spend them; if I have a little confidence I might spend them.

George WIll: You are a pyromaniac in a field of strawmen. No one is advocating do nothing.

Sam Donaldson: In the final vote, when you don't vote for something, you're doing nothing.

Actually, Donaldson, when you don't vote for something, you're saying, "That wasn't the answer; let's continue the debate and produce something better."

Perhaps the most disheartening thing about the roundtable on This Week was the fact that Will, the token conservative, failed to point out that almost no one knew what was in the Porkulus before the rush to vote on it; that the Democrats broke President Obama's promise of transparency, and their own rule that all bills would be posted online and made available to the American people for a full 48 hours before being brought to a vote.

Hundreds of billions of dollars blown on unnecessary, wasteful projects, contributing nothing to an economic recovery, rammed through legislative process, debate cut off, for no good reason.

None at all.

And just you wait, there's more to come as the Democrats, emboldened by their success at convincing the Turncoat Three RINOs in the Senate to cross over and push the bill through, propose another trillion-dollar giveaway, sure that it will breeze through the Congress on skids greased with bipartisan porkfat.

Unbelievable.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:31 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 12, 2009

Drug War: No mas?

Seeing as how today seems to be chock-full of news about the Drug War, let's travel south of the border and check in with our Latin American allies on how we're doing.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

As drug violence spirals out of control in Mexico, a commission led by three former Latin American heads of state blasted the U.S.-led drug war as a failure that is pushing Latin American societies to the breaking point.

"The available evidence indicates that the war on drugs is a failed war," said former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro. "We have to move from this approach to another one."

The commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy "taboo" and re-examine U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts.

The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana.

The report, by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, is the latest to question the U.S.'s emphasis on punitive measures to deal with illegal drug use and the criminal violence that accompanies it.

A recent Brookings Institution study concluded that despite interdiction and eradication efforts, the world's governments haven't been able to significantly decrease the supply of drugs, while punitive methods haven't succeeded in lowering drug use.

[...]

The three former presidents who head the commission are political conservatives who have confronted in their home countries the violence and corruption that accompany drug trafficking.

The report warned that the U.S.-style antidrug strategy was putting the region's fragile democratic institutions at risk and corrupting "judicial systems, governments, the political system and especially the police forces."

The report comes as drug violence is engulfing Mexico, which has become the key transit point for cocaine traffic to the U.S. Decapitation of rival drug traffickers has become common as cartels try to intimidate one another.

[...]

Latin American governments have largely followed U.S. advice in trying to stop the flow of drugs from the point of origin. The policy has had little effect.

In Colombia, billions of dollars in U.S. aid have helped the military regain control from the hands of drug-financed communist guerrillas and lower crime, but the help hasn't dented the amount of drugs flowing from Colombia.

In the conference call, Mr. Gaviria said the U.S. approach to narcotics -- based on treating drug consumption as a crime -- had failed. Latin America, he said, should adapt a more European approach, based on treating drug addiction as a health problem.

Doesn't sound good, does it?

The WSJ article features some frantic spin from "a senior U.S. official," who argues that the increasing violence is a sign that we're winning the war. That is, quite frankly, monumentally idiotic.

The real metric of success is whether or not drugs are less available for purchase on American streets and in American schools and prisons, and whether or not prices have gone up as a result of police seizures reducing the supply.

The answer -- from street cops (and not their political bosses) -- is that drugs have never been more plentiful, more readily available, nor more "reasonably" priced.

I'd suggest that the increasing levels of violence associated with the drug trade have more to do with the almost unimaginable wealth to be made by the most ambitious -- and ruthless -- of the narco-traffickers. There's a strong financial incentive to become an industry leader, and that requires achieving and maintaining market dominance over the competition.

That dominance was established via the Tommy Gun and the bribe during Capone's day; only the choice of weapon has changed -- that and the level of violence, where today's cop-decapitating psychopaths make one long for the more civilized (by comparison ), genteel days of the Chicago Mob.

Our four decades spent fighting the flow of drugs across the border has been as effective as trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.

But just because it hasn't worked for more than thirty years is certainly no reason to try another approach.

We just may be staying the course without the assistance of our Latin American allies.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:43 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Drug War: It's going great!

Bienvenidos, mi amigos, to Phoenix, the drug cartel kidnapping capital of the Estados Unidos! Apparently the only place you're more at risk of being hogtied and tossed in the trunk of a car is Mexico City.

ABC News reports:

In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone.

[...]

"We're in the eye of the storm," Phoenix Police Chief Andy Anderson told ABC News of the violent crimes and ruthless tactics spurred by Mexico's drug cartels that have expanded business across the border. "If it doesn't stop here, if we're not able to fix it here and get it turned around, it will go across the nation," he said.

[...]

[K]idnappings and other crimes connected to the Mexican drug cartels are quickly spreading across the border, from Texas to California. The majority of the victims are either illegal aliens or connected to the drug trade.

An ABC News' investigation uncovered horrific cases of chopped-off hands, legs and heads when a victim's family doesn't pay up fast enough.

"They're ruthless, so now they're ripping each other off, but doing it in our city," Anderson said.

Yeah, we're clearly winning the drug war -- if by "winning" we mean "losing control of a major American city."

