OK. TIME TO GET AWAY FROM THE KEYBOARD
God Hates Shrimp
you evil, puppy blending.... Why did you have to show me this?

Is this Some Kind of Threat?
Are you gonna run out of gas and crash on their ass?

I DON'T CARE IF YOU CALL ME 'RIGHT WING'
Doug Giles: The Passion police

Is it just me, or did Mel Gibson make Satan out to look like Sinead O’Connor in his latest movie, “The Passion of the Christ”? Coincidence? I don’t think so. And what about the baby with the old man’s face that Lucifer was carrying around in that unholy Madonna-like scene during Christ’s scourging? I swear it was Andy Rooney.

that's flat out funny. Does anybody even remember Sinead anymore?

HOW "WHITE" IS YOUR LIFE?
Whiteness Studies
No statement. Not a word. Take the quiz. If you fail, nip off and kill your ass.

EXPLAIN TO ME HOW 'JUST KILL 'EM ALL' DOESN'T WORK
'I wanted to be a martyr and kill Israeli soldiers'
I want anything Red Sox dead BUT I DON'T BLOW THEM UP.

ANOTHER POSTER BOY FOR THE HOT SHOT
It's yuppie scum like this clown that makes me like the death penalty. He kills her, buries her in cement on his own property, then flees the country. Charge him for being mind-numbingly dumb, along with whatever other charges he's already facing. And then kill him and bury his butt.

WHEEL OUT MORE IDIOTS LIKE THIS...
...and you're gonna see a backlash like none ever unleashed before. I've got no dog in this fight, but when elected public officials thumb their noses at the law, it just makes me more comfortable in doing illegal things that make me feel good. If I get popped for doing something against the law, I can point at these guys and say," You wanna lock me up? Then asshat over there better be sharing my cell."

IT'S THE RULE, FOOL
RhoidBoy's Personal Trainer Shown the Door
As far as I'm concerned, this just shows how desperate baseball beat hacks are for copy. Selig said "No," so the guy hadda go. End of story. Put him on the payroll and he can return to helping Jason while he puts on his jock.

YOU CLUELESS ASSHAT
Giffy Getting Dumb

BEGINNING OF A RANT...NO, WAIT...
FOLLOW-UP TO LAST BLAST (sans the self restraint thingie)
(sidenote: Jeffy seems to have lifted my bannage...or he's just overwhelmed by the tonnage of responses he's been getting after wigging out and hasn't done his pruning, since the stuff I threw up hasn't gotten deaded yet. Doesn't matter; I'm still pissed. Literally. Wife's birthday party last night got way out of hand. And there are mucho liquid leftovers...may be spending the whole day drunk. Consider that a warning. Reality is going conceptual here today, sports fans.)

I did not expect Blender Boy to go squishy on the idiot. But maybe all these hotshot 'BlogGods' have a self defense mode that kicks in when they find one of their own is going down and running out of air. Seems like King Pundit is trying to defend the putz.

Here's the Insta:

I think that Jeff Jarvis rules. He's a smart, thoughtful guy, who knows a lot about the media world, and his heart is always in the right place.

What rock crashed on your Tennessee head, prof? When, exactly, did Jarvis cop a GodHead, since he readily admits to being just another stone-cold blindered asshat Stern junkie? Given, the BuzzBoy ain't dumb. His jones for the Iranian bloggers has shown that. But "Jeff Jarvis Rules" is slap you in the face stupid. From his own sputtering mouth:

I've never fully bought the idea that Christ had to die for our sins. Had to? That would make it seem as if God planned and willed that; hard to believe a father would do that to his son (and that doesn't speak well for our fraternal relationship, does it?). And I still can't fathom the logic of dying for our sins -- why, because God demanded some vengeance?

YES, GOD DEMANDED HIS POUND OF FLESH. HIS SON WAS THE MEAT. WHEN ALL YOUR PEOPLE GO SOUTH, YOU GOTTA DO THE BIG MOVE TO GET THEIR ATTENTION. READ THE GODDAMN BOOK, MOOK! JESUS WAS DEAD MAN WALKING FROM THE MOMENT HE SHOWED UP. SO ARE WE.

Jeff's an arrogant twit on almost any subject, since his whole web existence sails by shoving his bandwidth costs over to his boss. He's sparking off about buying satellite stocks now that Howie's days seem to be numbered. Right. Sure. Fool. Tool.

"Hello Asshole!" Every bird in the air belongs to the MAN or someone who looks like your boss. You can go all speculation, but moving Stern to a sat station doesn't happen until Chelsea Clinton's making her Congressional run. Which means she has to stop acting like some EUTrash slut pig. Which ain't happening anytime soon.

"Jeff Jarvis rules" on what? He rails about what happened to Stern but hasn't got the smallest gerbil balls to make the same kind of stand in his own life. Does not Jarvis rule the Land of Gutless Bastards, better known as Advance.Net, where he'll scrub any sentence that pisses off any dumbass yenta right off the message boards to keep the peace. Which is just what Clear Channel did to Stern.

"Jeff Jarvis rules" on what? Rationality? He just went nutzo and posted stuff that the Diamond division of his paycheck would kick asses into next week upon hearing from the help.

He couldn't swing half the shit he's spewing now on any paper Newhouse prints. Boil all the bullshit away, and you are left with
"JEFF JARVIS: HOWARD STERN ACOLYTE. DOES HE MISSES THE MIDGETS, PRECIOUS?"

I'm getting terminally paranoid now. Is BuzzBoy overwhelmed? Or is he not going to be blowing away my posts in his comments because I called him out on it? Is the dick even awake? Am I? (checks pulse...no response) Should I go to Fingerboard Road and just smear the SOB? Pre-empt the shit storm? Those entry codes I got should still be in play....

I call BuzzBoy on the carpet, I find lawyer URL's surfing my sites. Fuck you bastards. I got my Dago Patrol; we bear arms. Big honkers. They call me "Loco Rojo." We make our own fun. We hate your ass.

And yes, I am farking nuts. Right now, that is. Desperately in need of caffeine.

HYPOCRITICAL JEFFY JARVIS
Howard Stern was not "censored," and BuzzBoy damn well knows it. But he's a huge Stern fan, so when Clear Channel yanks Howie off their radio stations, Jarvis loses his mind. He blasts off into a zone usually reserved for the clueless DU Moonbats who think an event like this is "The Man" (Bush) crushing dissent. From reading the comments to his rant, and things like this, he's pretty much alone up there in the ozone.

He is trying to spin this like we're all missing the Big Picture, a pretty arrogant stance. That said, I also think he has a large bit of pompous, self-righteous elitist asshat running through his veins.

If you don't defend Stern agains the government chill, then you open the door for someone you like to be taken off the air.

You mean by someone like you, Jeff?

Jeff Jarvis is employed by one of the biggest family owned print media companies in the country. He's Master & Commander of their Internet presence. If he allows anything remotely resembling Howard on a "good" day to be published on one of their websites, Si Newhouse will send Jarvis's head rolling across the floor. BuzzBoy knows this, so he and his underlings make sure the content, especially in the various newspapers' forums, is as bland as possible. Post something that someone else considers "offensive" or "inappropriate" and they'll scrub it off the board.

