joyfulchristian

Is it just me

... or is the sight of a presidential candidate, in the midst of telling people why they should vote for him, saying, "Wake up America, wake up. ... You have a choice," somwhat, oh ... i don't know ... condescending?

Interesting theory

Dick Morris argues that the explosives story has hurt Kerry much more than Bush. His reasoning is basically that Bush consistently polls far ahead of Kerry on the isses of Iraq and the war on terror. Because of this, he thinks it was crucial for the Kerry people to keep the debate on domestic issues where Kerry polls much closer. Morris thinks that it was a mistake from the beginning to jump on the explosives story because it reminded voters that we have this "war" thing going on and they like Bush better on that issue. When you add in the fact that the whole story is collapsing into a nightmarish web of contradictory stories, the whole thing just makes Kerry look even worse.

Morris's theory sounds plausible, but then again he doesn't have a stellar track record on predictions. Dick Morris is a brilliant man, but sometimes he's often brilliantly wrong.

Now here's a true-blue Bush supporter

Here's one reason to vote early:

Alicia Balseiro, 70, an ardent Bush supporter in Miami, said on Thursday that she had come out to vote early for a key reason. "I don't know if I'll die tomorrow," she said.

Now there is a supporter! Truthfully, that was part of the reason I voted early. Unlike Ms. Balseiro I don't feel it very likely I'll die tomorrow, but I will be on the road this weekend. This way, even if someone runs me down, I'll have had my say.

How sad

On the official web site of the United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, the word "interest" is spelled "intrest" right there near the top of the page.

The election is over

Well, it's over for me. This was the first day of early voting in Oklahoma. Well, at least it was in Payne County, but I believe it's the same state wide.

The polls were supposed to open here at 8. I showed up about 3 minutes early and there were already 30 people ahead of me. I'm guessing they're going to have pretty high turnout for early voting.

I voted straight party for the Republicans. I don't really like using the straight party option on the ballot, but today I figured I might as well. I'm appalled by the actions of the national Democratic part and think they need to be taught a lesson. There are some decent local Democrats here, but there's no help for it. The Dems won't get the point unless they're well and truly spanked up and down the board. They may not even get it then.

But Mom ...

... every one else is doing it!

One of the questions on the ballot this election is a lottery initiative. The ads in favor of it are awfully pathetic. Basically the ads all consist of pointing out that Texas has a lottery and if we don't have one too, then we're just throwing money away. As far as I can tell, this is just the political version the old kid's excuse: every one else is doing it.

Now I can see how some people might accept this argument. On the other hand, these are most likely people who have no basic objections to lotteries or gambling in the first place. I would expect most of these people to vote for the measure any way. But is any one who has a moral or ethical objection to state-sponsored gambling, or just gambling in general, going to be convinced by such a childish argument?

Just asking.

Musings on memory

I'm a pretty introspective person. Some of my friends have told me that I over think things. That's probably true.

Anyway, I've noticed that as I look back on past events, or even series of events, that my perception of those events in hindsight often doesn't follow my perceptions at the time. Specifically I've found that when looking back at the same event I will sometimes have very positive emotional reactions and sometimes very negative emotions.

Unsurprisingly, I tend to have postive reactions when I'm in a good mood and negative emotions when I'm in a bad mood. What I wonder about is this: Do I have a positive emotional reaction to those memories because I'm in a good mood? Or am I in a good mood because I'm having a positive emotional reaction? (The same goes for negative reactions and bad moods.)

I really don't know, but I find it interesting.

One of the things I don't get

Is why so many Democrats seem to believe that Karl Rove is a cross between Albert Einstein, Julius Caesar, Ghengis Khan, and The Prince of Darkness. Just about every serious screw-up the Dems have made this year gets blamed with Karl Rove. The story is always that Rove set them up and tricked them into acting like morons.

The fake memos? Rove's fault.

The constant harping to get access to Bush's National Guard records, only to find out that there was nothing in them? Karl Rove, of course.

