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November 25, 2009

Sadly Coma Man Is Probably Still Deep in a Coma

Another contender for the worst reporting ever: "Coma man" : Respectful Insolence
Look at the video again. Consider the claim and compare it to what you see. Here is someone who is rapidly going from letter to letter, yet it is claimed that Ms. Wouters is "feeling for minute twitches" in Houben's forefinger. Does it seem plausible that these minute twitches can lead to such rapid typing, even with practice? Not to me. To me this looks like a clear case of facilitated communication. Basically, it's the same principle as a ouija board; it's the ideomotor effect. All it is in general is what the "facilitator" hopes or wishes it to be, whether she even realizes it or not. Examining the video, it looks to me as though part of the time Mr. Houben is not even looking at the keyboard; yet his assistant keeps typing. At one point it looks as though Mr. Houben's eyes are closed. If that's not enough for you, then look at this video, where it is even clearer that Houbens is not even looking at the keyboard at various points when his facilitator is typing.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:19 AM | Your Say (0)

In Which It Is Shown That The Teeth of History Are Embedded So Deeply In Obama's Ass They Have Become His Own Personal Vagina Dentata

Barack Obama's irresistible, or at least unresisted, propensity for self-aggrandizement
bubbled up yet again during his recent trip to the Far East when he proclaimed himself "America's first Pacific president." .... Yes, Obama lived four years, until the age of 10, in Indonesia. But two young men who were to become America's 35th and 41st presidents also had formative experiences in the Pacific: John Kennedy's PT-109 was sunk beneath him, and George Herbert Walker Bush, a future envoy to China, had his Grumman Avenger shot down. And before becoming America's 27th president, William Howard Taft governed the Philippines for about as many years as child Obama lived in Indonesia. -- Obama: First Pacific President? | Newsweek George F. Will | Newsweek.com

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

ClimateGaters Hoist on Their Own Petard Deny Assbite

The distinguished David Warren @ RealClearPolitics - The Skeptics Are Vindicated
George Monbiot went on to rekindle his own faith in the "settled science," however, by revealing that he will not give up on the global-warming hypothesis until he sees an e-mail that reveals a specific conspiracy over the centuries by a secret fraternity of "knights carbonic" to seize planetary power and install a Communist World Government.

Behind this sarcastic little face-saving joke is a disheartening reality. For, as we glean from the hacked documents, supporters of the hypothesis have been able to reverse the onus of proof. In the last resort, their argument comes down to: We say the planet is warming. And anyone who says the contrary must "prove the negative" beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt. And we will be their judges.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:38 AM | Your Say (1)

November 24, 2009

The very concept of socialized medicine is a disingenous fraud.

One Way Garage « An Exercise in Futility
Socialized medicine is a patent expression of self-interested greed. "€œI want health care for everyone."  Of course, because you're magnanimous, right?  You want it for everyone because everyone includes you, but if you said "€œI want healthcare for me (but I don't want to pay for it)"€, you'd be chalked up as greedy.

One of the fun questions I like to poke at pro-socialized medicine people is to ask them if they would be in favor of paying taxes to fund socialized medicine that they themselves, nor anyone they ever personally met, would be a recipient of those services.

Everybody says "Yes." Everybody is lying.

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:05 PM | Your Say (5)

November 15, 2009

Thucydides in the Underworld

Thucydides saw that democracy, once again, imagined itself victorious.
Once again traditions were questioned as men became enamored of their own prowess. It was no wonder they were deluded. They landed men on the moon. They had harnessed the power of the atom. It was no wonder that the arrogance of man had grown so monstrous, that expectations of the future were so unrealistic. Deluded by recent successes, they could not see that dangers were multiplying in plain view. Men built new engines of war, capable of wiping out entire cities, but few took this danger seriously. Why were men so determined to build such weapons? The leading country, of course, was willing to put its weapons aside. Other countries pretended to put their weapons aside. Still others said they weren't building weapons at all, even though they were.

There was one more trend that Thucydides noted. In every free and prosperous country he found a parade of monsters: human beings with oversized egos, with ambitions out of proportion to their ability, whose ideas rather belied their understanding than affirmed it. Whereas, there was one Alcibiades in his own day, there were now hundreds of the like: self-serving, cunning and profane; only they did not possess the skills, or the mental acuity, or beauty of Alcibiades. Instead of being exiled, they pushed men of good sense from the center of affairs. Instead of being right about strategy and tactics, they were always wrong. And they were weak, he thought, because they had learned to be bad by the example of others. There was nothing novel about them, although they believed themselves to be original in all things. -- Past Global Analysis - J. R. Nyquist "Thucydides in the Underworld" 11/06/2009

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:35 PM | Your Say (1)

"A world in which homicide is punished so rapidly, that the embalmer flies out to take care of the bodies of the victim and the murderer on the same trip."

