Yasukuni Shrine

The article on Mr. Koizumi mentioned that his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine displeased a fairly large portion of the Japanese population.

Tablets representing 2.5 million Japanese warriors are at this shrine. Of those 2.5M, 14 represent war criminals. Furthermore, some of the wars are ones that Japan today wishes they hadn't participated in. Apparently some Japanese feel that Prime Ministers who visit the shrine are condoning war crimes and bad wars.

Well, nobody from Japan is likely to visit my lil ol' site, but just in case they do:

This solitary American figures (a) 14 is a pretty tiny percentage of 2,500,000 and (b) even if certain wars were wrong or misguided or even just plain rotten, honoring those who fought and tried is still appropriate and not necessarily an approval of the actual war. We all have 20/20 hindsight.

Anyway, I'm not offended by the Yasukuni Shrine, nor by Koizumi's visit to it. I'm offended by the people who are trying to kill me today, and I appreciate Japan's corresponding response to the evil of today.

Thank you, Japan!

Belated thanks, but thanks nevertheless.

Despite - or because of? - the japanese hostages taken (and released) in Iraq, despite the sorry example of Spain and Honduras, despite the constraints placed on the Japanese military from old WWII treaties -

Despite all this, the Japanese people re-elected Mr. Koizumi and are hanging in there in the WoT. The famous Japanese honor still stands tall.

God Bless Japan.

Congratulations, Iraq the Model!

Kudos to USA Today for publishing the article; irritated sighs for not including the links.

Ain't I cute?

There's a brouhaha in the blogosphere, and John Hawkins is in the center of it.

Apparently, if I'm understanding this right, to get traffic you have to be a good-looking female. It probably helps if you also write well on interesting subjects, but one step at a time.

I am really good-looking. Trust me.

O yes - I believe I also have to use the word 'boobies' in a sentence:

You can see white and dark boobies here. Immature boobies are discussed, but not shown.

This blog is rapidly deteriorating.

Have I mentioned lately what I think of (most) artists?

No? Well, I won't do it right now. You probably already read Dave Barry's blog, and so have seen this artistic pistol that will 'make you think.'

Yes indeed. It will make you think 'boy, what a knucklehead.'

Penis Envy Got Ya Down?

The May issue of First Freedom gives a Ban-Demonium award to Dr. Joyce Brothers for making silly statements:

"To most, the gun means added power, something that erases all feelings of inferiority, weakness, vulnerability and impotence. It's not irrelevant that guns, in themselves, are so frequently linked to sexuality and the male sex organ."

Oooooh - so that's why we have the second amendment! Thomas Jefferson had a little weenie!! Now I understand! It's all clear to me. . .

See, men who are secure in their masculinity apparently don't mind being enslaved under tyrants. Only those uncertain of their sexual prowess like freedom.

Damn - if I'd only realized that owning a gun would substitute for having/being a man, I would have gotten a bigger one! Preferably one that could climb up on the roof and brush off those tree limbs. Also one that can dance.

Gosh, I wonder what deep-seated neurosis afflicts the ACLU? Maybe as children, the ACLU's parents said "Children should be seen, and not heard" just one time too many. Yes, THAT explains it. And what's up with people who insist on search warrants before the police can snoop around your home? Whoa - got some issues there, I guess!

As a general rule, I like older folks but between her and Andy Rooney I may change my tune. Isn't there some sort of home for these people?

Why not?

Caught a new one on Quizilla:


You are the age-old, wise German Shepherd. Not much
can get to you. You are loyal and protective of
your family. You can be shaky sometimes, but
you hide it well.


What breed of dog are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The state of Virginia has gone insane.

If I were a good blogger, I would elaborate here. But I haven't the patience. This is so blatantly stupid, so tyrannical, so short-sighted, that I have no words.

Nobody tells me who I can and cannot contract with. NOBODY!.

Not that I'm gay or living in Virginia. That's not the point. The point is anybody can contract with anybody - freedom to assemble, to trade, to bargain, to associate, to do business, to !!!!!!

argh.

Dirty Little Secrets

CAUTION: GRAPHIC, OFFENSIVE, AND POSSIBLY OBSCENE.

HIV in the porn industry is all over the blogosphere. Poor, poor porn stars, having unprotected sex with a gazillion people and getting infected. Poor, poor pitiful porn stars.

