Shots Across the Bow

Another keeper Today's bleat by Lileks is another good one, particularly if you are a fan of quirky science fiction movies from the 80s.

“It’s about a rock-and-roll brain surgeon who dabbles in dimensional physics, and travels the country in a high-tech touring bus with his bandmates, who are also scientists. Trouble begins when Buckaroo’s experiments throw open a portal, and Earth is vexed by Lectroids from Planet X who’ve slipped through the eighth dimension. Now, here’s the important part: everyone in the movie is absolutely serious about this, and believes in their characters completely. There are no jokes. And it’s a comedy.”

Of course, he is talking about The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th dimension Read the bleat. Watch the DVD

Another growl from the Prowler Jed Babbin writes:

In the combat arms -- the military jobs where you have to kill people and break things -- the "glass ceiling" is smeared with blood. Those who can't pass the admission tests will probably get killed -- and get others killed -- trying to do the job. It's a damned shame that the feministas can't see the difference between leading a sales team trying to close a tough deal and leading an Army Ranger squad searching a cave in Tora Bora.

And more:

A couple of pals of mine are former Navy SEALs. One is a pretty big guy, about 220 pounds of energy, brains, and solid muscle. He, like all of the other real combat vets I know, has a very strong opinion against women in combat arms. On my best day, with a huge adrenaline surge, I might be able to hoist him over my back and carry him out of the line of fire if he were wounded. Some woman who can't even do a single pull-up just couldn't. If she tried, both she and my pal would be KIA. It's as simple as that.

Yes it is.

It could be true Andy Borowitz reports on the latest shakeups at ABC:

In the latest shake-up at ABC News, the network announced today that sultry video diva Jennifer Lopez will replace Peter Jennings as anchor of the network’s signature “World News Tonight” broadcast.

Ms. Lopez will assume her duties on the program, renamed “J to Tha Lo and the Booty-licious News”, starting next Monday.

The network also announced plans to dump hosts Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts from its Sunday morning news program “This Week” and replace them with the popular animated cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.

Same old song and dance Here we goagain.

Israel keeps targetting military installations, or known terrorists. Palestinians target civilians and non combatants.

CBO evaluation is in According to this story, the CBO has evaluated the President's proposed budget, and while their predictions aren't as rosy as his, they still forsee a net surplus of around 687 billion dollars over the next ten years. Of course we all know that this won't happen. Washington is far too adept at expanding to fill any budget.

By the way, anyone know how much the National Debt decreased during Bill's wonderful surpluses?

It actually increased by 1.5 trillion dollars, second only to Ronald Reagan

Talk about Enron accounting....How does a surplus increase the debt?

Only in California Buried in the bottom of this article

In Orange County, a Superior Court judge charged with child molestation and possessing child pornography led a field that included 11 write-in candidates.

I guess they voted for him because he loves children so much.

What a bunch of fruit loops.

Speaks for itself

``As long as they want to send them here, we'll kill them here. Should they go somewhere else, we'll go with our Afghan allies and coalition forces and kill them wherever they go.''

General F.L. Buster Hagenbeck, referring to Taliban and Al Qaida fighters responding to the call for jihad.

Hello. I'm back. Sort of. Still a little light headed, and I don't dare stand up quickly, but the worst has passed. I hope.

I just finished watching the Jerry Springer show. (A major flue bug, 48 hours of bed rest, and a bad reaction to generic Nyquil. Gimme a break.) Anyway, since I may be going to Chicago for a training seminar later this year, I thought about getting tickets to see the show live. (Delirious from the fever) Then I realized that with my luck, instead of Supermodel Lesbians Who Want to go Straight with a Middle Aged Man from the Audience, I'd get tickets to Titannic Tubbies and the Animals They Love

Yeeesh. I think I'm feeling sick again.

Courtesy of William Sulik of Blithering Idiot comesthis teaser. You'll have to look closely to spot it.

