Dean's World

This is an extremely funny and clever show.

I really would never have guessed that Christina Applegate had it in her.

Thanks guys.

What follows is a translation of the first chapter of “Laws of idolatry”. (All text added by the translator is bracketed.)

If you have anything helpful to note on the grammar, please do so.

If waterboarding is torture and torture is illegal, then didn't Congress break the law every year when they passed a military budget that contains funds specifically dedicated to conducting waterboarding as a matter of course?

On the economic front we have much to be proud of, unemployment has declined from 50% to 20% and inflation has gone down from 60% to 16%, these are tremendous achievements.

The horrible discovery in Diyala province Monday was disturbing even by the standards of Iraq's running sectarian violence. Iraqi police said they found 20 decapitated bodies dumped near a police station west of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province.
...
The prognosis for Iraq, barring a dynamic transformation on the part of the Iraqi government very soon, is grimly apparent. As U.S. forces lessen their presence in the coming months, killings of the kind seen Monday in Diyala will persist there and most likely spread to areas calmed by the increase of U.S. forces.

They did it again. Today an AOL News Headline tells us: NBC Confirms Late Night Host is Out

Wow, I thought, this must be some curiously obscure "Late Night Host." I clicked on the story.

It was Jay Leno.

By the shores of old Lake Michigan
Where the "hawk wind" blows so cold
An old Cub fan lay dying
In his midnight hour that tolled
Round his bed, his friends had all gathered
They knew his time was short
And on his head they put this bright blue cap
From his all-time favorite sport
He told them, "Its late and its getting dark in here"
And I know its time to go
But before I leave the line-up
Boys, there's just one thing I'd like to know

Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground?
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League

Suck me, Boston.

Iraqi police said Monday that they have found 20 headless bodies in north of Baghdad with one believed to be a tribal leader.
...
After investigating the "20 headless bodies" story, Multi-National Force Iraq has no record that this incident took place yesterday near Baquba (Bakubah).

RAMADI, Iraq - For veterans of Ramadi, it seems like a different place and a different war.

Just last year, soldiers were breaking down doors, hunting insurgents and struggling to secure the city block by block. U.S. troops now are invited into the homes of sheiks for lunch.
...
Attacks, including those by small-arms fire, explosive devices, have decreased from about 30 a day in January to fewer than one a day now, according to the U.S. military. Last year, during the holy month of Ramadan, there were 442 incidents in the area; this year, there were four, the military said.

Most people neither succeed nor fail. When I say most, I mean the vast majority of humanity. They mostly take up space, precious oxygen, and a certain amount of pie; and then it is over.

So whenever a friend of mine says, "I have failed profoundly," or words (perhaps unprintable) to that effect, I realize I am talking to one of the other people: The precious minority that in some way shapes the world around them. They measure their place in life in terms of success and failure because they have ambition, itself borne of ability, talent, or sensitivity (seldom all of these), plus a gnawing feeling in their guts that demands that they push.

Just plain push.

For some people, a combination of culture, social context, intelligence or brains — and luck — helps this pushing make productive sense.

Some people (the ones most of us can't stand) put it all together and lead the world, though in almost every case there's some loose end that never quite gets tucked in. (Ironically, some of these "leaders" — perfect plasti-people — are not in this category at all, I think; they just do everything right and end up, zombie-like, on top.) But most people, well, they're missing a piece of that puzzle. Yet the majority are able to mix and match, to compensate, and come up with some sort of solution that does not look too much like failure, to feed that churning most of the time, and make some manner of way in life.

But these stomach people are the ones who move humanity along, even if along the way they crash and burn once, or twice, or over and over. Frequently the ones who do this the most can point to one or two signal accomplishments, too, that set them apart from almost everyone else. Short of the Julius Caesars and Napoleon Bonapartes and Ludwig van Beethovens, most of the people pushed in this way, and who have some shot, because of their time and place and opportunity, of making something of it, have a very hard time finding a sustainable equilibrium. The gnawing never stops, but the successes or resolution or gratification come in starts and fits and, like a gambler working the slots at Vegas, encourage us to keep shoving in gelt.

Sometimes that makes the gnawing go away, the fits of reward, and sometimes it doesn't.

So these people with the pushy tummies often reach for other way to shut them up while waiting for the next train to satisfaction. Some of us get fat. Some of us abandon ourselves to carnal pleasure. For some, it is the bottle. There are new things to keep hitting that button, too — the Internet, "gaming," gambling. And there are other, old ones, far darker.

Not every drunk, or every fatso, or every crook, is a would-be Winston Churchill. But at a certain point, you can look at the record, and see which ones are. The dissipation of great talent is usually evident. You can see the peaks of creativity, and frequently of rage, and often lipid pools of beauty trailed behind.

