James Calvin Tillman: One Happy Fella!

A joyful James Calvin Tillman speaks with reporters outside Superior Court in Hartford. (BOB MACDONNELL) Jul 11, 2006

State legislators tried to calculate the incalculable Wednesday, voting to award $5 million to compensate an innocent man who spent 18 years in prison.

The House and Senate unanimously approved the settlement with James Calvin Tillman, 45, who was freed a year ago after DNA evidence exonerated him of a rape in Hartford.

Source: Hartford Courant 5/17/07

GOP Debate II (5/15/07)
My take:

Rudy: Seems too anxious to become President; he did get a round of applause when he countered Ron Paul's (sort of) conspiracy theories.

Mitt: Very suave and urbane and articulate; well prepared; stands tough on his governorship in MA as a con in a blue/black state.

McCain: He leaned hard on his military background, as well he should. His experience as a POW strongly informs his views on interrogation and whether forms of "enhanced interrogation" could be used in extreme national security emergencies. He claimed that military people are the ones most opposed to extra legal methods of intel extraction.

Hunter: The clear winner if one includes clarity of vision with determination to do whatever is necessary to preserve this nation against foreign enemies, illegal immigration, out of control spending.

Paul: Not quite the Dennis Kucinich of the right, but close.


Republican strategist Rich Galen's take on last night's debate:(excerpts)

Shorthand: Giuliani helped himself. McCain performed well. Huckabee did well enough so that the big three is now the big three and a half. Giving Romney the kindest review, he came out where he started, but I suspect he may have hurt himself by appearing too pre-programmed in his answers.....

The Giuliani campaign has signaled a major strategic shift. They will no longer attempt to portray him as a Conservative - which he is not - but will attempt to show that he is a center-right candidate running in center-right country. (emphasis added)

That is, of course, a gamble in a Republican primary campaign.....

Throughout, Giuliani demonstrated he will stay on the issue of national security. When Ron Paul said that, in essence, it was the US presence in the Middle East which invited the September 11th attacks, Giuliani demanded that Paul take it back. He refused.
Read Rich's column "Mullings" here.
Labels: GOP Debate Republican Presidential Candidates Rich Galen

Corpse Flowers are Bursting Out All Over!

Several locations are reporting the blooming of this rare plant on this Mother's Day weekend. Our own Amorphophallus titanum* (titan arum) at the UCONN greenhouses is blooming at this moment; it's last blooming was in 2004.

The plant pictured above is in the arboretum at Gustavus Adolphus college in St. Peter MN. The culmination of this plant was widely heralded with the announcement "Perry is Open". (Perry must be the plant's name) Another plant 'Ted the Titan", bloomed at UCAL Davis in June 2003.

UCONN experts say:

Once fully opened, the bright red bloom smells like three-day old road kill. It will even look like rotting meat, a perfect scenario for the insects that pollinate it _ flies and carrion beetles.

When the plant first bloomed at UConn in 2004, more than 20,000 people dropped by for a whiff.

School officials say it will be at its stinkiest in the first hour after it blooms tonight. After that, visitors will have about 72 hours, or until Sunday night, to take in the aroma.

Interesting quote:

“It smells just like a rotting corpse. In 2004, there was a medical examiner here who came to see it and confirmed that it smelled exactly like a corpse. It has the compounds that a rotting corpse has." -- Clinton Morse, plant growth facilities manager for UConn's ecology and evolutionary biology department.

Latest from UCONN website

The example below bloomed in Seattle last year.



*(the name hardly needs translation!)
Tagged: UCONN Gustavus Adolphus College Corpse Flower

What if the Shoe Bomber Had Succeeded...........
The chilling photo sequence above demonstrates the horrific power of the small quantity of high explosive hidden in Richard Reid's shoe. Had alert passengers not spotted his attempt to ignite the bomb the entire aircraft would had been destroyed with the loss of 197 lives. The still photos above were taken from an FBI video of test conducted at Quantico VA to duplicate the scenario with Reid and his shoe bomb. The full account of the experiments and video can be seen at News of the World (UK) site. An excerpt from the News of the World story follows:

This is what Reid's bomb would have done to a plane full of passengers flying at 30,000ft, if the detonator had not been faulty.

We showed the video to top anti-terror cop Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman who said: "It's only when you see the bomb going off inside a pressurised air cabin that you really see the catastrophic results. The plane is split in two.

"The video shows the shot from inside, it's taken to show you what it would look like if you were a passenger on that flight.

