Comments or suggestions: Gerard Van der Leun
Warmal Colding Report: Lahore Freezes Over

"1st ever snowfall in Lahore, Pakistan. truly amazing. video had been made by a student currently enrolling in A-S Level while he was coming back home from market."

Grace of God or End of the World? Views are mixed:

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - Citizens cheer as hail turns city white

Our city is looking amazing with this white snow,” said Mrs Ammad at Gulberg Main Boulevard. “This is one of the blessings of God,” she added.

Youngsters were seen playing with snow till late in the evening. A number of people were also seen throwing snowballs on each other and making snowmen. Hot beverages were in great demand at restaurants and roadside stalls.

“It is one of the signs of doomsday as we have heard that unlikely weather would be seen around the world in its last days,” said Abdul Shakoor in Garhi Shahu. He said that “we have witnessed an odd event, which shows us that the end of the world is near”.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 28, 2011 11:36 PM | Comments (31)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Dead Zero: "The way of Islam is the only way, the predestined way..."

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An excerpt from Stephen Hunter's new novel,Dead Zero: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel

THEODORE R. HOLLISTER
DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
“AN ACCOUNT OF MOTIVE”
HARD DRIVE
NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICE IBM
C:\MY FILES\ACCOUNT.1.WPD

I am no Lee Harvey Oswald, surly and bitter and luxuriating in his own self-imposed bitterness. I am no John Wilkes Booth, full of grandiloquence, theatrical self-dramatization, narcissism, and insanity. I am no Leon Czolgosz, an idiot.
I’m just a man who sees the future, understands what it must be, and humbly aspires to facilitate it as mercifully and swiftly as possible. I did what I did because the West is no longer worth defending. It has been destroyed by the people it was built to protect: its women.

The West lasted from AD 732, when Charles Martel defeated the Muslims at Tours, until 1960, where it fell without a battle. In 1960, the birth control pill became widely available. Many think of it as heaven, sexual nirvana, the route to self-expression, wish fulfillment, and liberation for millions of women. I think of it as Auschwitz in a bottle. It was and is genocide, as, using it, the women of my generation happily traded off 1,200 years of unparalleled growth, wealth, security, stability, scientific and ethical progress for a second BMW in the garage. The West ceased producing at a sustainable rate, while Islam continued to populate the world. You may look elsewhere for the demographics. This fact cannot be avoided: we Westerners currently may be analogized to upper-class Brits on the deck of the Titanic, April 12, 1912. My, my, why is the great ship tilting a bit? Why, dear, it’s probably some minor malfunction that the handsome young men will soon fix. Meanwhile, may I have another aperitif, steward?

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 28, 2011 11:00 PM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"Nothing Says Prick Like a Prius:" Free Bumpersticker for the Sane

This item was first published in 2007. Since then the Pricks of Prius have just gotten more obnoxious. Case in point:

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More proof that you never have an RPG when you really need one.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 28, 2011 4:17 PM | Comments (23)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Tim Allen was abducted by aliens here in Galaxy Quest

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Thus was Myth-Making in the pre-digital 20th Century: Case Study House No. 22 « Iconic Photos

Pierre Koenig's Case Study House No. 22 (also the Stahl House), shows two well-dressed women conversing casually inside. In the photo, the cantilevered living room appears to float diaphanously above Los Angeles. “The vertiginous point of view contrasts sharply with the relaxed atmosphere of the house’s interior, testifying to the ability of the Modernist architect to transcend the limits of the natural world,” praised the New York Times. Yet this view was created as meticulously as the house itself. Wide-angle photography belied the actual smallness of the house; furniture and furnishings were staged, and as were the women. Although they were not models (but rather girlfriends of architectural students), they were asked to sit still in the dark as Shulman exposed the film seven minutes to capture lights from LA streets. Then, lights inside were quickly switched on to capture two posing women.


Posted by Vanderleun Feb 27, 2011 10:04 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money

Ye olde Sippican Cottage brings us this simple chart, Wealth, And How To Get It, by Brad Hargreaves, and lights it up by noting:

I'm not astonished by the rate of creative destruction in the economy, even though my way of earning a living has been completely wiped out at least six times in my lifetime. It's the non-creative destruction I'm amazed at. Not Adam Smith, or even Karl Marx destruction. Ghengis Khan destruction. Vercingetorix destruction. William the Conqueror destruction. Carthaginian destruction, with nothing to replace it. The economy is less sophisticated than twenty-five years ago. It's a hard money, feudal world again in many respects. The Duchy of Chicago was just awarded to a loyal Cromwell.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 27, 2011 9:39 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Tyrant's Flight? Or Just a Weekend Getaway?

