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October 30, 2009

No PROBLEM. We've Done This Thousands of Times

If you've ever heard the sound
of the old inboard motors in these vintage wooden boats you'll know what I mean when I say heads all over the marina snapped 'round when the twin Chrysler Hemi V-8's caught a spark and roared to life. Idling out and clearing the end of the marina, there was a small voice on one shoulder telling me to start slow and take it easy as the old power plants probably hadn't been run hard in who knows how long. On the other shoulder however was the slightly more insistent voice of "Old Vatted Demerara Rum" saying "Pour the coals to her!" Throwing caution to the wind, I pushed the throttles forward as far as they would go and the old wooden boat surged out of the water and was at top speed as I passed the last dock in the marina and burst into the open water of Lake Washington.

When something of a mechanical nature goes sideways on a boat running at speed.... -- The Demon Rum: « WESTSOUND MODERN

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:52 PM | Your Say (0)

October 29, 2009

Another Burning Question of Life

"When was the last time you sat on a couch upside down and looked about the house? Kids do that all the time, and I have done it again and thought, "Whoa - I seriously need to vacuum." And "So that's where that [object/thing] went." -- Mikey commenting on Side-Lines: One of the Burning Questions of Life

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:58 PM | Your Say (0)

Know When to Hold Them. Know When to Fold Them.

What happens next?

The President took a lot of the nation's hopes as political capital into the Big Casino. Now, after sitting at the tables for 9 months, there's only a small pile left of what was once a mountain of chips. Is the next hand going to win him big? Is he going to double down again? Or get up and catch a cab home, in case what's left in his pocket will cover it. Or will he write out a check on the basis of the family farm and spin the wheel of fortune again on the basis of his faith in the fundamental goodness of America's enemies? Order another round of drinks for everybody on the house? Go watch a play on Broadway and keep being Diamond Jim long after all the real diamonds have been hocked for paste? Is there a point where betting on hope means stuck on stupid? -- Belmont Club サ Another turn of the wheel

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:33 PM | Your Say (2)

Great Question

Exurban Jon asks:

With all the advances in scientific knowledge why has no one designed a manlier Kleenex box?

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:59 PM | Your Say (5)

One of the Burning Questions of Life

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Here's a burning question I was reminded of by the video: do you eat your candy corn in sections? And, if so, do you consider the top to be the yellow part or the white part? I've always seen the little white triangle as the "foot" of the candy corn, but I learned when I designed my costume years ago that most people see it the other way. -- neo-neocon » Blog Archive » Get ready for Candy Corn Day

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:23 PM | Your Say (2)

October 28, 2009

The Haywood Jablome Memorial Quote of the Day

Gaius Julius Caesar, Art History Museum, Vienn...

Image via Wikipedia

“Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar.”Rocco Landesman, President Obama’s handpicked chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts -- via KA-CHING!

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:15 PM | Your Say (6)

Would Larry David Piss On an Image of Obama?

A 6th century mosaic of :en:Jesus at Church Sa...

Image via Wikipedia

"It takes no courage for an rich, unbelieving “artist” to piss on Christ. After all, that’s been done before. And Jesus voluntarily submitted himself to much worse, which means nothing an “artist” does to any image of Christ can do anything but reflect on the spiritual poverty of the “artist,” himself. For an “artist” to use Jesus for a cheap joke is about as “courageous” and “bold” as making a joke about George W. Bush before an audience of like-thinkers; it takes no courage at all.

"But for an “artist” to make an identical satirical “joke” on Obama and his adorers? That would take great courage. That would be bold, and daring. And it would speak reassuring volumes about free speech in America.

"I would not want to see it. I would not want to see the image of any American President so ill-used; he’s my president, too.

"But if Larry David could see the humor in pissing on Christ and the excesses of Catholic piety, surely he must see the humor in pissing on Obama, and the excesses of Obama worship?

"Haha. It’s all so funny, isn’t it? Are you laughing? Are you not entertained?" -- via The Anchoress | A First Things Blog

@ KA-CHING!

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:17 PM | Your Say (0)

"Northwest Nap"

It's the word of the day @
Urban Dictionary A very deep sleep where you are unable to hear telephones, text messages, and even the Air Force. Named to honor the two fine pilots from Northwest Airlines and there little "in flight snooze"

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:49 PM | Your Say (0)

A Cow Is Born

A measure of the absence of any realistic self-appraisal is
Ms. McCain's failure to grasp that her prominence as a "writer," rather than as a Paris Hilton-style reality show performer, is owed first to her famous father, and second, to the fact that this is the Age of the Idiot.

Idiots have come into their own in a big way, courtesy of depraved consumers, and complicit TV producers and publishers, of pixel and paper alike. The duller you are and the louder you crow in contemporary America, the better you do. Clearly, Meghan McCain is not working with much ─ and is eminently qualified to dim debate in the Age of the Idiot. A familial predisposition, it would seem. John McCain finished 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy and lost five jets. As IQ ace Steve Sailer once quipped, "To lose one plane over Vietnam may be regarded as a heroic tragedy; to lose five planes here and there looks like carelessness." -- By ILANA MERCER

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:16 AM | Your Say (3)

October 27, 2009

Steve Jobs Hates Halloween

So, okay, it's war. I get it.
The next year, I get a bunch of guys from Pixar to come over and we make the most amazing Halloween lawn you've ever seen, with shitloads of stupid coffins and ghosts and a skeleton playing the piano. We have music, and lights, the whole works. Meanwhile, Larry comes over and brings a bunch of Navy SEAL type guys that he knows. In addition to all the stupid Halloween decorations, we rig up water cannons on the perimeter of the yard and up in the trees, loaded with a mixture of water, bleach and gasoline. We plant IEDs in the lawn, loaded with rock salt, and at each corner we put a dispenser that blasts pepper gel. We lay exposed wires across the lawn carrying enough current to knock you out, but not kill you. Then we put on our black commando outfits, and blacken our faces, and we wait. -- The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:23 PM | Your Say (1)

Hand me the gun. No, the bigger one.


Watching this will be either the funniest or most disgusting 2-minutes of your day.

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:06 PM | Your Say (16)

October 26, 2009

Gearslamming Candidate Grabs Coveted Iowahawk Endorsement

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Iowahawk breaks tradition and endorses Douglas Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for the US Congress in New York's 23rd district. Why? Because....