On his own blog, Jarvis practices bona fide censorship. There are words you can't post; words Jarvis doesn't want associated with his personal salon. Hell, you don't even have to whip out one of Carlin's Seven. If you merely upset one of his delicate doyens, you're toast. Banned. "We'll hear no more from you, guttersnipe!"

He did it to me. I've been made a non-person at the Buzzmachine for getting fed up with some smartass taking snarky potshots at me while debating something I had posted here that Jeff featured on his blog. I got tired of the sniping and posted the following:

Everything single thing you posted here includes cheap shots belittling my intelligence that would have you swallowing your teeth and swimming in the Kill van Kull if you said them to my face.

A couple of days after that I posted a comment to some other thing, I don't remember what. I went back later to see how the conversation was progressing. My post was a ghost. Gone.

That's what got me yanked from the Buzzmachine's airwaves. I told some clown if he said what he was saying while he was standing in front of me he wouldn't be standing there long. Not even a threat; just a statement of fact.

So get off the high horse, Jeffy, until you're ready to risk something. Stern did and he paid for it. But I ain't holding my breath, because that would mean you'd have to pay for the bandwidth all the "nj.com" pages your personal stuff eats up.

I NEED A RULING FROM THE PANEL
I say this is the most asinine judicial decision anyone could ever put on a piece of paper. If you disagree, please cite your selection in the comment section.

"Hour of the Gunmen" Update
(scroll down for original post)
Well, this comes as no surprise.

PARIS (AP) - French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on Wednesday called for the "immediate" dispatch of an international civilian force to restore order in Haiti, where a rebellion threatens to topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

What the blazes is a "civilian force" supposed to consist of? NGO-types?

PUT SOME TROOPS AND GUNS ON A PLANE AND GO, JACQUES! Talk's cheap; get some boots on the ground, you procrastinating dilletante.

IT'S ABOUT TIME
Raids Round Up 30 Lowlives on Staten Island
Good. I'm sick and tired of having to leash a dog anytime I want to take a long walk around my neighborhood. I know some guys who work out of the 120 Precinct; details are gonna be like pulling teeth until the camera crews are all dealt with. Some reports are saying the two crews involved were Crips/Bloods. Wannabees, maybe, but not the real deal. More likely they're housing project hoods fighting it out over the Castleton/Broadway market.

Also, please note the fifth item in the right hand sidebar of the first article.
Hey, Chucky Cheese! Keep your piehole shut next time, you mook. The only probable reason you made that announcement yesterday was to get in front of this bust. You and that neophyte Donovan could have blown the whole investigation with your grandstanding.

Breaking News - Sox bullpen worker sues, claims he doesn't smell right
Watch out, NY Post headline writers. Someone at the Daily News is getting ready to make a run at your title. LMAO!

ARE THERE ANY ADULTS LEFT IN THIS FAMILY?
I find this a fairly dumb performance, but then, I find the source to be a fairly dumb guy, so at least he's consistent.

The papers cited have a purpose, Pinch. They draw in readers who wouldn't otherwise pay attention to the main product. When more and more youths are turning to alternate sources for news, it makes sense to offer them something that can engage them. You know...an alternative.

"I think (youth papers) are condescending, I think they degrade the readership, I think they're talking down to the reader," he said. "They're saying, 'You don't (understand) what we offer ... so we're going to give you this thing that you can get.' And you know something -- bullshit. We don't want to become less than we are to reach an audience whose needs we wouldn't do a good job of meeting."

You're wrong, you condescending dolt. They're not saying anything like that. They're offering a potential customer another option. These customers don't want to waste time wading through an entire 'regular' newspaper; they're used to getting their information in a compact, digested format. But if you can get them engaged, you can entice them to give the main publication more attention. But just blowing them off because you don't want to lower yourself to reach out to them is an outrageously elitist stance to take.

Then the topic turned to Jason Blair. Pinch's explanation led to my choice of headline for this riff:

He said Blair's many fabrications and his plagiarism were allowed to go unchecked because of a history of poor newsroom management practices. He noted that when he himself was made a metro editor he suddenly took charge of 75 reporters -- without a single day of management training.

It still shows, boyo. It still shows.

The Institute of Official Cheer :: Stagworld
The Bleatster's collection of seedy pseudo-porn, circa late 50s-early 60s. You're gonna need a steel wool looffa to wash this one away, Jimbo!

And please tell me it's all under multiple locks and keys. Gnat will never recover if she comes across this stuff.

WOO-HOO! I BEAT INSTAPUNDIT!
He posted the the Village Voice story at 5:12PM. I got an e-mail from the Village Voice at 4:12PM. I read the article and posted it. I e-mailed him a heads-up at 4:47PM. Submitted it at Plastic at 4:58PM

I want my tip o' the hat, you Puppy Blending SOB! I want my Warhol moment!

LURCH AIN'T GONNA LIKE THIS ONE
There is no way on the planet this can be blown off as a product of the Republican Smear Machine:
The Village Voice: Features: When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A. by Sydney H. Schanberg
This is a damn nuclear bomb dropped square on Kerry's head.

Think someone tipped Nader off about this when he was mulling entering the race?

JUST SAY "NO" UPDATE
The idiot from the posting yesterday has handed in his resignation and the local cops have handed him his arrest warrant. The Smoking Gun delivers the paperwork.

Hour of the Gunmen in Haiti
Jeez, I'm shocked. The NY Times wants a multinational force consisting of soldiers from France, Canada, Latin America and the U.S. to go into Haiti before the rebels grab the reins of power in that poor, benighted country. Then an American-led effort should begin training an independent police force and judiciary....

Been there; done that. NYC even sent our current police commissioner down to supervise the cop side of the equation. The fix didn't stick and now the scene's playing out again. But we're occupied with more pressing matters right now. War on Terror and stabilizing Iraq, y'know?

Let the French take the point on this one. They incubated this mess when they pulled out of their former colony and left the place in the hands of Papa Doc and his whack-job son. Let them try to cauterize the wound themselves. Maybe they can show us how it's done. Lord knows, they think we're doing it all wrong in Iraq.

Show us how it's done, Jacques. But don't call us when you blow it. We're busy.

RHOID BOY CUTS THE JUICE FROM HIS DIET
Oh man, Jase. Don't even try to tell us your new look is just a few pounds gone by knocking off the cheese burgers and working out. Your damn head lost four pounds all by itself! You look like the guy in your rookie card.

You look like you spent the off-season getting intimate with a crack pipe or a fix kit, boyo. Or Keith Richards introduced you to his blood doctor.

THEY EAT THEIR OWN
I know, it's not like it's a surprise to see these guys taking an opportunity to do a little gloating, but the following is probably going to be the funniest thing I read all day:
"...our favorite reaction was Al Sharpton's. Speaking from a deep well of personal authority, the reverend said Mr. Nader was either "an egomaniac" or "a Bush contract."

MR. KETTLE? MR. POT IS ON LINE ONE
Poor Howard. Leno picks off Stuttering John, eliciting an hour-long harangue from Stern about how lame Jay is. He's right; Leno should be ripping off someone who hasn't been in a holding pattern since the mid-Nineties.