"You can see the plane shake and then it goes dark. I have seen this footage again and again and each time I still find it chilling."

Mr Hayman added: "What this video shows is the ingenuity and the ruthlessness that these people possess, the same ingenuity and ruthlessness you saw in the Crevice trial.

"And they're constantly refining their techniques, developing new methods of mass murder. Sometimes they sound outlandish — just like a bomb in a shoe sounds far-fetched.

"But look at the result in this video. This is what we're fighting against."

The footage is now to be used by Scotland Yard to train its officers. Reid, 33, who was born in Kent, pleaded guilty to attempting to blow up Flight 63.

The court was told he was overpowered by passengers and crew as he attempted to light a fuse protruding from one of his shoes. He is serving a life sentence in the U.S.

Mr Hayman agrees with the News of the World that the public should see the shocking simulation of what he could have done as he says another attack is "highly likely".

Tags: Richard Reid Shoe Bomber FBI War On Terror Scotland Yard

The legal gun won this fight or...

How different things might have been at Virginia Tech if Seung-Hui Cho hadn't had the only gun on campus.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Kevin O'Brien

Plain Dealer Columnist

Arthur Buford is dead, and that's a sad thing.

Arthur had his whole life ahead of him. He was just a kid, after all - a 15-year-old freshman at John F. Kennedy High School.

What he didn't know, as he approached Damon Wells' house in southeast Cleveland on Saturday night, was that his whole life consisted of just a few more seconds.

Arthur had a gun, which he and another youngster apparently thought would give them the power to take something from Wells, who was standing on the front porch.

Whatever Arthur's plan was, it unraveled. It didn't account for the possibility that the guy who looked like an easy mark would have permission from the state of Ohio to carry a concealed weapon, or that he would bother to arm himself just to walk to the neighborhood store and back.

Arthur's plan depended on catching Wells off-guard. But Wells wasn't off-guard. He had a plan of his own, against the day when someone like Arthur might come along.

Wells' plan was to avoid becoming a crime victim, and that's how Arthur ended up dying of several gunshot wounds to the chest.

Wells hasn't given The Plain Dealer much more than monosyllables, and I don't blame him. What would he say? That he's sorry he was prepared? That he's sorry he defended himself?

Unless he's a man without a conscience, he probably finds it regrettable that it came down to a him-or-me situation. But it's clear that he's not a man devoid of the desire to go on living, so he's got to be glad that it turned out to be "him, not me." But you can't just come out and say that sort of thing without the sensitivity police coming after you, so the less said the better.

The real police, however, aren't planning to charge Wells with anything. They say the shooting was justified.

It's just about impossible to argue that, but here come the arguments.

Arthur's relatives and friends are upset that the law isn't going after Wells.

They want someone to blame - other than Arthur. But they shouldn't be allowed to bully the police or the city administration into taking action against a guy who was minding his own business on his own porch when suddenly confronted by an armed teenager.

Then there's the conceptual side of the argument - the big-picture side that says citizens shouldn't be allowed to have guns and certainly shouldn't be allowed to walk around with them.

This kind of incident proves knee-jerk gun foes wrong, and they know it.

"This is one of the few where they actually used it [a legally carried concealed weapon] to stop a crime," Toby Hoover of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence grudgingly told a Plain Dealer reporter.

But there are more than a few such cases. There are thousands every year, all over the country.

And where are the statistics on gun crimes committed by holders of concealed-carry permits? Something tells me that if they happened at anything approaching the rate of the hundreds of thousands of crimes perpetrated against unarmed Americans every year, we'd be hearing more about them.

The fact is, the concealed-carry "threat" has turned out to be malarkey, just as it was in the many states that debated such laws long before Ohio.

Three of my last four columns have had to do with young people getting killed, and that's a sad thing. In two of those cases, a teenage boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, doing wrong when someone shot him.

In the third, 32 college students were doing what they were supposed to do.

After I wrote about last week's outrage at Virginia Tech University, I got a series of sneering e-mails from a reader, along the lines of, "Next, you'll be suggesting that teachers should be armed."

I think I'll take him up on that.

Damon Wells is about the same age as the students killed at Virginia Tech. He's got his whole life still ahead of him, and because he was prepared, he'll actually get to live it - presuming he escapes thug-enforced street justice.

How different things might have been at Virginia Tech if Seung-Hui Cho hadn't had the only gun on campus.

