Comments or suggestions: Gerard Van der Leun
The Strong Horse vs. My Little Pony

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Osama Bin Laden: When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. -- Transcript of Osama bin Laden videotape - December 13, 2001

The recent resurgence of Russian military posturing coupled with their invasion of Georgia last year ought to give some pause. Putin has effectively sold Russia's physical and industrial resources to his friends and now runs the world's largest criminal state. He can operate much more effectively as he has none of the drag of a communist system, but retains the desire to play a dominant role in the world. -- BLACKFIVE: Russian fists clenching

Early in August, Vladimir Putin went on vacation. It wasn't like the ongoing vacationfest of Martha's vineyard that has so tuckered out President Obama that he needs to flee to Camp David. Pictures taken on Putin's much more rugged vacation were published in Russia and around the world. In the US and Western Europe these images were greeted with almost universal derision.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 31, 2009 2:01 PM | Comments (27)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Status: Senator Edward M. Kennedy


After days of non-stop evaluation, adulation, and reflection MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, and Captain James T. Kirk collaborate on a final wrap-up on the current status of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 30, 2009 7:54 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
August On the Right: That Was the Month That Was

Besides various email tips from readers, I track over 230 pages in all subjects from Art to War on a daily basis. The items I find interesting and/or cutting edge I post to the sideblog, "On the Right." (It was once named "Side-Lines" but that was in another country and besides the wench is dead.)

I like to think this ongoing collection of links, images, quotations, and other objects is of more than passing interest to my readers. The nature of the beast is, however, that items scroll down from the top and then off into the great always wiped-clean white board of the Web.

Because some of these items have more than a passing interest, and because, I guess, I can, I'll be posting a once a month round-up of "On the Right" here. Mainly for historic reasons, such as history is these days, but also because it seems to me to be of interest to be able to scroll backwards into recent past before it becomes history.

That said it's been a hectic month @ On the Right. Here's the long, long collection of more than 275 items I thought it worthwhile showcasing in August (It might take a bit to load, but then again it's a big load.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 30, 2009 2:58 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
August On the Side: That Was the Month That Was

From:

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"Not all voices are demonic.
I once met a man who heard happy voices. I was walking down the hall of the locked ward in the hospital’s inpatient facility (“Club Head”, we called it) and a young man with dark curly hair approached me, staring into space, smiling, giggling, laughing. He turned his head to whisper to someone who was obviously not there. We passed each other and I heard him chuckle and say, “That’s very funny.” I knew he wasn’t talking to me–I hadn’t said or done anything–and I knew he was psychotic (I recognised the symptoms). At dinner that night I asked my roommate about the young man. “Oh, that’s Kevin," he answered. "He hears happy voices.” I immediately hated Kevin."-- BEING CRAZY IS NOISY | More Intelligent Life

To:

Can it core a apple? O, it can core a apple.

File under "Never Gets Old" The Honeymooners - Chef of the Future


It's been a hectic month @ On the Right. Here's the long, long collection.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 30, 2009 2:58 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
An American Koran: "We didn't start the fire..."

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[Click all to enlarge]

Opening September 8 at the Koplin Del Rio Gallery at 6031 Washington Blvd Culver City, California , this art show could be a blast or a bomb. One way or another, it will test the limits of Muslim tolerance in our new age of "understanding" and "dialogue" with Islam....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 30, 2009 12:14 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Floating Worlds of Erik Johannson

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dogwalking.jpg  volvotool.jpg  theroom.jpg

There's Photoshop and then there's Alternate Reality. Erik Johannson is a master of the latter category. Four samples here. More of his work can be seen at his site: alltelleringet.com



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 29, 2009 2:07 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
From Torturing the CIA to the Latest Member of the Dead Kennedys, It's Been a Week That Was

Tim Hawkins, take us outta here!

See you all on the flipped spin side.

HT: IronyCurtain @ iOwnTheWorld.com said we'd be a fan in 3:04. IronyCurtain was right.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 28, 2009 8:02 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Enigmatic Image of the Week

There's a story here. I'm just not sure I want to know what it is.

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Posted by Vanderleun Aug 28, 2009 3:00 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Whistling in the Dark: "Nothing" Except Perhaps the Will and the Idea

Another human, confronted with the co-joined alpha and omega point of both what we know and the limits of what we can know, explains it all for you. She's convinced and yet, somehow, lacking in conviction.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 28, 2009 12:12 PM | Comments (18)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Is It Too Soon? (Updated) (Updated) (Updated) (Updated) (Updated)

Probably not....

