Blame Canada

In honor of Athena's journey to the Great White North I've decided to pay homage to this classic. Best thing about this song is that it was nominated for an Oscar. Who'd have thunk it?

Universally Stupid

Hate to get too partisan here, but something crossed my bow that is insanely retarded. Seems the Democratic brain trust on Capitol Hill decided to axe the provisions of a bill that would shield people who report suspicious activity from lawsuits. This all grows from one of my favorite mycultural incidents of recent history: The Flying Imams cluster f***. As a result of their heinous mental scarring at the hands of a racist machine the Imams are suing everybody that got within range of the airport that day. With the help of our good friends at CAIR they have also threatened to sue the people that reported their activity as suspicious. Not wanting to take this like the French, Representatives Peter King and Steve Pearce sponsored the legislation.

I have yet to hear the rationale from the Democratic side, but one Congressman said he was afraid it would lead to racial profiling. Don’t they have any other buzzwords they can trot out, that one’s had the tread worn off it. I’d love to see a little chart explaining exactly where CAIR’s money is being spent these days. Somebody, anybody, find me one and send it this way. All joking aside, this is stupid ass politics putting lives at risk. Nothing new there though. By the way, the Supreme Court has already largely decided the issue of anonymous tips in Florida v J.L. In that unanimous decision they declared that police cannot act on anonymous tips unless it offers a predictive course of behavior. That said, all bets are off and the standards are different for flying. It’s been decided for a long time that flying is a privilege, not a right, and the normal standards of search and seizure don’t apply. I could wax at great length about the idiocy of killing this legislation, but the stupidity of it pretty wells speaks for itself. By the way, for all the shit talking most congressional weenies do about president Bush and his approval rating they’ve got zero room to talk. Congress’ approval rating currently stands at 24%. (Update:I stand corrected: 14%. They rated lower than HMO's. Holy crap!) Any lower and it will be inside the margin of error for zero.

Ares

The Ladies Of Fark

If you’re not Farking every day then you're just not making proper use of the Internet. Today’s Fark-based gem comes from World Net Daily. The good folks at WND decided to put together a summary of the teachers (female) accused of having sex with students. When viewing the list several thoughts come to mind. First, if this list were pictures of this many men accused of having sex with under aged female students Congress would be holding candlelight vigils and outdoing each other new legislation. (It would probably end with a law that allowed the cutting off of pee-pees upon conviction.) Second, what does it say about the pool of available adult males that this many women decided to skip the barrel and start shopping from the tree? Its no excuse but it makes me wonder. Third, it looks like this happens pretty much everywhere, but Colorado and Utah seem to have a pretty heavy representation for their respective size. Fourth, they’re all white women. Ban the white ladies and this would stop, so it appears. Fifth, in the looks department the ladies range from “Huba Huba” to OH MY GOD MY EYES! If you’re a teenage boy are there really that many cool points attached to getting it on with somebody old enough to be your mother wearing a face that could split concrete? Finally, one in particular caught my eye. Pamela Rogers Turner is a former model and Ms Nitro of the Nitro Girls fame. At 27 she had an ongoing relationship with a 13 year old by. After being convicted she continued sending naked pictures of herself to the kid. What the hell kind of mojo is this kid fishing with? It is all downhill for that kid. Why isn’t he doing those Axe commercials? That would be some truth in advertising.

Ares

Black Swan

I’m currently pounding my way through The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. What a stellar read. Briefly put, a Black Swan is an improbable or unpredictable event that has three aspects: it’s unpredictable, it has a massive impact, and we develop retroactive explanations in an attempt to justify it. 9/11 is everyone’s favorite example, but a Black Swan can be much smaller in scope and scale.

Taleb is one of those guys that are so smart it’s a bit scary. He’s an old-school, well-rounded thinker; educated like we used to do a couple of generations ago. He could probably pass this one with no trouble at all.

A brief little excerpt is in order.

To Be Wrong With Infinite Precision

We harbor a crippling dislike for the abstract. One day in December 2003, when Saddam Hussein was captured, Bloomberg News flashed the following headline at 13:01: U.S. TREASURIES RISE; HUSSEIN CAPTURE MAY NOT CURB TERRORISM. Whenever there is a market move, the news media feels obliged to give the ‘reason’. Half an hour later, they had to issue a new headline. As the U.S. Treasury bonds fell in price (they fluctuate all day long, so there was nothing special about that), Bloomberg News had a new reason for the fall: Saddam’s capture (the same Saddam). At 13:31 they issued the next bulletin: U.S. TREASURIES FALL; HUSSEIN CAPTURE BOOSTS ALLURE OF RISKY ASSETS. So it was the same capture (the cause) explaining one event and its exact opposite. Cleary, this can’t be; these two facts cannot be linked. Do media journalists repair to the nurse’s office every morning to get their daily dopamine injection so they can narrate better?

I didn’t select the above section just because it bangs on the media, my favorite punching bag. I think this book and Global Brain should be used as texts in a course that should be required for all college students: Modern Cognition. Makes that Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric class I took as a freshman seem pretty pathetic. More to follow as I digest this one.