From Cleveland Plain Dealer

The day after the VT massacre syndicated radio personality Mark "Great One" Levin interviewed economist and author John R. Lott. Lott's groundbreaking book, "More Guns, Less Crime", was published by University of Chicago Press and is available everywhere including Amazon. An audio record of the interview (16:06 MP3) is here.

Tags: Virginia Tech Shootings Kevin O'Brien More Guns, Less Crime John R. Lott Mark Levin

The Single Square TP Technique Explained:
Singer Sheryl Crow wants us to help save the planet by using only "one square of toilet paper per sitting". Crow's brother goes one step further and suggests washing out the single square for future use! As many military old timers know, the "one square method" does work. Details here; audio from Rush Limbaugh program (8:37 MP3) today where caller Delbert explains. Not for the dainty.
Rosie O'Doozie says "one square's not enough for me"!

Remember, only one sheet per sitting! By the way, is that roll installed properly?

Tagged: Rosie O'Donnell Sheryl Crow toilet paper Rush Limbaugh single square tp
sheryl crow

Connecticut Needs An Official Punk Rock Song?

A bill to designate an official Connecticut polka song has prompted a call for an official Connecticut punk rock song! The Hartford Advocate reports (3/29/07):

When State Planning and Development Committee Clerk Eric Stroker heard the bill, he decided Connecticut needed to be the first state to adopt an official punk-rock song........The song he’s proposing, “Connecticut Fun” — recorded in 1983 by an informal, ad-hoc group of Connecticut punk musicians recording under the name Punkestra — is pretty much the least offensive song recorded under a punk banner except for maybe the Chipmunk Punk album. It’s unabashedly pro-Connecticut, with lyrics imploring listeners to come out and enjoy punk music in the state. (You Tube video of the song below)



Now hyper enthusiasm takes over as State Rep. Diana Urban (D-North Stonington), a proponent of the idea says:

“It’s hilarious.”

“We can move something like this through the legislative process, and it gives us a chance to step back and giggle a little. I’d love this to be the state punk-rock song. If you can’t step back and have a little fun, then you’re taking yourself too seriously,” Urban said."

Further unbridled praise: "Incas Records owner Joe Snow, who recorded the song in 1983 (says), the song captures a seminal moment in Connecticut punk.

“The recording of that song was probably the single most unifying moment in Connecticut music history,” Joe Snow said.

He added: “If it were up to me, not only would it be the official Connecticut punk-rock song, it would be the official state song of any genre.”

Wow! Maybe it's just me but I think any self respecting punker would disdain anything official, musical or otherwise, and especially anything that promotes giggles. We note, however, that other suggestions have been made including a song titled Connecticut is for F*****g
from a group calling themselves Jesus H Christ and The Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse. The song begins......

We live in the dullest state
Package stores all close at eight
Malls are full of optometrists
And restaurants we hate
Swimming across Lake Quassapaug
Stealing makeup, catching frogs
Cutting our feet on broken bottles
As we wade in the Shepaug
It’s true for horses, cows and dogs…

Connecticut’s for f*****g
That’s all there is to do.
I love to listen to classic rock
and have sex with you.

(complete lyric here-adult content
or listen here MP3)
It is a funny song. Their debut video is below which contains a fragment , at the end, of Connecticut's for F*****g

Joe's Pub Video CD Release Launch


Tags: Punk Rock Connecticut Official Songs

Sample of Statements Requiring a Purge of Talk Radio (According to Media Matters):

1. ____ called Rosie O'Donnell, co-host of ABC's The View, a "fat witch," claimed that O'Donnell has "blubber ... just pouring out of her eyes,

2. ____ claimed that there are three reasons that an illegal immigrant "comes across the border in the middle of the night": "One, they're terrorists; two, they're escaping the law; or three, they're hungry. They can't make a living in their own dirtbag country."

3. _____ said that McKinney's "new hair-do" makes her look "like a ghetto slut," like "an explosion at a Brillo pad factory," like "Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence," and like "a shih tzu.

4. _____ stated that if the country is faced with an impending national disaster, then "hell, yes, we should save the rich people first. You know, they're the ones that are responsible for this prosperity."

5._____ stated that "since [Sen. Barack] Obama [D-IL] has -- on his mother's side -- forebears of his mother had slaves, could we not say that if Obama wins the Democratic nomination and then wins the presidency, he will own [Rev.] Al Sharpton?"

6. _____ proclaimed: My "cat's taught me more about women, than anything my whole life" because his pet cat "comes to me when she wants to be fed," and "[s]he's smart enough to know she can't feed herself. She's actually [a] very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it."

