It's all about the cred...

There are carbon offset credits and now, a Leakey biodiversity credit is suggested to preserve indigenous forests--as well as disingenuous politicians.

(Thanks to Senor Collins and Insty)

Why not extend the modern update of the Papal Indulgence to other present day sticky wickets?

For the un-PC we have Ethnocentric Diversity Offsets--so you can once again call the kettle black and be niggardly.

For the impolitik we have Political Spectrum Depolarizing Credits--Left, Right, Left, Right, polemicize away!

For the equatorially-challenged we have Density Diffusion Credits--why, yes, I'll have another double cheeseburger pumpstopper.

Hampered by heterosexuality? Curse no more! Regina Fabulosity Credits will compensate for any queer tendencies.

Automobile got you down? Public Transportation Offsets will ease your guilty conscience while Moving Violation Credits ensure that everyone gets to exercise his or her right to drive regardless of pesky tickets and DUIs.

Overcome by your (sub)urban jungle? Landscape Beautification Credits may be combined with Bureaucratic Citizen Offsets to allow those folks who are currently handling it for you to go right on handling it. Easy, no?

...and finally (hold the applause you) Frank-n-Steyn Breeding Offsets--so you may wither away hither and thither.

Ah, hell...y'all get the point.

Fred gives Michael advice

Our main man Fred gives Michael "Sicko" Moore some sage words of advice.

Ladies and gentlemens, the next President of these here United States...

MN's Hamline is VTech in waiting

CItyPages' Ward Rubrecht has the story of a conservative, CCW holder who was a student at Hamline University's Law School until his e-mail to the University President got him banned from the campus for his views.

(H/t Instapundit)

This really pegs the hooey meter...

Virginia Tech was a "Gun Free Zone" in a state with a concealed carry law. Some of the students there have CCW permits, but--because they followed the law, they were not armed when the nutso gunman attacked.

Similarly, Hamline recently banned concealed weapons on campus--so what's a law-abiding student to do?

Wake up Twin Cities! Let the University President know how you feel.

Hamline President Linda Hanson: president@hamline.edu

UPDATE: (H/t again to Instapundit) See Mr. Morrissey at Captin's Quarters for more. He actually got to interview the student, Mr. Scheffler this past weekend.

Michelle Malkin: NEXT, THEY CAME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

Michelle Malkin's NEXT, THEY CAME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY is an old article (11 Feb 2006), but it is good to remind ourselves of the variety of extremism which we now confront.

Apparently, Valentine's Day is "...against Islam's teachings."

Well, then, I am against Islam's teachings.

The Fifth Annual IEATAPETA Day

Meryl Yourish is leading the pack again in the annual stick-it-to-the-vegans-until-they're-done campaign.

The short of it is that many folks found it offensive--as in waaay beyond the pale--when PETA (that FBI-designated terrorist organization) equated the slaughter of animals with the Holocaust...yep, that Holocaust.

So, since then, and until they (PETA) change their unthinking ways (hey, we can hope), every March 15th is the International Eat a Tasty Animal for PETA (IEATAPETA) Day. This, it is hoped, will hoist PETA on their own petard by combating one outrageous publicity stunt with another...another, tastier one, I might add.

I am happy to say that I did my part today--and other days too, just for good measure.

All hail, Meryl!

...and Arby's

An Inconvenient Truth

Seas Yield Surprising Catch of Unknown Genes at the WaPo covers the results of a "21st-century version of Charles Darwin's 19th-century voyage on the HMS Beagle."

The catch? This expedition was searching for microbial life.

The Catch? "Thousands of novel life forms...has doubled the number of known genes in Earth's biological kingdom."

Perhaps most exciting, said study leader J. Craig Venter, is that the rate of discovery of new genes and proteins -- the building blocks of life -- was as great at the end of the voyage as it was at the start, suggesting that humanity is nowhere close to closing the logbooks on global biodiversity.

The Inconvenient Truth?

Mitchell Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., praised the work as a "remarkable technological achievement." Microbes account for up to 90 percent of the biomass in the oceans, he said, and control all the major biological and geochemical cycles that keep Earth's ecosystems in balance.

