Christmas for the iPod

I've been hunting iTunes for new Christmas muzak, and for some reason it's refusing to download the Trans-Siberian Orhestra's "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)"- grrr. Anyway, now I'm offering you an opportunity to pimp your favorite Christmas tune. You may soon be able to brag that I downloaded a tune at YOUR recommendation!

Just think of it as an early Christmas present from me to you.

Now, who's going to be the first to have me insult your choice of holiday music?

Wanna know what a dork I am?

Last night, I was at a very small gathering hosted by an old friend. By "gathering" I mean a sales speal for Arbonne. And, by "old", I mean someone who I haven't seen in 10 years. So, I was catching up with my friend, when a man walks up and gives her a "hello" kiss. He looked so familiar, and I was wracking my brain trying to figure out why. Church? Old acquaintance?

Then, I realize; it's Paul W. Smith. The man subbing for Rush Limbaugh today. Did I even say "hello" to the man?

What do you think.

If You Want Me ...

I'll be outside painting.

Things I Learned This Weekend, Even Though I Didn't Go To My 20th High School Reunion

That the man who has been stalking Sandra Bullock was a member of my graduating class.

Kinda sad actually. I remember him as a rather happy-go-lucky kinda guy.

Who Wants to Hear?

A retelling of my firstborn's birth story; and event that occurred 12 years ago today?

Of course, the highlight of the tale was when my water broke in the kitchen (all over the floor) and my dog, Moe, cleaned it up while I tried to figure out what to do.

Once you've heard that part, you've really know the meat of the story.

Those Mean Conservatives

New book coming out by Syracuse University professor, Arthur C. Brooks. The "money" quotes, so to speak:

The book's basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.

Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone's tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don't provide them with enough money/

I found the next quote interesting as well:

>Still, he says it forcefully, pointing out that liberals give less than conservatives in every way imaginable, including volunteer hours and donated blood.

Orson Scott Card, on the election

This election proves only that the monolithically leftwing mainstream media can make the public believe we are losing a war that we are winning. As long as we're getting a two-party Congress, how about getting a two-party press?

If they're really serious about becoming the majority party, what rich Republicans need to do is stop paying for thousand-dollar-a-plate fundraising dinners and start buying up newspapers and networks. The Democrats already own almost all of them, and we have seen in this election how a prosperous economy can be concealed and a successful war can be turned into a "disaster" when you own the public's primary sources of information.

My hope is that the Democratic Party does not really mean the stupid, self-destructive things it has been advocating for our policy in Iraq and that they don't cut our soldiers off at the knees by underfunding the continuation of the War on Terror – including the campaign in Iraq.

Orson Scott Card, author of the masterwork, "Ender's Game." Democrat

H/T: hotair

Imagine

Imagine for a moment that you are in your home, asleep in bed, and you hear a sound. Someone is breaking into your house. He's inside, downstairs, rummaging through your things. So, you do what most people in our country would do; you call the police. An intruder in your house; certainly that ranks up there on the 911 hierarchy. Everything will be fine, the police will be here in minutes.

And you wait.


And you wait.


And you wait.


The police don't show up for hours.


That is what it is like in Detroit.


Your only option is to get a gun.

Tsotsi

This Netflix rental sat atop of my television for almost two months before I finally watched it. But, I'm glad I finally did watch it. Tsotsi is a very compelling movie, that is not so much about race, or Africa, but redemption.

Also, utterly fascinating about the movie, is the dialogue. Apparently in the theater release, they used voice-overs. What a mistake. I had to go searching for exactly WHAT language they were speaking (the "F" word is very clearly understandable, as are some complete phrases)l, and I found this:

Tsotsi is mostly spoken in a South African street patois. It's fascinating to listen to, as you can recognise a lot of English words, there's a bit of French in there too, and, presumably, Dutch. It's not an especially pretty language on the ear, but deal with it.

So, get the movie, and don't let sit there for a few months. Or, am I the only who does that?

8

That magic number, is the number of cavities my son has. They lie between each of his 8 molars. If you will remember, he had his front FOUR teeth crowned earlier this year.

Now, the dentist has given me a florid treatment-rinse to be used every night. Why didn't she give it to me when she saw that he had a "problem" with this stuff?

ARRGGG. 8 cavities. My husband is going to plotz.

RTO, from comments.

I hate to have this buried from a few days back (or yesterday), in regards to "mistakes" that have been made in Iraq :

No. A new direction can also mean that people making decisions haven't got either the requisite patience or the requisite understanding to grasp the situation and something has to be done to keep the busybodies and the uninformed from revolting.

I'm happy to entertain any actual examples of "mistake" however, but I have an idea this is one of those questions that just never gets answered.

Let me start the ball rolling, RTO. Our first mistake was that in an effort to win the hearts and minds of Iraq, we pussyfooted around, trying to minimize civilian casualties. Soldiers were asked to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.

