Cry me a river...

A preacher with a minuscule congregation in north Florida threatens to burn a Koran and idiocy ensues. 

Would I burn a Koran? No. 
Do I care if a Koran gets burned? No. 
Do I want the Arab street to dictate the shape of tolerance and the limits of free speech? Hell no.

I'll end this brief post with a word to our political leaders who feel they have to preemptively apologize about this -- STFU already. Americans aren't ashamed of the First Amendment,  Terry Jones is an inconsequential lout, and walking on eggs won't keep the Cartoonophobes from blowing a gasket over some perceived slight or another.

Besides, it's not like they have a good track record when it comes to this sort of thing...

Hellooooo visitors from Don Surber. 

Prince Charles is bad enough, but now this?

I must confess my faith in the common sense of the English has been badly shaken. Newslite has an article which lists, according to a poll of 3,000 Brits, the 20 most useless gadgets of all time. 

Topping the list is the electric candle, which is hard to argue against. Also on it are such things as Laser guided scissors, egg boilers, fondue sets, electric carving knives and waffle irons; all which are admittedly useless things that end up cluttering the recesses of your kitchen cabinets.

So far so good. However, shockingly the Back Scratcher comes in number 7 on the list. Backer Scratchers useless? I think not! 

If you have an itch below your shoulder blades the only options you have us to become a contortionist, run into the back yard and rub your back against a tree like a cat in heat, or reach for your handy miniature wooden hand on a stick. I know the choice I prefer.   

This being the internet I'll point you to Back Scratcher World where you can buy one online. Who knew you could pay up to $30 for a Premium Back Scratcher? 

They also have pages on how to select, use and care for you back scratcher, as well as an informative Back Scratcher FAQ. What can I say -- unlike the silly English these people take their Back Scratchers seriously. 

New feature - Stratfor articles

I subscribe to Stratfor, a website that provides analysis of global affairs. As part of the subscription they email me frequent items. After a couple of years of getting them  I've recently noticed, observant devil that I am, that some of them come with a copyright that allows me to reproduce them on my website.

You may be interested in reading them, so as an experiment I'm going to start posting them. If you like the articles I'll continue to post them. Leave you comments for or against. Here is the first... 

MILITANCY AND THE U.S. DRAWDOWN IN AFGHANISTAN

By Scott Stewart

The drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq has served to shift attention toward Afghanistan, where the United States has been increasing its troop strength in hopes of forming conditions conducive to a political settlement. This is similar to the way it used the 2007 surge in Iraq to help reach a negotiated settlement with the Sunni insurgents that eventually set the stage for withdrawal there. As we've discussed elsewhere, the Taliban at this point do not feel the pressure required for them to capitulate or negotiate and therefore continue to follow their strategy of surviving and waiting for the coalition forces to depart so that they can again make a move to assume control over Afghanistan.

Indeed, with the United States having set a deadline of July 2011 to begin the drawdown of combat forces in Afghanistan -- and with many of its NATO allies withdrawing sooner -- the Taliban can sense that the end is near. As they wait expectantly for the departure of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan, a look at the history of militancy in Afghanistan provides a bit of a preview of what could follow the U.S. withdrawal.

Disturbing the peace

A blog I read regularly is Kent Frost's Nanny Knows Best. He's an English fellow who posts about the small outrages perpetrated by the bureaucrats of the Nanny State. His posts are not generally about large scale abuses, rather they cover the small absurdities of local officials gone wild.

He recently posted an item about Dominic Payne of Colchester's problems over frogs croaking too loudly in his pond. It seems somebody filed a complaint to the Colchester Borough Council about noise coming from his property.

The Council dispatched environmental health officers who lurked around his property taking decibel readings of the mating frogs croaking in his pond. Some how or another they figured out that the frogs were Marsh frogs, which are native to the European mainland, but not Great Britain.

Yoiks! Not only a rowdy bunch, but an intrusive non-native species to boot!

This lead to two police officers showing up to investigate the matter. They spent their time trying to photograph the mating frogs. They then informed him, and his neighbor who also had a pond full of the amorous amphibians, that the police were going to have to remove the frogs, either by killing them or relocating them.