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HT: Doug Ross

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 27, 2009 7:51 AM | Comments (42)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Will "The Return of Scipio" Return? (Updated)

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Mike Austin aka Scipio

At the present time, for reasons unknown, The Return of Scipio, is offline. The URL resolves to a parked page at BlueHost.

I've linked to "The Return of Scipio" often in the past and hope to link to it again in the future. As I said above, the page is offline and no information is no information.

Mike Austin, the author of The Return of Scipio, was profiled last week on Esquire's website by John H. Richardson in Is Obama Fascist? Profile of Return of Scipio Blogger Mike Austin as an

"Oklahoma man — eighth-grade teacher by day, militant blogger by night — who may personify it more than any of the conservatives who, when the town halls pass, may be pointing the way to a holy war that goes way beyond health care."
I would hope that this profile has nothing to do with the disappearance of The Return of Scipio.

Any information would be appreciated.

UPDATED: I've received an email from Austin. He's fine and says that he has shut the page down for now for personal reasons. He was not coerced in any way. It is unknown if the page will return.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 25, 2009 8:29 PM | Comments (51)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Nip to Tuck: If They Can Make You Wear a Helmet and a Seat Belt, They Can Make You Circumsize Your Child

c-me.jpgWhat do government officials think they can make you do? Anything at all, as long as it is "for the greater good."

Here's the latest bit of your government's wishing on a star "for the greater good." It involves a little nip, just a little snip, from the little tip.

Officials Weigh Circumcision to Fight H.I.V. Risk

Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

The topic is a delicate one that has already generated controversy, even though a formal draft of the proposed recommendations, due out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the end of the year, has yet to be released.

Experts are also considering whether the surgery should be offered to adult heterosexual men whose sexual practices put them at high risk of infection. But they acknowledge that a circumcision drive in the United States would be unlikely to have a drastic impact: the procedure does not seem to protect those at greatest risk here, men who have sex with men. [I note in passing that "homosexual" as a word is out and the more casual "men who have sex with men" is in. I'll leave that little bit of bureaucrat drool for another time. ]

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 24, 2009 8:52 PM | Comments (18)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

Whose Will decreed This slash of sea
Would frame This sun in gleams of green?
What Plan determines stone's decline,
Or shapes in stars, or shadow's sheen,

Or that we track, as clever beasts,
The passing haze of comet's fall,
And are the glaze of Thought on flesh
That sees the need of Plan at all?

I know, I know... no Plan at all
Is thought by some to be the plan,
And yet what is this sheen of thought
That seeks to measure more than man?

Look out beyond the far Deep Field,
Beyond the limits of our sight.
It cannot be that All that is,
Is only night on deeper night.

-- From Intelligent Design



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 24, 2009 12:22 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 23, 2009 6:37 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Where's the Environmental Impact Statement on Health Care?

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"An environmental impact statement (EIS) under United States environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental Policy Act for federal government for ps3 users agency actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment."[1]

It's difficult to think of a "policy" more likely to impact "the quality of the human environment" than the current behemoth of a bill before the congress. We've had press conferences and postings, meetings and punditocracy without number. We've not seen the background documents used to create this legislation except in a few leaked memos. Nor have we seen a summation of those documents except in a few descriptions offered by the President or the boosters of the bill in speeches or declarations. These are inadequate. There's another way; an extant process. One that the government is already set up to produce....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 23, 2009 9:36 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink

 10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

 11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

 12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

 15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

 16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

 17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

 18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

 19And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

 20For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:10-20, King James Version)



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 23, 2009 9:22 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
The Shame of Scotland, the Shame of the United Kingdom, the Shame of the Civilized World

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The list of those slaughtered the Libyan animal at Lockerbie. Click to enlarge and read the names if you can bear it.

'We should be ashamed that this has happened' The Guardian
Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 23, 2009 3:02 AM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Unreal Money: Obama Deficit 9 Times More Costly Than the War on Terror

I've said it before and I know I'll be saying it again and again:


"A trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon
you're talking about unreal money."

The news today is.... Obama to raise 10-year deficit to $9 trillion

If 1 trillion dollars is unreal money, how unreal is nine trillion dollars? It is 9 (Nine!) times more unreal than this:

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 21, 2009 7:44 PM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Archive: Largest Record Collection in the World

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

"Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection."

Hard to believe that a buyer won't be found.

