baldilocks

Anniversary

One year without a cigarette.

By the way, I'll be busy again today. And as I've found out, when you leave your comment section un-moderated, some people can't resist taking advantage, so the comments are held. That means that I will allow them to post when I return to the computer.

Comment moderation is like locking your door when you're away from home to keep out those who would move into your house and take advantage. Don't think so? Check out the outrage displayed by a couple of...guests when they discovered that their nasty comments wouldn't post when they wanted them to. It's instructive of a larger mindset--let's call it a "redistributive" mindset.

Later.

UPDATE: One of the persons has apologized.

How to Tell That McCain Made the Correct Choice (UPDATED)

All Moonbattery is screeching in protest and in...something else.

Can you smell that? I can. There's not enough Right Guard in the world to hide it.

I can't even begin to put down all of the unhinged vitriol that John McCain's choice of running mate has provoked in the hard doctrinaire right-to-death Leftists. And, fortunately for me, I don't have to since Jeff Goldstein has done it. Who knew that the prospect of a normal, principled woman politician with a normal family becoming vice president could arouse such fear? And the two things about Governor Sarah Palin which seem to bring out the most foaming at the mouth? Her physical attractiveness and the fact that she chose not to abort her youngest son--she knew that the baby had Down Syndrome long before he was born.

Leftists say that a woman has the choice to decide whether to allow her baby to be born and tell us that looks don't matter. Well I'm guessing that they forgot to add a couple of standard caveats: their axioms only apply to ugly Democrat women who make the "correct" choice. (Actually that last part is sort of incorrect; to Leftists, any choice made by a Republican is a wrong choice regardless of whether that choice coincides with Left ideology or not.)

I just may vote in November.

AN EVEN BETTER INDICATION: One thing that I haven't seen mentioned: won't it be great to see how much the Islamists just hate Palin? It certainly wouldn't be the first time that the Jihadists and the moonbats had an identical opinion.

Obama Chooses Biden

Can't speak for the next few of years, but the next few months are going to be quite fun.

It's rare that you'll see so many WTF facial expressions in such a short span.

(Thanks to Ace)

To Russia With Love--Or Something

Speaking of philanthropy, Georgians haven't lost their sense of humor, it seems. In response to Russian looters, Tbilisi residents set up a fine display of modern art and world-class snark in front of the city's Russian embassy (click photos to get larger versions).

"To the Russian Army from the Georgian people"

Veronica Khokhlova has the English translation from Oleg Panfilov's blog.

To the Russian embassy in Tbilisi they brought old refrigerators, toilets, rolls of toilet paper, irons, bottles of vodka, forks and spoons, clothes and other objects that [looters from the Russian army] took interest in during their visits to private houses of Georgians, state institutions, military bases and army barracks.

People are coming up to have a closer look, shake their heads, laugh. Cars that are passing by are honking...

Now that's generosity!

UPDATE:Thanks, Glenn.

NOT SO FUNNY: "Russia can have at its borders only enemies or vassals."

We Reach (UPDATED)

This can't be serious.

The over-45 crowd will be reminded of one of the worst and goofiest episodes of any of the Star Treks.

George Bush had his three-fingered W salute that supporters flashed when greeting him at presidential campaign events in 2000. And now, if a Los Angeles creative agency gets its way, Sen. Barack Obama will see fans meet him with his own salute like the one above. "Our goal is to see a crowd of 75,000 people at Obama's nomination speech holding their hands above their heads, fingers laced together in support of a new direction for this country, a renewed hope, and acceptance of responsibility for our future," says Rick Husong, owner of The Loyalty Inc. Husong tells me that he got the idea after seeing the famous Obama-Progress poster by artist Shepherd Fairey. "We wanted to get involved some way," he says. So, the agency came up with their own a symbol of hope and progress that also plays off Obama's name. "We thought, 'Let's try and start a movement where even while walking down the street, people would hold up the O and you would know that they were for Obama,' " says Husong.

Can something be creepy and silly at the same time?

(Thanks to Instapundit)

UPDATE: At the above Wiki link, there's this synopsis of the ST episode in question, The Way to Eden:

The Enterprise is hijacked by an insane doctor and his fanatical followers in an attempt to find paradise.

"Right."

UPDATE: There's nothing like the ridicule of your opponents.

Ms. Malkin has additional suggestions as to how Obama supporters can identify each other.

Van der Leun has the appropriate title.

The One Ring?

Confederate Yankee has the appropriate slogan (scroll to end).

UPDATE: Here's a Way to Eden video. Someone over a Ace's notices that the Star Trek aliens in the episode have...um...ear issues similar to the good senator under discussion.

UPDATE: Kinda, sorta, suggestive of Not Safe For Work...

And folks are just piling on now...so to speak.

Go to Iraq, Senator Obama

John McCain has been to Iraq eight times, the last time being a couple of months ago.

Barack Obama has been to Iraq only once, in 2006.

So McCain criticizes Obama for it--doing so on Memorial Day:

"Look at what happened in the last two years since Senator Obama visited and declared the war lost," the GOP nominee-in-waiting told The Associated Press in an interview, noting that the Illinois senator's last trip to Iraq came before the military buildup that is credited with curbing violence.