"The ultimate example of an effective message, is sticking metal tableware into an electrical outlet. The result is instant, jarring, and for all practical purposes, certain. Very, very few people do that twice.

"For an example at the other end of the spectrum, I guess we have President Obama and Afghanistan. What’ll happen next? Nobody knows. President Sort-Of-God has to go off and think some more.

"Over the past few days I’ve fantasized repeatedly about a world in which homicide is punished so rapidly, that the embalmer flies out to take care of the bodies of the victim and the murderer on the same trip. The point is — allowing that such a thing was possible, just imagine what would happen to the murder rate if we lived in such a world. By the same token, imagine how safe the country would be, if attacking us was an exercise similar to pissing on an electric fence.

"This is what is under assault right now: The clarity of the messages. Justice delayed equals justice denied. There has to be more time, more thinking, more complexity, more obfuscation, more apologia, more…whatever. More ingredients in the stew. More of anything but action. -- via Morgan @ House of Eratosthenes

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:48 PM | Your Say (0)

November 14, 2009

Interesting question: Where do you draw the line?

"The truth is we’re not prepared to draw a line even after he’s gone ahead and committed mass murder.
“What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy,” said Gen. George Casey, the U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff, “but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here.” A “greater tragedy” than 14 dead and dozens of wounded? Translating from the original brain-addled multicult-speak, the Army chief of staff is saying that the same fatuous prostration before marshmallow illusions that led to the “tragedy” must remain in place. If it leads to occasional mass murder, well, hopefully it can be held to what cynical British civil servants used to call, during the Northern Irish “Troubles,” “an acceptable level of violence.” Fourteen dead is evidently acceptable. A hundred and forty? Fourteen hundred? I guess we’ll find out." -- Tragedy or Scandal? by Mark Steyn on National Review Online

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:31 PM | Your Say (0)

On the Most Boring Blogger-Slogger in the Known Universe

"Charles Johnson is the Ted Haggard of atheism. While all atheists are obnoxious at some level, at least Christopher Hitchens is the whiskey-swilling, cigarette-smoking, dirty-joking variety of obnoxious. Hitch is fun, in other words. What's the point of defying the Almighty, if all you're going to do with your godlessness is to ride bicycles and take boring photos?" -- The Other McCain: We defer to His Aceness

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:29 AM | Your Say (0)

November 13, 2009

The Fresh, Chilled and Frozen Horse and Ass Meat Research Group.

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As it happens, Ass Meat Research Group is the highly prolific co-author of 88 different entries in the Amazon catalog -- Via The Big Questions

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:38 PM | Your Say (2)

November 11, 2009

Item in Atlanta Journal & Constitution

Sunday 20 April 2014 Press Release Atlanta Field Office Federal Bureau of Investigation

Yesterday 4 Deputy US Marshals were detailed to serve an arrest warrant on Philip Gordon 63 of Carroll County in west Georgia. Mr Gordon refused to allow the Marshals entrance to his gated property whereupon the gate was breached using necessary force. During the process Mr Gordon’s 2 Labrador retrievers charged the federal agents and were dispatched. Mr Gordon refused to submit to arrest and brandished an assault rifle accusing the Marshals of trespassing before retreating into his home. The Marshals summoned backup from the local Carroll County Sheriff’s office and two of the 6 responding deputies refused to cooperate in serving the lawful warrant. They were immediately relieved of duty. Additional backup of federal agents in the Atlanta field offices of the FBI and BATFE surrounded the Gordon residence. Repeated demands for Gordon to surrender went unheeded and chemical agents were introduced into the structure. An hour later an unconscious Gordon was taken into custody and booked into the Fulton county jail on the warrant charging refusal to pay the $15,000.00 penalty for failure to maintain a government approved medical insurance policy. -- Francis W. Porretto Leonidas - Eternity Road

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:39 AM | Your Say (5)

November 10, 2009

Ethnic Profiling On the Way

The American people are (largely) not suicidal,
and will demand to know who is responsible, and they will therefore seek out the variable with the highest degree of correlation. But if some of the variables are hidden by law, they'll use the (less precise) visible ones: race, ethnicity, gender, religion, national origin. Every Leftist and Imam professes to be afraid that Ethnic Profiling or Religious Profiling is coming, but if they continue to prevent the rest of American from engaging in Ideological Profiling, then Ethnic Profiling is what we're going to get. Lots of innocents will be harmed, but Americans will feel safer and think "It's the best we could do in a bad situation" -- Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Quote of the Day

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:57 PM | Your Say (0)

A Salvationless Army

1st Army officer: "I'm gay."

