"I didn't leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me."

January 06, 2006

A Friday "WTF?" Two-fer

Heard of fingerpainting? How about boobypainting?

An Australian woman is selling pictures that she paints with her breasts at
£ 40 each.

The mother of two, from Tasmania, who is happy to describe herself as a big woman, works at the kitchen table rather than at an easel, reports the Mercury newspaper.
She said: "I either apply the paint to my breasts and lean on to the canvas or apply the paint to the canvas and then lean into it to spread the paint.
"I sign every picture with my nipple."

Now there's creativity for you. Sorry, no pictures available (of the paintings or the artist).

This other story gets honorable mention because I've posted a similar incident back in November. A Turkish shop assistant was found lying naked with a mannequin in a store window.

The 30-year-old man was discovered by colleagues opening up the department store in Antalya for the day.
They called police after noticing bite marks on the mannequin. Two other mannequins that showed signs of abuse were also taken in as evidence.
The shop assistant allegedly hid in the toilets while the store was being locked up for the night.
The man has been charged with damaging property.

Is this becoming a trend now? Is there a name for this sort of thing? I wonder what the other "signs of abuse" were. That's one sick puppy.

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New Feature: 80's Crush Of The Week

With a new year, we wistfully say goodbye to the Diane Lane Photo of the Week. Starting tomorrow, I'll be having a new Saturday feature - the "80's Crush of the Week".

The eighties were formative years for me, spanning across my high school and college years. And in those years I, like so many other guys, came of age amid raging hormones and cheesy fantasies about whatever female celebrity was the femme du jour. Sometimes it even seemed like there was a new one every week.

So every Saturday, I'm going to set the way-back machine to the Reagan years (occasionally dipping slightly back into 1979 or ahead to 1990) to relive some adolescent memories. Some of these gals will be very familiar. And you can probably expect a few surprises throughout the year as I come up with new candidates for the Crush Meter.

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BSG Is Back!

The second half of Battlestar Galactica season two starts tonight! 10pm on Sci-Fi.

It's Galactica v. Pegasus - when Battlestars collide! And Number Six. Hmmmm...Hot Cylons.

UPDATE: By special request, one for the ladies: Lee "Apollo" Adama (played by Brit actor Jamie Bamber)

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Canadian Tories Gaining Ground In Latest Polls

With the excruciatingly steady drip of stories linking Canada's Liberal Party with scandal after scandal, the Conservative Party for the first time is polling ahead as the country heads closer to Parliamentary elections later this month.

Captain Ed highlights the latest investigation into the Liberal party focusing on abuse of government funds for personal purposes. Now Canada is by and large a Left-leaning culture, with a serious addiction to the nanny-State. But it looks like a plurality of voters are getting fed up enough with the corruption to give the Tories an opportunity to form a minority government in the next Parliament.

What does this mean for the U.S.? Nothing really. We might be on the receiving end of less hostility and criticism over the war in Iraq. But the idea that Canada will become a more cooperative ally in the Global War On Terror just because the Conservative Party is kinda-sorta in charge of the government is unrealistic.

It'll be interesting, however, to see if the Canadian Left becomes as unhinged as the American Left when they're no longer in power.

UPDATE: Bloggers having an affect on the campaigning:

From the wackiest edges of the left and right, and every political shade in between, it's difficult to estimate the number of Canadian political blogs in existence. But when you Google the three words blogs, politics and Canada, more than six million entries come up.
Bloggers range from profane idiots to bright and incisive thinkers whose research skills, analysis and intellect leave many in journalism and academia looking pretty frail by comparison.

Heh. Guess you can put me closer to the "profane idiot" end of that spectrum. But Captain's Quarters, which has been covering these scandals and the subsequent call for new elections like white on rice, deservedly belongs at the other end with the "research skills, analysis and intellect" contingency.

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1 I think you're a bit off on your analysis in a couple of places. Although Canadian conservatives are a bit further to the left than American conservatives (well, in some's opinion; I am not so sure), keep in mind that there are things in their society that are a given. A great deal of Conservatives there think like American conservatives in terms of the size of government, taxation, and the nanny-state. The Leader of the Conservative Party has even said he wants to reduce their tax burden to below the levels they are in the United States. That hardly sounds left-leaning to me. As for the war on terror, Stephen Harper, the Conservative Leader, has said that he would not send troops to Iraq. However, Canada has military in Afghanistan, and he would maintain that. Further, he wants to undertake some changes to the Canadian immigration system, which would be very helpful to the States. He would never- and should not be, as the leader of Canada- a lapdog for the US, but I do believe he would make more of an effort to improve relations between our nations and be more of an ally. Additionally, a minority government doesn't equate to being "kinda-sorta in charge." They would be completely in charge, but their term of power could be cut short very easily.