Howard, you're over. I remember when you first moved to K-Rock from WNBC. You're still doing the same shtick. Anyone older than 20 still worshipping at your feet probably kills kittens when you interview nekkid bimbos... on the radio!

Gut Rumbles: John Kerry
I'll just get out of the way now. See, this is me getting out of the way. No snarky comments. No "I told you it was coming" riff. I'll just get out of the way. There. I'm outta here.

I'M WITH SULLY ON THIS ONE
I read the New Yorker article last week and was also unimpressed with the Moore suck-up piece. but his whack at Hannity is something I loved reading. Hannity was irritating when he was just local; when he went national the clown's ego just kept writing checks his mouth couldn't cash. He's an atrocious debater. He also likes to occasionally talk about how he played ice hockey as a youth. Punkass probably wore a visor.

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH...
And whoever the Democratic candidate ends up gets to have his ass waxed on Staten Island come Election Day. I mean, really guys, you think Molinari, (ex-Marine) & Fossella (Bush lackey) aren't gonna forget their feud for a while and deliver the borough for Bush? Or are you truly delusional?

SHUT UP YOU SPOILED BRATS
Wine and roses time is over. You're gonna punch a clock and if you make a stink about it the public will turn on you like starving wolves in a sheep pen. We're tired of reading about city workers gouging our pockets for overtime pay. It's "degrading," according to a union honcho. What, that we don't trust you? Ever hear of "Trust, but verify"? If your crew are a bunch of honest folks, there is no problem here. But if overtime spending suddenly drops off, you're all busted.

JUST SAY "NO" TO IDIOCY
What a maroon!
Educator admits he planted drugs,
and he had a stash in his desk he claims to have been collecting off students since 1999! If he doesn't get his walking papers immediately following his arrest on possession charges, that school district is going to have one hell of a problem enforcing any kind of "zero tolerance" rules they may have on their books.

AMERICA'S BALLSIEST ACADEMIC
Mike S. Adams continues to amaze me in his ongoing battle against collegiate faculties and administrators who have no qualms with crushing free speech in the name of "diversity." It's not that he's fighting the fight; it that he's staked out as his battleground the very campus and university where he works. Untenured and undeterred, he hammers the double standard that the PC apparatchicks consistently apply when the students involved aren't considered acceptable.

The Underground University is his latest volley in his fight. Read this, then read some of his previous columns. He's gotta be the most despised faculty member in the administration's, and a large hunk of his fellow educators' eyes. The guy is fearless. And with the bright public light surrounding his fight, and two Faculty Member of the Year awards under his belt, he seems kinda bullet-proof.

BEEF STEW!

FIRST THERE IS A TRICKLE
Then there'll come the flood. Expect to see plenty more essays like this and this getting added to the rebuttals to Kerry's insistence on making Vietnam an issue in this campaign. And in the first election where the Internet is truly a player in driving the conversation, they'll get a much wider audience than ever before. The radio talkers will pick them up and broadcast them. Warbloggers and other "right-leaning" web pundits (both real and imagined) will link to them. The more they weave their way into the conversation, the more they will weigh against Kerry in the minds of people who haven't already made a decision. And I haven't seen anything from his defenders with the ability to counter it.

WHAT BORED BASEBALL WRITERS DO...
...in late February when nothing is going on. They gaze deeply into their navels and deconstruct players' remarks, looking for something, anything, to fill up the old column inches. Both the New York Daily News and New York Post are openly campaigning for a feud between Jeter and A-Rod to erupt. So expect to see this kind of stuff being bandied about for awhile. They want to see a replay of Thurman and Reggie; they want Bronx Zoo II.

Jeter is too smart to play the game. Alex might be too stupid and get sucked in.

Yo, A-Rod? You try playing that game and it'll get you killed by these same scummy scribes. Everything you did in Seattle and Texas, all those gaudy numbers, mean absolutely nothing now. You had no pressure in Texas, despite all that "had to carry the team" crap. You carried them to dead last every single season you were there. For all the skills you have, "inspiration" and "leadership" are not on the list.

You have never, ever in your professional career faced the pressures Jeter has faced every single season since his rookie year. You really ought to shut your mouth. These reporters are gonna stroke your ego as hard as they can in the hope of getting you to trust them enough that you'll say something dumb. They'll take the most innocuous comment and inflate it into fighting words. Look at the Post's back page today. Even if you or D.J. don't say anything, they'll hunt down some anonymous "friend" to generate the controversy they want.

DEMS: PLEASE RALPH! PISS OFF!
You know, if the Democrats had any actual confidence they could defeat Bush, instead of relying on the hope that they may be able to pull an eyelash win a la Bush 2000, Nader wouldn't be such a worry for them. And Nader thinking he can help the party win some votes for candidates further down the ballot by drawing in new or disaffected voters is dead-on. A lot of those Deaniacs are probably loathe to the idea of voting for Kerry; Ralph might be the only thing to get them to go to the polls.

THE TWO PARTY PATROL WEIGHS IN
People likeJeff Jarvis annoy the hell outta me over Nader entering the race. OF COURSE IT'S ABOUT EGO! What rational person wants the job in the first place?

The fact that so many people are so locked into the idea that having no more than the two big parties involved is so undemocratic that I can't comprehend the viciousness that Democrats, especially those on the Left, are already beginning to rain down on Ralph. What was all that "anyone can grow up and be President" stuff I heard when I was a kid? No one ever added the caveat, "As long as you're on one of these two teams."

Back when Perot was doing his third-party schtick they loved it; when it might hurt them they hate it and want it stopped dead in its tracks. The fact is those votes are not anyone's by divine right, you gotta earn them. If Nader says things that makes someone pull the lever for him, good for him, just like if what some candidate says makes voters pull the lever for anyone but him.

Party affiliation is just a premise, not a promise. It's how the term "Reagan Democrats" got entered into the political lexicon. Get over it. I was born into a Democratic family, and pulled the trigger for Democrats regularly, sometimes mindlessly. Then I lived through the nightmare of David Dinkins. I ain't ever making that mistake again. You want my vote? You show me why you'll be better than your opponent, period. I don't care if you're running on the Screaming Psycho Party's line; convince me you're the best dog in the fight and I'm yours.

Mike Lupica's Shooting From the Lip

Paula Fredriksen: Gibson goofed
Goofed? Name me one, just one movie producer who wouldn't sell his or her soul and the souls of their entire cast, crew, family, etc. for all the free publicity and heat opponents of Gibson's flick have generated for nearly a year before the first paying customer laid eyes on it. Gibson supposedly laid out $50 million to make and market the movie; he'll have made that cash back by the time the sun sets on the West Coast on Wednesday, when the film finally goes public, critics be damned. In that respect, the guy's a genius.

And as for the critics who claim the film will lead to a rash of anti-semitic reaction: get real. You idiots keep banging this drum like the American public are a pack of mindless boobs who take their lead from what they see on movie screen. I think it's bunk.

Anyway, as a recovering Catholic, I seem to remember something about how God sent his only Son to die for our sins, so it doesn't matter who killed Jesus. He was Dead Man Walking the minute he showed up.

