He's RIGHT, Ya Know

I watch The News Hour every night and especially enjoy Friday's "Shields and Brooks" segment. And I found myself nodding my head up and down slowly when David Brooks came across with this lil observation about OBL and Lefty blogs:

Ah... but The Left, she is NOT amused. I have to give a reluctant tip o' the hat to Matt at Think Progress for the vid. And Hell, while we're at it, thanks for the laughs, too, Matt. Case in point:

Considering bin Laden’s threat yesterday to “escalate the killing and fighting against” America, Brooks and his fellow conservatives’ attempts at humor — and that’s a charitable reading of their words — are especially insulting, as it impugns not only the patriotism, but also the character and intelligence of literally millions of daily participants in the progressive blogosphere.

I left the links in the quote intact, just for grins and giggles. But, the larger point is the Lefties are "impugning" themselves by their rants and raves posted at various Left-O-Sphere haunts. And they're doing a much better job of the impugning than the BEST of the Right-Wing satirists and pundits could ever do.

We don't say "you can't make this stuff up" without good reason. Damned good reason. A casual visit to any thread on Democratic Underground will make my point (I won't link to that cesspool...you have google on your box, if you feel you absolutely must go verify what I say.). And most threads at the other Lefty blogs will bear me out, too. But DU is the worst. It's NO stretch of the imagination to visualize bin Laden's "staff" reading and taking note of the crap posted there. Not in my mind, anyway.

~~Memories... Like the Corners of My Mind...~~

The Travel section of the NYT has an excellent article on Cappadocia up on its site. I’ve been there. But I think things just might have changed… if only a little bit… since my father, his Turkish interpreter and friend Yaşar, Yaşar’s 12-year old son, and I piled into our 1954 Hillman convertible (similar to this car, but no top) and set out from Ankara for a two week hunting, fishing, and touristing trip down to southeast Turkey…mostly around Kayseri. Which, of course, isn’t all that far from Urgup and Goreme…right in the heart of Cappadocia. That trip was in the summer of 1957.

There simply weren’t any “luxury hotels” anywhere in Turkey outside of Istanbul, Ankara, and perhaps Izmir, at that point in time. And believe me when I say my father and I, thanks to Yaşar, went places where NO Americans had ever been up to that point in time. At least according to the locals, who considered our visit an occasion worthy of feasting and drinking to all hours of the night, which happened every single time, in every single village we visited. It didn’t hurt any that we were traveling through Yaşar’s old stomping grounds; he grew up in a village in the area and the trip was a homecoming of sorts for him. With his American friends, of course.

That trip was arguably the best vacation I’ve ever had. The scenery (and the company) was certainly never surpassed in my later travels. And I envy my father…to this day…for his late-night raki-drinking exploits with the men in the villages we visited. Somehow I don’t think one could even begin to replicate this experience today and most certainly not in Cappadocia, based upon what I read in the Times.

I’d still like to go back, though. Just for the memories.

Update: I found a pretty cool teevee ad for Yeni (Turkish for "new") Raki at the wiki link:

So then there’s the new bin Laden video which, technically, hasn’t been released yet. But it seems al Qaeda has the same “leakage” problem as the CIA/NSA/FBI/AFL-CIO/NFL/AKC, etc. And, of course, the Dems just had to respond:

(2007-09-07) — Democrats in Congress today tried to get out ahead of the release of a new report on the so-called “war on terror” by casting doubts on the reliability of the data and its interpretation by al Qaeda leader Usama Bin Laden.

“Believing what bin Laden says about this conflict is like trusting Gen. David Petraeus or George Bush,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, “They’re all in cahoots. These war-mongering neocons have an agenda and they bend the facts to suit their blood-thirsty purposes.”

Sen. Schumer said Mr. bin Laden is likely to “reinforce the Bush administration’s foregone conclusions through his normal saber rattling, but everyone knows that, for the United States military in Iraq, the only way forward is backward.”

But. Ya know what? Based upon what I’ve heard about the “content” in the newest UBL rant…Lefties are peeing their pants (h/t: Lex). It really sucks when al Qaeda steals your talking points.

So, it being Saturday and all, I’m making the rounds and catching up on my “not quite daily” (NQD) reads. I say NQD mainly because the guys who run my NQD reads usually have a sort of hit-and-miss approach to posting. In other words, posting there is also NQD. (Did that make sense? Prolly not.) But anyway… I found this, and it’s a week old, so you may have seen it. But just in case you haven’t, an excerpt:

1. Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.

1957 - Vice principal comes over to look at Jack's shotgun. He goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2007 - School goes into lock down, and FBI is called. Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

[…]

6. Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.

1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.

2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given a diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

It’s The Bad Old Days vs. Now. I know which ones I prefer… and I’ll bet you will, too.

Today’s Pic: A transportable Border Patrol surveillance tower and generator-powered lighting system on the banks of the Rio Grande in Brownsville, Texas, with the Dearly Departed Yama-hammer in the foreground.

There’s this absolutely marvelous trail that runs along the banks of the Rio Grande down Brownsville way that is just tons of fun, in the “fast fire-roading,” motorcycling sense. As in full-lock power slides, whoop-de-doos to get airborne over, and motorcycle madness, in general. Until one comes face-to-face with one of those green Border Patrol SUVs while in one of those full-lock power slides, anyway. The Border Patrol guys are still cops after all is said and done, and cops don’t look kindly upon that sort of motorized anti-social behavior, even if it IS fun and you’re not on a public road, as such.

Don’t ask me how I know this.

Brownsville, TX. February, 2000.

My Guy Gets It. Does Yours?

The lead graf of an e-mail I received this afternoon from Senator John Cornyn, R-TX.

During August, I was able to visit virtually every region of our state and talk with thousands of Texans. As usual, what I heard was far different from what the national news media reports as conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C. While visiting with troops and their families at Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and at the Soldier Appreciation Day in Round Rock, I was repeatedly reassured that morale among our volunteer military is high. Our service men and women have a far better grasp on their mission, and our prospects for success, than do some of my Congressional colleagues. The troops say they’re more committed than ever to their mission. Many Texans also told me they want to be sure we have a winning strategy in Iraq, and they are encouraged by the progress we’re making. Finally, Texans everywhere remain strongly united behind our troops. To be sure, all of us want to bring our troops home as soon as possible. But to abandon the mission before Iraq is secure would allow that country to again become a breeding ground for terrorism. Our focus must remain on the long-term security interest of the United States, and ensuring our enemy doesn’t follow us back home. It would reverse all of the hard-earned gains that our troops have made in recent months.

My guy gets it. I’m pretty sure my Gal does, too. But then, they’re both Type Rs.

Finest kind.

Cowgirl Update

So. After posting today’s rant and ruminating a bit further on the subject of idiots, I decided to look on the bright side of life. And what’s brighter than cowgirls, eh?

We used to have two cowgirls in general proximity to El Casa Móvil De Pennington, but one graduated from ENMU last year, never to return. The other one is still in place, still brings her horse trailer (and horse) around Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park every so often, and apparently is still in school. She even stayed for the summer this year, which was cool in and of itself. And what’s better is there’s a new cowgirl on the block…just across the street from me.

The usual drill took place this past weekend…a big honking diesel dualie pickup arrived with a late-model fifth wheel in tow, accompanied by a gaggle of what one assumes are friends and family. The fifth wheel was set up in due course, a small party ensued, and there were lots of comings and goings all weekend long. And then things settled down a bit.

I won’t bore you with an extended description of this young lady’s physical attributes; suffice it to say she is comely, indeed (although I will tell you SN1 and SN2 got the full description of said attributes during phone conversations last evening). Ah…but here’s the interesting bit. Yesterday our new cowgirl spent about an hour in her yard practicing with her bull whip. When I say “practicing,” I mean there were several routines with complicated-looking steps, repeated with a frequency that suggests her performance was choreographed. Interesting, to say the very least.

Both SN1 and SN2 laughed during our conversations last evening when I described the performance in some detail, making suggestions about various fantasies such an exhibition just might provoke. All three of us agreed that whips and other …um… “accessories” associated with such fantasies are not our cuppa, but it does make for entertaining viewing. And, Gentle Reader, “entertaining” doesn’t come close to describing the spectacle. “Amazing” is much more like it.

But you know what the worst thing about all this is? The realization that I’ve become a dirty-old-man-trailer-park-voyeur. Of sorts.

Now that hurts.

Update 9/07/2007 1430 hrs: And There Was One. Again. I was outside moving the sprinkler around a few minutes ago and just happened to have a conversation with THE Cowgirl, i.e., the one with the horse, horse-trailer, etc.. And she's pulling out later this afternoon and moving down to Roswell, where her parents live. She graduates in December and has worked out arrangements with ENMU whereby she'll telecommute to finish her classes.