7. _____ stated that Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf "should be baking pies, not running a major city."

8. _____ agreed with a caller's assertion that illegal immigrants "bring corrupting influences" to the United States, including "a third-world value system" that "can corrupt the education system." _____ replied: "Absolutely. And that's why the dropout rate is so high."

9._____ played audio clips from Barbara Walters' interview with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, portions of which aired on the March 16 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, and called her a "double-talking slut." _____ added: "She's an empty mind-slut. She'd peddle anything for a ratings point." _____ went on to call Walters a "mental prostitute" and said, "I think that the woman is vermin. I think she's dirt."

10. _____ declared that "[t]he radical homosexual agenda will not stop until religion is outlawed in this county," adding that gay people "threaten your very survival." _____ also stated that homosexuals are "all not nice decorators" and warned: "Gay marriage is just the tip of the iceberg. They want full and total subjugation of this society to their agenda."

Have fun guessing who said these things that Media Matters finds so horrible. That group is leading the surge for the purge of talk radio. Note that there are no lefty commentators on their hit list. Oh, did you hear the Michelle Malkin / Malik Shabazz exchange on the O'Reilly show. Listen here for audio (5:27 MP3) of Michelle's interview with Malik Shabazz (2 days ago). Shabazz blames the "N" word on George Washington! Another audio here (5:25 MP3) with her interview with Opio Sokoni about rappers and the "N" word.

Tagged: Broadcast Censorship Politically Correct Speech Media Matters Bill O'Reilly Malik Shabazz Michelle Malkin

Imus Fiasco: The Marketplace Responds

We guess that the number of these shirts we see on the street will tell us something about our public discourse and whether something really evil occurred on the Imus radio program last week. See how an unfettered marketplace responds quickly to punish bad people all the while spreading their hateful ideas. The most disturbing aspect of the fiasco was the role of the race hustlers, Sharpton and Jackson, who are probably the least qualified people on the planet to cast the first stones. In his comments on The American Thinker, Duncan Maxwell Anderson notes:

In the post-Easter crucifixion of the "Imus in the Morning" radio show that substituted for news this week, the hypocrisy would make a Pharisee blush. All of a sudden, it's supposedly shocking that Don Imus referred to the Rutgers girls' basketball team with language that is routine on millions of "rap" recordings willingly bought by white and black kids alike for lo these 20 years.......

Never mind, even, that such jokes have been a staple of Imus' show for decades. Where have these shocked detractors been? Over the years, he has referred to Gwen Ifill of the New York Times as "a cleaning lady," called tennis-playing Venus and Serena Williams "animals" and compared the forwards of the New York Knicks to gorillas. Race aside, he routinely uses foul and sexually degrading language to middle-aged women who are guests on his show.

Curiously, those abused women on his show, strident feminists all, usually giggle appreciatively. I refer to columnist Maureen Dowd, reporters Andrea Mitchell, Claire Shipman, and Cokie Roberts, and plagiary-challenged historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, to name a few. But then again, they are usually on his show to promote their books....

Tagged: Don Imus American Thinker nappy-headed ho's

Pelosi's Spring Fling!

Ahh, it's Spring Break and this "Girl's Gone Wild". Nancy Pelosi has undertaken a personal and extra-constitutional jaunt to the Middle East to undercut U.S. foreign policy, to hobnob with our enemy in Syria, and to make a fool of herself.

"Stretch"* Pelosi and Bashar "The Chinless Thug" Assad

Pelosi later (now in Saudi Arabia) sidestepped a question on how she felt about the absence of female Saudi council members, saying: "I am very pleased that after 200-plus years in the U.S. we finally have a speaker. It took us a long time."

And what a disgrace that speaker is!

Here she is Chic to Sheik....**

I'm obviously disappointed. I think it is, in fact, bad behavior on her part. I wish she hadn't done it, but she is the speaker of the House, and fortunately I think the various parties involved recognize she doesn't speak for the United States in those circumstances. She doesn't represent the administration. The president is the one that conducts foreign policy, not the speaker of the House.

V.P. Dick Cheney (Rush via Drudge)

*h/t Mark Levin for the "Stretch" moniker.

**h/t Drudge

Tags: Bashar Assad Mark Levin Syria Nancy Pelosi

The Brit Hostages......