Bueno!

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 11, 2009

Ramirez on the Porkulus

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Paglia slams Dems over censorship

In the marketplace of ideas, the continuing success of conservative talk radio is like Rush Limbaugh waving a red cape in front of Fernando the Feckless (Commie) Bull; unable to build and keep an audience of their own -- to compete in the marketplace of ideas -- Leftists and their Democratic lapdogs seek to muzzle, castrate and defang the conservative-dominated medium.

Unlike some liberal free speech advocates, I'm not at all surprised by the totalitarian impulses on the Left; individual liberty, including freedom of speech, is anathema to the al powerful State, and the ultimate goal of undiluted Leftism is the subordination of the individual to the needs of the many, the State itself representing the purest form of the power of the proletariat.

I'm joined in my disgust at the latest hypocrisy from the Left by my favorite leftist lesbian author, academic, polemicist and iconoclast -- who else could it be but Camille Paglia -- who unloads on Democrats for their increasing support for the reimposition of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine."

Speaking of talk radio (which I listen to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment's thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows. The failure of liberals to master the vibrant medium of talk radio remains puzzling. To reach the radio audience (whether the topic is sports, politics or car repair), a host must have populist instincts and use the robust common voice. Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism.

One of the nuggets I've gleaned from several radio sources is that Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has been in the aggressive forefront of the campaign to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, is married to Tom Athans, who works extensively with left-wing radio organizations and was once the executive vice-president of Air America, the liberal radio syndicate that, despite massive publicity from major media, has failed miserably to win a national audience. Stabenow's outrageous conflict of interest has of course been largely ignored by the prestige press, which should have been demanding that she recuse herself from all political involvement with this issue.

Paglia laid out her views on talk radio in more detail in her previous column:

If there's anything that demonstrates the straying of the Democratic Party leadership from basic liberal principles, it's this blasted Fairness Doctrine -- which should be fiercely opposed by all defenders of free speech. Except when national security is at risk, government should never be involved in the surveillance of speech or in measuring the ideological content of books, movies or radio and TV programs.

Broadcasters must adhere to reasonable FCC regulations restricting obscenity, but despite the outlandish claims of Democrats like Sen. Charles Schumer, there is no analogy whatever between pornography and political opinion. Nor do privately owned radio stations have any obligation to be politically "balanced." They are commercial enterprises that follow the market and directly respond to audience demand. The Fairness Doctrine is bullying Big Brother tyranny, full of contempt for the very public it pretends to protect.

[...]

[L]et's get real: Liberals have been pathetic flops on national radio -- for reasons that have yet to be identified. Air America, for example, despite retchingly sycophantic major media coverage, never got traction and has dwindled to a humiliating handful of markets. The Democrats are the party of Hollywood, for heaven's sake -- so what's their problem in mastering radio?

[...]

The best hosts combine a welcoming master of ceremonies manner with a vaudevillian brashness. Liberal imitators haven't made a dent on talk radio because they think it's all about politics, when it isn't. Top hosts are life questers and individualists who explore a wide range of thought and emotion and who skillfully work the mike like jazz vocalists. Talk radio is a major genre of popular culture that deserves the protection accorded to other branches of the performing and fine arts. Liberals, who go all hushed and pious at Hays Code censorship in classic Hollywood, should lay off the lynch-mob mentality. Keep the feds out of radio!

Paglia has it right, but I wish she'd stop using the Orwellian "Fairness Doctrine" in favor of truth in advertising: this is nothing less than the imposition of government-mandated censorship and thought control. "Fairness Doctrine" should be replaced by "Silencing Dissent Doctrine" or "Conservatives: Shut the Hell Up Act of 2009."

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 10, 2009

Pepper in the bushes

Pepper spent some time in the bushes, scoping out the riotous birds who had taken up residence in the trees overhead. After considering -- and passing on the possibility of a hunt (the wife says he's retired) -- the cat relaxed in the sun, taking advantage of the brief respite from the rain.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Val Kilmer said what?

Val Kilmer, who starred in Top Gun, Top Secret!, Real Genius, Heat and Tombstone, is reportedly thinking about jumping into politics in a big way.

According to The Hill:

Kilmer is strongly considering a run for New Mexico governor in 2011 when Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson will be term-limited out of office.

He told The Hill at Monday’s Huffington Post party at the Newseum that he has been approached to run for the highest office of the state where he owns a ranch and has family roots.

“Actually, they’ve asked me to run for governor,” he said, not specifying who “they” are. “People seem to want me to.”

Speculation has swirled for months that Kilmer will run to succeed Richardson, and Kilmer said nothing that would have tamped down those expectations.

“I love my state and I love the people,” Kilmer said.

When asked by a reporter if he was giving a “strong maybe” for a run for governor, Kilmer agreed.

“That’s what it is,” he said.

The actor who succeeded Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader could have a problem, however. He’s been a prominent support of Ralph Nader’s independent bid for the White House, and gave money to Nader, and not President Obama, in 2008.

Richardson publicly declared his support for a potential Kilmer candidacy last year, and on Monday the actor returned the praise to the current governor, who now plans to stay put after an ongoing ethics investigation forced him to decline President Obama’s invitation to become Commerce secretary.