Ares

Another Layer of Hell?

Had a little aside thought last night. I spent several hours in one of those places most decent people pretend don’t exist. After several hours of sifting through the human detritus and sweating like Michael Moore in Cuba I got back into my car thoroughly soaked in sweat. Aside from stinking like me I also stunk like the interior of the building I had been in. My first thought after getting a moment to myself was a not-so-fond remembrance of Jean Paul Sartre’s famous quote: Hell is other people. After some reflection I think Sartre and the bible left something out of their descriptors of hell: Smell. There must have been some technical hurdles for the guys that penned the bible in attempting to describe the smells of hell. How do you define ‘bad smelling’ in a time and place where everybody rides donkeys and poops into open pits? I think it’s time we did a small addendum to the book of Revelation and add a few adjectives about eternal damnation. Something like this: “You shalt know of hell by its unyielding assault of odor that thou shalt be unable to take refuge from. The miasma shall be a bouquet of scents most evil; the coming together of rotting fast food, vomited alcohol, dehydration piss, unwashed armpit, and wool-encased feet in the Georgia summer.” Odor is one of those things that we do our best to pass through quickly and forget even quicker. It only becomes torturous when it can’t be escaped and persists. Maybe we should have recidivist sinner children clean grease traps for a week straight and then reevaluate?

Ares

Another News-Flavored Product

Today’s news-flavored crap nugget is courtesy of the New York Times. The following two quotes are shamelessly lifted from the Wall Street Journal.

"Now, a pact between local tribal sheiks and American commanders has sent thousands of young Iraqis from Anbar Province into the fight against extremists linked to Al Qaeda. . . . The deal has all but ended the fighting in Ramadi and recast the city as a symbol of hope that the tide of the war may yet be reversed to favor the Americans and their Iraqi allies."--news story, New York Times, July 8

"It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit. . . . Milestones came and went without any progress toward a stable, democratic Iraq or a path for withdrawal. . . . Whatever [President's Bush's] cause was, it is lost. . . . Keeping troops in Iraq will only make things worse."--editorial, New York Times, July 8

I guess my real question is this: Who decides what they should think on an issue based on an editorial? Is there anybody on this little ball of water & gas we call Earth that is still on the fence about Iraq? Since the obvious answer is ‘no’ I think we can all agree that the second quote is just some overpaid schmuck spraying opinions onto a billboard that no one drives past.

Ares

Didn't They Watch Braveheart?

In what might be the funniest development on the counter-terror front in years, the Scottish government unveiled its new secret weapon. Don’t think WMD’s or precision strike munitions. Think pint-swilling cab drivers. Seems ole Johnny Jihad that crashed his SUV into the airport in Glasgow got soundly and roundly kicked in the balls by a passing cab driver. This was a stark departure for Mr. Jihad, who was expecting rather different treatment in that personal region when he was acquainted with his requisite 72 virgins. The irony could not be any more delicious. In this corner we have Mr. Jihad: Trained in explosives and terror tactics at the finishing schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In this corner we have Alex McIlveen: Beer sipping average Joe trained in the deadly art of kicking in the mommy-and-daddy button. I’m sure glad the Scottish are on our side.

Ares

Infidels Live Here

Found an excellent piece on the web yesterday. The Daily Mail of London has a piece by a former member of the British Jihadi Network. One of my favorite parts of the article is that it’s written by a guy named Butt. No wonder he’s pissed off and disaffected. Seriously, it’s an excellent look into the mindset of the radicalized element. It also jives with what Steve Emerson has been saying for almost 20 years.

On a similar Islamist note, I just finished Terror at Beslan. That was a tough read. Heart of darkness type stuff, but real and replicated. Literally gave me nightmares, and I’m no wilting violet. (If you're serious about not sleeping for a while find and watch this.) I’ll spare you the particulars, but if you wanna know more you can read this or this. There’s a need to walk a fine line in reading this stuff. I don’t think we should flee from inspecting evil, but it becomes easy, almost seductive, to believe it’s more pervasive than it actually is.

Speaking of cataloguing evil, you really should read Michael Yon’s latest piece. Yon is doing absolutely stellar work. Yes, he’s neck deep in the most unpopular war in 40 years, but that doesn’t detract from the caliber of his observation and writing. Mike’s the Ernie Pyle of The Long War. If there were journalist justice he would have won a Pulitzer or two by now.

Ares

yup, we're boring

But I can at least say I did something fun yesterday. Thanks, Theresa, for letting me use your kids as an excuse to see this.

Been wanting to go since, oh, last September. And don't deny it; she's a cuteness explosion you can't resist. Best part: I didn't even have to sweat that much; it was *only* 80-some degrees here yesterday.

Vacations rule. And tomorrow I get me some fireworks...

Athena

What's That Smell?

Apologies for the stench of rotten blog that’s permeated this space for the past two weeks. Work truly pulled me under, followed quickly by a short but glorious vacation. The impending dog days of summer don’t bode well for current content. I’m sure this will greatly disturb both of our readers. Nonetheless, a Herculean effort will be put forth by the staff here at A & A.

Ares