France is populated with lazy, selfish people

Oui oui!

After the great socialist government of France sat back and did nothing while thousands of elderly and infirm people died in a summer heatwave, among other things it was decided to cancel one of the THIRTEEN banking holidays and use the estimated tax and social security funds generated of 2 billion euros (aprox 2.6 billion US) to fund a program for those most at risk from a recurrence. Everyone was heureux and satisfait with this arrangement, that is until it comes time to actually work on the day in question.

Non non!!!

"Vee gon to fat you on dees!"say the various unions and many city councils, vowing to ignore the new law or to take the fight to the European convention on human rights and the European court. But the most unique solution is proposed by the state railway:

And the state railway SNCF has decreed that May 16 will be a holiday. But staff will have an extra minute and 52 seconds added to every working day to compensate.

One minute and fifty-two seconds added to each working day. How are they going to do that? Does this mean that if you are a French state railroad bureaucrat and are talking on the phone at the very end of your workday, you will find yourself unable to put down the phone for an extra 112 seconds and then the telephone will magically drop from your hand? Will pens and pencils be stuck to fingers, like one of those annoying sticky boogers, and then, at the stroke of 1 minute 52 seconds, fall free?

One minute and 52 seconds...EVERY WORKING DAY! The generosity of these people to their own is, well, underwhelming. Small wonder it is so delicious to despise them. These are John Kerry's icons of modern liberal thought? These are the people that are held up to us as shining examples of progressives to whom our foreign relations should be mad subservient? No thanks. I'll stick with McChimpster Bushitler and Pope Natzinger, if you don't mind. And even if you do mind.

The herds are safe, for the time being.

From the great state of Louisiana comes this hot news flash:

A state appeal court has refused to strike down the state's crime against nature law, which bans sex with animals, among other acts.

I thought that this was interesting, how about ewe?

Benon Sevon rattles the saber

Benny Avni, writing in The New York Sun, reports that Benon Sevon's lawyer has threatened to go public if Sevon's mounting legal fees are not paid by the UN in the burgeoning oil-for-food scandal. Some interesting tidbits from the report rear their ugly heads.

Mr. Sevan's knowledge of the program might include potentially damaging information about several U.N. officials.

"...might..."? How about "...absolutely positively includes enough damaging information to seriously burn some asses at the UN."

And this is really hysterical:

After the Sun reported last month the decision to reimburse Mr. Sevan's legal fees with funds left over from the oil-for-food account, Mr. Malloch Brown announced the decision would be reversed.

"...funds left over from the oil-for-food account."? What "funds left over" are they talking about? Is this not money that rightfully belongs to the Iraqi people? They no longer require food and medicine in Iraq? Anytime one thinks that the US congress plays fast and loose with other people's money, just take a look at the UN. The last I heard, and I don't remember where I read this, the oil-for-food program owed the Iraqi Kurds some 1.5 billion, as in BILLION, dollars. "..funds left over..." What a hoot.

And as you peruse the article, note the ex-Clinton lawyers drawn to this scuzzy affair. Gregory Craig, Lanny Davis and Robert Bennett have been attracted like flies are drawn to, well, you-know-what. The terms shyster and ambulance chaser come most immediately to mind.

All of the investigating committees which have involved themselves, including the US House of Representatives, the US Senate and the UN's Volker Committee, will accomplish nothing more than the the usual bloviating and hot air expulsions (spending OUR money in the process). My only hope would be the criminal investigations being carried out by the FBI and the NY State Attorney General (Spitzer, who wants to be governor). The politicians will accomplish nothing, nor will Volker's group, which is already beset with desertions by disaffected staff investigators.

Why I like Bob Dole

Writing in Up, Down or Out, former Senator Bob Dole describes, in the clearest and most simple terms that I have yet seen, the options available to both the Democrats and the Republicans in this fight over the filibustering of judicial nominees.

On his time as minority leader of the Senate;

When I was a leader in the Senate, a judicial filibuster was not part of my procedural playbook. Asking a senator to filibuster a judicial nomination was considered an abrogation of some 200 years of Senate tradition.

On the Democratic minority leadership during Mr. Dole's tenure as majority leader of the Senate;

To be fair, the Democrats have previously refrained from resorting to the filibuster even when confronted with controversial judicial nominees like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Although these men were treated poorly, they were at least given the courtesy of an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. At the time, filibustering their nominations was not considered a legitimate option by my Democratic colleagues - if it had been, Justice Thomas might not be on the Supreme Court today, since his nomination was approved with only 52 votes, eight short of the 60 votes needed to close debate.

On the current Democratic minority leadership's tactics;

That's why the current obstruction effort of the Democratic leadership is so extraordinary. President Bush has the lowest appellate-court confirmation rate of any modern president. Each of the 10 filibuster victims has been rated "qualified" or "well qualified" by the American Bar Association. Each has the support of a majority in the Senate. And each would now be serving on the federal bench if his or her nomination were subject to the traditional majority-vote standard.