"Canuck reader Maryann Crabtree forwards this photo of the candidate posing proudly in front of his Two Lane Blacktop - worthy 1955 Chevy 210 2-door sedan. Note missing rear bumper. Note radiused rear wheel well. Note nose-up gasser stance. Note the all-bidness custom paint, which appears to be a blend of Hugger Orange and Riverside Red. An educated guess tells me that lurking under the hood is a high winding destroked 301 small block, mating a 2-bolt main 327 with a 283 crank, with a set of Doug Thorley or Hooker headers huffing through glass packs. White ball Hurst shifter atop a Muncie 4-speed, natch. Visual cues indicate this photo was taken circa 1969; thus, while his Congressional cohort was tripping on brown acid in the mud at Max Yasgur's farm, Mr. Hoffman was gearslamming down the quarter mile at Fulton Speedway. (via iowahawk: Iowahawk Endorses ) @ Van der Leun

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:42 PM | Your Say (0)

“Hey boys, We’re from Seattle and we’re lost…Can you help us out?”

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If you've ever seen the History Channel series Ax Men,
filmed in and around these counties, understand that the foul mouthed, hot tempered, illiterate rednecks featured on this show are the creme de la creme of mossback society. Supported mostly by what is left of the logging industry in these parts, they live largely in dilapidated singlewides surrounded by clearcut woodlands and collections of the rusted remains of every car, truck, motor, transmission, and assorted piece of machinery or scrap metal that have been handed down through generations from father to son. To a city boy like I was at the time, they were suspect in every way. Which leads me to the proverbial hole in the donut of this tale. -- WESTSOUND MODERN

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:59 PM | Your Say (0)

October 25, 2009

I'm slowly becoming convinced I have Attention Deficit Diso-look-a-puppy!

KaChing!

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:49 PM | Your Say (0)

October 24, 2009

The Spirit Of Ecstasy

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The Spirit of Ecstasy
is the name of the hood ornament on Rolls-Royce cars. It is in the form of a woman leaning forwards with her arms outstretched behind and above her. The Spirit of Ecstasy carries with it a story about a secret passion between John Walter Edward Scott-Montagu and his secret love Eleanor Velasco Thornton, his secretary. -- Best of Wikipedia

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:27 PM | Your Say (0)

Peggy Noonan Still Doesn't Get It...

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.... because Peggy Noonan is terrified to get it. neo-neocon Noonan and Obama: public and private selves
What Noonan is so far refusing to understand is that, although Obama is narcissistic and likes adulation, he's not primarily interested in popularity -- except as a tool to policy. Policy is paramount, and his goal is not to be responsive to what the American people want, nor to hear their actual concerns and then to shape policy around them. His goal is to tell them what they want, to lie if required, to silence and ridicule and chastise and threaten the opposition, and if necessary to pull every political trick he can get away with in order to ram his agenda down our recalcitrant throats.

Why neo-neocon is not writing a column for the Wall Street Journal is a mystery that passeth all understanding.

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:40 PM | Your Say (4)

October 23, 2009

The Four Rules of Lying

The first and most important thing is for the impostor to claim the motivation of revolutionary impulses.
That way even those who know he is lying will think he is lying in a “good” cause. If the last refuge of scoundrels is the flag, the ultimate protective banner is the Red Flag. Hannah Arendt once wrote “Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear.” Find the hole in your audience’s brain and drive your truck of manure through it.

The second rule is to put forward the most extravagant claims.
Don’t be half-assed about lying. The more extravagant the fib the better. A sufficiently resourceful fraud clears his path of unbelievers by sheer audacity alone. Tell a big enough lie and no one would believe you could be so bold. As the fictional Rudolf Rassendyl proved in the Prisoner of Zenda that it is better to pass yourself off as King of Ruritania rather than a minor noble. A minor noble may be questioned, but the King will not be. It is all or nothing. And given that no one wants to tug at the Royal Robe to see if it is real ermine, the fraudster often gets it “all”.

The third rule is that when questioned, destroy the questioner.
When impersonating the King be determined to have everyone who doubts your identity thrown in the tower for treason. Once you succeed in beheading the first challenger there will be no second challenges.

The fourth rule is the most important. Avoid trying to bluff those who are too big to be faced down.
What undid both Fairey and Ward Churchill was that they didn’t know when to stop their imposture. They finally took it too far. Fairey, who had been successful up to that point tried to bluff his way past a major news organization and failed. Ward Churchill was already a professor when he made his “little Eichmanns” speech after 9/11 unleashed a tide of outrage he couldn’t outface. If Fairey had not launched his poster and Churchill had not made his “little Eichmanns” speech, they might still be intellectuals in good standing.

-- Belmont Club » Honest as the day is long

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:18 PM | Your Say (1)

WH: 'If we've lost Anderson Cooper, we've lost one of our best tea-baggers."

Anderson Cooper:
I have an uneasy feeling only 10 months into the new administration that we're beginning to see the symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama administration. And as those of use who served in the Nixon administration know, that can get you in a lot of trouble... Don't create an enemies list." -- Anderson Cooper Compares Obama to Nixon, Spotlights Declining Approval Ratings | NewsBusters.org

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:57 PM | Your Say (2)

You must remember this....

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Posted by Vanderleun at 3:35 AM | Your Say (0)

October 22, 2009

Opening Paragraphs That Strangely Compel You to Read On

"Apparently pussy makes some people bat shit crazier than others, for a certain group of lesbians the pink ruff ratchets up a high level of full-blowninsanity, similar to the levels of irrationality seen only in rat-tailed crackers tweaking that next meth fix...." -- Thank God They Won't Breed ォ Jaded Haven

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:54 PM | Your Say (0)

QUAGMIRE! This just in...

