The Last Ephor

Condi fires a shot across the bow and the prince gets pissy. It's simply laughable how fast he deflects everything to Israel. "Hey, you really shouldn't imprison people for speaking their minds" "What do you want me to do? They broke the law and they're being railroad...uh..tried by the courts" "A little democracy might be a good idea. I mean, we have all these troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and they're wrapping things up over there and pretty soon they're going to need something else to do..." "ISRAEL! Israel is the problem. Look over there! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

Why this guy is so fired up, I have no idea. The picture is very dark and whether it's day or night I have idea why that matters. If anything doing this in broad daylight is worse not better. Look at the second picture and tell me he's not smooching this woman. That woman damn well knows he's a married man but doesn't care. Neither does Bill. Either she doesn't consider Bill's marriage to Hillary to be real (she wouldn't be alone on that one) or she does, but it just doesn't matter to her (again, she wouldn't be alone on that one either.) I hate to paint with broad strokes but I can't help but thinking that only Democrats would view this behavior as acceptable by either party. Look at the people nearby, they're smiling away as a man kisses a woman, who is not his wife, in public. Have you no decency sir?

One continual battle I have with lefties on a particular board is about the nature of the insurgency. I always believe that the they were an amalgam that existed before the war and continued to fight afterwards. For example, I've always believe these guys were just Al-Qaeda in drag. (I won't go over the well trodden ground of the links between Iraq and terrorism.) My lefty counterpart always believed these two groups (Former Regime Elements and Foreign Fighters as they are called) hate each other but made common cause against us as we were the greater evil. Well, now the NYT, that Neocon news organ of the GOP is reporting Red on Red fighting. Marines See Signs Iraq Rebels Are Battling Foreign Fighters tells us volumes. The UN official admits there has been a rift for a long time and it's getting worse. I suspect the Iraqi nationals now see that the Americans may be here and not wanted, but they aren't killing people in mosques and the like. They want the US o

One of my father's oft repeated mantras was "I cried and cried because I had no shoes until I saw a man with no feet." Unlike most adages and attempted lessons, this one didn't go in one ear and out the other. It stuck with me. It has often helped me put things in perspective during my own times of adversity. When my son was first diagnosed with autism, my wife cried and I immediately asked, "Ok, so what do we do?" I was glad to know that his condition had a name and we finally knew what we were up against. I wasn't flippant or in denial. Rather, I knew my son was healthy and happy. He is a great joy in our lives. Surely he is disabled and he (and we) will face some very large obsticles. However, his condition is not degenerative, nor fatal. To that end, meet Cameron Clapp . A boy with more courage in one day that I've ever been able to muster in a lifetime. God bless you Cameron.

I once saw a movie called " The End of Violence ." Simply put, it's about a satellite system that incorporates not only real-time surveillance, but the ability to kill anyone at will. Some technology never explained gives the user the ability to shoot someone, as with a gun, from the satellite. I thought the movie was fairly interesting but not too creepy as it was too far fetched to be real. All of this is a hyperbolic lead in to a story about laying census data over Google Maps . Now, we're a fair sight from the aforementioned scenario of shooting someone via satellite, but the ability to aggregate data so quickly and integrate it with a mapping tool shows that the technology available to John Q. Public is growing very very rapidly. Privacy advocates are now often sniffed at. People think that if you have nothing to hide, you don't need to worry about this kind of thing. I think in the next few years, fewer people will be laughing.

Chrenkoff has a roundup of the Coalition of the Willing. Read the whole thing.

I've been playing this song ad naseum this weekend. I LOVE the Saw Doctors and this tune is absolutely contageous. The lyrics are quite poignant as well. THE SAW DOCTORS - N17 LYRICS : "Well I didn’t see much future When I left the Christian brothers school So i waved it goodbye with a wistful smile And I left the girls of Tuam Sometimes when I’m reminiscing I see the prefabs and my old friends And I know that they’ll be changed or gone By the time I get home again. And I wish I was on the n17 Stone walls and the grass is greener Travelling with just my thoughts and dreams Well the ould fella left me to shannon Was the last time I traveled that road And ass we turned left at claregalway I could feel a lump in my throat As I pictured the thousands of times That I traveled that well worn track And I know that things will be different If I ever decide to go back Now as I tumble down highways Or on filthy overcrowded trains There’s no one to talk to in transit So I sit there an

Great Site Ranking in Google The Secret's Out Interesting article on how Google ranks it's sites. The boon (IMNHO) is the age component. No more flipping URL's for high rankings.

Media Faked Downing Memos? I don't think so. I think they went to an awful lot of trouble to make the copies appear to be real. Blair conceded that the memo may well be genuine, but it's contents are of no consequence. The author makes some claims but has no facts to back them up. It's merely that, a claim. It's one man's opinion of what was happening. That doesn't make it fact. I'm sure you could find a memo from Nancy Pelosi or Ted Kennedy that say the same and worse. It wouldn't mean anything. They're both partisan hacks who's familiarity with the truth is circumspect at best.

Lord knows how I missed this one. It was all over the MSM /sarcasm. Ok, seriously, Captain's Quarters points us to an article that corroborates Saddam's contacts with Al-Qaeda well before the US had any thoughts of invasion. Al-Douri is most notorious for leading the former regime elements against the coalition forces. He was very highly placed in the regime and sure as hell wouldn't have reached out to al-Zawahiri on his own accord. Once again, this item was buried by the MSM because it doesn't fit the WarForOil meme.

Abandoned and rusting. The decay of the Soviet empire in pictures. Creepy and compelling.