This 60-vote standard for judicial nominees has the effect of arrogating power from the president to the Senate. Future presidents must now ask themselves whether their judicial nominees can secure the supermajority needed to break a potential filibuster. Political considerations will now become even more central to the judicial selection process. Is this what the framers intended?

On Senator Byrd's historical tactics as majority leader;

Although the Democrats don't like to admit it, in the past they have voted to end delaying tactics previously allowed under Senate rules or precedents. In fact, one of today's leading opponents of changing the Senate's rules, Senator Robert Byrd, was once a proponent of doing so, and on several occasions altered Senate rules through majoritarian means. I have great respect for Senator Byrd, but Senate Republicans are simply exploring the procedural road map that he himself helped create.

On Senate majority leader Bill Frist's options;

In the coming days, I hope changing the Senate's rules won't be necessary, but Senator Frist will be fully justified in doing so if he believes he has exhausted every effort at compromise.

On the Senate Democratic leadership's options;

Of course, there is an easier solution to the impasse: Democrats can stop playing their obstruction game and let President Bush's judicial nominees receive what they are entitled to: an up-or-down vote on the floor of the world's greatest deliberative body.

Read it all. Bob Dole is made of the stuff that helped make this country the greatest on earth. Too bad there are so few, if any, like him still gumping around.

I think there's something rotten in the state of West Virginia.

Note: While it was nice of the New York Times to allow Mr. Dole a few lines in their vaunted Gray Lady, the editors don't pass up a chance to slant the story a little bit. A trailer at the end of Mr. Dole's comments notes that, "Bob Dole, the author of "One Soldier's Story," is a former majority leader of the Senate." Actually, Mr. Dole served in the Senate as its minority leader for 8 years and as majority leader for only 3.5 years.

I think there's something rotten in the state of New York City, too.

Updates: More here. and related here.

See-ya!!

This story just out: Islamic Scholar Guilty Of Inciting The report from AP on CBS's website says that the mandatory sentence is life-in-prison. So the judge sets July as the sentencing date (what day in July, who knows? This is the AP, remember) and then GRANTS BOND to the convicted al-Timimi (amount of bond, who knows? This is the AP, remember). Now, unless the amount of the bond was, say, 3 billion dollars or so, I would guess that we have seen the last of Dr. al-Timimi. If you or I were facing a mandatory life-in-prison sentence and the judge were stupid enough to release you or I on a bond that we could in any way whatsoever collect, well then, adios amigos.

Rachel, Rachel

While the family of Rachel Corrie sues Israel and the Caterpiller Company, lgf mourns for:
Rachel Levy (17, blown up in a grocery store);
Rachel Levi (19, shot while waiting for the bus);
Rachel Gavish (killed with her husband, son and father while at home celebrating a Pessah meal);
Rachel Charhi (blown up while sitting in a Tel Aviv cafe, leaving three young children);
Rachel Shabo (murdered with her three sons aged 16, 13 and five, while at home).

For whom do you mourn? A notorious peacenik who willingly and illegaly enters a war zone and gets squashed by a bulldozer, or the innocents listed above who were just trying to live their daily lives?

The Ace Pontificates

Five Things I Hate, Plus Five More

The List:
1. White Wine

2. Talking About So-Called "Great Acting Performances"

3. Edward Fucking Norton

4. Spike Lee

5. iPods

6. Movies About Fucking Retards

7. Movies About Wise and Mysterious Black People Who Seem To Exist Primarily To Solve White Boys' Personal Problems

8. Slang/Catchphrases/"Hip Lingo" Past Its Expiration Date

9. All Other Sports Except Football

10. The Shackling Myth of the So-Called "Female Orgasm

Lileks on The Byrd Option, Republicans, and John McCain

James Lileks, my favorite stiletto, writing in the NNS, has this to say about The Byrd Option:

Republicans (or is it Democrats?) want a procedural vote on a caucus resolution to allow a supermajority to change the rules for the plurality of the quorum unless someone brings kryptonite into the Senate chamber, which saps the supermajority of its strength, thereby requiring a cage match between Sens. Robert Byrd and Bill Frist, no holds barred, unless a simple majority -- so described because they're just stupid, or 'simple' -- votes to ban the sleeper hold, which has caused so many deaths in the British parliament.

And this about Republicans:

They looked at that election map, awash in red, and assumed they had a mandate to repeal Roe v. Wade, to roll environmental protection so far back that people get a tax break for driving a Hummer over endangered species, to repeal whichever laws of thermodynamics are not found in the Bible.