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Obama's War on Fox News Becomes a Quagmire
THE WHITE HOUSE - Despite the President's promise of a swift and decisive victory, Obama's War on Fox News has developed all signs of an unwinnable quagmire, making the White House even more isolated in its unilateral attempts to crush the growing media insurgency. As the war continues to grind on for a second month, public opinion is shifting towards a quick and complete withdrawal. While many observers still agree that the "War on Limbaugh" is a "just and necessary war," even the former supporters of the war effort are now labeling the War on Fox an "unnecessary war of choice" and claim that the cable channel had nothing to do with Obama's falling approval numbers.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:44 PM | Your Say (0)

Wait for It

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:48 PM | Your Say (0)

THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY, HA HA!" THIS JUST IN FROM THE CRACK INDIA DAILY TECHNOLOGY TEAM

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I love the India Daily Technology Team. Whenever you think there a no new frontiers in technoblather, "The Team" always comes through. This just in....


Billion light years away the prospering extraterrestrial civilization in the dark matter universe harnessing gravity wave from higher dimensions India Daily Technology Team Jul. 31, 2009
Advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are mostly in the dark matter universe. They harness the gravity waves from higher dimensions. They are able to manipulate time and space. They use singularities within the physical universe to extract zero point energy to make high impact energy accessible.

Many of the Type IV advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are on the edge of the universe. They can create star systems artificially. They can colonize the black holes. They can use the black holes for bending space and time.

These advanced extraterrestrial civilizations use zero pint energy modules to recycle their spiritual entities so that they can migrate to the state of quantum vacuum and eventually to the chilled universe. They colonize fourth generation start systems like that of ours to recycle the Zero Point Energy Modules (ZPEM) to achieve higher quantum energy states. Some of these civilizations can even create artificial big bangs in a preset environment to start an expanding universe of matter, antimatter, or a combination of both. (via the crack India DailyTechnology Team)

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:46 PM | Your Say (2)

Romanian River Deep Trash Mountain High


No more bullshit about American Rivers, okay? Let's pack the EPA off to Romania where they can do something significant for a change.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:25 PM | Your Say (1)

Vacation on Sunny HD 209458b: You Get Water Methane and CO2. You Also Get Flattened and a Crispy Sunburn

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Good News: "It's the second planet outside our solar system in which water, methane and carbon dioxide have been found, which are potentially important for biological processes in habitable planets," said Mark Swain of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Detecting organic compounds in two exoplanets now raises the possibility that it will become commonplace to find planets with molecules that may be tied to life."


Bad News: NASA scientists have been able to decipher what chemicals HD 209458b's atmosphere contains even though it is 150 light years from Earth. This exoplanet is a very large gas giant which has a very tight orbit around the star (it is therefore dubbed a "Hot Jupiter"), so life isn't expected to be a possibility, but HD 209458b contains the basic organic chemicals as used, and produced, by life as we know it.


(via Space Disco : Discovery Space: Basic Chemistry for Life Detected on Exoplanet HD 209458b)

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:02 AM | Your Say (1)

October 21, 2009

"This can't be right"


Bear with me here as it's hard to type with my fingers in my mouth,
but doling out taxpayer dollars with one hand to keep home prices artificially high so existing homeowners won't lose equity, while at the same time the other hand is doling out those same dollars to encourage first time homeowners into these high priced homes that very recent history indicates they can'tafford, reminds me more than a little of the guy on the old Ed Sullivan show who used to spin plates on dowels. -- WESTSOUND MODERN

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:00 PM | Your Say (1)

Reefer Madness and Transport

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I spent the years twelve through eighteen baked out of my ever-loving mind,
smoking my way through every good day, riding a strident wave of adolescent wreckage. After I cleaned up, I spent the next ten moving the rare load of silent reefer tonnage to North Carolina and the last thirteen living pure legal. Tell me, have you ever rolled naked in a hundred and fifty thousand dollars pulled from your safe for that express purpose? The money involved in moving pot is phenomenal; small, smart dealers live large, the big boys own yachts and multiple architectural masterpieces. All on a tight bud profit riding the back of a buying demographic swinging well under twenty five. -- Viper Time ォ Jaded Haven

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:04 PM | Your Say (1)

Do It for the Spiders of Madagascar

You have no hearts.
I, for one, am extremely concerned for these least of Gaia's children. They, too deserve their niche in the great biosphere, and should not have that niche destroyed by right wing fundamentalist capitalist republican war mongers just so they can build another bunch of 7-11's, and McDonald's on Madagascar. We should all sacrifice what we can- drink less water maybe, or perhaps turn off the lights a little earlier, drive a little less, stop smoking, and don't eat any more meat. If we all make do with just a little less we can save the spiders of Madagascar. The good karma alone would make it worthwhile. Comment on Side-Lines: Endangered in Madagascar? If this shows up in my house I'll show you "endangered."

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:42 PM | Your Say (3)

Quote of the Week ... So Far

"Once you get past the facade there's only an abyss. People have mistakenly used the "Emperor has no clothes" analogy for [Obama]. The real point is the clothes have no Emperor." -- BrothersJudd

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:12 PM | Your Say (2)

"Strong leader. Weak process."

Nobody knows what’s about to happen in Afghanistan.
Ever since Jeremiah Wright got thrown under the bus and we were given our Holy Directives not to think about that bigot anymore…nobody really seems to have a clue about the sources of Obama’s amazing insight. Every time President Obama bothers to source them, it seems they all point back to — Him. “I just think…” is standard prologue to just about every little decision made, or value system expressed, large or small. -- Morgan @ House of Eratosthenes

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:25 PM | Your Say (0)

October 20, 2009

Headline of the Day: Teh Gay Made Me Do It!

Mob hit man out of the closet: Robert Mormando is gay and regrets life of crime, his lawyer says

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:18 PM | Your Say (2)

"DUCT TAPE ROCKS..."

Red Green visits the worlds largest Duct Tape factory: Synthstuff - music, photography and more...: Duct Tape

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:00 AM | Your Say (3)

October 17, 2009

Popular Fallacies

Charles Lamb - Popular Fallacies: VII. -- OF TWO DISPUTANTS, THE WARMEST IS GENERALLY IN THE WRONG
Temper, indeed, is no test of truth; but warmth and earnestness are a proof at least of a man's own conviction of the rectitude that which he maintains. Coolness is as often the result of unprincipled indifference to truth or falsehood, as of a sober confidence in a man's own side in a dispute.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:09 PM | Your Say (0)

Opening Way Out of Town

Oh, my town Seattle is just a hot bed of the dramatic arts!

