Their lips are moving

When drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was finally approved last May, I zoomed in on how little of ANWR was involved, and that it only affected a small portion (2000 acres or 3.l3 spare miles) of its "pristine" Coastal Plain.

I linked to an article written by National Reviews's Jonah Goldberg. Unlike those yammering constantly against drilling in ANWR because it would wreck this "untouched" wilderness he'd been there, and described the area -- I think quite justifiably -- as a "horror." A "hellhole."

Which might explain why it's remained "untouched"?

Although drilling has been approved, the Lefty-Loons and Enviro-whackjobs aren't done yet. They're ranting and raving about how it will adversely affect the Caribou and the Gwich'in Eskimo who depend on them for their very lives.

Just one of the problems is that the Gwich'in Eskimo don't even live there. The tribal lands of the 1,000 Gwich'in in Alaska is outside of the drilling area. The other 6,000 Gwich'in are in Canada.

It's a long story, far better explained here by The Center for Individual Freedom.

Quotable quotes

"I think the socialist attack on judicial nominees who'd use framer-intent in their interpretation of the Constitution might also explain their attack on our Second Amendment "right of the people to keep and bear Arms." Why? Because when they come to take our property, they don't want to risk buckshot in their butts." - Walter E. Williams

Goose and gander

In the wake of Kelo v New London, the newest muncipality being urged to turn someone's home over to developers is Weare, New Hampshire.

Logan Darrow Clements sent this letter to the town's Code Enforcement Officer on June 27 advising him of the proposal to build a hotel on the now privately-owned property.

The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare.

The next day -- today -- Mr. Clements issued a press release that provides additional details:

The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans.

The property currently belongs to one of the judges affirming Kelo v New London: David H. Souter.

Via Rush.

"It's not right."

Pasquale Cristofaro immigrated from Italy in 1962. Now 79 amd retired, he spent 27 years as a city employee in New London, Connecticut.

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby caught up with Mike Cristofaro, Pasquale's son, last Thursday only hours after the USSC's Kelo v. New London decision.

"I haven't told my father yet," Mike said. "I don't know what to say. You want to help me break it to him?"

Think you're pissed already? Wait until you read the rest.

(sign-in sam@sample.com / sample1)

Bunched undies

In the true spirit of bipartisanship, Democrats -- the party of NO! -- continue their refusal to even discuss overhauling Social Security unless Dubya publicly abandons individual private personal accounts as a part of it.

Social Security is collecting far more than it pays out. It's been doing that for decades. That surplus hasn't been and isn't put aside for future payments. There is no Social Security Trust Fund with real money in it. Instead, there's actually a filing cabinet filled with printer-generated IOUs because the government has been "lending" money to itself.

Think of it this way: You have envelopes marked Utilities, Rent, Car Payment and Mad Money. When you get paid each week, you put a set amount inside each in order to pay the bills when they come due. But since there's not enough Mad Money for you to do what you want, you use money from the Utilities Envelope and replace it with an IOU. When the electric bill does come in, the only thing in the Utilities envelope is a crumpled wad of IOUs.

Excess Social Security revenue goes into the Fed's general fund, to be spent by congress critters on gawd only knows what pork so they look really good to their constituents when it's time for re-election.

This week Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint proposed legislation that not only would require the surplus in Social Security payments remain within that system, but (Oh, the horror!) that the people paying that excess actually have a claim to it.

Under the GOP proposal, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. , the money would instead be apportioned to workers according to their payroll tax contributions and invested in marketable Treasury bonds with their name on them. In two years, a special government board would decide whether those investments could be expanded to other assets.

"It has more momentum than any bill has so far," DeMint said, citing 11 Senate co-sponsors. Private-account strategists said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had quietly signaled his approval, and DeMint said he had White House support. - San Francisco Chronicle.

Paul Ryan noted three principles behind this legislation:

The Social Security surplus should only be used for Social Security.

The surplus should not be used to fund other government programs.

The surplus should not be used to mask the true size of the national debt.

It's not a complete solution but it's a start. And it makes sense.

You can immediately tell it does by just how quickly Nancy Pelosi responded with the standard rhetoric that, as usual, all translates to NO! But . . .

We are eager to discuss how to make Social Security strong into the next century, and we have many ideas on how to do so.

How Kerry-esque. They have a plan!

Have they shared it with anyone?

Yes. Pelosi herself did last March in an interview with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday.