MoDo LOSING HER TOUCH
She can't do snarky well anymore, and this piece is just a petty, dumb slap for no good reason.

MORE RED SOX WHINING
Not unexpected, this little bit of bitterness. The Times should have to include in any piece like this that they OWN A PIECE OF THE RED SOX. But I liked the riffs they had as Boss George's last two entries, especially Friday's.
Here's your salary cap, you freaking losers!

Grey Lady's Ombudsman Hears From His Constituents
Now let's see if he pays any attention. I'm not holding my breath.

AND I'M SUPPOSED TO BE SURPRISED?
Why wouldn't they go straight to farm system of the Elites League to recruit new drones? You get 'em when they're young and you can probably hold them until they got husbands or wives, jobs and kids and mortgages, and a clue what all the "diversity" means to their everyday lives.

KEEP DIGGING, LURCH
If Karl Rove is half as good--and nasty--a campaign strategist as Kerry and the Democrats make him out to be, then they are going to get buried if they don't get Vietnam, and Kerry's actual record from then, off the table as fast as they can. Stunts like this letter is not a good sign that they are going to drop it. If they don't, milder versions of Misha's response to these tactics are going to be flowing like water from a broken spigot.

Wheeling Max Cleland out is just too old and crass a maneuver. He's no war hero. He blew his own ass up, you morons! If anything, his getting mangled showed a severe lack of brain power that should have prevented him from ever getting elected in the first place. Calling into question someone's record on defense is not questioning their patriotism. Cleland got his walking papers because he was carrying Big Labor's water and his constituents were revolted by it. It was a perfectly legitimate subject for Chambliss's campaign to bring up. If they didn't they would have been potzers and would have deserved to lose.

WHAT SURPRISE? HE'S DOING HIS JOB
Mayor's gay marriage stance surprises former foes
And good for him. Everybody who had opposed him as some sort of right wing Visigoth who was going to destroy the city's long held reputation of progressive politics in order to fatten the coffers of his big business overlords are totally flummoxed by this little bit of civil disobedience. And according to the article, his presence at crime scenes was a cause for pause among the local chattering class. I guess the San Frannies have been too long embraced in the soft comfort of politicians who played to the audience instead of playing the game.

Let me explain. The easy one first:
The crime scene thing: Why is this a surprise? It's a crime scene; the locus of a big-time felony investigation.
The place is crawling with cops. Why any Mayor before him didn't drop in on these things once in a while is the thing I'd be more interested in hearing about.

The marriages: He is actually giving his local business overlords their first bone. Hotels just gotta be enjoying a huge boost in the reservations bookings. I figure short term stay rates have doubled from the influx of same sex couples looking to swoop into town and tie the knot. The car rental companies are probably bringing in rides from wherever they can find them to rent to all the people getting off the planes, looking to get their shot at marital bliss. Them newlyweds are gonna wanna party after getting hitched; restaurants and catering halls are cleaning up at inflated rates. And then there's the media circus he just brought into town. Those folks are adding to the hotel bookings, the restaurants, the bars, and the city itself, because all the juice it takes to power all the hardware those media whores drag with them wherever they go costs long, cool green. And in the process he shoves his opponents back on their heels.

Pretty savvy, you ask me. He's in a win-win situation here. Short term, he's earning a ton of warm feelings from people who didn't vote for him, while feeding the city's businesses the dollars they crave. Long term? Screw the long term! In the long term the whole thing ends up getting argued in the courts and it's out of his hands. If the courts say he's right, he's a hero. The courts smack him, he can point at somebody else and say, "Hey, I fought the fight! That bastard shut me down!"

As far as his conservative backers...please. Go look at the recall results. Just how many conservatives are there in the Bay Area, really. They're an endangered species in that burg.

LAST WORDS ON THE GET SCAMMED? FALLOUT
I got up this morning and initially didn't think anymore about it. It was old news (scroll down for the beginning of the mess); there was a whole new day of things to do, places to go, yadda, yadda, yadda. But, me being me, I had to go see who else had taken a whack at me since I had walked away from the keyboards last night. So I took my coffee into the office and fired up the beasties and scrolled through the comments to the ones that had arrived after I had thrown up what I had intended to be the close of the conversation.

And, sure enough, DreamBoy had tossed another brickbat at me. The first paragraph of his reply to my final entry just left me so exasperated I decided I needed to, once and for all, just stop this train wreck. There was obviously no way to talk to the guy through the comments; he never got the basic premise of where I was coming from when I tossed the original post up. He had decided I was some form of life beneath his own, who he could impugn without any thought to the consequences. And he had, once again, committed the cardinal sin: he spoke to me in a condescending manner, as if he was some sort of fucking sage trying to teach the peasant why he was a fool.

I decided to write him directly, and walk through the mess once last time. Here's how it went:

==============
Eric,
The Kill van Kull is a major shipping lane that lies between Staten Island and New Jersey. Any heavy transport ship, like those carrying oil or shipping containers, that does not go to Brooklyn uses it to access Howland Hook or Port Elizabeth in order to off-load their cargos bound for the tri-state area and beyond. You can see pictures of it here (last two pics). It's located a short stroll from my front door.

I never do anything "pseodnymously" (sp:pseudonymously). My name is TC. It's at the bottom of every post on my blog and in Jarvis's comment thread. Type the phrase "leather penguin" (don't forget the quotation marks!) into any search engine and the top five or more results will direct you to one of my pages, which can lead even the newest newbie to my last name (Lynch), and even a mugshot. I don't hide who I am; I think that's a punk move, as is using spoof e-mail addresses. Anyone disagreeing with me can easily contact me through a variety of methods, such as comments on my blog, posts to the various message boards located in my website or on a separate server, or via e-mail.

No "threat" was ever issued. I said that if you had made the snarky comments (which I consider to be "flames," albeit you might not agree and believe that they are merely pithy derisions) in my physical presence they would have elicited from me an overt physical response. That did not constitute a "threat." It was a statement of fact.

The first paragraph of my blog posting clearly stated that I wasn't sure about the article concerning the interview, and after a cursory ("spent ten seconds") query it still seemed fishy. I searched for "WSNR" and got the link I posted. I clicked "listen" and found the Sporting News radio website, where the host and show were nowhere to be found. I clicked the "listen live" link and heard some guys talking about A-Rod while I looked up Talkline and got the link that I posted, where no mention of the host or show in question existed.

That was the entirety of my, as you put it, "crackerjack investigative reporting." The sports boys gave out a phone number for listeners, so I called. The screener had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about the host and show in question.

I wrote my riff and posted it to my blog. I e-mailed Jarvis a link to the posting because I check out Buzzmachine regularly and wanted to see if he thought I had something. It was more of a question than anything else. I didn't write that the interview or host was a con job. I wrote my riff because the bell was ringing away, because the website I found when I Googled "WSNR" was jock radio.

He slapped the extract and link up on his blog and the rest, as they say, is history. He didn't see if what I sent him played out. He just banged it onto his blog, which kind of goes to the point of my post.