If successful, Kilmer would join California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), first known for his leading roles in the “Terminator” film series, as another current big Hollywood name switching over to politics.

I have to admit being biased against most actors seeking to tell the rest of us how to live their lives, backed by the power of the State, but I've never really heard much about Kilmer's political proclivities, never really heard him say anything stupendously stupid.

But then again, I never read Chuck Klosterman's interview with the actor; it appeared in Esquire in July 2005.

I suspect that this portion will effectively kill off his political ambitions -- as well as film career, at least amongst veterans, their friends and family.

[Val Kilmer is] weird in ways that are expected, and he's weird in ways that are not. I anticipated that he might seem a little odd when we talked about acting, mostly because a) Kilmer is a Method actor, and b) all Method actors are insane. However, I did not realize how much insanity this process truly required. That started to become clear when I asked him about The Doors and Wonderland, two movies in which Kilmer portrays acutely self-destructive drug addicts.

Late in Wonderland, he wordlessly (and desperately) waits for someone to offer him cocaine in a manner that seems excruciatingly authentic. I ask if he ever went through a drug phase for real. He says no. He says he's never freebased cocaine in his life but that he understands the mind-set of addiction. The conversation evolves into a meditation on the emotional toll that acting takes on the artist. I ask him about the "toll" that he felt while making the 1993 western Tombstone. He starts talking about things that happened to Doc Holliday. I say, "No, no, you must have misunderstood me. I want to know about the toll it took on you." He says, "I know, I'm talking about those feelings." And this is the conversation that follows:

Me: You mean you think you literally had the same experience as Doc Holliday?

Kilmer: Oh, sure. It's not like I believed that I shot somebody, but I absolutely know what it feels like to pull the trigger and take someone's life.

You understand how it feels to shoot someone as much as a person who has actually committed a murder?

I understand it more. It's an actor's job. A guy who's lived through the horror of Vietnam has not spent his life preparing his mind for it. He's some punk. Most guys were borderline criminal or poor, and that's why they got sent to Vietnam. It was all the poor, wretched kids who got beat up by their dads, guys who didn't get on the football team, couldn't finagle a scholarship. They didn't have the emotional equipment to handle that experience. But this is what an actor trains to do. I can more effectively represent that kid in Vietnam than a guy who was there.

I don't question that you can more effectively represent it, but that's not the same thing. If you were talking to someone who's in prison for murder and the guy said, "Man, it really fucks you up to kill another person," do you think you could reasonably say, "I completely know what you're talking about"?

Oh yeah. I'd know what he's talking about.

[...]

Okay, so let's assume you had been given the lead role in The Passion of the Christ. Would you understand the feeling of being crucified as much as Jesus?

Well, I just played Moses [in a theatrical version of The Ten Commandments]. Of course.

So you understand the experience of being Moses? Maybe I'm just taking your words too literally.

No, I don't think so. That's what acting is.

I keep asking Kilmer if he is joking, and he swears he is not.

Kilmer may not have been joking, but he is both insane and deeply contemptuous of the American GI. What a reprehensible creature.

Posted by Mike Lief at 08:52 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

A very serious look at iPhone apps

If you're looking for a reason to get an iPhone, this video -- illustrating the wide variety of apps (geek-speak for programs) available for the too-cool-for-school gadget -- should do the trick.

This one's for you, Dad.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Trader Joe's video tribute

How 'bout a tribute to shopping at Trader Joe's, with a catchy little song capturing the chain's quirky charm.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 09, 2009

Classic TV, on your computer

How would you like to watch full, uncut episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series anytime you like, for free? Well, you can on the CBS website.

If Sci-Fi isn't your speed, the network is also hosting Family Ties, Have Gun - Will Travel, Hawaii Five-0, The Love Boat, MacGyver, Melrose Place, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, and Twin Peaks, to name a few.

Beam me up, Scotty!

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 08, 2009

Bird watching

The birds began arriving early in the morning, the first avians parking in the Golden Raintree, scoping out the feeders and checking for any lurking predators. (Click on image for full-size version)

The second shift arrived, and soon there were about thirty birds in the tree. After a few moments they began descending on the feeders, and the feast was on.

How'd that Nyjer thistle seed feeder work out? Thanks for asking -- it was a hit with the finches, who turned out by the dozen. But they didn't stick around for long. I was drinking a cup of coffee when I noticed an explosion of panicked birds fleeing in all directions -- at least a hundred, I think. I caught a glimpse of something big, very big, and ran for the camera.

Something wicked this way comes, or at least something very, very deadly. This fellow fixed me with a steady, cool gaze when I stepped outside, then calmly took flight, looking for easier, less-alert pickings.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Why all the Walmart hate?

Ventura, the notoriously anti-business burg to the north of Oxnard (the blue-collar city that welcomes retailers with open arms) has greeted the prospect of Walmart opening its doors in town with all the enthusiasm of a vegan eating a porterhouse steak.

It's fashionably trendy to hate Walmart, for reasons related to the corporation's alleged mistreatment of its workers -- and the cardinal sin of resisting the entreaties of union organizers, who have heretofore been unable to convince Walmart employees to join the SEIU-Borg collective and fork over half a billion dollars in annual dues.

So I was interested to read this piece, by a former editor at the hip tech journal Wired, who went undercover and got a job at the mega-retailer.