Posted by: Jess at January 06, 2006 02:27 PM (4sXv9)

2 Points well taken. I admit I am brushing with a broad stroke here but until I see evidence of popular support among Canadian citizens for lower taxation, more free-market oriented economic policies and smaller government I'm going to have to remain skeptical. My own opinion (and it's only my own) is that without the corruption scandals, the Tories wouldn't stand a chance in a Parliamentary election. They're the beneficiaries of a "throw the bums out" movement. Correct my if I'm wrong, but don't minority governments have to rely on coalitions with other smaller parties such as the Bloc Quebecois to get anything done? Any agenda they have is subject to compromise. The U.S. doesn't need a "lap dog", it needs an ally that at least publicly recognizes that the threat of terrorism is intricately linked with states that fund and harbor them - just as Afghanistan did and just as Iraq did. Don't want to send troops? Fair enough, but some other gesture of solidarity would send a message to the terrorists that the U.S. isn't all alone out here. Except for Britain and many Eastern European nations, everybody seems to prefer to bury their heads in the sand and not make waves, lest they make themselves a target. Of course, if that's the attitude of the majority of their populations you can't be surprised when the governments mirror this philosophy.

Posted by: Gary at January 06, 2006 03:15 PM (QoxB+)

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January 05, 2006

VT Judge Stricken With Pathological Liberalism

In a demonstration of how the bleeding heart can eventually draw blood (and by extension, oxygen) from the brain, a Vermont Judge gave a child rapist a 60-day sentence because he "no longer believes in punishment and is more concerned with rehabilitation".

Prosecutors argued that confessed child-rapist Mark Hulett, 34, of Williston deserved at least eight years behind bars for repeatedly raping a littler girl countless times starting when she was seven.
But Judge Edward Cashman disagreed explaining that he no longer believes that punishment works.
"The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn't solve anything. It just corrodes your soul," said Judge Edward Cashman speaking to a packed Burlington courtroom. Most of the on-lookers were related to a young girl who was repeatedly raped by Mark Hulett who was in court to be sentenced.
The sex abuse started when the girl was seven and ended when she was ten.

The only soul that has been corroded here belongs to this first-rate son of a bitch judge - and it was touchy-feely, criminal-coddling Liberalism that did it. Apparently, when he first got on the bench some twenty-five years ago, he handed out stiff sentences. But now his attitudes have changed. So he lets this monster off with just a slap on the wrist. Because he doesn't believe in punishment?

"I discovered it accomplishes nothing of value;it doesn't make anything better;it costs us a lot of money; we create a lot of expectation, and we feed on anger,"Cashman explained to the people in the court.

Um, yeah. When you punish a scumbag like this it sets a very clear expectation: when you commit brutal and heinous crimes against children, we're going to lock you up in a place where you'll get to see what it's like to be victimized - by your fellow inmates.

The recidivism rate for sex offenders pretty much guarantees that - thanks to this "soft-hearted" prick - some other poor kid is going to suffer the same fate as this little girl. What will he sentence him to then? Ninety days?

It wouldn't shock me if they were to discover that this judge was succumbing to dementia. Liberalism can do that to you as well.

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It Didn't Take Long

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, the WV mine disaster? That was Bush's fault, too.

Political figures from both parties have long defended and profited from ties to the coal industry. Whether or not that was a factor in the Sago mine's history, the Bush administration's cramming of important posts in the Department of the Interior with biased operatives from the coal, oil and gas industry is not reassuring about general safety in the mines. Steven Griles, a mining lobbyist before being appointed deputy secretary of the interior, devoted four years to rolling back mine regulations and then went back to lobbying for the industry.

h/t: Michelle Malkin

UPDATE: Tom Bevan at RCP Blog rebuts (with facts)

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Tolkien Geek Update

Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter Six is posted.

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January 04, 2006

Review: "V For Vendetta"

No I didn't see this crap. But "The Road Warrior" did a guest review over at the Conservative Film site Libertas. Not only does the movie completely suck but he makes a ton of great observations about how it's basically a huge Left-Wing paranoid fantasy, and explains how those on the Left are what they claim to fear. A great read.

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Citizenship Test

30 Questions. You get less than 24 and you fail. And you have to move to Canada. No appeals allowed.

Leftists, Liberals and Moonbats only, please.