Falling over themselves to accuse Bush of incompetence because some explosives went missing in Iraq, only to discover that there weren't as many explosives as reported and the Russians smuggled them out of the country prior to the war? Karl Rove suckered them.

You know the liberals, lefties, and Democrats are starting to panic when you hear rumors out of that quarter that the whole "Missing Iraq Explosives" scam was a setup engineerred by Karl Rove to trick them into going public, so the Bushies could release official information that makes them look like the smear-artist morons they are.

No kidding.

The Curse

I may never watch Major League Baseball again.

The general gist of most people's reaction to the World Series win by the Red Sox seems to be that it's great that they've finally broken the curse. I'm a bit different.

I've never been a big baseball fan. I enjoy watching games, but I've not really followed the game since collecting baseball cards as a kid. Since Nolan Ryan retired about the only things I've cared about are a) a vague desire for the Rangers to win, and b) a fervant desire for the Red Sox to never, ever win another World Series. Basically, I figured that the only fitting punishment for trading away Babe Ruth was the complete inability to win a Series before.

Now that b is gone, I just don't care any more.

More on the terror tape

Drudge claims that when ABC handed this new tape over the the CIA, they redacted the final 15 minutes:

ABCNEWS withheld portions of an alarming new al Qaeda videotape which warns the next terror attack will dwarf 9/11 from the feds when they submitted the video for analysis, a top federal source tells the DRUDGE REPORT.

And what do these final minutes supposedly contain?

"What took place on September 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America and that our Lord willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11," the man, whose face is covered by a headdress, warns in the video. "After decades of American tyranny, now it's your turn to die."

And what is the pretext of this attack supposed to be?

A top goverment source said from Washington that ABC withheld the final 15 minutes of the tape from the feds -- the portion of the tape where the man warns of retribution for Americans electing Bush and Cheney.

[...]

"You are guilty, guilty, guilty. You're as guilty as Bush and Cheney. You're as guilty as Rumsfeld and Ashcroft and Powell...," the man states.

He goes on to warn of an upcoming horror: "The streets will run with blood," and "America will mourn in silence" because they will be unable to count the number of the dead.

"People of America, that was the verdict now for the sentencing: as participants and partners in the crimes of the regime, you too shall pay the price for the blood that has been spilled."

Of course, the election of Bush and Cheney is a complete straw man. Before 9/11 Bush's foreign policy basically boiled down to, "You leave us alone and we'll leave you alone." That didn't stop the attacks in 2001. If al-Qaeda doesn't like Bush's current foreign policy, they have no one to blame but themselves; they pretty much forced his hand.

On another issue, why hasn't ABC aired the tape yet?

One ABC source, who demanded anonymity, said Thursday morning, the network was struggling to find a correct journalistic "balance" before airing any story on the video.

"This is not something you just throw out there while people are voting," the ABC source explained.

Because, of course, the American people aren't capable of watching the tape for themselves and figuring out what conclusions to draw. Of course not! They can only be allowed to see the tape after ABC has decided on the meta-contextual narrative that will surround such a viewing.

Earlier today Megan McArdle said:

It's no better to hold a story until after the election because of its political impact, than to hold one until right before the election because it will make a bigger bang. Nor would it be right to hold a tape telling Americans to elect Kerry, or else he'd kill them.

I would tend to agree with Megan on this. Holding on to a story because you're trying to keep it from affecting the elections is just as bad as holding a story in order to affect the elections. (Note the update to her post which indicates that the CIA may not have authenticated the tape after all.)

On another note entirely I'm not sure how the final 15 minutes could be withheld from the CIA without them noticing. Surely, to have any chance of determining whether the tape had been altered or enhanced, they would have demanded the original recording. I'd be shocked if ABC removed the last 15 minutes from their original. After all, if they did that, once they aired the wittheld footage, how could they prove it was authentic? And if they did remove the footage from the original, shouldn't the CIA have been able to tell? It's possible they might even be able to retrieve some of it.

Any way, that whole angle confuses me.

Granted, I'm no expert

But when someone claims that the flu is going to kill a billion people in the next 6 months, my BS meter goes off.