OK, so the hostages are being released. Good, I am happy for them and their families. There they are smiling and waving for the cameras in their new (Iranian provided and ill fitting by the looks of them) suits. Their military uniforms discarded along with any semblance of esprit and discipline. No resistance whatsoever by these marines and sailors to their seizure in Iraqui waters and no cover or protection from the mother ship not far away. It seems that every last one of them provided whatever theatrics their captors suggested. Am I wrong in suggesting that such supine obedience to the propagandistic whims of third world islamofacists is shameful and further enables the Iranians' nefarious aims?

Back in their uniforms.....

Home at last: After leaving the plane the sailors lined up for photographers

Source: This Is London

Tags: British Sailors Marines Faye Turney British Hostages

The Owners of Defeat......



Photo of the Day..........

The Wireless Art


"As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction. These few indications will be sufficient to show that the wireless art offers greater possibilities than any invention or discovery heretofore made, and if the conditions are favorable, we can expect with certitude that in the next few years wonders will be wrought by its application."

Those are the words of Nicola Tesla in an article titled "The Future of the Wireless Art" which appeared in Wireless Telegraphy & Telephony, 1908. Tesla, the much maligned and eccentric genius, had long sought the answer to electrical transmission without wires. Now tentative advancements have been made and a U.S. company has introduced a system for charging small devices, i.e. cell phones, at a short distance through the air using radio waves.

(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- How much money could you make from a technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.

It may sound futuristic, but Powercast's platform uses nothing more complex than a radio--and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device's battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

These are baby steps, but first steps.
Oh, and here's a funny ad from "Energy Star" featuring the first static electricity powered home:



Tags:Nicola Tesla PowerCast WirelessPowerTransmission

Remember Me! (Video)

Now, More Than Ever........



....They Need Our Support.

Watch This Video by Liz Palmer on You Tube; it will bring tears to your eyes but it is inspiring. The images are stills from the video.
Technorati: Iraq War Support the Troops Liz Palmer

How We Read!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

I riceeevd tihs in an eimal tihs miornng; waht do you tnihk?

Apple "1984" vs Hillary "1984" Ads

Interesting discussion from HotAir on theories about how the Hillary video was done.

Let's Play Spy!

Audrey Hepburn in "Charade" (1963)




Valerie Plame in "Fool the Nation" (2007)

h/t Martin B. for "Charade" reference.
Technorati Tags: Valerie Plame Audrey Hepburn CIA Charade spying spies

The Dullest Weather Report in History.....

is how Libertas Film Review describes Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Excerpts:

As someone who’s on record loving Fahrenheit 9/11 as a brilliant and entertaining piece of propaganda, I hope I have some credibility saying that as a piece of filmmaking An Inconvenient Truth is terrible. It’s a dry classroom lecture barely bolstered by big television screens given by the dullest man alive. If you don’t believe me, watch the audience. When they don’t know the camera’s on them it’s hilarious how many of them are tuned out......

It would’ve helped Gore’s credibility had he not lied during his presentation. How can you believe anything the man says when he rewrites history calling the successful fight against communism a bipartisan effort? That’s like calling the Iraq War a bipartisan effort. Like the current War on Terror — where we have most Democrats doing everything they can to help the enemy win so they can blame Bush for the loss — so it went during the post-Vietnam Cold War. The Democrats were appeasers who blamed America and Reagan for everything. They undermined our efforts in Vietnam causing three dominos to fall to communism, 2 million people to die, and exposing an American glass jaw that still provokes our enemies. After 1968 there was nothing bipartisan about the Cold War victory.

Technorati Tags: Climate Crisis Libertas Global Warming bipartisanship Democrats propaganda Farenheit 911 Al Gore

The Great Global Warming Swindle

This documentary film was shown on Britain's Channel 4 last week.It provides a compelling refutation to a lot of the hysteria sweeping the globe.Climate change is a reality, and always has been. It is human caused global warming that is increasingly in doubt.
Professor Phillip Stott addresses the issues in a recent article (excerpts):
March 9, 2007 — From the Babylon of Gilgamesh to the post-Eden of Noah, every age has viewed climate change cataclysmically, as retribution for human greed and sinfulness.

In the 1970s, the fear was "global cooling." The Christian Science Monitor then declaimed, "Warning: Earth's climate is changing faster than even experts expect," while The New York Times announced, "A major cooling of the climate is widely considered inevitable." Sound familiar? Global warming represents the latest doom-laden "crisis," one demanding sacrifice to Gaia for our wicked fossil-fuel-driven ways.

To be fair, we should point out that Carl Wunsch, one of the scientists interviewed in the "Great Swindle" film, claims he was misrepresented. His complaint here.