And this about John McCain:

But the only GOP overreach here was performed by McCain, who perhaps believed his boundless popularity would earn him another pass. Expect the GOP base to say nay. You want to ruin our chance to get back the judiciary? You want to be independent? Then run for president as one.

Have your party at the Ross Perot Presidential Library.

The Volcker Committee, up the proverbial creek

The Volcker Committee, supposedly investigating the UN Oil-For-Food scandal, and which had already found itself up the creek, has now lost its paddles. Roger Simon says, :

"IMPORTANT UPDATE: Investigators Robert Parton (senior investigative counsel) and Miranda Duncan (deputy counsel) have resigned because information was not being followed up by the Volcker Committee!!! These are two of the top three field investigators for the committtee. Only Michael Cornacchia remains."

He has a lot more to say, and is obviously privy to inside info that the MSM apparently lacks.

Jim Jeffords to resign as president of The NRA

At a press conference today, Sen. Jim Jeffords (I, for idiot), Vermont, announced that he would not run for reelection as president of The NRA (National Ringworm Association, "The Other NRA"). Sen. Jeffords seemed nonplussed and even a little confused when asked if he would also not run again for the office of senator from Vermont.

On a similar note, James Taranto tells us, : "CNN reported this afternoon that an apparently confused Mr. Jeffords had recently appeared in the House of Representatives, where he served earlier, and been told that he was in the wrong chamber."

Anonymous citizen jounalists report that Sen. Jeffords then left the chamber and went directly to the nearest Denny's where he ordered a Big Mac and fries.

Update: Other comments by Jane Galt and Professor Bainbridge.

See Beltway Traffic Jam

Death to Norwegians!!!

Why, "Death to Norwegians"? I'll tell you why. They are barbarians. They are poisonous snakes who have poisoned humanity. These white men have set off a devilish spiral in the whole world... to plague people. And, worst of all, their children are illigitimate, because they have them here and there.

Or so says "Satan's Son", a book published in the Urdu (Pakistan) language by unknown mullah(s) or other religious leader(s) believed living in Norway, which I guess makes him/them experts on the matter.

A Norwegian free speech lawyer remarked that taking the book to the police was the wrong thing to do. He says that the best response is to open debate. Hmmm. Well, I have to agree. I would open the debate with the Ted Nugent gambit. Two or three clips from my AR-15 emptied into my debate opponents no-longer-twitching body and as many of those of his supporters as possible.

OK, now we can debate.

Where do the Urdu-speakers have their children? Hither and yon?

This post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam (I hope)

Hmmm. The trackback didn't take. Dunno why not. I'll try another way.

The Truth about the "Hollywood Ten"

Welcome visitors from Roger L. Simon. Thanks for the link, Roger.

In Front Page Magazine, Art Eckstein opens my eyes. Did you know that Ward Bond (Wagon Train, John Wayne's buddy) was not only staunchly anti-communist but also became a "fixer" (someone who worked behind the scenes to get unofficially blacklisted people unofficially re-listed)?

Did you know that Robert Vaughn (creepy in Bullitt, hilarious in S.O.B. and Superman III) held a PhD in communications from USC?

In response to the oft heard complaint that due to the blacklisting or imprisonment by the HUAC of so many screenwriters, some of their best work never made it to the silver screen, Ring lardner, Jr., who suffered both fates, said,

"It is a temptation for a writer to fantasize that his unshot scripts could have made more original and provocative movies than the ones that ran the gauntlet to theater exhibition. A sober review of the files in my case shows that this would be a delusion."

Hmmm. Very interesting perspective, indeed. The article includes a wealth of footnotes and provides fodder for thought. Take a look at it.

The Basic Right of Elf Defence To Protect One's Gnome and Family

Great story, this. You might say, this story dwarfs the imagination.

Heck, that's nuthin'.

This story reports that in Peru "about 40 per cent of the 640 taxi and bus drivers surveyed by"... a local university exhibit psycopathic tendencies. Well, here in Mexico, all drivers on the highways and biways are natural born killers.

Posse Comitatus

Hey, it's working. Now, don't get me wrong. I live in Mexico and understand more than most the desperation of these people trying to cross the border. However, in the United States we live by rule-of-law. You cannot enter another persons property when specifically forbidden to do so. You cannot cut his/her fences, strew trash and garbage across the property, release income-producing domesticated animals back into the wild, threaten the property owner and his/her family with physical harm, damage plant life and crops, or commit felonies on the property (not that it's legal to commit felonies anywhere in the United States, with the obvious exception of in the Congress).

Mariano Rivera

What's up with Mariano Rivera. Tuesday he gives up a game-tying homer but is bailed out by Derek Jeter who hits a game-winner in the bottom of the ninth. Yesterday, Mariano enters the ninth with a 1 run lead and gives up 5 runs. No bailout this time. WTF?