The only thing less stable than a car going 85 miles an hour is one going faster. One little oil slick, or stone on the road, or glitch in the suspension, and the spinout that is survivable at 55 becomes a potential disaster — not only for the driver, of course, but for everyone in the car, and those around him, too.

Pulling the car out of the ditch, in some cases, is sometimes never possible. There was no comeback for Orson Welles. Some people wrote great novels, plays, blogs, hit a wall, and never came back.

There but for the grace of God goes each and every one of us with a screaming gut — we're speeding along, heart bleeding, the specter of failure constantly gaining in the rear view mirror.

Every one of us.

So at least we have each other, right?

The Queen left me.

I want to die.

A list of the top ten horror film villains of all time.

LONDONDERRY, N.H. (AP) - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Monday that two of the Democratic candidates will change their minds again about the Iraq war and agree that it was the right decision.
...
"Suppose Hillary Clinton and John Edwards' new position was their position back then, that it was a mistake to take him out," Giuliani said, referring to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "Wouldn't we be dealing with Saddam Hussein becoming nuclear right now? If Iran was becoming nuclear what would he be doing? Sitting there letting his arch enemy gain nuclear power over him? Or would we now be dealing with two countries seeking to become nuclear powers."

Some time in the first week of October, a technician looked at my mammogram and said, “Well, looks like that ol’ gal has a problem.”
Whereupon my doctor was alerted.
When she called me herself, I knew something was up. By the time she told me she’d made me an appointment with a surgeon, I was in a panic and stayed that way until the 24th.
My minister activated a prayer chain, and the few friends and family I told about it were all pulling for me.
The afternoon of the 26th I got the results back: “Normal,” said the surgeon’s nurse.

One of the few times in this life I ever heard the word and didn’t laugh, even a little bit.

Nothing ironic about it this time.

So I got on the phone and told everybody who was waiting to hear, and right then I decided I’d do what I could to share my good fortune and blessings.

You can help, and by so doing, some of that blessing will rub off on you. Even if you don’t believe in prayer, surely you’d believe that wishing someone well was a good thing. So it doesn’t even require prayer if you’re not so inclined.

This has already started to work, as a lifelong friend with a rare form of liver cancer has started to turn the corner, when everybody thought it was hopeless.

So I’ll ask that you start with fellow blogger Andrew Ian Dodge, and ask the man upstairs, your higher power, or whatever or whomever send you prayers to bless him with healing energies. Or just wish him well.

Then go to our hosts, Dean and Rosemary, and do the same just because they are excellent people, and proceed outward with the other Contributing Editors at Dean’s World, the commenters, and readers. Stop whenever you figure you’re done.

I guarantee you will feel better yourself, just for participating. This may not change the world, but at least our little corner of it will be brighter for a moment.

Thank you for helping! May you likewise be blessed. Or, please accept my good wishes. It’s all good.

Riff: A short, repeated, memorable musical phrase, often pitched low on the guitar, which focuses much of the energy and excitement of a rock song. - Rikky Rooksby

I like all kinds of music, but growing up in the midwest during the 1970s listening to album rock has left me with a lifelong appreciation for electric guitar rock. Even though my musical tastes have evolved and broadened to cover everything from African to Zydeco, there are times when I'll hear the riffs from one of these songs that I can't resist blasting my car stereo like a teenager.

Barracuda by Heart is now used in, of all things, a commercial for a minivan (the commercial got me started thinking about this post).

Van Halen has two of the greatest rock riffs: You Really Got Me, and Runnin with the Devil No surprise considering who the guitarist is.

Rush - Working Man. Rush. You either love them or you hate them. Working Man was their first big hit in the US, and probably their most straightforward, non-artsy, rock song. Ever debate Rush vs. Led Zeppelin? I have. Call it white trash Crossfire or Point/Counterpoint.

U2 - I Will Follow. The Edge is up there with some of the greatest guitarists of the late 20th century, and the opening riff to this song sets the level of energy for the rest of the song. U2 has always been a bit preachy, but in my opinion their best work also tends to be their simplest.

ACDC - Back In Black. I love AC/DC for the same reason I love Mel Brooks movies: the art may not be the most intellectually stimulating, but so what! They're both a lot of fun.

Rolling Stones - Satisfaction. This song has been forever "corrupted" by the river rat scene in Apocalypse Now. However, I like that movie and in my view the scene just adds to the power of the song. From the very first note, you know you are on a sinister ride. The song has suffered from being overplayed, although not nearly as much as Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, a song I can no longer listen to.

The Cult - Rain. The Cult is a band out of the UK that never achieved much success on this side of the pond. In fact I remember seeing one of their songs clear a dance floor in a trendy club in Chicago in October 1985. However after the Trendy Gods deemed the band "cool," that same song crowded the floor within a few weeks. It seems stupid now, but when you're 18 there's little that you know or think you know that doesn't turn out later to be stupid.