Along the way the writer uncovers some pretty interesting insights into how and why Walmart manages to continue growing, profits rising, even as its competitors suffer -- all the while hanging on to workers who seem to enjoy working for their erstwhile corporate oppressors.

Check it out.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Hummingbird tales

When I peeked into the nest yesterday it was empty; this morning was a different story. I waited until I saw the Hummingbird head out (presumably for breakfast), then grabbed the step ladder and hurried to the side of the house. Inside the nest, now looking pretty cozy, what with its feathered lining, were two Tic-Tac-sized eggs. (Click on image for full-sized version)

The hummingbird was clearly agitated by my presence; I heard the thrum of its wings overhead and glanced up. We eyed each other for a moment, then she flew to the top of a nearby tree -- to keep an eye on me.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Jew bashing in Blighty

Melanie Phillips, the author of Londonistan, files another disturbing report on the rise of Jew-hatred in England.

Jewish parents report that their children – some as young as eight – are now running a gauntlet of attack from their Muslim classmates at school who accuse them of ‘killing Palestinian children’.

[...]

Today’s Jewish Chronicle reports that a 12 year-old Birmingham schoolgirl was terrorised by a mob of 20 youths chanting ‘Kill all Jews’ and ‘Death to Jews’ on her way home from school last week:

She said: ‘One of my friends said an Asian girl from the year above asked her why she was talking to me because I am Jewish. I asked the girl in a friendly manner if she had a problem with me being Jewish. She said “yeah, I do”. I managed to punch her before she hit me but then she grabbed me by the hair and swung me around shouting “f****** Jews, I hate Jews”. But then another Asian girl rounded up a whole gang. They were all in school uniform and they came running towards me shouting “death to Jews” and “kill all Jews.”’

Phillips says that the universities -- ostensibly bastions of intellectual freedom and champions of tolerance -- are joining enthusiastically in the anti-Jew jihad.

And so now at British universities ... British Jews no longer feel safe. At Kings, one such student said:

Someone from my course wrote ‘kill the Jews’ on my Facebook profile. Later he said he didn’t know I was Jewish. In public someone said to me, ‘I think all the Israelis are crazy and so are the f***ing Jews’.

And at Oxford, the JC reports:

One University Reader reportedly told a meeting that ‘within five years, Oxford will be a Jew-free zone’

and a student wrote to Professor Fraser warning that

for Jewish students, the university and the city have developed a toxic atmosphere in which I and many others feel increasingly alienated and unwelcome.

Setting aside -- for the moment -- the very fact that rampant, public, unabashed and unashamed anti-Semitism is apparently respectable in a modern, "liberal" Western democracy, Phillips keys in on the hypocrisy underlying the recent international outrage over Israel daring to defend itself against terror attacks from Gaza.

Meanwhile, of course, as Sky’s Tim Marshall pointed out the other day on his blog, the government of Sri Lanka is also attempting to eradicate terrorism by a military campaign in which, according to the UN, ‘many civilians are being killed’, thousands made homeless, hundreds of thousands trapped, and to which, as food shortages grow, the government refuses to allow access to journalists. Yet there are no sit-ins on campus against the Sri Lankans, no violent riots outside its High Commission, no calls to boycott Orange Pekoe tea. As Marshall observed:

And yet somehow the lives of the 1,300 Palestinians killed by the Israelis causes far more outrage, in certain quarters, than the 2 million dead in Congo, the tens of thousands of Iraqis killed by Sunni and Shia terrorists, or the growing number of Sri Lankan dead to add to the 70,000 killed over the past 25 years (far more than the number of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the same period).

Of course – because the protests in Britain have nothing to do with humanitarian concerns for the innocent. They are part of the jihad against the Jews – and those in the universities and other parts of the establishment who are capitulating to or even endorsing this are accomplices to a great evil that is now consuming British public life.

Exactly.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More on Coraline

It strikes me that the previous post deals more with the book Coraline, without much in the way of an actual review of the film.

Pajiba had this to say about the movie.

This is an achingly gorgeous film crafted in diligent detail and accompanied by Bruno Coulais’ deathly beautiful score. Much like the heroine herself, Coraline is clever and inquisitive but more than slightly surly at times. Actually, a good measure of the third act comes with quite a bit of scariness for children under ten years. Coraline may come with a PG-rating, but this is really more of a PG² sort of movie. Don’t be surprised if, after watching this film, you awaken with a nightmarish start, only to discover that a whimpering child is attempting to climb into your bed in the middle of the night. Whew.

The comments following the review offered support for the critic's recommendation.

At its core, it's a fairy tale -- of the old kind, where children where in life-and-death situations against magical threats and the stories served as allegories for the passage from childhood to adulthood. BTW, it's amusing how mature some of the humor is. Particularly the 2 burlesque dancers and their routine in the Other World. The kids were laughing, but not as loudly as the parents. Oh and I clearly made note of the sign of a good kids' movie, i.e. the entire theater was quiet and not a peep was heard from any child.

But I especially liked this guy's take on the flick:

Finally. An old-school type fairytale to scare the shit out of kids while teaching them a moral. It was good enough for me as a child and dammit it's good enough for These Kids Today.