Video purporting to be the exodus of Qaddafi and his minions from Tripoli to Sabha "about 480 miles due south." [Via Jewish Odysseus] Note: And now shown to be wishful thinking.

There's not that much you can really tell here except for a large lumbering motorhome being pursued across a desert landscape at high speed with a few military looking trucks bringing up the rear. Still, if an evil tyrant had to have a last redoubt and fortress of semi-solitude, Sabha would fit the bill.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 26, 2011 2:39 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Especially if that drummer was Pigpen

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Freshly Created This Day by the CubeMaster Maksim



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 23, 2011 3:38 PM | Comments (29)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Current Russian Method of Dealing with Somali Pirates: Seize, Search, Blow Up, Burn to the Waterline

Warning: It's not pretty, but it is pretty effective.

1:30: "Why do you lie to me? This is not a fishing boat."

From YouTube - Russian forces V somali pirates - behind the scenes



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 23, 2011 10:46 AM | Comments (24)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: 5 Seconds Of Every #1 Song Ever (1955-1992)

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One hour and 14 minutes of hit magic. Fascinating. Good background for cruising the net. Click and listen to the decades rock and roll on by.

It's amazing to me that I have actually heard every single one of these on or about the day they were released. That's right. I come in at "Memories Are Made of This." Where do you come in?


Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 1 by mjs538


Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 2 by mjs538

Called "Chartsweep" the work was created by Hugo Keesing, a

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 22, 2011 4:55 PM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Whole World Needs to Have a Drink, Take a Bong Hit, and Just Sit DOWN!

Is it just me or is it getting far too hot in the realm of the humans? I mean you got your fake doctors, your Libya shockers, your Constitution mockers, your earthquakes shaking, your Mideast baking, your president flaking, your unions taking, your liberals lying, your traditions dying, your bullets flying, your oil sky-highing.

Whew! Here's a shout-out for a time out.

Video by way of Sippican who notes: Forget Mordor; One Does Not Simply Walk Into The Third Rock From The Sun



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 22, 2011 11:25 AM | Comments (20)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Civil War of Europe vs Islam Looming?

Well, historically speaking, Europe does have some drastic ways of dealing with minorities when pushing comes to shoving.

"It's civil war. It will not be a civil war like in Spain under Franco. It will be a kind of local civil war," del Valle added. "In fact, I think one day it will be so unbearable that the state will be obliged to send in the army."



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 21, 2011 1:42 PM | Comments (29)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Tedious Progressivism Marches On Into the Past: The Rants Never Change Only the Fashions

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Here's a cover from American Legion magazine in 1951. It highlights, "Commies and those who play their game." [emphasis added]

How strangely contemporary it seems. It's sixty years later and yet it seems that nothing has changed on ye olde picket line. Has nothing changed in America in sixty years? Whole worlds have shifted in the country to such an extent that it would exhaust libraries to shelve the books written on those changes.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 21, 2011 1:00 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Dr. Fraudulent: "Yeah I'm a real doctor. I see patients and everything..."

Check out this skeevy hipster captured on film by Ann Althouse. (Note to hipsters: Beware the smart blonde asking innocent questions!) Then check out his Men-Without-Chests "bio" below [emphasis added:]

Patrick McKenna grew up in the northern Wisconsin town of Antigo. After earning his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UW-Madison, he took an untraditional path to medicine by first pursuing an MBA in Chicago and a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Alaska. Ultimately, though, his Wisconsin roots lured him back to The Dairy State to attend medical school at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Patrick’s leadership and commitment to public service are evidenced by his work during medical school as a LOCUS Fellow and with the MEDIC free clinics in Madison. He served as MEDIC Council president during his second year and received the 2006 McGovern-Tracy Scholar award, which recognizes medical students who exemplify values of community service and leadership while in training. He also has a passion for global health and served as both a member and co-chair of the UW Global Health Interest Group. In his spare time, Patrick enjoys athletics of all kinds, including basketball, broomball, running, bicycling, canoeing, and skiing. He also enjoys gardening, cooking, baking, and sewing, and he has strong interests in politics, rural policy, sustainability, and creative writing. -- Patrick A McKenna MD | UW Family Medicine

Quel homme! Formi-dab! What a catch!

Girls of all genders, get in line! If this skeevy hipster is willing to write fraudulent doctor's notes, he's probably pretty handy with a prescription pad too. Think of the money and legal hassle you'd save with legit pharmaceuticals.

Not only that, this "Doctor Feelgood" cooks! He bakes, and he sews, and sure plays a mean broomball! (aka "Hockey for those whose testicles have retracted.")