I'm not a guitar player but I still appreciate a good riff - whether it's Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" or the Sex Pistol's pulse pounding opening to Anarchy in the UK.

Got any favorite riffs?

Dave Price Adds: I'd never heard of The Cult before a few months ago, but after stumbling across a few of their songs they're suddenly one of my favorites. Breathe (how can you not love a song with lyrics like "55,000 flowers for the hero, scattered at his feet to satisfy his ego"), Shape The Sky, Speed Of Light, Sanctuary, Take The Power, American Horse, all rifftastic classics imho.

"Unfortunately, there are some individuals who are not interested in reconciliation," Odierno said. "These individuals continue to use violence to incite sectarian hatred for political gain, to promote foreign interests and to achieve personal wealth through criminal activity.

We'll be sitting there in the TOC (tactical operations center or HQ) and an e-mail comes in and it's literally a map (or a photo of one) with detailed descriptions of wanted men and/or caches. And the information is turning out to be true. I have never seen anything like this before,

It's becoming almost bizarre how specific the informants are becoming. Informants have called up saying they are with bad guys right now and giving their location. Our guys show up and arrest everyone. Hours later, the U.S. soldiers let the informants go. JAM and AQI are getting slammed in many areas because local people are sick of the violence and local people trust Americans to help them end it.

The left is often (wrongly) accused of being silent or apathetic to issues like Islamic theocracy or oppression in the Muslim majority world. This has been useful right-wing spin. Just one bit of proof lies in the fact that my piece on The Making of the Muslim Left has been edited and reprinted at the frontpage of Alternet, a progressive website.

(Though they did, out of their own accord, rephrase the idea of the Muslim left into "reforming Islam" -- which I disagree with but will put up with for now).

By the way, if you've already read Making of the Muslim Left at the Guardian (another leftist place), you don't need to re-read it, although the commentators are different. American instead of Brit.

One day I may break all ties with AOL and corn syrup, but for now, they still have me in their grip. (Apparently corn syrup is in "everything.")

I have often been perturbed by AOL's headlines, for the way that they, like corn syrup, subtly destroy life and hope.

When I saw their contorted headline today: "Glittering Country Singer Dies: He Gave Dolly Parton Big Break," I gnashed my teeth. Again.

Why can't AOL allow us our dignity as Americans and say, simply:

Porter Wagoner Dies at 80.

That is the story.

He was not "a glittering country singer."

He was Porter Wagoner.

The difference is insidious; AOL seeks to erode the threads that tie us to our cultural memory, so that we will all be morons who know only one word.

When Arthur Miller died I had the same bristle. AOL News declared: "Famous Writer Dies--Once Married to Marilyn Monroe." As if we needed the celebrity sugar pill to make the medicine go down.

No.

Arthur Miller Dies is the correct and dignified headline for one of America's most iconic writers.

Hunter Thompson suffered a similar indignity but I can't recall now how AOL phrased the news of his suicide.

Unless and until they start to refer to Britney Spears as "American Pop Star Britney Spears," I will insist upon my point, that they are inserting their own corn syrup into our news.

Nobody wants or needs AOL's degree of cultural illiteracy to guide the headlines about life and death. Nobody asked for corn syrup in "everything" either.

AOL, by the way, requires that you tell them what race you are. I said I was black, so I get the black AOL news and entertainment. I'm not sure how it differs from the Caucasian news.

I chose AOL because the software favors computer dummies like me, but I never dreamed AOL would treat me like a clinical dummy in matters other than how to operate email.

As Porter and Dolly put it in their famous song which happens to be the anthem in my home: "We'll Get Ahead Some Day."

Great song.

Touring in support of a new memoir, the former CIA operative said in a speech Sunday that she and husband Joseph Wilson have left Washington behind but have no intention of keeping quiet about the way they say they were retaliated against by the White House and others.

"They would like nothing more for us to than be silent and go away. We are not going to give them the satisfaction," said Plame.

Operation Merlin is an alleged United States covert operation under the Clinton Administration to provide Iran with a flawed design for building a nuclear weapon in order to delay the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
...
Operation Merlin backfired when the Russian scientist noticed the flaws and pointed them out to the Iranians. Instead, the book alleges, it may have accelerated Iran's nuclear program by providing useful information, once the flaws were identified.

Plame got a $1 million advance for the book.

FORSMARK, Sweden (Reuters) - It's not everyone's dream destination, but in Sweden thousands of visitors each year head to remote coastland to view the nation's nuclear power plants.
...
Of Sweden's population of around nine million, almost three million have been to a Swedish nuclear plant -- some on school trips, others as passing tourists -- since they were first able to visit 35 years ago, said Torsten Bohl, communications director at state firm Vattenfall, Forsmark's majority owner.

