Except for John McCain. . .

. . .who is obviously a communist bastard.

We should all be grateful. . .

. . .for the fact that the odds are roughly four billion-to-one that we are not this guy.

A rather non-productive Friday. . .

. . .of blogging draws to a close as the loose confederation of ne'er-do-wells and malingerers I call friends importune my presence at my favorite seedy port o' call wherein they shall force copious quantities of fermented barley and hops down my helpless gullet. Sons-of-bitches.

Rather than waste the reader's valuable time by hurriedly posting a link to an article which I'll have to go back and correct later because of my wanton disregard for accuracy when under the exquisite duress of peer pressure, I will bid you adieu with this fond remembrance:

Former First Lady Rosalyn Carter and John Wayne Gacy

This seems newsworthy. . .

. . .if true, or even half-true, as Michael Ledeen says. Two hundred billion barrels is a lot of oil. And, according to Next Energy News, those damned North Dakotans are just sitting on it.

Well, we'll see about that.

I've seen some slow news days. . .

. . .in my life. Today is one of them. The most interesting news story I've found is this one about Kentucky's voter registration law that prevents "party raiding". This was no doubt initiated by Republicans in order to protect the integrity of their primaries, given the fact that Democrats have traditionally held a huge registration advantage in the Commonwealth. I could be wrong about that. If so, well, then that will at least be some news on a slow news day.

Can anyone tell me. . .

. . .what's wrong with this picture?



Yeeeahh. . .I didn't think so.

Here's a gallery of the lovely Lauren Ambrose. Use the thumbnail images above the main picture to navigate through the collection.

Think retraction. . .

. . .ThinkProgress.

Now, I don't feel so bad about the post I so thoroughly brutalized last Friday. It's pretty small potatoes in comparison.

H/T -- Mark Hemingway @ The Corner.

We could do a lot worse. . .

. . .than to have Gen. Petraeus leading our troops into battle. A whole lot worse. Here's just one example of the 10 things I didn't know about him:

Petraeus has suffered two major injuries during his career. In 2000, he shattered his pelvis during a parachute jump. In 1991, during a training exercise at Fort Campbell, Ky., he took a bullet to the chest. He was medevaced to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where his surgeon was Bill Frist (who would later become the Senate majority leader). When he felt ready to be discharged, he persuaded the hospital staff to release him early by doing 50 push-ups.

Sure would be nice to have him on the ticket this fall.

For all those conservatives. . .

. . .out there who persist in wallowing in the bitterness that they feel over the prospect of John McCain's nomination and keep raising the same points, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, all I can say is that their inability to get over their sense of loss will eventually define them as losers. And, if there's anything that John McCain is NOT, it's a loser -- which is just one more thing that makes him a better man than his critics will ever be; as if that needed any further demonstration.

Wouldn't it be interesting. . .

. . .to know how Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright feel about the Mumia Abu-Jamal decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as the case in general? What are the odds that either will be made to address the issue anytime soon?

(Giving my patented look of high skepticism.)

This has to be troubling. . .

. . .to any Democrat. It seems that the bitterness between the New Democrats and the New Old Democrats is starting to metastasize. Who knew that the post-partisan candidate would inspire such post-partisanship among his rival's supporters?

If metal isn't your thing. . .

. . .this ought to do the trick. There really are no words to describe what you're about to witness -- at least not in the English language.



I get horrible stuff like that in my email every week courtesy of my Good Experience newsletter. So can you!

Heavy Metal. . .

. . .in Baghdad. Looks like the must-see, feel-good movie of the season for all freedom-loving headbangers, thrashers, and moshpit revelers this summer.


Crave Online

It's a pretty good diagnosis. . .

. . .but, I don't think David Brooks gets to the root of the problem with the Democrats at this point, which I addressed in my previous post. The fact is, Hillary Clinton has no choice but to fight this out to the very bitterest of ends. The fate of her beloved Democratic Party is at stake, and she is not about to, nor can she afford to allow it to fall into the hands of the people she and Bill and their war room compatriots took it from.

She has to fight the realignment, or else be prepared for the purge.

A great list of blogs. . .

. . .has been posted over at Right Wing News. I discovered several that I'd never heard of and bookmarked them. In fact, I bookmarked the list itself for future reference.

Enjoy.

The Wright wing. . .

. . .of the Democratic Party is going to be a perpetual gift to John McCain for the next nine months. Obama's inevitable nomination will embolden the very people he's trying to distance himself from right now: they'll see his victory as a vindication of their beliefs and they'll be spurred on by it. So we can look forward to a whole lot more of the conspiracy-minded idiocy that has afflicted the likes of Willie Nelson working in tandem with the chronically indignant mindset among the Whoopi Goldbergs of the world whose entire lives seem to be centered around expressing the sense of grievance they've nurtured into an art form.

We are witnessing a wonderful struggle between the New Democrats of the Democratic Leadership Council represented by the Clinton campaign, and the New Old Democrats of Daily Kos and MoveOn.org represented by Obama. And, as narrow as the ideological differences may be between the two factions, the differences are deep and growing deeper by the day.

