November 30, 2008
Now can we give WAR a chance?
The Pakistani military - subsidized with billions of dollars in arms thanks to the Bush administration - reportedly trained the terrorists jihadis responsible for this latest calculated massacre.
The targets: the Americans, the British and as may Hindus and Jews as they could kill.
...
Reports suggest that the planning for the terror attacks in Mumbai had begun almost a year ago in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. Azam has reportedly told the police that around 20 Pakistan nationals were trained in PoK to carry out the attacks. The training in PoK went on for almost five-and-half months, during which the terrorist were taught the use of sophisticated arms and ammunition. At the end of the five months training, all terrorists were given a months leave and were ordered to gather in Karachi after the break for training in boating, rowing and swimming by the Pakistan Navy.
They were then handed over some CDs and maps of the Taj and Oberoi hotels. The CDs and maps also had pictures of important rail stations like VT. At the end of this training a batch of 10 terrorists was set off for India via the Indian sea route.
President-Elect Obama. You promised.
November 29, 2008
Will nobody rid me of these troublesome leaks?
Matthew Parris comments on the arrest - by anti-terrorism police, no less - of the "distinctly herbivorous" Conservative Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green.
Nine - nine - counter-terrorism officers? Raids (for that is what we would call them in Russia) on the home and offices of a senior member of the Opposition? What a blunder. What an outrage. What a stupid, stupid, thing to do. The best argument for doubting that ministers had anything to do with the arrest of a mild-mannered and distinctly herbivorous Shadow Immigration Minister is that this is a gift to the Tories, and incredibly damaging to a governing party whose Prime Minister enjoys a reputation for bullying.
Sasha Dith meets Daagard & Morane: The Second Beat is Mine
November 28, 2008
A failure to communicate
Dutch Education Minister Ronald Plasterk has announced plans to ban face coverings for any women entering university grounds. Students, staff, faculty, family: Everybody.
Expect feminists, human right advocates and anti-war activists to protest the move. Why? Because, that's why.
The Haunted Mansion
Disneyland meets Counter-Strike.
And the original.
(Via Dave Does the Blog)
The verdict
Does the new/old Enterprise suck? Shatner speaks.
I cannot say I agree with him. The original design was of a piece. The new design is not.
Related horrors: Twelve upcoming/ill advised remakes/reboots/retreads of classic pictures (via Agent Bedhead). Logan's Run I can live with. Creature from the Black Lagoon I can live with.
Forbidden Planet? No. The film was perfect. A remake is an abomination.
Tangentially related: Sony is having fun with its Terminator promotion.
November 27, 2008
Not meant to be
No sooner do I learn of the existence of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot than I discover Dark Horse are not going to release the thing.
Zut! Almost as disappointing as when I figured out the Carnivale tarot does not exist. Will have to settle for the Conversations with Dead People ouija board.
Prepare for the worst, pray for the best
A concerned Flea-reader writes regarding the Survivalist Militia community. He, Fenris Badwulf, wrote the following.
What about funding? Is inadequate arts funding for Survivalist culture spending the root cause of the negative aspects of Survivalism? Do Survivalists feel unappreciated by the society at large.
I am concerned, a concerned citizen. I am outraged. Mayor Miller and his Toronto cronies should address spending initiatives for Survivalist cultural groups, let alone the inadequate number of programs for Survivalist senior citizens.
It is time that we, your money and my spending, take a stand against things we oppose.
Send me your money.
I care.
Your trustworthy ally and no questions asked trucking agent,
Fenris Badwulf
Excellent questions. Will Mayor Miller or his Toronto cronies respond? They will not.
Fenris Badwulf is a community organizer in Mitchieville.
Grace Jones: Williams' Blood
Twenty years on, Grace Jones has released a new album, "Hurricane". Still astonishing at sixty, btw. Interview here and here.
Related: A Grace Jones/Adam Ant Honda ad. Also, Grace Jones interviewed by Johnny Carson in 1985. It was a more civilized time.
Finally, the studio version.
November 26, 2008
Batman kicks Superman's ass into next week
Kryptonite gloves: Allow me to introduce you to them.
To elaborate on the point: Yes, Superman is faster and stronger and - with one notable exception - invulnerable. Batman, by contrast, has no superpowers whatsoever. Technically, he is not even a superhero. I get it. I get the point. In a fair fight, Superman wins.
So in what universe is Batman going to give Superman a fair fight? This is my point. Batman's superpower is being a pissed off white guy. I mean seriously pissed off. John McCain plus Die Hard to the power of Dirty Harry over 9000.
Batman is MY hero.
The philosophy of Batman
Supergenius, Grant Morrison is set to kill off the Batman. While I regret to point out (the blindingly obvious point) this "fate worse than death" cannot possibly be a permanent feature of the DC continuity, the news has already lead me to some interesting fan rumination.
I confess I had never thought of Bruce Wayne as a Thelemic Superman but I do like the sound of the idea.
Reminder: Middle class Batman.
Related: Batman would still kick Superman's ass into next week.
Also related: The aforementioned Grant Morrison appearance at Disinfocom 2000. Think the Flea but with a Scottish accent.
November 25, 2008
Silver lining
A thought to comfort me in the soup kitchen line: At least the towers of Xanadu shall stand empty.
Dubai officials remained optimistic at the annual meet but seemed to cave under world pressure as they revealed for the first time the level of debt the emirate has accumulated during one of the world's biggest building sprees.
Emaar Properties claims total assets of more than $350 billion and total debts of just $80 billion. The problem, of course, is what $350b worth of indoor ski slopes and palm leaf islands might fetch on today's property market...
November 24, 2008
Shiny
Firefly Ship Works, Ltd. are offering the first ever comprehensive map of the Verse. I am going to have to exercise restraint with this one. As the map is double-sided, the temptation is to purchase two copies for display purposes.
A terrifying lesson
Details emerge of Gurkha daring as they risked life and limb to recover the body of their fallen comrade, Rifleman Yubraj Rai of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles. I have already offered the opinion the Taliban have made a strategic error. Commenting at Rantburg, Anonymoose elaborates in detail.
A favorite classical technique of theirs is to sneak into an enemy camp, find two men sleeping together, and cut one of their throats. The next morning, the other man is the alarm clock to wake everyone else up.
In WWII, as few as half a dozen Ghurkhas caused a fresh Japanese infantry battalion to surrender without firing a shot. They snuck into their barracks at night, and painted a word on the sole of every Japanese soldier and officers' boot.
The preferred Gurkha method of silencing a sentry is to just use a large Kukri knife to split their head in half, vertically. If they are wearing a helmet, the Gurkha approaches laterally and cuts their head clean off.
Assuming, of course, the Gurkhas are not held in check by the most dangerous enemies of civilization: Lawyers and the press.
November 23, 2008
Commenting at the Flea
As long time Flea-readers will have inferred, for the sake of my blood pressure I make it as awkward as possible to leave comments. No spam and no idiots equals a serene blogging experience.
Unfortunately, it is now time to consider an alternative to TypePad. I am arriving via a different computer than usual this morning and, having been refused permission four times before I could post a comment to my own blog, I have to agree with reports the system has got wonky. Here is the unfortunate part: I have no clue how to get rid of TypePad and either install something else or default to MT's comment system (I am running version 3.2).
If someone could point me to on line instructions such as could be implemented by a five year old I would be most grateful.
Update: Halls of Macadamia reminds me why I make it difficult to comment.
November 22, 2008
This unit must die
Fatwa against yoga endangers leftist base code. Yoga is good. But Muslims say yoga is bad. Must not criticize Muslims. But Yoga is good...
Not that the left shares the intellectual integrity of the M5.
Related: Shatner and the Commodore Vic-20. Also, runnings and carryings on at the edges of empire.
More: My name is William Shatner and I am Canadian.
V.I. Day
The Instapundit links to news of V.I. Day. It is good news on one front of our eternal struggle against the enemies of Oceania but if we are ever going to really win this thing what we really need is Victory on the Internet Day.
A note on steampunk aesthetics
Gluing sprockets and gears to a mouse does not make it a steampunk mouse. Given the role of the Bauhaus in killing off Victorian embellishment, it is with no small irony I say that form must indeed follow function. Replace the scroll wheel on the mouse with a gear and we are talking steampunk.
