2 New Bloggers

Shining Light in Dark Corners
A Physicist's Perspective

Best Of Homespun Bloggers September 26th, 2004

Bill's Big Bloviating Blog

I’m Disenfranchised!

Foreign observers arrived in the U.S. today to observe our elections. Specifically, they’re looking for evidence of voter disenfranchisement. Well, that shouldn’t be too difficult to find! Allow me to point them in the right direction…

Keystone Military News

Update on Shoes for Kids

As most of you know we here at Keystone Soldiers have been collecting shoes and sandals for the children in Iraq. I must say too that the campaign has been very successful.

A large part of the thanks goes to Amy Ridenour at the National Center Blog. She ran our article back in July and we had many people contact us about the program. She also contributed a big box of shoes from her family.

Yesterday Amy ran another article on her blog with the thank you note from 1Lt Eric Sloan who is distributing the shoes. Once again the response has been great. We have had many people who have asked about the program and others have asked about other ways to help especially for the holidays.

I am including the thank you note I got from 1Lt Sloan this morning:

Daisy Cutter

More Bad News for Kerry … Ballot Access for a True Believer

The bad news for the Kerry campaign just keeps on keepin’ on. Late word today is that Frank Chu has gotten on the ballot in Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, and Colorado. This could be devastating, as the candidate gives the Democrats yet another alternative that speaks to the heart of their real concerns. To see why Kerry is so concerned about this development, watch Mr. Chu’s latest press conference.

Chrenkoff

Post-Totalitarian Stress Disorder:

Iraq, quite simply, like many other recently liberated societies around the world continues to suffer from a Post-Totalitarian Stress Disorder. For the Westerners, the PTSD is a difficult condition to understand. We take so many things for granted - from comedians being able to joke about the President, to the assumption that the next government employee we encounter will not be expecting a bribe from us - that we are quite ill equipped to fully comprehend what life under a totalitarian system must really be like, much less what mental and spiritual legacy its victims have to labor under long after the statues of the Leader are pulled down.

MuD&PHuD

Arnold Takes It To PCism

You've gotta love this:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California schools can continue calling their teams the "Redskins" after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have banned the use of the term as racially derogatory.
...
Schwarzenegger said he vetoed the bill because it would have usurped the authority of local school boards.

"Decisions regarding athletic teams names, nicknames or mascots should be retained at the local level," the Republican governor wrote in his veto message.
I think he's exactly right. Now here's the disgusting part of this story:


Liberal Utopia

Raise the Terror Alert Level. Now.

The target we already know: disrupt our democratic process. The most
opportune time in the terrorists' "minds" to hit it? Friday, October 1.

Chris Berg

Information Technology & the Family First Party

It tells you something about both the internet and the Family First
Party that their IT policy is under the heading of "Pornography"...

The Terriorists

Feathers and Furries and Frogs, Oh My!

Sometimes life is great! There's nothin' I love more (besides takin' care of terrorist fe-lyings) than watchin' other canines act silly.

Maury was visitin' last week, but he was real subdued since I last wrote about him--for the most part, that is…

Maybe it's because the season is changin' or maybe they know there's another hurricane wanderin' in our general direction, but whatever the reason, critters started findin' their way into the house. Well, not into the whole house--just the sunroom which is our room. (It's all vinyl and wrought iron so accidents don't matter quite so much, and AHM keeps the door ajar so we can go in and out. Doggie doors don't always work with geriatric, visually impaired oldersters.)

The Unmentionables

Bad Poll Numbers for Bush

From the Great Northwest

"EXCLUSIVE: Straw-poll shocker! Fierce warrior race strongly backs Democrat. Even as John Kerry struggles to establish national-security credentials nationally, an exclusive WW  straw poll shows his campaign dominating one skeptical, warlike demographic: Klingons.

"The poll, conducted when the DVD release of the Star Trek  fan documentary Trekkies 2  attracted Portland's Klingon community to Tower Records on Southeast 102nd Avenue, may spell trouble for President George W. Bush.

Redhunter

Kerry's Undercut

John Kerry has apparently decided that all is suchgloom and doom in Iraq that we are already defeated. His remarks yesterday during the visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi went way beyond what is acceptable during even the most heated of political campaigns.