Dealers or Collectors, I'm inviting you on a personal tour of the largest privately owned self-sufficient museum of music in the world. I have close to 2,500,000 recordings in the archive. It includes 45 RPM's, 78 RPM's, cassettes, and albums. I have created a database known as "MUSICMASTER" with close to 700,000 titles. I would consided your visit to the museum an honor. Please call and confirm the time and date of your visit at 412.367.7330. -- Record-Rama Sound Archives :: The World's Largest Collection of Sound Recordings Vinyl Records, LP's, 45's, 78's and Rare Albums


Posted by Vanderleun Aug 21, 2009 3:34 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
The Early Sheets: A History of Video Games in 3 Minutes

By by Steve Jones a 27 year old freelance digital artist and animator, located in Leeds, England.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 21, 2009 1:01 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Hope for Seattle Change Now That Nickels' Out? Elect Me!

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Seattle's Mayor Gregory "Greg" Nickels (D) admits you won't have him to kick around anymore.

After a surprising primary in which the two-term mayor of Seattle ran third, the Mayor has bitten the bullet:

Nickels bows out; spotlight shifts to Mallahan, McGinn

With his re-election prospects dimming by the day, Mayor Greg Nickels conceded Friday morning that he had lost the primary election. It's a stunning defeat for the two-term incumbent....

It's also a stunning opportunity for me to launch, at last, my fiendish plan for Seattle by taking advantage of the opening and having myself elected as Mayor. Here's my platform from 2007. I'm still convinced it's a winner.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 21, 2009 12:11 PM | Comments (22)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Parsing the Wee-Weed-Up Man

Ah, the great orator unleashed at last! A man with a common, perhaps all too common, pattern of speech.



Of course, like most of Obama's bon-mots, it has a distinct flavor of ambiguity to it. To say some one is "wee-weed up" does not tell us the exact state of his or her Washington micturation situation. No, it leaves us in the dark with someone who may well be "wee-weed-up." A dangerous position, you will agree. One in which you would not want to feel a spill going up your leg unless you were Chris Matthews.

And so we have questions of the great and "Linconesque" communicator.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 20, 2009 10:23 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Rainbows and Unicorns: It's Time to Cornify Obama!

Just come on over to our official Presidential Portrait page @ "Continue", and click the "Cornify" button. Bet you can't click just once.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 20, 2009 8:08 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Rainbows and Unicorns: It's Time to "Cornify"

Just come on over to our official Presidential Portrait page @ The "Click to Continue" Gallery, and click the "Cornify" button. Bet you can't click just once.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 20, 2009 8:08 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Stupid Undergrounds

Apocalyptic cults and youth gangs, garage bands and wolfpacks, collèges and phalansteries, espionage networks trading in vaporous facts and networks of home shoppers for illicit goods; monastic, penological, mutant-biomorphic, and anarcho- terrorist cells; renegade churches, dwarf communities, no-risk survivalist enclaves, unfunded quasi-scientific research units, paranoid think tanks, unregistered political parties, sub-employed workers councils, endo-exile colonies, glossolaliac fanclubs, acned anorexic primal hordes; zombie revenants, neo-fakirs, defrocked priests and detoxing prophets, psychedelic snake-oil shills, masseurs of undiagnosed symptoms, bitter excommunicants, faceless narcissists, ideological drag queens, mystical technophiles, sub- entrepreneurial dealers, derivative dérivistes, tireless archivists of phantom conspiracies, alien abductees, dupe attendants, tardy primitives, vermin of abandoned factories, hermits, cranks, opportunists, users, connections, outriders, outpatients, wannabes, hackers, thieves, squatters, parasites, saboteurs; wings, wards, warehouses, arcades, hells, hives, dens, burrows, lofts, flocks, swarms, viruses, tribes, movements, groupuscules, cenacles, isms, and the endlessly multiplied hybridization of variant combinations of all these, and more....

Why this stupid fascination with stupid undergrounds?

Paul Mann
Department of English Pomona College



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 19, 2009 12:04 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Hodgepodgery: A Hodgepodge of Random Hodgepodges
Hotchpotch, Hodgepodge a confused mixture.
Examples: hotchpotch of errors, 1728; of garlic and cheese, 1591; of ideas; of many meats, 1530; of all sorts of men, 1652; of many nations, 1652; of true religion and popery, 1888; of songs, 1835; of tastes; of words, 1386.