"They see it's a large industrial complex, but nothing else -- and the people who work there are ordinary, not greenish," said Bohl.

It is that time of year again for the Brass Crescent Awards, the annual celebration of the best of the Islamsphere:

What are the Brass Crescent Awards? They are named for the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights. Today, the Islamsphere is forging a new synthesis of Islam and modernity, and is the intellectual heir to the traditions of philosophy and learning that was once the hallmark of Islamic civilization - a heritage scarcely recognizable today in the Islamic world after a century's ravages of colonialism, tyrants, and religious fundamentalism. We believe that Islam transcends history, and we are forging history anew for tomorrow's Islam. These awards are a means to honor ourselves and celebrate our nascent community, and promote its growth.

The nomination phase is now open, so vote for your favorite blogs in each of the following categories:

BEST BLOG: This category honors the most indispensable, Muslim-authored blog there is. Period.

BEST NON-MUSLIM BLOG: Which blog writen by a non-Muslim is most respectful of Islam and seeks genuine dialogue with Muslims?

BEST DESIGN: Which blog has the most aesthetically pleasing site design, appealing to the eye, evoking Islamic themes, and/or facilitating debate and discussion?

BEST POST OR SERIES: Which single post or group of posts in the Islamsphere was the most original and important, above all the others?

BEST IJTIHAD: What blog post provided the best rebuttal to arguments of extremist ideology, and in so doing expose how those who commit evil in the name of Islam are actually profaning the faith?

BEST FEMALE BLOG: The woman's voice in Islam is equal to the man's, and in the Islamsphere we seek to make sure the female perspective is highlighted and given its rightful due. Which Muslim woman's blog has done the most to explore the role that women play within Islam and society?

BEST WRITER: Who is the most stimulating, insightful, and philosophically wise among us? This category is intended to highlight a blogger who may not post daily, but when they do post, they really make an impact.

MOST DESERVING OF WIDER RECOGNITION: Which blog is a true diamond in the rough, one that everyone should be reading but who most just haven't heard of (yet)?

BEST GROUP BLOG: Which multiple group blog in the Islamsphere has the best diversity of writers and the most interesting debate on Muslim issues?

BEST MIDEAST/CENTRAL ASIAN & BEST SOUTH/SOUTHEAST ASIAN BLOGGERS: The Islamsphere is truly a global phenomenon. In Iraq, despite the chaos and uncertainty, there is a sea change of free speech and expression, the vanguard of which are blogs. There are also bloggers in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Jordan, and most other countries that host Muslims, all of whom have their own perspectives on faith, culture, and politics.

As always, I am honored to co-host the Brass Crescent Awards with my friend Shahed Amanullah of AltMuslim.com. Shahed has worked tirelessly to create the voting mechanism and design the graphics for the Awards this year and every year. However, as usual, please note that neither altmuslim.com nor City of Brass are eligible for any Awards.

Circa 130 BCE

I awoke swinging by my ankles and wrists, bound to a pole carried on the shoulders of two men like some fresh kill being carried home after a hunt. I was naked, my throat was on fire and I could feel neither my hands nor my feet. Realizing my predicament a roar of incoherent rage pushed from my chest but came out of my aching throat with considerably less force than I intended. Still, it was enough to attract attention and my captors stopped briefly, stared at me, and called out to some others in that strangely clipped tongue of theirs. After a few pokes at me and some infuriating laughter they continued their march.

I prepared myself for the humiliations to come. I would undoubtedly be beaten and raped, but those would be familiar degradations at least. I sincerely hoped not to be burned. I had been burned fairly badly once and that was a pain difficult to suffer through. In any case I would watch for whatever chance to escape presented itself—and though there was no sign of his whereabouts I would await my opportunity to kill that vile creature Rufus the moment he should chance my way.

Note: Some readers may find what follows disturbing.

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READ MORE
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It's hard to overstate my satisfaction... With Portal. The trailer sums the game up fairly well:

The game is part of the Orange Box, but is also available as a stand alone download. It's supposed to be about 2-3 hours of gameplay-- but it took me more like 5-6. And then I had to play it again just for the developers' commentary.

At the end of the game, there's cake. Delicious and moist cake...

I'm not asking you I'm telling you!

Whew! Just made it! Dean's under the weather- it's 11:24 PM EDT. Go!

Those of you who care probably already know this and have downloaded the 2gb demo released this morning at 7am EST. For those of you who don't... Crysis is the latest video game produced by Crytek, a Hungarian video game shop that released Far Cry in 2004. Far Cry is one of those games that blend story, adrenaline and state-of-the-art computer graphics that transcends the genre. Crysis is the follow up to Far Cry, although there are no connections between the two other than the company that makes them.

