PULLING A BONER

        When will I learn? I was posting a comment on Free Republic about Spike Lee's firm making ads for Pepsi. I wanted to be acerbic and imply that Lee's presence would hurt Pepsi's business. However, given my propensity for typos... No. Read it for yourself.

SIGN OF THE TIME

        I was in Harvard Square Saturday- I had walked from my Brookline apartment, seeking to see something other than the same four walls. While there, I noticed on the Hudson News side of JFK street a sign urging motorists to 'Honk to say No to War in Iraq.' The sign (complete with stick, making it look like a leftover from some demo or another' was taped to a lamppost.

        Now this was in ultra liberal Cambridge, on the last Saturday before Christmas. And you know how Boston drivers are, especially in jaywalker territory like Harvard Square. So you will also know why it was so remarkable that nary a beep could be heard. And in the time it took to enjoy a pot of Moroccan Mint at TeaLuxe, someone tore the sign down and pitched it into the trash.

THE VOICE POINTS THE WAY

        Kudos to the Village Voice for contradicting my rant below. Normally I snarl the only good thing in the paper is Nat Hentoff. But on last week’s issue the cover story, by Tom Robbins, was an excellent look at the cadets at West Point. Refreshingly the tone of the article is not sneering or accusatory. Instead there is a tone of careful respect as the author clearly is putting aside many of his preconceived notions.

       For the National Review, that would be an ordinary article. For the Voice it is an act of courage.

MAKING MOCK O'UNIFORMS THAT GUARD YOU WHILE YOU SLEEP

        Since I've brought up liberal prejudices, let's look at their biggest focus of contempt- the military. The hatred the post Vietnam left has for our servicepeople is shocking. Here it is at its sleaziest at the Fark Forums.

MC_500foot_Nietzsche: Anyone who risks their own life for Bush's moronic personal vendetta are idiots. Harmonia:Osama says "thanks for missing me and recruiting lots of new members of my organisation, keep up the good work in 2003" EmJSea: Dear Soldier/Soldierette, Sarcastic: Thanks for being so homophobic and p*ssified that the thought of someone checking out your @ss in the showers makes you so scared that you can't perform your duties. Heartfelt: Thanks for getting in the way of bullets for me so that I can suck d*ck in relative comfort and enjoy films such as "Marine Barracks Gloryholes Parts 1-6" in relative comfort and security. Love, EmJSea Speedyj: good luck in Iraq! Don't kill *too* many innocent civilians while you're out there risking your @ss for Bush's oil. Jochem: hope your death in Iraq will be quick and not painful.

        Fortunately the sensible parties on Fark are flaming back against the blockhead pinkos. But it shows how clueless, loathsome and disgusting they remain. These gobs of idiotic venom demonstrate how little the left's paradigms have changed since the days of bell bottoms. That's why the lefties so love speech codes and 'campaign finance reform'. They know their warmed over ideas would lose out in the marketplace of ideas. So they need captive audiences.

        Courtesy of John Hawkins.

GENDER SAUCE FOR THE GANDER

        TV ratings poison Bryant Gumbel may join on Harold Rraines' anti-Augusta bandwagon, but according to the New York Post's Page Six, he comes with baggage- membership in an all male club.

Martha Burk, who chairs the National Council of Women's Organizations, said Gumbel admitted to her off-camera that he was a member of the exclusive Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, Md., while profiling her on "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," in an installment to air Tuesday on HBO.         "I told him it was wrong and he shouldn't [belong to the club]," Burk said. "He mentioned it to me and I said, 'Bryant, you're wrong to do this. It's the wrong kind of statement to make not only to the public but also to your own daughter. I think you need to reconsider what you're doing in terms of the public statement that it makes.' "         The HBO show will not include Burk's tirade against Gumbel because it happened off-camera. Burk says she wanted to bring it up but, "he had control of the interview."

        In the world of the liberals, the one true evil is hypocrisy and they mercilessly assail conservatives who fail to live up to the standards they espouse. Avoiding hypocrisy is easy if you have few standards for yourself. So a preacher who has an affair is worse than a terrorist for a correct cause. Of course they rarely attack those fellows on their side who fail to live up to liberal ideals (CF Hymietown).

QUOTE OF THE WEEK!

        A mass, crybaby adolescence has infected the Middle East.

        Victor Davis Hanson

LILEK'S GEM

        James Lileks continues to prove why he is one of the best phrasemakers writing in his latest screed.

You know, if every "Woman's Studies" department was closed, and the student loans were used to create businesses that hired women instead of studied them like tragic butterflies impaled on the patriarchal pin, we might be better off.

        Give that man a MacArthur Grant!


