Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen have been recognized at last. Few things are as embarrassing to me as an American, as a veteran, than the way these men were treated after returning home from World War Two. Thanks gentlemen. Sorry it took 62 years to recognize what was should have been clearly evident at the time, that duty, honor, valor and patriotism know no color.

Whale Eats Fisherman's 50 Pound Salmon

Whales Ruin Fishing Trip - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Caution: Some salty language.

Three Movies

In the past week I caught The Prestige, The Secret Agent and The Illusionist on cable TV. Oddly enough all of these movies are set in late nineteenth century, two concern magic, two have Christian Bale, all are recommended.

Of the three, I think I liked The Secret Agent best. It must be somebody's pet project because it's an offbeat little film. Based on a Joseph Conrad story about an agent provocateur, played by Bob Hoskins great as always, who is asked by his employer to stir things up in London with tragic results. The weakest link in a super strong cast is Patricia Arquette, whose attempt at a British accent doesn't quite convince. The usually tiresome Robin Williams is excellent in a dark little role. Not for everybody, but a nice film when you're looking for something different.

The Prestige is an interesting story, well told and well done. I'm glad to see Michael Caine is keeping busy, I'd pay to watch him do his laundry. The two leads Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are great as two magicians and arch enemies. Scarlett Johansson is in the film too, but she could have been replaced by any other actress without detriment. Maybe next time she's in a film with the excellent Rebecca Hall she can ask for some acting tips. Andy Serkis, Golum from LOTR, has a nice turn as Nikolai Tesla's, David Bowie, assistant. Listen to his accent, you'd swear he's from New Jersey, I always appreciate that in the craft.

The Illusionist is the second magic story about a magician, Edward Norton, who falls in love with a woman, the lovely Jessica Biel, far above his station. Norton who was brilliant in American History X and Primal Fear didn't really impress me here, not that he was bad or anything his performance just seemed a little flat. Paul Giamatti on the other hand continues to amaze me, is there nothing this guy can't do? Rufus Sewell gave a nice, reserved, menacing performance as the Crown Prince and principal heavy. The last movie I saw with Jessica Biel was Stealth. The less said about that, the better. Here she did an impressive job as the love interest and bone of contention between Norton and Sewell. I bet she'll be getting some better roles after this film.

Unmet Expectations

From Mitch Berg via Kim duToit

1. What, in your experience, was the most overrated movie of all time?
The Piano. Everyone loved it, deemed it heavy and artesque. I thought it ponderous and predictable when you bothered to give a damn about the story, which wasn’t all that often.
2. What was the most overrated album?
Dark Side of The Moon. It's okay I guess, but I never wore one out. Maybe I need to learn how to smoke dope or something.
3. What is the most overrated book?
Ulysses by James Joyce. Yeah he’s the most brilliant author ever and I’m the best looking man ever, you just don’t get my beauty. I haven’t read Finnegan’s Wake, but I hear it’s worse yet.
4. What is the most overrated blog?
Left-wing: I normally don't read a left-wing blogs, per se. The closest thing that I read that comes close to this description is Andrew Sullivan’s tripe fest over at The Atlantic. Make no mistake, Sullivan can write, but his insincerity is bothersome.
Right-wing: This Blog, insofar that it’s rated at all.
5. What was the most overrated television show?
Tough one since most of them suck. The fact that “The War at Home” is on the air and “Arrested Development” and “Andy Richter Controls The Universe” are not tells you all you need to know about TV.
6. What would you call the most overrated magazine?
Barely Legal. Some of those chicks are like 22! What a gyp!
7. Who was the most overrated classical composer?
Richard Wagner. Even though his farts are more musical than my dreams, I still find him tedious, except for that part of his oeuvre directly involving either Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd.
8. Who is the most overrated pop songwriter?
Pick one, with few exceptions they all suffer from toxic self regard. Stevie Wonder is a musical genius? Really? Hum ten songs that he’s written. Those tools from Oasis seem to think they're the cat’s pajamas too.
9. What is the most overrated genre in any form of art?
Hip Hop is music only in the sense that you can record it and listen to it. Somebody much brighter than I said that all music is a mix of music and sociology. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue for keyboard No. 8 in E flat minor from The Well Tempered Clavier is 96% pure music, the most artful pop song you ever heard is 50/50. Hip Hop is 95% sociology, pathological sociology at that.