My heart will go on. Just look at the pictures. Found via Beauty of Gray

The truth hurts Charles Krauthammer, writing in The Washington Post lets our EU buddies know where they stand in this uncompromising column:

Our enemies have already turned against us. Our allies will not. Europe knows that in the end, its security depends on our strength and our protection. Europeans are the ultimate free-riders on American power. We maintain the stability of international commerce, the freedom of the seas, the flow of oil, regional balances of power (in the Pacific Rim, South Asia, the Middle East) and, ultimately, we provide protection against potentially rising hostile superpowers.

The Europeans sit and pout. What else can they do? The ostensible complaint is American primitivism. The real problem is their irrelevance.

And the conclusion:

We are in a war of self-defense. It is also a war for Western civilization. If the Europeans refuse to see themselves as part of this struggle, fine. If they wish to abdicate, fine. We will let them hold our coats, but not tie our hands.

My dad and his brother in law were in a bar in Nashville when a fight broke out. (Something that used to happen fairly regularly when my dad went into a bar.) He was doing all right until his brother in law tried to help him by pulling him out of the fight. Unfortunately, my uncle tried to pull him out by wrapping him in a bear hug, while my dad was trying to carry on a conversation with an irate gentleman brandishing a broken beer bottle. Needless to say, the result wasn't a favorable one for my dad.

We can't allow the EU to try and hold us back when we are already in a street fight. This isn't fisticuffs between gentleman, but an back alley brawl with no holds barred.

Let the games begin!I just bought my first PDA. When I placed the order on-line, a screen popped up touting a special offer for a free cell phone attachment. I had a cell phone several years ago, but got rid of it because I wasn't using it enough to justify the money. Now that I'm commuting an hour and a half each way, there have been several times when I wished I had one.

So I decided , "What the hell," and ordered the attachment, giving the information they needed for a credit check.

The next day, I got an e-mail from the vendor saying that my cell plan had been approved by the provider and an account was being prepared for me. Yesterday, my phone and PDA arrived. (Yes, UPS finally came through.) Today I call the cell phone provider. They've never heard of me, or the PDA phone I bought. Completely without clue were they. (I watched Empire Strikes Back last night. Can you tell?) After talking with four different people at the cell phone place, I called the PDA vendor, and asked them what was going on.
The nice guy I talked to was surprised that the cell phone folks had no clue what I was talking about, and he checked into it. Ten minutes later, he called me back, and said that the cell phone company had no record of my account.

I already knew that. I asked what they were going to do about it. He said I could sign up anywhere since I already had the phone. Sinc I had actually read the contract, I knew that if I didn't activate the phone, I was on the hook for $100 for a phone that wasn't hooked up to anything. I asked him about that and he went to get his supervisor.

So now, his boss is talking to the cell phone boss, they have my information again, and I've been assured that all will be taken care of. Of course, Jimmy Hoffa was 'taken care of' too. I don't think I want that.

In the meantime, I get to surf for good little applications for my new brain.
It's good that I got a new one, because the old one was getting a little rough. I was driving down a curvy road (an East Tennessee redundancy) one afternoon last spring, and on a particularly sharp curve, the day planner slid across the dash and out the window, over the drainage ditch, through the barbed wire fence, and landed in a pasture. Now pastures in East Tennessee almost always have cows on them, unless they have pigs or llamas on them. (Yes, llamas. They use them to pack supplies up to the lodge on Mt. LeConte, where wealthy people go to experience life like it was in the good old days. Or like it was yesterday on the south side of English mountain, but that's another story.) Anyway, while there are usually a lot of cows in each pasture, and they all eat constantly, its not like the ground is carpetted with what cows leave behind when they eat a lot. Rather than get too detailed, let's just say that the Gaelic "gang agley" was fairly freely translated on that day.

So now, I have a new brain, an interactive brain. One which will keep track of my busy social schedule (rotate tires, friday 9AM), allow me to keep up with my business expenses (3 Plastic Tarps and 2 bottles of corn oil. ) and to do lists (Move cars. Mow grass. Put cars back.) One which will remind me of things I'd rather forget, like dentist's appointments, and trips to the exorcist. (I'm sharing too much, aren't I?)

So far, I've put in four addresses using the little stylus, and I can already tell that is has got to go! I'll be permanently deformed if I use that thing for very long. Fortunately, I've found some inserts for the pens I've been turning and I'll replace this silly thing with a real pen.