Sounds like a film worth seeing.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 07, 2009

Coraline: Where dreams are nightmares

National Review's Emily Karrs writes about a novel (and film adaptation) that entertains the kids -- and perhaps unnerves adult audiences, as well.

This weekend, [author Neil Gaiman's] children’s book Coraline is establishing its own, new medium: the first stop-motion film in 3-D. If any book was meant to be adapted to feature spindly clay hands reaching out of the screen at the audience, it is this odd tale of a young girl’s ferocious rejection of a forced Faustian bargain.

Coraline is trapped in a world of uninteresting people who are uninterested in her. Her mother and father spend their days catatonic in front of their computers in their home offices, and her neighbors prattle on about themselves without even bothering to learn that her name isn’t “Caroline.”

Then, one day, she finds a secret door into the world of her dreams. Inside this Other House, the chief occupation of her Other Mother and Other Father is searching for ways to please her, her toys leap to life to entertain her, and everyone knows her name. The Other Mother, a precise copy of Mrs. Jones but for her paper-white skin and black button eyes, invites Coraline to sew a set of buttons over her own eyes and take her place at the locus of this Coraline-centric universe.

Our heroine discovers that this fulfillment of her desire for attention and adventure comes at a price, and the price becomes increasingly apparent as she runs at needlepoint from the Other Mother. The Other Mother never intended to accept any answer but “yes” to her invitation. Coraline’s dream world deteriorates into a nightmare.

And so Neil Gaiman explores every corner of what it means to dream. He delves into the varied fruits of our daydreams—the power of wishing and the agony of a wish come true. The Coraline we are introduced to at the novel’s opening pines for adventure and attention. Yet the eerily wonderful world to which she journeys causes her to exclaim, “I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything. What then?” Coraline lives out the maxim of St. Teresa of Avila: “There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.”

Daydreams aside, Gaiman’s works themselves read as though narrated from the midst of a particularly lucid dream. Unusual, almost primal images are linked together in the peculiar ways a sleeping mind would connect them, animating childhood fears and adult neuroses. Coraline alone brings us an auditorium with a Scottie dog in every chair, heavyset old women who unzip their bodies to reveal twentysomething beauties, and more. Many scenes from the book would seem to make more sense recounted groggily around a breakfast table.

[...]

Even some of the story elements of Coraline hang loosely, the blurred edges of a half-remembered fantasy. A voice whispers crucial advice to her in the Other House, yet the speaker remains a mystery. The name of the villainess is revealed, but never her origin. Many of the questions raised by Coraline’s adventures are left unanswered. Why buttons? Why this house? Why Coraline? Coraline ends less with a resolution than with an awakening from a night terror. Gaiman’s plot engages the subconscious more than the conscious, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In C. S. Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of the crew’s most memorable adventures is their salvation of Lord Rhoop as he frantically swims from the Island Where Dreams Come True. They pull the tattered man aboard ship, but hesitate to leave when they discover whence they have rescued him, imagining the realization of all of their hopes. Rhoop urges them to flee:

“This is the land where dreams—dreams, do you understand—come to life, come real. Not daydreams: dreams.” There was about half a minute’s silence, and then with a great clatter of armor, the whole crew were tumbling down the main hatch as quick as they could and flinging themselves on the oars to row as they had never rowed before. . . . For it had taken everyone just that half-minute to remember certain dreams they had had—dreams that make you afraid of going to sleep again—and to realize what it would mean to land on a country where dreams come true.

On his blog, Gaiman offers his candid opinion on the age-appropriateness of Coraline: “As a general rule, Coraline the book is much creepier for adults than it is for kids. ” Though the book jacket might seem to promise a story about a little girl who takes a journey to a land of wish fulfillment, adults know that Gaiman’s Land Where Dreams Come True has much about it that is indistinguishable from nightmare.

I hadn't given a moment's thought to seeing -- or reading Coraline, until I read Karrs' essay and watched the two videos embedded above (make sure to click on the "high quality" link when viewing).

Coraline is now on my to-watch list.

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

New Kindle coming

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/official-looking-kindle-2-pictures-and-pricing-leak-out/

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:33 PM

Joey & Rory, before they were stars

I've previously posted Joey and Rory Feek's hit video, Cheater, Cheater, but after watching the video they submitted for the TV competition that launched their career together, I'm pleasantly surprised by how real, how down to earth these two seemed to be, before they hit it big.

It looks like success couldn't come to two nicer people.

Check out their website.

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Don't eat Doritos, but love the ad

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:41 AM

February 05, 2009

Bogie the Sundog

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More money for what?

The Congressional Porkfest -- masquerading as the stimulus bill -- is a grab-bag of giveaways, a Democratic (and RINO) dreamlist stuffed full of your money to pay for every possible program and special interest that has gone unloved and (supposedly) underfunded for the last twenty years.

John Hawkins is particularly incensed by the more than $170 million set aside for taxpayer-funded "art."

Folks, we are over 10 trillion dollars in debt. That comes out to almost $35,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. So, if you're married and have a couple of kids, you're responsible for almost $140,000 of our national debt. Do you have a $140,000 to spare?

Additionally, we are on track to run TRILLION DOLLAR deficits for the foreseeable future. This stimulus package alone is now over 900 billion dollars, and the interest on it over the next decade will cost us another 300 billion dollars -- if we're lucky.