WALLACE: Congresswoman Pelosi, you complain — and I think there's some legitimacy to it — about where is the president's plan, but Democrats like to say that Social Security is a hallowed Democratic idea, created by FDR. Where is your plan?

PELOSI: The facts are that we want to wait and see the president's plan.

And no matter what's floated, they'll say NO!

But that may be about to change. The Wall Street Journal's Political Diary noted:

[Clay Shaw, R FL] believes that when it comes to a vote, as many as 30 or 40 Democrats will likely jump onboard for two reasons. One, this bill is going to be rolled into a larger package to include pension and other reforms aimed at helping older Americans. And secondly, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have put a "gag order" on their party, preventing members from saying anything positive about Republican reform proposals. "But you can't stay silent on a vote," he said.

Why the possible change?

Could it be they're starting to sense that the voters back home may be just a little tired of them blindly following the party line, rather than serving the people that elected them?

After all, 2006 is coming.

The Kerry Clock

On June 20 Powerline posted copies of the three, separate SF-180s Kerry signed, authorizing the release of his military records to handpicked reporters. While that's not the full and complete public disclosure Kerry repeatedly "nuanced," following the links Powerline provided in a subsequent article told me it was time to stop beating a dead horse. So, I took the Kerry Clock out of my sidebar.

Kerry might think that he's now checked off another item on his "Things To Do List" in order to appear a viable candidate for his party's nomination in 2008. Perhaps he has, but in doing so Kerry once again showed why he's just not presidential material.

When asked why he refused to sign the forms when he was the candidate in 2004 and questions arose, Kerry explained:

Those mean poopeyheads telling stories about me kept trying to make me sign it but I didn't wanna 'cause if I did then it

Sacred Cowburgers

would make ME look like I'm not the big, strong, tough . . . brave guy I am ‘cause if I did it would look like they'd made me do it. So I didn't.

Showed them, didn't I!

Yes, Senator Kerry. You most certainly did.

There's another reason ...

There's another reason why we don't like any animals but our own in our yard, especially those belonging to whatever "New Crew" is diagonally across-the-way in back.

For the first time in six months, Da Kid (Da Vet Tech) had a weekend off. And so did Herself, his fiancé. They had plans: dinner, movies, hang out down at the beach.

Friday night Da Kid's cell phone sounded. Sheila, our neighbor, was on the other end. Dozer, her family's 10-month-old dog, wasn't acting right.

After she described over the phone what was going on, Da Kid said to take him to the emergency care animal hospital. While some of the symptoms sounded like Parvo, since he'd given Dozer his innoculations himself, he figured when Sheila said Dozer had chewed up his feed bowl the dog might have an intestinal blockage.

Da Kid and Herself met Sheila there. No blockage. Dozer did have Parvo.

Although when he's outside Dozer is usually in Sheila's fenced back yard, when she gets home from work she turns Dozer loose in her unfenced front yard while she checks her mailbox and then sits on her porch to decompress.

Because Parvo is so hardy and can remain active for months, instead of spraying to kill bugs this weekend Sheila was pumping a bleach solution throughout her yard.