Take Frank Buchwald's lamps, for example. These are the business.
This is your brain on Flea
This Typealyzer gadget should come in handy. I am not unhappy for the Flea to be classified as "INTP - The Thinkers"; not that the Flea holds with Apple, mind you. This insight via Will who links to the personality types at issue.
Yes, I am impatient with those people. They are also known as people who need to stop whining and read a book.
Free to be you and me
Yet another instance of anti-Muslim hate at the Toronto Star as Canadian citizen journalist/freedom feminist Khadija Abdul Qahaar who is Canadian and full of Canadianity is routinely described by her kafir name "Beverley Giesbrecht" (I mean those quotes sarcastically, btw). I am certain her Taliban hosts will do her the courtesy of referring to her by her true name. Inshallah. Etc. Etc.
November 21, 2008
The Unfinished Swan
The scariest thing I have ever seen.
Or heard.
(On the internet, at least.)
Seriously.
More interactivity: Just keep the volume down. The compression on the music track annoys the neighbours. Trust me on this one.
Nice guys finish third
The first annual Georgies have been announced. Not an epic win for the Flea but an entirely respectable finish nonetheless. My profound thanks to Blazing Cat Fur for facilitating this process and to Flea-readers everywhere for indulging my vote requests.
Good news: Paris Hilton has ditched Benji Madden.
Now my plans may proceed in earnest.
(via Agent Bedhead)
I have been Doing it Wrong: And here I have been wondering how to secure more shelving to address my book problem. Books are not the problem. Books are the solution.
Totally unrelated: Given HMS Trafalgar is involved in the Royal Navy's worst radiation spill I would have thought to have heard more about it. Enjoy your tritium, people of Devon.
The Chemical Brothers: Out Of Control
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
November 20, 2008
Vote Flea, please
For Favourite Guy Infidel Blogger. You have until 6pm EST... less than three hours to make your voice heard!
Vote Flea.
Live the dream.
In return: Y Chromosome decor (R2D2 litter bin is key), goth milk? (needs to milk moustache to be truly effective) and the OCD Diet (you'll want to try it).
Unrelated: Let's say you are the Cuban intelligence service and you spend thirty years putting your man in place. The problem is what he does to you once he gets there. You know what? If President Obama surprises me on every level then I will be delighted both for the United States and for the prospects of civilization. But mainly I will be happy to watch him throw the entire evil "anti-war" movement under the bus. I. Will. Laugh.
Vote Flea
For Favourite Guy Infidel Blogger. Get your dead relatives to vote too: Hope. Change. You know it is the right thing to do.
You may also know Ezra is going to take this in a walk - and quite right too - so think of me as a sympathy vote. In return: SMX-24 advanced concept submarine, Stone Age temple, Tom Cruise Nazi salute.
Lando Calrissian approves this message.
Red Dawn
An article from one month ago that deserves more attention than it got in the closing days of America's election cycle: A RAND study suggests US air power in the Pacific could be insufficient to prevent a Red Chinese invasion of the Republic of China by the year 2020. "Air Combat Past, Present and Future" details the PRC's anti-access arms and strategy.
Not happy reading but RTWT regardless. Also worth more attention than it most likely received, a comment left by Chris Taylor at a Flea post last week. I am reproducing it here in full.
The rest of it sucks, though.
Add to that the knowledge that the entire US nuclear triad is being allowed to rust out or retire with no planned replacements, and you have a recipe for a toothless strategic deterrent in 15-20 years.
These days, bombers take 20-30 years to deploy, from initial spec to technology demonstration to vendor competition to prototypes and crew training to IOC. The last nuclear-capable bomber the US designed was the B-2, and thanks to the Congress of the time, there are only 20 of them. All twenty aren't available for a strike at any given time (some will be in depot maintenance or other repair work), so the actual mission-capable strike force at any given time is more like 14 birds.
Then you have missiles, Minuteman IIIs which were initially designed and built 42 years ago. Sure, they fire off a random one every couple of years to make sure it still works as advertised, but a more modern launch platform would certainly offer some advantages. Like having scientists younger than retirement age familiar with designing and building the backbone of the nuclear deterrent.
Beyond that the Minuteman IIIs were already seriously threatened by late 70s Soviet missile technology (like the SS-18), which carry a heavy enough punch to probably destroy the Minutemen in their silos. So land-based deterrent is effectively a wash.
As far as the Ohio-class SSBNs go, there are only 14 of them, and as they age out they are being converted into SSGNs carrying conventional weapons. Their Trident D5 missiles have been treaty-reduced from 12 warheads down to 4 or 5.
Boats, incidentally, take even longer than planes to spec, design and build. The genesis of the Ohio class dates back to the Navy's ULMS study of 1971.
If the US had planned to maintain a credible strategic deterrent they should have been studying and building successor classes a decade ago. By the 2020 timeframe they will have a massive shortfall in USAF combat aircraft and capability, and no replacement classes for currently extant boats and missiles.
Basically we can see the end of Pax Americana within our lifetimes. American exceptionalism, like British and Roman before it, is predicated on moral, economic, and kinetic strength, and it's coming to an unavoidable end. And it is unavoidable -- hands up everyone who thinks Obama (or McCain for that matter) would ever have funded DoD to the level required to modernise both the nuclear and conventional forces.
The shade of Spengler has got nothing on my readership. We are over 9000 downers!
The advantages to having a naval hyperpower accrue not only to the economy of the hyperpower itself but to everyone else who does not need to directly support the cost of a navy and to even the smallest countries whose trade may proceed unmolested. Peace, too, is possible as potential rivals consider the overwhelming advantage of the hyperpower and decide not to compete.
A disadvantage to having a hyperpower is that everyone, including citizens of the hyperpower itself, quickly forgets the state of nature and comes to assume a tranquil sea is the default setting of the world. All the smaller countries piss and complain and the tax-paying elites of the hyperpower eventually decide a smaller navy will do the job of a bigger one. Potential rivals tool up and the world expresses shock and alarm at resurgent piracy, as if a world with half the warships it had fifteen years earlier would look the same.
Athens. England. This is only the rinse cycle. History is about to repeat itself.
November 19, 2008
Testing
This is apropos of nothing in particular. It has just been a while since I tried to post an embedded YouTube video. Once upon a time these were auto-playing in some browsers; a source of some irritation. I would quite like to posting links this way, however, so would be grateful for feedback on mileage.
In return: Tetris.
The weight of their armour
It was 230 years ago that Edward Gibbon published the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Niall Ferguson expands on the theme of contemporary decline in "Empire Falls", an article that is a good deal more optimistic than I am on the subject. Though I expect the shade of Oswald Spengler would call me a downer too.
This has not been a decline in the sense that Spengler envisaged: a kind of corrosive metropolitan ennui. Rather, it has been an unexpected but inexorable military decline. It has been a scarcely perceptible economic decline. It has been a subtle but unmistakable cultural decline. Above all, it has been a creeping demographic decline. In short, it has been a decline in precisely the sense that Gibbon understood the decline of Rome’s empire.
Correct. And RTWT. Though I believe Ferguson is hasty to reject metropolitan ennui. The public assertion of commonplace truths - commonplace aspirations - held by my grandparents would be enough to land me in front of a "human rights" tribunal these days. Like so many in the anti-Palin class, Ferguson chooses to signal pornography and NASCAR as signs of cultural decline. He would have done better to point to and Oprah and NPR. Read between the lines of Plutarch's lives and you will find Mark Antony enjoying the same pornography and NASCAR enjoyed by his men; these are, after all, the pursuits of men.
It is the comprehensive feminization of the West that if left unchecked is sure to get us all raped, killed or converted. The usual suspects object to this sort of statement of the blindingly obvious but in the end I believe it may be our women who save us from ourselves. At some point, they are going to demand we start acting like men. The only question is whether our role models will be drawn from the best of our history and traditions or from the very worst. The latter option will be tempting to many; nobody sane wants to face another jihad in fifty years and a hundred and again fifty years after that. Let alone one armed with whatever new weapons - or office architecture and transportation - we have contrived and they have subsequently stolen and turned against us.
Related evidence to the contrary: The end of our world is nigh. And the link is to Australia. Australia for the love of God.