Promotions board: "You're dishonorably discharged!"

2nd Army officer: "I want to cut off your infidel head and pour boiling oil down your throat!"

Promotions board: "How'd you like to be a major?"

from Velociworld

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:37 PM | Your Say (1)

Beck's #1 x 4

Glenn Beck's "The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book" will debut at the top of the New York Times children's bestseller list tomorrow. This, according to his publisher, "Makes Beck First Author in History to Have Books Debut at #1 On Four Different NYT Bestseller Lists." -- Beck for kids - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:14 PM | Your Say (0)

She Comes in Colors: "Trere is chatter..."

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Sarah Palin Christmas 2009 glass GOING ROUGE BOOK by GLASSGIFT
Trere is chatter about the spelling This the one I chose for fun. I looked up on Amazon and saw there are two books being released the same day Check the book by the Nation magazine. This isn't an item I spent time developing, it came to mind I did it.

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:08 PM | Your Say (1)

November 9, 2009

Great Moments in "Psychologically Disturbed" Gunmen Committing Mass Murder

When John Wilkes Booth opened fire on President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre in April 1865, the media was puzzled.
“True, the actor was outspoken in his Confederate sympathies and viewed himself as a Southerner,” said someone who knew him, “but that was no reason he might want Lincoln to be dead.” The day before he went on his shooting spree, Booth hoisted a big Confederate flag outside his hotel room. After he leaped onto the stage he shouted, "Thus ever to tyrants!" the motto of the rebel state of Virginia.

The New York Times reported that Booth was psychologically unstable and was frightened of the Civil War coming to an end and having to face a peacetime actors’ surplus. “His political views had nothing to do with the motives for this tragic act,” it said, quoting experts. -- RubinReports:

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:09 AM | Your Say (2)

"Going Muslim"

Going Muslim.
This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American--a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood--discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans. This would appear to be what happened in the case of Maj. Hasan.

The difference between "going postal," in the conventional sense, and "going Muslim," in the sense that I suggest, is that there would not necessarily be a psychological "snapping" point in the case of the imminently violent Muslim; instead, there could be a calculated discarding of camouflage--the camouflage of integration--in an act of revelatory catharsis. In spite of suggestions by some who know him that he had a history of "harassment" as a Muslim in the army, Maj. Hasan did not "snap" in the "postal" manner. He gave away his possessions on the morning of his day of murder. He even gave away--to a neighbor--a packet of frozen broccoli that he did not wish to see go to waste, even as he mapped in his mind the laying waste of lives at Fort Hood. His was a meticulous, even punctilious "departure." -- Forbes.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:06 AM | Your Say (0)

A Shameful Consensus at the Atlantic

A consensus seems to have formed here at The Atlantic
that the Ft. Hood massacre means not very much at all. Megan McArdle writes that "there is absolutely no political lesson to be learned from this." James Fallows says: "The shootings never mean anything. Forty years later, what did the Charles Whitman massacre 'mean'? A decade later, do we 'know' anything about Columbine?" And the Atlantic Wire has already investigated the motivation for the shooting, and released its preliminary findings. Of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Wire states: "A 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, he appears to have not been motivated by his Muslim religion, his Palestinian heritage (he is American by nationality), or any related political causes."
It seems, though, that when an American military officer who is a practicing Muslim allegedly shoots forty of his fellow soldiers who are about to deploy to the two wars the United States is currently fighting in Muslim countries, some broader meaning might, over time, be discerned, especially if the officer did, in fact, yell "Allahu Akbar" while murdering his fellow soldiers, as some soldiers say he did. -- When Muslims Commit Violence - Jeffrey Goldberg

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:51 AM | Your Say (3)

November 8, 2009

What If?

What if the President had said something quite different? -- something a little bit more angry like,
"All Americans have had it with these mass murderers, whether formal terrorist plotters or individual assassins. I promise you we will find out what motivates a Major Hasan -- and do my best to ensure that there are no more Major Hasans in our future." -- Victor Hanson

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:20 PM | Your Say (0)

How You Become a Slave

Look, liberty is not lost in a day. It is lost in increments and inches.
Today you will not smoke in a pub -- or smoke at all -- even though those in charge might. Tomorrow the government will set your house temperature for you, while keeping their own set to their comfort levels. They will tell you how much money you may fairly earn, while "they" are not quite so limited. Next year your son will be forced to participate in mandatory volunteerism, and so will your mother. Soon you will be advised to abandon your hate-filled intolerant church for the approved and correct one. Someday, you may be asked to bow before someone and you will have to say "yes" and then live with yourself, or say "no" and live with those consequences. The banality of slavery -- it is almost a tedious thing. -- The shadow of the jackboot @ The Anchoress | A First Things Blog