My blog says, right up top, "rants and ripostes." I don't portray myself as anything more than me, and the stuff I post is nothing more than what pops into my mind at any given time based on some form of outside stimuli. The original post I tossed up is what it is: my reaction to an article that set off a bell in my head, and after a quick look at it the bell was still ringing, so I blasted away.

Anyone familiar with me, personally or through the stuff located on either my blog or on my website, has an idea where I'm coming from. Just as I gleaned an impression of you from reading a variety of the things you have posted on your blog before I sat down to write this. We probably have more in common than in opposition.

But I have one, overriding rule that governs everything: any stranger fucks with me in any way whatsoever gets fucked over hard enough to learn to never try that shit again. The link you posted proved nothing about the post I put up, and I held Rule One in check when you made the first crack, but the "Holy *&$? Have you ever even used the internet before?" That little bon mot flipped the switch.

I was using 300 baud modems and dumpster diving when you were in grade school. Before the browsers, before the dot coms, back when you had to learn how to keep your telephone bill from looking like your rent check through creative use of the network nodes you were dialing into. Throwing that shit on the table was like grabbing the tail of a dog you never met before and thinking you wouldn't get bit.

At that point the Irish in me took over. It's not like the Irish in you, boyo. You're a half breed who couldn't care less; I'm the fully loaded model who goes back to visit the places my parents were born whenever he can, who grew up on stories of family members who took part in The Rising.

You're probably a very nice guy, Eric. A regular metrosexual, from perusing the posts on your blog. I'm not. I am a hardheaded king high motherfucker. I got a rage hardwired into my DNA that'll probably get me killed but I don't fucking care once the anger is washing through the veins because man, that buzz is better than them all combined.

Don't ever fuck with someone you don't know, Eric. It's a rule I learned growing up in a NYC housing project before you ever took your first lungfulls of Indiana air.

If I wanted to threaten you, Eric, it wouldn't be by posting some text on a message board, believe me. It would be, after making the bits and bytes that make up a life dance a fucking jig, when I met you at the elevators of your job. You work in publishing at a company located directly above Penn Station. 2 Penn Plaza? It wouldn't take much to figure out. It wouldn't take much to find out anything at all.

Think next time you want to play games with strangers, Eric.
==============

DISCLAIMER: The link to the pics in the original letter was farked; I was looking at one screen while working off another and got something wrong. Sorry 'about that Eric, old boy! And I entered a comma I missed in the original and deleted a word that had been entered twice while I was writing the sentence about the buzz. Bad Me!

Then I leashed the youngest of the household's beasts and took him for a vigorous run through of his workout while I let my blood pressure come back down. There's nothing like watching a canine's canines chomp down on a rope and refuse to yield to bring a sense of contentment that everything in the world is relatively OK. Well, that and well tended armaments.

Off to the weapons locker!
This is TC Lynch, signing off and not giving a shit what happens next!

STEYN: TRIUMPH vs. QUEBEC
My new favorite Canadian tosses a little political oil on the ridiculous kerfuffle that went on up north last week, started by a rubber dog, whose entire reason for being is to do exactly what he did when his handlers brought him across the border.

THIS IS PLAUSIBLE, BUT...
I can't buy McCall being the guy. Schumer would get killed by his own party, never mind the other side. Rangel and his cronies just don't have the state-wide juice.
Armstrong Williams: Black powerbrokers vie for New York City

Get Scammed? Update
Turns out the radio station in question's website is farked up. It also turns out that by tossing that post in the direction of Jeff Jarvis I got myself raked over the coals in his comments section by one particular bastard. Yo, asshat, I said right at the git-go "I may be wrong, but..." and that all I did was a cursory search (type in WSNR, hit 'search', pick the top two hits, both come up with 620wsnr.com), OK?

Now I gotta worry about some office drone with too much time on his hands hopping a ferry looking for my ass.

Eh, whatever. The dogs are bored anyway. It'd give them something to do.

SIDNEY, YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER
You got some nerve spouting Why Kerry should sue the Sun.
Remember what happened when you tried suing Drudge, boyo? You didn't exactly win, did you? As I remember it, you ended up covering his court and legal fees to make it all go away.

Did Yahoo!, Drudge, and a bunch of other folks get scammed?
I may be wrong, but this looks bogus. I read the article, didn't recognize the call letters or the host's name (I'm a talk radio junkie), and spent ten seconds looking them up.

WSNR is a sports radio station, the host in question isn't on their talent roster, and the show in question isn't on their schedule. I'm especially disappointed with the NY Daily News running this story as it was presented on their website. Talkline, who supposedly syndicates this radio show to WSNR, doesn't have the host's name anywhere on their website. And one guy they have listed as having a syndicated show on WSNR--which WSNR also doesn't list--supposedly airs from 10AM-12PM, which would be one hell of a shift.

See what happens when you just rip stories off the news wires, children, instead of checking the "facts" the article is throwing out there? THEY DON'T FIT THE STORY. The interview may or may not have happened. The host may or may not exist. But shoveling the story out there without verification is utterly, utterly asinine. Especially considering it seems to have originated from AFP, a French wire service.

OH, HENRY, SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE
Look at your salary requirements for this year, schmuck. If you had been able to close the deal with A-Rod, you'd be damn near what the Yankees would be paying out without his money included in their total. Acting like your trying to defend the other clubs, trying to bring 'sanity' to the spending, doesn't even fly with your local baseball scribes.

The hard cold fact is Boss George's team brings in roughly $350 million a year in tickets sales and such, and George shovels the money right back into the organization. Every time the Yankees go on a road trip, the local team sees an increase in their revenue because of George's spending the dough to bring in The Show. And none of those other teams have any problems accepting their cut of the luxury taxes the Yankees pay. They just pocket the money instead of putting it out on the field.

The Giambi deal is turning out to be a huge bust for Steinbrenner, so he went out and snagged Sheffield as insurance and to fill the right field hole. You went out and scored Schilling and Keith Foulke to solidify your pitching, while the Yankees lost three stars from their starting rotation. A-Rod was desperate to get out of Texas and you weren't willing to pull the trigger. Then Boone blew out his knee. The Yankees asked if Rodriguez would be willing to move to third. He wanted a ring. The rest is history. And Soriano, the only quality youngster on the squad, was part of the price Steinbrenner paid.

You want to scream? Scream at Selig for allowing Hicks to give the kid that insane contract in the first place. It jacked up the money George had to fork over to Jeter, Bernie and Giambi and made what it would take to get Rodriguez out of Texas within reach of only two teams. The one with the balls did it. Which won't mean a damn thing if the Yankees don't win eleven games in October.

WHEN THE GLOVES COME OFF
I've said it before, the Dems better get off the National Guard crap, fast, because it can only bite them in the butt in the long run.
They can run around calling Kerry a "hero" all they want, but the fact is he spent a grand total of four months in-country, which is less time than Gore spent as a combat correspondent. Many Vietnam vets call Kerry's Purple Hearts "band-aids" because they were issued for minor, insignificant flesh wounds. The DNC likes to wheel out Max Cleland as the point man in attacking Bush, because he lost three limbs while he was in Vietnam. Well, that part is true, but portraying Cleland as suffering these horrific assualts on his body in combat is demonstrably false. And his lack of any Purple Heart proves it out, as does his own account of how it happened.