Related evidence for the prosecution: Strange New Respect for Hillary Clinton (via Hot Air).
Above all else, the Devil cannot stand to be mocked
This is what I get for lack of sleep... I had not realized the Flea had been nominated in the "Favourite Guy Infidel Blogger" category. I find myself in truly excellent company.
Vote early! Vote often! I am shooting for third place here. Sorry Binks :-) ...
Also, have a look at the comments. The pro- and anti-LGF forces are going at it hammer and tongs.
Red on red Update: Khalid Bin al-Walid Mosque accuses the Toronto Star of "extremism". Popcorn futures are sure to leap at the prospect of the Toronto Star hauled before a human rights tribunal.
November 18, 2008
Barack Obama is an absolute, to the manor born, bargainer
Desperately hiding from his own subtitle, Shelby Steele grasps for an old fashioned expression for black men who get to live in the manor house. He is perhaps aware that in using it he would blow his cover.
Let us see if I am following his argument correctly:
i - Genial black entertainers who are popular among white people - such as Louis Armstrong - demonstrate white racism.
ii - Confrontational black entertainers who are popular among white people - such as Miles Davis - demonstrate white racism.
iii - Unspecified black entertainers who are not popular among white people demonstrate white racism.
Exit observation: Black academics who are popular among white people - such as Shelby Steele - because they call white people racist are an actual example of white racism.
Noisuf-X: Hit Me Hard
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance. For reals.
Fool me once
The Indians take a pass on the Nerpa.
"The sum of $650-780 million, which Rosoboronexport and the Amur Shipbuilding Plant had negotiated over a long period of time with the Indian Ministry of Defense, will now be found in Russia, either within the state weapons procurement program or somewhere else," the Rossiiskaya Gazeta quoted General of the Army Nikolai Makarov as saying.
Now the Indians decide whether to throw good money after bad on the Gorshkov.
Russia suddenly upped the price three years after it signed a $750 million contract for supplying the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov to India. However, the Navy Chief gave enough indication that India's patience with Russia was running thin.
November 17, 2008
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The new trailer. Just watching it I can smell popcorn.
Fighting for her rights
It took me a while to get round to watching the Wonder Woman dvd release; several people have told me the show is nowhere near as good as we remember from our childhoods.
Those people are wrong.
Pic related. Is evidence.
Exit observation: A Wonder Woman reboot seems to be in order. Upon reflection, casting the next Amazon is easy.
Be the change you want to see
Kathy Shaidle delivers a spanking.
Why do I always suspect they are really working for the other side - sort of the opposite of agents provocateur? Agents Collaborateur perhaps?
This issue never would have made it this far if it hadn’t been for “obnoxious/silly/whatever” people like Ezra Levant and other “right wing bloggers”. Who cares what those party hacks tell you they think? They’re probably just unprincipled nobodies who blow with the wind. If they really wanted to change the world they wouldn’t be wasting their lives as Conservative Party delegates. (see: “if you know so much about great careers, how come you’re just a guidance counsellor?”) Party politics is a scam run by con men and kept alive by suckers. The real fight is online and they’re just jealous because they are too sucky to risk their cocktail party invites to join us.
Tom Paine called King George an “ass”, and worse. Yeah, his tone REALLY hurt the American Revolution! I’m sure lots of boring, goody goody people thought so in those days. And who remembers them now? And aren’t you glad they were outnumbered?
(With apologies to at least one past conservative alternate of my acquaintance.)
November 16, 2008
YouTube Pro Tip
If you add "&fmt=18" to the end of the url you do not need to push the "watch in high quality" link.
Compare and contrast: Adora BatBrat making cat ears in and high quality. In the high quality version that cross nail polish just pops.
Don't ask me to explain the scatological humour. I am going with "German" on this one.
November 15, 2008
Emilie Autumn: Girls just wanna have fun
With a shout out to Agent Bedhead. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Silver screenage
A first look at the new look original Enterprise with extra styling nacelle action, James Bond's Lotus Esprit - the original Fleamobile - is for sale at auction, and Titus Pullo is potentially awe inspiring as the Punisher.
The nacelles I am fine with, leaving the geometry of the saucer section unchanged to reflect the new nacelles not so much. Pullo should kick ass - or rip out tongue - as the Punisher but the trailer is not doing it for me. The Lotus, by contrast, still rates an unreserved endorsement.
Peter Schiff was right
A bit dry for a Saturday morning but Peter Schiff's analysis is (analyses are) worth your time..
The bad news is that Schiff was right. Ben Stein, not so much
November 14, 2008
Assembler
Do not follow this link.
I am looking at you Damian Brooks. And you Agent C.
It is possible to complete the whole set; I just did. You have been warned (via AoSHQ).
Kaiserschmarrn
Does anyone know where I can find authentic Kaiserschmarrn in Toronto? After watching that Roland Kickinger interview, I have decided this is the breakfast/light lunch/dessert of heroes.
Indirectly related: Chevron over 9000 locked!
Pink Floyd: Welcome to The Machine
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
This is how it started
What do you call students who occupy a university by force and destroy an anti-Nazi exhibit?
Christoph Markschies told The Jerusalem Post that one of the protesters in the lobby of the university said "Damn Israel" when asked by another student to "stop" vandalizing the exhibit "Betrayed and Sold," about the plundering of Jewish businesses under the Nazis.
First Strike
Would you like to play a game?
Here is a thought: For the love of all that is holy let us not allow Iran to have these weapons. Another thought: Congratulations, America. You just passed the Footbal to Barack Obama. I was wrong about both party's nominees, wrong about party affiliation statistics and wrong about the common sense of the American people; basically, wrong about lots of things. Let's all pray I am wrong to be worried now.
Related: Iran now has a concealed launch site and solid fuel missiles capable of hitting Israel with little warning.
Also related: Fallout, when and how to protect yourself against it.
Exit question: At what point do the Jews of Israel decide their government is unwilling or unable to protect them? And will the people of Canada do what they did the last time the Jews needed refuge? Until recently, I would thought both questions to be literally inconceivable. Now that a casual anti-Semitism has become the norm on the left - and the left has the President it wants - it is time to prepare for the worst.
November 13, 2008
Sleeping in light
The Hubble Space Telescope captures the first image of a planet outside the solar system. Le Monde has a helpful diagram to point out the dot in question: the size of Jupiter, Fomalhaut b is twenty-five light years from Earth.
"There is plenty of empty space between Fomalhaut b and the star for other planets to happily reside in stable orbits.
"We'll probably have to wait for the James Webb Space Telescope to give us a clear view of the region closer to the star where a planet could host liquid water on the surface."
The James Webb Space Telescope infrared observatory will be on line by 2013 at the earliest...
Ab urbe condita MMDCCLXI
Google Earth has added a three dimensional simulation of ancient Rome to its interface. Based on the Plastico di Roma Antica, Ancient Rome 3D is a virtual replica of a physical model of more than 6700 buildings.
"It's an incredible opportunity to share the stunning greatness of ancient Rome, a perfect example of how the new technologies can be ideal allies of our history, archaeology and cultural identity," Mr Alemanno said.
Though as a perfect example of texture mapping, sadly, not so much. Still, these stills and video of Google Rome are impressive and I would love to see much more like it. I expect the detail will come in time.
Where is your god now?
Think of Jon Stewart fan, Sharilyn Johnson, as the canary in the coal mine for the mile wide/inch deep popularity of Barack Obama. Having travelled all the way from Toronto (ha) to attend an election night taping, she was turned away at the door due to all the VIPs seated ahead of her.
Priceless.
These men do not care about you, Sharilyn. To them you are nothing. They cannot make your dreams come true.
Imagine the cramped rage of the jihadis. They hack men's heads off but still the message cannot get through for all the fluff in the way.
Most of English would not want to be associated with you lot either
The term British has been banned by Caerphilly council as an "offensive" word.
They used to call this sort of thing sedition.
On point: Kathey Shaidle to the Luftwaffe, "Come back --- you missed some spots!"
Technology transfer and some Indian public relations
The UK lifts ban on nuclear exports to India, the Indian navy sends an armed helicopter with marine commandos to have a word with some pirates and the Russians consider ordering French aircraft carriers. In an ideal world, I would have linked those three ideas in a clever sentence using the navy, nuclear and India as the pertinent tropes. But it was not to be.