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MSM Misreports News Of Dead Coal Miners

Early in the morning, a mistaken report spread like wildfire that twelve coal miners trapped in West Virginia were miraculously alive depite a previous report that the air quality found at their level contained three times the lethal level of carbon monoxide.

The NY Times ran with the story. So did the Washington Post. The folks at CNN fell all over themselves trying to find euphoric family members to interview.

The one thing they didn't do was verify the story. As a result, the reports in the media reinforced the erroneous report and gave it legitimacy in the minds of the people holding vigils for the lost miners. It gave them false hope because the families of these men believed that the MSM wouldn't be reporting something that they didn't confirm was true.

Now, despite printed headlines to the contrary in the Times, the Post and even the more electronically up-to-the-minute USAToday at news stands all over the country, the real story has come out - that tragically the men did not survive.

The MSM is circling the wagons and trying to dodge their own irresponsibility. Trying to deflect attention from their reporting, they are focusing on the amount of time it took the management of the coal company to squash these middle-of-the-night rumors. The questions certainly need to be asked. But the initial report was just that - a rumor. If the communications people for the coal company knew soon after the initial reports that the men were NOT alive, why didn't the reporters bother to confirm - or for that matter even qualify the reports as unconfirmed?

They didn't have the time, lest they be "scooped" by their competitors. And not one single apology has come from any of these "papers of record". Here's a clue, guys: Do Your Homework! Responsible journalists are supposed to take the time to find the truth before they report the information.

But then, why should they start now?

UPDATE: Despite CNN's carefully constructed timeline, the NY Post is now reporting that the amount of time it took to inform the families of the tragic news was not nearly as long (although the Post doesn't escape blame for its own bogus headline):

At first, relatives yelled, "They're alive!" after hearing the news just before midnight and ran to the local church to pray.
But less than an hour later, those celebrations turned to tears and bitterness as a mine official informed them that there had been a breakdown in communication Â— and that the men were, in fact, dead.

Looks like CNN picked the wrong families to interview.

UPDATE II: Just so no one gets the impression that I'm "picking" on poor old CNN, I'd like to point out the recklessness of all three major cable news outlets. As reported by Sisu:

"[Anderson] Cooper and his counterparts on MSNBC -- the overripe Rita Cosby -- and Fox News -- some wet-behind-the-ears Anderson Cooper wannabe -- opted for the "blame game."

UPDATE III:
Editor and Publisher calls this incident "one of the most disturbing and disgraceful media performances of this type in recent years".

Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.com:

One terrible lesson of the West Virginia mine tragedy is that you canÂ’t trust the news. You never could; it has always taken time to see whether stories pan out, to get all the facts, to find out the truth. But now, in our age of instant news and ubiquitous communication, the public sees this process as it occurs. ItÂ’s not the news thatÂ’s live; itÂ’s the process of figuring out what to believe thatÂ’s live. Now, indeed, everyone is a reporter and an editor and the public is learning, as reporters learned, that they need to find their ways through the fog of news. The next time I hear someone being haughty about professional news vs. citizenÂ’s news, IÂ’ll remind them of the West Virginia tragedy, where news traveled ahead of the facts, where everyone was horribly wrong.

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

Anyone remember a popular bumper sticker in the 1970's that said simply "Question Authority"? I think we need an updated version that says "Question The MSM".

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January 03, 2006

The Damage That Has Been Done

AJ Strata explains how he thinks Al Qaeda will likely use the knowledge of recently leaked NSA programs against us:

For the terrorists to use the leak of the NSA spy program against us they simply have to start contact innocent Americans at random. That way their communications with their agents here in the US will be one contact within numerous fake contactsl. But it doesnÂ’t stop there. If these terrorists target liberals and well known leftists, then it will become clear the Feds will be detecting calls to these anti-war types. And if that news were to break, then the left would go more hysterical than they are now and we would have a real problem in the country trying to stay focused on protecting ourselves. And that would give Al Qaeda the distraction they need to get a WMD in place.
There it is. A simple counter exploitation scenario. I have posted this because I realized the only possible way to pre-empt this scenario is to predict it before the next round of news stories come out with Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi being identified as targets of the NSA because terrorists were contacting them to disrupt us politically.

Thank you, NY Times. A-holes!

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Report: Birth Control Pills Kill Women's Sex Drive

A new study has found that women using "the Pill" as a their birth control of choice experience a loss of libido. It also suggests that even if a women go off of it, the sex drive never returns to the levels that existed prior to taking the pill. But others urge the public to take the results of this research with a grain of salt.