Obama On My Mind is a humorous look at the whirlwind and wonderful world behind the scenes of an Obama campaign office in small town America. A passionate group of larger than life oddball characters start to panic when Sarah Palin enters the race and Obama falls 20 points in the polls. Pop, gospel, jazz, & soft rock come together in this politically inspired comedic romp. -- Capitol Hill Encounter
We expect lines to stretch to Puget Sound!

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:13 AM | Your Say (3)

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Posted by Vanderleun at 1:25 AM | Your Say (1)

October 16, 2009

Goodbye to All That Booze

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Image via Wikipedia

I sat at a table near the bar

and spent the next several hours saying goodbye to some old campanions. I began with a glass of Guinness. I next had a light beer with a shot of Jameson's Irish on the side. I added a double shot of Stolichnaya on the rocks before the beer was gone. I switched to a house Gin and Tonic, a breather. Then I ordered a Bombay Blue Saphhire martini, which tasted so good I had another. Maybe the waitress thought I'd finally made up my mind because I stayed with the Blue gin until I was ready to go home.

For a nightcap, I ordered a special drink for old times, a farewell toast to a way of life, a moment I expected to remember forever -- and have. I ordered a B-52. Its layers reminded me of the different periods of my life -- the high school science nerd, the confused mathematician, the Berkeley street person, the linguist-spy-mascot, the ambitious grad student, the less ambitious playwright -- each period clearly set apart from the others. When I raised the small, narrow glass and tipped it, the fragile spectrum dissolved as each color ran into its neighbor to become a drab concoction of spirits, suddenly dark and dreary, just as the periods of my life finally had succumbed to one all-encompassing description, which had become more meaningful than any colorful distinctions between them: I was living the life of a drunk. I belted down the B-52, paid my considerable tab, and left.

-- From LIQUOR AND LIT

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:53 PM | Your Say (1)

“I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Photo by Argos'Dad of icon on the outside of A...

Image via Wikipedia

As modern men and women — to the degree that we are modern — we believe in nothing.
This is not to say, I hasten to add, that we do not believe in anything; I mean, rather, that we hold an unshakable, if often unconscious, faith in the nothing, or in nothingness as such. It is this in which we place our trust, upon which we venture our souls, and onto which we project the values by which we measure the meaningfulness of our lives. Or, to phrase the matter more simply and starkly, our religion is one of very comfortable nihilism. -- Christ and Nothing

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:18 PM | Your Say (4)

October 15, 2009

Beyond the Grave Wrestling Advice: Call Captain Lou Now!

Captain Lou Albano: RIP

They say, "We shall not see his like again soon."

I say, "What's your hurry?"

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:14 PM | Your Say (0)

It's Come to This

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In the far future, some child will ask me, "Uncle Gerard, when did you finally know that your nation and civilization were going to bite the wax tadpole?"

And I'll remember this bright and shining moment:

Customized Cupcake Car
Launched at Burning Man as a cooperative art project, the Cupcake Car reaches a top speed of 7 mph with its 24-volt electric motor. Sweet! Price: $25,000 --World’s most extravagant gifts - TODAY

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:34 PM | Your Say (2)

October 14, 2009

New Obama-Theme Candy Released

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Found in the candy case @ Pal2pal

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:57 PM | Your Say (0)

The Allahpundit Stiletto Gigs Lizard Johnson

Oh, and apologies to LGF
on behalf of our "€œwingnut blog"€ for failing to cover this sooner. Granted, there were not one but two items about it sitting in Headlines for hours, but when a site that gave up blogging about Iran and the New York City terror plot to focus on the urgent threat from creationism tells you you're falling down on the job, you listen. -- Hot Air

That's going to leave a sucking chest wound.

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:30 AM | Your Say (0)

October 13, 2009

Obamalatio Watch: Lamest Collection of "Reasons" for Obama's Nobel Yet

Closet Obamalationists Ben Adler and Daniel Stone writing In Defense of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize @ Newsweek.com dig deep and come up with these whoppers:
And/or it could be for his achievement for being elected president on an international platform that the Nobel committee considers a refreshing humanitarian turn for the world's great hyperpower. Or for giving his moving speech on race in Philadelphia, or for addressing 200,000 Berliners, or his conciliatory speeches at the last two Democratic conventions, or his pragmatic address to a Chicago antiwar rally in 2002.

Let's review.

1) A President of the United States is not elected internationally.

2) "Moving speech on race in Philadelphia...." Oh yeah? Quote it. No googling.

3) "Conciliatory speeches" to Democrats? Is the prize given for making the Democrats "peaceful?"

4) A speech at an anti-war rally in Chicago in 2002??!! Adler. Daniels. Are you kidding me? Are you two tools fucking kidding me?! Where did you go to journalism school? Sesame Street?

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:21 AM | Your Say (7)

October 12, 2009

Bill Whittle: "The CIA is the immune system of the country."

I'm afraid, Mary,
that if you have your way you will not be legal assistant to anyone, and neither will any of your daughters, sisters, mothers or aunts. Their job, and yours, will be to create male children, and succumb to whatever beatings, rapes and “honor killings” the men you create may feel entitled to at the whim of the moment. This is the inevitable outcome of having a president that attacks not the germs but the white blood cells. Obama is giving the American immune system AIDS. -- Eject Eject Eject » “Mirroring” and Compromise

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:07 PM | Your Say (1)

Faces from a Real Photographer

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The 65-year-old photographer
went his own way over the past four decades, never selling a work until two years ago, but he nevertheless is about to burst onto the scene with two museum exhibitions this month. The 45-year wait began when he dropped out of the University of Minnesota at 20 and "turned away from the intellect toward art." -- Photographer Robert Bergman, With Shows at the National Gallery and MoMA P.S.1 - WSJ.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:49 AM | Your Say (3)

Obamlet

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"To surge, or not to surge: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous battles,
Or put down arms against a sea of troubles,
And by withdrawing end them? To retreat: to fight
No more; and by retreat to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To retreat, to leave;
To leave: perchance to lose: ay, there's the rub;
For in that leaving, what defeat may come
When we have shuffled off this Afghan soil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of a long war;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of polls,
The oppressor's wrong, the talking head's contumely,
The pangs of pacifists, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his swift exit make
With a curt order? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary war,
But that the dread that some would cry "defeat,"
That vicious accusation from whose bourn
No politician returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Nobel Committee! Wimps, in thy orisons
Be all my sins forgotten."