We weren't ruthless enough. We obviously didn't kill enough of them.

Continuing My Little Game

Understanding the enemy:

Hudna is the Islamic term for a temporary peace.  It is a ruse that fools the enemy into believing that there is a genuine cease-fire in place rather than a temporary suspension of hostilities.  As the duped party lets their guard down, Muslims build up the military capability to destroy them (and do). 

The hudna was first practiced by Muhammad against the Quraish tribe, which paid for its gullibility with utter defeat (the enslavement of women and children, who watched as their husbands and fathers were taken prisoner and beheaded).  It has been integral to Islam’s military success down through the centuries.  The deception works because peace is the preference of human nature.  People tire of war and want to believe that Muslims tire of it as well, not realizing that there is an Islamic mandate to conquer and rule over all others. 

An excellent example of the modern hudna is what Hezbollah, Syria and Iran are currently doing to Israel.  After being attacked by the terrorist group in July, Israel pursued Hezbollah into Lebanon, pounding their infrastructure and exhausting ( by gritty absorption) the supply of missiles that were being fired into Israeli cities.  A peace deal was then imposed by the international community, by which Israel was obliged to return to its borders, Iran and Syria were to stop supplying Hezbollah with weapons, Hezbollah was to return its Israeli hostages and disarm, and the UN and Lebanon were to enforce all of this. 
The only party that honored the agreement was Israel… and they have gotten absolutely nothing for it.  Hezbollah is now fully rearmed (thanks to Iran and Syria) and the hostages remain in captivity – all this while the Lebanese and the UN have stood idly by.  After getting the peace agreement that it wanted, the international community did not do a single thing to earn Israel’s confidence. 
The hudna is not a game.  Lebanese and Israeli citizens will die in the near future when Hezbollah provokes another war, because the international community allowed the hudna.  But the next time around, there will be no excuse for Israel’s leaders to heed anything but the interests of its own people by doing whatever it takes to crush the threat once and for all.

You cannot take peace agreements at face value with Muslims.

Where Am I Going With this?

There were 16,885 alcohol related fatalities in 2005 *.

There were 43,443 traffic related fatalities in 2005 (1,129 in my state alone.)*

There were 31,384 deaths by suicide in 2003.*

19,475 died in 2003 of unintentional poisoning (same source as above.)

How Dare Anyone Suggest the Left Hates the Military

I seem to remember a kerfuffle a few weeks back about Kerry suggesting the military was the future of those who lack academic skills.

Outrage and rightous indignation followed, when Kerry and liberals explain he had simply flubbed a joke, and he had only meant to insult Mr. Bush. How DARE we not believe them?

And then there was last night's Simpsons episode. On the day AFTER Veteran's Day.

To steal the joke of one of Hot Air's commenters, it's time we saw a timetable for withdrawal of that show from Fox's lineup. You know, that Rightwing network that brings us Fox News?

Happy Birthday!

It's George's Birthday today! Let's all wish her a happy one.

In lieu of a gift, I offer you this. In case you missed it, Ace had a fantabulous post-election contest last week.

Remember, it's a brave New Age!

Offered without comment

The news [of the Muslim Ellison's election] garnered a rich variety of comments from Arab readers on the Web site of Al Arabiya, a satellite news channel based in Dubai. “God willing in the next election, half of Congress will be from the rational Muslims,” wrote one reader, while another said, “May God make this the beginning of victory for Muslims on the very ground of the despots.”

What's Up With William Jefferson?

Somewhere else, I asked the question regarding liberals and scandals on their side of the isle; do they not know about the scandals, or do they simply not care? These days, it seems that at the first whiff of Republican impropriety, he (or she) is resigning. Tom Delay - who is most likely innocent, resigned. Mark Foley, whose guilt might not be as it was made out in the media, resigned as well. But, what about old William Jefferson?

- Hoping to salvage his political future amid allegations that he hid bribe money in his freezer, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson was forced into a runoff in Tuesday's election and will likely face a fellow Democrat on Dec. 9.

With 90 percent of precincts reporting in the 2nd Congressional District, Jefferson was leading with 29 percent. State Rep. Karen Carter, D-New Orleans, was close behind with 22 percent. Carter's closest rival, state Sen. Derrick Shepherd, D-New Orleans, had 19 percent.

"I can look you in the eye and tell you that I am innocent of any allegation, any unproven allegations, and that's all they are unproven allegations," Jefferson told supporters at his election night rally as it became clear he would face a runoff.

Not only did he not resign, but it appears he still appears to be in good (enough) favor with the voters. But, really, what do they have to be unhappy about?

The FBI says it has video footage of Rep. Bill Jefferson (D-LA) accepting $100,000 from a FBI informant. Jefferson, who has not been charged with anything, insists that he has committed no crime.