If you stand out in the rain, and so get wet, is it a tragedy? I cannot feel sorry for these people in the proper sense of the term. Where is the line between cold-hearted and sensible?

I don't like porn, I don't like the porn industry, I especially don't like people who say 'porn is a victimless crime.' & I really don't want to be taxed to protect pron stars, who had better all be adults and who ought to be perfectly capable of protecting themselves.

Pornography that involves children, animals, and/or violence is not victimless. Porn acts that end up creating an outcry for regulations and inspections take money from people like me to create yet another taxing body. Porn stars that contract nasty, permanent, debilitating diseases drain the general revenue. They will need care; we don't really want to throw them in the gutter to die. It would be the natural thing to do (as in following nature's course), but the goal of the human soul is to rise above nature where possible.

Ya know what else? Porn makes lousy lovers. Men who are into porn lack imagination and interest. In general, their love-making technique is more mechanical. "As seen on TV!" An interest in technique, as opposed to an interest in the woman, in her body, in her, makes for a cold, detached, self-absorbed lover who is DULL! "How'm I doing?"

Yawn. Why bother?

Married women will confirm this, in secret, in whispers . . yes, he's been much more exciting since staying off the porn. They won't say it out loud, to their husband's face, for fear of harming the poor little dear's sensitive male ego.

Love-making is an art, not a science. It's a union, not a dog-and-pony show.

If you are not sufficiently attracted to your partner without the use of artificial stimulants, maybe - just maybe - you shouldn't be with that person in the first place. If your penis isn't performing, maybe your penis knows something you don't. Maybe your penis knows where it doesn't want to be.

Best sex quote I ever saw was on the comments section of some blog talking about the Jackson/Timberlake fiasco and the lousy commercials as well as the lousy half-time show.

"If you people hadn't made sex so boring by shoving it down everyone's throats 24/7, maybe you wouldn't need all that viagra!"

Yeah, I know there are medical issues blah blah yadda yadda - that's not what I'm discussing here. You know it.

Continuing the Shallow Theme

What's Your Wine Personality?

You scored 60% Pinot Noir
In another life you were probably Colette. You obviously have a kind of sensuality that governs your outlook on life (and on men -- but that's another story). For you, the most satisfying wine of all (and if one isn't satisfied, what's the point?) is pinot noir.

You scored 20% Merlot
Women confident enough to drink a great wine from a jelly glass aren't a dime a dozen, but you're one of them. Moreover, your no-nonsense approach to life is a big tip-off. You're a classic merlot drinker.

You scored 20% Cabernet Sauvignon
Life is too short to drink bad wine. Whoever made up this saying could have been thinking of you, right? Your taste for the finer things in life (and the fact that you always seem to be attracted to whatever's most expensive) makes it very clear: You're a cabernet sauvignon drinker.

Who or what is Colette?.

The Wine Quiz and many others are at iVillage.

Something Different

James at Hell in a Handbasket passes on this neato idea. My nearest book is a dictionary, so I'm taking the second nearest book. Here we go:

"Did you know that high carbohydrate diets increase water retention (three grams water/H2O to every gram of glycogen-stored muscle sugar), making you look soft and puffy, as well as reducing your body's ability to burn fat?"


Is chocolate high or low in carbohydrates? What about whiskey?

Packing a Grouch

Light posting lately, for no better reason than I'm cranky.

More Quizzzzzzzzes

Courtesy Classical Values once again!


:: how jedi are you? ::

Yay!

Blogger-made Quizzes!

How many ZZZs in 'quizzes?'

Well, anyway, both of the following were created by Theognome.


Which Old Testament Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla



You are the Great Pyramid of Giza!

You are a natural leader who expects nothing but
the best effort from yourself and others. You
make decisions quickly and accurately. As the
Great Pyramid of Giza, you are also very
detailed, and you admire attention to detail in
yourself and others. You organize projects and
teams very well. You do tend to be impatient,
and hate mistakes made by others and especially
yourself. Being wrong is the worst fate that
you could imagine.


What Wonder of the Ancient World are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Damn straight, they're my heroes!