Presumably, although I can't say for sure, considering the British government's squeamishness in deporting terror suspects to their home countries where they might be tortured, the Marsh frogs would not have been relocated back to France where the locals have a taste for frog legs.

Anyways, the end result of all this tomfoolery was, after a barrage of mockery from the press over their idiocy, the police dropped the matter.  I was rather surprised by that. Usually in these depressingly silly matters the bureaucrats stick to their guns as best as possible to save face.

A puzzle

Via walyou.

Mad as hell, and not going to take it any more!

Actually I'm not mad, I just needed an excuse to post the above picture of a pissed-off dinner roll with a knife in its teeth. Although not as artfully done as the bread sculptures of Kittiwat Unarromhas, it serves it purpose as one of my pointless running blog themes. I call this theme -- Fun with Bread.

The above picture comes from BreadBlog. Although not a large blog, it has a good collection of odd things done with bread, including bread furniture, boxing gloves, toast with Hitler's face on it and a sandwich made from Legos. 

More pictures below the fold.

The Things You Never Knew

So Saturday I'm sitting on the patio with the Better Two-Thirds and a neighbor and we're having a beer or two and chatting. Out of the corner of my eye I see something in the Mrs. impatiens that I take for a big wasp, maybe one of those cicada killers.

I need to pay attention 'cause maybe it is and maybe it ain't, but some wasps or bee types can render me quite ill if they decide to zap me. But this thing is very odd - there it went again.

I finally went over and looked and here's what I found - a Hummingbird Hawk Moth. Never knew such a thing existed. Lovely little critter.

Just in case you've never seen a cicada killer wasp.

Have you no sense of decency, madam?

Obama stepped into a political mine field when he waded into the Ground Zero Mosque issue. 

He allowed the notion of tolerance, which by itself is a laudable goal, to trump any consideration of other issues surrounding the proposed mosque. In particular, he dismissed the skepticism much of the American public feels towards the motives and funding sources for the mosque.

His political miscalculation has inflamed the issue, and in fanning the flames he has forced many of his fellow Democrats to take a stand on an issue they would rather avoid. Perhaps the most bizarre and tone deaf of all is the reaction of Nancy Pelosi. As the Wall Street Journal reports:

Pelosi told San Francisco's KCBS radio that "there is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded," she said. "How is this being ginned up?"

Again, the American public who are opposed to the mosque being built so close to Ground Zero oppose it because they see it not as an act of outreach, but as an act of triumphalism. They also, since the backers of it are opaque, suspect that it is going to be funded by sources inimical to the U.S.

Pelosi blithely dismisses those concerns as nothing more than a smoke screen for political opportunism, and rubs salt into the wound by distastefully, and absurdly, questioning the funding sources of the people who are arguing against the mosque's location. Further, she calls for an investigation of opponents to the project.

However, we're still not done. It gets even more absurd. From the Washington Examiner we discover that at the same time she is working herself into a lather over the anti-mosque cabal her colleague  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla, an addled-headed nitwit I'm sorry to say is from Florida, is sending out the following emails:

Fire Pelosi!

That’s the mindless mantra of Republicans and their wild-eyed Tea Party supporters as we begin the final sprint to Election Day. In fact, Republican Chairman Michael Steele just announced a “Fire Pelosi” national bus tour to distract voters and demonize Democrats.

Let’s show the Tea Party crowd that they’re no match for our grassroots strength. Stand with us against the Right’s despicable attacks and their fat cat fundraising by joining Team Pelosi — an elite group of grassroots Democrats who are leading the fight against radical Republican candidates in races nationwide.

We have set a goal of reaching 10,000 new members for Team Pelosi. House Republicans are claiming to have experienced a five-year high fundraising surge. We can’t let up now — we must keep pace. That means we need just 11 new members from Washington by our deadline this Thursday.

Please contribute today to become our newest member of Team Pelosi right now.

As a member of Team Pelosi you will receive the inside scoop on what’s happening in our campaign to strengthen and secure our House Majority. You will be invited to attend members-only phone and web-based political briefings by top Democratic experts and receive special Red Alerts about breaking campaign news.