The world is on the brink of a major flu epidemic — one that could claim more than a billion lives, the head of the Russian Virology Institute, Academician Dmitry Lvov said at a press conference organized by the RIA-Novosti news agency on Thursday.

“Up to one billion people could die around the whole world in six months,” Lvov said. The expert did not give a timeframe for the epidemic, but said that it is highly probable that it will start this year. “We are half a step away from a worldwide pandemic catastrophe,” the academic said.

The last I heard, the population of the earth is estimated somewhere between 5.5 and 6 billion people. If 1 billion died that would be between 16 and 18 % of the entire population of the planet. According to the BBC, between 30 to 45% of the general population was killed by the black death outbreak of 1348 to 1360.

I find it very hard to believe that we're going to have a flu epidemic that will kill of about half the number percentage that were killed over a 12 year span by the black death in only 6 months. Especially given the advanced state of medical knowledge and sanitation. Even most backwater places today have far superior practices than were maintained in medieval Europe.

I could be wrong, but this just doesn't make sense to me.

OK, that tears it

If I ever hear President Bush say anything nice about Putin again, I may just puke:

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

[...]

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

And we were supposed to just sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting for these guys to give us permission before we attacked? Give me a break.

Totally unfair

I've had several friends of the female persuasion over the years who've been able to read me like a book, even without me saying a word. Some of them can do it even when they're hundreds of miles a way.

I, on the other hand, feel lucky to be able to deduce what a woman's thinking when she tells me what's she's thinking. It's just so unfair!

Of course, if they couldn't read our minds, not much of anything would get done, would it?

All bluster?

This is currently the only story linked by Drudge:

In the last week before the election, ABCNEWS is holding a videotaped message from a purported al Qaeda terrorist warning of a new attack on America, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The terrorist claims on tape the next attack will dwarf 9/11. "The streets will run with blood," and "America will mourn in silence" because they will be unable to count the number of the dead. Further claims: America has brought this on itself for electing George Bush who has made war on Islam by destroying the Taliban and making war on Al Qaeda.

[...]

The terrorist's face is concealed by a head dress, and he speaks in an American accent, making it difficult to identify the individual.

US intelligence officials believe the man on tape may be Adam Gadhan - aka Adam Pearlman, a California native who was highlighted by the FBI in May as an individual most likely to be involved in or have knowledge of the next al Qaeda attacks.

Is this just bluster? My gut reaction says yes. Al Qaeda made similar claims running up to July 4, 2002. Nothing happened then except for the Egyptian who shot a few people at the El Al ticket counter at LAX. He appeared to be acting alone. They were chanting, "We're going to kill you," again in the run up to 9/11/02, but nothing happened then either.

In fact, as far as I can recall, every time they claimed they were going to hit us hard, little to nothing happened. Most of their big operations against America have happened with little to no warning at all. Intuition tells me that they only bluster when they're trying to scare people at times when they know they don't have any actual operations that could create the terror they crave.

I could be wrong, of course. However my tentative reaction is to say that the more they bark, the less we need to worry about the bite.

They've finally done it

Remarkably, the mainstream media has convinced Spoons to do what George Bush could never do: He now says he's voting for Bush.

Pathetic

Since it doesn't appear any one was seriously hurt when a yacht smashed into the sea wall protecting the Sydney Opera House I feel safe in making a totally unrelated point.

This story is written entirely in one sentence paragraphs!

A spokesperson for the New South Wales Maritime Authority at the scene, Penny Robins, said the boat was currently on its side, resting against the seawall adjoining the Opera House.

The stabilising bulb attached to the keel has broken off.

The scene is attended by NSW Maritime officers and officials from Sydney ports.

Witnesses reported the vessel was on its side.

The entire thing is like that! Where do they find these people?

JYB links to some bombshells

You're got to read this post about coordinated activity between the VC and Vietnam Veterans Against the war. If this stuff is true, then it would be direct evidence that John Kerry committed acts of treason.

I say if because if, as the story states, we've had this evidence since 1971-1972 then I can't imagine why nothing was done about it. Of course I don't understand why Jane Fonda wasn't arrested as soon as she returned to American soil. I clearly don't understand the dynamics of the time.