The implications of Kerry's fixation on Vietnam are becoming more apparent by the day.

Tim's Webpage

The Legacy of John F Kerry

He ran the most inept campaign in history.

Inept:

1. [adj] revealing lack of perceptiveness or judgment or finesse

2.[adj] generally incompetent and ineffectual

3.[adj] not elegant or graceful in expression

That's about right...

Bunker Mulligan

Apologies

We have many people in this country, folks like MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, and the DNC heirarchy, who celebrate in their hearts every death in Iraq. They bemoan the deaths of American soldiers with pity, and the deaths of Iraqis and others with false angst. Because these haters despise Dubya, any death is part of their tally toward his defeat, another stone on the scale. I resent that. Life is precious.
Apologizers might say these folks really don't want people to die, and they are
trying to prevent death. Bull. They weren't crying about all the deaths in Iraq prior to our invasion. They aren't crying about all the deaths in Sudan.

Musing

Do you bluff or fold

Interesting move from the Bush administration on the Iran issue. Iran
has been trash talking for the past several months on the issue of how
they would react to Israel doing anything other than surrendering and
vacating the Promised Land.

While the Iranians muddle around with yellow cake and talk tough about
building nukes, it seems that the Bush administration has called Iranÿs
bluff and agreed to sell Israel the means to defend itself against the
Islamists (shades of Reagan here, no?).

2 New Bloggers

Signaleer
Cave News and Views

Best Of Homespun Bloggers September 19th, 2004

Musing

What do you have in your closet?

Canada is taking a large step toward the yawning chasm of rights
infringements. Some may not know that Canada now requires that all
firearms to be registered. Failing to undergo an expensive and time
consuming regimen of training, personal and legal checks as well as
submitting the defining characteristics of any and all firearms you
possess to a government database can result in criminal charges and
years in jail. Not surprisingly, a group of Canadian patriots has
resisted this government intrusion into and over their rights and the
government is striking back against them for it.

The Discerning Texan

Kerry's Silver Star

The story we ran here yesterday has now hit the mainstream. The after action report of the incident for which John Kerry was awarded the Silver Star does not correspond to the multiple citations that were later added to his file to justify the award. The CO now says that had he known today what he did not know at the time, he would never have awarded the medal to Kerry.


Louisiana Conservative

I've thought about lawsuits lately. I've thought of the impact that
they are having on our nation. I thought about the lawsuits against the
tobacco industry, and the lawsuits against the gun industry. I've
thought of the active roll that city and state governments have played
in the massive lawsuits. I've thought of the massive people who sue
McDonalds because they are massive.

Considerettes

Free market or Government intervention

Are Congressional investigations necessary to hold CBS's feet to the
fire, or is the free market's response enough? On "Considerettes Radio",
I note the free market issue and Hugh Hewitt give his reasons for
wanting Congress to get involved. We report, you decide.

MuD&PHuD

Evolution vs. Creationism: Round 4

For those of you following my thoughts on this topic, I will now provide my response to Dr. Meyer’s Intelligent Design argument (if you’re new to this line of posts, see Rounds 1, 2 and 3 while Dr. Meyer’s article can be found here).

Here’s the synopsis of the review:

Speaking My Mind

Dan Rather could restart his career in Australia

I haven't posted anything about Rathergate, because it's all over the
blogosphere as it is but I was wondering about Australian media
coverage of the scandal, so I searched Google News Australia with bush
forgeries location:australia and found 11 entries...

Chrenkoff:

Dan "Stonewall" Rather

Lordly & Dame, a company specialising in speakers and celebrity entertainers for corporate and other events, lists Rather as one of the stars in their stable: "A 35-year veteran of CBS News, Dan Rather frequently speaks on the topic of journalistic ethics." Where can I make a booking?

Daniel W. Casey’s Blog

Gun Nut

Yes, it is official. I am now a committed 2nd Amendment loon.

I have applied for and received, from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a Class A License to Carry Firearms. I have bought two fine pistols, one from Beretta USA and one from local favorite Smith & Wesson. My membership application to the National Rifle Association was sent in yesterday.