Andy Rooney is a senile old bat who should've been sold to the glue factory back in the Pleistocene Age, but nevertheless his latest column is making the rounds at The Mudville Gazette and other places. I started the following as a comment at Blackfive's, but then thought maybe it was a little too inflammatory and crazed to leave on somebody else's blog:

I'm sorry to have to say something this terrible, but nobody else is saying it and it needs to be said.

Osama bin Laden & his crew declared war on Americans February 23, 1998.

"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it,"

So - Andy Rooney, and you, and I, and our children, auto mechanics and pizza delivery boys are walking, talking military targets. War has been declared; war has been ongoing for six years. Wars are either won or lost. If the fighting comes to my territory, I will not willing lose my war. If need be, I will take the offensive on the streets of my own town.

It is a terrible thing that I'm saying. If the only way to save my country and liberty is by destroying my enemy on my homeground, will I become a mosque-burner? Will I be sending anthrax to CAIR? Will I go that far?

Please God let me not be put to the test.

This sounds very melodramatic, but if the Andy Rooneys of the world get what they say they want, it's not outside the possibilities.

On the brighter side, I don't think Rooney & co actually want what they say they want.

But anyway - yeah, the military people who are taking the war to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the intelligence people and propaganda people and rebuilding people, are all my heroes. They are keeping me from being put to a test that I can readily see myself failing.

String 'em along

Japanese hostages not harmed, but not released yet either.

The Turkish Prime Minister is trying to help. Will he be effective? Don't Turkey and Iraq have a little animosity? Or is that limited to Turkey and the Kurds?

We have the mandatory silliness from Turkey:

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Tuesday to aid Tokyo win the release of three Japanese hostages while urging the world to ease poverty in Iraq , which he called the root of terrorism. "

and

"I think the Iraqi issue cannot be resolved with military means," he said. "If there are extra funds, rather than use them to buy weapons, we hope they can be allocated to alleviate poverty.

"In the end it will be useful in eradicating terrorism," Erdogan said.

But if that were true, the Japanese hostages would never have been captured in the first place.

Agence France-Presse quotes repeatedly from some Japan opposition Democratic party member named Fujita, who repeatedly states he doesn't know what's going on. Well, then . . . why . . . o, never mind!

Democratic party for appeasement. Cheez, it's the same all over.

Agence France Press also gives us this tidbit:

"Koizumi reiterated that, despite the desperate pleas of relatives, his government would not bow to the demands of kidnappers or pull its troops out of Iraq.

Even so, Japan has three C-130 cargo planes in Kuwait ready to evacuate Japanese nationals from Iraq, a defence spokesman said."

I would expect Japan to be inclined to get their civilians out of Iraq with all possible speed, especially the ones who have been held hostage. I suppose I should also expect that a news agency is, like the terrorists, incapable of distinguishing between terrorists, soldiers, and civilians, but it still surprises me.

LA Times, which I do not subscribe to and so can't access, has a headline that says "Cheney says the US will help." I should hope so.

The Chinese hostages have been released. Don't know yet who they were, why they were taken, or why or how they were released. They are being looked after by "the Association of Islamic Clerics." Doesn't sound safe to me . .

Ukrainan and Russian hostages have also been released. Whoever kidnapped them won't admit it.

My hunch: these are not terrorist kidnappings; these are your ordinary, everyday, bumblef**k thugs trying to make a quick buck or impress the chicks with their bravado. We are in for this sort of thing in spades until about July 5, shortly after the Iraq transition begins. It'll then die down for a few months, but surge with even greater vengence in the 2-3 months before the US elections.

After the US elections? Well, if Kerry wins, we won't really know what happens in Iraq because media attention will no longer be focused there. We will, however, see an increase in general, worldwide terrorism as the vile islamofascits will believe - possibly with justification - that they can not only get away with it, but even accomplish goals. As Kerry transfers US sovereignty to the UN, we will also see an increase in domestic terrorism of the Terry McVeigh type.

If Bush wins, we see a mad blast of desparate, take-no-prisoners, give-no-quarter 'insurgency' in Iraq. Iraq will be constantly in the news, and the media will be pushing heavily for withdrawal. If Bush and co. can hold firm in the face of ANSWER and the NY Slimes, Iraq will breathe fairly freely by - say, December 2005, plus or minus a couple months. We will have constant skirmishes for another generation or two.