And in the night sometime over the weekend, the latest "New Crew" moved out.

~~~~~
Note:

Dozer's home now. He's scrawny and still weak he'll be okay.

Parvo vaccinations are effective but may not provide complete protection to younger dogs because their immune system may not be sufficiently developed, or older dogs with immune system that may be wearing down simply because of their age.

Picture this?

When my parents got married they moved into a tiny little dinky house. When they finally paid off the mortgage decades later -- while my brother and I watched --with great fanfare they burned the mortgage papers because their home was really and truly, finally theirs.

A couple of years ago, Da Kid watched as Hubby and I held a similar ceremony.

We were passing on to him the same message our parents had given us. Work hard and one day, you can have your own house. It's yours.

Turns out that's a crock thanks to today's Supreme Court decision on eminent domain.

The New London neighborhood that will be swept away includes Victorian-era houses and small businesses that in some instances have been owned by several generations of families. Among the New London residents in the case is a couple in their 80s who have lived in the same home for more than 50 years. -- High Court Expands Reach of Eminent Domain

All it takes is somebody or a company with deep pockets that wants your home, but for whatever reason you just don't want to sell.

No problem, for "Mr. Big."

"Mr. Big" can now go to your local government and through eminent domain, have them take your home from you, and then give it to him because his project, whatever it may be, will generate more property taxes than you're paying.

"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including - but by no means limited to - new jobs and increased tax revenue," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. -- Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes

So say you don't own the home yet. The mortgage on it is . . . $100,000. A "Mr. Big" wants the property and through eminent domain, he forces you to sell it to him for $60,000 in "just compensation."

Not only have you lost your home, but you're still obligated for the mortgage on it.

And we didn't even get kissed first, did we.

Sent to Dick Durbin (and Florida's two Senators)

A Father's Day Open Letter to Senator Dick Durbin.

I'm rich!

Sheila’s father has had a vegetable garden for as long as she can remember, and long before she was born, too. A huge one. The family is smaller now and not as dependent on it as they were years ago, but every year he still puts in the same-sized garden.

As the vegetables ripen, once he and his wife — Sheila’s mother — are done with their canning and / or freezing, he opens it up first to Sheila, then other family members, and finally their neighbors including the church next door to their house and its members.

I’m not family. And I’m Sheila’s neighbor, not theirs, but once again this year while she was picking corn yesterday her father said, "Get some for that Yankee across the way from you, too."

Some is a bushel . . . of Silver Queen corn. It's now shucked, de-livestocked, trimmed, washed, bagged and stacked in my freezer.

When I went to the grocery store this morning — I needed more freezer bags — I noticed they had Silver Queen corn on sale so I took a look. By comparison to what I had heaped in my kitchen, the ears were puny and the sale price? Three for a dollar.

Right now I feel like a danged millionaire.

~~~~~~~
In our next episode, Doyle will (hopefully) report on the sale price of beer ‘cause Sheila has advised that it looks like the field peas are almost ready to be picked and, as we decided years ago, the only way to shell a couple bushels of ‘em and stay half sane is to get schnockered while we're doing it.

Join the Blogroll FOR Opponents of John McCain

Ith mentioned it and since I'm such a fan of John McCain, I checked it out, liked what I saw and asked (begged actually) to be included.

It is my honor to announce that Daisy Cutter deemed me worthy. (Either that or he wanted me to stop whining.)

If you have the same appreciation (snerk) for McCain (gag) as I do and his untiring efforts (barf) on behalf of the people of Arizona he was elected to represent, and how he's constantly standing up for what's good (WHAHAHAHAHA!) for all Americans (when it suits his aspirations), I encourage you to join those of us already on Blogs for McCain's Opponent.

Quotable Quotes

"When it hasn't been a cash-cow for venal international bureaucrats, a venue for the machinations of corrupt autocracies, an anti-Semitic and anti-American megaphone, or a tool for furthering the totalitarian designs of Communist nations, the U.N. has been good only for issuing high-minded resolutions that it can't or won't back up, all the while corrupt regimes pursue their oppressive ends." -- Bruce Thornton

DRINK ALERT!

Please review and adhere to all DRINK ALERT! precautions before viewing this video.

From Accolo via Neal's Nuze.

NOdometer

I've noticed someone poking around this little blog the last few days. Not just any someone but someone based in Washington, D.C. whose names you'll recognize: Townhall.com and the Heritage Organization. Did I feel speshul or whut?!

I felt even more speshul this morning when I received an email from an actual person at The Heritage Foundation that reads in part:

I see that you have taken quite an interest in Social Security reform, and have linked to our websites before. I thought that you might be interested in a new gadget that we've recently added to our website.

The gadget — the NOdometer — "measures what saying no to social security reform is costing the next generation" and is now in my sidebar. And every second, the already horrifying amount increases even more.

If you'd like to add it to your site, the script is here.

If after you've put it in your sidebar it doesn't display correctly or just doesn't work, it didn't for me either. It does now because I took the emailer up on his offer of help IF I needed any.

(Me? Need help with HTML or coding or . . . WAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Anyway, try the original first but if you need the modified script they provided by return email, let me know in a reply.

Oh, and the next time somebody tells you that little blogs don't get noticed . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Carnival of the Trackbacks!!!

The mother of all rip-offs

"While the vast majority of retirement plans are run responsibly, unethically using workers' retirement contributions to fund current expenses, instead of saving them for workers' retirement, is still an all-too common occurrence."

What's the biggest perpetrator? United Airlines? Unions that are diverting funds from its members' pension plans into other activities?

No. It's the United States government.

More here.

Elsewhere, Brooke Oberwetter wonders why Democrats are so against changing a system that discriminates against two groups it claims to be the great defenders of: women and unmarried couples.