-- The Bard aka neo-neocon, To surge or not to surge: Obamlet II

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:07 AM | Your Say (0)

October 11, 2009

Life on the Line continues...

When she is off the radio I announce,
"All the big pieces are still there." She smiles at my poor attempt at early morning humor, then asks me who is going to be flying... "You of course," I say. She is such a smooth pilot, in fact maybe the best I have ever flown with at this airline, that I always try to shove the flying to the right side of the flight deck when we work together, which is often. Yeah, I have more experience and possess a "been there, done that" gray hair factor, but she is a better stick. Her Dad was a well known and respected pilot, too. It must be genetics. -- Flight Level 390: Why Am I Dressed this Way?

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:46 PM | Your Say (2)

And the Award for Bestest New Blog of the Week Goes to...

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Michelle Obama's Mirror's Blog
"Happy days are here again! I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure about this team at first. That whole thing about wanting Lady M’s reflections to look good at all times, even if it meant I had to resort to major league distortion – it made me hazy for a few days. But then one day, I got it! It’s just like all the other hopey-changey stuff. This wouldn’t be fashion treason: it’s just my role in the extended Washington run of The Emperor’s New Clothes."

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:58 PM | Your Say (0)

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing

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Call for votes.

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:10 PM | Your Say (5)

That They Look Like Yassir Arrafat Also Accounts for Their Popularity

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Enhancing the Palestinian culture of lies....
Marah Land Zoo in Gaza has found a novel way to get around Israeli restrictions on the importation of animals by partly dyeing two donkeys so they resemble zebras. The owner of the zoo in Gaza City said he had used masking tape and black hair dye, applied with a paint-brush, to disguise the white females. -- The Presurfer: How To Turn A Donkey Into A Zebra

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:07 PM | Your Say (2)

October 10, 2009

Superman: a Unified Theory for his Superpowers

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Inertia is the key:
The observations are instead compatible with Tippett’s Unified Theory. By manipulating the falling damsel’s inertia, Superman could instantly cancel her falling momentum and save her without altering his flying trajectory.| forgetomori

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:15 PM | Your Say (0)

Dreams from My Fiber

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Let the President of the United States inspire you as you push for the passage of last night’s burrito. Only $23 via Regretsy

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:12 PM | Your Say (5)

Treacher Rejoices

I'm just glad Stephanie Birkitt finally got some much-needed recognition with her Nobel Prize in Fellatio. -- Twitter / Jim Treacher

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:03 PM | Your Say (1)

It's Come to This

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Marge Simpson makes cover of Playboy | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:48 AM | Your Say (2)

Venus & Fly Trap

Attack of the 50 Foot Party Balloon... Artist's giant party balloon sculptures that look like terrifying creatures from the ocean depths | Mail Online


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Posted by Vanderleun at 11:38 AM | Your Say (0)

What If...

What if
a guy nobody's ever heard of, from Hawaii no less, with a Muslim African father and a Muslim Indonesian stepfather and a mom from Kansas named Stanley inexplicably glides from Punahou to a short sheep-dip at Occidental to the Frankfurt School's favorite Ivy League haunt, Columbia, to Harvard Law? What if he's such an arrogant, aloof suckup of no particular ability or accomplishment that his fellow students openly ridicule him with the invention of the "Obamamometer," which measures epic brown-nosing on a scale from one to ten? What if he's blissfully unaware of his own deficiencies, and instead comes to believe that he's earned everything that's come his way — or ever will? -- - David Kahane - The Corner on National Review Online

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:14 AM | Your Say (1)

October 9, 2009

The Reason That Barely Dares Speak Its Name

Hospital worker Itya Silverio, 33, of Brooklyn, said: "My first opinion is that he got it because he's black. What did he do that was so great? He hasn't even finished office yet." -- Obama Peace Prize win has some Americans asking why?| Reuters

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:41 PM | Your Say (1)

"Be always sure you’re right—then go ahead!” -- Davy Crockett

"We are clearly not short on sickness,
and with a very small amount of introspection we will see we are also not short on cure. In fact, the one thing that I feel absolutely certain of today is that we will always have exactly as much right in ourselves as we need in order to neutralize the wrong - but we keep coming up short on the nominal human decency it takes to bring the two together. Something stops us, and it is usually notoriety. Name-making. Cheapness. The anonymous right always eschewed for the noteworthy wrong. That sort of virus isn't cultivated on Capitol Hill, and it doesn't come with a parenthetical "R" or "D." It is us, it is human, and it is entirely fixable, because the only thing it takes to fix it is a decision." -- The Dipso Chronicles: On Responsibility

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:12 PM | Your Say (1)

The Onion Folds

"In a brief statement, the principles of the news parody outlet, THE ONION, announced that it will ending it's long run.'We simply cannot top the announcement of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.' " -- iOwnTheWorld.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:54 PM | Your Say (1)

Dry Run for Independence Day?

Strange Cloud Over Moscow Oct 6 2009


Posted by Vanderleun at 1:33 PM | Your Say (1)

In local news, this deadpan police report...

Near my house in Seattle Car collides with pole on Aurora last night via Queen Anne View. The police report says "the driver initially stated that there may have been up to three other passengers with her, who ran off after the accident. SPD conducted a search at the scene, but found no other passengers, and believes it is highly unlikely anyone else was riding in the car...." but concludes:
Signs of impairment were noted, but toxicology results have not come back yet. The report also stated that the female driver was nude from the waist down and that no pants or underwear were located at the scene.

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:10 PM | Your Say (4)

This Just In: Nobel Peace Prize Redesign Unveiled

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"When I told my son that Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he at first thought I was joking. When I told him they really did he said, 'Why? Did they have a spare one laying around?' " -- Chicago Boyz Looks like they did.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:23 PM | Your Say (0)

October 8, 2009

Linktation

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From xkcd - A Webcomic - Scary

Telling Half the Story 100% of the Time | Climate Skeptic
On the exact same day in 2007 that seemingly every paper on the planet was reporting that Arctic sea ice extent was at an “all-time” low, it turns out that Antarctic sea ice extent was at an “all-time” high. I put “all-time” in quotes because both were based on satellite measurements that began in 1979, so by “all-time” newspapers meant not the 5 billion year history of earth or the 250,000 year history of man or the 5000 year history of civilization but instead the 28 year history of space measurement. Oh, that “all time”.