If we withdraw under a Bush administration due to media pressure, Iraq will plunge into civil war and the media will constantly play it up. Afghanistan will probably also revert. Worldwide terrorism will increase. The media will play it up and play it up, and by the time they and their weenie academic friends actually face reality, it will be too late to recover.

Just my hunch. We'll see.

Update: Instapundit points to The Belmont Club for a discussion on journalists' kidnappings that makes you go 'hmmmmmmm.'

Take the quiz: "Which Hobbit are you?"

Sam
You are the best of all hobbits! You're friendly and faithful. Just remember though, you're second to Mr Frodo

Cougars Sweep Bees

A complete, 3-game sweep! The Cougars were my favorite team when they were affiliated with the Marlins; I just can't get excited about them now that they've gone to the Oakland (ewwww!) Athletics. I was hoping the Bees would sting the Cougars' hides right back to last Wednesday.

Oh well, we'll see how they do tonight against the Timber Rattlers.

GO BEES!

Vocabulary Lessson

A "Banana" is an uncharitable term coined by uncharitable liberals for a person of Far Eastern extraction . . . who has "sold out" her race (similar to the term Uncle Tom). What constitutes selling out? Duh: embracing conservative politics.

From The Banana Republican.

If you don't have enough to be irritated about today, read her post entitled Reminding me once again why I'm not a poli-sci major...

Nice Ad!

One Man's Vote points to this most excellent, but apparently unoffical, Bush ad.

PRAY

for the Japanese hostages in Iraq. I am sure you are doing it already - but do it some more.

The Indian Express says they may be safe; Channel News Asia says not.

Pray.

Something Nice About People No One Ever Says Nice Things About

Congress: Yes, they are frequently vile blood-suckers utterly oblivious to the Consitution they've sworn to uphold. Nevertheless, in at least one instance, they did do something right, reasonable, and in line with the will of the people. There is now no marriage penalty OR marriage benefit in the income tax structure. Pat your congresscritter on the head!

Microsoft: Yes, they too are frequently vile bloodsuckers, writing bizarre programs that think they know what the user wants better than the user does. But Just for once, they were right. I was having problems with bizarre links creating themselves on my computer, and zillions and zillions of popup ads. Seems I inadvertently pressed 'yes' on some popup, and accidentally installed a hideous program that throws advertising at you like an islamofascist throwing stones at an adulterous woman. Microsoft XP has this nifty 'restore' feature that just sets your computer back to last week. It seems to have undone whatever bone-headed thing I managed to do. So if you see Bill Gates, pinch his cheeks for me and tell him he's a good boy.

House Resolution 568

Whereas the Declaration of Independence announced that one of the chief causes of the American Revolution was that King George had "combined to subject us to a juridiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our law"

Hey, King George and Sandra Day O'Connor would have got along great!!

You remember, I threatened to post on this subject again and again and again and again. I bet you thought I'd forget. Hah! Silly you!

Anyway, Feeney has updated his webpage and it now contains the resolution text. The quote above is from the resolution and links to the .pdf file. So now, when you write your representative in support of the Reaffirmation of American Independence Resolution, you can include the formal reference, HR 568.

Think how happy your rep will be when he or she comes into his office on Monday morning and finds all the emails the Easter Bunny left!

Keep putting one foot in front of the other, like a weasel in the snow

Kevin at The Smallest Minority has two sad posts about the loss of American liberty and the lack of concern at the same. I can't disagree with any of it, but the mom in me offers up this little Grimm's Fairy Tale (as near as I can remember it):

The Little Raindrop That Did What It Could

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who was very sad and scared, because it hadn't rained for a long, long time and his crops were starting to fail. He looked up into the sky every day, but all he saw was blue sky.

One day a raindrop was hanging around above the farmer's field with a few of his friends. There weren't enough raindrops to make a cloud, not enough to see anything from the ground. But the raindrop could see the farmer.

"Hey," says the raindrop. "That farmer's in trouble. Maybe we should head on down."

The raindrop's buddies laughed at him. "C'mon, are you crazy? There's, like, what, six of us? There'd have to be a million of us to do any good! That ground's so dry it's cracking!"

The Little Raindrop was a little stubborn. "Well, we could help a little bit."