And today is Thursday. You knew that I'm sure but what you may not be aware of (and I keep neglecting to mention) is that at Will Franklin's, every Thursday is REFORM THURSDAY. This is his 20th installment.

Quotable Quotes

"We believe that God used our holy war in Afghanistan to destroy the Russian army and the Soviet Union,'' he said. "We did this from the top of this very mountain on which you are sitting - and now we ask God to use us one more time to do the same to America, to make it a shadow of itself. We also believe that our battle against America is much simpler than the war against the Soviet Union because some of our Mujahedin who fought here in Afghanistan also participated in operations against the Americans in Somalia [during the doomed UN mission] - and they were surprised at the collapse of American morale. This convinced us that the Americans are a paper tiger. -- Robert Fisk on September 15, 2001, quoting Osama bin Laden

It's a mad world

U.S. taxpayers are paying for the Korans, prayer mats, prayer beads, prayer oils, piped-in calls to prayer five times a day, Islamic food, libraries, classes and a whole bunch of other . . . stuff provided to the terrorists and killers being held at Guantanamo because, you know, we gotta be sensitive to and respect their religious beliefs.

On the other hand, providing parents with school vouchers to move their children out of failing government schools is really really bad, because the parents just might choose one with a religious affiliation.

On Flag Day . . .

June 14, 2005 -- At first glance, the city Department of Transportation yesterday looked a little like the Grinch who stole Christmas: DOT forced some patriotic workers to take down the 20 ft. by 60 ft. American flag they'd hung from the Williamsburg Bridge.

More here.

(sign-in leavemealone@mailinator.com / goaway)

POP

Once again new renters have moved into the rundown house and mobile home (both on the same property) diagonally across-the-way in back. None of the renters ever stay long. They're there for a few months, leave, and a few weeks or months later the next batch moves in.

Some have been friendly, some haven't been. Some have been older, some young. Some have tried to keep the place up while they were there, others haven't given a hoot.

The only thing they all had in common were animals. Dogs, cats . . . One guy moved in with a veritable barnyard: dogs, cats, geese, turkeys, goats . . .

With few exceptions, they've all (including Mr. Barnyard) allowed their animals to just run loose.

That tends to tick us — everyone else in the neighborhood, too — off. Especially on trash day.

(Call Animal Control? That's another story and I won't go into except to mention in passing one particular high point: the time I found a citation from them tacked to my back gate because of a complaint they'd received that I wasn't providing my cats with appropriate food, shelter and medical care despite the fact that I didn't — don't and never will — have any.)

So long as the animals stay OUT of our fenced yards and don't bother us when we're out of them, if they don't care if their animals become tire patches up on the main road why should we.

The "New Crew's" dogs changed that easy-going attitude, at least here, when they pushed through my bungee-corded back gate once too often. The two big dogs (One looks like it might be a Pit-Chow mix; the other may have some Boxer in it.) pushed their way back out as soon as they saw me. But one dog decided to stand its ground and challenge.

Please don't laugh.

Bracing its legs, the Chihuahua began growling at me when I objected to its not only being in MY yard, but scouting out MY garage and the trash cans next to it.

(Behind me, inside the house, chaos ensued as Tank (the Yellow Lab) and The Wonderdog raised their own objections.)

The Chihuahua finally backed down and away, following the path back out the gate its buddies had taken.

A few weeks later I spotted the two big ones — this time accompanied by a cute floppy-eared puppy of undecipherable parentage — back in the yard again headed for the garage. I started to go outside when Hubby quietly said, "Let it go. Da Kid's in the garage."

In seconds Da Kid was in the house taking a rifle from the gun cabinet.

I pitched a fit. One helluva fit. One of my truly classic ones.

"Mother," my son said to me disapprovingly. (I hate it when he calls me ‘Mother.') "It's a BB gun. I know what I'm doing."

Pumping between rapid-fire shots, Da Kid then popped their asses right out of the gate.

"At this distance, Mom, two pumps," Da Kid said after they'd fled. "If they were closer I'd only go once. I've dug too many BBs out of animals to take chances with any more than that. You don't want to break the skin, just sting ‘em."

"Oh."

"Want to try it?"

"No."

"Come on!"

I did hit the side of the hay shed. Unfortunately, that wasn't what I was aiming at.

This morning Da Kid was packing lunch and dinner before leaving for the 12+-hour shift he works every Sunday at an emergency care hospital for animals.

"Your buddies are back," I said looking out the window.