So, at the same time she is calling for an investigation of the funding of wide spread and genuinely grassroots anger over the mosque situation, she is sending out a mass emailing begging for money and feigning popularism. Have you no sense of decency, madam, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

By the way, if you so desire, you too can bolster your grassroots, street cred by owning your own Team Pelosi tote bag. You'll have to Google for it though, I can't quite bring myself to link to the thing. 

Gone fishing...

I'm on vacation at the moment so posting will be erratic. Then again, my posting is always erratic so likely nobody would have noticed.. The wife and I flew to Manuas in Brazil. Odd airport. The runway was, outside of a dirt strip in Masawa, the roughest I've ever landed on. The plane bounced and rattle during it's entire roll out. To reduce a traveller's confidence even more, pushed onto the grass were three or four completely filthy cargo jets.  The whole place had a slap-dash feel to it.

We stayed in Manaus for only one day, and then headed for a place called Juma Lodge in jungle. The a picture is of one of their cabins. I didn't take it, I swiped it off of the internet. perhaps when I get back I'll post a photo or two of my own.

I must say the rain forest was not at all what I expected. Many more people were living in it than I expected (the place I stayed is only about 4-5 hours south of Manaus -- I imagine human habitation thins out considerably the farther upriver one goes). I expected to be swatting bugs endlessly, but they really weren't a problem at all. The heat was oppressive during the day, but at night there were nice breezes that were refreshing.

The jungle was very peaceful. Above all, it is very nice to be out of the news loop for a bit and just laze in the hammock.At any rate, 'll be off the blog for a bit, so the Chinese spambots will have a field day.

It's not as bad as it looks...

“Of course, people were shocked and thought that I was mad when they saw the works. But once they knew the idea behind it, they understood and became interested in the work itself, instead of thinking that I am crazy.”

Thai artist Kittiwat Unarromhas has a Masters degree in Fine Arts and has experimented with painting and sculpture. When he returned home to run his family's bakery, he combined that training, along with a knowledge of anatomy and trips to forensic museums, and began to bake bread shaped like body parts.

He bakes loaves shaped like heads, hands, feet, and even internal organs. He also claims to take as much care with his bread recipe as with his art, continuously refining it to make the bread as delicious as possible. If you're in Ratchaburi Thailand you can visit his gallery/bakery (many more pictures at the link).

Quite grotesque to say the least. Still, while I think it would be rather creepy eating a bread head, I think I would prefer it to edible bread shoes that somebody may have worn.

What's with this younger generation of bakers?

more and more

A turning point

As if any of us can avoid posting about, as John Hinderaker at Powerline called it,  the Breitbart-NAACP-Vilsack-Sherrod affair...

It strikes me that nobody involved in the mess has exactly covered themselves with glory: Breitbart seems to have tarred her a bit unfairly to make his point about the NAACP, the NAACP fumbled about and looked like idiots as usual, Vislack acted precipitously in firing her, and Sherrod seems still enamored with the notion of dividing people into Us and Them as she babbles on and on.

Still, that out of the way, there is one part of the story that has caught my attention. This is the first story I can think of that broke with such speed and was driven by the new media.

As such, this story is a turning point. In the past, and for that matter with the current Journolist story, the MSM would have, in their role as gatekeepers, sat on the story until it died or was stale. Now, they can no longer rely on the fact that the control which stories get spiked or which get column inches.

Credit has to be given to Breitbart for how he has manipulated the legacy media's weakness against itself. The speed at which this story grew is a direct result of how he rolled out the ACORN story. The legacy media has lost its monopoly on what is news and what is not. I think that will prove to be the real significance of this kerfuffle.

An ancient riddle has been solved

"British scientists believe they have cracked the answer to the age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? 

Researchers have found that a protein called ovocleidin (OC-17) is crucial in the formulation of eggshells, and it is produced in the pregnant hen's ovaries, the Daily Express reports."

