The Stiletto, again.

Our good friend, James Lileks, wields the stiletto in justifying the ACLU's treatment of the Boy Scouts.

Best parts;

"Move over, OBL -- our new national threat comes from the BSA.

The people barging into the courts are the ones obsessed that Boy Scouts might be using public school rooms after hours to learn knot tying. And scouts drive on public roads to get there, too. They even breathe air whose quality is mandated by federal regulations that take public money to enforce. Theocratic parasites, that's what they are. What's next? A 900-foot statue of Jesus on the Mall in Washington?

And we're talking about the BOY SCOUTS, for heaven's sake, not some Junior Klan League noted for torchlight parades through Jewish neighborhoods. Who has the time to worry whether the scouts are meeting in the local library? Isn't there some real, actual evil handy you could sue?

Better yet: If you don't like the scouts' oath or rules, how about you drink a nice hot cup of LIVE AND LET LIVE and start your own group?

Throwing the scouts into an electrified pen that keeps them from contaminating government is not high on the list of your average Democratic concerns.

But you'll still vote Democratic? 'Count on it, friend.'

Then one day his kid's Wolf Pack gets denied a permit to hold a party in a public park.

And thus do blue folks see red."

More dangerous for whom, Jacquie-boi?

Reuters quotes Jacquie Chirac as saying that the world is a more dangerous place since our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Well, not more dangerous for us, I would say. There haven't been anymore terrorist murders of Americans on U.S. soil since 9/11. Hence, I would submit that the world has, in fact, become a significantly less dangerous place for Americans. As for the French, Spanish, Germans, Dutch, etc., well, let's just say they have made their own beds and must now sleep in them. About their fates, I think that we should care not a whit.

Thomas Walkom. Who is this twit?

In Should Canada indict Bush?, an obviously deluded, or drunk, writer? named Thomas Walkom makes the case for indicting President Bush for war crimes. This lunatic, or stumbling drunk, lists the following examples of "war crimes"; Abu Ghraib (naturally), conveniently forgetting that prosecutions for that aberration are underway by U.S. authorities, Guantanamo, deportation of prisoners from Iraq to "shadowy" CIA run torture camps in Jordan (Jordan?) also conveniently forgetting that the deportees, if any, would be non-Iraqi and therefore not protected by the Geneva conventions, and in any case Canada would also have to indict King Abdullah for his part in this alledged nefarious plot to deprive those innocent peace-loving beheaders and followers of the religion of peace of their liberty and justice for all.

He concludes that the brave Canadian adherents to International Law, the same international law that is protecting Christian blacks in Darfur, and liberal students in Iran, and white farmers in Zaire, and Shia in the Sunni Triangle, and newborn baby girls in China, well, they'll just wait until Dubya goes up there fishin'.

Safer in Falluja

Vicki Woods, witing in The Notebook in The Daily Telegraph, is astounded by The New York Post's cover photo of the Marlboro smoking Marine. She says,

But it was the Fallujah front page that brought me to my knees. The other papers splashed on untidy pictures of gangs of soldiers leaping walls, aiming weapons and generally going gung-ho. The Post's front page showed only the hard, set face of a single US Marine.

The picture was cropped tight and wide, from the rim of his battered helmet down to his chin-strap. His face was streaked with sweat and filth, his nose gashed, his eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, and he had a half-smoked cigarette dangling. It was a very Second World War image, like a still from The Battle of the Bulge. Brilliant job by the picture editor, frankly. Other papers had the same photograph of the same Marine, but ran it full-length instead of homing in on the fag-end and the thousand-yard stare.

Its headline was: "SMOKIN' MARLBORO MEN KICK BUTT IN FALLUJAH."

Then, the reaction of some Post readers astounds her still further.

The majority of letters were savagely critical and full of spleen.

But about the cigarette.

Only one reader picked up on my first thought - that the butt-kickin' leatherneck was a lot safer lighting up his Marlboro in Fallujah than in New York City.