        But seriously, folks, I had pointed out a mention of Little Green Footballs in this bleat...

For approximately 10 hours, nearly every single fever-induced plotline, image, character and non sequitar was funneled through the metaphor of the Little Green Footballs webpage. That's what my poor overclocked brain used to sort and process all the gibberish. New plotlines were understood as new blog entries. There was also running plot about buying large chunks of space on LGF for $500, and whether the website could be used to smuggle antiquities. This went on, as I said, for ten hours.

        Charles Johnson credited me with being the first to bring it to his attention and suddenly, my blog, which had been getting less than ten hits a day now has a burst in the triple digits. Well, now, as my cousin Danny noted, I have to update this sucker more often. Like daily.

UN-WISSE STRATEGY

        In this otherwise solid examination of the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college campuses, Professor
Ruth Wisse offers the following advice in combating the plague.

The last thing university authorities ought to do in addressing this latest outbreak of what has been called "the longest hatred" is to enforce the kind of speech codes that have been invoked to protect other sensitive minorities.

        With all due respect to Professor Wisse, who has been tremendous on this and many other fights, she is dead wrong here. Like a dog who has defecated on the Persian carpet, the PC mafia needs to have their noses shoved into their filth while being smacked with a rolled up paper.


        Okay. That metaphor clunked. But the best way to stop speech codes is to enforce them against the pack members of the PC movement. If the anti-Israelis veer off into old fashioned Jew baiting, charge them. If the administration comes down on those creeps then the Pinko McCarthites get the proverbial taste of their own medicine. If the spineless administrative weasels refuse, then the college gets sued for denying equal protection (if a public institution) or discrimination (if a private institution receiving federal funds). Actual, equal, stringent and honest enforcement of the abominations called speech codes will shatter their popularity even in the most small minded university denizens. Our ultimate objective remains tossing the One Ring into Mount Doom. But we can still use that sucker to whack the odd Nazgûl and maybe save Gondor.


        (Take a guess what flick I saw Tuesday at midnight. That's why I have 3AM posts.)

ARAFAT FINDS THE FRIGGING OBVIOUS!

        The old joke about the Palestinians being like the Bourbons- forgetting nothing and learning nothing- has taken an interesting twist. The Palestinians chose Hitler, Stalin, Saddam and now Osama. They cheer for the bloodthirstiest goons who promise them dead Jews. And every time they end up worse off.

FIRST REFUGE OF A DIMWIT

        Sean Penn is using a new word these days...

        In Reuters...

"I'm here for a simple reason, which is because I'm a patriot and an American who has benefited enormously from being an American, and because I had areas of personal concern and conscience that led me to come to Iraq.

        And the Washington Times...

"As a father, an actor, a filmmaker and a patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation - at least, attempt - to find my own voice on matters of conscience."

        This is 'Patriotic' Penn in 1991 about his directorial debut 'The Indian Runner,' as quoted in Michael Medved's Hollywood Vrs. America.

I don't think it scratches the surface of the rage that is felt, if not acted upon, by most of the people in the country where I live... I was brought up in a country that relished fear-based religion, corrupt government and an entire white population living on stolen property that they murdered for and that is passed on from generation to generation.

        Sean, Baby, why don't you give up your stolen property. I'm sure the Native Americans not benefiting from the casinos would appreciate your mansion.

        Jackass.

HEY BUD, LET'S JIHAD!

        Annoying actor Sean Penn is in Baghdad for three days. That's a short window to begin bombing!


        Link via Drudge.

BUY SOMETHING DAMN IT!

        Attention anti-idiotarians shoppers, especially in the Boston area... the bastards are at it again and we need to use our wallets to tell them to shove off.
See, a band of self-hating Jews calling themselves 'Jewish Women for Justice' have been picketing Wordsworth, one of the best bookstores in the region. Why? Because the proprietor, Hillel Stavis stopped giving to NPR (AKA National Pinko Radio, AKA National Palestinian Radio) because of their incessant anti-Israel bias. Stavis joined in the boycott in reaction to... well, see for yourself.

        Typically, these protestors hypocritically accuse others of 'censorship' when they support NPR's incessant one sided reporting.


        Stavis is not taking this sitting down.

Stavis fought back, standing next to his opponents on the sidewalk. As patrons entered his store, he distributed fliers of his own with a bold red headline: "These Anti-Israel Demonstrators Are Preparing The Next Holocaust."

        So this is a call to all anti-idiotarians. Support Stavis. Buy at Wordsworth! Defy the idiotarians! Buy online if you are not in Beantown. And if you can get to the People's Republic of Cambridge go there!