A Multitude Of Issues Today

• Tony Snow

Tests show that Tony Snow's cancer has returned, this time it has spread to his liver. This sad news less than a week after the death of Cathy Seipp from lung cancer. Tony Snow is a good man. I hope he makes a speedy, full recovery.

• UAW

President of the United Auto Workers Ron Gettelfinger warned that their cooperation in the past shouldn't be taken as a sign of weakness. Good luck with that. It's like tapeworm saying even though the host is dying it still demands it's nice, warm intestine to inhabit. Newsflash Gettelfinger, onerous union health and retirement contracts make it nearly impossible for American auto makers to compete globally.

• Joe Lieberman

I never thought I'd write this, especially after November 2000, but I am damn proud of Joe Lieberman. While 50 poltroons in the U.S. Senate voted to cut and run, including needle-dick Republicans Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon, 47 real Republicans and Joe Lieberman voted against giving the insurgency a much needed shot in the arm. Thank God John Kerry is yet another turd circling the bowl and not in a position to sign this abomination and thank God for George W. Bush.

The Gender Genie

The Gender Genie is a computerized algorithm that supposedly predicts the sex of the author of a given text. I am shocked to report that it almost always thinks that I'm a lady, not that there's anything wrong with that. After being deemed a chick six or seven times, I entered several paragraphs of Hemingway and sure enough it spotted him as a man. I tried again with several passages of Virginia Woolf's "A Haunted House" and the Genie thought she was a man. A large excerpt of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood was deemed, overwhelmingly, to be written by a man. P.J. O'Rourke's writing was deemed masculine, hell even a large Ann Rice sample came back as masculine. I begin to wonder if The Gender Genie just calls my shitty writing feminine?

Note: Please forgive the overly macho Djinn image. It's just that I'm feeling a little confused right now. Thanks to Greg Staples Art for the image.

Dennis Miller on Family Guy

Greenpeace in Egypt

Our problems in the Middle East are over, Greenpeace is on the job:

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AFP) - Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior has dropped anchor in Egypt's Mediterranean port of Alexandria to deliver an unequivocal message against nuclear programmes -- civilian and military -- to a region suddenly hungry for atomic power.
The famous Greenpeace ship, which has sailed the world in support of the environmental group's anti-nuclear crusade, was earlier prevented from entering Iranian territorial waters and later plans to head for Israel.
"We were well received here," said ship captain Mike Fincken from the vessel's berth in Alexandria's western harbour. "At least we were allowed to deliver our message."

I would have liked to have known her

Rob Long remembers his friend, Cathy Seipp.

The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11

One of the main points of The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11 is that there are two wars. The first, between conservatives and liberals here at home and a second between radical Islam and traditional Islam throughout the world and how the two wars are related.

D'Souza argues that the left bears responsibility for 9/11 because they seek to impose on Islam the same parade of tired horseshit they have imposed here, abortion on demand, gay marriage, no fault divorce and licentious media. Because of this liberal imposition, traditionalist in Islam views the West in general and America in particular not only as anti Islamic but literally evil.

I don't necessarily agree with everything contained in The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, but D'Souza makes a very persuasive case.

some inconvenient facts

This is rather long (over an hour) but well worth your time. So get yourself some popcorn and press "play". (via Powerline)

Blanco Won't Run

BATON ROUGE, La. - Gov. Kathleen Blanco, whose popularity plummeted after two hurricanes devastated Louisiana during her term, announced Tuesday that she will
not seek re-election....Blanco's chief of staff, Jimmy Clarke, said the governor made her decision at the end of last week and that low poll numbers and Breaux played no role in it.

Yeah right. Even in Louisiana Blanco, perhaps the worst governor in America, maybe ever, has no chance of being re-elected. Remember her crying, literally crying while her constituants drowned in flood waters? Now that's leadership!

War Protests

NEW YORK - America's current anti-war movement is resourceful and persistent, but often seems to lack the vibrancy of its counterpart in the Vietnam era when protesters burned draft cards, occupied buildings and even tried to levitate the Pentagon. The biggest difference, say activists and historians, is the lack of a draft.

