I got to attend a send-off bash at dish to Dr. Abby who is heading away from Memphis and on to Boston. We also got to meet Abby’s parents. Also attending was: Mike, Len and Brock, Aaron Hurley, EJ, Phil, Chris, and Bruce who made it all the way from Boston! And, of course, myself.
Here are a few pictures that I took. Click on them for full size:


I treated myself for once, ordering a “Shish kebab of garlic marinated lamb” and an oatmeal stout. That dinner was absolutely to die for, and was worth every penny. Too bad I can’t do this on a regular basis. The ambiance was very casual, the company fantastic and the conversations stimulating. Too bad Len didn’t get to finish his thoughts over the Valerie Plame affair.
I look forward to the next blogger bash.
UPDATE: Bruce came form Baltimore, not Boston. Thanks Abby!

I’m in the middle of an attack right now, so no news today. If I feel better before I go into work, I’ll post some housekeeping stuff.
Closet time now. Be back later.

Well, well, well! I must be moving up in the world. I got home from a game if Epic:Armageddon with Mike and found a mini-instalanche and an amazing 7 comments on my Hanoi Jane post.
It was a comment by Alpha Patriot that I found out that I made the Washington ComPost. And guess what? Yours Truly is the first one quoted! Woo Hoo!
Of course, the Moonbats descended on me like bears on honey, but as you’ll see in the next post I took them all on.
I hope Mr. Kurtz keeps reading and quoting me. This kind of advertisement I can’t buy!
Thanks all and I hope you stick around!

Well, here’s my rebuttal to comments left on my post about Hanoi Jane.

I AM INFURIATED. HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE JANE FONDA YET AGAIN. In all your Conservative ramblings about Hanoi Jane NOT ONCE HAVE YOU BASTARDS COME OUT AND ADMITTED THE TRUTH - JANE FONDA WAS RIGHT. Viet Nam was a mistake - this iraq invasion is an even bigger mistake - SO YOU BASTARDS - SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTHS and take that draft-dodging traitor president with you.
What is the difference between Jane Fonda and George Bush?
Jane Fonda has been to Viet Nam.
You lowly pieces of garbage that criticize Jane Fonda while supporting that chicken hawk president Bush are fucking complete idiots.
SO SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
Posted by: Mark Esposito at July 27, 2005 09:51 AM

Obviously, you aren’t a big fan of history and you like to Monday Morning Quarterback. You also have a problem expressing yourself intelligently, if you can’t do it without expletives, it shows you’re already too wound up about it and can’t think straight.
Just remember it was your beloved JFK who got us into Vietnam, and it was your wonderful buddy LBJ who escalated the war. Nixon was the one who got us out, remember?
If you read my archives, you will see my views on the Iraq war, as a way to create conditions that will not create more terrorists. If we can create a stable economy where young Arab men 18-25 have jobs and families, they won’t become suicide bombers. That is the objective of the Iraq war.
As far as draft dodging, let’s just compare. President Clinton left the US under a Rhodes Scholarship to study in England. President Bush stayed in the US, and became a fighter pilot for the Texas ANG. Several ANG units were called up to service in Vietnam. Besides, how can you question the courage of a man who straps on a supersonic fighter that had a tendency to explode and lights the fuse? The Century Series of interceptors had a bad safety record. When pushing the envelope, they had a tendency to blow up or come apart. Which is the last thing you want to have happen at Mach 2 and 30,000 feet.

Traitor, huh? What if she had sold anti-tank missiles to the ayotollahs who, at the time, were calling for the destruction of the Great Satan America? Let’s see waht selling weapons to an enemy of the United States will get you. You get your own show on Fox and are called a good friend of Sean Hannity and a great American. It sure helps to have your felony convictions overturned because of a deal you struck with the prosecutors.
Oliver North comitted acts of treason. He just didn’t have his picture taken while he was at it.
Posted by: Charley Micinacina at July 27, 2005 10:14 AM

You, sir, are obviously without nuance, something that you claim the Right is lacking. At the time of Ollie’s transgression, Iran and Iraq was engaged in a rather bloody and drawn out war. Sure, we didn’t like Iran, but we liked Iraq even less. Oops, there’s those shades of gray that us nasty old Conservatives don’t see.
In the world of international politics, you generally don’t get to pick your friends. You pick the enemy of my enemy, which may be a very nasty and despicable individual. If you can remember that far back, surely you will remember that we at one time backed the Taliban, simply because they were fighting the Soviets. Politics make strange bedfellows.