So far I've played 6 minutes of the demo - the game's first level (the entire game will be released Nov 16). Whereas Far Cry gave me the feeling that I was some kind of spy or mercenary, Crysis evokes fear along the lines of Doom. It becomes clear very quickly that you are up against an alien intelligence (as well as the North Korean military), one that doesn't seem much affected by your advanced weaponry and body armor.

I'm running the game on a mid-range home-built rig with a nice 20" LCD widescreen monitor, Nvidia 7900gs vid card, and Core2Duo 4300 that should be able to OC but I'm having trouble with my bios - so I ran on stock (1.8ghz) this morning. So far the graphics have been quite impressive; choppy in parts but much smoother than I was expecting. This is a game that some gamers have been building rigs for, but considering the complexity of the game I think that Crytek did a very good job of keeping the minimum specs down.

Video games are not everyone's taste. I grew up with the things and view them as just another form of entertainment; others can't stand them. But if you are the former, and have the bandwidth to handle a 2gb download, you might want to check out this game.

Just don't do it in the dark...

Thanks, Oscar Meyer.

Kate has some thoughts.

My suggestion: sit at a table.

A fun site.

I am sure everyone's heard by now that a group of leftist protesters from the general Atlanta community, booed Horowitz off stage at his talk at Emory University. It is good to see that the Emory Muslim community opposed the protester's thuggishness.

Emory Muslims who attended were dignified, patient and respectfully quiet. For several weeks, ever since Horowitz’s visit to Emory was first announced, we have stood by our mutual decision to uphold the right to freedom of speech on our University campus, and we are proud to say that no MSA members were among the rude and disruptive protestors at the event.

No matter how much we disagree with Horowitz, and how deeply hurt we might feel by what he says, our resolve to respect the University’s principles of free speech — even if that speech is hateful and painful to us — remains firm.

Earlier this week, one of us received indirect, anonymous communications that members of the broader Atlanta community were unhappy with the pacifist position that the Emory MSA has taken on the matter of Horowitz’s visit. These messages accused members of “not caring” about the broader Atlanta community’s opinions and feeling unaccountable to them.

At a certain point during Horowitz’s abbreviated remarks, when he pointed out that several students were in fact not being disruptive, one loud protestor shouted out, “Sheep!,” as if to berate those of us who were not protesting in the same manner as she, and to deem us meek or complacent.

It is extremely disheartening that broader Atlanta community members, many of whom, incidentally, were non-Muslims, would fail to consult members of the actual campus community of Emory Muslims and their allies, those who stand to experience the most backlash as a result of the planned actions on our campus.

Read the whole thing.

After Horowitz was heckled off, the President of the Muslim Students Association went to Starbucks to express her regrets to Horowitz personally.

5:59pm Eastern--Go!

Georgia's Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of a young man who has been imprisoned for more than two years for having consensual oral sex with another teenager.

The court ruled 4-3 that Genarlow Wilson's 10-year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment....

Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion that the changes in the law "represent a seismic shift in the legislature's view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants."

Sears wrote that the severe punishment makes "no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment" and that Wilson's crime did not rise to the "level of adults who prey on children."...

Dissenting justices wrote that the state Legislature expressly stated that the 2006 change in the law was not intended to affect any crime prior to that date.

They said Wilson's sentence could not be cruel and unusual because the state Legislature decided that Wilson could not benefit from subsequent laws reducing the severity of the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor.

They called the decision an "unprecedented disregard for the General Assembly's constitutional authority."

I have a real problem here. Much may depend on Georgia law, and I have not read the opinion. Without that, though, I think the outcome is correct, yet it also seems to me that the dissenters are probably technically right: The Georgia legislature seemed to have contemplated, by the way they drafted the statute, Wilson's continued incarceration.

Yet it also seems that the judges have done the right thing here.

I've linked this site before, but it's only gotten better and more mature over time. You should bookmark it and share it with everybody: Screw Loose Change.

The "9/11 Truthers" aren't just nuts. Some of them are clearly dishonest scam artists bilking money from gullible fools.

A very personal story of redemption and healing.

Our friend Andrew Ian Dodge has cancer, and is blogging about it.

You're gonna beat this thing, Andrew!

Today he demonstrated how a former President should behave.

There was a period of about 3-6 months wherein if you typed "Tienanmin Square" into GoogleChina, this Dean's World article appeared in the top 10 listing. I was very proud of that, because obviously we'd managed to sneak under the f**kers' RADAR. Now, as regular Dean's World commenter "McKiernan" points out, we're banned in China. No great surprise, but I view that as a badge of honor. I hope all Dean's World contributors and commenters view it exactly the same way. Here is the unadulterated truth about communism, in all its wicked, despicable, murderous, torturing glory. This is the true legacy of Karl Marx and his warped and utterly wrong philosophy. No matter how nice it sounds, no matter how well-intentioned, the truth underlying it is wicked almost beyond belief.