That, and the protesters are forty years older. I have often suspected that many anti war types are longing for the relevance and passion of their youth. My oldest brother, a Vietnam Vet, went to Washington D.C. over the weekend as part of the Gathering of Eagles. Here's what he had to about the event:

Well I have not yet seen an accurate report of the numbers of people assembled. My personal observation is that there were more "Eagles" than turds. We had masses in three locations to there one. We were primarily at the Vietnam Memorial to protect it from threats of vandalism. That is why I went. We were successful.
It looks to me that somehow, someone has found a way to freeze dry pseudo radicals and thaw them out for demonstrations. There was street theatre but nothing original. It was all stolen from my generation especially the music.
When the turds oozed back from the Pentagon some of them got into a bottle throwing frenzy with the Police. As a casual observer with experience in the methods of crowd control it was a joy to watch the DC Police and the Park Police react with speed, overwhelming numbers and restraint. The police came from every direction on foot, horse back, Harley Davidsons with sidecars, Hondas, Bicycles, vans and sedans. Directed by a helicopter overhead.

The bottom line is that the press still has their left leaning agenda in misreporting the numbers of participants. The leftist have been put on notice that they will no longer have "the stage" of our national mall to themselves.
The nation supports its ALL VOLUNTEER MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCES. The republic is strong.
Long live the memory of Charles Martel!

Knut The Bear

Animal rights activist are calling for the death of a Polar Bear cub abandoned by his mother on the grounds that the wee beast is better of dead than raised by humans.

Accordingly, I have become an animal rights activist-activist and rather than see these poor misguided people subjected to ridicule for their ridiculously untenable positions, I think they should all be euthanized and fed to carnivorous animals. Or just fed to carnivorous animals, whatever.

More Bumper Stickers

Over at Dr. Helen's blog she ponders what bumper stickers say about your personality. My two cents: Sanity decreases as bumper stickers increase. No stickers, chances are you're probably o.k.. One sticker, still o.k. depending on the sticker, two or three things begin to change. If you have more than four, chances are you're crazier than bat shite, regardless of sticker subject matter.

Miller's Crossing - Danny Boy scene

Happy belated Saint Paddy's Day!

John Derbyshire and Andrew Sullivan

John Derbyshire:

Can I find one? This is the kind of thing I'm looking for, but they don't seem to come any bigger than 12 inches. I need 18 inches.

Somewhere in DC, Andrew Sullivan passes out at his desk. Won't somebody please turn up the pressure on his CPAP machine?

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Weird Word of The Week: Floccinaucinihilipilification -the action or habit of judging something to be worthless.

Back in the eighteenth century, Eton College had a grammar book which listed a set of words from Latin which all meant “of little or no value”. In order, those were flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili (which sound like four of the seven dwarves, Roman version, but I digress). As a learned joke, somebody put all four of these together and then stuck –fication on the end to make a noun for the act of deciding that something is totally and absolutely valueless (a verb, floccinaucinihilipilificate, to judge a thing to be valueless, could also be constructed, but hardly anybody ever does). The first recorded use is by William Shenstone in a letter in 1741: “I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money

Ray Nagin

New Orleans the most irresponsible of cities has found it's match in the most irresponsible of mayors:

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin has suggested that the slow recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina -- which has prevented many black former residents from returning -- is part of a plan to change the racial makeup and political leadership of his and other cities.
"Ladies and gentlemen, what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere," Nagin said at a dinner sponsored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade group for newspapers that target black readers. "They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community."

In Nagin's deck of 52 every card is the race card. Mr. Mayor could it be that your city is below sea level and therefor particularly at risk of hurricane flooding? Hasn't everybody been warning of this eventuality for 100 years? Weren't billions of flood protection dollars pissed away in typical Big Sleazy fashion? Or was this a big scam to import 500,000 black voters to Houston?

or so he says...

Trillian, my better half, is in Florida right now with her best friend. I’m here in New Hartford with our dogs, Henry and Jelly.

Last night Trillian called me from a cafe in Key West. They were outdoors and had just finished their meal. They were watching the fire eaters.

Here in Connecticut, I had built a fire in the wood-stove and was watching Al Gore’s opus while 7 inches of global warming fell outside.

You probably think I’m writing this as some kind of complaint. Actually, no.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to be in Key West right now. Also, I vastly prefer to be with Trillian than to be apart from her. Even so, I don’t really mind winter (for the most part). And the fire in the wood-stove keeps the body quite comfortable. Henry and Jelly comfort the soul.