I just found out Kim du Toit is blogging again, and followed a link from his site to "Miss Myra's Gun," which brought a lump to my throat.

Italy wins.

Look behind you, then visit The Other Side of Kim du Toit.

A double-amputee Iraq-war vet is suing Michael Moore for $85 million, claiming the portly peacenik recycled an old interview and used it out of context to make him appear anti-war in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Sgt. Peter Damon, 33, who strongly supports America's invasion of Iraq, said he never agreed to be in the 2004 movie, which trashes President Bush.

In the 2003 interview, which he did at Walter Reed Army Hospital for NBC News, he discussed only a new painkiller the military was using on wounded vets.

"They took the clip because it was a gut-wrenching scene," Damon said yesterday. "They sandwiched it in. [Moore] was using me as ammunition."

Read the whole story at New York Post Online Edition: News.

At each end of this trail are entrances to anthills. Given the traffic back and forth, maybe just one anthill.

I presume the ants cleared the path; I wonder why there are patches that are completely bare of anything larger than a grain of sand, while they left larger rocks directly in other parts of the path?

My favorite line:

For each immigrant we take, we should deport at least three hippies.

FrankJ's editorial is at IMAO. 

The evidence, by now, is overwhelming: Beautiful, decadent New Orleans wasn't doomed by Hurricane Katrina but by decades of human incompetence and neglect.

And…

On paper, New Orleans should have ended up wet and wounded, but basically intact.

What happened instead was "the single most costly catastrophic failure of an engineered system in history," according to a report issued last week by the Independent Levee Investigation Team, a blue-ribbon panel led by experts from the University of California at Berkeley and funded by the National Science Foundation.

And…

Earthen levees stretching east from the city were built with "highly erodible sand" and other "lightweight" materials that could be found locally, rather than more "cohesive" clay soils that would have had to be trucked in. "When the storm surge arrived, massive portions of these levees eroded catastrophically," the report says.

And…

…there are many miles of levees around New Orleans that were built with the same questionable design principles and materials that were used in the barriers that gave way. The Corps has patched the levee system so that it could probably prevent the last flood, but what about the next one?

Chertoff worries about a storm hitting next-door Jefferson Parish, which has seen its population swell with evacuees and reconstruction workers.

Eugene Robinson reports at The Catastrophe Wasn't Katrina.

During the 2004 election, John Kerry first ignored (as did the main-stream media) critics of his Vietnam record and Purple Heart medals, then called his critics liars. The NY Times verified Kerry's account by exhaustive research consisting primarily of "Kerry says the Swift Boat Veterans are lying."

Over a year ago (483 days), Kerry promised to release all his Navy records; presumably, that would end the discussion. So far, he hasn't made good on that promise, to my knowledge.

So why is he rehashing it now? I wonder if he thinks he would have won in 2004 except for the Swift Boat Veterans. I wonder if he thinks he can address it now and run again in 2008, this time able to stand on his record without it biting him in the ass.

Sources: I heard a few mentions of this on talk radio last week, but found several good links at Instapundit, and followed one of them to Just One Minute, where there is a pretty comprehensive write-up.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is building a fence in Arizona, without waiting on the US government or asking permission from Mexico. They're also doing it for a third of the Senate's estimated cost.

The MCDC hopes to keep construction costs under $150 per foot, while the Senate's proposed 370-mile fence, at an estimated cost of $1 billion, would be over $500 per foot, by my calculations. Of course, the MCDC will be using a lot of donated equipment and labor, but I still think private industry can do most things more efficiently than the government. 

Michelle Malkin has the story here. 

Well, not yet, but Peter Diamandis has a better chance than anyone else.

Diamandis, the driving force behind the $10 million X Prize for private spaceflight, just won the first-ever Heinlein Prize, endowed by the estate of the late science-fiction writer and visionary Robert Heinlein and his wife, Ginny.

More info on the $500,000 prize is here. 

I'm watching a "Best of The O'Reilly Factor," and one of the segments played features Bill interviewing two of the organizers of the Million Youth March in September 1998, Malik Z. Shabazz and Quanell X. Shabazz and X (that sounds weird; I'm going to use their first names) are members of The New Black Panther Party, and the interview took place a few days before the event.