Note also that he is one of those who takes the "untraditional path," does commitment (to public service), and is "passionate" (about global health, which is almost as good as being "passionate" about "world peace." ) But best of all is his "strong" interest in the thing he evidently does best in this video, "creative writing."



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 20, 2011 1:03 PM | Comments (16)  | QuickLink: Permalink
From the "Days of Miracles and Wonders" File: Blue on Mars

"GOD is the photograph of everything at once."

With all the unremitting pettiness of the daily life of humans it's easy to forget how full of marvels all Creation is packed. Case in point:

blueonmars.jpg

This photograph shows part of the floor of Rabe Crater, a large impact crater in Mars' southern highlands.

For a high-def view CLICK HERE.

Dark dunes--accumulations of wind blown sand--cover part of crater's floor, and contrast with the surrounding bright-colored outcrops. The extreme close-up view reveals a thumbprint-like texture of smaller ridges and troughs covering the surfaces of the larger dunes. These smaller ripples are also formed and shaped by blowing wind in the thin atmosphere of Mars.

One puzzling question is why the dunes are dark compared with the relative bright layered material contained within the crater. The probable answer is that the source of the dark sand is not local to this crater; rather, this topographic depression has acted as a sand trap that has collected material being transported by winds blowing across the plains outside the crater. -- redOrbit



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 19, 2011 8:55 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
NY Times Propaganda Writers Lead Way by Cribbing from Their Socialist Mentors

Like many other "returned to sanity" Americans I no longer give the New York Times money or regard. But today at the store I glanced at their front page and I have to give them credit for the ability to whore themselves out no matter how sluttish their acts may be.

Just look at this masterpiece in setting up the front page for maximum propaganda impact:

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Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 19, 2011 2:43 PM | Comments (39)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"First do no work:" Wisconsin Doctors Hand Out Fake Excuses to Protesters

Want to see something that will make you really sick? Check out the slime of the Wisconsin medical community as they engage in fraud by writing up "doctor's notes" for malingering teachers.

Now, as I recall my own school days, showing up after being absent with a faked note from my Mom usually resulted in a suspension from school, and a less than pleasant one-on-one interview with my father on the value of truth and honesty.

Not so with these quacks of the left.

The attorney general of Wisconsin should see to it that all these "doctors'" license to practice are revoked.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 19, 2011 1:22 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Status: Adrift and Becalmed

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“As I imagin’d, so it was, there appear’d before me a little opening of the Land, and I found a strong Current of the Tide set into it, so I guided my Raft as well as I could to keep in the Middle of the Stream: But here I had like to have suffer’d a second Shipwreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have broke my Heart, for knowing nothing of the Coast, my Raft run a-ground at one End of it upon a Shoal,

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 18, 2011 5:57 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Hello Suckers. Here's Looking At You.

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"The economy is doing well for some folks, like this group of technology business leaders meeting with President Obama in Woodside, California, last night."

Jim Geraghty brings us this picture of plutocracy in action with his note on A Toast . . . or Perhaps His Presidency Is Toast. @ The Campaign Spot. There's no audio to commemorate this moment when all the slime sat down for a snack, but if I could run a recording device into Obama's brain I'll wager he's saying:
"Let the toast pass.
You can all kiss my ass.
I'll tell you right now
I just screw you all last."



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 18, 2011 5:31 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Guns of August: The Corn is No Longer as High as an Elephant's Eye

This from today, February 2011: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted last week U.S. corn farmers will have just 675 million bushels of corn at the end of August, before next year's harvest begins. That's just an 18-day supply, Nagel said. -- World Bank report says food prices are at "dangerous levels" after rising 29 percent in a year - 2/15/2011 3:39:28 PM | Newser

This from August, 1919:

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 17, 2011 5:35 PM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Declaration of Non-Dependence: In Which America Announces It's Going on Sabbatical

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Greetings Anti-American Earthlings!

It has come to our attention that, as Americans, we really haven't been at the top of other Earth citizens' Christmas lists for some time now. Like some spouse that has become too used to having her good life paid for by a husband's work and sweat, you've keep telling us you "need your space."

We have listened. We have heard. You want your space. And we are ready to give it to you. Politely if possible, but with both barrels if necessary. So pay attention....

We gave you a lot during the last 65 years since VJ Day in terms of direct aid -- whole oceans of cash and special privileges -- but we didn't complain. There was the Marshall Plan, the continuing defense of Europe during the Cold War while you just sucked down bon-bons and took long hot showers into the wee hours of the morning with every misfit Muslim, Serb or what-have-you that came your way with "a hand full of gimme and a mouth fill of not-so-much obliged." We looked the other way because we didn’t need those images seared into our memories.