The FBI says it taped Rep. Jefferson putting a suitcase containing the bribe money into the trunk of his car. A search of Jefferson's Washington, D.C., residence revealed that Jefferson hid the money in his freezer, officials say. The agency also conducted a weekend raid of Jefferson's Capitol Hill office

But, Jefferson says he's innocent. Really, what do they have on him? A video tape? What's a little video tape compared to a man's word that he is innocent? But then there is this:

A Louisville man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to bribing Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) with more than $400,000 in payments, company stock and a share of the profits to promote the Kentucky firm's high-tech business ventures in Africa.

Oops. Well, that's just one guy. What's one man's word against another? But then there is this:

A former aide to Rep. William Jefferson pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal bribery charges and said a former employer demanded kickbacks and other bribes from an American company that wanted a multimillion-dollar deal with the Nigerian government.
Brett M. Pfeffer, 37, told federal prosecutors that "Representative A," whom he worked for from 1995-1998, insisted his wife should perform all the legal work for a $45 million deal that involved the sale of a Kentucky company’s technology to Nigeria. Pfeffer worked as an aid to Jefferson, D-New Orleans, from 1995-1998.

I’ll give one guess to who is "Representative A."

IGate Corp, the Kentucky company, worked to provide broadband services to Nigerians. I suppose we have THEM to thank for all that scam-spam. The deals were negotiated several years after Pfeffer left Jefferson to work for an investment company that represented iGate. The plot thickens:

Pfeffer also said that "Representative A" told a member of the investment firm that he wanted a member of his family put on the payroll, receiving between $2,500 and $5,000 a month. "Representative A" also told the member of the investment firm, who became a cooperating witness and is identified in court papers as "CW," that he wanted 5% to 7% of the newly formed Nigerian company to be given to his family, according to documents.

In exchange, "Representative A" agreed to help win government approval of the Nigerian deal.

So, I return to my question. Do those who vote for men such as Jefferson (I'm looking at YOU, Democrats) unaware of the scandal, or do they simply not care?

Today's Profile: Alcee Hastings

Alcee Hastings is poised to become the chairman of the House Intelligence Comittee. The Black Caucus is going to really pressure Pelosi to come through for them on this issue. But who is this Alcee Hasting? Well, he is a Representative from Florida, a Democrat, first elected in 1993. Before that, though he was a lawyer and judge of the circuit court. What might have motivated him to go into politics? Why did he leave his law career for politics? To search for answers wee turn to Wikipedia:

In 1989, Hastings was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for bribery and perjury. The Democratic-controlled Senate convicted Judge Hastings of accepting a $150,000 bribe in 1981 in exchange for a lenient sentence and of perjury in his testimony about the case. He became only the sixth Judge in the history of impeachment in the United States to be removed from office by the United States Senate.



His impeachment was remanded back to the Senate by Judge Stanley Sporkin after Hastings filed suit claiming that his impeachment trial was invalid because he was tried by a Senate committee, not in front of the full Senate, and that he had been acquitted in a criminal trial. But the Supreme Court ruled in a similar case, regarding Judge Walter Nixon, who had also been impeached and removed, that the courts had no jurisdiction to review Senate impeachment procedures. A lower court found crucial distinctions between the two cases, since Nixon had been convicted in a criminal trial, and a certified record of his conviction was available to submit to the full Senate as probative evidence of his conduct. Hastings, on the other hand, had been found not guilty in a criminal trial, so Sporkin ruled he had a right to trial by the full Senate and not just by a committee. Sporkin stayed his ruling pending Supreme Court review. The jurisdictional issue prevailed on appeal, and Hastings' impeachment and removal were reinstated.

Interesting! Well, that's it for another installment of my new series "Profiles of Your New Majority Party!"

See ya next time.

Reading up on this Nancy Pelosi/Update

Doing a bit of research this morning. *.