(Bold added)

Hmmm, mebbe there's a wee bit more research to be done, eh, Al?

Late.Night.King.

Two things.

First, Kevin Costner is a stand up guy. Tonight on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Craig related that he ran into Mr. Costner at an event recently after having made jokes at Mr. Costner's expense.

The result? Craig related that he could see in Kevin's eyes that Costner made a conscious decision to be the bigger man and act politely towards Craig, even though he was not happy with the jokes. This affected Craig. He realized that there is a personal price paid by those who wind up in his, and other talk show host/commedians' sights. He (Craig) stated that he had gotten off the mark lately and said that he should be concentrating on the powerful and political figures, not celebrities who suffer misfortune. Good enuff, right? Right.

Second, Craig related how he recently had his 15th anniversary as a sober man. He related, seriously--not as a comedic routine--how he came to rehab his life and what he goes through constantly regarding his alcoholism. He also suggested that Britney Spears, a "baby" as he put it, has some problems. He didn't do a schtick, didn't make light of it, didn't hold himself up as a saint in comparison. He spent his entire monologue remonstrating those who would kick folks like Britney when they're down and relating how hard it is for someone who is truly lost.

It was a wonderful, honest, and courageous thing to do and as much as my wife and I already thought of him as the best host on late night television, he leapt even higher in our opinions of him.

If you haven't seen his show (it's on after Letterman on CBS), check it out. He's hilarious, he's refreshing, and he's genuine.

Armagh go bragh!

"No, no, you can't leave."

Michelle Malkin: In the slums of Baghdad: "No, no, you can't leave." is the response of a 30-year-old Shiite named Rasul Karim when asked whether American troops should withdraw.

That is what Michelle Malkin wrote in her latest post from Iraq. Go see the good work that she, and Allahpundit, are doing and support any blogger over there providing us with old-fashioned journalism. See Michael Totten, Bill Ardolino, Mohammed and Omar at Iraq the Model, Milblogs at the Mudville Gazette, and MIchael Yon, just to name a few.

H/T to the all-seeing Instapundit

How to stop the violence in Baghdad

1. Invade Syria

2. Blockade the Iranian oil terminals

3. Ghost write a story for al Jazeera that says Sunnis support The Donald and Shi'a are behind Rosie O'Donnell. (They'll be glued to the View to keep track of who's winning.)

See. Dick. Run.

So, Dick Durban (D-Ill) has responded to the President's speech tonight. The Dems position seems to be a rehash of Vietnam.

Cut and run, run away, abandon our allies, leave the good natives at the mercy of an oppressive regime, cast the war in an unwinnable light using words and phrases like, "Escalation, Civil War, Time for Iraqis to stand up for themselves, quagmire, situation has severely deteriorated."

Guess that's in line with our original American Revolution. A ragtag bunch of Minutemen taking down the greatest military power in the world without any help. Oh, wait. The French pretty much saved our asses with their navy and we had a German (Hessian?) drill instructor to train our troops to fight and, ultimately, defeat the British.

OK, Dick, what's your party's plan for Iraq for the next four years, hmmm?


Let's relocate the UN HQ to Baghdad...that ought to get us a little multilateral support.

Don "Idiotarian" Shelby

In The Know, a WCCO spot on the nightly newscast in Minneapolis, is an on-air OpEd by the long time anchor (and I mean anchor), Don Shelby.

In his latest public display of cretinism--thinly veiled by multilateral, internationalist apologist agitprop--he wonders why the two Buddhists serving in Congress-and the Jews in that body-do not receive the level of scrutiny and disapproval that the newly elected Muslim Congresscritter from Minnesota did for using a Koran to take his oath today.

Hmmmm....gee, Don, maybe because the Buddhists, Jews, and Catholics haven't shot, stabbed, beheaded, blown up, kidnapped, or otherwise harmed our citizens and brothers-in-arms?

As many others have more eloquently opined, where is the great hue and cry from the worldwide Muslim community denouncing the barbaric acts of war and atrocities committed by their bretheren? Could that have something to do with the indignation and suspicion that many people harbor regarding practioners of the Islamic faith? Their deafening silence is easily construed as tacit approval.