Thrilled with his success at banning smoking in all public places - including greasy spoons and cigar bars - Mayor Bloomberg is now hoping to extirpate the weed in private apartments. Anybody moving into a Manhattan condominium will soon have to sign a legal agreement not to smoke inside the confines of their own flat.

Tell that to the Marines, somebody.

Canada welcomes liberals fleeing BushHitler and Jesusland...or not.

Stay home, you pathetic whining maggots, says Ian Robinson of the Calgary Sun.

"How anybody can be unhappy with the president's re-election is beyond me.

Bush has my admiration in no small part because he manages to simultaneously annoy France and Germany, not to mention those renowned deep, geopolitical thinkers, the Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen, P-Diddy or whatever he's calling himself now, Gwynneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck."

"Before the election, some U.S. celebrities and numerous other Democrats vowed that they'd move to Canada if Bush were re-elected.

I hope I'm not alone in gently suggesting to those considering coming to Canada: Stay home, you pathetic whining maggots.

Particularly celebrities. Canada has suffered enough without having to put up with any of the Baldwin brothers or -- heaven forfend! -- Barbra Streisand.

And frankly, I don't know if we can afford to feed Michael Moore."

He makes the point that,

"We have immigrants coming to this country who have been hunted from the air by murderous Islamofascists in Sudan.

Some new Canadians survived the atrocities in Rwanda or old Europe's final convulsions of genocide in the former Yugoslavia.

We have physicians from some parts of the world who are willing to throw away their prestige and power in their homelands for the privilege of driving a cab in Moose Jaw.

As a nation, we ought to welcome our share of people fleeing genuine oppression, and those willing to gamble everything to secure a safe and decent future for their families."

So,

"But welcome a bunch of spoiled brats willing to abandon their very nation because they don't like the man elected to be their leader for the next four years?

Geez, in my entire lifetime, there was maybe one prime minister I'd trust to run a street-corner hot dog stand -- the rest of them weren't fit for much more than compost -- but it never occurred to me to emigrate.

If we close our borders to anybody, it should be these fools. They'll be easy to screen out.

They'll be the ones who are whining."

Bob Jones speaks, unfortunately.

Bob Jones III, president of the fundamentalist college that bears his name, has told President Bush he should use his electoral mandate to appoint conservative judges and approve legislation "defined by biblical norm."



"In your re-election, God has graciously granted America - though she doesn't deserve it - a reprieve from the agenda of paganism," Jones wrote Bush in a congratulatory letter posted on the university's Web site.


Say there, Bob ól buddy, FOAD! It is guys like this that give Republicans a bad name ( and me the willies). They operate on the very fringes of the Republican Party and, unfortunately, command a significant bloc of votes. Kind of like Jesse Jackson, Kos, Michael Moore and those of that ilk on the waaaaaaaay other side. I am sure the Pres will find an appropriately benign, meaningless response to thank Bob and assure him that the forces of hell, Satan, Beezelbub and Luis Cypher will not, at least for the next four years, penetrate the tower of power.

Don't believe me? Try substituting, in the above quotation, in the place of "defined by biblical norm" the phrase, "defined by Koranic law." See what I mean?

Arlen Specter

Let's face it, folks. Arlen Specter is a f**cking jerk. Now that we can all agree on that point, Hugh Hewitt is right. Even if Hugh is way off base, who wants to take a chance on losing 4, 5, 6, or 7 votes for future nominees. I like his choice of words, "prudent." We won the brawn in the past election, now let's exercise some brains, a la el Governator.

U.S. Forces Storm Into Fallujah

At dawn, armed rebels attacked three police stations in Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing 22 policemen. Some were lined up and shot execution-style, according to police and hospital officials.

Says Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,

"In the dawn of this blessed day, the lions of al-Qaida in Iraq faced up to a group of apostates in the proud city of Haditha," said the statement, which could not be authenticated. "The lions stormed the city's police directorate and killed everyone there...With this operation, the city has been completely liberated. The lions have been wandering in the city until late today."