What has the two factions so viciously at odds with one another isn't their goals beliefs; you couldn't slide a razor between them as far as that goes. Rather, it's a battle over whether the Democrats should embrace the image of "progressivism" and run under its banner, or continue to treat it as a dirty word to be avoided in mixed company. The MoveOn crowd is convinced that the only way for Democrats to excite their base and to draw people into the movement is to fully envelop themselves in liberalism under the shinier "Progressive" brand. And they deeply resent the fact that liberals have exhibited what they feel is outright cowardice in declining to self-describe as such for so many years while Republicans have done everything they can to wrap themselves in the ribbons and bows of conservatism -- and done so with a good degree of electoral success.

As "progressives", many Democrats feel they've been betrayed by the Clintons and the blue dog Democrats who have gone to great pains to publicly put distance between themselves and those who controlled the party between 1968 and 1991. They blame the party's failures since then on the psychological effect of what they see as self-hatred -- that the voters sense even Democrats now believe that liberalism is something to be ashamed of -- and vote accordingly. Why vote Republican-lite when you can have the real thing?

So, in response, the old elements that once exercised the power in the Democratic Party, having grown tired of being marginalized by the people they were working so hard to get elected only to come up empty-handed, decided to reassert themselves. And, boy are they ever asserting themselves! In fact, they've grown so assertive that they've driven the Clinton faction from the temple. When Hillary's supporters went "on strike" at Daily Kos for what they considered unfair treatment, Kos responded by hitting them in the ass with the door.

Essentially, the bitter fight that's currently going on among the Democrats is the culmination of Markos Moulitsas's grand strategy -- a fight he and his cohort have been spoiling for going on eight years now. It's also a fight that the Democratic Leadership Council is in no way ready to lose. Anyone who thinks this is going to end anytime before the end of August simply doesn't understand what's at stake for the Democrats. This is not a matter of people simply preferring one candidate over another. It is a cataclysmic event whose reverberations will be felt for a generation, with the winner ultimately charting the course of the American left for the next twenty years.

For now, it appears that the "progressives" have won. They certainly appear poised for victory in the power struggle. But, given what it's going to take to ultimately lay claim to the crown, Mr. Moulitsas is likely to emerge a one-eyed king.

I had my differences. . .

. . .with the irreplaceable Thomas Sowell during the primaries, and that's never a comfortable place to be. Thankfully, I find my self in agreement with him these days -- especially with regard to the Obama/Wright connection. Here's where he really nails down the piece:

Since all things are the same, except for the differences, and different except for the similarities, it is always possible to make things look similar verbally, however different they are in the real world.

Among the many desperate gambits by defenders of Senator Obama and Jeremiah Wright is to say that Wright's words have a "resonance" in the black community.

There was a time when the Ku Klux Klan's words had a resonance among whites, not only in the South but in other states. Some people joined the KKK in order to advance their political careers. Did that make it OK? Is it all just a matter of whose ox is gored?

Keith Olbermann. . .

. . .cross-dresser?

Neck punch number two. . .

. . .goes to Pauly Shore. And not for the racist rant in which he was supposedly joking. Simply being Pauly Shore is justification enough.

Don't click on the video. You'll just go on a killing spree. The email alone is all the human bowel can take.

If I hear of one more. . .

. . .entity claiming that its next version is going to be like the old version "on steroids", I'm going to start taking steroids and punch said entity in the neck.

Aside from that, though, this is a pretty interesting article regarding Google's plans for utilizing the unused broadcast TV channels for the next generation of WiFi, which I think ought to be called HellFi.

In Hillary's defense. . .

. . .I can understand how she might misspeak in describing how she sashayed across an airport tarmac. This sort of thing happens to me all the time. In fact, just this past Friday night, as I was walking into my favorite local eatery to enjoy a few beers and the company of friends, I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in years. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes, catching up on the intervening years. Then, we bid our fond farewells for what will likely be another 15 years or more.

Later, as I was sitting at the bar talking with the friends I see on a more regular basis, one turned to me and asked, "So, Walt, what did you do today?"

"Oh, I killed a guy in the parking lot," I replied.

You see? I mean, this really could happen to anyone. So, as long as we're cutting Obama some slack, let's show Hillary that same kind of magnanimity.

Gee, thanks. . .

. . .Jonah.

What's happening. . .

. . .in Merry Olde England? They're easing restrictions on flying the Union Jack; restrictions I never knew existed, much less that they've existed since 1924.

I've always had a certain affinity for the Union Jack, and I have to say I feel happy for the folks over in the UK right now. It's nice to see them asserting a symbol of national pride once again, and I hope they'll take full advantage of this opportunity.

I remember hearing many years ago that the Brits don't have the same level of reverence for their flag as we Yanks do -- that the analog to our Stars n' Stripes is actually their Queen. How true it is, I don't know. But, in any case, any symbol of national identity that binds the good people of England together in the face of an encroaching Islamic threat has to be a positive.

Good show!

To all my readers, have a wonderful and blessed Easter that strengthens and reaffirms your faith in Christ.