Saying so doesn't make me a "right-winger" or a "bleeding heart." It makes me a frickin' human. As Cicero said, the Road to Hell is paved with good intention. So what?

Now my brother Ron Coleman asks an interesting question: should people who do business who sell a tool be responsible for what people do with the tool?

I have two answers to that:

1) No 2) Yes

Oh, is that contradictory? Well maybe that's the problem with a black-and-white world. Not that drawing stark contrasts is always bad, but:

It's not entirely fair for me to pull this question on Ron, because as a very serious (which I respect deeply) Orthodox Jew, I'm gonna go ahead and invoke Godwin's question on his Hebrew butt: were the people selling the insecticide gas that was used to liquidate Slavs, Gypsies, the genetically defective, the Jews, and so on at all responsible for what their clients did with those easily-mixed industrial chemicals?

I think this is no simple matter. Because we are, after all, fallible humans. Each and every one of us (a central Christian teaching, BTW). Still, let's put it in stark contrast: a woman comes to you, as an attorney, and says, "I really hate my husband, I don't want to divorce him because that would be inconvenient on the insurance, so how can I poison him and not let anyone know that I did so?"

Or, just so no one accuses me of being sexist, it could go the other way: "How could I get away with beating my bitch wife around, legally, and make it look like her fault?"

Now let me go back to my original point:

Show me in Torah or Talmud that it's okay for you to sell anything to anyone and have no responsibility whatsoever for what the purchaser does with it. Do you really think that?

"Sell me that pretty stainless-steel knife, Ron, so I can use it to gut my children, who have profoundly disappointed me." (And by the way, I pose that question in a platonic sense, so if any of my children read this now or in the future they should know that I love them very much and am merely setting up a moral paradigm. I love my children so much that nothing like that would ever occur. I'd die first.).

Still I ask the question: You're gonna just say, "hey, it's a $10 knife bro, the rest is none of my business?"

You know, it often amazes me how common sense eludes the legal profession. It often strikes me: Scenario A, a respectable citizen (and let's be sexist and say it's a woman) comes into your gun shop and says her crazy ex-boyfriend is threatening to kill her and her children. Scenario B: a creepy and insecure guy comes into your gun shop and asks what's the cheapest gun that will help you deal out the maximum possible damage to human flesh, and mutters something about how injust life has been to him.

So, what? You have no moral responsibility here? None whatsoever?

You spend your entire life learning to become a craftsman in the art of making steel knives. You make incredibly useful, and even beautiful, stainless steel knives that are so sharp, you can practically just aim it at a leg of lamb and have it come apart.

Now a psychotic woman shows up and says, "that bastard did me wrong, I need one of those so he'll learn to respect me."

Do you sell it to her?

I don't think it's an unfair question. But you tell me what you think, my brother.

before season 4. seriously. and thats just till season 4 starts... to get to the end, it might be another full year beyond that.

Dean thought maybe this story was going away. So did I.

Nope. Bob Cox is all over it!

The class was at Brown Bay with V.I. National Park Education Specialist Laurel Brannick during V.I. Coastweeks in September when a man wearing flip flops, a bathing suit and a baseball hat suddenly appeared on the beach.
...
“In broken English, he asked us where he was and if this was St. John,” said Brannick. “When we told him it was, he almost started to cry. He was saying, ‘I’m free!’ and giving us the thumbs up.”
...
Lopez was able to relay his story to a Spanish-speaking student in the class. The Cuban immigrant traveled to St. Maarten, then Tortola via a boat. He then blew up an inflatable kayak he brought with him from Cuba and paddled toward St. John.

“It got a couple holes in it, so he ditched it when he got close to St. John and just swam in,” said Brannick. “He told us he’s a pharmacist, but he had no future in Cuba. He said we were his guardian angels.”

Glenn Reynolds is outraged that American software is being used to censor the Internet by the fascists of Burma.

But I ask here: Is every bad thing that is done with something that is made in the USA really, as he puts it, "a disgrace," regardless of how very bad that thing is? And is such use of our stuff really preventable?

Despite persistent violence, the Iraqi civilian death count is projected to decline for the second consecutive month. At the current pace, October would have a death count of fewer than 900, down from 1,023 in September and 1,956 in August, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.
...
The American military has reported 30 military deaths so far in October, down sharply from last month.

Something is going on in Iraq entirely missed by media. It’s not just that things are turning around, but rather Gen. Petraeus has assembled perhaps the most gifted group of Army officers seen in a generation—who feel they are going to snatch victory from the jaws of political defeat.

The helicopter trip was brief. But the journey also crossed something huge and ugly: Iraq's bloody sectarian divisions.

Aboard the 70-mile flight from Baghdad to Ramadi was a top Pentagon envoy and a leader of Iraq's biggest Shiite political party. They were paying a visit to Sunni sheiks who have joined the U.S. battle against extremists.