My wife is licensed to carry, as well.

What made us do it, you ask?

Bill's Big Bloviating Blog

She's No Mother Teresa

Once again, we see irrefutable proof that financial and social power do not necessarily translate into brain power. This from first-lady wannabe Teresa Ketchup-Kerry, speaking on the relief effort for the Caribbean in the aftermath of hurricane Francis…

Weapon of Mass Distraction

Connecting the Dots

Several stories over the last two weeks connect to form an ominous
picture:

• The Nigerian navy has launched an investigation into the
  disappearance of a seized Russian oil tanker which was accused of
  smuggling stolen crude oil from the west African country, a spokesman
  said Sept. 1.


• US intelligence has warned Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia that
  al Qaeda-linked terrorists plan to hijack an oil tanker and turn it
  into a floating bomb.

What's In It For Us?

Alex of the Wandering Mind contributed to this article.

I have been pondering "Why Do the Terrorists Hate Us" since September 11. I've heard all the arguments, and none of them add up. The US being what we are doesn't foster terrorism: in fact, it instills a sense of hope in the millions and millions who are immigrants or who aspire to be immigrants. The Islamist terrorists are not the poor and downtrodden, per se. Their leaders are among the elites of their societies, and many are the scions of princes and potentates who swell the ranks of the jihadist movements. No, the terrorists are the products of a corrupt system, and the system is not the American one. The events in Russia, and the capture and intimidation of even the French, weigh decidedly against the position that America has caused terrorism.

American Warmonger

Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

Who really eats only chocolate or vanilla? Why do you think Baskin Robbins' 31 flavors and Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey are American favorites. It is our freedom to choose what we want between a vast amount of choices that really makes us feel free.

Yelling at the Windshield

Can We Fast Forward?

"It was rather refreshing to hear a clear-thinking liberal who knew what he stood for express himself, even if he was dead wrong."

Liberal Utopia

Qerry supporters assault small child

This is something I would never even consider making up. Truth, in this case, is more ugly, extreme and dangerous than any fiction.

The Terriorists

Krazy (Demo) Kats*

Well, I guess it's some sort of fame to be sneered at by the Big Puppy Blender Blogger himself.

"But all fun aside, I think there are some important lessons for Big Media -- and for everyone else -- in the rise of the blogosphere. They stem from the fact that bloggers operate on the Internet, where arguments from authority are difficult since nobody knows whether you're a dog."

Chris Berg

Information Technology & the Greens

Information Technology policy is not a significant part of the Greens'
campaign. There are a mere 13 references to "internet" on their
campaign website - most of which are from the introduction to their
blog. Granted, they have a blog, which gives them at least some sort
of internet credibility, but like most official campaign blogs, it is
fairly sterile and impersonal. (Based on the volume of comments, it
has even less readers than my blog.)

Tim's Webpage

Kerry in Disarray

Of all of the things Bush has done while he has been in elected office,
the thing the Johns are complaining about now is whether or not Air
National Guardsmen actually count as members of the Air Force...That
sounds like a campaign that has gotten a bit off message.

New England Republican

Their Hatred Will Bring Them Down

Moveon.org's new ad featuring what appears to be an American soldier surrendering
is despicable. The far left's hatred of the President is clearly affecting their
judgment if they think ads like this are going to push moderates toward Kerry.
Remember all the talk about how the President should condemn the Swift Vet ads?
Do you think Kerry will condemn this ad? I doubt it, he has so far refused to
condemn anything the far left Bush hating 527's have done. He couldn't even
find it in himself to condemn ads comparing the President to Hitler!

GOP Issues and Action Conference

The conference was a blast and I am very happy that I
went. I encourage all of you to attend next year and
plan on promoting it as the time draws near.

The agenda was divided into two parts, Issues and
Action. On day one we discussed the issues that
confront our nation, and on the second day we heard
action-oriented strategies on how to be an activist. I
took a ton of notes, and over the next few weeks will
be posting what the conference speakers said, and my
thoughts and comments on their presentations.