I'm tempted to shut down comments until after the election

In the last 24 hours I've had to remove several comments left by lefties with one diatribe or another. I didn't delete them because they were anti-Bush. I deleted them because they were totally irrelevant to the post they were left on. It's enough to make me wonder if there isn't a concerted effort to do this kind of thing on right-leaning blogs.

I am not amused. If you disagree with me, fine. But comments left on this page are to be relevant to the post they're left on. I've tried being nice about this, but it doesn't seem to be working. No non sequiters. From now on, any one leaving them will be immediately banned.

I can't get any work done like this

I've found my self on laying down for about half the morning. I keep getting these awful pains in my back. It feels like someone stabbed me just below the shoulders. Basically, I'm not having any fun at all. Oww! Hope every one else is having a better day.

Hey!

I thought Frank was supposed to be doing satire.

Which reminds me, several months ago I excerpted a bit of one of Frank's longer posts and I got hammered by a reader about how "insenstive" the comments were. When I replied something along the lines of, "Well, it is Frank J," my reader basically said, "Oh, I didn't realize it was Frank J. It's OK then."

Why tell that story now? I have no idea. It just popped into my head and demanded to be let out.

So you know that weapons cache Kerry's been harping on all day?

It was gone before we got there.

But tonight, NBCNEWS reported, once: The 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives were already missing back in April 10, 2003 -- when U.S. troops arrived at the installation south of Baghdad!

An NBCNEWS crew embedded with troops moved in to secure the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq.

According to NBCNEWS, the HMX and RDX explosives were already missing when the American troops arrived.

Drudge wants to know why no one else reporting on this cache mentions this little fact. Like we really need to ask.

I did get a kick out of this:

Dem vp hopeful John Edwards blasted Bush for not securing the explosives: "It is reckless and irresponsible to fail to protect and safeguard one of the largest weapons sites in the country. And by either ignoring these mistakes or being clueless about them, George Bush has failed. He has failed as our commander in chief; he has failed as president."

A senior Bush official e-mailed DRUDGE late Monday: "Let me get this straight, are Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards now saying we did not go into Iraq soon enough? We should have invaded and liberated Iraq sooner?"

Heh.

Update: It's possible that the items mentioned by Drudge and NBC may not be the last story on the matter.

Well. They were gone when the 101st arrived, sure.

But the Third Infantry Division beat them to the site by one week.

Red State is asking for help tracking down what the 3rd ID found. (via Insta Pundit.)

I'm going to say this again

Anyone posting comments unrelated to the post will have their comment deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned. Come on people, show some common courtesy. If you want to talk that bad, please get your own blog.

How depressing

And the red tape flows:

It's official. Regulation is now Britain's biggest industry. David Arculus, the Chairman of Severn Trent Water and head of the government's Better [sic] Regulation Task Force, suggested last week that the cost of regulation to the UK economy was now more than £100 billion a year. That's more than a tenth of our gross domestic product (GDP).

That's bigger than tourism (£76 billion), or our much-vaunted financial services industry (£66 billion), or even the National Health Service (£67 billion and rising - and rising).

How depressing.

Swift Geese Veterans for Truth

The Winter Hunter Investigations. (Via No Pasaran)

Absolutely hilarious.

This is not good

There's no indication of how serious this is, but:

WASHINGTON - Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the second-oldest man to preside over the nation's highest court and its premier conservative figure, is undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer.

Hopefully the surgery will take care of this.

I've known for a long time that Joel Mowbray was a great reporter

This just confirms it:

U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. Security Council just a week before voting in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq.

An investigation by The Washington Times reveals that while the candidate did talk for an unspecified period to at least a few members of the panel, no such meeting, as described by Mr. Kerry on a number of occasions over the past year, ever occurred.

Yeah, it just keeps getting better from there. Why is it that John Kerry keeps fabricating and/or stretching the truth about events he holds up as reasons why he's qualified? Does he think no one would check?