The meeting Sunday was part of budding contacts between Iraq's rival Muslim groups that has shown promise where the nation's political leadership has stalled: trying to find common ground among Shiites and Sunnis.

Iraq is offering a cash bonus to married Iraqi couples from different sectarian groups in a drive to heal rifts between communities and foster reconciliation.

Word.

Perfect.

Some things Valerie Plame seems to have forgotten to mention in her book.

It must be so hard, being a multimillionaire celebrity based on a pack of slanderous lies.

At sunset we can see the smoke from the San Diego fire (150 miles away)here in Yuma AZ.

Our hotels are jammed – as are restaurants and etc. The hotels were already at near-capacity due to WTI (Weapons and Tactics Instruction) at Marine Corps Air Station, and another event at the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, the Precision Airdrop Technology Conference and Demonstration. Even so, the hotels are doing what they can and some are offering seriously discounted rates to fire refugees. The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is acting as coordinator for people who are opening their homes to those unable to find hotels.

Our social services agencies are collecting things like personal care items, for those who were evacuated without so much as a toothbrush.

The horsey set is also getting into the act, offering boarding and even transportation for homeless horses!

It’s truly an amazing thing. As you can imagine, the traffic in town is just like Christmas Eve, and the snowbirds haven’t all come back yet!

Earlier in the week, the little town of Ocotillo on I-8 on the California side, was jammed with truckers stuck there due to the closing of the freeway. What I though was very cool was that the locals recognized these guys weren’t making any money sitting still, and so offered free food and whatever else they could. Ocotillo’s a small, small town, so no hotels (at least that I’m aware of) but they did their best to help these guys out. Of course a lot of them had sleepers on their trucks.

One thing of note that I heard on local radio – at Qualcomm stadium, which is a major shelter for evacuees in the San Diego area, they are offering not only food and shelter, but massage therapy as well. ;>) Only in California!

In August, I spent about a week in Valencia, near where the Ranch and Magic fires are, and I remember thinking at the time how dry everything was. I’d visited SoCal many years ago, during a non-drought cycle, and in those days, there were green growing things everywhere, and even the freeways were bordered with flowers and lots of green ground cover.

There’s one town up there (I’m thinking it’s either Saugus or Canyon Country , but not sure which) that is a lot like Yuma, in that it’s one trailer park after another, some of which have been there for 50 years. I heard a couple of days ago an estimate of 300 trailers burning. That’s really tragic, because older trailers are difficult to insure, and many people just take their chances. So those folks will lose everything, and there won’t be any insurance payout to get them going again.

Do you live in the cities of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle or Chicago? Are you free November 12th? Do you like Battlestar Galactica?

If you answer yes to all three you might be able to see the new Galactica telemovie, Battlestar Galactica: Razor, two weeks before the rest of us poor slobs get to see it on the small screen.

Why don't you check out this link for more details?

You frackin' bastards.

The DRUDGE REPORT has since obtained the transcript of a September 7 call between TNR editor Frank Foer, TNR executive editor Peter Scoblic, and Private Beauchamp. During the call, Beauchamp declines to stand by his stories...
...
The DRUDGE REPORT has also obtained a signed "Memorandum for Record" in which Beauchamp recants his stories and concedes the facts of the Army's investigation -- that his stories contained "gross exaggerations and inaccurate allegations of misconduct" by his fellow soldiers.
...
The third document obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT is the Army's official report on the investigation...The report concludes that "Private Beauchamp takes small bits of truth and twists and exaggerates them into fictional accounts that he puts forth as the whole truth for public consumption."

Firefighters battling the Harris Fire yesterday (link)

I recently visited this area and was actually looking at the real estate. Most of the area burned is some of the most expensive in the area. That shouldn't make one care any less since fire doesn't care how fat your bank account is.

The best source for news I've found so far is SignOnSanDiego if you're interested.

the yin to the JAFI yang: Muslims Acting Like Islamophobes.

Blooking Central is a blog by Cheryl Hagedorn specializing in articles about blogs that have made the transition into books. It is not a book review, rather she explores the mechanisms of how a blog can be transformed into a book- what has worked, what hasn't and what services are out there for people interested in trying to take that big step with their own blogs.

I mention this because Dean and I were recently written up on Blooking Central after she ran into Methuselah's Daughter via the 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize. She asked some detailed questions and I responded- Dean chimes in through the comments (or he better have by the time this posts!). Check out what we had to say, and stick around to browse the site- pretty interesting stuff to be found there.

Blooking Central has the story behind the story.

I'd love to see any comments over there from anyone who actually liked the book. ;-)

State coalitions were and are also lobbying groups for feminist politics, but nobody questioned the legality of the federal government providing funding to what is essentially a political party. Since the advent of VAWA, over 660 laws have been passed at the state level alone due to the efforts of these coalitions.