More on those carriers.
The linked piece suggests the sale is unlikely due to technology transfer issues with the Americans, though quite what those might be is not spelled out. I would have imagined the British would have a rather larger objection to make.
Related: Taylor & Co. offers a much more detailed account of the INS Tabar's encounter with pirates. I am also pleased to note HMS Cumberland has also been doing what the Royal Navy is supposed to do
November 12, 2008
Mark Steyn responds to John Miller
Yes, John Miller. The John Miller.
(via Kathy)
Crowleyana
Chemical Wedding director, Julian Doyle interviews the son of one time Aleister Crowley devotee, Gerald Yorke. His collection is much more impressive than mine. This one is not safe for work due to racy clips from the film and a severe cheeze factor.
A small but important point for John Yorke: Not a good idea to let the Scientologists know you are in possession of potentially damaging paperwork on LRH. In case anyone is not au fait with the Crowley/Hubbard link, his name was Jack Parsons.
Pic related. Is Marjorie Cameron.
Junkie XL: Beauty Never Fades
So wish this was my track. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
November 11, 2008
You just have to say "no, I won't" one more time than they can say "yes, you will"
We owe them a debt we cannot repay, only honour.
We have work to do.
Ivanova: Why do I get the ugly suspicion that you're volunteering me for this job?
Sheridan: I accept your offer!
Babylon 5, Lines of Communication
Existentially related: Tantor comments at Blackfive.
Stop wailing about what a disaster this is and start arming yourself for the fight to come. Read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers so that you know why the Founding Fathers organized the government the way it is. Arm yourself with arguments for the coming assault on the Bill of Rights. Obama will want to reduce the military, raise taxes, mandate volunteers, ban guns, muzzle talk radio, and super-size the government. These are happy fights which we will win.
While it is alarming to see ignorance in such great numbers and on the march, our ideas are better and will come to be accepted because they work and theirs don't. The coming year will be the intellectual equivalent of Rorke's Drift.
Lest we forget: Gas Shells Bombardment.
Bring history home
The family of Cdr Ted Simmons needs our help to return his medals from England and exhibit them at the CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum.
The Cardigans: Erase and Rewind
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The millstone of white guilt
Tom Adkins is feeling uppity. Now that white Americans have voted for a black President the Era of White Guilt is over. Now if only someone would mention to the 95% of black Americans who voted for a terrorist protégé that they should consider judging a man by the content of his character, not the colour of his skin.
Congressional Black Caucus? Irrelevant. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.)? Shut up. ACORN? Outlawed. Black Panthers? Go home and pet your kitty. Black separatists? Find another nation that offers better dreams. To those Eurosnots who forged careers hating America? I'm still waiting for the first black French president.
No more quotas. No more handouts. No more complaining that "the man" is keeping you down. "The man" is now black.
An open letter to President George W. Bush
Dear Mr. President,
Please pardon Conrad Black.
"In Canada, the received wisdom was so stultifying that conforming to it meant mental death. Conrad Black was one of those unusual people who decided early on that he was not going to be afraid and that he was going to live the truth."
- David Frum, quoted in Slate
"I wish there were more people like Conrad Black."
- Baroness Thatcher
"He is a terribly lively guy. He's most extraordinary."
- William F. Buckley, Jr
"It seems to me that what really gets up Canadian noses about Conrad Black is that he is rich (or was, at least, before legal fees drained him) and successful; he is also intelligent and outspoken. Elsewhere, these might be considered attributes and evoke admiration. In Canada they mostly evoke envy."
- Ian Hunter, professor emeritus, faculty of law, University of Western Ontario, National Post
"I wonder if Mr. Black knew how he tapped into that great wide streak of dissatisfaction that runs quiet and deep in many Canadians, the rising weariness with mediocrity and the hunger for excellence."
- Christie Blatchford, Globe and Mail
"Black invested in dozens of Canadian newspapers and magazines, he donated to Canadian causes, he represented Canada abroad and was famous as a Canadian proprietor of numerous international publications. He was the best friend that thousands of British, American and Canadian journalists ever had. And for this they have now turned on him. A biting of the hand that fed them, like some petulant and spoiled child laughing as a parent slips on the ice and is obviously hurt."
- Michael Coren, Toronto Sun
"…I am proud of my association with Hollinger, and I think that those who, throughout the world, hitched a ride on the Hollinger express should be proud as well."
- Martin Newland, The Independent
"Many of the charges are completely ridiculous. They include racketeering -- a charge that was intended to catch Al Capone."
- Andrew Roberts, historian, author Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership
"Conrad Black is innocent. No, I don't know Conrad Black, never met him. No, I have made no examination of the evidence against him. Nor do I need to in order to assert his innocence."
- Ian Hunter
"I'd be happy to appear as a witness for the defence."
- Mark Steyn, Maclean's
"The trial by attrition of Conrad Black has exposed the dark underbelly of the legal system, where the government can ruin a man, take his property, his means of livelihood and make him a social pariah -- all without the hassle of securing a conviction. An iconoclastic mentality has emerged in the legal system that is focused less on securing justice than on bringing down the high and mighty while pandering to the politics of envy."
- Alykhan Velshi, New English Review
Yours,
The Flea
(With a hat tip to the Parental Units of the Flea, from whence this very sensible notion. Quotes drawn from the Ad Hoc Committee for Conrad Black)
November 10, 2008
If Barack Obama is assassinated
Some leftist shit will dedicate a book to the assassin's memory. The next generation of progressives will think that is just fine.
Forgive me for not following their logic. I do not revel in misery and human sacrifice after the fashion of these peace loving, anti-war death cultists.
Sacrilege
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day, known to many of you as Armistice Day. By whatever name it is among the most sacred days of the day as we come together to remember and give thanks for a debt that can never be repaid, only honoured.
It is therefore news to inspire horror and contempt that the Canadian Human Rights Commission is to participate in the wreath laying ceremony tomorrow. By their every action and their every political commitment both stated and implicit, I cannot believe the CHRC comprehends, let alone honours, our glorious dead let alone the men and women serving with honour in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf and around the world.
Blazing Cat Fur has been following the story - with frequent updates and linked commentary - correctly describing the situation as an insult to our veterans. Once again I am forced to conclude everyone is either asleep at the PMO or they have no clue what a red flag the CHRC and its actions have come to be for Canadian "speechers" (a term the Canadian left intends as an insult, as difficult as this may be for American Flea-readers to believe). Ezra Levant suggests we ask Veterans Affairs Minister, Greg Thompson, what he has to say for himself. Good idea. Be as polite as you can. Or at least as polite as you can be regarding an institution whose staff - civil servants, no less - join neo-Nazi bulletin boards, post racist filth, justify their actions in the name of human rights then target Jews, Christians, the poor and the uneducated for their Star Chamber prosecutions.
Veterans everywhere are particularly encouraged to write. I believe our "Conservative" government should be publicly shamed for this travesty. This is an insult and an embarrassment to Canada.
Kathy Shaidle offers the following press release. Forward it far and wide.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) -- the unaccountable quasi-judicial agency that persecutes writers, publishers, pastors and even stand up comedians on the taxpayers' dime -- are trying to repair their lousy public image...
By insulting our honored dead.
Tomorrow, the CHRC plans to lay a wreath during the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa.
According to their press release, the wreath is intended to: "commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Funny, most ordinary Canadians see Remembrance Day as a chance to honor those who fought to preserve our freedoms -- not to commemorate a meaningless scrap of paper issued by a private club for dictators.
The CHRC's publicity stunt is especially galling considering how many Canadian citizens are now under life-time speech bans imposed by these 'human rights' tribunals, merely for exercising their God-given (not UN given) rights of free speech, assembly and worship.
Concerned Canadians should contact their MPs, as well as the Minister of Veteran's Affairs, to find out why this misnamed government agency -- which works to undermine human rights rather than uphold them -- is being allowed to desecrate the memory of Canadian veterans.
Update: Ezra Levant writing for the National Post: Canada's free speech enemies to lay Remembrance Day wreath.
The men whose grave the CHRC will desecrate would simply not have believed that, not seventy years after they died, the Canadian government was the chief source of Nazi propaganda in Canada.