[...]

Which brings us back to this article. We're going to spent $122 million dollars, plus another $50 million on top of that, for art projects. Now, if we had no debt and let's say a $300 or $400 million dollars a year surplus, spending that money might merely produce an eye roll. "Geeze, couldn't we be spending the money on something more important than that? After all, in a rich country like this, it's not as if there is a shortage of people capable of supporting the arts."

However, going into debt, in order to spend $177 million dollars on the arts is sheer, screaming insanity. Seriously, we're going to go more than a billion dollars into debt over the next decade so that a bunch of bureaucrats can dole out of money for poetry readings and giant statues of koala bears made out of rat feces and old car parts? What the hell is wrong with this picture?

This sort of spending -- and this only one incredibly wasteful expenditure among thousands -- is a large part of the reason why the American people have so little confidence in their elected officials. It's because despite all the high and mighty rhetoric we get out of Washington, the people in charge are not competent, serious statesmen who have the nation's best interests at heart. Instead, Washington is teeming with frivolous, shallow, bush league, out-of-touch, Mary Antoinette "let them eat cake", fiddle while the whole country burns incompetents, who will claim everything's fine right up until the moment when the Federal Government's checks start bouncing and we can't even get other nations to loan us money any more.

There's a temptation, as we consider the TRILLION dollars Congress is willing to spend on this mess, to say that $177 million is a drop in the bucket; the elimination of the entire amount designated to fund mimes, "poets" and "performance 'artists' " (double scare quotes) won't make a dent in the overall size of the Pork-pa-looza.

But that's not the point. I disagree with Hawkins in this respect: I'd be against taxpayer funding of the arts if we were running a budget surplus and the streets were paved with gold. It's simply beyond the scope of what government ought to do to take -- take money from taxpayers and transfer it to so-called artists.

Want to donate to a local theater? Great! Get out your checkbook. Want to help fund a local orchestra? Terrific! Where's your checkbook. If we decide that we'd like to encourage this kind of charitable giving, we can amend the tax code to make these contributions tax deductible.

You are free to become a patron of the arts; Congress has no business forcing you -- via the taxman -- to do so.

Sure, $177 million may seem like chump change to some, but slashing $177 million here, $177 million there, and before you know it you're talking "real" money.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 04, 2009

Alzheimer's linked to insulin

My Dad's been coping remarkably well for more than 50 years with a rare case of juvenile-onset diabetes, acquired as an adult while serving in the Korean War. I grew up watching Dad inject himself several times a day with insulin -- and brought him sweets when he had an insulin reaction. So you'll understand why I'm so interested in anything diabetes related.

Reuters reports that diabetes and insulin may be an integral part of Alzheimer's.

CHICAGO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Insulin appears to shield the brain from toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday, supporting a theory that Alzheimer's may be a third form of diabetes.

And they said GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia, or rosiglitazone, which increases sensitivity to insulin, appeared to enhance this protective effect.

"Our results demonstrate that bolstering insulin signaling can protect neurons from harm," William Klein of Northwestern University, whose study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said in a statement.

Klein said the findings support a new idea that Alzheimer's is a type of diabetes of the brain.

"In Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas isn't making insulin. In Type 2 diabetes, your tissues are insensitive to insulin because of problems in the insulin receptor. Type 3 is where that insulin receptor problem is localized in the brain," Klein said in a telephone interview.

In some people, this can occur with age, he said.

"As you get older, some individuals start to have less effective insulin signaling, including in the brain," he said, making the brain more vulnerable to toxins that cause Alzheimer's disease.

[...]

Several studies have found that diabetics have a higher risk of getting Alzheimer's than the general population.

Last July, researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York reported that diabetics who take insulin plus a diabetes pill have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's than diabetics who only take insulin.

That study included a range of anti-diabetic medications, including an older pill known as a sulfonylurea.

Klein said the findings suggest that measures to protect people from diabetes -- including a healthy diet and exercise -- are also important for avoiding Alzheimer's disease.

Good news for diabetics everywhere -- and my Dad, too.

Found via Clayton Cramer.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The taxonomy of self-hating Jews

Some Christian friends asked me if I could explain the phenomenon of American Jews who were (or seemed to be) inordinately hostile to Israel, its right to defend itself, as well as its right to even exist.

It's hard to provide a decent explanation for this hostility, given the rough treatment meted out to my Jewish ancestors over the millennia, not to mention the Holocaust, too. The creation of Israel -- or the recreation -- after WWII was inspired in equal measures by Christian European and American guilt over the wholesale slaughter of the Jews, as well as the recognition that the Jews needed a nation of their own, whose safety was not dependent on the largesse of Gentile host nations.

In the intervening 60 years since Israel's re-birth, the Jewish nation has seen its defenders amongst the intelligentsia and the

href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3295341/the-jews-of-the-gathering-night.thtml">Melanie
Phillips writes in the Spectator, providing an explanation, or at least a rationale for, the phenomenon of the self-hating Jew.

One of the most agonising and tragic aspects of the current global wave of Jew-hatred is the prominent part played in this by Jews. This is not a new phenomenon.