How about the laws of Saudi Arabia? Could evidence of other muslim lawmakers be giving people pause? Which muslims you ask? You know, Don, those wacky Wahabis that stone adulterous women, execute homosexuals, and chop the hands off of common thieves? How is it possible that they get away with it? Why, because they are an Islamic Republic! Now we're one Congresscritter closer to the Minneapple looking like Tehran. Next thing you know Loni Anderson will have to wear a bourka!

And who, exactly is it that is disapproving of the US abroad? France? Russia? We now know that they were both violating United Nations sanctions by doing illegal business with Iraq and lost lots of ducats as a result of the invasion. That may have something to do with their long faces.

Even now, Iran has oil deals with Russia and China that will likely preclude serious and meaningful sanctions aimed at Persian activities from passing the UN Security Council. How about our disapproval of them?

You think we should be more like the French in our treatment of muslims? Looks at what has been occuring in Paris for the last year--an average of 112 cars burned every day. Now that's what I call multiculturalism! Of course the Greens will probably be unhappy with the environmental impact of the burning autos, but, hey, can't please everybody and those saucy environmentalists are not likely to chop off your head for ridiculing them and their beliefs. Wonder what they'd do if I published a cartoon of John Muir running a modern logging machine? Perish the thought!

How about Poland, Romanian, Australia? They have backed us all along and continue to send troops to help in Iraq. They approve whole-heartedly about what we're doing and they continue to help us in obvious and public ways. They are what we call friends. Not really too concerned about what those other non-friends (enemies is too strong a word for now) are saying. I say we pull all of military bases out of Germany, Italy, and any other country that hasn't backed us whole-heartedly and relocate them to Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria. (We are, in fact, doing some of that as we speak, er, write.) Those countries will welcome the economic boom that accompanies US military basing and our other NATO allies will be ecstatic to get their land back, right?

Most of all, why isn't a journalist ferreting out facts to inform the public instead of propagandizing to support a particular viewpoint? "In the Know" should be more properly called "In the No"...No clue, no facts, no more!

It depends on what 100 means...

The Influence Peddler is covering the first, uh, second, no, dammit, the third version of what the 'first 100 hours' of the 110th Congress really means. (Originally posted on January 4th.)

100 hours is four days plus four hours, if we consider a day to be 24-hours long.

100 hours is 12 days and 4-hours, if we consider a day to be 8-hours long.
So, that is two (work) weeks plus two and a half (work) days if the new Congress works a full 8-hours per day. (The new Congress is apparently going to adopt a 5-day workweek as opposed to the 3-day average of the prior Congress.)

100 hours is 25 days, if we consider a day to be 4-hours long.
That's five work weeks of five days each, or it's eight work weeks of three days each, plus one day.

Let's see where we are when the Dems officially pronounce the first 100 hours over. That should give us some insight as to what kind of hours they are actually working.

Update: Well, it's now January 19th and the Dems are declaring their success after using only 42 hours of their 100 legislative hours. Sooooooooo, that's 10 working days (9 if you count the BCS day off) for the 42 hours, which averages out to a blistering 4 hours and a bit per workday.

Whew! They better pace themselves before they burn out.

Happy 2007!

OK. So I haven't posted very frequently in 2006. I'll do better in 2007 (hard to do worse).

I'm frequently (2-3 weeks per month) on the road, so I don't usually keep up unless something really gets me going.

So, I'll try to get here at least once a day, regardless of where I am or what's going on to keep you entertained, dear readers, uh, reader, um, Mom.

Here's to a great new year and the pursuit of liberty and happiness.

Whence Negroponte?

Confederate Yankee: Lateral or Downward? The Negroponte Shuffle discusses the possible reasons for Negroponte's move from Director of National Intelligence to Deputy Secretary of State.

Following a tangent in the comments section, I posted:

As to 2008.

I think the obvious, but overlooked, ticket for the left is Clinton/Clinton. There's no clause preventing a former President from serving as a Vice-President, is there?