Brad Feld of Feldthoughts wonders at the end of his hodgepodge titled A Random Hodgepodge of Daily Reading

I'€™ve always wanted to use the word hodgepodge in a title of a blog post.  I wonder if I'€™ll make the first page on Google -- there's not much competition other than some definitions and a few stores.
Well, let's see.

Here's a random Tuesday hodgepodge stacked beneath of his Sunday hodgepodge.

The Techniumaka "The Most Powerful Force in the World"

Robert Novick, Right Prince of Darkness "short, round, dark, joyfully evil: for all we knew, he could have been an alien marble that survived on puppy souls."

AdViews A Digital Archive of Vintage Television Commercials

PETA says fat people got no reason to live: Why is PETA Making Fun of Fat Women? : TreeHugger

The Spinning Head Possessed Baby Is Probably The Antichrist

"Old men should be explorers":Unbeautiful Winner: Robert Christgau on Leonard Cohen

A/V Geeks' listing of "educational films" on line. For instance: Beginning Responsibility: A Lunchroom Goes Bananas (1978)

Woman #1: "When we meet Eve, she has no name yet; her nametag just reads “The Woman.” -- Bill Blogsmith: WOMEN IN THE BIBLE 1: Eve a
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Posted by Vanderleun Aug 18, 2009 8:27 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Half the Joker's On You. Real Joker Artist Remains Armed and Dangerous

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Light, Lame, and Limp

Appropriationists: "Their work is caracterized by... recycling... cultural iconography by [arranging] elements of it in another context ...: a detour in which... the blow up of the reproduction can become more original than the original itself." -- American Appropriationists and the Lolita-Complex

The LA Times thinks it has "exposed" the Joker, but the real Joker artist is still at large. Half of the Obama 'Joker' Artist is a Palestinian Arab from Chicago, Firas Alkhateeb. All bets are off if you think you know where he's at politically:

"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," Alkhateeb said. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him. I abstained from voting in November," he wrote in an e-mail. "Living in Illinois, my vote means close to nothing as there was no chance Obama would not win the state." If he had to choose a politician to support, Alkhateeb said, it would be Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
Dennis. Kucinich. ? Oh. Kay....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 17, 2009 11:59 PM | Comments (23)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Reality Check Fail: flag@whitehouse.gov = The Inbox from Hell

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As noted today on Drudge and confirmed on Politico, flag@whitehouse.gov is in fail mode and bouncing all messages back with the neat notice:

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 17, 2009 9:23 AM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
50 Recent Items of Interest Continue @ "On the Right"

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Posted by Vanderleun Aug 16, 2009 11:32 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
It's ON! Sexy Bikini Girls Reading Star Wars VS Sexy Bikini Girls With Guns

I blame the always besotted Vodkapundit who has, it seems, gulled Morgan at House of Eratosthenes, as well as The Classic Liberal, and even the otherwise sensible Smitty @ The Other McCain into promoting this gelded celebration of haute nerdgeekdom. True it does feature many hot bikini girls. But what, in the name of all that is holy, are they doing? They're reading Star Wars, a movie that should have been buried in the Nevada salt pits decades ago so it could not continue to infect the culture.

The result? Hot babes spewing pablum. Nerd. Nerd. Nerd. NERD! Check it out and check out the competition...

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 16, 2009 2:43 PM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"Love You:" You think you see it coming but you don't...

HT: Stoo Pid (stoo11) on Twitter



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 16, 2009 10:08 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink

Doc Searls Weblog · Geology vs. Weather

“snow on the water” applies to social media as well. They’re conversational in the literal sense. They’re weather within which tweets fly and fall like flakes, and disappear into the collective unconscious.

On the other hand, blogging is geology. A blog’s posts may be current and timely, and constitute one person’s contribution to conversation around a subject or two, but each post is built to last. It has a “permalink”. Over time posts accumulate like soil deposits. You can dig down through layers of time and find them. What do tweets have? Temp-o-links?



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 15, 2009 12:22 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
RETRO: The Camera & 'Mad Men'

Jefferson Robbins of Film Freak Central contemplates Mad Men and concludes, "The only thing left for me to discuss is the hidden star of the show, something designed to go unnoticed unless you squint." The result is this compelling and illuminating exploration of the cinematography.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 13, 2009 1:24 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"Doc" aka The Voice of Thomas Pynchon Sells "Inherent Vice"


"At that point, it gets kinda peculiar...."

Notable for its "groovy" tone with a noir hard edge, this promotional video for Pynchon's new novel is also notable for the voice of the narrator -- Thomas Pynchon.