Your really pathetic. Vietnam as history shows was a mistake. Although her actions in Hanoi may not of been exactly right; her heart was in the right place. Since when does the greatest democratic country in the world oppose freedom and non aggression? Since when does a country, via its press, condemn a person who has the right to speak his or her mind. Your job is to report the news. Not take sides. What is becoming of the greatest nation on Earth? Freedom of speech is the most important right we have. Vietnam was wrong, Iraq was wrong, and the statistics show it. I don’t much in the surveys since the sentences used are ambigious. But look at the facts: the military cannot meet its quota anymore. Thats been happening for months now. That speaks for itself. Many will not volunteer for a conflict that was perpetrated by Bush. Second; We have 100,000 civilian, mercenaries in Iraq. Not military, but civilians providing the services that our military would normally do. This was never intended to be a war. It was all economics as was Vietnam. There is no domino effect in foreign policy here. Rather, its a country that has become the most hated nation in the world. Think about that and smoke your pipe. We need to change, and change fast.
Posted by: JR at July 27, 2005 10:45 AM

Well, you’re kinda pathetic too, since you can’t use the Kings English properly. You’ve also got a few things wrong. First of all, I am not a reporter. I am a man with a view who likes publicizing it. I put your feedback here and am responding to it simply because it amuses me, not because of some journalistic ethos.
Also, we are not the hated country you delude yourself into believing. We are the only country in the world where people from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe are fighting to get into. People from Mexico risk their lives across miles of open desert to get here. People from China lock themselves in cargo containers for two months with nothing more than a bucket for a toilet and you think these people hate us? I really doubt it. Sure there are people who hate us, but they are a small and vocal minority, amplified by the Liberal bias of the MSM.
The Army hasn’t been meeting it’s quota for several months now because Congress authorized an increase of the Army by 30,000. And Hillary was backing another 80,000 increase on top of the 30,000 already authorized. Do you think 30,000 young people will suddenly appear in one day? I think not. Recruitment is up, retention is up. It will take time to fill that extra Division of troops.

YOU IGNORANT ASSHOLE. THE TRAITER IS DICK CHENEY, WHO AS CEO OF HALIBURTON DID BUSINESS WITH SYRIA, IRAN, LIBYA, NORTH KOREA, AND IRAQ. I WOULD LIKE TO PUT MY SHOE UP YOUR ASS, BUT WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY DENT YOUR PEA SIZED BRAIN.
Posted by: RICK COLE at July 27, 2005 04:32 PM

At least I don’t leave the Caps Lock key on. And a puerile attempt at violence. I thought you people were pacifists?
Ah, yes, the dreaded “H” word, Haliburton. The evilest of the evil oil businesses who likes to make money. Sorry, but trying to make money doesn’t make you evil. If you can prove that anything Haliburton did was against the law, then you’ve got something to take to the press. I’m sure they will trumpet it to the four corners of the world.

ummm…what if jane fonda had exposed a CIA officer in an attempt to smear somebody who disagreed with her positions? Jane Fonda is exercising her right to free speech. isn’t that what you conservative morons claim to be fighting for?
i don’t even understand how you can see this administration as conservative??? there is nothing conservative about them. put down your remote control, turn off the fox bullshit and try thinking for yourself…just once…for a couple of minutes. it’ll hurt at first, but you’ll be ok.
Posted by: Jeff Kanzler at July 27, 2005 08:56 PM

There is a difference between exercising free speech and committing treason. Just like you can’t shout “FIRE!” anywhere unless there really is a fire.
Second, I don’t watch Fox. I can’t afford cable. While I do read Foxnews.com, it is one of many news sources I depend upon, just look to the right.
Also, this administration is Conservative. They stand for individual rights, lower taxes, freedom in its many forms and so on. While I don’t agree with everything that this administration does, it is by far better than the Clintons.
And I do think, sir. I think about more things than you’ll ever know.

What’s more, Little Georgie is a draft evader, deserter, war criminal and coward. his Daddy was a war criminal, traitor and coward and even his grandfather has been accused of collaboration (treason?) His brothers are scum too. That’s just for background.
I doubt Fonda lengthened the war, but some people say Nixon caused an additional 20,000 dead GI’s by scuttling the peace talks when he was running for President.
When McNamara confessed that they knew the war couldn’t be won, the Vets all raged at him, “if you knew it couldn’t won, why didn’t you get us out?” I said, bullshit, if he had advocated “cutting and running”, those assholes would have assassinated him. Ditto Iraq.
PS how do I start a new paragraph?
Posted by: Monte Haun at July 27, 2005 11:34 PM