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:34 PM | Your Say (1)

House Bill DOA? Okay, but let's drive a sharp wooden stake through it just to be sure

Lindsey Graham: Reform "D.O.A." In Senate, Public Option "A Disaster"


Posted by Vanderleun at 6:17 PM | Your Say (0)

This Sort of Thing Should Fade After Lampost Decorating Comes Back Into Vogue

“Get well soon Major Nidal. We love you.”
The soldiers at Fort Hood had it coming, says a radical Muslim in Queens who travels to mosques around the city spreading anti-American hate and has sent a “Get Well Soon” message to the major behind the Texas massacre. “An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack,” Yousef al-Khattab wrote on his Web site, called “Revolution Muslim.” “Get well soon Major Nidal. We love you.” -- America-hater in Queen hails Hood massacre | inthrutheoutdoor.com

"Pre-emptive attack..." Humm, that's a concept.

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:31 PM | Your Say (0)

America Take Can Pride In This Historic, Inspirational Disaster

Yes, I know there are probably other African-Americans
much better qualified and prepared for the presidency. Much, much better qualified. Hundreds, easily, if not thousands, and without any troubling ties to radical lunatics and Chicago mobsters. Gary Coleman comes to mind. But let it not distract us from the fact that Mr. Obama's election represents a profound, positive milestone in our country's struggle to overcome its long legacy of racial divisions and bigotry. It reminds us of how far we've come, and it's something everyone in our nation should celebrate in whatever little time we now have left. -- iowahawk

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:03 AM | Your Say (3)

November 6, 2009

Protest!

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ZZMike: "One of these day's I'll join a Wal-Mart protest. I'll carry a sign reading "Down With Low Prices!!! Down with Wide Selections!!!" -- AMERICAN DIGEST: Comment on The Enduring Greatness of Walmart

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:23 PM | Your Say (1)

"Hell, I even dislike their dislike of dogs."

A classic Daphne truth-telling. Appropriate for today:
I find myself increasingly repulsed by Muslim practices and beliefs. Middle Eastern, African, Asian, American, the country of origin makes no difference. Women and children treated as chattel, genital mutilation, child brides, honor killings, culturally accepted pedophilia, the black drapes and head coverings, no rights, no votes, little to non-existent educational opportunities, no voice, no choices, no recourse. Persecution of homosexuals. Imprisonment, stoning and whipping for morality crimes. Lack of free speech. The foul treatment of non-Muslims in Islamic countries. The demented hatred of Jews. Sharia Law. Wahhabism. Madrasas. Blind obedience to Mullahs. Praying towards Mecca -- a place on the map few will ever see. Individuality is shut down, originality and freedom of the mind discouraged. Islam pisses on human talents that fall outside the dark walls of its faith. Hell, I even dislike their dislike of dogs. -- Scheherazade Needs A New Tale « Jaded Haven

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:39 PM | Your Say (2)

November 4, 2009

Dean Koontz on Frankenstein

The original novel is mostly mistaught in our universities these days, a
s professors twist Mary Shelley’s themes—and even turn them upside down—to endorse this or that modern attitude or political viewpoint. Of the several reasons why the book is a classic, perhaps the most important is the portrayal of Victor Frankenstein as a compassionate utopian destroyed by hubris. The history of humanity is soaked in blood precisely because we throw ourselves into the pursuit of one utopia after another, determined to perfect this world that cannot be perfected.

Of all centuries, the 20th was the bloodiest because of Hitler’s National Socialism, Lenin’s and Stalin’s and Mao’s and Pol Pot’s and Castro’s versions of Communism; as many as 200 million were murdered or killed in war because of these utopian schemes. Victor Frankenstein, utopian of the first order, hoped to perfect God’s creation, to reanimate the deceased and thus defeat death, and his project could result only in calamity, for it was against the natural law and common sense.

Via KA-CHING!

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:04 PM | Your Say (2)

Guess Who

The Russians think he’s a Putz.
The French think he’s rude. The Germans want him to stop spending. The Indians want him to mix his nose out of their environmental business. The North Koreans think he’s a joke. The Iranians won’t acknowledge his calls. And the British can’t even come up with a comprehensive opinion of him.