Then there were all sorts of loans never paid back, and many billions and billions more in private charity and donations above and beyond what our government has done for you with our tax money. You were Wimpy and we were Popeye, but our metrosexuals loved summering in the Provance countryside and writing hymns to your cultural theme parks so, well, what the hell?

Don't even talk about the costs of maintaining a credible defense all across Europe so you didn't get munched up and excreted with blueberries by the Soviet Bear. (Looking a little testy again isn’t he?)

Alas, none of this was enough for you. Like some teenaged stoner with an unlimited American Express card, you've always needed more. You always had to go for one more deep suck off the bong while flipping us the finger.

Even when your own economies were robust enough to give you the 30 hour work week and the whole month of August off, we still couldn't pony up enough to keep you in beer, skittles, prosciutto, and fromage.

This situation has made us poorer than we would otherwise have been. There are a lot of things here at home we could have spent the money on -- schools, infrastructure, scholarships, lower taxes, aid to dependent children, and the kind of local American charities that always need help such as the grossly underfunded "You can send Al Sharpton a ball gag or you can turn the page" Relief Organization. We hope you'll understand when we say we need just a year or so of working the "Charity begins at home" concept in order to catch up. And frankly things are a little tight over here and we need to cut back on luxuries such as, well, you.

It's also more than a little depressing to wake up every day and find your "UNtellectuals" in The New York Times  blathering on and on about how stingy and uncaring Americans are.

Hence, Americans are taking the a few years off not only to save many, many billions/trillions of dollars, but for a time of reflection and boosting of the old "self-esteem." After all, you can't help others unless you feel good about yourself.

And let's face it, how can all you other nations (Egypt, The EU, Africa, South America, Mexico, and all the worthy, struggling and proud totalitarian Islamic states) feel good about yourselves when all you do is push your shabby stolen grocery carts around Washington sucking up for a hand-out? We've got our own American Washingtonian suck-ups working overtime as it is. Brother, these days we just cannot spare a dime or, frankly, give a damn.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 17, 2011 11:38 AM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
TEAM OBAMA BOOBY POLICE™: A film that seeks to answer the question, "Why is Michelle Obama Fixated on What Goes Into Our Mouths?"

And also gets the Oscar for "Best Use of 'Comfortably Numb' in a Short Feature."

HT: Don Surber who notes:

The government should stay out of women's bras. If a woman wants to nurse, fine. If not, fine. The gut feeling is that nursing is better, but that depends on the nutrition of the mother herself. A century ago, nutrition was poorer than it is today and infant formula was an improvement upon this and also a convenience for Americans and we love convenience. Those who hector us on nursing should bear this in mind.

What Missus Obama's doing was OK until she crossed the line and began re-writing the nation's tax code to encourage this.

Again, it is none of the IRS's business whether a woman decides to use a bottle or a breast.

But it will be. We shall go from encouragement to enforcement in a few years as the government goes overboard. Someday bottle-feeding will be declared child abuse.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 17, 2011 10:01 AM | Comments (17)  | QuickLink: Permalink
When Push Comes to Nuke

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In a comment to the Belmont Club's In and Out of Eden, Belmont's host, Richard Fernandez offers some prescient thoughts on strength, weakness, and nuclear Weapons.
77. wretchard

Responding to: Israel has been in that position, more or less, for six-plus decades now, and that's just the modern state. Yet the Israelis, who are there already at "kill or be killed", do not kill. One would think that peace-loving folks might grant a small nod of recognition to that.

Fernadez writes:

Why would anyone believe, even for a moment, that any Western state could "pre-emptively" nuke the Muslim world when it cannot muster the will to secure its borders, balance its budget, get Pakistan to release a diplomat or get Argentina to release a C-17's cargo load of equipment? That would be like thinking that man who can't run 50 yards can run the 100 meter dash in 9.5 seconds.

The path to nukes is far more probably going to take the path of use in desperation. And in fact a country which secured its borders, drilled for its own oil, got Pakistan to release diplomats, and did the normal things would be the only kind of country which might use nukes pre-emptively because it conceive of such a strategy. Yet ironically it would be the kind of country that wouldn't have to attack pre-emptively. The idea of country going straight from supine behavior to nuking pre-emptively is a fantasy built on the awareness of weakness. Solve the weakness and then your enemies will consider you capable of pre-emption. But guess what: solve the weakness and you won't have to pre-empt. They will back away.

This is all elementary game theory; and tried, true and hoary deterrence theory. Be strong and you won't need to use nukes. Be weak and you'll use them for sure.


Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 16, 2011 11:49 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Screwtape Budget and the "In Ten Years" Deficit Solution

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***

We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now.... THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS

"Ten years," as a friend reminded me about the asinine predictions of Paul Ehrlich, "is the ideal time frame for prognostication and problem solving. It's not so far away that people just ignore it, nor is it close enough that it gives people any expectations that can be held against the person who sets the time table. "

Even dullards must have noticed the dreaded "ten year" solution label that's been slapped onto Obama's Deficit "Be Cool I Got This" Budget. Yes, in only ten years this will all work out.... you fools.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 15, 2011 1:24 PM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Dull "Cutting Edge" of Lady Gaga

Carried in inside an egg, right? Get out of the egg and perform, right? Wow, what a new thought, what a brand new bit of schtick! What a pure original that Gaga is! "One hears such sounds, and what can one say but... 'Salieri.' "

1.9.8.4. (Played for laughs and with actual talent, too.)

HT: Thag J. at NeoNeoCon.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 15, 2011 12:50 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Just How Broke Are We? You Cannot Even Begin to Imagine It

But this video gives you a hint:

HT: Maggie's Farm



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 14, 2011 11:47 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Egyptian Presidency Under Reconstruction: I'm interested in their "What's New" page

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The Egyptian Presidency

Suggestions?



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 14, 2011 11:25 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"Feel-Well Greeting Cards" Lets You Double Down for Valentine's Day!



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 13, 2011 10:30 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Egypt military dissolves parliament, suspends constitution

Military officials also set a timeline, vowing to rule Egypt for six months or until elections are held. Meanwhile, the army clears Tahrir Square, ousting remaining protesters. -- latimes.com

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"A demonsrator places his hands on his head as soldiers line up in central Tahrir Square in Cairo, on February 13, 2011, two days after the ouster of long term President Hosni Mubarak."

Tick... tick... tick... tick....



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 13, 2011 5:45 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Slaughter List: Kovas Boguta's Useful Chart for Getting Egyptian Freedom Boosters Assassinated

In the brain-dead manner of many new-age social media twits, Kovas Boguta gives the old Arab mind Visualizing The New Arab Mind - Computational History.

The preening Boguta has created the following chart that identifies the heavy tweeters of the Egyptian freedom movement.

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[Click to enlarge]

He explains it by writing: Experts say Egypt is the crystal ball in which the Arab world sees its future. Now that Mubarak has stepped down, I can share the work I've done making that metaphor tangible, and visualizing the pro-democracy movement in Egypt and across the Middle East. It is based on their Twitter activity, capturing the freedom of expression and association that is possible in that medium, and which is representative of a new collective consciousness taking form.

"A new collective consciousness taking form?" Well, maybe in the happy world of Kovas Boguta and others that actually believe the clap-trap of twitter's world saving powers. But not, I think, the way such handy clots of information will actually be used.

The Muslim Brotherhood, once they overcome their wild laughter at "a new collective consciousness taking form," would be remiss as a terrorist organization bent on the control of Egypt if it did not use this bit of Boguta's research methodically.

That method would be to extrapolate the twitter handles to the real names of the tweeters and put them on a list for re-education or death en route to the new regime in Egypt.

Thirsting for such recognition a commenter on the thread actually wrote, "My name is there separated from Ghonim by 2 nodes. Actually, I don't feel like I do such an effect and I was amazed that my bubble is relatively big."

At the same time, a comment of mine pointing out the potential evil uses of this information yesterday was scrubbed from the thread by today. Too much reality I guess.

I wonder if Boguta and his ilk will be interested in tracking the shooting, throat cuttings, and beheadings that befall members of his Egypt Influence Network over the next three to five years. Probably not. He'll be on to the next big thing that promises fresh fields and pastures new. He won't ever see the mass graves.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 13, 2011 1:44 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Those brilliant Egyptian bastards...

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"Aye, fight and we may die. Run, and we'll live... at least a while. And dying in our beds, many years from now, would we be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR HELMETS!"

WELL, THAT WAS FUN, BUT...

"When the crowds go home and return to their jobs, the most zealous, organized, and ruthless will go to work to consolidate power. Let us hope for the best — a secular, pro-Western constitutional republic backed by a professional military — and prepare for the worst — two to three years of revolutionary fervor as Islamists, month by month, gain control of the Arab world’s largest state after coming to power by one man, one vote, one time." --- Reflections on the Revolution in Egypt - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 13, 2011 12:38 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Atlas Shrugged (Part 1)

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors- when you see men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice- you may know that our society is doomed.”