 As the article 'Chicken or egg' question finally answered  points out, scientists have established that a chicken's body chemestry is necessary for the formation of eggs. Therefore it is clear that chickens had to have come first. Whew, finally I can scratch that off my list of mysteries to ponder.

Still, I expect there will many Egg-Firster zealots who refuse to admit the truth. Lord knows, they've always been a deluded lot. We can only hope they don't turn violent when they hear the news.

Well, now that you mention it...

Somebody called Squid314 posted a hilariously creative rant about the History Channel's TV show "WWII" being unbelievable and full of plot holes. Read the whole thing.

Probably the worst part was the ending. The British/German story arc gets boring, so they tie it up quickly, have the villain kill himself (on Walpurgisnacht of all days, not exactly subtle) and then totally switch gears to a battle between the Americans and the Japanese in the Pacific. Pretty much the same dichotomy - the Japanese kill, torture, perform medical experiments on prisoners, and frickin' play football with the heads of murdered children, and the Americans are led by a kindly old man in a wheelchair.

Anyway, they spend the whole season building up how the Japanese home islands are a fortress, and the Japanese will never surrender, and there's no way to take the Japanese home islands because they're invincible...and then they realize they totally can't have the Americans take the Japanese home islands so they have no way to wrap up the season.

So they invent a completely implausible superweapon that they've never mentioned until now. Apparently the Americans got some scientists together to invent it, only we never heard anything about it because it was "classified". In two years, the scientists manage to invent a weapon a thousand times more powerful than anything anyone's ever seen before - drawing from, of course, ancient mystical texts. Then they use the superweapon, blow up several Japanese cities easily, and the Japanese surrender. Convenient, isn't it?

...

So yeah. Stay away from the History Channel. Unlike most of the other networks, they don't even try to make their stuff believable.

When coffee in a bag just isn't good enough

Here's an interesting video showing how astronauts, inspired by rocket fuel tanks, have figured out how to create coffee cups usable in zero gravity. Naturally, I wondered how ice cubes and little paper umbrellas would work in them, but sadly they kept the demonstration booze free.

By the way, if you're a Moslem in need of some NASA self-esteem boosting, he mentions you could drink tea out of it too.


HT: Neatorama

For this, the Founders risked powder and ball?

There is a Washington Post Review, Norman Rockwell exhibit opens at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, by Blake Gopnik that's making the blog rounds and receiving much well deserved mockery in the process. 

I'm not a huge fan of Rockwell, I think he is rather schmaltzy, but it is clear he is an excellent and influential illustrator.

Glopnik on the other hand goes well around the bend in his disdain for Rockwell. He uses the 4th of July as an excuse to opine on the courage of American artists: Emily Dickinson for experimenting with her poetry, Louis Armstrong for playing jazz, and finally Jackson Pollack for splattering paint on canvas.

You can probably imagine what somebody who is a big enough twit to spin panegyrics about the heroism of Pollack's painting style thinks of Norman Rockwell. To put it mildly, he comes across as an insufferable snob.

What captured my eye in his piece, particularily in light of my last post Lopsided Democracy, was the following:

Rockwell's vision of "Freedom of Speech," included in the Smithsonian's show, doesn't invoke a communist printing his pamphlets or an atheist on a soapbox. It gives us a town hall meeting of almost interchangeable New Englanders, no doubt agreeing to disagree about something as divisive as the rates for those new parking meters. For this, the Founders risked powder and ball? 

First off, to answer Glopnik's question, yes, that is why the Founders risked powder and ball. The picture shows a common working man standing to speak at a meeting. On either side he is flanked by men, who are dressed in suits and looking up and seriously listening to what he has to say. That is about as simple an image as one could paint of Jefferson's subversive and revolutionary notion that "all men are created equal".

That dignity, afforded to all men to both speak and to order their own affairs --the affairs of the nation as well as the town hall town meetings that Glopnik so cavalierly dismisses -- is precisely why they fought the Revolution. The idea that no man is above another in either station, caste or dignity is the axiom from which all else American flows.