And you have documentation for all of this? Why not turn it over to the MSM?
The Vietnam War was not winnable from the start. In a lot of respects it was like Korea, except in Korea the general after Macarthur realized that the only way to “win” would be by a settled political solution. Through a war of attrition, we forced the NK to the bargaining table and negotiated a cease fire. It was our fear of another repeat of Korea (China getting involved) in Vietnam that caused our failure. We never went North of the DMZ. And Napoleon once said, “The inevitable end of all defensive warfare is defeat.”
PS You start a new paragraph by hitting your Enter key twice in quick succession.
And last but not least:

The slope-skulls worship the military. Their claims that she is a traitor are not based on any understanding of the law, but rather on a purely emotional reaction. If they really cared, Ollie North would be in prison right now where he belongs.
Fuck the Troops: http://simonandthelefties.blogharbor.com/
Posted by: Toby at July 28, 2005 03:06 AM

I don’t think I can say anything, you’ve stated your position pretty clearly, and anything I could possibly say would not improve upon it.
Thanks all for reading this long post. I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

Remind me never to go to college. On Campus, Only Some Free Speech Protected.
Here is an email, and the response to it. No editing, the complete emails.

On March 7, Arlene Holpp Scala (search), chair of the Women’s Studies Department, sent Daniel an unsolicited of an upcoming film event: “‘Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House,’ a lesbian relationship story.” Scala advised those who wished to respond, “Please do not hit reply, click here,” thus directing messages to her university e-mail address.

All well and good. Something you expect from a typical Liberal campus.
Now the reply:

On March 8, Daniel clicked to privately reply, “Do not send me any mail about ‘Connie and Sally’ and ‘Adam and Steve.’ These are perversions. The absence of God in higher education brings on confusion. That is why in these classes the Creator of the heavens and the earth is never mentioned.” [His message is quoted in full. No other communication with Scala ensued.]

Another all well and good. A polite reply to keep this garbage out of his mailbox. Oh no! He mentions ‘God!’ You can’t do that on a University!
Read the article. It’s a lot of links as it’s been taken up by an outside agency and the state Attorney General.
It’s a big hullabaloo over one persons insensitivity. She got just what she deserved. Ms. Holpp Scala thought she was being helpful, but just cast too wide a net and caught the wrong guy.
Some people can, but I can’t blame the guy for venting his frustration and expressing the base of his moral fiber.
Just another example of how ‘free’ speech works.

STS-114 is now underway, and on the way to orbit.
All systems go. Fly baby fly!

Just to let you know, tigers can’t change their stripes. Jane Fonda Plans Anti-War Bus Tour.
In 1972, she committed Treason when she collaborated with the enemy and urged that US soldiers quit fighting. Today, she is calling for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, leaving them in the lurch and unable to withstand the terrorist forces.
This B-I-T-C-H is a traitor twice now in my eyes. She has the right to voice her opinions, but her past actions have branded her a traitor and she deserves to be treated like one.

Here you go. Hillary Clinton Moving Farther Right Before ‘08.
Hillary is walking a dangerous tightrope here. She is trying to move as far Right as she can, appealing to as many Centrist and Republican voters as possible, but she must not move so far Right that she endangers her support from her Liberal base.
She talks the talk, but when it comes to walking the walk, she’s a extreme Liberal. She hasn’t given up her idea of Socialized health care, she still holds the view of “It takes a village” and she was the real driving force behind the reign of Bill Clinton.
Keep an eye on her folks. She thinks she deserves to be President.

Rep. Tom Tancredo sure stirred up a hornets nest the other day. Hispanic, Islamic groups want Tancredo to quit.
The Hispanics are upset because Tancredo wants to stiffen the border with Mexico and make it harder for illegals to cross.
The Muslims are outraged because he suggested that we nuke Mecca and other Islamic holy cities in retaliation to our cities being nuked by Al Qaeda.
You keep right on trucking Tom. We need more security in the border regions, and we need a clear message to the Islamic community that we will not calmly accept an American Hiroshima.

“What would happen if a prominent Muslim made that statement about Catholic holy places like the Vatican?,” Ali asked.

Believe me, if the Muslim extremists thought they could gain anything by nuking the Vatican, they would have done it already.
The threat of nuking Mecca, et. al., is not to deter the extremists, if anything that will do nothing more than strengthen their resolve to carry out their plans. No, it is to provide an incentive to the moderate Islamic community to rein in the extremists.
Do you think we will idly accept the destruction of up to seven cities and the death of about 4 million people? I don’t think so. I am quite sure that there is a SSBN in the Indian Ocean right now, tasked with the destruction of Iran, Mecca and several other cities throughout the Middle East. That would be an order not lightly given.

I didn’t know the Russian people hated spammers this much: Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment.

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.

One of my email accounts is constantly getting Russian spam. Why, I don’t know because I can’t read Cyrillic. Hopefully I won’t see as much now. I’m at least kinda sorry that he’s gone, but how can you miss a spammer?