Kerry letters aided embattled contractor
Well, it's nice to know the LA Times is a member of the Republican smear machine, a subdivision of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Welcome Aboard!

Wired News: Webmonkey, RIP: 1996 – 2004
If you don't know Webmonkey, you are a newbie who never learned your history. It was the place to go when you wanted to learn how to do the things you saw on the cool sites back in the day.

Rings or bust for A-Rod
Reggie, being Reggie, knew exactly what all the hoopla surrounding A-Rod's arrival means; not too much.
"Judgement Day is in October around here."
They don't get eleven wins in the post-season, they failed. Period. All the numbers in the world mean nothing without them.

The Bronx Zoo: Volume 2
I swear I can hear Thurman Munson growling and spitting wherever he is, muttering about Steinbrenner's insanity. But who cares? We're gonna score 1000 runs. Too bad we'll probably give up 600. But the notion of how nuts this is driving Beantown is worth every damn dollar.

BATTING THIRD, THE NEWEST GUY...
Alex Rodriguez?
Wow. If this gets done, the boys are gonna be down right frightening when they come to the plate, just like the current pitching staff is when they take the field.
SCREW A-ROD! I WANT ANDY PETTITE BACK!
update: OK, now the NY Times got it, so I'm guessing it's a done deal, since they have the lousiest sports desk of all NY papers. So, as of now, while I'm waiting for the coffee to perk, is the potential Opening Day batting order:
1-CF: Lofton
2-SS: Jeets
3-3B: A-Rod
4-RF: Sheffield
5-1B: RhoidBoy
6-DH: Bernie
7-C: Posada
8-LF: Matsui
9-2B: whoever

KILLERS FOR KERRY?
One of the funniest bits of today's left is that, nearly forty years later, they want to rewrite history and hoist what's his name up on a pedestal.
The 'Band of Brothers' shit might fly in the primaries, but when it comes to the real fight, it's gonna kick back. The notion that Abbie Hoffman's bastard stepchildren are trying to fly the flag now makes me want to puke. I was a child of the Sixties. By that, I mean I was a kid; I was born in 1960. My brain was working pretty damn well circa 1972, after growing up watching Uncle Walter delivering body counts during my evening meals. Kerry and his hippie bastard brethren were the people my father's friends cursed between breaths every Sunday when Daddy's bagpipe band rehearsed in the Marine Corp. League hall. I watched broken guys come into that place looking for somewhere to hide from the 'babykiller' bullshit. And now these same hippies want to turn history over on a dime.

That they have the balls to try to sweep the reality of those days away for this lying sack of shit's benefit is galling. And they know it. That's why they want to do everything they can to portray Dubya as akin to the Slick Willies who lied or ran their way out of service. See, today, in the current haze, shooting gooks is cool. And the media lapdogs play right into it by demanding to see Bush's colonostamy reports during the time Frenchie was acting all babykiller. The same folks who look down their noses at Drudge have no problem being utter sleazeballs banging away at the Prez's record circa 1972 when, if they were honest, they were thanking God and Nixon that their asses never got near a set of khakis.

DUKE SUCKS (followup)
Political debate sweeps campus
This asshat Brandon is deperately in need of an egg or cream pie in the face. Contempt like his can only be met with a foot in the balls, beatdown to his grad students and general, liberally dispersed "FUCK YOU."

I did my college time at CUNY. I got my assed kicked into the Elvis Zone bucking the politically correct asininny tenure sucking whores that they called faculty. I sat in a PoliSci class with a teacher who was trying to sell to the class that Reagan was a "classical liberal" while Gorbachev was giving up, throwing his hands in the air and settling into to the Presidio. I watched a friend of mine who taught at the dump totally ostrasized (sp?) because he was a Palestinian Jew who thought Arafat should get his ass blown up.

Oh, and he was the only member of the English department that actually got around to writing a book that got published, and scored big-times reviews of his book (but that had nothing to do with his getting shoved out the door. I know. They told me so. They also told me the department chair was "the James Joyce of Queens," to which I replied, "You mean over-rated stupid Mick who wrote one good book that wasn't named after a Greek classic? Show me his Brendan ripoff. I'm AOH. Don't fuck with me. I'll shove a bagpipe up your ass."

Wrap your head around the previous one: "Palestinian Jew."

Don't believe me? Check him out.

TRIUMPH TAKES ON QUEBEC
Here: Tim Blair: PUPPET OUTRAGE! and here.
Jeez, an obnoxious hand puppet can screw up the French Canadian psyche by mocking them?
DRAG DICE CLAY OUT FROM UNDER HIS ROCK AND SEND THE MOOK NORTH!

ON A LOCAL NOTE
If I hear that stupid UFT/Randi Weingarten commercial claiming they have nothing but NYC's schoolchildren's best interests at heart in their contract negotiations with Mayor Bloomberg one more time.... AAARRGGHH!

Will the Floodgates Open Now? Kerry Goes on Record About Intern
All these high and mighty "professional" media dorks keep going on and on about not sinking to the level of a "gossip" like Drudge. It makes me laugh so hard I would pee my pants if I didn't have an iron cast bladder from decades of mainlining hops and barley. ABC, NBC, CBS, (fill in your fave network here)--every single one of them--regularly include "gossip" all the time! Not one of these organizations has any qualms with releasing "insiders say" or "sources report" stories about damn near anything they think might tickle the Neilson meter. But when it's a Democratic presidential candidate they get all uppity.

Drudge has been in this sandbox before; he knows how to play the game. He didn't get suckered by some dirty tricks squad from the right or the left. He didn't make this up just for the hell of it. He knew exactly the kind of storm he was about to unleash. I believe he did exactly what any of these schmucks do when someone who doesn't want their name used feeds him something: he reached out to his various sources (which they all would sell various body parts to have) and waited until he heard the same story from a couple of other places. And then he dropped the bomb.

Say a Prayer for Andy's Pooch
Sullivan's prized beagle got into the Valentine's candy.
"Clean up on aisle...ALL OF 'EM!"

SI FERRY REPORT
Well, the experts at the Global Maritime and Transportation School (GMATS) have issued their report on what the city needs to do to put the city's ferry fleet back on course, and Bloomberg and Co. have issued their press release, held their press conference, and the city's newspapers have dutifully filed their copy on the matter. After slogging through it all, it's my turn.

Before I get started, a tip of the hat to the Staten Island Advance. Their sub-headline, "City report rips ferry system...," was exactly WRONG. The report stated that, considering the underfunding, understaffing and insulated management system existant, the ferry system operates effectively.

For the love of Les Trautmann! It was the fourth paragraph of the report's Executive Summary! And which idiot in your midst decided that your article merited being labeled "EXCLUSIVE" when your boy Seth was sitting in the Blue Room with a slew of other reporters?

Way to go, Fingerboard Road! My faith in your utter fecklessness remains intact.

The report itself did not directly address the circumstances that led to the Oct. 15 crash. Instead, GMATS sent two teams to examine the state of the ferry system firsthand, with team members observing operations both on the boats and at the docks, including interviews with administrators and ferry crews.