Throughout the centuries of Jewish persecution, from the medieval ‘conversos’ to Karl Marx and beyond, there have always
been Jews who, for a variety of reasons, have been ready and willing to advance the agenda of the persecutors of the Jewish people. Today, the west is teeming with their successors – almost always on the left,
very often but not always highly secularised and with a tangential or deeply conflicted relationship with their Jewish identity, they are in the forefront of the movement to demonise, delegitimise and destroy Israel. They do it to no other country; only the expression of self-determination of their own people inspires in them such frenzied and obsessive loathing.

Nothing could be more inappropriate than their common soubriquet of ‘self-hating Jews’; on the contrary, they usually love themselves inordinately. What they hate is the Jewish bit of themselves – or to be more precise, everything but that bit of the Jewish bit which enables
them falsely to represent Jewish powerlessness as the key characteristic of Jewish peoplehood, about which they generally know next to nothing
and which they generally disdain altogether until the chance arrives to dump on it with maximum venom. The fact that they are Jews – however nominally – gives a free pass to the non-Jewish Jew-haters to dress up their bigotry as high-minded conscience, while still others of good will are led to believe the hateful lies and libels about Israel in the misguided belief that, since Jews are giving voice to them, they cannot be an expression of prejudice. The result of all this is that the Arab and Muslim agenda of the destruction of Israel and genocide against the Jews is advanced every time a Jew-hating Jew spews such venom into the
public sphere.

On href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=40E0C71C-6D07-4F64-A0BC-71BE0BAABC92">Front Page, David Solway lists some of the examples of this pathology:

The late Harold Pinter won a Nobel Prize, not for his over-rated plays,
but for his anti-Israeli (and anti-American) posturing. Equally
influential are fellow Jewish anti-Zionists like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Naomi Klein, Joel Kovel, Tony Judt, Ilan Pappe, Tom Segev, Sara Roy, Henry Siegman, Avrum Burg, Jaqueline Rose and Richard Falk, to mention only a sparse handful, whose denunciation of Israel is so extreme and untextured as to be scarcely distinguishable from antisemitism.

Such apostates do not scruple to trade in apocrypha when indulging
their animus against their own people, even when they can be readily exposed. In Fabricating Israeli History, Efraim Karsh has abundantly demonstrated how left-wing Israeli ‘New Historians’ have cooked the documents they work with.

The lamentable Naomi Klein falsely accuses Israel of having cynically
profited from ‘endless war’ and calls for academic and economic
boycotts. Noam Chomsky’s gross fabrications have been outed by Peter Collier. The list goes on...

Given the virulent anti-Zionist advocacy of so many prominent Jewish self-haters, one remains skeptical of ever achieving collective assent or reasonable consensus. Masking the syndrome of self-contempt as a quest for ‘justice,’ these Jewish turncoats seek redemption in a denial of both history and genealogy.

Diagnostically speaking, it is not so much a mental illness or clinical
aberration we are witnessing, but a sickness in the soul supple enough to contort itself into a spurious idealism, a simulacrum of ideological nobility.

Indeed, one of the most insufferable characteristics of these Jew-hating Jews is that they claim to represent authentic Jewish morality as opposed to the supposed corruption of those principles by Zionism and Israel. They do nothing of the kind. Their claim merely advertises their profound ignorance of Jewish ethics and history, which they so badly misrepresent. They are beneath contempt; and were the situation not so desperate, their rantings would be regarded as of no more consequence than those of any other fringe sectarian groupuscule.

But their position in fashionable society means they are lionised by an equally ignorant and bigoted intelligentsia -- with the result that
these Jews of the gathering night are significant contributors to the
unconscionable agenda of our times.

Posted by Mike Lief at 05:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday morning tune

Yeah, I know I'm about a decade behind the times, but this is a remarkably catch tune from the Brit band Chumbawamba, Tubthumping. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumbawamba
>According to Wikipedia, the band, comprised of self-described anarchists, has been around for more than 25 years.

Tubthumping is their biggest -- read: only -- commercial hit, topping the charts around the world back in the late '90s.

Notwithstanding their rather silly political leanings, I enjoy the juxtaposition of the shouted chorus banging up against the sweet sound of the female vocalist, singing in a formal, studied manner,

Pissing the night away,
Pissing the night away.

And

Danny boy,
Danny boy,
Danny boy.

It's no great shakes on the page (er, screen?), but it works really well, as the hook worms its way into your brain, where the tune rattles around for hours on end.

A quick look at the Wikipedia entry shows numerous times the tune has ended up being used in other performance venues, from TV to film, animation to video games, perhaps explaining why it was so familiar, even though I don't listen to much pop or rock on the radio.

We'll be singing
When were winning
We'll be singing

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to
Keep me down

Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away

He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that
Remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that
Remind him
Of the better times:

Oh, Danny boy
Danny boy
Danny boy...

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to
Keep me down

Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away

He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that
Remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that
Remind him
Of the better times:

Don't cry for me
Next door neighbour...

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to
Keep me down

We'll be singing
When were winning
We'll be singing

Posted by Mike Lief at 01:35 AM

February 02, 2009

Not so Revolutionary

John Podhoretz reviews the critically acclaimed film Revolutionary Road, for which Kate Winslet nabbed some acting award recently. J-Pod is not impressed:

The unpleasant new film version of Revolutionary Road is both remarkably faithful to and a complete hash of the novel. Screenwriter Justin Haythe has done a splendid job of compressing the incidents and events of the novel into a two-hour script, and the work of director Sam Mendes is tasteful and careful. But they have no idea what the novel is about.