The raindrop's buddies laughed again. But the Little Raindrop said "I don't care. I'm going down anyway. If I can't do anything else, maybe I can cheer him up." and he headed on down to the field, while the other raindrops just shook their heads.

But then a second raindrop said, "O what the heck. That guy's a nut, but I'm not doing anything right now anyway." So the second raindrop went down to the field.

Then a third.

Then some raindrops that were farther away noticed the action and came over to see what was happening. Then more . . then more. Then pretty soon, there was a whole cloud that rained down on the farmer's field, and his crops grew and he didn't go hungry that year.

All because one little raindrop did what it could.

And on that note, I'll quit blogging for now and try to compose a mature, reasoned and persuasive note to the Sheriff of Franklin Country, Ohio. James over at Hell in a Handbasket seems to think the Sheriff is not paying proper attention to the spirit of Ohio's new laws.

Don't Click that Hyperlink!

Scattered throughout the posts, you may see some hyperlinks that are underlined, but not in a different color than the normal text. I did not put them there. Apparently Blogger or some outfit even more notorious has helped itself to my blog, usurping my text for their own nefarious adverstising. Please do not click any of those links.

Thanks.

Annual Easter Joke

The great thing about having a blog is that it provides new victims people to appreciate my annual Easter joke. Ready? OK, here we go:

Q. What do you get when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?



A. Hot cross bunnies!!

HA HA HA!

I am not the only person with foot-in-mouth disease

A young friend is on the 'No blood for oooiiiiiiiiilllllll' kick, and constantly sends out emails to all and sundry with links to various moonbat sites. The latest one contained a bunch of Bush-bashing bumperstickers. It elicited this response, also sent to all and sundry:

"It is highly recommended that you take your professors off of your distribution list. I am fairly confident, after having you in class for two semesters, that if I asked you to explain many of these bumper stickers to me you would not have the knowledge to do so.

Let me remind you of a couple of the key concepts you should have learned last semester. As a communicator, you have the ethical responsibility to send messages that you know are true and correct. Also, don't make assumptions about your audience - just because I am a professor, does not mean I am a liberal.

I voted for Bush and will do so again. "

Whew! Shot down in the prime of life. Although, in defense of the misguided moonbat, nobody really expects these 'forward to everyone you know' emails to have any basis in reality, right?

& speaking of foot-in-mouth

What I find most astonishing about the whole Kos business is that a person who can publicly and unashamedly tout his refusal to award compassion for the death and mutiliation of four people, can turn around and expect to receive compassion when he suffers the heinous crime of de-linking and loss of advertising revenue.

Hello? Is anybody home?

Over My Head

Eric at Classical Values has a post that is completely over my head. Envy has nothing to do with why I hate artists. I hate them simply because, first, they hate me and all that I love. Secondly, they think displaying their hatred entitles them to adulation. Thirdly, they're a bunch of obnoxious, narcissistic, self-preening weenies.

I don't hate gays in general, and gays are most certainly entitled to recognition and protection of their contracts on the same level as heterosexuals; however I do hate the SF Gays who participated in the destruction of executive/judicial/legislative checks and balances with the same cold disdain I feel towards the New Orleans 5th circuit. Envy has nothing to do with why I hate the 5th Circuit or SF Gays. It's a desire for the constitution to mean something, and a dislike for those who would destroy it.

There is a certain amount of wistfulness in my distaste for use of the word 'marriage' in connection with permanent gay relationships. The wistfulness may be nearly as strong as my concern for the degradation of the English language.

Do you know, I'm a radical liberal, which means I'm a libertarian, which in today's political climate makes me a conservative. How can we communicate?

Update: I'm sorry! I should have either not posted this at all, or else made it about 20 times longer. No, I don't really hate the entire world. Dave, you are not a slimy, narcissistic twit and I didn't mean to imply that you were. Eric at Classical Values is apparently psychic, because he said in his comments "There are some good artists, but I share your view of sanctimonious crap which passes for art (if that's what you mean). You may be complaining also about artists who think the government should fund them (which destroys art). Not sure."

So this is a very incoherent post. I hate this artist and these types. A weenie, icky artist probably chose the color scheme for this house.

So, finally, to qualify as a weenie, icky artist, one has to meet one or all of the following criteria:
you must produce sanctimonious crap; and/or
you must be government-funded (this includes taking money from town councils; and/or
you have to have bad taste.

nuff!