"He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time," the Arizona senator added. "If there was any other issue before the American people, and you hadn't had anything to do with it in a couple of years, I think the American people would judge that very harshly."

and then issues an invitation via Senator Lindsey Graham to accompany him on a trip to the country:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of McCain's top surrogates, laid the groundwork for McCain's criticism in a television interview in which he noted Obama's absence from Iraq and floated the idea that Obama and McCain should go together to be briefed by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Short-sightedly, Obama declines with a verbal rebuke of his own via spokesman Bill Burton:

Senator Obama thinks Memorial Day is a day to honor our nation's veterans, not a day for political posturing.

But after catching deserved rhetorical flak for that response, Obama "considers" making a second trip to Iraq. Confederate Yankee Bob Owens is scornful:

Burton suggests that while Obama is willing to meet rogue terrorist-sponsoring regimes without preconditions, he will not meet with America’s allies or American soldiers to talk of current developments. Instead he will doggedly stick to a defeatist stance hardened years ago, and immune to change.

Yes, but Obama shouldn't be afraid to change his mind about Iraq. He changes his mind about everything else and his apostles acolytes followers supporters are just as adoring steadfast as ever. They're even immune to the fact that Hillary Clinton appears to have more cojones in this area than their savior does.

Don't be afraid, Senator. Go to Iraq, have your mind changed--or rather, appear to be changed--declare victory and don't worry. Your Jedi Mind Trick abilities are strong and your apostles acolytes followers supporters will never remember that the were against the war before they were for it. The incandescence of your magnanimity and courage will be a beacon for those who are prone to it! /purple prose

Think his advisers will get him to do this? Neither do I. After all they still haven't changed his web site declaration that he's "the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions." And he certainly won't do anything autonomously.

And, yes, he needs better people.

(Thanks to Instapundit)

Love Your Neighbor

In the comments to Hot Air's post on the Vets for Freedom ad, Major John Tammes, writing from Iraq, has this to say about Senator Obama:

I would settle for getting my constituent e-mails answered… As much as I dislike Durbin, at least I get a response when I email him. Sheesh.

However, it appears that the junior senator from Illinois does answer some of his mail, especially from those who are having problems getting along with their neighbors. Like this poor soul:

Dear Barry:

I try to get along with the people in my neighborhood, but sometimes it can be difficult. Take for example my neighbor "Mahmoud." Last weekend while I was seeding my lawn, he drove back and forth slowly in front of my house "flipping the bird" from his minivan, which is painted with pictures of bloody corpses and mushroom clouds and "welcome 12th Imam." Normally I wouldn't have given it a second thought (I get "fingered" by a lot of the neighbors), but lately I've noticed he has been working on some kind of secret project in his garage with really stinky chemicals.

And, of course, Iowahawk manages to uncover the senator's sage answer. Sage, I tells ya.

A Parent Appearing Apparent

I love this:

With the swearing in of the new Cabinet – as [Kenya's Daily Nation] put it – the Kibaki-Odinga unity “...appeared apparent...” I was girding my loins to attack it immediately on the spot, but other more urgent issues came up.

In addition, moreover, it happened to occur to my mind that, perhaps maybe, I duly owed the writer some more thoughtful consideration. It was probably likely that, if I tried to make an effort to enter the young juvenile’s mind, I might understand him adequately enough.

But it seems evident that repeated reiteration is an incorrigibly permanent feature of our newsrooms. It seems apparent that, as writers, our scribes simply cannot be able to see that appearances are not what they look like.

It's from my father's weekly grammar column, in which he sometimes injects politics, but is primarily used to lambaste instruct his colleagues in the art of wielding English: definitions, word usage and sentence construction. Redundancies are the topic today (yes, that statement may be redundant, but someone will ask). I don't doubt that I may have committed some of the same sorts of errors, but I still find this op-ed particularly funny.

My diplomatic abilities appear to be genetically acquired.

The politics:

The Kibaki-Odinga unity is a phenomenon of such material objects. Nobody else can see it exactly for what it is. For outsiders, it only appears or seems. Some think of it as mere make-believe. They do not accept it as a reality.

But the Nation reporter was two-minded about it. On the one hand, it was apparent because it was real.

But, on the other, its “apparentness” seemed like that of the will-o’-the-wisp – which was why it appeared apparent.

Kenya Crisis

Kenya: The Basics

Good Old Days

Here's a Smothers Brothers clip. Move the cursor up to 3:45 and listen to the "Anthropologist Song" all the way through. Just do it.

LOLable but you know they would have been toast had it been 2008.

(Thanks to Krazy Ken)

UPDATE: Once upon a time one member of the sixties equivalent of the Dixie Chicks tangled with Bill Cosby.

I was wondering whether the two were still alive. They are and are still touring. Interesting fact: their father, Major Thomas Smothers, Sr., was a West Point graduate who died as a POW while experiencing the tender mercies of the Japanese. :::shudder:::

It's interesting to speculate how differently they might have turned out had their father lived.

(Thanks to reader Jim C.)

Blame Stephen King For the Rise of Barack Obama

Mythical Magic Negroes everywhere...

The Shining--Dick Hallorann
It--Mike Hanlon
The Stand--Mother Abigail Freemantle
The Green Mile--John Coffey

More?

In addition, Mother Abigail was a Republican. Imagine that.

I bet a shrink could have a field day with that.

(Thanks to Ace of Spades who has warped my mind)

MORE:

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption--Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding

UPDATE: Though "Red" was portrayed by the illustrious Morgan Freeman in the movie The Shawshank Redemption, reader Beryl informs me that King had originally written "the man who can get things" as an Irishman; Black version, no doubt.