The conclusion? Throw money at the ferries and they'll work better.

The report recommends hiring a total of 95 new employees, with an initial 24 brought on board "as soon as practical." The 71 additional hires should be phased in within the next two-three years. These new people, and the existing employees will, among other things, be required to work a forty hour week instead of the thirty hours they currently are required to put in. The ferries themselves are to be upgraded, incorporating better RADAR and crash prevention technologies, in addition to more lifeboats, etc., yadda yadda yadda. Go read the thing.

"Using the insights of the best maritime minds in this country, the old Staten Island Ferry culture will come to an end," said Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall at the press conference. "This is an old system that relied in large part on tradition and custom and will now be replaced with a first-class management operation that incorporates standardized written practices. Its deficiencies are now all too clear and its time has come and gone."

As far as the old system and people in charge of that system, which managed to kill 11 and mangle scores more of its passengers, that buck was passed over to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who haven't had anything public to say on the matter since Oct. 23, and the Eastern District Attorney's office, which seems to be, web-wise, a black hole.

The ferry's current director of operations, Patrick Ryan, and several other senior managers have become a focus of the criminal investigation into the accident. Investigators are looking into whether Mr. Ryan and his cohorts passed along operating procedures to employees under them. Indeed, the existence of any actual operating procedures is still a matter of conjecture. The city believes they exist, and intend to use them to prove that the designated scapegoat, disgraced and dismissed Capt. Michael J. Gansas, screwed up and deserves to get hammered. They just haven't been able to actually find a copy of the sucker. Unless the Feds decide to fry the big boys, Weinshall said they would not be fired, but they could apply for new jobs in the revamped ferry operation.

THE GUN BOTHERS ME, BUT...
Whoever posted this without including the photo itself is a bonehead.
READ THE COPY NEXT TIME, EINSTEIN.

NEVER MIND THE BIMBO
Drudge's sex bomb is fun; it puts the Big Media schmucks on notice again that they no longer control the "news" that Americans receive. As of this morning, they're still avoiding any mention. You'd think that after the last time Drudge beat them to the punch they'd have learned. Instead, they're still acting like DNC lapdogs, harassing the White House about things that did, or didn't happen, thirty years ago. Meanwhile, any real scrutiny of their currently annointed candidate's shifting stands on topics that are really going to matter come Election Day are ignored.

SIGN O' THE TIMES
In what I'm waiting to hear from the usual suspects is another sign of the total moral collapse of American values, Barbie is dumping Ken for some Aussie beach bum.

Kerry no hero in eyes of Vietnam-era veteran
Band of Brothers, eh JFK?

HERE WE GO AGAIN
Just when it looked like the Democratic primaries were becoming boring, DRUDGE drops one of his patented bombs into the middle of the mess. When I saw this up on his site, I reached over and flipped the radio on and Rush was already pounding away on it. A few minutes later I called up FARK and there it was, with the comments already marked "infinite." So far, none of the TV networks have mentioned it, but that's to be expected since they despise Drudge's very existence. But its gone viral now, and they can't ignore it for long.

BTW, Matt? You didn't break it. These guys had it last week. So stop acting like blogs aren't legit. You should rework your page to include them. I mean, you got that big 'ol list of columnists going down the middle of your page. I put a hell of a lot more faith in what I get from quite a number of bloggers than in some of the idiots you have listed. For one thing, the bloggers have to be more careful than idiots like Molly Ivins or MoDo. The bloggers get their asses fact-checked in real time and for the most part don't hide from the repercussions of what they print.

IT'S ABOUT TIME!
This was a headline that immediately caught my eye:
Joyce's 'Ulysses' Under Fire in Centenary Year.
Joyce was a great writer, but this book, for me, was the most ridiculously overwritten thing I've ever forced myself to read in my life. A huge swath of it is incomprehensible nonsense. I always thought Joyce had written it just to see how outrageously he could blast apart the literary conventions. I usually inhale books. This monster took me three weeks to get through, and at the end I had no idea what the hell it was supposed to have imparted. At least Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow," another monster of a book which baffled me many times when that was in front of my eyes, left me with some satisfaction upon completion. Ulysses just left me stumped.

ASSKICKING COLIN
I watched this too, and was praying the idiot would keep pressing and Powell would lose it and go all NYC Nuts on his preening opponent. I mean, really, Ackerman is a long-time asshat on my radar, so I ignored him. Wexler I wrote off as an embittered reaction to the 2000 election, but Brown was new to me, so I was hoping to see Colin kick the donkey's ass.
UPDATE

Suffragette 'Angels' too MTV for the era
I saw a commercial for this tele-flick last night and watched a clip where one of the leads, I think it was Swank, was addressing a crowd. Someone in the crowd calls out "Screw Congress!"
"If you think it will help," the suffragette responds, "Be my guest!"
My wife looked over at me and said, "Did you hear that?"
Me, grinning, "Yup. 1918 chicks were hot!"
"Yeah, well screw that movie."

DINKINS' BOY SCHMUCKS IT UP
Ray, you blew it. Just admit it. Don't go trying to spin it.
You've lost the respect of about two-thirds of the force. Resign and go back to Haiti. I mean, you did such a bang-up job down their teaching them your brand of law and order.

HITCHINS THE IDIOT
Somebody needs to explain to me why this mook is considered astute. I've been reading his copy for some time now, and some of what I read was good, but, for me, a lot of it was like this crap, nothing but smarmy Monday morning quarterbacking, pontificating from on high about the foibles of people with cajones twice the size of anything he's ever carried.

Case in point:
It's always interesting when people don't seem to feel shame or embarrassment--and it's often not a very good sign-- so when Mr. Dean went on about his black roommates in college he was as toe-curlingly awful as when he condescended to those who display the Confederate flag. To be crass about both groups in a matter of weeks is quite something.
Excuse me, you Brit Twit: The doofus statement about his black roommates was something weasels like you baited him into blurting out. Yes, it was stupid, but when you are forced into a corner by a pack of media wolves asking you to show why black people should give a damn about you what do you expect? And as far as the Confederate flag "gaffe" Dean committed, what the hell was wrong with the basic truth of the statement? All he said was he wanted to get the votes of anybody he could. He wasn't willing to write off anyone just because they had been decreed contemptible by some crass, pandering morons like yourself.

I'm the Bronx-born son of Irish immigrants. One of my favorite all-time songs is "Sweet Home Alabama." Wanna know why? Because hearing Van Zant tell Neil Young to shove it up his ass and take his shit back to Canada resonated.

"...narcissist and vain windbag...."
Stop looking in the mirror, you blowhard drunk.

I NEED A RULING
As a dues paying member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, I need to know the answer to the following two questions:
1: Is this egomaniacal asshat a member?
2: If the answer to 1 is "yes," what are the rules vis-a-vis fratercide? No one issued me a rule book.

Speaking of Intelligence ...
If the Kerry camp doesn't kill this meme dead, soon, he is gonna get so freakin' hammered that he is gonna wish for Dukakis' numbers.