The film is 1 hour 15 minutes and is highly recommended.
Technorati Tags:global warming climate change,Phillip Stott,the great global warming swindle,carl wunsch

Close Call-Driver Escapes Crash

This is the scene following this morning's fiery car v. truck crash on I-95 in Branford.We are reminded here of the importance of having as many troopers as possible on the roads to look for unsafe conditions and dangerous motorists and truckers. Gov. Rell's proposed budget requires manning truck weigh stations with DMV employees rather than with State Troopers as at present. The Hartford Courant reports today on what could become a dispute between the DMV, The State Police, and trucking representatives. The police union says:


"It's what we do and quite frankly, we do it efficiently and effectively,'' said state police union president Steven Rief. But a trucking rep replies:

Michael Riley, president of the Motor Transport Association, testified that he favors the DMV running the weigh stations.

The DMV has not been heard from as yet.
Source: Hartford Courant 3/8/07 Photo: Bob MacDowell
Tags: CT DMV, CT state police, Gov. Rell, truckers, highway safety, truck weigh stations

Funny Headline of the Week!

Supreme Court Strips Al Gore of Oscar; Declares George W. Bush Winner

Watch out Canada; This show must drive the libs nuts!

An important new article by
Connecticut writer Dan Sargis

"Mittyesque Wardreams"

March 2, 2007

"War conducted by half-measures is not war at all...it is a child’s game. And it is a game whose price the American people should refuse to pay.

As September 11th dragged into Afghanistan and Afghanistan dragged into Iraq, politicians on both sides of the aisle have been dispensing national security half-measures as casually as the educational; system dispenses Ritalin...and with equally ineffective long-term results.

On September 22, 2001 I wrote an article in which cautioned against a quick military response to 9-11. Needless to say, the article did not win me many friends in the Conservative community. BUT...history has proven it true.

My apprehension about a quick military response to 9-11 was a fear of half-measures by those making the decisions. Simply stated, I did not think that America understood the nature of terrorism nor would the country’s leadership (and intelligentsia) have the stomach to fight a real war......." (this is the lead, the author's conclusions follow below, complete article here)


".........America has two choices. Either it is business as usual and we ”rush out in shame and disgrace, dragging the bodies of our soldiers” or we fight a real war and set an example whose lesson will protect us for decades.

If this country has troops in harm’s way, it is the responsibility of our leadership to either truly support those troops and their mission with total conviction or get them the hell out now.

If America is intimidated out of Iraq or “stays the course” handcuffed by half-measures, it will only be the beginning of the end."


Dan Sargis with Ann Coulter
Tags:war,iraq war,dansargis,ann coulter,soldiers,military,afghanistan,911

On Duct Tape

We have long been a fan, and user, of duct tape, that ubiquitous tool and cure-all with myriad uses. We have used it to repair shoes, automobile mufflers, seating upholstery,clothing and more. Several years ago there was a flurry of interest in the product due to certain Homeland Security Dept. suggestions about its use in creating air tight safe rooms. Earlier this month there was the story about the female astronaut going ballistic over a presumed love rival. We were surprised that duct tape was not included in her arsenal and equipage. However, this lead to yesterday's news that duct tape was indeed part of astronauts' tool kit and, in the event of an astronaut crackup, could even be used to "bind his (or her) wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord* and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary."

Our interest piqued, we looked for updates to the Duct Tape Story. We did not have to look far. There is a Duct Tape Nation, the Duct Tape Guys and other web sites devoted to the humor about, and the love of duct tape. There are on line tutorials for making duct tape portraits and even a video on how to make a duct tape wallet.

To buttress the case that some folks are spending too much time on duct tape there is this: Alaska's 8th Annual Duct Tape Ball.

*This opens up a new area of research: "On Bungee Cords"!




Tags: astronauts,duct tape,crafts,bungees,duct tape nation,ductapeguys,homeland security,civil defensed,safe rooms

A Convenient, and Humorous, Truth!

He's also put a half million PR dollars into promoting his dismal movie to the academy so as to enhance his chances of an Oscar. Gee, I thought his film was a shoo-in for the best doc award!