After a long absence the two big dogs (with the Chihuahua, the fast growing pup PLUS a new addition) were working on pushing our bungee-corded back gate open.

Da Kid looked, and headed for the gun cabinet.

POP

Kerry's just plain nuts

Before last November's election I asked if John "Kerry's constant distortions, repeated errors and self-serving lies are something he has no conscious control over. That Kerry can't help himself because that's just the way he is."

This is borne out even more considering Kerry's apparent belief that he's a viable candidate for the Democrat's presidential nomination again in 2008.

All he has to do, perhaps he imagines, is improve his Senate attendance, sponsor or co-sponsor a few bills, staple Mz. Heinz's mouth shut, keep his face (ugh) and name in the limelight, not magically turn pumpkin orange at inopportune times, and sign that pesky SF-180.

''I have signed it," Kerry said. Then, he added that his staff was ''still going through it" and ''very, very shortly, you will have a chance to see it."

As Joan Vennochi also noted, "The devil is usually in the details. With Kerry, it's also in the dodges and digressions."

Now we know why it was so important for Kerry's staff to review the form he'd signed before it was sent in, and why -- contrary to Kerry's statement, ". . . very, very shortly, you will have a change to see it." -- a copy still hasn't been made available. It shows that Kerry is still refusing to allow public access to his military records.

On June 9 Thomas Lipscomb explained that just signing the form isn't enough:

[H]ow an SF 180 is filled out is as important as signing it.

The NY Sun reports:

The senator also agreed to allow the Los Angeles Times to see his full record, [Kerry aide] Mr. [David] Wade said yesterday. The spokesman did not respond to a question about why Mr. Kerry did not execute a broader release to all press organizations and the public. Asked whether the senator would permit release of the records to The New York Sun, Mr. Wade said, "The issue is over."

In a written statement, Mr. Kerry insisted that openness about his past was a hallmark of his presidential bid.

Pathological liar? Or is John Kerry simply delusional?

As of June 11, Lipscomb still has more questions than answers about Kerry's latest version of the complete release of his military records.

Ready?

This year's hurricane season isn't even two weeks old and we already have a named storm churning.

Arlene

Arlene isn't going to turn into a hurricane according to the reports but if she did and was headed smack at you, are you ready?

I'm not.

Then again, I never feel like I am. Either I've forgotten one tiny little yet extremely critical item (Like the year I realized it didn't matter how many canned goods we had on hand if the power's out and the only can opener is electric?) or wondering while remembering something I hadn't realized the year before but had now taken care of, what new thing would pop up this year.

The American Red Cross has great information. If you're not already familiar with it, bookmark the sites.

Pets? They have suggestions for them, too.

Those are the basics.

Something that came in very handy last year was a little portable, battery-operated television set. Instead of trying to imagine the projected path of a tornado based upon the information provided over the radio by the National Weather Service, the local television stations made it possible to actually see it.

. . . okay, that's that road and that's that street and we're here and IT's there headed in THAT direction so . . . WHEW!

Pets, and I can't stress this enough. If you have to go to a shelter, your pets can't go in with you. They're not allowed. Period.

The Red Cross suggests:

Decide where you might take your pet if it becomes necessary to leave your home during an emergency. Places you could contact are:

Boarding kennels
Veterinary hospitals with boarding facilities
Friends and relatives
Motels which allow pets

Plan early, book ahead especially with the first two. Especially the second one. Calling at the last minute demanding that space be made for your beloved "Fluffy" isn't going to make one bit of difference if not only all of their kennel space is already taken, but every inch of floor space is also crammed with animal-filled crates, too.

(As a personal aside, I strongly suggest the latter two. If the weather is so bad that you're evacuating, those who would normally be caring for your animals in the first two are facing the same weather and possibly / probably also in an evacuation situation themselves. Expecting them to risk their lives for your little "Fluffy," in my eyes, makes you a complete and total self-centered jackass. And dumb.)

So I guess we're ready for this year's hurricane season, or as ready as we can be at this point.

Cheap tricks

Today's big news has been that John Kerry wasn't Valedictorian at Yale but an average student, and that Dubya -- who'd been characterized as a dummy -- has earned grades at the same school that were slightly better.

Big deal, except it seemed strange to me that the Boston Globe was the paper making it seem like one.

The Boston Globe? Kerry's home-town paper? The byline . . . Michael Kranish? Kerry's biographer?