Notable because Pynchon is famous for being the second most reclusive US author after ... what's his name?... oh, J.D. Salinger.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 12, 2009 11:23 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
What are these s.... ?

whataretheses.jpg

File under: "My nipples explode with delight!"



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 11, 2009 9:57 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink

Meanwhile, trouble in Paradise for the Clinton lovebirds? While Hillary's reminding the 3rd World of just who wears the pants suit and is the real Secretary of State (see below), Bill Clinton Celebrates His 63rd in Las Vegas.
Turns out Mr. Clinton decided to celebrate his 63rd birthday with a dinner at one of this city’s hottest – and most pricey – restaurants: Craftsteak at the MGM Grand hotel. How pricey? The 8-ounce wagyu New York strip steak goes for $240. (Potatoes and other sides are extra)
Turns out Mrs. Clinton is stuck in the Congo where $240 buys dinner for about 500. She probably declined to phone conference in for a rousing round of "Happy Birthday."

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 10, 2009 10:57 PM | QuickLink: Permalink

The Organ Reader

Issue I — July 1970 25 - 48

The Cockettes Play the Palace

A Conversation with Allen Ginsberg

Gerard van der Leun



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 10, 2009 10:31 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Never, Ever, Feed the Plant

I'm your genie, I'm your friend,
I'm your willing slave.
Take a chance, just feed me and...

Confused about health care, stimulus, bailouts, and the coming tsunami of taxes and regulations?

One simple answer:

Never, ever, give governments more money or power.

"You need blood and He's got more than enough" is never, ever a good idea. You're always next.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 8, 2009 9:46 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Government Motoring: Just the Thing for Commuting to Those Scrappy Town Hall Meetings

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After our Overlord Class spends $550 million to buy eight jets, look for the US Congress to buy itself a fleet of these next year: BMW 7 Series High Security : 2010

An intercom system with concealed microphones and speakers allows safe communication with people outside of the vehicle without the need to open doors or windows. Additional safety options include an assault alarm, fire extinguishing system with temperature sensor for extinguishing fires in the engine compartment and below the vehicle as well as irritant gas sensors for protecting passengers from gas attacks. If the interior protection system is triggered by excess gas levels, all windows are closed automatically, the central locking system is activated, the fresh air valves are closed and the ventilation system is shut off. An additional internal fresh-air supply system ensures that passengers are provided with breathable air. BMW also offers special options for authorities, governments and embassies. The package provides a range of special features such as flag holders, arrangements for radio installations right through to a gun case with compartments for two machine guns in the center console.
What an option package! Still, it could come in handy.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 8, 2009 11:15 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Mine Fuhrer

The clip that keeps going and going and going....

HT: The Swiss Army Knife known as The House of Eratosthenes



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 8, 2009 7:43 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Barrel of GoogleRands. Status 2009

barrelbricksheader.jpgDear President Obama,

I am writing in response to your demand for additional money via the "WTF!? Re-Financing America's Health Care Through Gentle Extortion Act." I wish I could help you. God knows I need medical care now. Repeated exposures to you, your "speeches," and your policies have left me with an extreme case of "Spontaneous Projectile Vomiting" which I desperately would like to shake. Still, as much as I need it, I find I cannot pay for your "Free" Health Care.

In previous years I might have been able to pay doctor's a reasonable sum for curing me, but now my tax advisors tell me I can't even afford to pay you to get the "Free" kind of health care. I find I have neither the resources nor the complexion to benefit from your visionary. In short, in the middle of your term I find myself, along with 150 million other Americans, caught in an "Out of the Money Experience."

In my last letter to you I put "Poor Planning" as the cause of my overnight insolvency. You asked for a fuller explanation and I trust the following details will be sufficient.

I am a taxpayer by trade. During the last year of our recent national mortgage "accident," I was working alone on the roof of a broken-down six-story building in West LA, laying down slate shingles and edging it with solid copper gutters, hoping to flip it to "Flip This House" at the Steal It Yourself cable franchise, or to palm it off on the wise Latina down the block until she got a job with the government and moved to Washington. (Thanks for that one, Barry.)

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 7, 2009 1:03 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Johnnie Walker's Walk: The Spirits of Free Enterprise

An ad? Five minutes? Yes. And worth every second.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 6, 2009 6:14 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Frankly Appalling James Wolcott....
Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 6, 2009 5:30 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
History's Ironies: White House Rat Line Went Up on 65th Anniversary of Anne Frank's Betrayal

If it hadn't been for Der Trolls, I would have missed this one.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 6, 2009 2:48 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
[Leading] Men in [US] Film History

This morning Sippican Cottage points this way:

by Philip Scott Johnson

Observing this long slow morphing of our male icons you can also discern the evolution of the country from Doug Fairbanks to George Clooney. You're going to wait a while for Samuel L. Jackson.