Wandering Mind

Because the Left never intended to regard the Law as anything but a flexible tool that could be ignored at will, to serve their needs and agenda, they have never been able to come to terms with the reality of the world we live in. The hard Left may not need absolutes and Laws, but the rest of us do. Stability and a sense of continuity are bedrocks of our cultures and societies, here and all over the world. The inability of the Left to understand that, is the reason there has never been a successful Left political agenda that reached final fruition. They have always imploded or failed.

Bunker Bulligan

Vindication

I thought it might be time to address what we military folks already
know, so that those without our experience might better understand some
things. In particular, I want to speak about Awards and Decorations,
better known to the uninitiated as Medals and Ribbons. No, the two
aren't intechangeable.

2 New Bloggers

Louisiana Conservative
Daisy Cutter

Best Of Homespun Bloggers September 12th, 2004

Musing

The whole Russian story was just too depressing to revisit, so I figured something lighter would be appropriate for this week's 'best of'. On that note, I give you ...

Thatsa spicy meatball! - or I drink pesticide by the bottle

The Dutch are having fun messing with the minds and mouths of local
lagomorphs. They're spraying their fields with Tobasco to keep the
little buggers from chowing down on tasty (and expensive) comestibles.
...Spraying fields with the American sauce Tabasco sends the
rabbits "three feet in the air" with shock and running for cover, said a
spokesman for a local agriculture cooperative.

Why this libertarian will

I recently recieved an e-mail from entitled "Why this Republican won't be voting for Bush." It was heartbreaking story of the family of a reluctant soldier killed in Iraq.
Terrible stuff. I've read a lot of these kinds of stories lately.
But while reading it, I was reminded of Churchill:

"Many people think that the best way to escape war is to dwell upon its horror. They flaunt the grisly photographs before their eyes. They fill their ears with tales of carnage. They dilate upon the ineptitude of generals and admirals."

The Southern Conservative

For Some, Labor Day Is No Celebration

Both locally and nationally, labor unions are the most corrupt, ineffective, disingenuous organizations in the country today. On a local level, my experiences
with our local union have been almost entirely negative. Our union (and this is typical) is steered by officers and executive committee members who hold the same older seniority ranks. Therefore, they’re only concerned about issues that affect people who have older seniority. The standard response from shop stewards and officers when a younger person goes to them with a problem is ”Contractually, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Weapon of Mass Distraction

Revenge of the pajama people!

Coming soon to a theater near you:


Bill's Big Bloviating Blog

Observations From the Football Game
I was encouraged to see a goodly number of very young college students wearing Bush stickers. As a matter of fact, they seemed to outnumber the somewhat older crowd wearing Kerry stickers. Keep in mind, we’re talking major league college town here, so I’d consider it a Kerry stronghold. I have a couple of theories: (check them out on this post)

Chris Berg

Why don't I get advanced notices of things like this?

The Life After Capitalism Forum. Entry is "$10 to $20 on a sliding
scale" with "ticket discounts available for low-income groups." I fear
that I would be charged the higher amount, plus a levy for my
privileged upbringing.

And don't worry about Joe Sunflower Anarchist Jr. "Childcare will be
provided by The Radical Teachers," a group that apparently is so
organised that it gets capitalisation. Not that radical then, I would
argue. True equality will occur with the dictatorship of the
lower-cases.

The French Connection

We've known for some time that France has tried to subvert our efforts in Iraq. France never liked the original "sanctions regime" of the 1990s, and proposed
several times that they be weakened. After our invasion we found recently manufactured French missiles. We know that many French officials were deeply involved in what has become known as the Oil for Food Scandal.

However, the situation may have been far worse than we
knew..

Bunker Mulligan

Watergate

Remember how Nixon was brought down by our heroic media, Woodward and Bernstein? We now have a new Watergate--CBS News may have promoted a forged document to prove Dubya had, shall we say, problems during his tenure in the Texas Air National Guard.

The Terriorists

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

The Mystery Guest Blogger (safe bet it isn't me) over at Meryl Yourish's site intended to reveal how cats train their humans. What MGB actually exposes is the perfect template for how Demo-cat politicians train their voters.

