Month: May 2005

Anyone remember the jack booted thugs of the ATF? The FBI’s hostage rescue team (also known as the Hostage Roasting Team)? Well, move over for the newest bullies on the block. Get ready for Hollywood’s finest — the black-Kevlar-clad, deadly-as-Ninjas, MPAA! That stands for the Motion Picture Association of America, and no, I am serious.…

Be sure to check out the worst of the worst at this week’s Bonfire of the Vanties. This week’s host is Donna Barber, posting to the excellent blog Pajama Pundits. A few burnt offerings I yanked from the fire: Susie’s startling admission (on a White Trash Wednesday no less!) that she hadn’t (gasp!) “wandered the…

I don’t usually comment on spam, but this morning I received an unusual form of spam: an email complaining about a very typical form of spam which is probably familiar to most readers: Dear Mr. [Name Deleted], I am copying all of the parties, to whom you sent the attached e-mail. Over the past years,…

A group called Reporters Without Borders asks Google a simple question: Following Google’s announcement that it is to open an office in China, Reporters Without Borders has written to the company’s two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, asking them for a clear response to the following question : “Will you agree to censor your…

I was just playing around with Google Sets, which may actually have its uses, though what follows isn’t promising. Inspired by Chairman How’s confusion between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, I made the two evildoers ‘a set.’ The results were bewildering: The only conclusion is that the folks over at Google know intimate details…

Spring is here. At least I think it is. In late May it’s not supposed to be in the low 50s (as it has been the last few days). Anyway, the rhododendrons don’t seem to mind the unseasonably low temperatures. My front porch: And a closeup: And now for some plariarized photography. While touring downtown…

Considering Newsweek’s latest horror, I guess I really didn’t need to frame my previous question along the lines of whether it’s more disrespectful to burn the flag or the Koran. (Link via Glenn Reynolds.) Taken together with the Koran toilet story, what does all this mean? That when Newsweek puts out trash they forget to…

I’ve been out of time for almost the entire weekend, and this morning is the first chance I’ve had to look at the accumulating email. But before I do anything else, I want to welcome back Steven Malcolm Anderson (aka Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man’s-man-admiring myth-based egoist) — longtime favorite commenter here at Classical…

I caught the last few minutes of Howard Dean with Tim Russert as I finished my breakfast. Did Howard Dean really just deflect a question about socialism by insinuating that Bush’s judicial nominees would work to repeal minority rights? This kind of rhetoric is unconscionable. I think he did. Here’s the transcript: MR. RUSSERT: In…

If there’s one thing worse than seeing a crummy movie, it’s writing about it days later when you should have put the ordeal behind you. The reason I feel this sense of obligation is that for whatever reason, respected critics (Roger Ebert being a good example) seem to like the film Crash. For the life…

Via David Neiwert (who titles his post “The worst kind of hate crime”), I learned about this report of a murder of a gay man which is being called a “hate crime”: Amancio Corrales, a 23-year-old Yuma man who was dressed as a woman when he was murdered, may have been the victim of a…

Amazing what you can find on the internet by accident, isn’t it? In this particular case it’s only the most beautiful barbeque grill I’ve ever seen. If Tolkien elves did barbeque, they would use a Kamado. You could fit an orc in one. It’s also the most expensive barbeque grill I’ve ever seen. If I…

From time to time I get annoyed by comments which many other bloggers would simply delete as the product of left wing moonbats (or something like that). My view is that unless a commenter uses foul language (which can get me blocked by the various filters), launches a pointlessly insulting personal attack against me, or…

According to the New York Times, scientists in Korea report substantial, even dramatic progress in somatic stem cell research. But already, opponents in the United States are using the politically loaded, inflammatory expression “cloning” to describe the procedure: Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, commented in an e-mail message that “whatever…

I’m pissed. Earlier tonight I heard about a wonderful new drug-law aid called the Whizzinator: The WHIZZINATOR? is an easy to conceal, easy to use urinating device with a very realistic prosthetic penis. It has been extensively tested and proven to work under real-life conditions! The WHIZZINATOR? is designed to be comfortably worn as an…

When I read this headline: Lake Disappears, Baffling Villagers I imagined loony conspiracy theorists on left-wing blogs blaming the US military. I can’t say I was shocked when I read the punchline: “I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us,” said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house.…

Andrew Sullivan’s gratuitous criticism of La Shawn Barber intrigues me. Here’s Sullivan: Instapundit’s coverage suggests that he believes that the erroneously-sourced Newsweek story is actually more offensive and important than what happened at Abu Ghraib. A more direct expression of an even more hardline position is given by LaShawn Barber: Let me clear up one…

Is the new Star Wars film a bad case of art imitating life? Political hype imitating art? I haven’t seen the film, and I don’t know how badly I want to see it. But from what I’ve read, I might be bored. After all, the New York Times thinks the film “can’t hold a candle”…

That blonde Brillo pad (whom many swear by, but just rubs me the wrong way), Ann Coulter, has a little jingle reminiscent of one often bandied about in lefty circles, though this is far more clever: ‘NEWSWEEK DISSEMBLED, MUSLIMS DISMEMBERED! The rest of what she’s got to say is as incendiary as ever, but a…

This blog has been a Kass free zone for an entire week. That’s just not acceptable. And yet, weary into death of his leaden prose, I feel a distinct lack of enthusiasm for pitching in and shoveling. What to do? Sigh. Time for more outsourcing, I suppose. Filched from the pages of Neuroethics and Law…