Dang. She's been a good neighbor and I'll miss her.

But then again, there's always Ms. Bull Whip. Who, by the way, has the hat, the boots and the whip, but no horse as far as I can tell. And she drives a sporty lil coupe, rather than a pickup. I'll leave it for you to decide, Gentle Reader. Real? Or Memorex?

A Bad Start

It doesn’t take much these days, apparently, to get me started off on the wrong foot.

Case in point: I woke up early this morning and decided to watch Washington Journal, something I haven’t done in at least a month or so, primarily due to the fact that I’ve been staying up to all hours of the night and sleeping in. I shouldn’t have. Watched WJ, that is. The normal WJ drill for the first hour of the program is to cover the newspaper headlines while the host takes calls from viewers. And here’s what set me off, Gentle Reader: the first four or five calls…from Dems, Republicans and Independents…were from the frickin’ Truthers. And they were well-prepared Truthers, at that, armed with URLs of Truther web sites, quotes, “evidence,” various and sundry rants about Bu$hitler, Cheney, Neo-cons, yadda, yadda, yadda. This went on, literally, for the first 20 minutes of the program.

Brian Lamb, C-SPAN founder and the normal host on Fridays, must be on vacation. Mr. Lamb doesn’t entertain Truther rants gracefully, if at all. I’ve seen him play with Truthers on occasion, picking at their arguments, shooting holes in their “facts,” and what-not. But generally speaking, Mr. Lamb simply disconnects them once they begin their rants with a curt “Thanks for your call,” followed by “click.” Not so this morning. I only saw one call summarily disconnected by Steve (this morning’s host) and that was when the caller’s language became abusive towards the administration. The rest of the callers were allowed to rave on. This is wrong.

It’s wrong because C-SPAN is providing these idiots with a national platform for their gibberish. It’s wrong because listening politely encourages them. It’s wrong because C-SPAN becomes a minor “accessory after the fact” and serves to perpetuate the madness. I’m all for freedom of speech, generally speaking, but I have my limits. You can publish all the conspiracy theories you want on your blog or on a web site devoted to such drivel. You can rave about Neo-con crimes on a street corner if you so desire. But you should be cut off at your knees when you begin spouting this crap on the premier public affairs network in the US of A…no ifs, ands, or buts.

Shunning works. And Truthers should be shunned.

Related: “Zogby poll: 42% of Democrats think Bush either caused 9/11 or let it happen.” Just in case you missed it yesterday.

I am thoroughly depressed. How can one shun 42% of the entire Democratic Party? (OK, I know it’s just another frickin’ poll, and polls lie often distort things, for any number of reasons. But still…)

An Amazing Coincidence…

…in light of yesterday’s revelations about that B-52 that flew from Minot to Barksdale with nuclear tipped (but UNarmed) ACMs under its wings. And here are the guys responsible for at least PART of that debacle: the dudes of the Fifth Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, a component of the 5^th Maintenance Group at Minot AFB, ND. (Click for larger, as always.)

It should be noted that AMXS folks are NOT the munitions people, who have their own organization within the maintenance group. The AMXS guys, and this pic in particular, falls into the "guilt by association" category. And this paragraph is an UPDATE to my original post.

(h/t: Mike, who pointed me to Chairforce this morning, and, of course, Chairforce itself, where I purloined this image... exactly as shown above. One wonders just how long this image will remain in circulation. Or, in other words: “Ouch.”)

Just Insensitive

This just goes to show how culturally insensitive I can be…I literally laughed out loud at this:

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

Well, Hell. It’s not all that different from sprinkling Holy Water on a plane, now is it? Except for the general mess associated with sacrificial goats, I mean.

In other aviation news, the Air Force flew a gaggle of nuclear-tipped ACMs from Minot AFB, ND to Barksdale AFB, LA. The only problem is that the USAF didn’t KNOW the warheads were on the missiles. And speaking of sacrificial goats:

The crews involved with the mistaken load at the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot have been temporarily decertified from performing their duties involving munitions pending corrective actions or additional training, Thomas said.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the munitions squadron commander also was relieved of his duties. The AP also reported that the bomber was carrying six nuclear warheads, not five as sources told the Military Times.

That munitions squadron commander probably envies those Nepalese goats. Coz he’s gonna die a slooow death. Metaphorically speaking.