YET MORE PINKO ONANISM

        September 11th 2001 the New York Times had a front page puff-piece about convicted 60s terrorist Bill Ayers. Ayers attempted to bomb the Pentagon and was unrepentant. "I don't regret setting bombs.... I feel we didn't do enough." The Times wound up with a great deal of egg on its face that the sympathy Pulitzers did little to wipe off.


        Well, Raines' rag is at it again. Today, front page, below the fold is more drool over the detritus of the Weather Underground.

As with the other triumphs of his young life, Chesa Boudin was unable to celebrate with his parents on Saturday afternoon when he was named a Rhodes scholar. He could not even share the good news.         As maximum-security inmates in the New York State prison system, Katherine Boudin and David Gilbert are barred from receiving telephone calls or e-mail messages.

        Gee, why do the establishment meanies keep this bright, precious lad from his parents?

His parents, members of the 1970's radical group the Weathermen, have been in prison since he was 14 months old, for roles in a 1981 Brink's robbery in Rockland County in which two police officers and a guard were killed. They missed his Phi Beta Kappa award, high school graduation, Little League games.

        That is the extent of the discussion of the crimes. The victims are unnamed. Their murders are less relevant than the fact that Chsea does not have easy access to his parents. So long as prisons have visiting hours, he'll have more access than the families of the three people his folks helped to murder. Not 'killed.' Murder.



        I do not give a damn about this twerp. His parents can be Simon Adebisi's catamites for all I care. 'Reporter' Jodi Wilgoren may coo over his 18 tattoos (including the Weatherman logo) and his neat pinstripe suit. As a reader, I would have been far better served by an article about the families of the cops and security guard. There must be a segment at the Times whose main horror about 9-11 is that it made policemen into respected heroes. How they must pine for the days when they could yell 'Pig' to the delight of the rest of their cocktail party going crowd.


        Of course these same clowns wonder why their readers increasingly ignore the New York Times, instead turning to the Fox News, the New York Post, Washington Times, Matt Drudge, Glenn Reynolds, the Weekly Standard and Rush Limbaugh.

 

        Speaking of stupidity in the pages of the Times, letter writer Hilary Dunst screeches...

It was not Bill Clinton's "preoccupation with the Monica threat to his future" that "diluted his focus on the Qaeda threat to our future" but rather the Republican obsession with what was, and should have remained, a misguided but meaningless sexual peccadillo.

        I know the mythology has created an impenetrable force-field around your skull, but the issue was Paula Corbin Jones was denied a fair shot at justice. And the law that made the 'peccadillo' relevant was signed into law by Bill Clinton. My America provides equal justice for all. Even in a case pitting 'trailer trash' against the highest lawmaker in the land.


        Far too many of the Times' readers and writers curse the proles for making dents in the speeding limos as they barrel recklessly though life.

SHUT UP AND SHOW US YOUR TITS

        Jay Caruso takes on celebrity activism and succinctly hits one out of the park.

The day people start taking political advice from the likes of Uma Thurman is the day I declare my allegiance to Soviet Canuckistan.

        (Link thanks to Croooow Blog)


        As Sir Humprhey Applebey said when Jim Hacker wanted to make his mark on the world stage, "People on stages are called actors. All they are required to do is stay sober, look plausible, and say the lines they are given in the right order. Those that try to make up their own lines generally do not last long."


        Thanks to Scott Wickstein at 'The Eye of the Beholder' for saving me the effort of actually looking for the quote in a book.

SLOGAN OF THE DAY

        From a US Navy recruiting poster...

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of those who threaten it!"

ANTI-IDIOTARIAN GUERILLAS GOING APE!

        Unlike the Vietnam era protesters, the idiotarians are not getting a free ride. A month or two ago I was tearing down anti-war signs in Cambridge (normally I don’t do such things, but these PC sphincters are so in love with censorship that it is healthy to give them a taste of it themselves). As I was going to hurl another handful of photocopied propaganda pamphlets I looked into the trash barrel and noted that someone else had threw in fliers there as well. Indeed as I walked down Mass Ave, I noted more fliers in the trash than on the walls or lampposts, which are normally festooned with such propaganda in the Cantabrigian People’s Republic.


        On the left coast, software dude Napoleon Cole proves himself cleverer and crueler than me as he harasses some peaceniks by pretending he is one of their more unsavory allies. Pathetically, many of his victims are too ignorant to recognize the joke is on them.

I've found a formula that I like, and so I try it out again a few blocks away on a group of young girls with antiwar Greenpeace-type stickers all over them.         "Hey chicks? Do you dames know where I can find a pro-Saddam rally?"         They respond (no kidding): "Uh, I don't know. We just came from one. I think there's something at Garfield High School or something."         "Oh, OK." I hold up my fist again: "End women's suffrage!"         They respond with smiles: "Peace! See ya."