I happened across this wonderful op-ed piece and I wanted to share it with you. Biochips Endanger Privacy.
The article opens with this thought:
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. – Frederick Douglass
Just how much injustice are we going to allow? Biochips are an invasion of privacy, let alone the Biblical implications. To be tracked wherever you go, to have these movements logged and cataloged somewhere just gets my dander up.
Never mind what I am doing, illegal or not, I do not want to be tracked.
For those thinkers who think getting rid of Evil will leave only Good, you’re wrong. To get rid of world wide hunger is a great idea. But when it comes at the cost of freedom, the cost is too high.
And that is exactly what is coming down the road with these biochips. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.
Read the article, I hope you will be as shocked and scared as I was.

I don’t think this needs a lot of explaining. Found on Neal Boortz.

There is a time and a place for everything, and this fact is often lost on those politicians on the extreme left. To them, everything is a cause, and politics rules the day. Today brings news of such an example.
Thirty-two-year-old Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich died in Iraq two weeks ago during a mortar attack. At his funeral last Tuesday in Pittsburgh, there were quite a few people packed into the church to pay their respects.
Enter Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll. The good lieutenant governor decided it would be a good time and place to do a little campaigning. She went into the church and during the distribution of communion, took a seat and started asking around to find the family. She also passed around a business card, telling a family member “‘I want you to know our government is against this war.” Not sure what that means….presumably she meant the government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Whatever.
Some people see a funeral, this woman saw a campaign opportunity. As you might expect, people are outraged. Governor Ed Rendell is going to apologize to the Marine’s family and says he is disturbed by what took place. Rumors have already begun swirling that he might drop her from the ‘06 ticket.
Now would be a good time.

Some people just have no ethics. Assuming that the family was against the war because of the death, she went in for the kill. Too bad she misread and didn’t see a bunch of people who understood the reason for the war and while saddened by the loss, these people were still committed to see it through.
Shame on you Lt. Governor Knoll.

Here’s a wonderful story from FOX News:

Skateboarder Sues Utility Over Manhole Branding
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who was branded with letters from the Consolidated Edison logo when she fell off a skateboard onto a searing hot manhole cover in Manhattan last year filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking unspecified damages from the utility.
Elizabeth C. Wallenberg, 27, was burned just above her buttocks and on her left arm when she fell off her skateboard onto a cover over a steam pipe at Second Avenue and 13th Street in the East Village shortly after midnight on Aug. 11, 2004, said her lawyer Ronald Berman.
“It literally looked like a brand that had been applied by someone,” Berman said about the burn marks left on Wallenberg’s body.
He said she was treated for the injury in the Beth Israel Hospital emergency room and released.
Wallenberg, then a Brooklyn resident who worked for Paper magazine, reportedly said she heard her skin sizzle and saw an “o” and an “n” from the hot cover impressed upon her body. Wallenberg has been told the scarring is permanent, Berman said.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, accused Con Ed of “negligence, carelessness, recklessness and culpable conduct” related to Wallenberg’s injuries.
Court papers said Wallenberg, now a factory worker who lives in Portland, Ore., is entitled to compensatory and punitive damages because of Con Ed’s “reprehensible and egregious failure and refusal … to protect the public from this manifestly clear and present danger.”
Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert said he had no comment on the lawsuit.

So this woman falls off her skateboard and onto a manhole cover for a steam pipe. She gets permanently scarred by the experience, and she wants ConEd to foot the bill. Why? Why should someone else have to pay for her stupidity? Was she wearing safety equipment? Was she drunk? Why was she going down the middle of the street in the first place? I don’t know, the article doesn’t say.
All I do know is she wants to hold someone else responsible for her mistake, and that’s not right. In this world you are going to get bumps and bruises when you do things like that, take your lumps and move on.

Here you go. A classic case as to “you have the freedom to only do what we want you to do.” Grand Old Party Pooper?
The principal of a school, who happens to be the wife of a Democrat State Assemblyman, went ballistic over a picture of President Bush, displayed with other Presidents, and fired the teacher responsible. Now the teacher is suing and wants her job back. You are free to ask the principal why she did such a thing, here is her information:
Principal Joyce Becker-Seddio
Birch Lane Elementary School
E-mail: jbecker@msd.k12.ny.us
(516) 797-6010
I hope her email box explodes.

In New York, they are starting a police of random -but routine- searches of commuters. In wake of that decision, this shirt has come about. NYers to NYPD: ‘I Do Not Consent to Being Searched’.
While commuters have the “option” of declining, if the officer feels like there is probable cause, he can detain and even arrest you if he feels it necessary, based on how nervous you are.
What a country. Can’t you just feel the freedom here? [/sarcasm]