The Unmentionables

The Continuing Fallout from Vietnam

The blood trail is on the ground and the hounds are closing in. Such is the legacy of Vietnam, Watergate, Walter Cronkite--and the CBS dynasty.CBS has been the broadcast outlet of record for the Democrat Party for so long, they have forgotten they are publically licensed  entity. And until he "stepped down" from the post, Walter Cronkite was the kingmaker--the "most trusted man in America."

Keystone Military News

Holiday Stockings for Soldiers

Yes, I know it is only September and the leaves have not even begun to change colors here, the kids just went back to school and the pumpkins are not yet ready to be picked. Unfortunately in order to get our holiday packages to our troops on time we need to start getting everything together and raising the funds to ship the packages.

This year we are doing Holiday Stockings for Soldiers and our goal is to send 5,000 stockings to the troops on our care package list. That right you read that correctly. Our care package list of names now exceeds 5,000! How would you like to be the Grinch that has to decide who doesn't get a stocking? NOT ME! So to avoid that problem we plan on sending one to every soldier, sailor and marine who has asked us for mail and care packages.

MuD&PHuD

Evolution vs. Creationism: Round 3

I'm going to stay with this subject (rounds 1 & 2) for at least a little while longer both because it fascinates me and because it has generated some interest and hey...I give the people what they want =).

This evening I received an email from CJ (of The Unmentionables fame) directing me to a post at World Magazine Blog on this very topic. Here's one thing in the post that caught my eye:

The Therapy Sessions

Why this libertarian will

I recently recieved an e-mail from entitled "Why this Republican won't be voting for Bush."

It was heartbreaking story of the family of a reluctant soldier killed in Iraq.

Terrible stuff. I've read a lot of these kinds of stories lately.

But while reading it, I was reminded of Churchill:

"Many people think that the best way to escape war is to dwell upon its horror. They flaunt the grisly photographs before their eyes. They fill their ears with tales of carnage. They dilate upon the ineptitude of generals and admirals."

New Blogger

Conservative Eyes

Best Of Homespun Bloggers September 6th, 2004

Musing

The Population bomb: not all that explosive

Turns out that, once again, Paul Ehrlich was wrong and now, even the
New York Times is willing to admit it. There is no mistaking the fact that
changing birth rates give evidence of changing world wide attitudes
toward human procreation. There is also no mistaking the fact that the
Malthusian (Ehrlichian?) concept of dying oceans and a need to cull
human populations are so much bunk.

They have been repeatedly debunked and will continue to be proved wrong
because they ignore the ability of humanity to adapt to changing
situations. They also ignore the ability of the Earthÿs natural systems
to rebound when they are given the space to do so. As humanity
continues
to improve their knowledge of natural systems and show a willingness to
address their impacts on natural systems, so will the natural
environmentÿs ability to support human life be expanded.

Considerettes

A bold, new direction

John Kerry's speech at midnight after the Republican National
Convention shifted his campaign in an entirely different mode. He said that
he's a better man for the job of President because...

(wait for it)

...he served in Vietnam!

(Warning: Blog entry contains subliminal messages.)

The Doggy Diaries

Miscellaneous Interesting Facts about U.S. Wars and Our Military

When some people claim to you that
President Bush shouldn't have started this war, you
can respond by stating the following.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) led us into World War II. Four-hundred and fifty thousand American lives were lost over the course of the war -- an average of 112,500 war-related deaths per
year.

Harry S. Truman (D) finished World War II
and started another war in Korea even though North
Korea never attacked us. Between 1950 and 1953, 55,000
lives were lost -- an average of 18,334 war-related
deaths per year.

Bunker Mulligan

Landslide

As I think about the political divisions in this country, I'm less
convinced that there is a giant chasm between the folks who make up the
general population. There is a very determined group on the far right,
led by such sociological luminaries as Pat Roberts. They try to be
vocal, but get little face time unless they can be made to look
foolish.
There is an equally determined group on the far left led by many names
which have become almost caricatures--Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore,
NOW,
MoveOn.org. In between are the bulk of Americans, people who simply
want
the government to stay out their way as they try to do what's best for
themselves and their families.