I had no interest in seeing the film before I read the review, but it's worth reading if you're thinking of going -- or have gone -- to see what the fuss is about.

There's a passage near the end of the article that hits on a pet peeve of mine: the metrosexual nature of today's "men" on screen.

DiCaprio is technically a very fine actor, but in this, his first real effort at playing a husband and father, he is undone by his inability to imagine what a 30-year-old man of the 1950s might actually have been like. For one thing, such a man would have worked hard at eliminating any trace of the high and breathy tone of a teenager in his voice, which DiCaprio still retains. I hate to put it this way, but he has left me no choice: When, on at least two occasions in the course of the movie, DiCaprio actually weeps with rage, he cries like a girl.

Compare and contrast DiCaprio with Liam Neeson, currently starring in the Luc Besson thriller, Taken. Neeson portrays a father seeking the men who have kidnapped his daughter, and in appearance and voice he is very much a man, grizzled, weary and worn, and implacable in defense of his family.

But it's not just this role; Neeson, now 56, has always looked like an adult onscreen, never seeming to have become stuck in the eternal young adult phase that seems to trap Hollywood's biggest stars like teens in amber.

Tom Cruise, left, is 46 years old in this picture; Leonardo DiCaprio is 35. Compare and contrast with the grizzled visages of Hollywood's stars of yore.

From Tom Cruise to DiCaprio, these guys just don't convince as, well, men. It's hard to believe that Cruise is older than Steven McQueen was when he starred in Bullitt and The Great Escape. Come to think of it, most of the stars of that film -- a veritable Who's Who of early '60s machismo -- were younger than today's Emo leading men.

Take a look at these guys. When The Great Escape was filming, McQueen was 32, James Garner was 34, James Coburn was 34, Richard Attenborough was 39, Charles Bronson was 41. Hell, Donald Pleasence was 43 (and looked ten years older)!

Think about that; Tom Cruise is older than every man in the publicity still from The Great Escape, even the old guys, Attenborough and Pleasence, but communicates none of the gravitas, the world weariness, that I associate with men of my father's and grandfather's generations. Even more amazing, Little Leo is older than McQueen, Garner and Coburn, but looks like he could play their little brother -- or son.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

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February 01, 2009

Hummingbird tales

Saturday morning began with me checking on our preggers hummingbird; she appeared to be feathering her nest, adding insulation with a bit of down from one of her bigger avian cousins. (Click on photo for larger version)

I backed away from the nest, and a few minutes later heard the thrum of turbocharged wingbeats, as the hummingbird climbed into the sky, looking for some breakfast. (Click on photo for larger version)

Take a close look; you'll see that the hummingbird is surrounded by small insects -- I think they're mosquitos. Breakfast is served. (Click on photo for larger version)

You thought hummingbirds were pacifists, the hippies of the sky, flitting from flower to flower, didn't you? Little did you know they are actually Sky Sharks, voracious consumers of all. Here she moves in for the kill, beak agape. (Click on photo for larger version)

These bugs never saw it coming, winged death zooming up from below. (Click on photo for larger version)

I looked at this shot and asked myself, "What are the diamond-like objects, gleaming in the sky?" "Hummingbird poop," replied my wife. Those birds really have cornered the market on cute. (Click on photo for larger version)

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Anti-Semitism never gets old

Holocaust Remembrance Day came and went last month without comment here, so I thought I'd post this tidbit from the glory days of the Third Reich.

Vandals painted anti-Semitic graffiti on the walls of a Berlin synagogue and defaced Torah scrolls on Saturday in what Jewish leaders call the worst attack ever on the Jewish community in Germany.

About 15 armed attackers, who overcame two security guards, ravaged a Berlin synagogue. The vandals struck late Friday night and continued their assault until around 3 a.m. Saturday, vandalizing the offices of the German Jewish community's central organization, tossing Torah scrolls and other holy books on the floor, and leaving graffiti on the synagogue walls that read, "We don't want Jews here" and "Jews get out." The synagogue attack prevented Sabbath services from taking place.

Oh, I'm sorry, did I say "Berlin" and "Germany"? I meant "Caracas" and "Venezuela." Last week.

And, notwithstanding the fact that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez condemned the attack, he expelled Israel's diplomats to show how angry he was about Israel defending itself against missiles launched from Gaza.

When Israel retaliated and expelled Venezuela's diplomats, they arrived home wearing Arab headscarves bearing maps of the region with Israel missing, erased, replaced by an all-Arab nation.

Anti-Semitism: always fashionable.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What ails the GOP

Someone with a deeply cynical view of the GOP's leadership -- he makes me look like Lindsey Graham's liberal brother -- has found (created?) a poster that lays the Republican leadership out for the last crap-tacular decade, with a choice example underneath, lifted from the current dustup between Rush Limbaugh and the GOP's accommodationist pantywaists.

Be forewarned, it's as crass, crude and offensive as it is amusing. Don't click here if you're easily offended.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack