Clumsy bankrobber gets the cash

Here's an odd one from my neck of the woods. It wasn't me. If I was going to rob a bank it would be with a Jimmy Carter mask.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

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GRANTVILLE – A bumbling gunman wearing a Ronald Reagan mask and a cape held up a Bank of America at Mission Gorge and Friars roads yesterday morning.

The robber walked into the bank branch just after 10 a.m. with the mask covering his face, San Diego police said.

However, he had some sort of “difficulty” with his cape and dropped his gun. He then picked it up and robbed one of the tellers, police said.

He ran out of the bank and got into a stolen, dark-colored Chevrolet Suburban, which police said crashed into two trucks as the robber made his getaway.

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Rome on HBO

I recently finished the first season of Rome. In a word, spectacular.

Katie Couric loses weight via Photoshop

CBS released a publicity photo of Katie Couric that had been doctored to make her appear slimmer. CBS has now admitted the fauxtography, blaming it on an employee in its publicity department. Washington Post story here.

Forced extinctions to make Earth better

"What else would living be if lions and bears held sway, if serpents and all the creatures that are most destructive were given supremacy over us? These, devoid of reason and doomed to death by us on the plea of their ferocity."

--Seneca, 3 B.C. - A.D. 65, Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman

Wouldn't it be nice to go out into nature, camping or kayaking or hiking, and not have to worry about being stung, poisoned, or eaten alive? Well, maybe it's not too good to be true. Here's my list of animals, actually non-human things, that should be made extinct.

Bees, wasps, and any other insect that stings or bites. I can't tell you how many times a yellowish, buzzing whore has stung me. Enough!

Spiders should be wiped off the face of the earth. Arabs should be calling for this much louder than the eradication of Israel. From those huge suckers in Australia to the tiny, man-killers in South America, each and every eight-legged killer should be put to death.

Roses and any other vegetation with thorns that tear human skin to shreds. Also, all poisonous plants should be forced onto the endangered lists and eventually eradicated altogether.

All reptiles. It may be amusing to watch them slither around in a cage, but their existence is completely unnecessary. Do Floridians really like watering the grass in the back yard, and getting eaten by an alligator? No, didn't think so.

Sharks. Period. Any creature that comes out of nowhere, unseen, and eats humans while swimming or surfing should be completely eradicated.

Polar bears. This is a toughy for me because I really like predators, especially mammalian. But polar bears are the only animals that include humans on its menu. They stalk, hunt, and eat us. This contrasts with sharks, which occasionally eat humans, but it's usually a mistake.

Crows, Canadian Geese, and most other birds. Bird watchers and hard-core "birders" can find another wimpy hobby, like making decorative crap to sell at flea markets. Flying rats make too much noise, poop everywhere, and therefore should be snuffed.

Porcupines and any other animal with stabbing, hurtful quills. It's pretty obvious that these little bastards must perish.

Octopi, because they look sinister. Marine biologists and aquarium hounds tout the intelligence and gentleness of these beasts of the deep, but just sit down and take a long look at one of these slimey devils. Bye-bye.

All species of jellyfish. WTF?

Hippos. One website had this to say:

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In cartoons, hippos are invariably brightly colored, cheerful, and fun. In reality, hippos are mean and aggressive, killing more people in Africa than any other animal. They are the third-largest land animal in the world, behind the elephant and the rhinoceros, weighing up to 9,000 pounds. Even pygmy hippos weigh 350 to 600 pounds. Hippos spend most of their days in rivers and lakes, where they feed on aquatic plants. At night they feed on land.

Highly territorial, hippos have been known to capsize a boat and bite off the head of the hapless sailor. This is easy since their tusks can reach 28 inches long and their mouths can open four feet wide. It is also extremely unwise to get between a hippo and her young, either in the water or on land, where they can run up to up 20 miles per hour.

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That condemns all of them. Rhinos can go, too. Good riddance to these big, unmanageable bastards.

Stingrays, because they're vicious creatures who haven't earned the right to exist. In 2006 Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, was murdered by a stingray. Then an 81-year-old man in Florida was seriously injured after a stingray jumped into his boat and stabbed him. It's curtains for these barbaric creatures.

Monkeys. More specifically, chimps. These creatures are supposed to be extremely smart. Smarter than, say, a cat or dog. So why do they have to wear diapers? One of the smartest animals in the world can't be trained to crap outside or in a litter box? Cats and dogs don't foul up a house with uncontrollable crapping. The whole chimps-are-smart thing is a con. Any stupid creature masquerading as smart can die.

Katrina idiocy

Overlawyered has this gem:

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Giving property rights a bad name? "A Broadmoor man who said he rescued more than 200 residents after commandeering a boat during the flood after Hurricane Katrina is being sued by the boat's owner for taking it 'without receiving permission.'" Mark Morice cut the unattended boat loose and managed to hot-wire it, then used it to rescue an elderly dialysis patient and many others; he then left the vessel for other rescuers' use. "The lawsuit contends that boat owner John M. Lyons Jr. suffered his own distress, in the form of 'grief, mental anguish, embarrassment and suffering ... due to the removal of the boat,' as well as its replacement costs."

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Agassi moves forward, Annan back

Five items to numb your senses...

5. The Perky One will interview Bush on her first evening at CBS News. Couric will likely change her hair nine times between now and then, and apply at least four pounds of eye liner for the perky event. MediaBistro via Drudge.

4. Sudden Jihad Syndrome (SJS) in San Francisco? A man named Omeed Aziz Popal ran down 14 people. I haven't heard if Popal is Muslim or not, but the whole story sounds like several other SJS incidents around the nation in the last two years.

SJS occurs when an otherwise "moderate" Muslim gives in to the hatred heard at the local mosque, running down people in a Jeep, or shooting them with a handgun -- all in the name of Allah, no less. San Francisco Testicle.

3. Coffee Cup Annan, an undeniable terrorist sympathizer, offers an olive branch to Lebanon's armed terrorist organization, Hezbollah. For this he is booed and heckled, forcing him to retreat with his armed bodyguards. Perhaps one day reality will dawn on the corrupt UN Secretary General. News.com.au.

2. Cops nabbed Warren Jeffs today. He's the Mormon polygamist who, almost beyond belief, made it onto the FBI's Most Wanted list. Typically we have folks like Osama bin Laden, bank robbers, and serial rapists on the FBI list. Nobody has satisfactorily explained the significance of a cultish polygamist. BBC.

1. Andre Agassi advances in his final tennis tournament. The 36-year-old great is not expected to win the US Open against the likes of Federer and Nadal, but it will be a momentus exodus for a genuine superstar. Thursday Agassi plays Marcos Baghdadis. Sydney Morning Herald.

Also, the first challenge in Open tennis history was made. Details at usopen.org.

Liberal ideals?

Russell Shaw at The Huffington Post has written something that has given me the jitters. These are the Democrats? He tries to distance himself from his own writing (bold and italics are his), but fails. Are these the kinds of things in the minds of Democrats? Do you laugh or vomit? If you're the voting type, consider voting against any Democrat this November.

I put the whole story below because it will undoubtedly be pulled down from its original place in disgrace.

Huffington Post via Atlas Shrugs:

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I hope and pray we don't get hit again, like we did on September 11. Even one life lost to the violence of terrorism is too much.

If I somehow knew an attack was coming, I wouldn't pause for a second to report it in order to prevent it from occuring.

But on the other hand, I remind myself that without the ultimate sacrifice paid by 400,000 U.S. soldiers in World War II, tyranny could well have an iron grip on the world, and even on this nation.

If the Nazis had prevailed, tens, if not hundreds of millions more would have been killed.

That realization has led my brain to launch a political calculus 180 degrees removed from my pacifist-inclined leanings. An entirely hypothetical yet realpolitik calculus that is ugly, and cold-hearted but must be posited:

This is a type of calculus that Pentagon war games planners and political consultants do all the time- a combination of what-if actions and consequences that are unpleasant to consider but are in the realm of plausibility.

What if another terror attack just before this fall's elections could save many thousand-times the lives lost?

I start from the premise that there is already a substantial portion of the electorate that tends to vote GOP because they feel that Bush has "kept us safe," and that the Republicans do a better job combating terrorism.

If an attack occurred just before the elections, I have to think that at least a few of the voters who persist in this "Bush has kept us safe" thinking would realize the fallacy they have been under.

If 5% of the "he's kept us safe" revise their thinking enough to vote Democrat, well, then, the Dems could recapture the House and the Senate and be in a position to:

Block the next Supreme Court appointment, one which would surely result in the overturning of Roe and the death of hundreds if not thousands of women from abortion-prohibiting states at the hands of back-alley abortionists;

Be in a position to elevate the party's chances for a regime change in 2008. A regime change that would:

Save hundreds of thousands of American lives by enacting universal health care;

Save untold numbers of lives by pushing for cleaner air standards that would greatly reduce heart and lung diseases;

More enthusiastically address the need for mass transit, the greater availability of which would surely cut highway deaths;

Enact meaningful gun control legislation that would reduce crime and cut fatalities by thousands a year;

Fund stem cell research that could result in cures saving millions of lives;

Boost the minimum wage, helping to cut down on poverty which helps spawn violent crime and the deaths that spring from those acts;

Be less inclined to launch foolish wars, absence of which would save thousands of soldiers' lives- and quite likely moderate the likelihood of further terror acts.

I am not proud of myself for even considering the notion that another terror attack that costs even one American life could ever be considered anything else but evil and hurtful. And I know that when I weigh the possibility that such an attack- that might, say, kill 100- would prevent hundreds of thousands of Americans from dying who otherwise would- I am exhibiting a calculating cold heart diametrically opposed to everything I stand for as a human being. A human being, who, just so you know, is opposed to most wars and to capital punishment.

But in light of the very real potential of the next two American elections to solidify our growing American persona as a warlike, polluter-friendly nation with repressive domestic tendencies and inadequate health care for so many tens of millions, let me ask you this. Even if only from the standpoint of a purely intellectual exercise in alternative future history:

If you knew us getting hit again would launch a chain of transformative, cascading events that would enable a better nation where millions who would have died will live longer, would such a calculus have any moral validity?

Any at all?


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Remember the "I want to believe" claptrap from The X-Files? Well, I don't want to believe liberals think any of the above is good, except perhaps stem cell funding.

This week's featured America-hater

The worst president in the history of the union can't keep his lobster hole closed. This week the whiney socialist damaged the war on terror, the United States, and the UK in one big outburst.

Jimmy wants America to be weak, like
when he was attempting to lead the nation.

Still on his anti-war soapbox, the aging windbag has ridiculed Tony Blair: "It's a shameful and pitiful state of affairs, and I hold your British prime minister to be substantially responsible for being so compliant and subservient," Carter said.

Full AP story here.

Carter's embarassing remarks come on the heels of a strongly anti-American rant at Der Spiegel:

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There's no doubt that this administration has made a radical and unpressured departure from the basic policies of all previous administrations including those of both Republican and Democratic presidents.

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Carter was an embarassment as president; now he's just a clown.

What the fuck?

Why is this so hard? Why do people who rise to decision-making capacity at a website not understand that links to PDF files need to be noted AS FUCKING LINKS TO PDFs????? Motherfuckers. If I ran an organization with a website and a web guy put on a link to a PDF without a warning, I would fire the worthless son of a bitch, and when the guy's next prospective employer called for a reference, I would say, truthfully, "I fired the guy because he's a worthless son of a bitch."

I can't decide if an unannounced link to a PDF is more like getting zapped by a bee or a mosquito.

Here's an example of a web guy (San Diego Union-Tribune) who understands the basics:


That guy at the San Diego paper makes it look easy! But it must, in reality, be very, very difficult, because some folks, like the worthless son of a bitch at The New Republic, can't grasp the concept. He just can't get his mind around it, no matter how hard he undoubtedly tries:


The link entitled "spotty" goes to a PDF, if you hadn't guessed.

Canadian MP ousted over Hezbollah

Every so often a good story comes from the land of stupid French Canadians. This time it's the ousting of a member of parliament who suggested negotiating with Hezbollah.

Just when the insanely liberal, worldwide press has convinced me the USA (and Australia) is the last haven for sanity, I see glimmerings of hope elsewhere.

AFP:

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Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj proposed during a visit to war-torn Lebanon that Canada should try to negotiate with the militant group to secure a lasting ceasefire between Hezbollah and
Israel.

But Hezbollah is on Ottawa's list of banned terror groups, thus all direct contact is prohibited. Wrzesnewskyj called on Ottawa to soften its anti-terror legislation to facilitate talks.

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Bob Dylan slams modern recording

Luddite and idiot Bob Dylan uses 2nd-grade English to slam newer recording mediums, like CDs.

Reuters:

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"You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

Dylan said he does his best to fight technology, but it's a losing battle.

"Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it."

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Saddam Hussein trial Part Deux

Genocide? War crimes? Crimes against humanity? (Scotsman story here.)

Liberals must be covering their eyes and ears. If preventing a dictator from commiting genocide doesn't justify war, then for liberals there will never be justification.

It goes back to something I have mentioned before: World War II was a boon to dictators. The "never forget" mentality has warped liberals, hippies, and socialists (please excuse the redundancy).

While the rest of us non-libs consider "never forget" to mean that we should be wary of genocidal dictators and show some resolve in standing up to them, and we were too slow to stand up to Hitler in WWII, and it is such sloth that we should "never forget," liberals believe "never forget" means that the death and destruction of WWII was so extreme that one must never fight again, for any reason.

So what if 800,000 Rwandans were hacked apart with machetes? It wasn't on our continent. And so what if Pol Pot killed in excess of one million innocent people? It wasn't in my town. So many lives were lost needlessly, and brutally, in Rwanda, Cambodia, Iraq, and other places, because of this freakish liberal mindset.

All I have to say right now, to liberals, is: I will never forget how dangerous the planet has become because you can't forget.

'Dark matter' proven

BBC headline: Team finds 'proof' of dark matter

France waffling over Lebanese problem

As is so often the case, France is the heart of problems. This time the frogs are waffling on their commitment to UN forces in Lebanon. Also, in the excerpt below from The Independent, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gillerman, has good observations.

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"To expect countries who don't even recognise Israel to guard Israel's safety I think would be a bit naive," said Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN. The Malaysian Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, replied: "We're going to be on Lebanese territory ... We're not going to be on Israeli territory."

Mr Bush raised the pressure on France. "France has said they'd send some troops," he said. "We hope they send more. There's been different signals coming out of France."

UN diplomats said the French military had got cold feet once it emerged that the resolution setting up the ceasefire conditions provided for an expanded UN force, rather than a multinational one, and feared that the proposed rules of engagement would not be robust enough. One French diplomat said "the military has a deep mistrust of the UN, because of Bosnia", where troops were undermined by a weak mandate.

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The Lefty Lexicon

The following definitions are from A Lefty Lexicon, by Inigo Wilson from the UK.

Disproportionate - foreign affairs: Describes any act by USA or Israel.

Diversity - creating a workforce based on how people look rather than on their skills or aptitude

Islamophobic - anyone who objects to having their transport blown up on the way to work.

Marx - a Victorian gentleman whose theories cannot be disproved by observation, experience or factual evidence. See 'religion' and 'post-modernism'.

Multi-cultural - All culture is valid - unless Western in some way. Usually to be 'celebrated' and always found to be 'vibrant'. See 'diversity'.

Social exclusion - where bad people, behaving badly, somehow became our fault.

Victim - see ‘Terrorist’, ‘Palestinians’, ‘gender issues’, ‘race issues’ and ‘social exclusion’.

Mr. Wilson was fired from a British telecommunications company for publishing his lexicon.

Via Iain Dale and LGF.

Lebanese tomfoolery and cool websites

Five items to shrug your atlas...

5. Strong stuff at Atlas Shrugs: "The life manual of Islam, the Quran, is a document of exclusion, hatred and violence that shapes the Muslim's thinking and behaving. This stone-age document is optimally suited for people of stunted development."

4. Lebanese civillians pull dismembered Israeli bodies from bags, step on them, and hold them aloft for the cameras. Video proof is at LGF. Note that MSM, sans Fox, slants coverage to suffering Lebanese civilians, when it is Hezbollah and the brainwashed Lebanese committing heinous acts of barbarism.

3. Several countries have offered troops for the doomed Lebanese operation, in addition to France. They include Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Germany has offered naval support. I'm sure those crack Bangladeshi troops will make all the difference. France is waffling on its earlier committment (that didn't take long). Have you noticed that the French are like the Arabs? They're weak of culture and arms, yet very arrogant. It's a peculiar combination. BBC.

2. Time Magazine has listed the 50 coolest websites. Two surprises: 1) The Shaved Ape didn't make the cut, and 2) they weren't all Che Guevara or anti-American sites. MySpace and YouTube made it. BBC.

1. A new PC/Linux DVR system called MythTV is coming. Gizmodo lists qualifications for buyers as a) You are a huge Linux nerd, b) You have nothing to do at night, c) You love reading lousy documentation and Googling for obscure pages. I just can't wait to get mine. Gizmodo.

Hollywood against terrorism?

Okay, perhaps not all of Hollywood's rich, coke-snorting fiends are liberal terror-sympathizers. Nicole Kidman and many other stars took out a one-page ad in the LA Times today admonishing terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas. I expected to see Willis and Woods, who did sign, but I hadn't realized just how many other sane people were in Hollywood:

Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton, William Hurt, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner, Sam Raimi, Sumner Redstone, and Haim Saban.

Sydney Herald Sun via LGF.

JonBenet Ramsey's murderer(s)

Several additional parties have come forward claiming to have killed JonBenet Ramsey, each with claims as credible as that of John Mark Karr.

"I killed JonBenet."

"No, we killed her."

"It was an accident."

"I did it."

Our murderous minority speaks

Atlas Shrugs, a blog I link to, has been granted an interview by John Bolton. It's a big deal. CAIR's reaction is HILLARIOUS. I printed their response in its entirety, per the fair use doctrine, for the humor value.

From CAIR:

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Just a day after his failing negotiations over Lebanon were rescued by Condi Rice at the U.N., John Bolton granted an interview. It wasn't an interview with the New York Times - as Steve has pointed out here before, Bolton doesn't speak to Warren Hoge at NYT because of ideological differences and perceived media bias.

Apparently, he will grant an exclusive 41-minute interview to someone who calls who believes Islam is a "religious rationale for Arab imperialism."

Bolton granted the interview on Sunday with Pamela of Atlas Shrugs, a nearly-all-issue right-wing blog. During the interview, Pamela called Kofi Annan a "jihadi tool" and said that someone needed to slap Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora. Bolton, for his part, allowed this rhetoric to stand, even sheepishly reaffirming some of it along the way. . .

Pamela's remarks during the interview were inflammatory and outrageous - on par with, say, a Bill O'Reilly. But a quick look around Atlas Shrugs makes the O'Reilly Factor look like Sesame Street.

AS has some pretty crazy policy prescriptions, like an immediate U.S. attack on Iran, but that alone doesn't make Bolton's interview condemnable. The problem is, AS is an anti-Islam hate blog.

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Orangutans and hard drives

Five items for your reading pleasure...

5. Scott Burgess delves into the delicate balancing act Britain's government is doing between protecting the people from terrorist attacks and all-out appeasement of a threatening, murderous, minority population. The Daily Ablution.

4. A group of Mexican fisherman survived after approximately 11 months at sea. They're from Mexico's west coast, and were picked up near Taiwan in their 25-foot boat 9-11 months after getting lost at sea. Reuters via Drudge.

3. Even orangutans can get laid on the web. "Turns out some zookeepers are setting up (an orangutan online dating site) with the hope of seeing if orangutans from different zoos are compatible with each other. The mating ritual will involve allowing the orangutans to give each other some food at the push of a button. Of course, there are still a few logistical problems to work out: they need to come up with 'ape-proof cables and screens,' for example." TechDirt.

2. Hearing someone defend Internet Explorer is almost like seeing a Dodo flying around. ArsTechnica has uncovered such a thing.

1. Hitachi is planning to release the first 1 terabyte drive. What a massive thing that will be.

I recall when a friend got his first 20 megabyte hard drive, many years ago. It was extremely expensive, rare, and freaking awesome. Me and others dropped by just to see it in action.

I happen to own a 500GB drive, which is only 50% of the new Hitachi. It's full of porn -- I mean backups of my DVDs, music and miscellaneous files.

ArsTechnica has details on the new Hitachi.

Barbarians and macacas

Five items to minimize you as a person...

5. Is Britain learning? Muslims are continuing their campaign to blackmail the UK government. The latest is a request for new bank holidays, accompanied by the obvious suggestion that terrorism might abate if they're granted. LGF.

4. More staged photos from Lebanon. This guy even has a megaphone to direct the action. Ray Robison.

3. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., has apologized for calling someone "macaca". Apparently this is a racial slur in Europe, referencing Africans. A spokesperson for Allen's political opponent said, "This is trying to demean him, to minimize him as a person." Spoken like a true liberal. Grow a set, folks. Seattle Times.

2. Two Fox News journalists were kidnapped in Gaza. We need to build a large wall around the Middle East to keep the barbarians hemmed in. Houston Testicle.

1. Is Pluto really a planet? asks ABC News. I can't think of many things I care less about.

Moon landing faked

NASA has lost the original recordings of the first moon landing. The TV broadcast recordings still exist, but the quality is very low compared to the now lost film shot by NASA. Will conspiracy theorists latch on to this as more evidence? Will Democrats blame it on Bush, as they blame every other problem in the world?

Reuters:

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Armstrong's famous space walk, seen by millions of viewers on July 20, 1969, is among transmissions that NASA has failed to turn up in a year of searching, spokesman Grey Hautaloma said.

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From a moon landing site:

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"How can the flag be fluttering?" the 47 year old American kept asking himself when there's no wind on the atmosphere free Moon? That moment was to be the beginning of an incredible Space odyssey for the self- taught engineer from New Jersey.

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Beware self-taught engineers.

Ted Kaczynski auction

Some of The Unabomber's belongings will soon be auctioned. Items up for grabs are mostly mundane, including hand tools and some checks in his name.

SF Testicle:

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Perhaps the most valuable item to be sold, however, is the personal journal of the reclusive Unabomber, some 22,000 pages in which Kaczynski detailed his hatred of just about everything and everybody. It's likely the journal would have been introduced into evidence had Kaczynski gone to trial, but at the last minute, on Jan. 22, 1998, Kaczynski pleaded guilty and the trial was avoided. (In March, 2004, The Chronicle filed a federal Freedom of Information Act request with the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, asking for a copy of Kaczynski's journal, but, to date, the government has not sent The Chronicle any of it, leaving most of Kaczynski's written thoughts still under wraps.)

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Kaczynski stands out as one of the most ingelligent serial killers. Where nearly all other killers are somewhat dull, like Gene or Dahmer, with the occasional interesting one like Ted Bundy, old Ted Kaczynski had intellect. Warped intellect, but intellect nonetheless.

When a Time Magazine interviewer asked him if he was crazy, he said something to the effect of, "If you want to know if I suffer some sort of organic illness, such as schizophrenia, the answer is 'no.'"

People are sheep

Wikipedia stuff has been coming at me from all angles, lately. The latest is an item from TechDirt, which references an Aug. 11 article at News.com.

A student who used Wiki to research a term paper says most students don't realize it's unreliable.

News.com emphasis mine:

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Wikipedia recently made headlines when it banned Stephen Colbert from editing or adding articles on its pages after the comedian made humorous, false additions to the site and encouraged fans to do the same.

But Colbert's antics may have done the world--and by the world, I mostly mean me and my peers--a favor. Until recently, many kids in my high school, myself included, used Wikipedia without questioning the integrity of its content. Before Colbert highlighted the unreliability of the site's information, I doubt many people even realized it isn't an authoritative, credible source.

Yes, teachers and parents constantly remind students to think twice before relying on certain online sources, but it's easy for a student in a rush to forget that Wikipedia belongs in the category of unverified information rather than credible information--especially because its format is one of a traditional encyclopedia.

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I've used Wiki, and I've also made fraudulent edits to see if it really can be done. Everything I've found on Wiki has been accurate, to my knowledge, but I was allowed to make the fraudulent edit. Here's my December 2005 rant slamming Wikipedia.

How can students not know Wiki is not a credible source of information? Here's the first thing one sees at wikipedia.com:


I deeply, deeply regret that I need to be the one to clear this up: "Anyone" has the same intelligence as a piece of driftwood. "Anyone" has neither scruples nor accreditation.

Lileks being...Lileks

Slublog told us this post by Lileks is good. And I'll be damned if it isn't.

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... Saying that all Democrats are cut-and-run surrender gibbons who want to leave the field so they can fine-tune the National Compulsory Sodomy Act is patently false, and not exactly helpful to the overall debate. Of course, sometimes unfair and cruel exaggeration can be used to make a point, but a steady diet is as intellectually nutritious as a bag of Doritos. It gets tiresome to have to point out that not all Democrats believe what Howard Dean says, just as few Republicans are gung-ho about some of President Bush’s more regrettable utterances. But in the end you go to war with the party you have, and you have to make a few generalizations based on what the luminaries and theoreticians of a party are saying.

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Killer squirrels terrorize world

Last year squirrrels attacked and killed a dog in a Russian park (story here). Today we learn about seven innocent Floridians brutally attacked by a squirrel.

Local6 News:

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A 3-year-old boy was bitten by the animal several times and has a two-inch wound on his leg, according to the report.

Another child was reportedly bitten on his calf and a man sitting on a park bench was attacked by the squirrel. He suffered a bite and scratches on his arm.

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It must be global warming. The squirrels are too hot. If only Al Gore were president (sniff, sob), this would be fixed!

Fauxtography, random bag searches, and other stuff

Five items worthy of a cease-fire...

5. I've always believed that a headline exists for the sole purpose of getting people to read the first paragraph, with the understanding that it must be accurate and in context. Similarily, graph1 exists to get people to read the whole story.

Few headlines will get people onto graph1 better than this one, appearing at The Daily Ablution: UK Taxpayers Help Marxist "Queers" Change the World - 5,000 Children at a Time.

4. Fauxtography scandal (photogate?) grinds on within the blogosphere and is now white-hot in the MSM, who perpetrated the problem in the first place. A Reuters contract photographer named Hajj photoshopped a number of photos of destruction and death in Beirut. He added smoke plumes to make the devastation look worse, and he added anti-missile countermeasures to an F16 flight, then claimed they were missiles.

Other photos, perhaps by Hajj, had been staged. A Hezbollah rescue worker was seen helping dig through rubble in one photo, then posed as a corpse in another.

Reuters finally admitted the fraud, thanks to constant pressure from LGF, The Jawa Report, Michelle Malkin, and countless other blogs. Reuters pulled all 920 Hajj photos and fired him. Fauxtography has appeared in the UK's Daily Mail, the BBC online, The Independent, Reuters (of course), The New York Times, U.S. News, and undoubtedly other places.

Links to coverage, blog and MSM, of faked photographs from Lebanon:

USA Today
NY Times
Washington Post
LGF
Slublog
The Jawa Report
EU Referendum

3. The Department of Homeland Security (and doesn't the NSA make them unecessary?) is advising U.S. consumers to patch their Windows installations. It's a first for the department, making this warning seem very serious indeed. Here's the gist of the flaw: "...a buffer overrun could open up a remote code execution risk that could result in a system takeover." BetaNews.

2. World Trade Center is fairly good -- I saw it last night. If it wasn't about a true story, and such an important one, I would have been bored, though. It wasn't what I was expecting. Serves me right for seeing a film without reading any reviews or summaries. I recommend it.

It was probably the only film starring Nicolas Cage that didn't insult me. Remember Con Air and all the other worthless garbage that guy has done?

One small item was Oliver Stoned, contrary to what countless fools are saying about the film. After the towers were hit, Stone showed six or eight scenes of people sitting around a TV set watching the news for the first time, in shock. There were scenes of Americans at a barber shop, some people on the street listening to a radio, etc. Stone takes us around the world -- Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. During the Middle East scenes of people hearing the news, they were as quiet and shocked as we were, in the film. But in reality, they were dancing in the streets and making that weird ululating sound in the backs of their throats.

1. Security workers in NYC can conduct random bag checks. Amazing. The New York Civil Liberties Union was arguing that random checks are unconstitutional and would not deter terrorist attacks. Obviously those liberals want us to die, or perhaps never heard of recent Muslim bombings of transportation targets in Madrid, Moscow, and London.

The next liberal hurdle is "random." With Muslim males perpetrating 99.99999% of all terrorist attacks worldwide, we still can't profile. Reuters.

Major terrorist plot foiled in UK

Muslims have made air travel even more difficult for the rest of us. UK police cracked a terrorist plot, making 21 arrests involving a plot to blow up six passenger jets in flight.

Sky News:

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Security sources believe that liquid explosives would have been used which could have been mixed during the flight into a lethal concoction.

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UK's Metropolitan Police:

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Home Secretary John Reid said:

"Overnight the police, with the full knowledge of Ministers, have carried out a major counter-terrorism operation to disrupt what we believe to be a major threat to the UK and international partners.

"The police, acting with the Security Service MI5, are investigating an alleged plot to bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life. The police believe the alleged plot was a very significant one indeed.

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No names or religious affiliations have been released yet. So how do I know they were Muslims? I'd suggest bombing the Middle East back into the 8th century, but it would be of no avail -- they're already living in the 8th century.

What usually happens after one of these Muslim problems is the strong will stand and fight, and the weak will cower and try to run away (the latter group being liberals). This will prove no different.

Floyd Landis: 'I'm innocent'

'magic wands'

Why I read The Jawa Report:

"The Lebanese army, which hasn't been capable of dealing with Hizballah for 25 years, and the UN, which hasn't been capable of dealing with anything, ever, will now be issued magic wands."

Looking for work...

al-Reuters
London, England

Dear Sir or Madam,

I'm very interested in finding work as a freelance photographer in Lebanon. I know Israel is responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of innocent children there, perhaps millions, and that Bush is ultimately responsible for every problem the world faces. I'm also skilled with Photoshop. Enclosed please find a sample of my work.

Sincerely,

Don Long

Suggested caption: Zionist Jawas are seen moments after destroying a neighborhood in southern Beirut.

Iraqis chant 'death to America'

Iraqis are chanting in the streets of Baghdad in support of the terror group Hezbollah. Naturally, they're Shia Muslims supporting their Shia buddies in Lebanon. Do they not know that we could reinstall the Sunni Saddam Hussein at any time to continue his campaign of brutality against the Shias? Would they like that? Freedom and democracy have to be earned. I'd like to see Iraqis start earning theirs.


Why would they place Annan's picture over an American flag? Don't they know we despise the bastard?

Raul Castro, Pat Robertson, and other loons

Five items to cool you down...

5. The hippies are bringing the art of Bush-hating to a new level. Castro became ill and gave temporary control of Cuba to his brother, Raul the Ghool, and a writer at Huffington Post is using that event to bash Bush! Headline: "Bush walks right into Castro's trap." The Huffington Puss.

4. A jockey head-butted a horse after he was thrown off. That'll show him, I guess. BBC.

3. Pat Robertson, after the U.S. heatwave, now believes in global warming. Fucking idiot. What will he do when we have a really cool season? Recant? Reuters.

2. Microsoft is inviting hackers to attack Vista. It's a good PR move for MS, and it just might make the next OS better. WaPo.

1. 9/11 families are critical of Stone's new film, World Trade Center. Are they upset about the level, or lack, of realism? Are they upset about how their dead relatives are portrayed? Are they upset about the portrayal of terrorists, firefighters, or policemen? Hell no! They're mad because Stone isn't giving them enough money. BBC. IMDB.

New game: Where's Raul?

See if you can spot Raul Castro in this busy Havana square.


And rumor has it Fidel Castro has been spotted at a hooka bar with Yasser Arafat in Paris.

Hizballah dating service

This video is a must see. Via The Jawa Report.

Loving Mel Gibson

I just learned that when old Mel was arrested for DUI he said, among other things, "What are you looking at, sugar tits?" It was directed at a female police officer.

That guarantees I'll see the Mayan picture.