In order: Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck, Richard Burton, Jack Lemmon, Sean Connery, Sidney Poitier, Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, Peter O'Toole, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Harrison Ford, Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Christopher Walken, Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, John Travolta, Antonio Banderas, Tim Robbins, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, George Clooney

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 6, 2009 1:48 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Town Hall Meeting: How Government (With Popular President) Gives You Free Things

HT: The ever popular and wise Western Chauvinist



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 5, 2009 4:26 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Strong Horse Agit-Prop

Transcript of Osama bin Laden videotape - December 13, 2001

when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 5, 2009 2:59 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Government and Motors

governmentmotors.jpg

Any questions?

From Very, Very, Very Small Cars



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 5, 2009 2:39 PM | QuickLink: Permalink

Joy reigns unconfined across 28% of America today, but somehow it's just not the same, is it?


Posted by Vanderleun Aug 5, 2009 2:01 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
5 Links You'll Like and My New Assistant
Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 4, 2009 11:06 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
FranticMan: "It's Not Like I'm OCD or Anything Like That...."



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 3, 2009 10:29 AM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
American InDigestion: August News-Fast

linus-and-lucy.jpg

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 2, 2009 6:42 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"Blowing Smoke Up...." In case you've ever wondered where the phrase originated...

tobaccosmoke.jpg



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 2, 2009 6:32 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Smackdown: Megan Fox vs. 2 Extremely Unattractive Nerds

"Megan fox could cause a hormonal imbalance in a comatose galapagos
tortoise."
-- Commenter Flannelputz

Note to Asylum AOL nerds and nerdettes: It is fine to announce 'A Day Without Megan Fox' ...

But on August 4, that all changes, as Asylum bands together with the other manly sites of the Web in an Internet-wide media ban on all things Megan Fox. After the jump, see our explanation and find out how you can help.
.... we understand the pressure neutered nerds of all 6 sexual persuasions are under when it comes to:

megan-fox-fhm-hottest-woman_b.jpg
MEGAN FOX. Here seen promoting environmentally-friendly faux fur.

But, puhlease dear nerd and nerdette...., never, EVAH, again announce it by making a video that requires us to see the dubious physique and hair coverage of one constrasted against the receding chin state and prolapsed cleavage of the other. It is the eyes to bleeding be....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 2, 2009 5:24 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Michelle: Just Plain Folks (with an entourage large enough to drop a charging rhino at fifty yards)

michelle1.jpg

"In my own life, in my own monomanical way, I have tried to take as much money and jobs and positions as I can possibly claw from this country that has given me so much, and is so willing to give me more," Michelle said. "See, that's why I left my dead-end job at a big law firm for a corrupt and high paying career in public service. But let me tell you, the plane is the best bit of gaming the government I've ever done. I can't believe you fools are actually paying for this stuff."

David Vance @ one of my favorites, JammieWearingFool brings us up to date on the woman who would be queen.

That moved me - did it move you? So, how has Michelle been getting on in her role as First Lady? Let's consider those on her staff, shall we?
To put it in context, Hillary Clinton had a staff of three, Laura Bush a staff of one. Long ago, Jacqui Kennedy had one. In these frugal recessionary times, how many has lovely Michelle? Michelle has a staff of...twenty two.

First Lady requires more than twenty attendants Here's what she pays them in this time when all Americans are being called on by the Obamas to sacrifice for the greater good. I note that this information comes to you courtesy of the Canada Free Press, rather than the press of the frothing Obamallatio addicts of America's "Free" Press:

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Aug 2, 2009 3:15 PM | Comments (16)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Coming Soon to a Civilization Near You!

danteinfernoposter.jpg
Dante's Inferno

Jim Carter, a stoker on a luxury liner, loses his job after he reveals that he has faked a broken arm, and he vows to those wealthy people looking down on him in the stoke hole and laughing that someday he will be where they are. After Jim fails to last as a target in blackface at a sideshow for baseball pitches in a carnival, Pop McWade, owner of the carnival show "Dante's Inferno," offers him a job cleaning up the place.



Posted by Vanderleun Aug 1, 2009 10:07 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
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