Take the quiz: "What kind of chicken are you???"

You are the dancing chicken.
You just wanna shake your tail feathers. You tend to dance around questions and not answer them directly, but you're oh so damn fun!

We thought we heard the Angels sing

I'm trying to clean it up right now, so if you're looking for a chapter, sorry, and come back tomorrow.

Update: WHEW!! Ho-kay. Everything is in order and this time the full chapters took. I can't get rid of italics in Chapters 13 through 15, but too bad for now. If you are looking for something to read, go the April 2003 archives, scroll past all the gardening stuff down to April 10. After that, you're on your own.

We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing is a book about being stuck in the Pacific Ocean for 21 days, with Eddie Rickenbacker and about 8 other people. They ran out of fuel and got lost in WWII. It's out of print.

It's really the reason I started this blog. It's too good a book, and too compelling a tale, to simply disappear into the mists of time. To prevent that, I've retyped and posted the whole darn thing. I'm sure it's full of typos etc, especially in chapters 10 on, where I started having weird blogspot trouble. Sorry. Perhaps the next time I feel like spending an entire Saturday in front of the computer, I'll do some correcting. In the meantime, you'll have to rough it. It would be helpful if you put needed corrections in the comments {like: paragraph 3, line 2, 'ahd' should probably be 'had'}

This is from the introduction:

. . . 14 hours SSW Oahu. May have overshot island. Hour's fuel."

Real life, real people. If you don't get a few chills reading it, you're just not human.

Enjoy!

Wish List

This is exactly what I need to deal with those #%@ noisy neighbors across the creek.

Welcome, Lynne Truss

We need you! I'm afraid she's in for some disillusionment, though.

But she will not cast the first stone at the Americans, often mocked by the haughty British for bastardizing their mother tongue.

"American education seems to take grammar quite seriously," she told Reuters


I don't think American education takes anything seriously but the teacher's union. But come on over and give it the ol' college try!

Populist Authoritarianism

New meme brought to you by Samizdata. Tyranny of the majority and all that.

hat tip to The Smallest Majority.

Free Speech Stuff

BIHK links to Adopt a Blog, a site apparently dedicated to mirroring or hosting blogs currently residing on servers blocked in China and presumably other locations.

"The Adopt a Blog project began in response to the second major blocking measure taken by the government of the People's Republic of China against blogging services. The first such measure was taken against Blogger's free Blogspot hosting service on January 8, 2003. That block is still in place today. The more recent block of Typepad blogs began on March 25, 2004, and is also still in effect.

The Adopt a Blog project is not a political agenda seeking to oppose the PRC or its policies. It is not confined to any particular country. It was founded strictly to uphold free speech, regardless of content. Its main idea is: we spread out our blogs, and when they block a blog, we move it elsewhere."

Zounds!

Quizilla is broken! The pictures aren't coming through! But they work on the Quizilla site, and doubtless at some point someone at Quizilla will fix it. so I'm leaving these quizzes up.

It had to happen

Sooner or later, someone had to come up with this quiz:


You are "What random object are you?"


What kind of Quizilla Quiz are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Terrific! but which random object, in particular?


You are... A rubber duck!


Which random object are you? (Results contain pictures)
brought to you by Quizilla

All true . . but still not specific enough. So off we go to Captain Quack's Duck Quiz for more information.



What more does one need to know?

Justice Triumphs

Slowly and painfully, but every now and then something right happens.

Tim at the Englishman's Castle brings us excellent news - Col Tim Collins has won libel suits against The Sunday Mirror and The Sunday Express.

If you've forgotten Lt. Col. Collins speech to his troops at the eve of the Iraq war, Bryan Strawser has it archived here. I still tear up when I read it.

Thank God this nightmare is over for Col. Collins, and let him and his family recover and be renewed.

and thank you, Colonel, for your words, your service and your spirit. The world is a better place because you are in it.

Spring forward, Fall back

Saturday night/Sunday morning, 2:00 a.m., April 4, is clock-changing time in the USA. You'll be moving the clock forward an hour, so maybe you should go to bed a little early tonight and ease into it. Did you know that most heart attacks occur on Monday, and the Monday with the most heart attacks is the one following the spring time change? Take it easy this weekend, gentle reader.

