Category: Rants
Must See TV
Kudos to Keith. You give hope that the media still can see, and report, that the emperor has no clothes.
An Answer
Justice on a Short Leash
Why did the president cut off investigation of the NSA’s domestic surveillance program?
The Washington Post, 7/22/06
Because he thinks he’s above the Constitution, that’s why.
UPDATE: Like I said…
If the president has constitutional problems with a bill, the task force said, he should convey those concerns to Congress before it reaches his desk. The panel said signing statements should not be a substitute for vetoing bills the president considers unconstitutional.
“The President’s constitutional duty is to enforce laws he has signed into being unless and until they are held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court or a subordinate tribunal,” panel members wrote. “The Constitution is not what the President says it is.”
Bush’s Tactic of Refusing Laws Is Probed
The Washington Post, 7/24/06
The Fragrant Slug
To the woman who caught a ride into the city with me this morning. Manners prevented me from saying this to you directly, but it must be said. Ease up on the perfume, please! Five minutes into our commute, my nose was irritated and I had a bad taste in my mouth. Soon I was feeling dizzy, and a headache began to take root. By the time we crossed the 14th Street Bridge, I was nauseous and had chest pains. Yes, chest pains. It was a 40-minute long assault on my senses, a personal gas chamber, a commuting nightmare. After you got out of the car, I commented to our rear seat passenger that we’d be wearing your fragrance all day, and he allowed as how he was also feeling nauseous. I can only hope that whatever odor you were attempting to mask would have been worse. Regardless, your attempt to smell nice is a miserable failure.
HELP!
The gays are attacking my marriage!!
I’m not sure we can how long we can hold out, we can feel the foundations of civilization crumbling beneath us!
Send guns and ammo fast!
Big in Beijing and Bankok
Click on the map on the right. It is a visual display of where traffic to this web site originated during the month of February, 2006. Does anything jump out at you? I’m huge in Beijing and Bankok. And after the United States, the Phillipines sends more traffic to this site than any other country. Why?
I’d like to think it’s my thoughtful musings that attract such an international audience, but I suspect something more sinister. I’ve been a big fan of Movable Type, the software I use to manage this blog, for a few years now. And when I upgraded to the current version, I was particularly pleased with its built-in capability to recognize and divert junk comments. But recently, the junk has been slipping through, big time. I had the settings configured so that no comments went live until I approved them, so none of them ever got posted. But my time was still wasted in having to delete them by the dozens, day after day.
Here’s an example, “Your site is very nice 🙂 Respect to admin !”. In February, I had about 1300 such junk comments posted here.
What’s the point? Apparently it’s all about the return link to their own web sites that they can put in their comment, and the boosted Google rankings they will gain by widely spreading links to their site.
Well, as much as I enjoy the legitimate comments I do receive on my blog, I’ve got better things to do that clean-up the digital trash being left here from the other side of the world. So, for now anyway, I’ve disabled all comments in hopes they’ll go away, or a new upgrade of Movable Type can again give me the upper hand in this ridiculous battle against comment spam.
What are the odds?
Damn… I didn’t win again! My turn must be coming soon.
Our Puritanical Selves
The “War” on Christmas
You can skip the below rant it you’d like, and just watch this video. There’s little I can add to it to make it better. But if you’d like to read my attempt, then read on…
All this nonsense in the media about a “War on Christmas” is really beginning to bug me. It will soon be added to previous empty platitudes such as our ‘Wars’ on poverty, drugs and terrorism. It’s a slogan, not a war. It’s a war on nouns.
As my own recent blog entries attest, I am not at war with Christmas. I have embraced Christmas heartily, it is a wonderful holiday. I don’t care a bit if someone chooses to wish me a “Merry Christmas” or more generically “Happy Holidays”. In both instances, they are wishing me well and I would gladly accept it and return it in kind. Wish me a “Happy” Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Winter Solstice, New Year or Festivus, and I’ll wish you one too.
Thank heaven for those who will take on such nonsense. If you’ve read this far, treat yourself to another video clip, this one of the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart responding to Bill O’Reilly’s claim that he’s part of this ‘war’.
with thanks to Think Progress and Crooks and Liars for the vids
Does America Care…
…that the President’s most senior advisors are responsible for blowing the cover of a CIA agent?
“As the CIA leak investigation heads toward its expected conclusion this month, it has become increasingly clear that two of the most powerful men in the Bush administration were more involved in the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame than the White House originally indicated.”
“In October 2003, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that he personally asked Libby and Rove whether they were involved, “so I could come back to you and say they were not involved.” Asked if that was a categorical denial of their involvement, he said, “That is correct.”
Role of Rove, Libby in CIA Leak Is Clearer
The Washington Post, 10/2/05
Any American who isn’t shocked by this has to look themselves in the mirror and admit they’ve drunk so deeply of the Bush kool-aid that they’re ready to scrap this democracy thing and appoint him our leader-for-life. Politics can be a dirty business, but these were the most senior White House aids blowing the cover of a CIA operative, and fellow American, for some petty political payback. What is the positive spin here? At best it’s un-American, at worst it’s criminal.
They’ll say they didn’t know. They’ll say they never said her name. They’ll squirm like the skillful snakes that they are. What will George do, fire them, or give them a medal?