QUEER EYE FOR THE MAGI
Oh, Jesus! Save me from what Adam's rib has wrought! For now I see, thanks to your shining worth, that most of the people in charge around here shoulda been smote at birth.

Who Bloody Cares?
The dude is dead! What is the point of tearing the man down when he's in the ground? What am I supposed to do...eat a bag of bread?

SAY IT AIN'T SO!
Clark Quits Race
Boo. Now all we have is Kucinich for entertainment value until Nader throws his ass in the ring.
(Sharpton doesn't count...I'm from NYC; his act got tired years ago.)

Kim du Toit - Weekly Rant
Here's a scary one for you to mull over.

DUKE SUCKS OFF THE COURT, TOO!
The Chronicle Online - DCU sparks varied reactions
money: "We try to hire the best, smartest people available," Brandon said of his philosophy hires. "If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire.

"Mill's analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia. Players in the NBA tend to be taller than average. There is a good reason for this. Members of academia tend to be a bit smarter than average. There is a good reason for this too."

Instapundit.com: No Puppy's were blended in the making of this missive
the weirdest thing a politician could possibly say:
...the party brand.
Whaa?

TOO FUNNY x5
He's got my vote for job creation.
Somebody just teach the asshat some common sense now and maybe my dog will stand still so he can throw a net over the beast.

THE 'ENLIGHTENED' FOLKS
So the Surrender Monkeys have something to teach us about social comport? No displays of religious piety, but this gets the stamp of approval.
WooHoo!

A man and his medals
I am starting to wear out the enamel on my teeth the more this meme keeps running. It is so irrelevent, so ridiculous, so...(insert Dean Moonbat Howl here).

Look, Dubya might have scooted his butt into the National Guard looking to avoid serving in Vietnam. SO WHAT? Kerry enlisted and served, earning three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. SO WHAT?

Everyone who thinks those medals give Kerry some sort of superiority ought to go take a look at this stuff before they decide whether or not it's such a big deal, and whether or not it's something Kerry's camp really wants to throw on the table.

The guy running the site isn't someone who can just be blown off as a Republican echo chamber resident. He does, however, seem to be a person who is truly pissed at Kerry's use of his time in Vietnam to provide himself some sort of gravitas compared to Bush. The pictures he has of Kerry before he was in-country are pretty amazing; the way Kerry seemed to immediately implement an anti-war career upon his return shows a clearly defined political agenda that remains in place to this day: he loathes the military and he'll say anything to get ahead.

And about those medals: First, he was supposed to have thrown them away. Now, he wears them as a badge of honor. Which is it, you Fake-Mick-Boston-Brahmin-Ritch-Bitch-Gigolo MonkeyBoy?

STEYN
The guy just rocks. I enjoy reading the folks who aren't Americans but are acutely aware of the importance the coming election has for the rest of the world. In this short piece on Kerry he hits on one of the topics I like to bring up when confronted by the "Anyone But Bush" crowd.

India Fires Back at U.S. in the Outsourcing War
Yadda, yadda, yadda. One of the leftover problems of the Internet Bubble Blowup is that too many IT workers in the US still believe the asinine salaries they were receiving back then should be considered "market" rates. They weren't then; they aren't now. Unless you are an elite-level programmer, engineer, whatever, nobody States-side is gonna pay those salaries anytime soon when they can get the same level of performance somewhere else.

One thing that ticks me off to no end in this outsourcing debate is that India is always held up as the example. You don't hear too much about the jobs that are going here. How much you wanna bet the Ould Sodders are outsourcing to India themselves?

BEHOLD THE POWER OF STEVE
Two losers trying to get back into the game before they are blown away by the Mighty Reality Distortion Field Generator. This announcement is dumb on a couple of levels. First, Macs already own a considerable hunk of the video delivery market. Go to Apple's QuickTime site; Gatesville doesn't have anything as good. Second, any time you see a 'behind the scenes' type show about a movie, invariably the production people are sitting in front of Macs when they explain how they do their jobs. More and more they use Apple's Final Cut Pro on Macintosh decks instead of the high-end (and high priced) Silicon Graphics-type machines.

A pumped up Powerbook and Final Cut (or one of its junior iterations), combined with a good video camera, and anyone can film, edit, design and burn a DVD flick without too much difficulty, and put it online as a live stream or a download in a variety of formats. Steve has already won this war. I have Macs and Wintel boxes. The Macs absolutely blow away the Wintels when it comes to anything to do with images.

Eisner should just resign already. Steve kicked his ass

Asshat Alert
If this is true, then Kerry better clean house right now, because with morons like whoever sent this working for him, the Republicans can pretty much stand aside and just let the media rip his ass to shreds.

ILLUSIONS VS. REALITY
An interesting observation on what's going to be another problem the US will be facing in the not too distant future. A lot of the anti-Castro exile crowd in Florida are delusional. As cited here, just because El Jefe goes into the ground doesn't mean the machine he created disappears. The funniest thing about all the pro-Castro crap I've heard over the years was how his defenders ignored the basic screw job Castro pulled on the revolution by becoming a willing serf to his Soviet overlords. Pretty much everything he tried failed miserably, but the overlords provided him with the means to retain power because of Cold War ideology. They never gave a damn about Cuba other than its strategic value. When the Soviet collapsed, Cuba was on its own and we know how that's playing out.

But if the exile crowd thinks everything will turn on a dime once he's gonecthey're dumber than rocks.

Victor Davis Hanson
what he said.

U.S. soccer team hears Osama chants in Mexico
go pick your own scraggly crops, dickheads. And tell Bullshitamente Fox to fark off.

Spinsanity - Countering rhetoric with reason
You farkheads who call this all "right wing spin" will have a hard time arguing with these blokes.

Boobs!
too funny by half.

The Spoons Experience: RARE SANITY IN COOK COUNTY
(via MISHA)

Ultra Tom
Go immediately to MAD COW. (via THE ARI FILES)

POST OF THE DAY
Wired News: Create a Hoax, Earn Damnation
the reality distortion field in full, flaming effect.

Yahoo! News - Witness in Stewart Case Feared Losing Job
The more I hear the testimony, the more I think Martha should walk. A stop order is almost automatic when you take a market position. It's the trader's insurance in the pit. The feds are just headhunting here. Fine her ass a bunch of bucks and be done with it.

TRUMPET FANFARE!
steyn
more and more I'm liking this guy.

THIS ROCKS
Josh Cohen: Boobs and Nipples

I'M NOT BITTER
"Again, I was rudely ignored, but I didn’t take it personally."
no. not much.
NYPress - Zen Bastard - Paul Krassner - Vol. 17, Iss. 4

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...
New York Post Online Edition: commentary

Matt Towery: Super antics
Dude! No picture when you're going all Puritan!
It was a boobie. Get over it.

Y'know, I watched the balloon go up and didn't even notice. I guess I'm inured. But reactions like The Caligula Broadcasting System does the sleaze bowl and the like are gonna come raining down.

It was a boobie. Get over it.

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | The threat to the media is real. It comes from within
MHWAAHAAA!

THE DEAL" The Politburo

How does MoDo keep her slot when she churns out dreck like this.