This is not the future my mother warned me about
Terminator Salvation art director, Martin Laing on robot design and the teaser trailer for Terminator IV. Sweet. Though I fear for a repetition of the disappointment that was my trip to Zion in the third Matrix movie (still cannot believe anybody was impressed with those mechs) this film stars Christian Bale as John Connor so will kick ass QED.
There are people who are surprised/offended by this, apparently. I would have thought the name John Connor is a bit of a giveaway.
Also, did they clone Arnold? Roland Kickinger is almost scarily perfect casting. That last link goes to an interview which - aside from a certain unavoidable hilarity factor - is inspirational. Much as Arnold before him, Kickanger turned up in California with nothing and proceeded to conquer Hollywood from there. "There is always a way," he says. Indeed. But unlike so much of Obama's America, Kickanger's way did not involve making himself a burden on the public purse.
SS-PA
An important message for my American cousins, particularly to conservatives who - generally speaking - think of themselves as law abiding citizens.
The police are not always your friends.
The important lesson to take away from the linked video is not that freedom of speech will be curtailed in Obama's America (though it most certainly will be) but that it is not the job of the police to protect your civil liberties. It is the job of the police first and foremost to maintain public order; in this case by forestalling a riot and/or a lynching.
This is on balance a far more disturbing situation than at first meets the eye. The police do not represent a danger to liberty because a man is arrested for wearing a McCain/Palin T-shirt, the police represent a danger because a man is arrested for incitement to riot. Watch the video and consider what possible course of action those officers could have taken when confronted with a scene straight out of an H. Rider Haggard nightmare. Short of calling in the National Guard and letting the city burn (both viable options if you ask me but I am not police) the only sane action is the one they took.
The problem, therefore, is twofold. First, if all Obama's stormtroopers need to do to crush dissent is threaten civil disorder then they shall do so again and again. That way lies Weimar Germany. Second, the police really do have to maintain order and to follow the orders they are given. This is the dilemma faced by police forces in any conquered country; abandon your post and defer to the forces of anarchy or keep at your job and become de facto agents of the occupying power. Given the former course presents dangers to their livelihoods, their families and their dispositions, most police will - however reluctantly - choose the second course and enable, however reluctantly, the occupation.
An excellent primer for the coming years is Len Deighton's SS-GB. In this novel it is November 1941 and in Deighton's alternate history Britain has fallen to the enemy. In the real world, it is all too easy to imagine Lord Halifax or the like reaching an accommodation with the Nazis and consequently to imagine Britain's defeat from within, this especially in light of November 2008 (as Osama bin Laden argued, the jihadis could only wound America, only the American left could defeat America).
Churchill anticipated the problem presented by the police in the event of a German occupation and prepared terrible measures for this terrible contingency. In the event of a German occupation, Home Guard commanders who found themselves behind the lines were to open sealed orders. At the top of the list: shoot dead the local chief of police. It had to be done. The police knew too much about the locals and had to be prevented - at any cost - from assisting the Germans.
By the grace of God it never came to that. By the grace of God it never will.
The beclowning of John Miller
A little inside baseball from the freedom of speech trenches (mixing metaphors furiously here). John Miller, writer/consultant/definition-challenged and (inevitably) a professor of journalism at Ryerson University, has a go at Ezra Levant not only for Ezra's version of the Joseph Howe debate but for refusing to post Miller's version at Ezra's blog (the full story at Steynian, Issue 281... scroll down a bit).
Sound familiar? I am going to say this slowly and in words even a five year old journalism professor can follow: Your freedom of speech does not include the right to force Ezra Levant to publish your words. Your freedom of speech means you can publish your words at your own expense at your own "blogsite".*
Where they will go unread. Which is the point. People like this want to appropriate the audience of better writers (and better men) because the mindspace for their mewling drivel is already dominated by the leftstream media and a little de facto internet hijacking - complete with self-linking at Steynian, Issue 278 - is the only advertising they can afford. Miller's complaint reminds me of your garden variety comment troll with the exception that 99% of those have the common sense to hide their names.
I am also reminded of the Muslim law students who argued - on the taxpayer's dime - that their freedom of speech included the freedom to hijack Maclean's cover page and use it as a flying bomb aimed at our most ancient freedom in the name of the very freedom they sought to destroy. Any guesses which side Miller took on that "human right"? Honestly, I do not know (largely because I do not care enough to check). But let's face facts, I am pretty sure I do.
* Whatever the hell a "blogsite" is supposed to be, I assume he means "blog", a contraction of web log. Blogsite, my ass. And this guy is paid for his expert opinion. If he shows up here I will comment ban him on principle.
Update: Deborah Gyapong explains to the journalism prof how to use a search engine. Google it! Again, don't care enough to check, but I am betting this guy has tenure.
Perhaps, being a Chicago crowd, they knew some of the things that 52.5 per cent of America prefers not to know
What if they held a revolution and (a big) nobody came? Peter HItchens comments on the nothing that is Barack Obama.
I am not making this up. No wonder that awful old hack Jesse Jackson sobbed as he watched. How he must wish he, too, could get away with this sort of stuff.
And it was interesting how the President-elect failed to lift his admiring audience by repeated – but rather hesitant – invocations of the brainless slogan he was forced by his minders to adopt against his will – ‘Yes, we can’. They were supposed to thunder ‘Yes, we can!’ back at him, but they just wouldn’t join in. No wonder. Yes we can what exactly?
Exactly.
One ray of light to consider: This infiltrator - this Manchurian Candidate - will not be much use to his Cuban masters or their Weather Underground proxies. There is a roster of Chicago mindworms and the rest of America's professional parasite caste ahead of them in line. I suspect these American cultural Marxists will treat the Stalinist variety (in the form of the Dirección General De Inteligencia) as a speedbump on the way to Starbucks. And I doubt Bill Ayers will allow the revolution to overturn his tenured existence.
As to the man himself, to call him an empty suit is an insult to empty suits. At this point it is impossible to know what he will do beyond the certainty we will hear the refrain, "I am not the Obama I thought I knew." But there is worse yet than him. In the annals of spinelessness some names will be eternal and at their forefront will be the names of onservatives who folded before this nothing - and that goes double for the ones stumbling over their own virtue to insist we respect him in his stolen office. One advantage of my Canadian citizenship is I do not have to pretend this man is my President.
Hillary... attack!
Update: Protein Wisdom on Barack Obama and onservartive self-righteous civility.
There is nothing at all noble about praising a man and a party who reviles you simply because in doing so you appear noble. Jews have tried that. And it’s often ended with skeletons and ash, or the twisted wreckage of a bus in Tel Aviv.
November 09, 2008
It seems that the initial reports that one of our submarines was missing were not completely accurate
More than twenty people have reportedly died aboard a Russian nuclear submarine due to the accidental activation of a fire extinguishing system. While the vessel was reportedly undergoing sea trials in the Pacific, details regarding its name and class have yet to be released.
My question: Was it the Nerpa, set to be the INS Chakra come January 2009? If so, this is a tragedy with strategic implications. The following was published last Saturday: how many nuclear submarines does the Russian fleet have undergoing sea trials out of Vladivostok this week?
The Nerpa was launched at the Komsomolsk on-Amur shipyard in June this year after which she began harbour trials. Earlier this week, the shipyard announced that the submarine had been shifted out of the shipyard to a maintenance facility in the Primorye territory near Vladivostok for trials in the Sea of Japan.
The 12,000 tonne submarine, said to be the quietest and deadliest of Russia's attack submarines, has a crew of 100 personnel is currently being operated by the Russian Navy.
India is set to launch three of its own indigenously built nuclear powered SSBNs. Even if their ostensibly indigenous reactor design is inspired by the Russians, the Indians might consider training with the United States Navy instead.
Better yet, it seems to me some work accidents aboard the PLAN's nuclear fleet are in order. I can always stock up on jelly beans.
Update November 9: It is the Nerpa. The deaths appear to have been caused by the activation of the ship's freon gas fire extinguishing system.
Related: Major Russian submarine accidents since 1991. Also, a BBC graphic illustrating the submarine accident.
November 08, 2008
The Third Seal
A comment at Agent Bedhead at the news Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow may leave London and return to the United States.