Jeez, something must be going on if after all of the work they did trying to make Kerry look gawd-like and now, oh look!. He's average!

Like a magician that gets you to focus on something else so that the slight of hand trick isn't quite so obvious?

So then I read Kranish's other article.

On May 20, Kerry signed a document called Standard Form 180, authorizing the Navy to send an ''undeleted" copy of his ''complete military service record and medical record" to the Globe.

To the Globe? So he hasn't made the records available to the public or anyone else that wants to look at them, just the Globe?

It reads that way to me.

In April 2004, Kerry said he had already released his military records. ''I've shown them, they're available for you to come and look at," Kerry said in a television interview. But when a reporter showed up at campaign headquarters, he was told that no new records would be released. That prompted a flood of Republican criticism, and the campaign responded by gradually releasing more military records on its website. Kerry then released his ''fitness reports" -- evaluations by commanding officers -- on April 21, 2004.

Sacred Cowburgers

Caught in a lie, Kerry had his campaign release additional information.

Kerry tried another Look! Nothing in my right hand, nothing in my left. with Don Imus on September 15, 2004.

IMUS: A Freedom of Information Act request by "The Washington Post" regarding your military records produced six pages of information, while a spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command said there were at least 100 pages of information available, but he was not authorized to release them. Why can't we see this stuff?

KERRY: We've posted my military records that they sent to me, or were posted on my Web site. You can go to my Web site, and all my -- you know, the documents are there.

IMUS: So is -- everything's available?

KERRY: To the best of my knowledge. I think some of the medical stuff may still be out there. We're trying to get it.

IMUS: "The Washington Post" doesn't think that it's all available, and they could go to your Web site. Maybe they did.

KERRY: Well, we released everything that they initially sent me.

"We released everything they initially sent me." That's two gross exceptions to full disclosure right there, "Mr. Nuance." What had "they" sent to you since, and you're not allowing public release of anything that isn't sent to you first.

At the same time, Judicial Watch received a response to the Freedom of Information Act request it had made:

Navy Personnel Command FOIA Officer Dave German wrote in an e-mail to Judicial Watch that the Navy "withheld thirty-one pages of documents from the responsive military personnel service records as we were not provided a release authorization."

Were those 31 pages separate from the Washington Post's 100 pages, part of WaPo's 100 pages, or is it 131 pages of information that Kerry refused to release?

Who knows. We also don't know if any of those pages are included in the information that the Boston Globe described today as, "mostly a duplication of what Kerry released during his 2004 campaign." For some strange reason, I kinda doubt it.

And we won't know if the SF-180 Kerry signed restricted what information could be released or to whom.

Polipundit removed from his site the Kerry Clock he designed. I'm keeping it and the addition to it right where I have them because Kerry still hasn't released his full military records to the public.

Where are his discharge papers and the paperwork that explains why his Honorable Discharge was awarded under the Carter Administration and not years before when his separation from service actually occurred.

And now, I also want to see the SF-180 he signed.

Shut Up & Sing

I listen to talk radio. Kinda. I catch snippets of Sean while I'm fixing dinner and Rush while I'm doing laundry. The only radio "personality" I do listen to faithfully is Neal Boortz, and even then, the best I can do is catch perhaps 60 minutes in bits and pieces of his three-hour weekday show.

Laura Ingraham? I've seen her a few times as someone's guest on television or talk radio show, but her radio program? She's on the same time as Boortz, so . . . nope.

With all of the interviews she was giving about her book SHUT UP & SING and the way Hubby seemed to be watching and listening to them, and needing a stocking stuffer for him last Christmas I bought a copy of it thinking he'd want to read it.

I now suspect Hubby was more interested in watching Ingraham because an avid reader, he still hasn’t even cracked the book open. And he sure hasn’t missed anything.

Needing something to read I made the mistake of starting it. It was a mistake because with few exceptions — I could probably number them on one hand if I remembered what the heck they were — once I start a book I finish it even if I have to force myself do so.

And within just the first few pages, I knew I’d be fighting to finish this one.

Hollyweird and the entertainment industry is full of Lefty-Loons and the pseudo-intellectuals they revere are of the same bent. Faith is under attack. The completely dysfunctional United Nations is a total joke. Dubya and big corporations really don’t want to do anything about illegal aliens because it’s cheap labor. Follow the money and it’s easy to find the same source(s) for the anti-Bush / anti-U.S. demonstrations and demonstrators. Yadda-yadda.

TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T ALREADY KNOW! TIE WHAT I ALREADY KNOW TOGETHER IN A NEW WAY! MAKE ME THINK! WRITE SOMETHING, ANYTHING, THAT MAKES ME GO, Ah-HAA!

Please!

We’re not talking deep thinking or analysis here, folks. Or any challenge to thoughts or beliefs that have to be examined and / or re-examined because of the information or insight provided.

No voice, no unique tone. Like . . . instead of writing, the words on each page were standard observations backed with selected quotes from news reports, all of which had been pulled from various audio tapes, transcribed, and then just reorganized into book form.

SHUT UP & SING bored the socks off me.

If it weren't for Maya ...

The cops had to fire so many shots to stop the lunging pit bull, the gunpowder set off an overhead smoke detector.

Still, the dog didn't die.

But she wasn't the toughest dog on the block. That title belongs to Maya, a 74-pound black Lab who took on India, the 120-pound pit bull who was mauling a sixth-grader on the Northwest Side.

The rest of the article is here.

Quotable Quotes

"Diplomats [to the United Nations] live the Manhattan high life a world apart from the crises that they are supposed to be addressing in Africa and Asia. Global media coverage from nearby studios—"live from New York"—tends to provide an electronic megaphone for fashionable anti-Americanism on the cheap. Never have so many delegates wished to live in a place for which they profess such a public dislike." - Victor David Hanson

Dear Dr. Steinmetz:

Thank you for your reply of June 1.

Having worked for a physician for several years in a former life, please forgive me for being more than a tad skeptical.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that someone of the renown you claim would bother with this little blog, would refer to themselves as an Md, [emp — ed] would reply so informally and make that many errors doing so.

Although you wrote as "Anonymous" your ISP indicates you are writing from the Michigan area. A google search reveals numerous credentialed individuals with the name Steinmetz — the name you provided in the body of your reply — in that locale but none of them are A.Z. In fact, I can't find an A.Z. Steinmetz anywhere.

Regarding your research, a link to where it's been published will be appreciated since you encourage more of it in order to learn the truth because the information available through law enforcement and media sources is incorrect.

Your statement that 98 percent of sexual offenders are parents is particularly intriguing considering the search criteria you used. Does your mentioning it indicate that to you, the sexual abuse of a child by a stranger is somehow less of a crime?

Further, I'd like to find out more about the services you provide to the 400 sexual offenders you — a Fellow with the American College of Surgeons — treat annually.

I await your reply.

He's out of his mind

Four hurricanes in six weeks here in Florida last year, and lets not forget Tropical Storm Bonnie came through first. Florida wasn't the only state hit, nor are hurricanes the only form of extreme weather that affects the nation.

Hurricane Charley

Some companies exist solely to take the raw data the taxpayer-funded National Weather Service provides to everyone for free, repackage it in pretty little pictures, and then sell it.

We taxpayers expect improvement in the the services we pay dearly for although all too often, it seldom occurs. An exception is the information the NWS provides.

In addition to the raw data, with the growth of graphics software the NWS is working toward providing its own "pretty little pictures."

And the companies are having a fit claiming it's unfair competition. They want the NWS and NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) it's parent agency, to be prohibited -- unless it's an emergency -- from disseminating any information to the public.

Last April, Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) introduced a bill that would do just that.

I've got about 1,000 jobs in Pennsylvania and 14 weather companies, believe it or not, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," Santorum told a local radio station recently. "That's how they make their money, in providing these services. And we don't think that the Weather Service, which does a fine job . . . should be doing this job."

My heart bleeds.

Santorum is the bill's sole sponsor and it's so ridiculous, it probably won't even make it out of committee.

We're already paying for the information through taxes that pay the meteorologists' salaries and fund the instruments through which the data they analyze is collected. Everything from bouys to land monitors and even satellites. And now, in addition to the information they already provide for free, the NWS is going to make it available in a more user-friendly format, too.

That's not competition. That's improved service.

(Competition would be like . . . ummm, if the Weather Packagers were paying for their own meteorologists and data collection. But they're not. Why should they when we already are, and they can get the information for free and then charge for it.)

And you know, I really don't like the idea of weather information being filtered through corporate entities and then the media (Stay tuned for the latest news on how you're all gonna die!!!) both of which are more concerned with profits than anything else.

Usually boring and often too technical, the NWS and NOAA are there for one reason only: weather.

Picture this?

Curmudgenonly & Skeptical