Works for me

Apparently the Iranian goverrnment is now demanding reparations from Iraq for damage done in the Iraq-Iran War. Omar at Iraq the Model has some thoughts on when the Iranian government can expect to receive those payments.

On Patriotism

A while back I managed to get myself involved with a girlfriend from Winnipeg. For a time it was fairly serious and we occasionally talked about what would happen if we decided to get married. We generally talked about her moving down here with me. On one occasion though, while I was there to visit her, she asked me if I would be willing to move up there. Her specific concern was that leaving the country of my birth would be too hard for me because, as she said, “patriotism runs deep.” While I knew that was true, my immediate reaction was to say, “Yes, if that’s what was necessary for us to be together.”

I was wrong.

Over the last couple of years I’ve come to realize that I had no idea just how strong the my love for my country is. It is, by a great margin, one of the most powerful emotions I have.

In the Babylon 5 movie In The Beginning Emperor Mollari, after looking over the desolation that has befallen his world at the hands of powerful aliens. He begins to lament that, despite his efforts, he has been unable to stop the carnage. While holding back the tears he says that, “Everything I have ever done, I did for my people.” Later he goes on to say, “In my life I have had three wives. I cared for them all deeply, but I loved Centauri Prime."

While I’ve never been married (even once, to say nothing of 3 times!), I find that I begin to understand the feeling. Unlike Mollari I wouldn’t downgrade the feelings I’ve had for the women I’ve loved in order to describe my love for country, I do find that my love of country is nearly that intense. It’s different, of course, by the intensity of the emotion is very near the same.

I find that my love of country causes me to react quite powerfully to some stimuli. When I see pictures or footage from 9/11 I almost always, even to this day, will find myself weeping uncontrollably. Along with the grief, I also find myself struck with a rage so intense that it sometimes scares me.

When I first heard that Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s it was quite a blow. However by the time he died I’d known it was coming and I knew what would probably kill him. I believed that by the time the moment actually came that I would have come to grips with the situation. I was wrong. I wept. And then I wept. And then I wept some more. Every time I see a tribute to Reagan I weep some more.

Why would these things affect me so? We are, after all, talking about the deaths of perfect strangers. For that matter I’d never even heard of most of the people who died on 9/11. Yet their deaths have scarred my soul.

Why would this be so? I really don’t know.

I do know what the result is though: I would be willing to do almost anything if I believed it would save my country from harm.

How far would that go? I don’t know. When I think about it I try to stretch my imagination. When I do that, my mind returns to Mollari. In Season 4, after risking his life to remove an insane emperor from the throne, Mollari tries to pick up the pieces. For reasons that are irrelevant at the moment, a race known as the Vorlons had taken it upon themselves to destroy every planet that had been influenced by a race known only as the Shadows. As the Vorlons approached his planet Mollari went to great extremes to remove everything that had been touched by the Shadows. He then sent a message to the Vorlons telling them what he’d done.

He thought he’d averted disaster, but he hadn’t. The Vorlons pressed on.

At that point Mollari says ¹, “But why? I told them we’d removed everything touched by the Shadows.”

His aide Vir responds, “No. We haven’t”

Mollari: What else?

Vir: You.

Mollari: But they won’t know I’m here.

Vir: Lando, you sent the message.

Lando: Quickly Vir. You must kill me.

Vir: I can’t.

Lando: You must.

Would I be willing to go that far? Part of me says, “I’m not that strong.” But part of me isn’t so sure.

What’s the point of all this? Nothing really. I’ve just been thinking about the meaning of patriotism lately and needed to write down my thoughts..

¹ I’m paraphrasing, but this is pretty close.

This just in ...

... Cher is a moonbat:

Cher warned moveon.org clubgoers to fight Bush, before "it's too late":

"All the gay guys, all my friends, all my gay friends, you guys you have got to vote, alright? Because it would only be a matter of time before you guys would be so screwed, I cannot tell you. Because, you know, the people, like, in the very right wing of this party, of these Republicans, the very very right wing, the Jerry Falwell element, if they get any more power, you guys are going to be living in some state by yourselves. So, I hate scare tactics, but I really believe that that's true."