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 11, 2011 7:14 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Nina Explains: The Situation in Egypt

By Jove, she's got it. I do believe she's got it.

Nina, after seeing a picture of demonstrations in Egypt in the newspaper, discusses the situation with Mama in Japanese, and then later describes the situation to in English.

HT: WestSound Modern who notes, "Obviously not a product of the public school system."



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 8, 2011 8:09 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Hilarious: Hitler Finds Out His Etsy Order Isn't as Advertised

"I think you're safety pin earrings are cute."

Every time I think this routine has been exhausted, someone comes along an cracks me up.

This time Regretsy does the job in Regretsy – Das Poop on the beaded braintan moccasins. "You think I don't know swastikas when I see them?"



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 8, 2011 4:32 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Slow and Cool: "New York, like all things, ebbs and flows. "

Sippican's been laying down some tracks with Fat Time on Vimeo

Fat Time from sippican cottage on Vimeo.



A lot of these
were before my time when I showed up at the end of the Mad Men era just in time for office affairs and two martini lunches. Still, there we remnants around to make it have that beat. Especially late nights, in a cab, going downtown, way downtown, and making all the lights.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 8, 2011 4:05 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
How Planned UnParenthood Made Big Bucks for Philly Abortionist

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Gosnell: Killer of women and infants

Let's review how the nation's largest death-cult is working out. The gorge keeps rising when it comes to the inventory of how abortionist Gosnell spent his fortune: DEATH'S DOLLARS | Philadelphia Daily News "The abortionist accused of murders, made at least $1.8M a year. He says he's broke. Where did it all go?" The article asks and answers, "HOW MANY severed baby spines does it take to pay for a $984,000 shore house? How many severed infant feet is a boat worth? And what part of Kermit Gosnell's clinic paid to keep his mistress, 41 years younger, on the payroll?"

According to the Atlantic County Board of Taxation, the Gosnells bought the shore house in 1992 for $275,000. It was assessed last year at $984,000.

Gosnell's assets stand in stark contrast to the bargain-basement conditions at his West Philadelphia clinic, where blood caked the floor, fetuses filled the freezers and rusted, infected equipment spread venereal diseases, according to the grand jury's report.

The doctor spent little of his money on the clinic, and hired unqualified staffers so that he could pay them meager wages, often in cash, grand jurors said. He also "insisted" on reusing plastic instruments that were supposed to be used only once, the grand jury said....

"He was really taking advantage of people in the community," she said. "That is a shame, because he's a black man and it seems he was trying to prosper by taking advantage of black women in his community.

Indeed.

Some people I know still think we're on the "right track" with abortion in America; that any and all choice is pro. They reflexively defend institutions like Planned Parenthood and it's policies of hiding the identity of rapists, statutory and otherwise. I ask them to read the link -- if they dare -- and then tell me that again.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 7, 2011 2:09 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Tibet: From the Tragic Quest for Freedom to the Farce of Fish Curry

Westsound Modern dubs this the Most offensive commercial in Super Bowl history, and wonders if he is being overly sensitive. I think not. It certainly is a contender. To find one worse would require watching a lot of commercials in which the wretched excess of the purchase price for the slot nearly always exceeds the importance of the product or service, and are seldom either amusing of memorable. Superbowl ads are just a feckless corporation's way of announcing they have recently acquired, or still have, a penis in excess of one inch. Groupon's effort here falls into the recent penis graft category. That's the sort of thing that happens when a faith that has lasted nearly 1,200 years is co-opted by an Internet company that will be fortunate to last for 1,200 days.

What's seen here is more than the decline of respect for an ancient and now effectively extinct culture, it's the end of the road for this particular aged and faux Leftish "cause." The brief copy of the ad as "acted" by D-list celebrity Timothy (My career is over) Hutton sums up the end of the line for the BoomerGeezers "Free Tibet" movement.

"Free Tibet" is the most geriatric and sclerotic of Leftoid causes. This hoary mind-movie has been playing in one form or another since the invasion of Tibet in 1950, but matured in the fateful sixties. Since then there hasn't been one freshman college class that hasn't been urged to wear the t-shirts and sign the petitions demanding China somehow be forced to get out. It was never stated how they would be forced to leave, it was just assumed that somehow the spirit of Ghandi or some western army would do the dirty work.

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"Free Tibet" was a more romantic cause than Che even if the t-shirts aren't as cool. But with this ad at the superbowl I think we can finally say the stake has been driven through the heart of the "Free Tibet" fantasy.

Sure we may see Richard Gere pop up here and there like a gerbil spouting his nonsense, but Tibet and Freedom are no longer an operative Leftoid bitching point. Tibet is now just another tourist destination in The Peoples Republic of China; just another ethnic food court for the liberal elite to brag on back home.