Remember he also invneted the internet!
Tags: Al gore,academy awards,oscar,inconvenient truth,climate change,global warming

On Becoming and Being a Libertarian

Murray N. Rothbard (1925-1996)
Fellow blogger God's Lonely Man recently posted the following excellent piece on Libertarianism:Call to Arms
I recently came across a beautiful and fascinating article from 1977 by Murray Rothbard on the Ludwig von Mises Institute website about what it means to be a libertarian. The article is a sort of call to arms, or a call to intellect, rather, for advocates of liberty everywhere. It serves as a reminder to all of us why liberalism is the only legitimate means by which individuals should be governed:

"Too many libertarians have absorbed the negative and elitist conservative worldview to the effect that our enemy today is the poor, who are robbing the rich; the blacks, who are robbing the whites; or the masses, who are robbing heroes and businessmen. In fact, it is the state that is robbing all classes, rich and poor, black and white, worker and businessman alike; it is the state that is ripping us all off; it is the state that is the common enemy of mankind."

"I am convinced that our primary task, now, as libertarians, is not to hassle with each other on the precise role of the courts or the police in the eventual free society, nor over the proper detailed strategy or tactics of achieving it. As important as these questions are, our most vital task is for each and every one of us to achieve the baptism of will, that is, to adopt and hold high — forever — the victory of liberty as our primary, overriding political goal. This is what we are all about, we libertarians." More here...

Tags:Murray N. Rothbard,Mises Institute,libertarianism,liberty,government

The Liberty Manifesto

On May 6, 1993 P.J. O'Rourke delivered an address titled "The Liberty Manifesto" at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. The ideas expressed here are just as relevant today and deserve a wider audience. Below are some excerpts from the manifesto. (emphasis added) You can read the complete speech here.

"All we have is the belief that people should do what people want to do, unless it causes harm to other people. And that had better be clear and provable harm. No nonsense about second-hand smoke or hurtful, insensitive language, please.

I don't know what's good for you. You don't know what's good for me. We don't know what's good for mankind. And it sometimes seems as though we're the only people who don't. It may well be that, gathered right here in this room tonight,are all the people in the world who don't want to tell all the people in the world what to do.

This is because we believe in freedom. Freedom -- what this country was established upon, what the Constitution was written to defend, what the Civil War was fought to perfect.


Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle.

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.

So we are here tonight in a kind of anti-matter protest -- an unpolitical undemonstration by deeply uncommitted inactivists. We are part of a huge invisible picket line that circles the White House twenty-four hours a day. We are participants in an enormous non-march on Washington -- millions and millions of Americans not descending upon the nation's capital in order to demand nothing from the United States government. To demand nothing, that is, except the one thing which no government in history has been able to do -- leave us alone.

There are just two rules of governance in a free society:

* Mind your own business.
* Keep your hands to yourself."

P.J. O'Rourke is a H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute.


Here's a link to O'Rourke's web site and blog.

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." P.J. O'Rourke
Tags:P J O'Rourke,liberty,cato institute, H L Mencken,freedom,slavery,human rights

NO REASON TO SMILE!

Nancy Pelosi, and all who stood with her, have stabbed the President and the troops. This is a national disgrace.

The New York Post Nails it!

Tags: pelosi,ny post,troopsurge,treason,congress,war powers,

Al Gore Loves Snow!

Analysis: Al Gore Ducks Northeast Blizzard

Phil Brennan
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007

As a blizzard of snow and ice pummels the Northeast after trouncing the Midwest, and waves of Arctic cold fronts drop much of America below sub freezing weather, the $64,000 question is, Where is Al Gore?

Gore claims that global warming is an immediate problem facing the United States and the world, and places like New York and Chicago could feel like Caribbean haunts.

If there is any doubt that God has a sense of humor, it has to be dispelled by a headline in Wednesday's Drudge Report: "House hearing on 'warming of the planet' canceled after ice storm."

He followed up with this: "Save it for a sunny day: Maryville Univ. in St. Louis area canceling screening of Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth' because of a snowstorm."

What must have evoked the loudest laugh in heaven is the notion that if global warming is really occurring, puny mankind is going to overcome it by legislation and business regulation that would strangle the U.S. economy and be overseen by the super efficient United Nations.
Read rest of article from NewsMax here.

Tags: Al Gore, snow, global warming, inconvenient truth, Drudge Report, blizzard

Global Warming Denial = Holocaust Denial

In yesterday's Boston Globe, Ellen Goodman writes:

By every measure, the U N 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raises the level of alarm. The fact of global warming is "unequivocal." The certainty of the human role is now somewhere over 90 percent. Which is about as certain as scientists ever get.

I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

Her notion that science is based on speculation is wrong and, of course, her equation is absurd; as James Taranto pointed out yesterday:

..... Imagine if someone in 1937 had foreknowledge of the Holocaust and began sounding the alarms, describing in detail what was going to happen just a few years later. Most people probably wouldn't believe him. They would be, to use Goodman's phrase, denying the future. But would they be "on par" with people who deny the Holocaust after it has happened?