"I think that as Bush will, if Bush gets elected, he will put in new Superior Court judges, and these guys are not going to want to see gay pride week."

Cher declared that Abraham Lincoln "looks like Kerry on a crappy day."

So let me get this straight; Cher believes that if Bush is elected we're going to ship all the gays off to lock all the gays up in some place all by themselves. And what's with the total gratuitous blast at Lincoln? How can that possibly be relevant.

Of course, compared to Al Franken, this looks perfectly sane:

"The buzz is any state that elects a Democratic Senator will get nuked"

I'd like to believe that this is just hyperbole, but I've seen enough of late that it seems pretty clear that a lot on the left really believe that Bush really is as bad as Hitler and they really believe he might nuke states that vote against him. (And you can just guess what Franken's opinion of the military if he believes that officers would carry out such an order.)

The thing is though that if you really do believe you're dealing with the next Hitler, there is only one morally justifiable course of action. It's therefore no real shock to read stuff like this:

On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod's law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?

Some people will no doubt be shocked that a leftist columnist would openly call for Bush's murder. But it should be no surprise. Hitler slaughtered millions of people and brought a war of aggression that spanned several continents. The only truly honorable people in the German government and military were those who tried to kill him to stop it. While killing someone is distasteful, if that person is recklessly and/or maliciously killing millions of people it becomes the morally necessary thing to do.

That's why all this rhetoric about "Bushitler" and the "Bush Family Evil Empire" (no, I'm not making this up) is so dangerous. You can't tell how many there are, but I have no doubt that many of the people talking like this really believe it. There really are people who believe that John Ashcroft is about to haul all the liberals off to concentration camps and that Bush would actually nuke American cities if they voted against him.

That's what makes this dangerous. A lot of people are shocked that people would talk of killing Bush. That's not the problem. Like I said, killing Hitler would have been the morally right thing to do under the circumstances. No, the problem is that these people are so divorced from reality that killing Bush actually makes sense.

For that reason it's vital that every time someone compares Bush to Hitler or makes some other equally monstrous accusation or comparis that they be called on it and forced to deal with the consequences of their acts. It doesn't even matter if they believe it; there will be people who do hear them and believe it. And the more of this lunacy people believe, the more likely it becomes that partisan disagreements will end in bloodshed.

I find myself forced to agree with Hindrocket:

This is, of course, where the liberal campaign of hatred and violence has been going for some time. I do think it is likely that someone will get killed; I hope it isn't President Bush. One can only wonder: if such a tragedy occurs, will the liberals come to their senses?

Maybe not. I'm desperately afraid that more than one person that will have to die before this madness ends.

And while I'm at it, I've got just as much trouble with those on the fringe of the right who scream things like "Hitlery".

Unless things change course, in a few more years things could get very dark.

Election amnesia

An excellent line from the President about John Kerry's flips and flops:

Campaigning in the pivotal state of Florida 10 days before Election Day, Bush lambasted Kerry for criticizing the Iraq invasion despite his prewar vote to authorize force there and his warnings about the danger of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

"The senator used to recognize that Saddam Hussein was a gathering threat who hated America," Bush told thousands of supporters at a baseball park in Fort Myers.

He said Kerry "seems to have forgotten all that" and suggested the Massachusetts senator had adapted his views for political gain.

"As his position has evolved during the course of the campaign, you might call it election amnesia," the president said.

Heh.

Fun with campaigners

Yesterday I got a phone call from a friend in Ohio. While we were talking she described an event that happened the other day. On Tuesday afternoon she went home from work sick. While at home she got one of those annoying campaign calls (which I haven't had to endure, not being in a swing state) and decided to have a little fun. I'm paraphrasing, but I think this is pretty close. C represents the caller and A is my friend.

C: Ma'am, I wanted to make sure you were aware of the upcoming election.

A: No way! There's an election coming up? When is it?

C: It's in two weeks ma'am.

A: Cool!

C: Ma'am, are you a registered Democrat?

A: I'm not sure. Which one is the elephant and which one is the donkey?