Meanwhile, any plans for effective services, offered on an egalitarian basis, by small local charities and municipalities were dropped. Services that did not toe the feminist party line were at risk of losing not only government funding, but some private foundation grants as well, since VAWA established the “expertise” of  state coalitions, and membership in a coalition appeared to validate the practices of any agency.

Independent agencies grudgingly signed on, hoping that equal opportunity clauses attached to federal monies would force the feminist programs to make some progress in their approach.

Of course, that never happened; instead, programs say they offer the same services to everyone, and because the federal government appears to believe it, everyone else is supposed to believe it too.

When scrutinized from an objective point of view, VAWA with its anti-male, anti-family tone and inflexible policies, and the advocacy programs it funds with their continuous tirade of division and suspicion, provide a chilling reminder of other social engineering projects of the past. Efforts to deal with “the Negro Problem” suggested it was not only reasonable, but desirable to ship people of color to Africa, no matter how many generations their families had lived in the US. Many Native Americans will recall how children were removed from their homes and placed in boarding schools, to learn the White way of life.

Today, simply being a man carries a risk of arrest and incarceration. Feminists in the early days of the internet sometimes advocated concentration camps for men, but no one took them seriously. Perhaps it is time to reconsider their aim in a different light.

After 13 years of VAWA, and the recognition that all it does is provide for divorce for women, and making it harder to prosecute them for crimes, while at the same time making it easier to criminalize and demonize men, it should be clear that no progress in the approach to domestic violence will ever be made under the feminist regime.

That’s because it was never about helping women to lead violence-free lives or helping families cope with a complex human problem.

Now Joe Biden wants more lawyers, more divorces, more men in jail. More divorced moms working at low-paying, menial jobs means more children for Hillary’s “Village,” and ultimately more tax dollars for women and children dependent on government programs.

Joe Biden expects to come out of this smelling like a rose. Just don’t forget that the roots of roses often sit in manure.

Whose responsibility is everyone else's life? How compelling is one person's story -- or two persons' -- in the world, considering the expense of saving them? When do nations have such a responsibility? How about, in a medical context, doctors -- are they everyone's keepers?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're raised, along with the story that made me ask them, here.

“One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.

Moments later, when asked by a reporter if he really believed global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the disaster.

Well, I can't say I approve the vandalism but I surely approve of the sentiment.

Che was a murdering, torturing Marxist/Communist (same exact thing, no difference whatsoever) pig.

The Bush administration invented this unprecedented human rights travesty.

The shelter movement was in deep trouble, and funding sources were drying up. It is a fact of life in the non-profit sector that most private donors prefer to support demonstrably successful agencies with an open relationship with their communities. Since in general, shelter programs were unable to show their services had any effect on the problem, and their relationship in their communities with other agencies and the general public was anything but open, continuing financial support had to come from somewhere else.

By that time, some shelters that had failed under feminist administration had been taken over by other agencies, and in some communities, non-feminist shelter programs had begun to be established. These non-feminist agencies were poised at that time to begin making major changes in the function of their services. To the feminists still in control of the shelter system, probably the most disturbing trend was that these non-feminist programs were intending to provide equal services to all citizens of their communities, which included male victims. There was also consideration of providing aid that did not require relocation and divorce for victims, which is the only “solution” provided by feminist-run shelters.

By the time Senator Joe Biden entered the picture with his “Violence Against Women Act” in the early 1990s, there were feminists in Congress and a feminist First Lady in the White House. All of whom pushed – and pushed hard for this landmark bill that gave the appearance of benefiting women in need. Hearings on the bill were stacked, to include only those who praised VAWA. Enough legislators were either not interested in bucking the trend, or didn’t have time to consider this bill fully, that it simply sailed through Congress to become law. Well, you can’t be against helping women in need, now can you?

If there was any help there, for women or anybody else, it could’ve been a wonderful thing. What it actually did was something else.

In a nutshell, it validated the feminist philosophy of domestic violence, pumped millions of dollars into feminist bank accounts, and created what would become a multi-billion dollar industry out of the misery of American families nationwide.

In practice, VAWA established domestic violence as a crime, one that was always perpetrated by a man against a woman. This would be the first time in US history a law established who would be the victim, and who would be the offender, before any incident ever occurred.

It gave those state coalitions purporting to be “against domestic violence” the power to bully law enforcement and local judiciaries into enforcing feminist doctrine as law. Not only were the cops and judges expected to look the other way while human rights were violated without compunction, they were expected to deny their own experience and established practices. The mindset behind VAWA was stuck in the 1970s, when it was still true that a woman asking for help often had difficulty proving abuse, and police departments were reluctant to get themselves involved in private family matters. Although much had changed in police procedure regarding domestic violence over time, the progress they had made was to be ignored in favor of VAWA’s rigid policy.