BOHICA! Just easing it in: neo-neocon By hook or by crook: the public option edges closer

Low-tech Magazine: Wind powered factories: history (and future) of industrial windmills

Velociworld: The Six Figure Miracle
They fancy themselves the elite, the Shit Don't Stinkers. Well, fuck that. The only constitutional amendment I want to see is the one that feeds congressmen into the same maw of social engineering that the rest of us are fed into.

One Cʘsmos: The Great Lincoln-Darwin Debate "It is strictly impossible to reconcile philosophical Darwinism with America's founding principles."

♦ "No frontal assaults on the established order ever pay off." -- Sippican Cottage: Some Enchanted Place, Chapter Seven

The Albatross Has Landed Works and Days サ The Power of Payback

Why aren’t you listening to Portuguese music? The Pleasures of Saudade by Philip Graham

The Lethal Search for De Loys’ Ape
Out of the dense jungle came two upright walking creatures, gripping and shaking branches while screaming in apparent anger. The ape-like animals began flinging their own faeces at the frightened men, who grabbed their guns, shooting their female assailant dead as the male, wounded, fled into the forest.

Nightlight: A Parody Pale and klutzy, Belle arrives in Switchblade, Oregon looking for adventure, or at least an undead classmate. She soon discovers Edwart, a super-hot computer nerd with zero interest in girls.
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Posted by Vanderleun at 11:47 PM | Your Say (0)

C'est Magnifique! NAMGLA meets NAMBLA

Mitterrand faces calls to quit over 'boys' for sex claim
Mitterrand was the first major political figure to leap to the defence of the film director Roman Polanski... Mitterrand's critics on the political extreme right and the left have now questioned his suitability for office over his self-confessed penchant for "young boys" in Bangkok.... Mitterrand, who was never a card-carrying member of the Socialist party, was asked about his use of the term "young boys". He said that he called all men "boys" and that it had nothing to do with children.

"Boys." Check. "Bangkok" Check. "Not children." Right. Sure. Because gay men in France over 18 are so hard to find.

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:46 PM | Your Say (0)

No Mas Zombietime @ LGF: When the Girls Talk About the Boys

What's going on backstage at Little Green Footballs? Read it now @
LGF "Private" thread and Does Irish Rose sing like this? « Avid Editor's Insights "Here is the transcript of there "private" thread. It is pure insanity but funny IMHO. I in no way endorse this trash."

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:58 PM | Your Say (3)

Andrew Sullivan, Writer & Ghost Writer

Writer: Love Makes You Creative, Sex Not So Much
As I finally collapsed into my lover's arms with the final orgasm that drained every last drop of desire or need from my body and soul, I understood for the first time why the French call coming "le petit mort". -- The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Ghost Writer: How to Lose Bum Weight Fast & Keep a Curvy Shape
There is nothing that people find more alluring than a nice, curvy, firm butt. Thankfully, this butt is now within the reach of every person.

The first step: You have to fight the flab on your butt with glute specific exercises. -- ImaginaryFriendShop.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:13 AM | Your Say (6)

Soon to be the most sought-after undisclosed location on Earth

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Chako Paul City: All Female Swedish Town
Swedish English language news web site The Local reports that thousands of Chinese tourists have flooded the nations travel offices, after news agency Xinhua reported the existence of the town of Chako Paul City, where no men are allowed entry and all the woman have turned homosexual.

"Swedish lesbian blonde beings are numberless. I vow to save all of them!"

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:28 AM | Your Say (1)

October 7, 2009

Linkatudinal

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Childhood's precious moments


Jeppe Hein’s mirror labyrinth

Bill Whittle republishes his classic post-Katrina essay, TRIBES -- "My Tribe thinks you choose your Tribe."

Experience a quartz crystal sound bath inside The Integratron

Inside the eerie orange light of Sydney's duststorm: cityofsound: Life on Mars

Wonderful new Tumblr page: My Parents Were Awesome Well, they were. Weren't yours?

Art and Soul Michelle Obma's mirror takes a look at that cheesy art collection.

"Wanna bet?" The rabid normalization of Andrew Sullivan continues:
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Posted by Vanderleun at 10:52 PM | Your Say (0)

Third Blue Dot from the Sun

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Solar System by Michael Paukner An illustration of the planets and dwarf planets of the Solar System. Learn more about your neighbourhood. Click to see.

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:53 PM | Your Say (2)

There Oughta Be a Law

You may well have seen this: YouTube - Baby Dancing to Beyonce


But nothing, I mean nothing, has prepared you for this:



By clicking on the play icon to this video you hereby acknowledge the ancient truth, "That which has been seen cannot be unseen," and hold this blog owner harmless for any permanent mental damage.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:13 PM | Your Say (0)

Linkatude

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Menopause. It's not for girls: Welcome To My World ォ Jaded Haven

Real racism vs. "soft bigotry" @ Word Around the Net: THE RACIST TRUTH

Nemesis, Nemesis Everywhere. Victor Hanson on The Power of Payback

Hollywood and the attack of the killer turkeys @ Belmont Club サ Cliffhanger

A real photographer passes: Irving Penn, Fashion Photographer, Is Dead at 92

So drop it: Maverick Philosopher: The Past as Burden

As in "raaaaacist": Semantic satiation in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who can only process the speech as repeated meaningless sounds.

First, dump a mountain on it: Pruned: Chicago 2018, or: A Proposal for the First Wholly Urban Winter Olympics

"Sue and be damned"The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see! - Boing Boing

A pied a terre in Beverly Hills can be yours for only $165 million: Forbes Most Expensive Luxury Homes in the World: | Fashion News

iOwnTheWorld.com Where you can write the jokes that write themselves ...


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Posted by Vanderleun at 1:41 PM | Your Say (0)

UO! - Teh Gay Wine

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"Encruz" -- UO! Homepage graphic. Because bondage without blasphemy just isn't twisted enough!