C: The democrats are the donkey.

A: The elephant's cuter. I think that's what I want to be.

C: Ummm. OK.

Click.

I'll have to remember this routine. It could come in handy.

Speechless

I'm with Michele on this one.

Am I the only one slightly disturbed

... by the fact that Spoons can, while openly calling for Bush's defeat, still write a dissertation on why Buffy the Vampire Slayer would support Bush in this election?

Hmm, since this seems to be the rage, maybe I should try this on some character I like. I'll have to give it some thought.

My blood is boiling

Over at Smash's place I discovered that you can now watch Stolen Honor for free. You should definitely do so.

Today the President signed

... the "American Jobs Creation Act of 2004" There's a lot of good stuff in here that will help lots of small and medium sized companies, especially those in the manufacturing and construction industries. However you have no idea how complicated some of this stuff is.

More work for me.

Orrin Kerr says

... "You'll have to read it to believe it." (He credits TalkLeft.)

I read it and I still don't believe it.

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. -- A woman came home from vacation to find a stranger living there, wearing her clothes, changing utilities into her name and even ripping out carpet and repainting a room she didn't like, authorities said.

Douglas County authorities say they can't explain why Beverly Valentine, 54, broke into an empty home and started acting like it was her own.

During the 2 1/2 weeks the owner, Beverly Mitchell, was on vacation in Greece, Valentine allegedly redecorated the ranch home, ripping up carpet and taking down the owner's pictures and replacing them with her own.

Mitchell was a complete unknown to Valentine, said Chief Sheriff's Deputy.

And it gets weirder from there.

Wow

The folks at Real Clear Politics have moved Michigan out of the Kerry camp and now show it as undecided. That moves their total of called electoral votes for Kerry below 200. It seems like almost every other day another state's race tightens up so that it's "too close to call". Which, of course, ads to the tension and excitement of the whole thing.

Just FYI

If you own a business and your accountant keeps asking you for more information so he can properly identify your equipment on the depreciation schedule, GIVE IT TO HIM! Then, when you decide to sell the company, he won't have to bill you for a trillion hours when he tries to figure out which assets you sold and which ones you're keeping.

On a related note, I must be a bit out of it today. I opened up a depreciation file and saw an asset called "paintgun". My first thought was, "I can't see him playing paintball." My second thought was, "Oh, like you spray walls with. D'oh!"

And speaking of commercials

This looks like a stupid premise for a movie.

Sometimes drug disclaimers make me roll my eyes

So I'm watching TV and an ad comes on for a drug to treat the symptoms of menopause. At the end of the disclaimers it says that women who think they might be pregnant shouldn't take it. I'd hope that would go without saying, but maybe it's just me.

Kerry lied ...

... a goose died.

I love Scrapple Face.

Halloween Disrespectful to Witches

You can't make this stuff up folks.

A letter sent home to parents Wednesday said there will be no observance of Halloween in any of the district's schools.

"We really want to make sure we're using all of our time in the best interest of our students," Puyallup School District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said.

The superintendent made the decision for three primary reasons, Hansen said. First, Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. Second, some families can't afford costumes and the celebrations thus can create embarrassment for children.

Both of those reasons seemed sensible to the parents who spoke to ABC News affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle. But the district's third reason left some Puyallup parents shaking their heads.

The district said Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches.

"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that," Hansen said.

I guess they'll be banning Macbeth as well.

We rednecks have trouble with directions

For several years the company I worked at was located at 916 N Main St. Periodically we'd get angry phone calls from people saying, "I'm at 916 Main and this is Harrison Electric!" We'd have to carefully explain that we were 18 blocks to the north.

A few months ago we moved next door and our new address is 920 N Main. A little while ago I had a lady wander in saying she was looking for legal aid. "This is 920 N Main isn't it?" she said. I confirmed that it was. After she left I played a hunch. Sure enough, Stillwater's legal aid office is located at 920 South Main.

Somebody needs to send us some compasses.