By the way Mr. Glopnik, all the archetypes on your list that you get misty-eyed over: communists printing pamphlets, atheists on soapboxes, Latino socialists, disgruntled lesbian spinsters, foul-mouthed Jewish comics and metrosexual half-Canadian art critics are free to speak their mind in this country which you seem to think is full of vapid bumpkins.

Perhaps you should scrub the cliches from your writing, and your list was certainly a string of cliches if I ever saw one, before you presume to tell other people what a shallow, maudlin fools they are for liking an illustration.

Lopsided Democracy

Below is an old post of mine. In light of the election it seems relevant. Indeed, "People will come together and cry: enough! ". Only it wasn't in fond nostalgia of the wise old elite, instead it was a lot of people who resented being called simpletons for their opinions. Anyway, the election brought this song and post to mind...



Above is the song Dimonkransa sung by Myra Andrade of the Cape Verde Islands. Cape Verde received their independence from Portugal on July 5th, 1975. The liberation movement was led by the socialist African Party of Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). Andrade's father was a member of it, and in fact she was born in Cuba.

Upon independence Cape Verde was a single party government, but in 1990 at a party congress the PAICV approved the introduction of multiparty democracy. In the election that followed the opposition fared well, and Cape Verde has evolved into a stable multi-party democracy.

However, this is not a post about her politics, nor the sort of third world socialism that bubbles through the undeveloped world. It seems to me there is a deeper strata, a bedrock so to speak, which lies under the languid melancholy of her lyrics.

It was said that democracy,
Lopsided democracy,
It was said that democracy
Was like a hidden treasure,
But now that it has been found.
We have all opened our eyes
And each one, relying on his judgment,
Confidently declared that what was round was in fact square,
And went to work, with a great many theories,
To prove that he was right.

(lyrics from the version she sung on her first album Navega)

Andrade is ill at ease with democracy, but for social rather than political reasons. Early in the song she calls it 'lopsided democracy' and as its lyrics unfold her complaint is that each person, not matter how foolish they are (and she clearly thinks many if not most of them are fools), now express a cacophony of opinions and arguments that bury the truth. 

She ends the song singing of English businessman and listing names from Cape Verde's past, some who have been elevated and some who she fears are being forgotten, and expresses distress at this reordering of authority. 

Stripped to its bone, the song is about a lost elite. Andrade is expressing nostalgia for a short-lived one party rule and for an escape from European domination. Of course it is her party that should rule and she now makes her home in Paris. Perhaps it is she that is lopsided, rather than all of the happy fools she mocks?

The time will come when old Náxu’s opinions
Will not be held in higher esteem than those of a babe in arms.
People will come together and cry: enough!    

Americans forget how revolutionary we are. Jefferson's "all men are created equal..." is both intoxicating and destructive. It is a hell of a thing not to have to step into the gutter to clear the side walk for a swaggering aristocrat. Andrade is intimidated by and dismissive of people who have opened their eyes, and each one, relied on their own judgment, but a free man knows better.

As for coming together and crying "enough"? That is exactly what our 4th of July celebrates and we'll have our Gadsden flags mingled with the Stars and Stripes. Happy 4th of July to you all.

Flight of Passage

"Our original plan called for skirting the north edge of the Allegheny Mountains, where the peaks are lower and there would be less turbulence, following the gently rolling valleys of central Pennsylvania into Youngstown, Ohio. But that course was now obstructed by clouds and the weather had formed a narrow, irregular chute forcing us to divert south through Harrisburg and the lower Susquehanna Valley. That would mean facing the Alleghenies head-on in rough air, but we would have to worry about that when we got there.

On the map I found a rail line just south of Pottstown that meandered west to the Susquehanna, up through Reading and Hershey. If clouds blocked our way there were several intersecting power lines that we could pick up. Wiggling the stick to signal Kern, I ruddered over for the tracks and pointed them out on the map. Throwing open the side windows, I kept my head out of the slipstream to look for landmarks. The ceiling was dropping again and we didn't have a lot of airports in front of us. I didn't have the luxury of guessing at our position and I focused like a gnome on the land and then back to the map.