That seems a stretch. There's an enormous difference between doubting an outlandish prediction (even one that comes true) and denying the grotesque facts of history. Because we are ignorant of the future, we can innocently misjudge it. Holocaust deniers are neither ignorant nor innocent (though extremely ignorant people may innocently accept their claims). They are falsifying history for evil purposes.

This columnist is skeptical of global warming. We don't have enough scientific knowledge to have anything like an authoritative opinion--but neither does Ellen Goodman, who bases her entire argument on an appeal to authority, namely the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We lack the time, the inclination and possibly the intellect to delve deeply into the science. No doubt the same is true of Goodman.

(emphasis added)
Tags: Global Warming, Climate change, Holocaust, Holocaust deniers, global warming deniers, Ellen Goodman, James Taranto

Air Nancy!

Tags: Nancy Pelosi,

Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan!

Born 96 years ago today, his true conservative leadership is sorely missed. (Favorite Reagan quip: "I'm here from the government, and I'm here to help.")

Who will carry on his legacy? It's hard to tell in the pack of RINOs we are currently burdened with.

Special edition of Mark Levin radio show 2/06 featuring audio of the great speech by Reagan for Barry Goldwater 10/27/64, transcript here.

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More proof that liberal/progressive talk radio sucks!

From Radio Equalizer
Liberal Talk Radio Blog




With today's news that its programming will be pulled from New Haven's airwaves, it appears even that bastion of campus radicalism can't support so- called "progressive" talk radio.

With little fanfare, Connecticut's "The Voice" 1300, also known as WAVZ- AM, pulled the plug on Franken, Rhodes & Co. and flipped to ESPN Radio.

Also taking a hit in the move are non- Air America libtalkers Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz.

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US should weigh war on terrorism tax - Lieberman

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Sen. Joseph Lieberman said on Tuesday that Congress should consider a tax to fund the U.S.-declared war on terrorism and reduce the need to cut domestic programs to pay for security spending. A former Democrat who supports the Iraq war and backs President George W. Bush's plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, Lieberman said the proposed increase in the Pentagon's budget for next fiscal year will squeeze funding for critical domestic programs. "I think we have to start thinking about a war on terrorism tax," the independent Connecticut lawmaker said. "I mean people keep saying we're not asking a sacrifice of anybody but our military in this war and some civilians who are working on it."
Tags: Ronald Reagan, Mark Levin,Barry Goldwater,Talk Radio,New Have,Franken,lieberman,iraq war, taxes,

Blue Man Group Joins the "Blame America for Global Warming" Bandwagon!

Penn and Teller with their funny 2 cents worth! rebuttal. Replay video | Share video | Watch more videos Tags: Blue Man Group, global warming, blame America, Penn and Teller, Greepeace, Patrick Moore,

Hillary Clinton: "I Want to take Those Profits..."

Sounds like Socialism to me!

Tags: Hillary Clinton, socialism, oil profits, democrats

If She Were President in 2002!

"If I had been President in October of 2002 I would not have started this war" (Hillary Clinton (2/2/07)


"If we in Congress don't end this war before January 2009, as president, I will." (Hillary Clinton (2/2/07)

But listen to what she and hubby Bill (7:40 audio MP3) had to say before the Bush 43 presidency. This audio clearly presents the Clintons, Sandy Berger, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden in their strident denunciations of Saddam Hussein and, moreover, emphasizing the dictator's possession of, and usage of WMD.

Here are excerpts from the Dec 1998 speech by President Clinton in which he announces the failure of inspections and the need for military action against Saddam Hussein.

President Clinton:" This situation presents a clear and present danger to the stability of the Persian Gulf and the safety of people everywhere. The international community gave Saddam one last chance to resume cooperation with the weapons inspectors. Saddam has failed to seize the chance.

And so we had to act and act now......That is why, on the unanimous recommendation of my national security team -- including the vice president, the secretary of defense, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the secretary of state and the national security adviser -- I have ordered a strong, sustained series of air strikes against Iraq.....So we will pursue a long-term strategy to contain Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction and work toward the day when Iraq has a government worthy of its people.....The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of his region, the security of the world..... Heavy as they are, the costs of action must be weighed against the price of inaction. If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors. He will make war on his own people.

And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them."

Tags: Saddam Hussein, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Iraq War, WMD, Biden, Pelosi, Sandy Berger