I say,

"The warriors of The Lord God Almighty, Y_weh, are coming for the lions of Allah and we will kill them, kill them all."

*Oh, and pardon my French, but you have to be a really stupid fucker to surrender to these assholes. You may very well die, anyway, so make it as expensive as possible. In the words, paraphrased, of Josie Wales, "When it looks the darkest, when all looks lost, you gotta get plumb mean." and in the words, paraphrased, of Hunter S. Thompson, "The meanest of them were not the toughest of them. There was a difference."

The lions of Allah are about to find out the hard way, the lethal way, the terminal way, the difference between mean and tough.

Mark in Mexico presents yesterday's NHL results.

Pittsburgh Penguins 1 Florida Panthers 2

Vancouver 3 Dallas 4

Ottawa 2 Colorado Avalanche 3

Nashville 4 Anaheim 2

just kidding

U Pickém

Candidate #1:

Best poker player ever to come out of Yale. Strategy consisted of maximizing his opponents losses on what they thought was a winning hand.

Candidate #2:

Abu Ghraib! BushHitler! BushHitler! Chimp Chimp Chimp!

For whom will you vote??

A democrat tells the truth

This morning on The Don Imus Radio Show, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico has the following exchange with host Don Imus;

Richardson: Well, Kerry has been on the Foreign Relations Committee for twenty years, he knows these foreign leaders, he will be able to get us international support in Iraq.

Imus: Yeah, those countries will be in a real hurry to send their people to Iraq so they can get beheaded. That's crazy talk, Governor.

Richardson: Well, it's election time, Don.



Thanks to JustOneMinute.

Andrew Sullivan meets his better.

In today's Bleat, James Lileks takes Andrew Sullivan apart, piece by piece, using the stiletto. Best parts;

Sullivan: "This is not, should not be, and one day cannot be, Bush's war. And the more it is, the more America loses, and our enemies gain."

Lileks: "And this argument is not, should not be, and one day cannot be, and dasn’t be, and at the end of the day might not be, convincing. This is like saying vote McClellan, lest the war against secession and slavery be seen as Lincon’s war."

and

Kerry wins. He’s having a summit with Tony Blair. In the middle of the conversation, Chirac calls up; Kerry excuses himself and has a brief chat about a new resolution to let French oil companies bid on reconstruction projects, and they have an amiable conversation in French. Kerry hangs up.

"Your predecessor," Blair says, "spoke to him in English."

"I know," says President Kerry. "He couldn’t speak French."

"He didn’t have to," Blair notes.

He gives a tight smile.

And sighs.

And gets down to explaining what now must be done.

Priceless.

A First for Minnesota!!

Powerline announces that St. Cloud State University has accomplished an all-time first in the history of College Homecoming Celebrations. The students of St. Cloud State have elected, for the first time in recorded history, a male Homecoming Queen. His name is Fue Khang and Mark in Mexico is proud to be the first in the blogosphere, and perhaps the world, to proudly publish his picture. Ain't he a peach?

Fue Khang, 2004 Homecoming Queen 

James Lileks wields his stiletto

Most of the bloggers out there, both on the left and on the right, come at you like Richard Couer de Lion with his 80 pound English broadsword. Hacking and whacking away at you. Kind of like this blog. But James Lileks wields a stiletto, delicately slicing and dicing his intended victim so quickly, quietly and efficiently that said victim usually never knows he's/she's been carved like the Thanksgiving turkey until James has left the building.

Case in point: In today's Bleat, fisking Teraysa's boorish and ignorant comments about Laura Bush never having a "real" job (only ten years as a teacher/librarian and 20 years give or take as a mother to twin daughters), James says the following concerning, "What do the Democrats think?"

Dubya and Laura in bed:

"What’re you reading, Laur."

"Oh, the Vagina Monologues."

"Don’t bother. We’re gonna win Vagina and West Vagina this year.. ZZZZZZ."