;-)

As to an pleasing (sounding) ticket for the other party, how about Rice/Bol (as in Mnute Bol the former NBA star)?

Actually, I think I'd like Rice/Thompson (Fred) for '08.

Update: Commenter Jack over at Confederate Yankee educates me regarding my ignorance of the 12th Amendment. To wit,

Twelve Ammendment (sic):

" .... But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

I loooooove the self-correcting nature of the blogosphere. Imagine if we can get our Congresscritters to interact with us in such a manner.

The Instalanche that wasn't

So, I finally catch the eye of the almighty Instapundit and, of course, I've been waay too busy to keep up with this blog...bad enough.

But I didn't even include a link (here) in the e-mail!!!

*sigh*

Back to staring at the lint in my navel.

Ye Olde Jihad

FrontPage magazine.com :: Americas First War on Terror by Andrew G. Bostom is an eye-opening recounting of Jihad directed against 18th century America, even earlier Europeans (17th century Ireland!), and other examples of rapacious conquest by Muslms from Italy to Indonesia.

Rape, pillaging, slavery, and beheadings...ahh, they've come so far...

Go read it! Now. Really!

(H/T to Atlas Shrugs, a BlogHottie.)

No Pasaran, no bullshrimp (Thanks to Bob, Spike, and Joe)

No pasaran has the up-to-date status of the US versus those-who-signed-Kyoto and who is actually ahead on reducing emissions (hint, it ain't thems that's on the "Continent").

I wonder if anyone has measured the warming effects of the hot air emitted by EU officaldom?

(Via Pajamas Media.)

PJM News - Large Asteroid Zips Harmlessly Past Earth (9436816/AP)

Pajamas Media has an AP story about a near miss with an asteroid that passed just outside the orbit of the moon.

I imagine that the NYT headline will read something like,

Bush still fails to locate Weapon of Mass Destruction!

H/T to Instapundit.

Pump dat shotgun!

OK. So I was just providing MisKelly with some advice on purchasing a shotgun for home defense.

Here's my preference:

Remington 870 Express Magnum pump shotgun with tactical magazine extension
Safety (button behind trigger) Off
Chamber empty
00 Buck (5-shells) in the magazine
Hollowpoint slugs in buttstock mounted shotshell carrier (Last round loaded is first to be chambered; I can lead off with a slug if needed)
A tactical light with pressure switch (I prefer SureFire as a brand. I don't currently mount one though. The max range in my apartment is 6-10 feet.)

Mossbergs have their safety located on top of the backstrap. I have experienced them working loose during a firing string and reapplying themselves in the middle of a string. In other words, you may be in the middle of firing more than one round and the safety may suddenly activate--this prevents you from firing...can you say 12 gauge club?

I have also used the Winchester and i don't recall any particular foibles. I think they're probably as reliable as the Remington.

Wear these: Peltor (click on Tactical Headsets)

Although I said in MissKelly's comments that these will protect your hearing (and they will) the real reason is so you don't flinch when the gun goes off, causing you to miss your target and kill your waterbed.

Shoot often and straight.

Mnute is Da MAN!

OK. On REAL Sports with Bryant Gumbel (can't believe it) I'm watching a story about Mnute Bol and his unwavering support to his people in the southern Sudan.

He spent his millions trying to help his Christian tribesmates (the Dinka) to resist the dicatorial Islamic Fundamentalist regime. From at least 1983 (!) he was heavily involved in supporting the Dinka.

His money is mostly gone now, but his spirit isn't.

He and his cousin visited 58 Congressmen and Senators to warn them about al Qaeda and Usama bin Laden (who was located in the Sudan at the time) and they went to warn the Pentagon too. They repeatedly begged for help for the Dinka from the USA. Outside of Billary's abortive bombing action (Clinton: 1 pharmaceutical plant; al Qaeda: WTC '93, USS Cole, AMEMB (2), etc.), we haven't done anything to stop the torture and genocide.

Bol wound up in a car accident--not his fault, his taxi driver was drunk--and wound up in a coma with three fractured vertebrae and no health insurance.

I'm thinking maybe RICE/BOL in 2008!