How Russians Deal With Terror

A sidebar to the Russian school tragedy:

Grozny. Thirty relatives of Chechen separatist leader Aslan
askhadov, including his wife, have been led away to an unknown place by masked men, said Maskhadov’s spokesman Ahmed Zakaev on radio the Echo of Moscow, AFP reported.

pacetown

AOL Straw Poll shows Bush winning 535-3 in Electoral Votes. Granted,
this
is a non-scientific poll. Granted these are AOL users. But 535-3? That
just
doesn't make sense. The only votes Kerry got were from AOL users in
D.C.

My attempts to dismiss this poll as representing AOL users didn't work,
as
according to the National Business Review:

Chris Berg

Kerry Implodes (cont.)

"Kerry Criticizes Cheney for Avoiding Vietnam War." Other wars not
mentioned: The Falklands War, War of the Roses, Roman War against
Carthage. But, to avoid covering territory many other blogs will
certainly cover, I'm going to focus on unmentioned wars between 1494
and 1523...

The Terriorists
Ahead of the Curve

Not only ahead, but waaaay ahead. So far ahead we can look back and see everyone else just thinkin' about lookin' for the curve. When are you humans gonna' start catchin' up to we canines? No wonder Lassie had to resort to draggin' people out of the house by their clothes to save Little Timmy.

Today Mr. Minority finally points out the obvious--dogs (and their people) know who makes the best Alpha. I've been tryin' to tell you people that ever since I started bloggin'!

Yelling at the Windshield

Extremism, real and imagined

George W. Bush is only an "extreme right winger" to somebody who has
crawled
SO far out onto the left wing that Teddy Kennedy is
"middle-of-the-road."

MuD&PHuD

Malkin And Internment

Next up on my reading list is Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment. Not surprisingly, this book has generated a good deal of controversy. I have come to generally trust Michelle and I really enjoy her columns.

However, I have also come to trust The Volokh Conspiracy, and so I was quite interested by this post.

The Unmentionables

Chechens and A Short History of Muslim Nazis

Some news stories are so unbelievably abominable it takes time to absorb the impact. Such are the stories out of Beslan, Russia.

"Valery Andreyev, the top Federal Security Service official in the region, said 20 militants were killed, including 10 Arabs. The Arab presence among the attackers would support President Vladimir Putin's contention that al-Qaida terrorists were involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim fighters have been fighting Russian forces in a brutal a war of independence for most of the past decade."

News that Arab men were part of the terrorists seems to be a change from the opinions reached in this Christian Science Monitor article about Chechens fighting in Afghanistan.

American Warmonger

A Memorial to the Murdered Near Chechnya

There are no words to describe how disgusting, how vile, how repulsive, how damning, how disrespectful, how murderous, how sadistic, how morbid, and yes, how EVIL an act these "Islamic Infidel Fighters" have become. I have been sniffling over this over the past couple of days. The moment I heard that those...

Wandering Mind

"Multiculturalism, masquerading as righteousness, assaulted western values like bin Laden's call to Jihad."

To a true Multiculturalist, all is sacred and nothing is profane. Tolerance is transformed from appropriate and considered behavior into belief- the belief that all is equal. From moon worshippers to Jim Jones, all is equal in the eyes of the Multiculturalist. Secularists no longer have to present cogent and reasoned argument. They wave the religious icon of their beliefs and all must bow before the god(s) du jour. Religious people and those not so religious, but of more conservative values, yield to 'Judge not, lest ye be judged' and the values of decorous behavior. In other words, they resigned themselves into accepting the multiculturalist agenda. For the most part, they could simply ignore that agenda. Multiculturalism became an integral (and politically involved) part of the western societal fabric."

The Commons: More on Johnnie Jihadi

Read this post, folks. It's part of why the blogosphere is worthwhile.

We've had a good string of posts lately, wherein Paulie World
contributors Paulie (duh!), Scooter, and John Adams were joined by Alex
of Wandering Mind to discuss the War on Terrorism and its causes. The
string started here, when I made what I thought was a relatively bland
statement: I'm glad Bush is running the War on Terrorism. Read
Scooter's
comment: he thinks it's wrong to call the Iraq campaign part of the War
on Terrorism.

2 New Blogs

Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates ponder current events

Brit Broadcasting Conservatism