As for the Chinese, he’s too frightened to even glance their way. -- Editorial: I Told You So – Yes I Did - Galganov.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:22 PM | Your Say (0)

Charles Johnson's Drool-Cup Runneth Over Even as His Site Empties

Lawrence Auster had Johnson's number 2 years ago:

"Basically LGF seems to consist of Charles Johnson consigning people to oblivion on the basis of no facts and no arguments, followed by Johnson's followers crying, "Yes, Charles, yes! LGF is the greatest website! I'm so proud to be at LGF!", along with various other grunts and one-line ejaculations that convey no intelligible ideas but only assent. So there is the marginalization of the Outsider by the Leader, and the mindless banding together of followers around the Leader based on such marginalization of the Outsider. Sound familiar? I can't say I have ever seen anything remotely resembling this kind of behavior at Brussels Journal. I have, however, seen it in abundance every time I've read "Little Green Footballs" in the few days that I've been perusing the site. Take a look at the current LGF thread, "The Mask Comes Off," and see the mindless, mob quality of it." -- The method of Charles Johnson

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:03 AM | Your Say (5)

Cool Hats and Hollywood Communists

Dalton Trumbo wore very cool hats.

Dalton Trumbo may have been a good screen-writer. Dalton Trumbo may have been screwed by HUAC. Dalton Trumbo may still be a Hollywood darling and the subject of a recent hagiographic offering by PBS. But I am here to tell you that Dalton Trumbo was also a Communist acolyte of Joseph Stalin, a denier of the gulag, and a maligner of truth-tellers like Koestler and Kravchenko. He was in short a useful idiot member of the American Communist Party. -- Gladly Lerne, Gladly Teche: Inbound, from the Internet

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:24 AM | Your Say (0)

November 3, 2009

Gorism

Al Gore as our soon-to-be, first carbon billionaire.

Accounts included both his earlier and contemporary angry denials that he was greedy, or had used his vast network of government contacts to influence public loans, contracts, and regulations, in parlaying a 2001 net worth of $2 million apparently into a green empire of several hundred million....

To distill Gorism is to live in a 1,000 sq. ft. solar house, bike to work, and take the train on long distances; but to promote Gorism, one lives in a mansion, jets on private planes, and is chauffeured from airport to conference center—a rather heavy carbon footprint indeed. I mention that because this week he has insisted that he only invested in what he believes in and is thus not a hypocrite—sort of like a 1990s Fannie or Freddie director saying he is only taking mega-bonuses because he believes in public support for housing.

Works and Days » The Discreet Charm of the Left-wing Plutocracy

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:55 PM | Your Say (1)

November 2, 2009

Rush Limbaugh: The Interview

Worth listening to. Just click play and listen in the background. You'll come back to the foreground often.

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:44 PM | Your Say (0)

Headslap

At their Monday night poker game in hell, I’ll bet Stalin, Hitler and Mao are kicking themselves: “ ‘It’s about leaving a better planet to our children?’ Why didn’t I think of that?” This is Two-Ply Totalitarianism—no jackboots, no goose steps, just soft and gentle all the way. Nevertheless, occasionally the mask drops and the totalitarian underpinnings become explicit. Take Elizabeth May’s latest promotional poster: “Your parents f*cked up the planet. It’s time to do something about it. Live Green. Vote Green.” As Saskatchewan blogger Kate McMillan pointed out, the tactic of “convincing youth to reject their parents in favour of The Party” is a time-honoured tradition. -- Gullible eager-beaver planet savers - Mark Steyn - Macleans.ca

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:19 AM | Your Say (0)

Dr. Johnson on the dangers of drinking kool-aid on command

"Yes, Sir; and from what I have heard of him, one would not wish to sacrifice himself to such a man. If he must always have somebody to drink with him, he should buy a slave, and then he would be sure to have it. They who submit to drink as another pleases, make themselves his slaves."
Paging Newt Gingrich.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:56 AM | Your Say (1)

November 1, 2009

In Real Times

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The Tea Party world

is still that of genuinely funny things -- not the sour mordancy of Letterman; it is still one of basic fears and simple joys, of aching feet and a welcome ice-cream soda at the end of the day. Some people spend their whole lives trying to get away from it; to forget the memory of people sitting around a sunny porch eating peanuts, to try with various expensive unguents to wash the smell of new-mown grass and two stroke gasoline fumes from their hair. That is what "success" all too often means in certain circles. That and a line of white powder across a table. In the end they may arrive at a palace of chrome and glass, all cold air and ice at some dizzying height above the world. But they must always remember, or forget at their peril, that it is all upborne by truth and human love. -- Belmont Club » Bows and Flows

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:46 AM | Your Say (1)