Hutton might just have well have bagged the line about Tibetans "whipping up an amazing fish curry" and quoted Marx instead: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”

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Posted by Vanderleun Feb 7, 2011 12:20 AM | Comments (14)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Tammy Bruce, Goddess of Pith, on Sarah Palin, "She'll always look this good...."

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She shoots. She scores: Liberals, Islamists and Globalists take note: She’ll always look this good, even when ruining your plans. So enjoy having a Dumb Bastard in the White House while you can, because the Mayans were right –- your world is coming to an end in 2012. -- Hey World, What A Steel Fist in a Velvet Glove Looks Like



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 6, 2011 6:26 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Current Obama Egypt Policy as Performed by Jimmy Durante

Sigh.

[Special Envoy to Egypt Frank G. Wisner] told a group of diplomats and security experts that “President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical — it’s his opportunity to write his own legacy.”

But just before his remarks, Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton gave a strategy overview that stood at odds with that assessment. At a minimum, she said, Mr. Mubarak must move out of the way so that his vice president, Omar Suleiman, can engage in talks with protest leaders over everything from constitutional changes to free and fair elections. -- NY Times via JustOneMinute: Winning The Future In Egypt (Ongoing...)




Posted by Vanderleun Feb 6, 2011 10:37 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
John Hinckley Jr -- Pride of the Progressive American Penal System

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Happy 100th Birthday President Reagan

On the eve of what would have been President Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, his attempted assassin, John Hinckley Jr., has found love at the mental hospital he's called home for 29 years. The deranged stalker who shot Reagan in the chest and injured three others in 1981 is dating Cynthia Bruce, a former psychiatric patient he met at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington. -- CAGED CASANOVA - WWW.THEDAILY.COM

More proof, if proof were needed, that this society has decided that traitors and assassins get special favors for being so, well, "special."

Hinckley tried to kill Reagan just 69 days into his presidency. He fired six bullets at him and, "The sixth and final bullet ricocheted off the side of the limousine and hit the president in his left underarm, grazing a rib and lodging in his lung, stopping nearly an inch from his heart."

"An inch. From his heart." One more inch and the world in which we live today would have been changed, changed utterly, in ways that will always be unknown, but can easily been supposed to be much worse. All of Reagan's major achievements lay ahead of him 69 days into his presidency and this man, this happy and fulfilled insect you can see in the photo above, would have stolen all that from the world.

I know many among us would be pleased to denigrate then and now the achievements that, when the gun was fired, still lay in the future of the Reagan presidency. But I hope most would have just a small moment of pause if they could imagine what might happen, now and in the future -- and to the future -- if the same attempt were to be made on the life of the current president. Assassin's bullets cannot always be depended upon to stop "an inch from the heart." No bullet fired in anger should ever be allowed to come within a mile of a sitting president.

Now maybe you thought, just for a moment, that a man who tries, and nearly succeeds, in killing a president of the United States would have to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison cut off from the freedoms and pleasures of law-abiding citizens. Well, as a friend says, "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 5, 2011 10:36 PM | Comments (16)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: The Bangles Got Nothing on The Cleverlys. The Egyptians Will Never Be This Cool Either

The Cleverlys sing the 80s hit, Walk Like an Eqyptian, a bluegrass cover by The Bangles. The Cleverly Trio is a bluegrass group with five members. This song was filmed at Cleverlyfest, an annual bluegrass festival/ family reunion.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 5, 2011 9:11 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Mapping the Man-Crush of Chris Matthews

HT:iOtW: Your never-empty pot of comedy gold.



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 4, 2011 3:17 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Egyptian Innovation: First Camels and Then ... Bread Helmets!

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Have you ever wanted freedom so bad, that you strapped bread to your head? -- via EatLiver



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 4, 2011 9:28 AM | Comments (16)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Patton and the "Modern World"

In uncertain times, certain things bear repeating.


"I want you to remember that this War on Terror, as well as our presence in the Middle East, is necessary and inevitable. To those who can’t understand that, they need to spend more time on the History Channel and less time in the Goddamn chat rooms."

Mike Kaminski wrote and acted this brilliant variation on George C. Scott's signature role.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 3, 2011 5:17 PM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Meanwhile, Back in the 21st Century: Twilight Landing At LAX (Cockpit View)

We are on final approach. Mesmerizing and beautiful.

"The original idea was to a) compress a 30 minute approach into three minutes; and b) to see what it would look like if you you were riding on the back of a cruise missile.... My main purpose for making this video was for the benefit of my airline friends who have kids. They have an attention span of three minutes and want to see exactly what it is Daddy or Mommy does. It's just meant to be fun and somewhat educational."