Shiver me timbers
Every few months a thoughtful Flea-readers sends me a link to Kylie's Agent Provocateur mechanical bull ad. I appreciate the gesture every time. Now I am delighted to pass on the news Helena Christensen is following in Kylie's... let us say... footsteps with the new Agent Provocateur Pirates campaign.
That last link? Choose your own adventure. And so not safe for work.
Even less safe for work? Agent Provocateur's Season of the Witch ad and Witches lingerie.
PG-13 but arguably far hotter: Heidi Klum and her body double interpret Risky Business.
Crystal Castles: Crimewave
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
November 07, 2008
Correct me if I am wrong here
But if soon to be President Obama institutes his mandatory Obama Jugend are all those Daily Show viewers going to be rethinking their vote?
Hey, I was wrong about the polls, wrong about turn out and wrong about Democrat party affiliation (a seven point advantage, who knew?) and I could be wrong about this too. They do say Freedom is Slavery.
As to Obama's Canadian fans in the labour movement repeat after me: George Bush was my best friend. Cross your fingers Obama was lying about this too. Perhaps he will save you until last.
Update: Shame the United States does not have an independent news media. I expect quite a few students might have been interested to learn what Senator Obama had planned for them before the Office of the President Elect changed its mind. Though I am heartened to see the spotlight provided by a few blogs is sufficient to send the Obamination scurrying for cover I expect there are a few key bloggers who should expect some Chicago rules headed their way.
What part of Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn don't you understand?
This Cthulhu shop is the best thing I have seen all week. Though, in fairness to this diagnosis* of my foaming at the mouth, if O Ba Ma was a mythos entity I might have come to a different conclusion. A sane man would hope to gain favour and be eaten first.
But by all means leftists, carry on your secular attempt to undermine civilization. If you grow beards your new masters may not think you important enough to bother with.
* Think hard before clicking. The author of the linked piece brags that if he had come across John McCain downed in Vietnam he would have shot him on the spot. It is almost as if he is not anti-war but on the other side... Remember: It is not hate speech if the left does it.
Try to be Ugly
The combination of these things combined with a life spent outside had their effect on Ugly. To start with, he had only one eye, and where the other should have been was a gaping hole. He was also missing his ear on the same side, his left foot has appeared to have been badly broken at one time, and had healed at an unnatural angle, making him look like he was always turning the corner. His tail has long since been lost, leaving only the smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twitch.
Ugly would have been a dark gray tabby striped/type, except for the sores covering his head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs. Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction. ´That’s one UGLY cat!!´
All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in their homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave.
Ugly always had the same reaction. If you turned on the hose on him, he would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit. If you threw things at him, he would curl his lanky body around feet in forgiveness. Whenever he spied children, he would come running meowing frantically and bump his head against their hands, begging for their love. If you ever picked him up he would immediately begin suckling your shirt, earrings, whatever he could find.
One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbor’s huskies. They did not respond kindly and Ugly was badly mauled. From my apartment I could hear his screams, and I tried to rush to his aid. By the time I got to where he was laying, it was apparent Ugly´s sad life was almost at an end.
Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly out of shape, a gaping tear in the white strip of fur that ran down his front. As I picked him up and tried to carry him home I could hear him wheezing and gasping, and could feel him struggling. I must be hurting him terribly I thought.
Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear. Ugly, in so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear. I pulled him closer to me, and he bumped the palm of my hand with his head, then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the distinct sound of purring. Even in the greatest pain, that ugly battled-scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps some compassion.
At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful, loving creature I had ever seen. Never once did he try to bite or scratch me, or even try to get away from me, or struggle in any way. Ugly just looked up at me completely trusting in me to relieve his pain.
Ugly died in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed little stray could so alter my opinion about what it means to have true pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly.
Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, beautiful, but for me, I will always try to be Ugly.
Taliban make strategic error
The first Gurkha has been killed in Afghanistan. One almost feels sorry for the Taliban at what they are going to face now.
Rifleman Rai, from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, was killed in the Musa Qala area of Helmand province.
EnCana pipeline targeted again
Meanwhile, in the rest of existence: Someone is targeting Canadian oil pipelines. EnCana's infrastructure in northeastern British Columbia has been hit three times... in October. No matter which group of the usual suspects, it seems likely they are bringing war under a green banner.
British Columbia Energy Minister, Richard Neufeld had some insensitive (and probably racist) things to say by way of reply.
"We just have to catch the nut case that's out there thinking they're probably making a statement by doing these kind of things," said Neufeld moments before attending a meeting of the B.C. cabinet in Victoria. "That's what we have to do."
He said there are differences of opinion about the oil and gas industry in B.C. but any person who believes that blowing up pipelines will build support is not thinking properly.
"Only a crazy person can go out there and think that by blowing up something that they are getting their message across. Only somebody that's actually deranged does that kind of thing, because they put everybody's lives at risk," said Neufeld, who himself hails from the area.
He is mistaken, of course. If government, media and academic establishments spend years making apologies for a religion of peace engaged in mass mayhem - and send people to a human rights commission for reporting the news of said mayhem - sooner or later other people are going to get the idea their message of caring can best be conveyed in the same medium. I will not be surprised at the first environmentalist protest video where some unlucky soul is beheaded in the name of Gaia.
Or the BC government can write off the bombings as native protest/hijinx/cri de coeur. In which case nothing to see here. Move along.
November 06, 2008
Preventing the suicide of civilization
Melanie Phillips speaks. Are you listening, Mr. Harper? I have voted Liberal before and I will do it again if it means I will at least know who to throw the rocks at. I would much prefer a principled conservative opposition to a Conservative party in power on the strength of its own nullity.
The British Conservatives think that, to regain power, they have to show they have broken with cultural conservatism and go instead with the way society has changed — gay rights, green politics, anti-racism. What they have failed to grasp is that such change has turned values such as right and wrong, good and bad on their heads and has produced a sentimentalised, cruel, oppressive and perverse society — one where burglars go scot-free but householders are prosecuted for putting the wrong kind of garbage in the trash can, and where people are too frightened to protest at the erosion of British, Christian, or Western values because of the opprobrium that will follow.
The Conservatives don’t realize that by embracing such “change” they are endorsing a kind of enslavement. They don’t realize that the first duty of a conservative is to conserve that which is precious and protect it against attack. The result is that millions feel betrayed and abandoned by the absence of conservatism, and yet more still think the Conservative party is just a bunch of opportunists who don’t have any principles. Why vote for the progressive wannabes, after all, when you can have the real thing?
We don't have to understand them. We just have to stop them.
Spooks (MI5) season 7 is off to an extraordinarily promising start. Three episodes in and nothing blamed on the CIA, Mossad or global warmening. The villians? Russian and Pakistani intelligence services and - wait for it - Muslim suicide bombers. Somewhere I hear the quiet sound of a worm turning.
Pic related. Is Ros Myers (Hermione Norris), the hardest character on television.
Update: Bit of a cheat updating before posting but have now seen S07E04 and things have taken a turn for the silly. Apparently, al Qaeda's aims are "justice for Palestine" an end to the corrupt government of Saudi Arabia and America out of the Middle East; the same aims as the Guardian editorial board, in other words. Actually scratch that, this is BBC One. I meant the Independent's editorial board.
Also, it turns out al Qaeda field operatives are second rate Bond villains in off Bond Street tailoring. Even so, Spook's writers managed not to blame the Americans and that is still a great leap forward for UK state television.
Goths
These are proper Goths. Most kids these days are doing it wrong (and I can't be asked explaining it to them, if I'm honest).
Fischerspooner: All we are
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Seething
Quite a bit more to say about this farce of an election and the prospect of President Nothing. My current dominant emotional state: Generalized contempt. More as my blood returns to a semi-liquid liquid state. I think it is a plasma just now so it could take some time.
Related: The Invisible Man.
I had been thinking something along these lines. If Bill Ayers is not the dimwit I suspect him to be, he is being very careful to stay in the public eye. If the incoming President is the sociopath I suspect him to be, there are all sorts of former friends and mentors about to find themselves surplus to requirements. It is going to get sticky for everybody but inevitably it is the old guard revolutionaries who are first against the wall. Which is what we call a silver lining.