It's here. It's queer. Decant it.
UO! singular wines Watch the dark tear slide slowly down the glass, and you’ll know what to do next. Uncork the bottle, let it breathe for a while…then pour a brimming glass, examine the color, deep, almost black. Swirl the contents playfully and see how flows slowly over the surface of the glass. It smells of ripe, dark fruits, fragrant, a steamy jungle, a…Taste it. Raise the glass to your lips and you’ll notice deep and balanced flavors, they are sumptuous, you can almost chew on them, they fill you...

Reacting to this new product a commenter @ davidthompson asks: "So it doesn't come in a box then?"

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:11 PM | Your Say (3)

Dual Diseases Got on the Cheap

Scientism or metaphysical Darwinism
are "ready made" or predigested ideologies for certain types of mind parasites. One can cheaply purchase -- for it requires no struggle with intellection -- each of these cultural attitudes "off the rack," hence the dreary conformity of Charles and his soulless army of robotic clones. -- One Cʘsmos: The Political Oedipus Complex: Dreams of Murdering Our Fathers

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:04 PM | Your Say (0)

Wedgie Meets Hemorrhoid

Result, another column of spew by the worst writer in America, Tom Friedman:
As we continue to build up carbon in the atmosphere to unprecedented levels, we never know when the next emitted carbon molecule will tip over some ecosystem and trigger a nonlinear climate event — like melting the Siberian tundra and releasing all of its methane, or drying up the Amazon or melting all the sea ice in the North Pole in summer. -- Our Three Bombs - NYTimes.com

It's all there. The fear. The woe. The cliches. The blather and the spew. The typing with the pole embedded into the forehead.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:58 PM | Your Say (2)

It's Quiet. Too Quiet.

Robin of Berkeley is hearing.... crickets:
Interestingly, there's this eerie silence about Obama. You don't hear a peep about him. Or course, liberals are still foaming at the mouth about Sarah Palin, tea baggers, birthers, and all things conservative. But adulation for Obama: Missing in Action. A telling sign: the life size black and white cardboard doll of Obama in a storefront near my office has been taken down. Where did it go -- to the local recycling center with other discarded Obamabilia? -- American Thinker: The Trauma of Obama

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:50 PM | Your Say (1)

October 6, 2009

Two Men Two Religions

The Weekly Standard: Reagan and Obama
Obama may not be speaking in openly religious terms as Reagan did, but he nevertheless looks on America in a way that could be seen as religious: he sees it as a nation conceived in original sin, one that has gone on to commit offenses against the world for which it must now atone. And Obama views himself as the special instrument through which America can finally purify herself, join the world of other nations as an equal rather than a leader, and go forth and sin no more. You might say that Reagan believed in American exceptionalism, whereas Obama believes in Obama's exceptionalism.

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:31 PM | Your Say (0)

Los Vegas to California: Send Your Tempest Taxed to Us

NEVADA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY LAUNCHES ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN TO ENTICE CALIFORNIA BUSINESSES TO MOVE TO SOUTHERN NEVADA

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:31 AM | Your Say (2)

October 5, 2009

The Real Deal

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Perfect Gift, even for yourself. LEATHER HEAD™ footballs are American footballs that stand apart. Carefully crafted, one at a time from individually selected hides, each LEATHER HEAD™ football is unique. -- American Footballs by LemonBall on Etsy

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:23 PM | Your Say (2)

Some Enchanted Place

People that live close enough to the railroad tracks to have their dishes rattle always come up with a variation on the same bit of bosh: I'm the descendant of kings! The black kids in high school would talk about the proud Ashanti warriors they had falling out of their family trees, and of course we dumb Micks claimed Kings as thick as poison ivy all over our miserable half-remembered patch of the Ould Sod. -- Sippican Cottage: Some Enchanted Place - Chapter Six, Part The Third

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:01 PM | Your Say (0)

Gimme an O! Gimme a B! Gimme an AMA!

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Lead instead of cheerlead.
But this President seems incapable of doing that. I don't know how many days he has spent actually behind the desk in the Oval Office as--€” you know -- Chief Executive, but given the number of town halls, events, ceremonies and other on-camera activities I would be willing to bet the number is not large. Anyway, that was my hope: that humiliation on the cheap might persuade The World's Smartest Politician to show some intelligence and change his mind based upon the evidence, the way his presecessor, The Greatest Moron in the History of The World, did when confronting a failing strategery in Iraq. That hope lasted for all of a few days. Now we see 150 doctors wearing white lab coats assembled to help Barack Obama give another career-saving speech, this time trying to get the 93% of Americans who are fundamanetally happy with their health care to act against their own self interests.  -- Eject Eject Eject » Learning from the Olympics

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:30 PM | Your Say (7)

We've got them on the list and they never will be missed

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Naming Names: The "Free Roman Polanski" Petition

"It used to be we always wondered which entertainment celebrities were disgusting child predators. Now they're lining up to tell us which of them shouldn't be left alone with our children. This is both a relief in terms of our kids' safety and a real timesaver when selecting our entertainment options in the future." -- Three Beers Later...: Self-Selecting Predators List a Hit with Public!

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:11 PM | Your Say (1)

Rimshot!

"We should stop the comparisons to Hitler. At least Hitler got the Olympics to come to Berlin." -- Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:17 PM | Your Say (5)

October 4, 2009

A Mae West personality coupled with the return of the Peter Principle

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The purpose of the trip
was simply to splash Obama's photo on the front pages of the world's newspapers, to provide video of him basking in the personal adulation of the European crowd, an adulation that remains very real there even while Obama's popularity slides at home. This is a man who simply craves attention, who thrives on it, who consumes it as nourishment. That's the first Mae West-ism at work, to get looked over, not overlooked. -- Sense of Events: The Mae West presidency

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:27 PM | Your Say (2)

At last, a reason models have that puckered rectum expression....