Or, in Monday's Bleat, fisking the ridiculous disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow";

6. Early in the movie we infer that Dennis Quaid is no longer married to Sela Ward because his demanding job as a paleoclimatologist drove her away. Given that this means he preferred drilling ice to...well, Sela Ward, do you expect us to have any sympathy for this idiot at all?

Now, don't skip the Tuesday nor the Wednesday Bleats, but Monday's and Thursday's were special.

Can you help?

Operation Iraqi Children (OIC) is a volunteer organization that I just discovered, thanks to this Hollywood mystery novelist and screenwriter. Visit the site and read all about it, then register and see what you can do to help. Founded by Gary Sinise (Forest Gump, Apollo 13) and author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit, An American Legend), this outfit seems to be doing some great work. Pay them a visit and seee what you can do to help.

An endorsement, right from the top. 

That Howard feller is A-OK

Mark Steyn, writing in The Australian, reminds us of what true allies are all about. Actually, this is the first that I have heard this. While we were being fed a daily diet of "We are all Americans" by the lying, slimey, backstabbing, bribe-taking French and their true allies, the MSM, John Howard was saying the following in a 2001 ABC radio interview;

"There's no point in a situation like this being an 80 per cent ally."

And then this;

"I'm sure the Americans will behave in a targeted yet lethal fashion."

The Americans will behave in a targeted yet lethal fashion.

Perfectly understated.

President Bush sends Ramadan greetings to all of Islam

President Bush marked the start of Ramadan on Friday by offering his best wishes to the Muslim world, where he is highly unpopular.

"I send warm greetings to Muslims in the United States (who will be voting en masse for my opponent) and around the world as they begin observance of Ramadan, the holiest season in their faith.

By teaching the importance of compassion, justice, mercy, and peace, the Koran has guided many millions of believers across the centuries.

In fact, I am sending some gifts to you all to help in the teaching of compassion, justice, mercy, and peace."

Well, first of all, I'd like you to have some F15 Strike Eagles.


And you really can't do without a few of these, the A10 Thunderbolt Warthog (you know, heh heh, warthog, the other white meat).


And these will really help, 50 or so AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. Enjoy!



And last, but not least, for that little added personal touch, U.S. Marine snipers! Hundreds of'em!! Wheeee!


And don't forget, Ramadan occurs every year at this time when the Yankees are always number one!!!


(The president's statement was edited for maximum effect.)

The Mirror Test

No Illusions suggests the mirror test for Iraqi street thugs who claim not to be terrorists:

The Mirror Test

1. Look in mirror

2. If you have a beard and an AK-47, you are a terrorist.

3. If you have a beard, an AK, and it is pointing at a U.S. soldier, you are likely a dead terrorist.

Zell! Zell! Zell! Zell!

Zell Miller (yeah, this Zell Miller) strikes again in Iwo Jima, if covered by media today. He imagines the New York Times coverage of the Iwo Jima invasion if it were covered today by intrepid reporter Cutey Cudley along with political analyst James Crankville, Senator Blowhard, Senator Bombast, columnist Myscream Loud and the entire Senate Squeakers Group. It is amusing, but oh so close to the truth. It's obvious who he has in mind, with the exceptions of Senators Blowhard and Bombast. I'm a little confused as to their real identity, since there are about 50 candidates currently serving who would qualify.

He has a bit of fun with his story, but then he gets serious:

Historical note: In one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, when it was said "uncommon courage was a common virtue," 6,000 Marines were killed and 18,000 wounded. Some 21,000 Japanese were killed. The island itself is still barren and only a handful of people live on it. But after it was secured by the Marines, B-29s made over 2,200 emergency landings on it, saving the lives of more than 24,000 crewmen. AP photographer Joe Rosenthal won a Pulitzer Prize for the flag-raising photo. Of the six men in the photo, three were buried in that black volcanic ash, one came out on a stretcher. Only two walked off the island.

Think about these numbers for a sec, then revisit the photo of Col. Bud Day, below.