It's obvious they've both memorized a tremendous amount of material, and can rattle off a prepared response to any question, especially Quanell. There's nothing wrong with that, and it's actually pretty impressive.

These are both obviously intelligent men. Too bad they've memorized a bunch of crap.

Quanell says his people (he and Malik are black, by the way) want to kill white people, because white people delight in killing black people - men, women, children and babies. He reiterates that they want to kill white people. He quotes Malcolm X (are they related?) - "If you find any good white people, kill them before they turn bad." He's pretty intense.

Bill asks Quanell if he's willing to break the law to do that, and he says "We don't obey your laws; we respect your laws, but we obey God's law." I assume the "we" means black people, maybe it just means black people with his brand of functional insanity. On the other hand, he says black people were the original Jews, so maybe it's okay for Barbra Streisand to kill white people, too.

Bill asks him why he hasn't killed anybody so far, and Quanell replies, "What do you mean, killed anybody? You're the biggest killer on the planet Earth - you and your people." I'd argue with that, assuming he means white people have killed more than black people. I'm pretty sure black people in Africa are currently doing more killing than anybody else on the planet. I wonder why Quanell doesn't address that. They did mention reparations, so maybe we can follow the money and figure that one out.

Bill asks Quanell again why he hasn't killed anybody if thinks that's "the right way to go." Quanell replies, "We believe peace when possible, violence when necessary." First he makes the case that his people want to kill white people, and that their reasons include revenge, preemption, and apparently even that God wants them to. He sounds like he believes it fervently, but then he backs away and says they want to be peaceful if they can.

Bill finally asks if white people can attend the rally, and they imply they don't want any white people there. Malik finally says Bill can come, and Quanell says, "One lone white man in Harlem? Sure, we'd love to have you!" His tone of voice is ominous and the look on his face is eagerly menacing.

Hmmm… maybe they're not full of crap, after all. They did mention reparations; maybe it's a threat. "We have good reason to kill white people, because they've treated us so badly." The average white person's response is that he hasn't done anything to harm any black people, but Quanell says the good white people are the first that should be killed!

Gosh, maybe we should give them money so they won't kill us (I'm white, by the way) - Quanell did say they're willing to be peaceful, if that will work. We might not have much time left before they find violence necessary!

That was almost nine years ago, and even though they haven't gotten their reparations yet, they're still being patient on the violence thing. On the other hand, they missed the Million Youth mark by about 90%, so maybe they're still building their numbers. Hey, maybe Barbra Streisand can do a recruiting concert!

Sherman's Lagoon

Fillmore: New video camera?
Sherman: Yep

Sherman: Now that I'm a father, I need to capture life's precious moments.

(Sherman films fish swimming by)

Fillmore: What have you captured so far?
Sherman: A one-handed diaper change gone horribly wrong.

It seems like a large part of the zeitgeist of many modern liberals is that their views and opinions make them brave and edgy. They seem to relish the idea that "the man" fears their rhetoric, and that they are actually in danger because of their views.

In her column for May 25, 2006  - "Apple-Polisher Shows P.O.W. Real Courage" - Ann Coulter specifically addresses "the raw heroism of Jean Rohe, the student at the New School who gave a speech attacking the commencement speaker, Republican Sen. John McCain, at [her] commencement ceremony," but she makes broader points, as well.

Today's college liberals ape the beliefs of 99 percent of their professors and then pretend they're on-the-edge radicals.

And…

I don't care what liberals think. I don't care that they're spineless suck-ups. Just don't insult my intelligence by telling me they're brave.

James Taranto said:

…there was nothing courageous about it: They risked nothing but their own dignity, such as it is. 

I really enjoyed watching Taylor Hicks win last night on American Idol. Whatever triumph or joy he was feeling, he composed himself within a second to give Katherine McPhee a hug without gloating.

That is why even in this rude age, people still refer to Southern charm. His momma raised him right - she can be as proud of the class he displayed as she was of his accomplishments.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything stupider than allowing non-citizens to vote.

If we do that, we might as well just send a few hundred million absentee ballots to China and get the whole thing over with. 

I was very disappointed.

Context 

SALT LAKE CITY (UPI) — Mexican President Vicente Fox is telling U.S. audiences during a visit that building border fences isn't the solution to the problem of illegal immigrants.