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No matter how debased fashion was last year it can always become more deeply rotten the next. Here's a selection from Viktor & Rolf Spring 2010 , two Dutch designers who need to take a ride on a rail to a tar bath.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:16 PM | Your Say (6)

Blastoff

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[Click for impact]


Photographer Ben Cooper's camera was near but he was, wisely, far far away:
Delta 4-Heavy roars into orbit with DSP-23, the final Defense Support Program missile-warning satellite, at 8:50pm EST from Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, November 10, 2007. Delta 4-Heavy, over 23 stories tall, is the world's largest rocket by height and most powerful unmanned booster.,,, The particular setup for this was sound activated. The lens was destroyed (worth it of course) but the camera survived this one despite being severed from its ratchet straps and thrown to the ground, and the sound device used for this one disconnected from the camera and thrown about 200 feet backwards into the pad perimeter fence (still worked!). All settings are preset manually. No one is allowed closer than several miles from a launch. -- Airliners.net

Cooper on how it was done: About the Delta 4-Heavy DSP-23 photo

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:02 AM | Your Say (1)

October 3, 2009

Virgin Until Michelle?

Uncomfortable question. Steve Sailer asks, Where are Obama's old girlfriends? and
"who were Obama's girlfriends during those first 27 years and 11 months? Did he have any? The public record is curiously sparse."

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:03 PM | Your Say (6)

The Glittering Prizes: Happy 17th Anniversay Mrs. and Mr. President

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"I guess we’re having caviar with our champagne after all. Really, what’s the point of moping around? We may have lost the Olympics and let a few of our pals down in Chicago, but really: the world is still our oyster, and there are many, many more pearls to be had." -- Michelle Obama's Mirror's Blog: Black Tie and Caviar Date Night

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:32 PM | Your Say (2)

Everybody's New Hot MILF

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Sexy Archeology says
Check this stuff out. Look at that long coat. Those beautiful eyes. Sexxxxxaaaayyy! Darn, if she were any hotter I'd be climbing trees.

We'll, given the state of the bones, I'd say the artist here is tarting her up just a bit.

io9 is much more coy with,
"Humanity has a new older sister. A fossilized skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus or "Ardi" predates Lucy by over a million years." But they're infested with stealth feminists over there, so they have to be careful.
Either way, this is definitely the hottest anthropology story of the century... so far.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:19 PM | Your Say (5)

"Israel is not what is wrong with the world, to put it mildly. Rather, it is one of the few things that is right with the world."

Gilder notes that Israel
"with its population of 7.23 million, five and one-half million Jewish, stands behind only the United States in technological contributions." Excluding the Arabs, that's about... you do the math... 5.5 million vs. 300 million.... At any rate, "in per-capita innovation, Israel dwarfs all nations. The forces of civilization in the world continue to feed upon the quintessential wealth of mind epitomized by Israel." -- One Cʘsmos: Israel Has No Right to Exist

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:24 AM | Your Say (2)

Isiah Berlin, "The Question of Machiavelli"

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In which it is shown that the ends justify the means:
If what Machiavelli believed is true, this undermines one major assumption of Western thought: namely, that somewhere in the past or the future, in this world or the next, in the church or the laboratory, in the speculations of the metaphysician or the findings of the social scientist or in the uncorrupted heart of the simple good man, there is to be found the final solution of the question of how men should live. If this is false (and if more than one equally valid answer to the question can be returned, then it is false) the idea of the sole true, objective, universal human ideal crumbles. The very search for it becomes not merely utopian in practice, but conceptually incoherent. -- The Question of Machiavelli - The New York Review of Books

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:51 AM | Your Say (2)

Does happiness require suffering?

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Alan Jacobs, in an article on Iain Banks' "Culture" novels (The New Atlantis » The Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M. Banks) makes this offhand remark:
In this sense the conceit of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" more complex than it seems at first to be: yes, it asks us what price we would be willing to pay for perfect happiness and social harmony; but it also may suggest that that one poor miserable child in the closet creates meaning for all the others -- gives their contentment a necessary contextual frame. Maybe those residents of Omelas who do not walk away, who accept the necessity of the child's suffering, are all the happier because they see the contrast between that child's life and their own.

This is a worrisome thought: that even the happiest of lives, or especially the happiest of lives, depend on the existence of conflict and suffering somewhere. This is a darker view of the human condition than one which simply affirms that contentment only comes in its truest form after struggle or suffering are overcome.

Dark indeed but, like the question of Machiavelli, more true than we care to admit.

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:32 AM | Your Say (3)

October 2, 2009

Cobb on a Murder in Chicago

Obligatory Seriousness on Derrion Albert - Cobb
If you ever want to have an unending discussion about black communities online, talk with black women about finding a good black man. I guarantee you that the conversation goes on and on. Now is that a conspiracy, or is it just a real fact that real men are nowhere to be found in close proximity to where Derrion Albert was beat to death by wild boys?

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:23 PM | Your Say (3)

"David Letcherman"

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Does iOwnTheWorld.com ever sleep? Incident to reaction time at that site is measured in minutes. With art too.

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:03 AM | Your Say (2)

Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen


Obama/Oprah full court press airballs out:
Shocker! Chicago eliminated in 2016 voting COPENHAGEN - The race for the 2016 Olympics has come down to just Rio de Janeiro and Madrid, with the International Olympic Committee eliminating Chicago in a stunning first round of voting.

Let's take another look at sending Obama to stump for Democrats in 2010.

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:04 AM | Your Say (7)

Cover Girl

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It is hard, if not impossible, to snub a beautiful woman--they remain beautiful and the rebuke recoils. -- Winston Churchill


The cover of the Number 1 best selling book in America months before the first printing of 1.5 million comes off the press. It underscores The Beautiful Candidate @ AMERICAN DIGEST from September 10, 2008:
Attractiveness is a quality generally found in the political classes. Not always, of course, but more often than in most other lines of work. And while a certain intelligence plus an ability to immediately make a direct connection to another person are probably more important qualities, attractiveness doesn't hurt. What is highly unusual, however, is for a candidate for office to be actually beautiful. To even the most passing glance of anyone not poisoned by ideology, it is immediately obvious that Sarah Palin possesses classic beauty. The last day's flap over the attempt of her opponent, Barrack Obama, to attach the label of "pig" to Ms. Palin not only fails because it is coarse and rude, it also fails because it is not true. I might also suggest that, inside Obama' mind, he plunged into his gaffe because he knows he does not possess "beauty."

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:21 AM | Your Say (3)

October 1, 2009

Memo:

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Posted by Vanderleun at 7:46 PM | Your Say (3)

All Things Shall Pass

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Posted by Vanderleun at 1:23 AM | Your Say (3)