More notes and technical specs at YouTube



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 3, 2011 8:52 AM | Comments (18)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Camels? WTF? Camels?

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Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, riding camels and horses, fight with anti-Mubarak protesters in Cairo Wednesday. Several thousand Mubarak supporters, including some riding horses and camels and wielding whips, clashed with anti-government protesters as Egypt's upheaval took a dangerous new turn.

"Yo, Hassam, somebody's gotta remind the Bedouin of the deal. We were supposed to have a deal with the Bedouin. It was supposed to be, "Hey, you want to ride around on that flatulence factory and whip people on the ground, okay, but you do it out in the desert, and keep it in the family. Okay? Got it?

"What you don't do is ride those stinky, honking, off-brand, SUV-sized version of cranky horses into the friggin' city, and start whaling on everybody's ass. It just looks bad, not to say smells bad. It's not stylin' and it definitely ain't lowriding. You feel me?

"I mean, here I am -- an educated, mild-mannered Egypster trying to get my democracy on in the square with my homies. We're rolling around with some signs and some chants and a few dummies of that Mubarak geezer hanging around as lamp post decorations, and then he sends in his Bedouins, puts camels in the mix, and gets all medieval on my ass?

"Dude, that is not how things go down in the Twitterverse. I'm supposed to #hashtag my way to freedom and "friend" my way to democracy. Didn't that B. Hussain O. guy in the belly of the Great Satan just say, “It is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now.” Didn't these camel jockey's get the memo? I mean whips, razors, and friggin' machetes? I don't know what either side has in mind, but I'm beginning to think it won't look like the 21st century when it's over.

"And camels. Camels? I bet they don't have any Bedouin riding camels into DC and whipping people. If they did, they'd be shot off the hump in a nano-second.

"Camels. Makes me want to swap this SmartPhone for a shotgun. Makes me sorry I forgot to shop when I had a chance."



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 2, 2011 5:41 PM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Let's Review: T.E. Lawrence on "The Arab Mind"

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"Arabs could be swung on an idea as on a cord; for the unpledged allegiance of their minds made them obedient servants. None of them would escape the bond till success had come, and with it responsibility and duty and engagements. Then the idea was gone and the work ended--in ruins.
"Without a creed they could be taken to the four corners of the world (but not to heaven) by being shown the riches of earth and the pleasures of it; but if on the road, led in this fashion, they met the prophet of an idea, who had nowhere to lay his head and who depended for his food on charity or birds, then they would all leave their wealth for his inspiration.
"They were incorrigibly children of the idea, feckless and colour-blind, to whom body and spirit were for ever and inevitably opposed. Their mind was strange and dark, full of depressions and exaltations, lacking in rule, but with more of ardour and more fertile in belief than any other in the world. They were a people of starts, for whom the abstract was the strongest motive, the process of infinite courage and variety, and the end nothing.
"They were as unstable as water, and like water would perhaps finally prevail. Since the dawn of life, in successive waves they had been dashing themselves against the coasts of flesh. Each wave was broken, but, like the sea, wore away ever so little of the granite on which it failed, and some day, ages yet, might roll unchecked over the place where the material world had been, and God would move upon the face of those waters. One such wave (and not the least) I raised and rolled before the breath of an idea, till it reached its crest, and toppled over and fell at Damascus. The wash of that wave, thrown back by the resistance of vested things, will provide the matter of the following wave, when in fullness of time the sea shall be raised once more.

From Seven Pillars of Wisdom

First published here on July 30, 2003



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 2, 2011 1:15 PM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"There is no way that this winter is ever going to end unless..."

Bill and Phil take one for the team on February 2:

Meanwhile, ever the crowd pleaser, this year's rat was 40% sunshine:



Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Feb 2, 2011 10:22 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
MAKSIM MAGAZINE: Collector's Edition

It's time to give the reigning princess of RHINOplasty the recognition she deserves. I'm beginning to think that the only thing more disastrous than John McCain's candidacy was his paternity. At the very least, his candidacy is over.

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"Republican Meghan McCain earned her cover spot on the debut issue of Maksim magazine with her comment “Michelle Bachmann is no better than a poor man’s Sarah Palin” on Lawrence O’ Donnell's MSNBC show “The Last Word”. Adding to her long list of attacks on conservative women." -- Maksim @ The People's Blog

[Complaints concerning retinal burn, severe mood alteration to an otherwise nice day can be registered in the comments.]



Posted by Vanderleun Feb 1, 2011 11:01 PM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
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