Consider the case of Nancy Pelosi, the ultimate San Francisco big-government liberal, and leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives. She is the daughter of Big Tommy D'Alesandro, boss of the Baltimore Democrat political machine. She grew up in a household built around the use of political power for personal gain, under the banner of compassion. In her career in Congress, she has garnered the highest praise from the AFL-CIO, the Americans for Democratic Action, and the League of Conservation Voters. She is grotesquely pro-union and pro-regulation, and a fierce "environmentalist," of course. Her favorite pastime is attacking people on her political right — which is everyone to the right of, say, Mao Zedong — as enemies of clean air, clean water, the working man, or whatever. To her, we're all greedy, vile exploiters of the poor.
Nancy Pelosi is worth more than $50 million — not bad for a champion of the poor.
Actually, to be fair, her favorite pastime is enacting laws to increase the power of unions, trial lawyers, and the federal government. But Pelosi's private life is all capitalist. She and her husband have a net worth of over $50 million — not bad for champions of the poor. Much of their wealth comes from real estate ventures, such as the development of the Corde Valle Golf Club and Resort in Silicon Valley. Schweizer documents how the Pelosis' private partnership (Lions Gate Limited) managed to get approval to develop some raw land over the objections of environmentalists and other local groups, by contractually promising that the club would be primarily a public course and that the development would be ecologically friendly. But the developers stiffed the public. The golf course turned out to be primarily for the use of the ultrawealthy: the hoi polloi have to reserve three days in advance and pay $275 for a round of golf. A membership at the club costs $250,000! And Lions Gate failed to live up to the promised environmental guarantees. When the San Jose Planning Commission started thinking about looking into whether Lions Gate had made fraudulent representations to get the development approvals, the Pelosis simply hired some local, well-connected lobbyists, and the Planning Commission backed away like frightened kittens.

She sounds like just a peach. Yes, just the person we want in charge of the House.

I just watched her victory speech over at Hot Air. And I took some notes:

First she mentioned that the Democrats are going to bring change and a New Direction to government. WHEW. I thought they had no plan. Change and a New Direction. That is exciting.

Next she promises that the Democrats are going to work toward bipartisanship. They are going to work together and restore integrity and honesty to Washington. Here is the biggie: the Democrats are going to lead the most honest, open and ethical Congress in HISTORY.

To continue, she will lead toward a "fairer economy." What does that mean? Pelosi is one of the wealthiest in our country; is she going to start passing out money? That would be fairer. To me. Then she starts going on about how all will participate in the prosperity of the economy. How is that going to work? I seem to remember Marx had the same idea. Lemme guess; higher taxes, raising the minimum wage, and anything that panders to those who don't pay any taxes at all (an ever increasing number in our country.) Really, it's a numbers game and the Dem have figured this out. Keep pandering to those who don't pay taxes, who will FLOCK to your promises. I don't know what they are going to do when they get to the end game; when those who pay taxes are so outnumbered by those who don't that our entire economy grinds to a halt by the democratic process of pandering.

Moving right along, she gets to the part of the speech where she lays out the Democrat plan for Iraq. Let me summarize it for you:
Stay the course is wrong
We need a new direction
Let's find a new solution

The only thing missing in this plan, is the actual plan. Oh well, I'm sure they'll come up with something soon!

Congratulations America!

Didya hear?

I totally knew Kevin and Brittany weren't going to make it.

Made-up My Mind About the Dovvvves

Hmm hmm tasty.

What I'm Reading

Robert Spencer's newest book The Truth About Muhammad.

It's interesting. I'm thinking about trying to reestablish the order of theKnights Templar.

Crib My Cheat Sheet

Dick DeVos (of course)
Terri Lynn Land (Sec of STate)
Mike Cox (Attorney General)
Mike Bouchard (U.S. Senate)

State Proposals:

1- State park, hunting, fishing and conservation fees protected from being raided to fund other things. YES
2-Ban affirmative action. YES.
3- Mourning Dove ban. No recommendation
4-Stop government from taking private property and giving it to another private property under eminent domain. YES
5. Require annual increased state funding to rate of inflation for public schools and colleges; reduce and cap retirement contributions by schools and colleges and shift remainder to the state (that second part is the DOOZY.) HELLS NO.

So , that last part would be simply, Yes, Yes, no opinion, Yes, and NO.

Now, in other civic duty news, it's time for me to give blood again. Gotta get a run in BEFORE I donate. Busy busy.

Revisiting that Bus Ad

"Not Voting Is A Vote for DeVos"

I'd like to deconstruct the meaning behind that. Does it mean that those too lazy to vote are more often Democrats? Detroit Democrats? Dare I say blackDemocrats?

You Get What You Give

A quick note to all those parents who took their kids out begging last night (perhaps even to other/better neighborhoods) without decorating their own homes, or giving out any candy:

YOU TOTALLY SUCK.

People don't have to participate in Halloween. No one is forcing you to go that extra mile and add joy to our sometimes dreary little word. Wet blankets don't piss me off. Perhaps, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and guess you oppose Halloween for religious reasons. Or, you know, perhaps you're a dentist or dietitian.

But, those of you out there who figure it's everyone else's obligation to create a holiday for your children;

YOU TOTALLY SUCK.

It's like Halloween welfare or something. The entitlement mentality.

You're lucky, though, that I'm good enough to hoist all the blame on YOUR shoulders. Your little demon spawn* are blameless.



And, FTR- My husband and I switch off as to who takes the kids around, and who deals with the beggars at the door.

*Hey, it was Halloween. I'm sure some were dressed as demon spawn.

Report from Detroit

Last night, we had the nicest, most polite trick or treaters EVER.

In DETROIT.