That's how we flew the first leg, like a pair of old airmailers. While Kern manned the plane and kept us straight and level from the front seat, I hung out the side from the rear, battered by the rain and slipstream as I concentrated on the terrain."

The plight of Abby Sunderland, the 16-year-old sailor who was attempting a solo circumnavigation of the globe, has been a compelling news story. She ran into heavy weather in the Indian Ocean, lost radio contact and had to activate her emergencies two hours later. Fortunately she's been found, her boat de-masted but still afloat and help is steaming towards her and less than a day away.

Her age, coupled with the thought of her trying to sail solo around the World, has drawn considerable criticism. Many people have argued that her parents were irresponsible for allowing her to attempt such voyage.

In following the story I've been reminded of a book I read, Rinker Buck's Flight of Passage.

The book is a memoir of Rinker (age 15) and his brother Kern's (age 17) flight across the continental U.S. At the time they were the youngest pilots to cross the country. They had bought an old Piper Cub for $300 and carefully rebuilt it for the flight.

Aside from being a good travel yarn, the book is a look back by the adult Rinker on his relationship with his brother, and beyond that his relationship with his father. It is an altogether touching book and in the end it reminds one of what it is like to be a teenager with the horizon before you and a nest to leave.

Thinking of the story told in the book, and having watched one too many helicopter moms in amazement, I think I come down on the side of Abby's parents who left her try her luck in that boat. There are certainly worse things a young girl could aspire to achieve. I wish her fair winds and trailing seas in her future.

Anyways, those were simpler days. In digging around for material for this post I bumped across a couple of videos of young Kern and Rinker Buck on the old TV show To Tell the Truth. They're after the jump. Click "read more" to watch and enjoy. 

I have been remiss for multiple days

Gah! It has been a lot longer than I thought since I've last posted.

In the past I have posted pictures of people blending themselves with record album covers and money. Recently I discovered another small internet photo fad -- multiplicity. People take multiple pictures of themselves and then photoshop them together to get an image with themselves appearing numerous times in it.

Most just turn out to be people making funny faces and what-not, but I like the three shown here because each told a little story.

In the top one we view a string of hims trying to suppress giggles as they are about to execute a prank on their sleeping self.

Next we have the young girl looking on in horror as she sneaks up on herself with a knife in her hand

Finally, the man fights himself, grabbing his face and arm in the process. Technically, it is probably the best of the lot.

For more view 35 Surreal Examples of Multiplicity Photography.

Mohammed Descending a Staicase

Whoops, I forgot Draw Mohamed Day. I never drew a picture of Mohammed which naturally makes posting one a bit of a problem. 

Facing that quandary I consider myself lucky to have remembered Marcel Duchamp and his readymades. A readymade is an "ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist."

So, to solve my lack of a Mohammed drawing on this most solemn of Draw Mohamed Days, I found a copy of Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase and have readymaded it into a new piece of art which I call Mohammed Descending a Staircase. That's it to the left.


If you happen to be a jihadist, rest assured -- even though the details are a bit obscured -- it is a very, very offensive picture of Mohammed and you should be deeply outraged by it.

For the rest of us that are sane, well yes... I suppose I am torturing the definition of readymade a bit. It is a stretch to call me an artist, and I'm not sure that elevating a piece of art into another piece of art is quite within the rules of readymades. Still, Draw Mohamed Day is upon us, and so an artist has to do what an artist has to do.

 

I'm outraged a Moslem won the Miss USA Contest!

Well, ok... actually I'm not. In fact, I don't even know if she's Moslem.

I'll admit, since I've goofed off for a couple of weeks and not posted anything, that this post's headline and the picture to the right are just a cheesy attempt to lure some traffic back.

Beauty pageants are pretty vapid affairs. After all, they are just an excuse to parade a bunch of good looking young women around and pick which is the prettiest. Not that I object to that mind you.

The effort to make them seem more serious than they are leads straight to talent competitions, goofy simple-minded questions and political correctness run amok.

I hate to sound cynical, but because of that political correct imperative to be taken seriously, I have a passing suspicion that her name was far from an obstacle to winning.

Anyways, congratulations to Rima Fakih for her victory.