Consultant gynaecologist and director of Melbourne's Jean Hailes Foundation, Liz Farrell, said while it was possible the Pill reduced a woman's sex drive, other factors could be to blame.
"We know that libido is an incredibly complex and complicated emotion," Dr Farrell said.
"It can be influenced by our health, our psyche, and relationship dynamics. The Pill may be a contributor, but not necessarily the cause."

My guess is that these Pez-heads may simply be overlooking the most significant factor for the reduction of a woman's sex drive.

It's called a wedding ring.

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Tolkien Geek Update

Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter Five is posted.

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"The Kid" Turns A Quarter Century

Happy Birthday, Eli Manning who turns 25 today.

No pressure or anything. Just his first playoff game coming up on Sunday. Go get 'em!

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Full Disclosure Rules Reveal What We Already Knew

What do the following groups have in common:

- Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Alliance
- Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
- Amnesty International
- AIDS Walk Washington

Yes, they're all Liberal special-interest groups but they - and dozens of similar groups - received over $65,000,000 in funds that came directly from the union dues paid by members of the National Education Association. Thanks to new rules pushed through by the Labor Department, these unions must now disclose how they are spending their members' money.

And more than half of the leadership staff of the NEA are drawing six-figure salaries, while the average teacher is underpaid and usually has to spend his or her own money for supplies just to do their jobs.

Today's OpinionJournal.com has the facts and figures:

The NEA is spending the mandatory dues paid by members who are told their money will be used to gain better wages, benefits and working conditions. According to the latest filing, member dues accounted for $295 million of the NEA's $341 million in total receipts last year. But the union spent $25 million of that on "political activities and lobbying" and another $65.5 million on "contributions, gifts and grants" that seemed designed to further those hyper-liberal political goals.

That means that for every dollar of a teacher's union dues, almost 31 cents goes to either the NEA's political activity or to some Left-wing political organization. Members can now go to www.union-reports.dol.gov to research where their money is going.

It's no secret that unions like the NEA have long been considered "wholly-owned subsidiaries" of the Democrat pary. But whether or not its members sympathize with these other organizations or not, the fact that so much of their money is being used in this manner rather than for their benefit should be a major source of concern to teachers. At least now - thanks to the Bush Administration - they have the information.

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January 02, 2006

RINOs Are Raging

The first RINO Sightings of 2006 are up at Louisiana Libertarian!

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Caring For Your Pet Moonbat

To start off the new year, Mr. Right has posted an excellent parody titled "The Proper Care and Feeding of Moonbats". Go check it out!

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January 01, 2006

2005: A Blogger's Perspective

Well, a lot of bloggers have posted retrospectives on the year that was. I thought I'd do the same considering I got started at the beginning of the year. I've decided to recap my year, covering some of the major events and some of the minor ones. It's been an interesting experience to say the least.

This is a long one, so click "read more" if you dare.

more...

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December 31, 2005

Happy New Year!

We appreciate the brave men and women in uniform who protect our country and advance freedom around the world. We are grateful to their families for their support and sacrifice, and we pray for all those who have lost loved ones in freedom's cause. Our nation will always remember the heroes who have given their lives to protect us all.
As we celebrate the New Year, we give thanks to God for his blessings and ask for his guidance. We look with hope to the year ahead and the many new opportunities the future will bring.

- President George W. Bush, 12/31/05

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Giants v. Raiders

UPDATE: 11:40pm
HAPPY BLUE YEAR!!!!!!

NY GIANTS NFC EAST CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Well, this is it. Win here and the Giants take the division and lock up home field advantage for next week's playoff game. Lose and the Redskins can steal the division away and next week's game is on the road. And we all know how the Giants have been playing on the road.

And they're on the road here today. But the Oakland Raiders are 2-5 at home. Had the Giants gotten it done last week this game would not only have been meaningless but probably NO one outside of a die-hard NY fan would have bothered tuning in at 8pm on New Year's Eve. The Raiders fans will be watching (the ones that do, that is) at 5pm PST. They've got plenty of time for New Year's revelry.

But Giants fans are screwed. Watch the game and piss off the wife/girlfriend or run around with a transistor radio trying to catch the latest score. It's a no win for Giants fans.

But the Giants MUST win. Honestly, I care more about the division than anything else. The Giants can win a playoff game at home, but they won't advance very far - especially with their linebacker corps depleted with injuries. And even if they did, the AFC will own the championship this year.

Nope, I said it last week but I really mean it this time. NY needs to Git 'Er Done tonight. No excuses.

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