        I guess that’s why we call them idiotarians.

BACK FROM THE BAHAMAS!

        I'm back from paradise! Back from 80 degrees, snorkeling in
a lagoon fringed with coconut palms and evenings filled with fruity
tropical drinks to 15 degrees here in tense Boston. Joy.

        Seriously, it's great to be back... So here are a few random
observations about my trip.

        The Atlantis resort on the aptly named Paradise Island is fabulous beyond description.
Period. But there were problems with the rooms. My family struggles
to get three adjoining rooms during the stay. (I had my separate room
on another floor. Unplanned, but I wasn't complaining!) The staff
was incredibly friendly- or maybe the Bahamians are just very nice to
tourists (while separating us from our cash!)

        "Who Let the Dogs Out," seems to be the unofficial anthem, judging by
its ubiquity...

        Baccarat must be a more interesting game if Le Chiffre is sharing your
table. (1 point ref.)

        The trick to gambling is to know when to run away. The house will
always win given enough time.

        I won't play craps again until I actually get a clue.

        Blackjack can be incredibly frustrating! You get ten on your first
two cards, double down, get a picture cards- as the dealer shows six.
She turns the hole card over- it's a five. Then out comes a ten.

        I spent the snorkeling time in the resort's lagoon. I wish I could
have taken a boat to 'Stingray City' (or do some other things, like
sportfishing) but things did not work out. Still there was a lot to
see- including small barracuda, snapper, a stingray, starfish, upside
down jellyfish a sea cucumber, gorgeous tropical fish and sea
urchins... On the last- word to the wise... DO NOT TOUCH THE ONES
WITH THE LONG BLACK SPINES!

        As a snorkrler, I preferred the lagoon to the beach. It waves were
awfully rough and there was nothing really to see. (Nearly typed
'sea.') But the water was a gorgeous turquoise.

        Boy- down there night falls fast!

        The Bahamian coat of arms is really cool.

        The resort had a number of fish tanks and pools for denizens of the
deep. There was a manta swimming in a huge ocean tank along with what
seemed to be a hundred other fish, including a hammerhead. I could
also see another hammerhead in a pool visible from my balcony- he swam
with a bunch of stingrays. A number of tanks had sharks (some of whom
were captured after wandering into the lagoon), stingrays, spotted
eagle rays, sawfish, grouper (which tastes fine, but has an odd
texture), remoras, triggerfish, jacks, French grunts, yellowtail
snapper and sea turtles. Aside from hammerheads, there were nurse
sharks and blacktips. The nurse sharks looked lazy, but as a sign by
one of their pools read, 'These are wild animals with big teeth!'

        The water slides were a blast. Two of them went through clear tubes
that ran though a shark tank. That, to me, was cruel. The poor
sharks are constantly tantalized by an unreachable buffet!

        I could barely get a newspaper there and while the resort's library
had Internet access, it was 15 minutes a day. I was going through
info withdrawal!

        The flight home was reasonable (if a bit bumpy at the end). Had a
three hour layover in Charlotte. Nice airport. Love the rocking
chairs. My nephew was enthralled by the kinetic sculpture.

        Get out of the airplane into the corridor that leads to the terminal
at Logan and the breath is already clouding. 'Welcome Back' says New
England!

        Anyhow, it's good to be back! Ya miss me?

        *Waits...*

        Feh. Might as well go back!

BAD BLOGGER, NO BISCUT

Not that I’m a great blogger, but I’ll be away for a week enjoying the sun at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.

IN OUR NAMES

        Proudly bellicose woman Kathy Kinsley, who has read my ‘Not in Our Name’ rant points out this web page. Read it. Then add your signature.

I PITY THE FOOLS

        The poor Petro-bandit princes of the House of Sod are having a wee bit of trouble. Their attempts at PR to seduce the American people are falling flat. The Senate is asking difficult questions about the princes' role in funding 9-11. Imagine that. The nerve of those elected representatives calling the Wahabbi warlords on the carpet!

        Gee, for the good old days when you only had to deal with those pliable fellows from the State Department- the guys who were so keen on entering the oil industry afterwards that they shaft their own countrywomen who had foolishly wedded Saudis and now regretted it. And they were so helpful with visas. But now those damn parliamentarians interfered. Not only is Visa express gone, the Homeland Security bill has banned any 3rd party screening processes (to prevent Visa Express's revival) and to add insult to injury an on-site Homeland security person has to approve the application. And they may not even be friendly and know how things are done in the Kingdom.


        So, here's a hint you loathsome, avaricious gluttons... 15 of 19. That's the only fact about your oily sand pit and its greasy kleptocrats most Americans care.