Uplifting: The Infidel Blogger Awards, now accepting nominations.
Also, Melanie Phillips.
The reaction of conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic to this undoubted change – not just in the US but in Britain too – shows the intellectual disarray caused by these profound developments. They say politicians must stop trying to hold the cultural line and go instead with the flow of change. In Britain, the Tory party has adopted this strategy. Now there are Republicans saying the same thing.
Which is, of course, doing it wrong. The Provisional VRWC needs to purge the onservatives, identify core objectives and figure out how to start a long march of our own. Those institutions are not going to retake themselves.
November 05, 2008
A triumph for the mobility
No Angst Zone makes a rather obvious point that rather desperately needs making. This is not an historic day for black Americans; this is an historic day for transnational Americans. Though most of black America has yet to notice, it will.
The day we elect a person who grew up in a small town in Mississippi (or Alabama, or Louisiana, or Georgia), who attended a small state college, and who can trace their lineage back to a sharecropper and, before that, a slave, THAT will be a historic day for America.
November 04, 2008
These women literally risked their lives to vote
LauraW: "You gonna let some raindrops/ thugs/ eeyorism get you down?"
BTW, the purple finger thing might have done wonders for securing the integrity of the vote in the States too. Just saying.
Related: Let us take a few minutes to look at Sarah Palin. I mean listen to Sarah Palin.
The short term memory checker
A diversion should the pressure gets to be too much today. I left it at Level 5 but expect I will return to the problem later.
Actually existing statistics
Consider the opinion polls. Now consider what the candidates are doing. This from a long piece by Sean Malstrom; worth it both for his analysis and an enormously useful phrase, "Broken Glass Conservatives" (via AoSHQ).
Correct. And blindingly obvious, btw. As for what small towns are doing in New Hampshire: Don't be a dumb ass. This is an election, not Groundhog's Day. What are you, five?
It belatedly occurs to me I should reiterate my guess - a guess being a prediction for people who have actually worked with statistics and consequently do not trust them - regarding the outcome of today's race. Provided I am correct about Pennsylvania, and I think I am, John McCain will be the next President of the United States. I continue to believe the result will be close in both the Electoral College and the popular vote however I do believe there is a possibility of a landslide for McCain.
For people who have not been paying attention, consider the following lest ye think I have drunk ye Kool-Aid: 80% refuse to respond rates make the polls garbage as do their obvious, crippling bias and consequent ludicrous over-sampling of Democrats. Beyond that, fully a third of Obama's core constituents are either convicted felons who cannot vote (in given states), hung over from last night's beer bash or so convinced of an Obama victory/Diebold vote rigging they either cannot or will not vote.
My assessment of McCain's choice of VP candidate stands: She speaks to the Republican base (voter turn out is everything today), the PUMAs (again), and blue collar Reagan Democrats everywhere it matters in mid-West and mid-Atlantic battlegrounds. Do not let Beltway snobbery - or its jumped up, short bus Canadian onservative equivalent - fool you into thinking NASCAR voters agree she is a drag on the ticket. She is not. She remains a sign of McCain's tactical brilliance.
As to his strategy, taking his fight to Ohio and Pennsylvania was exactly right. Obama has raised and squandered $600m on his campaign - much of it criminally via a wide open on line VISA interface - while on the ground in the battlegrounds the RNC has been out-spending the Democrats by millions a day. This can leave a disconcerting, even depressing, impression of Obama media dominance everywhere else, especially given the Pravda-like behaviour of the leftstream (formerly mainstream) media.
Get ready for charges of election fraud as the left sees the difference between their fantasy polls, including the fantasy leaked exit polling to come this afternoon, and the only poll that counts. They have already threatened/promised riots if Hope and Change fail. Which reminds me I need to stock up on popcorn.
Watch the skies!
Update: Forgot to mention. I believe the only possibility of an Obama victory lies in mass voter fraud and a larger than usual turn out of out-of-state zombie voters. Nobody as motivated as a dead Democrat who can vote in three districts.
Update: Also from the linked piece. Remember: There is a reason Obama wants to overturn the right to a secret ballot in union voting.
Seriously, this is a gold mine.
Update: The AOL Straw Poll: McCain 63%, Obama 37%.
November 03, 2008
Don't Stop The Music
I recognize an intemperate tenor to my remarks as we approach America's moment of decision. Let us take a moment to appreciate Rihanna. No culture that would put a bin-bag over her head can be allowed to advance one more inch. Not on the battlefield. And not, for the love of God, into the White House. Let no one tell you defending this woman's honour makes you a racist. It is apologists for the rape cult who are racist.
Don't stop the music. This is Why We Fight.
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Related: The Umbrella variations.
A good start
HillBuzz outline their plans in the event sanity prevails tomorrow. A PUMA lead Congress sounds fine to me; this is a good start and a genuine platform for reform.
Simply put, here’s what we intend to do:
(1) Supporting Senator Hillary Clinton as she continues to work hard for the people of New York to ensure America becomes energy independent, Americans have good, permanent, non-outsourceable 21st Century jobs, and affordable healthcare is available for everyone in this nation.
(2) Working with President McCain and the Republican party to find areas where Democrats and Republicans can put aside partisanship and roll up our sleeves to tackle the serious challenges ALL Americans face today. The first true, sustained, ongoing bipartisan initiative EVER — led from the White House by a true reformer, and guided in Congress by Senator Clinton.
(3) Permanently removing Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Bill Richardson, Claire McCaskill, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted and Caroline Kennedy, John Kerry, Deval Patrick, Bob Casey, Rahm Emmanuel, Dick Durbin, Rod Blagojevich, John Edwards, and Kathleen Sebelius (amongst others) from positions of influence in the Democratic Party. These people pushed Obama on a country that did not want him - and their terrible judgment should have a consequence. Vote out ones we can in 2010 and beyond - the unelected in the above need to be publicly shamed and called out for what they did to create “Dear Leader” in the first place.
(4) Reform the Democrats’ nominating process. Eliminate caucuses. Setup regional primaries that alternate which geographic regions vote first. End the practice of allowing Iowa and New Hampshire to always kick things off.
(5) Shut ACORN down permanently. Ensure fair, uncompromised elections going forward.
(6) Hold the mainstream media accountable for the biased reporting of this race, the sexism and misogyny it leveled against Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, and the blatant lies pollsters told — all to benefit Obama. In particular, we would love to see MSNBC driven out of existence - since it epitomized the sycophantic cheerleading of “Dear Leader” in this race. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann should be fired.
(7) Put Eeyores into some kind of treatment program — so they no longer walk under rain clouds and bring people around them down all the time. We all have a choice of which path to take in life: the positive or the negative. Why be down in the dumps all the time — and bring other people down around you? No more Eeyores ever again, please.
Please connect the dots
Nothing is ever as advertised. Bill Clinton was both more and less than Democrats - and many Republicans - thought he would be. The same was true for Al Gore. The same has been true for George W. Bush. The same would even have been true for Hillary Clinton had she been the nominee (as difficult as may be for my partisan disposition to admit).
The same is true for Barack Obama. Give the man the presidency and give it a year - two on the outside - and the mans more ardent supporters are going to be his most ardent critics, all the more so as for so many of them this is the first time in their lives they have been inspired to vote.
This is still politics and in politics disappointment is not a bug, it's a feature.
There are no grassroots revolutions
KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov claims there was a process of demoralization and destabilization of US society through the use of the "active measures" by Soviet intelligence.
I am not certain which is more disconcerting: The idea that what he says may be true or the cynicism it takes to imagine all those grassroots revolutionaries did not aspire to something better no matter what the KGB may have intended. There are revolutions of the heart the secret police could never apprehend.
Sermo datur cunctis; animi sapientia paucis
Local authorities have decided slow-witted foreigners, no hopers and the lowest common denominator shall henceforth rule the English - and Roman - language.
Its list of more verbose alternatives, includes "for this special purpose", in place of ad hoc and "existing condition" or "state of things", instead of status quo.
In instructions to staff, the council said: "Not everyone knows Latin. Many readers do not have English as their first language so using Latin can be particularly difficult."
The average eleven year old Harry Potter reader can do better than this. It is our fault for allowing ourselves to be governed by half-wits instead of placing them in the stocks where they belong.