I wonder why we didn't do this earlier

The Internal Revenue Code allows taxpayers to take a credit for certain types of taxes paid in foreign countries. However there is a list maintained of nations that are so hostile to us that giving a credit for taxes paid in those countries would amount to giving stipends to an enemy. Taxes paid in those countries are not eligible for the credit.

Iraq has just been taken off the list.

On September 27, 2004, the Treasury Department announced that the foreign tax credit restrictions no longer apply to income and taxes attributable to Iraq (TAXDAY 2004/09/28, T.2). Therefore, the IRS has updated Rev. Rul. 95-63, which lists countries subject to the special foreign tax credit rules and other restrictions by adding an ending date of June 27, 2004 for Iraq. As of that date, the Code Sec. 901(j) restrictions ceased to apply to that country.

Wouldn't it have been more productive for the rebuilding process if we'd done this a year ago?

Oddly, though I can't find the story right now, I'm pretty sure that we took Libya off the list the day before. I understand why, given that countries recent (apparently genuine) change of heart on WMDs and terrorism, we'd be giving them a break. I just find it strange that we'd take Libya off the list before Iraq.

Freedom

Here's part of what it means:

I got a passport! I should’ve written about this some days ago but I had to spend a week in Basra...Anyway, I feel it’s still worth writing about (at least from my point of view): last week, I crossed the borders for the first time in my life; something may sound less than regular for most of you but for an Iraqi dentist or doctor it was a beautiful dream becoming a reality.Countless numbers of Iraqi doctors, dentists, officers and professionals carrying Msc or Phd ended up in prison or even lost their lives for trying to get passports (faked ones of course and at a very high cost) to get out of Saddam’s hell.

This time, it wasn’t hard for me at all to get my passport (a real one) and it cost me practically nothing; just two personal photographs and after five days I had my passport in my hand. No Mukhabarat asking why, where to and for how long, no 400 000 Dinars exit tax, no bribes to border guards...etc

Do yourself a favor and read the rest.

Woo-hoo

As you may remember I've been fighting headaches (of a very rare type my doctors tell me) for a little over 2 years. Until recently I had them fairly well under control. A couple of months ago they came back with a vengeance.

Today I saw a new doctor. He'd helped my sisters migraines so it seemed like it might be worth a shot. His office called last night and said they could work me in this morning so off I flew to OKC.

He pretty much agreed with the diagnosis I'd gotten before and said that the medications I'm on now are pretty much what he would have done. However, he said that these headaches can be augmented if some nerves are inflamed. He poked around and said that a few of my nerves appeared to be inflamed. To deal with that he gave me two cortizone shots and one near the top of my nose. ¹ It's two early to see how much help that will be, but so far I seem to be doing better.

If these shots do work I should be able to control my pain by staying on the meds I already have and getting a shot every few weeks. You have no idea what a relief that would be.

I'd also like to thank those of you who have written to say you've been praying for me about this. I really appreciate it. Now my prayer is that this new treatment really works.

¹In case you were wondering, having a needle stuck in the base of your skull hurts A LOT! But if it works, it will be well worth it.

Just a thought

Has anyone tried to see if there's any correlation between dips in Kerry's poll numbers and events or interviews in which his wife is allowed to speak?

Dear Oklahoma Senatorial Senate Candidates

In the past two days you have sent me tremendous amounts of spam touting this or that part of your record and condeming that and this part of your opponents record. STOP IT! As it happens, I've already made up my mind. The guy I'm voting against can't do any better than make me really mad. The guy I decided to vote for can't acheive anything. If I get mad enough though, I might just skip that line all together.

I'm guessing it doesn't make any one else very happy either.

In case this wasn't clear enough, let's try another approach. SPAMMING PEOPLE IS NOT A GOOD WAY TO GET VOTES! IT IS A GOOD WAY TO MAKE THEM HATE YOU!

That is all.

Thanks for listening,
An Angry Voter

Would it be terrible to point out

... that the network that gave us this and the network that gave us this are both owned by the same company?

Just asking.

Frank J makes an excellent point

And no, he's not being satirical this time. ("Satirical"? Is that even a word? No idea. If not, I'm sure someone will correct me.)