Speaking on his first of four days in the United States, Fox on Tuesday told about 800 Mexican-Americans at a cultural center outside of Salt Lake City that Mexico wants to be part of the solution, and not the problem, the Deseret Morning News reported.

Here's a step in the right direction - change the official language of Mexico to English, so the immigrants can get better jobs. Fox will also get a better price when Texas buys Mexico.

Katherine is extremely talented, but Taylor is, too - and he moves you.

Taylor by 10 points. 

***Update - This was my first year watching AI, and I didn't know that they don't show the vote totals for the finalists. I bet I was right, though. ;) 

Our government provides illegal immigrants with welfare and free medical care, educates their children and charges them in-state rates for college tuition.

Why should we prosecute employers who provide them with jobs? 

For the hard-core American environmentalists - you know who you are:

• Who are America's enemies today?
• Do these groups and nations have a good track record on environmental issues? (hint: merely signing the Kyoto Protocol doesn't count)
• Is it possible these groups and nations could - by force or economic means - seriously hinder the ability of the US to acquire oil from other countries?
• If the US is not willing to resort to force to acquire sufficient oil, could the US become sufficiently crippled to the point where our enemies are able to defeat us?
• If our enemies have control of our resources, will they be more or less likely than the US to put environmental concerns ahead of exploiting those resources?
• If our enemies have control of our resources, will they be more or less likely than the US to allow you the freedom of speech to protest that exploitation?
• Don't you think you should sit down and shut up so you don't look so stupid?

Dogbert: "I invented and external anti-depressant."

 

Dogbert: "When I'm in a bad mood I just apply it to other people. "

 

<Squirt> 

 

Dilbert: "GAAA!"

 

Dogbert: "It used to be called pepper spray."

In Dallas, a school district strikes the words "In God We Trust" from the photo of an enlarged nickel on a yearbook cover for fear of offending students of differing religions.

In California, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (the one that outlawed the Pledge of Allegiance for its reference to God) approved putting public school students through Muslim role-playing exercises.

More at Michelle Malkin

Actual Caption: A British hospital surgeon used Internet auction site eBay to buy a vital piece of equipment for an operating theatre.

1993:

"Our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits without paying taxes.

These programs were not meant to entice freeloaders and scam artists from around the world."

2006, after the Senate voted on an amendment to the immigration bill  which says English is the "national language" in America. Not "official language," "national language."

"I really believe this amendment is racist."

According to Rich Galen,

Harry Reid's favorite Democrat in Washington [is] DNC chairman Howard Dean because "If it weren't for Dean, Harry Reid would provide the most outrageous statements in Washington."

Hat tip: Rich Galen's Mullings.com

Who'd a-thunk the characters from Scooby Doo had full names?

Freddie Jones
Daphne Blake
Velma Dinkley
Norville "Shaggy" Rogers
Scooby "Dooby" Doo

Actually, I made the last one up.

I found this at Urban Legends Reference Pages: Radio & TV (Scooby-Doo, What is You?)

This is too good not to copy-paste. From RightWingDuck at IMAO:

Here's a headline right from the front page of our local spanish paper La Opinion (Motto: Habla Espanol?).

It turns that Mexico is having a bit of a problem dealing with illegal immigrants. Thankfully, it occured to them to send the illegals back. This is much better than creating an express lane to Tijuana, with a free pass to the underground tunnel.

Here's a translation of the first few paragraphs.

Mexico will construct more deportation centers . Between 2002 and 2006 the total number of undocumenteds rose 74%.

The Mexican government plans to build at least 13 detention centers to deal with the increasing number of foreign migrants on their way to the United States. In the last 4 years this total has risen 74%.

There's more.. it goes on to detail that …

Mexico has committed to an agreement with four other countries stipulating that deportation be safe, dignified, and fast.

…All deportations will occur within 24 hours. That is, between the time a person is caught and the time they are on a bus on their way back to their country, there should not pass more than 24 hours." 

The whole enchilada is at IMAO.

LMAO!

POE News: Rumsfeld Fighting Technique

And doesn't "FrankJ's Intellectual Property" sound a lot like "jumbo shrimp" or "Congressional thrift"?

Rip-off

Original 

Jason tap-dances to try out for a talent show, but is rejected because one of the judges knows Morse Code.

His tap-dancing spells out "Someday I will rule you all."