Handy: This Latin motto generator.
The War of the Flea
Preliminary reading on guerilla warfare and counter-insurgency lead me to a Time magazine article published July 31, 1972 in the wake of an IRA ceasefire in Belfast. Citing Robert Taber in passing, one observation from "The War of the Flea" struck me as particularly surreal and absurd. Such was life in an urban war zone before cable television, before the internet and in the day when news often travelled at the speed of the paper on which it was printed.
November 02, 2008
Manifesto destiny
Pop quiz... which of the following was said by a revolutionary communist calling for the overthrow of American democracy and which was said by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn in 1976?
a) "With 6 percent of the world population, the US consumes over one third of the world's energy resources. The corporate myth of limitless consumption is based on control of Third World resources. The ruling class encourages a wasteful and reckless dependence on petrochemical products: high horse-power and excessively heavy cars, plastics and synthetics and nitrogen fertilizers. The failure to develop good sources of energy (such as fusion or solar energy) is not based on priorities for a better life, but on profit."
b) "We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we're living in the desert or we're living in the tundra, and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world's energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we'll be fine."
This reference to America's population versus its energy resources has appeared at least twice during Obama's campaign for President; in a speech in Roseberg, Oregon (quoted above) and in his his energy speech in Lansing, Michigan. Senator Barack Obama is not only a long time associate of domestic terrorists. He is cribbing his stump speeches from their manifesto. I can only assume from Ayers and Dohrn's personal copy - how many were ever printed - perhaps from a book shelf in the same living room where they launched Obama's political career. This is not just a leftist talking point, it is evidence of pre-calculation.
Bill Ayers is more than Obama's ghost writer; he is Obama's speech writer.
The preceding Weather Underground quote is from Page 19 of "Prairie Fire complete" [page 31 of the 4.8Mb .pdf file], a copy of which may be found at Little Green Footballs. Please scroll two posts down here at the Flea for more from Prairie Fire, the 1976 Weather Underground manifesto.
Update: Zombietime reviews specific parallels between Obama's rhetoric and Osawtomie, a newspaper published by the Weather Underground in 1975. The similarity between Obama's campaign logo - the would be seal of the President of the United States - and the Weather Underground logo is startling.
God bless Hillary Clinton
She would have made a great President. Why? Not because I agree with everything she advocates but because I have no doubt she understands the existential threat we face and if push came to shove she would push the button. That is ALL I care about.*
But that is not why I sing her praises tonight. If civilization is granted a brief reprieve this week it will be with the help of her supporters. A mighty army of practical women, union workers and Reagan Democrats - patriots, in other worlds - joining the shield wall against the armies of the Tribulation.
The words of RadicalWhig, a Republican man commenting at the indispensable Hillbuzz.
I’ll definitely vote McPalin in the general, but I want you PUMAs to know that I’ll do whatever I can to reward you for your selfless efforts today.
If they ever build a Hall of American Liberty, there should be a statue of the unknown PUMA who gave so much to keep her country free. God bless you!
I am not even an American but Amen to that. Also from HillBuzz, a flyer distributed in Pennsylvania (pictured above).
Related: Notes from a battleground state. Pennsylvania may save the Republic. Take heart. Do not yield.
Better yet... a caller to David Jeffers and what the real polls might be saying. Slow loading but so worth it. McCain ahead in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan and so close in California (via Atlas Shrugs).
* Unlike Christopher Hitchens, who would have opposed her and supported any hypothetical squish Republican nominee provided she was not also a woman or, heaven forbid, believed in God.
Manchurian Candidate
According to an FBI report obtained by the New York Times, Bill Ayers was aided by Cuban intelligence services in the 1970s. Then he went about his evil work in earnest.
The 400-page report, a copy of which was obtained by the New York Times, revealed that Cuban intelligence officers in the General Directorate of Intelligence (known by its initials in Spanish as the DGI, Cuba’s equivalent of the CIA) set up the Venceremos Brigades in which WUO members participated.
“The ultimate objective of the DGI’s participation in the setting up of the Venceremos Brigades was “the recruitment of individuals who are politically oriented and who someday may obtain a position, elective or appointive, somewhere in the U.S. Government, which would provide the Cuban Government with access to political, economic and military intelligence.”
Update: Little Green Footballs hosts the complete Prairie Fire, “Billy” Ayers’ and Bernardine Dohrn’s 1974 communist declaration of war against the United States. The manifesto is dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan, Arab national socialist terrorist and murderer of Democrat martyr, Robert F. Kennedy. I expect Ayers and his Nazi saluting doxy still have a copy on a shelf in their living room.
Not that these words will mean a thing to "progressives" or their media allies so close to the wire. Not that progressives could have been held to account for these words under any circumstances. As Kathy Shaidle points out regarding close analyses of the Koran, these people cannot read so there is no point is searching for points of inconsistency or gotcha statements in their holy texts.* But Prairie Fire is critical reading nonetheless for those of you in the awake community who can read but who are still in the dark about Obamunism. The man is a clear and present danger to the Republic. In a sane age, Prairie Fire would be the basis for sedition trials.
* I will do so regardless. The following citations are from the 4.8Mb "Prairie Fire complete" file.
• Not-numbered (page 2 of the pdf): Community organizers get copies at a special rate!
• Page 12 (of the document, pdf 24): "Cynicism" identified as a counter-revolutionary. Thanks, Michelle Obama, but I am keeping my cynicism and my extreme individualism along with it.
• Page 13 (pdf 25): American exceptionalism and reformism identified as anti-revolutionary. Keep those flag pins off your lapels...
• Page 18 (pdf 30): It's all about oil!
• Page 19 (pdf 31): Pop quiz... which of the following was said by a revolutionary communist calling for the overthrow of American democracy and which was said by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn in 1976?
a) "With 6 percent of the world population, the US consumes over one third of the world's energy resources. The corporate myth of limitless consumption is based on control of Third World resources. The ruling class encourages a wasteful and reckless dependence on petrochemical products: high horse-power and excessively heavy cars, plastics and synthetics and nitrogen fertilizers. The failure to develop good sources of energy (such as fusion or solar energy) is not based on priorities for a better life, but on profit."
b) "We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we're living in the desert or we're living in the tundra, and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world's energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we'll be fine."
• Page 35 (pdf 47): Celebration of "military insubordination, desertion, sabotage, and fragging". Obama has left that those sentiments to his followers (so far).
• Page 110 and on (pdf 120...): After an interminable stretch of leftist cant - and the usual anti-Semitism in anti-Zionist drag - we are told that Rockefeller billions are bad. Remember: George Soros billions are good.
• Page 139 (pdf 149): I finally learn what a community organizer does. "We need organization. Activists are searching for direction - some common ideas, strategy, and practice to unite around. It is frustrating and crippling to individual revolutionaries and groups to have no unified impact on history as it is being made. We all feel the need to work as part of a whole, larger than ourselves, to see our individual contributions add up to something meaningful. Organization unites, gives direction and breadth to particular political work. Activists and militants want to build something bigger, where activity leads to shared results, where masses of people can organize their strength. Anti-imperialist organization is what is needed."
• Page 140 (150 pdf): Continued. "Organize poor and working people. Go to the neighborhoods, the schools, the social institutions, the work places. Agitate. Create struggle. Link up the issues that describe the system. Tell the truth. We believe that radical teachers should work in schools in working class neighborhoods, in community or junior colleges. Radicalize other teachers, organize the parents, teach and encourage your students. Health workers can choose hospitals and clinics in poor communities. Cultural activists, street players, artists, writers should propagandize and relate to poor and working people. Community-controlled and counter-institutions should be made into insurgent bases. Organize among youth. Organize among women. Communists should play a big role in these movements, these popular upheavals which spawned us. This is our strength. Revolutionize existing projects and movements, analyze real situations, intervene with a revolutionary anti-imperialist perspective. Organize to survive."
Even these maniacs never thought to include "Steal the presidency." It would have been too much audacity to hope for.
November 01, 2008
A mystery is solved
Responding to comments at Examiner.com, Kathy Shaidle explains why so many people support Barack Obama over John McCain.
I guess shallow people have to admire other shallow people; McCain's brave life must make you both feel pretty meaningless and selfish in comparison.