If you want to know more about this vile custom, read About Daylight Saving Time. If you hate it, and would like to feel less lonely, try End Daylight Saving time

Weirder and Weirder

Hell in a Hand Basket points to Publicola who points to Keep and Bear Arms, who is getting the weirdest "I'm gonna sic my lawyers on you" letters that I ever hope to see.

KABA follows various gun laws etc. One thing they do is monitor crime rates in countries that have enacted strict gun grabbing laws. Monitoring of such countries as UK and Australia indicates that crime increases as gun rights decrease. In the course of KABA articles, they naturally link to articles on gun crime.

Apparently, reporter Greg Truscott of the South London Press resents the fact that people read the articles he's written, such as this one about a gun-wielding thug in gun-free UK who threatened a defenseless, unarmed woman with it, and this one about a gun-wielding thug in gun-free UK who killed a defenseless, unarmed man.

This is the first time I've heard of a reporter who didn't want anyone to read his stuff, but I'm a-scared of his lawyers (no, really, I mean it) so if you click on the links to his articles, please read them with your eyes closed . . or something.

Hmmm. Maybe it's a ploy on Mr. Truscott's part, to get his 15 minutes of fame. KABA seems to think that it is not an April Fool's joke.

whatever. It's a bizarre world.


Update: Well, Nicki's still getting emails from this guy, according to comments at Publicola. and it's not April 1 anymore. I guess maybe it's really real. But a reporter who doesn't want his work read and who doesn't believe in free speech . . that just beats the band. We need to package this guy up and sell him to Ripley's Believe it or Not. Those authoritarian 'liberals' just keep getting stranger and stranger.

Congress Critters

This nifty site not only provides contact information for your senators, representatives, and president, it also tells you how your personal critters voted on key issues.

My brain-(d)ead rep, Jim Davis, voted NO on the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption act. Sheesh. Luckily it passed anyway.

Misc.

Now is probably a good time to boycott MGM and United Artists.

Some Catholics are unhappy with Kerry's desecration of the Eucharist. I can't say I blame them. I find the Catholic Church's many rituals rather bewildering myself - they seem to have more criteria than Protestants for such participation. However, it's reasonable to expect that someone who claims to be a practising Catholic actually knows what and how Catholics are supposed to practise. It seems Kerry falls short of expected conduct.

Digression: BUT! At least in the Protestant churches I've been in, they only rarely tell you that you shouldn't take communion unless you've accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on a spiritual level. Sometimes they tell you after communion, but that's a little late for a visitor who's unfamiliar with the routine.

Reaffirmation of American Independence

I will re-post this and re-post this and re-post this until you get excited about it!!

There is a resolution in the House of Representatives that needs your support. It says, essentially: Bleep You, Sandra Day O'Connor, AND the World Court you rode in on!

Only more tactfully -

"Six Supreme Court justices have written or joined opinions that cited foreign authorities -- including courts in Jamaica, India, Zimbabwe, and the European Union -- to justify its decisions. Lower Federal courts are beginning to follow this disturbing trend.

Article VI of the Constitution unambiguously states that the Constitution and federal statutes are the supreme law of the land."

You can write to your rep here. You'll need your entire zip code (long version) so go get your phone bill.

If you can't think of anything to say, feel free to copy and paste: Please support the Feeney/Goodlatte Reaffirmation of American Independence Resolution. Thank you.

If you wonder why such a resolution is needed, check out Ravenswood and The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler and Tech Central Station who says : "Two hundred thirty years ago, we fought a revolution so that Americans wouldn't be governed from Europe. It's high time the High Court was reminded of that bit of American history."

Some people on the left don't see the problem. I do.

People have died for this independence. So click some buttons for independence.

You know the moonbats get all the attention, to the point where congress and foreigners seem to think the moonbats represent the USA. Make yourself heard. It's easier - and kinder - to do it now, with a keyboard, than later with a gun.

Update: The Smallest Minority either agrees, or is linking to shut me up . . either way is fine. I just want congress to start realizing that a lot of people in the US happen to like the constitution.


Update II: Whoo Hoo! Obnoxious Fumes has a March 27 post, with a link to an automatic letter.