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June 29, 2005
Wednesday Photoblogging
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June 28, 2005
Tuesday Photoblogging
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June 25, 2005
Saturday Photoblogging
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June 24, 2005
Friday Photoblogging
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June 23, 2005
A Cold Year in Yosemite
It's still winter in the high country in Yosemite National Park. There is so much snow remaining, in fact, that the famed High Sierra camps will not open at all this summer.<sarcasm>Blame global warming.</sarcasm>It is only the second time in 89 years that the camps were closed because of snow conditions. The last time was in 1995 following a severe winter.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) |
America = Pol Pot
NOT!
Posted by bubba138 at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) |
Thursday Photoblogging
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June 22, 2005
Wednesday Photoblogging
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June 21, 2005
Movie Industry Found Wanting
Roger Simon (hat tip Professor) sees it as a no brainer that the movie industry's sales are off 9%. I went to the theaters the other day and noticed something that is adding to the movie-goer malaise. Let's take a look at some of the top movies that are out right now:
Batman Begins: Hey, I'm a comic hero fan and even I think the last thing we need is yet another Batman movie.Each of these top ten movies have a certain "been-there-done-that" quality to them. And what do we have to look forward to? Let's see:
Mr. & Mrs. Smith: This movie has been done almost as many times as A Star is Born.
Revenge of the Sith: Even die-hard Star Wars like me only went to see this movie to get a sense of closure.
The Longest Yard: Yes, this one's been done before.
The Honeymooners: "Bang-zoom to the moon, Alice" is all well and good but the biggest fans of this classic comedy are octagenarians. Not exactly your major movie-going demographic.
War of the WorldsWe've got great actors. We've got great special effects. We've got great costumes, sets and cinemetography.
Herbie the Love Bug
The Land of the Dead
Bewitched
The Dukes of Hazzard
Charlie and the Cholcolate Factory
Bad News Bears
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Has anyone seen an original script, lately?
Posted by bubba138 at 09:26 AM | Comments (0) |
Tuesday Photoblogging
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June 20, 2005
Remember Dr. Fouladvand?
You may recall back in March some sixty persons staged a sit-in protest on a Lufthansa plane in Belgium. Their leader, Dr. Fouladvand has been arrested:
LONDON, June 19 (IranMania) - Four men arrested by British police under anti-terrorism laws are connected to the political opposition in Iran, sources close to the police investigation said on Saturday.The men, aged between 31 and 63, were being interrogated at a police station in London following their arrest in a series of raids by armed police in the north of the city the day before.
The Times newspaper reported that the men had been under surveillance by Britain's MI5 security agency for some months, and that the decision to arrest them -- on the day of Iran's presidential election -- came because officers feared they were armed.
There was no evidence they had committed terrorism offences in Britain, or who their targets might be in Iran, the paper added.
London's Metropolitan Police said only that the men were arrested in connected with terrorist activity in the Middle East.
However, a police source told AFP they were linked to the Iranian opposition.
According to a statement to AFP in Paris from a group calling itself Anjoman Padeshahi, which said it was opposed to the Tehran government, one of the men arrested was its leader, Dr Froud Fouladvand.
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Monday Photoblogging
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June 17, 2005
Friday Photoblogging
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June 16, 2005
Thursday Photoblogging
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June 15, 2005
Wednesday Photoblogging
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A Lucky Find
Aussie hostage Douglas Wood was found and rescued during a raid yesterday. It is being widely reported that lady luck had more to do with his safe return than the work of the Iraqi troops:
Australian Iraq hostage found by chance in raidSo it was nothing more than a fortunate accident. After all, nothing good happens in Iraq as a result of the troop's efforts. But was it really luck?...U.S. military officers said the Iraqi soldiers had effectively stumbled across Wood just before 11 a.m. (0700 GMT) during a raid on a suspected insurgent weapons cache.
Nick Warner, an Australian diplomat heading a special team dealing with the kidnapping, said the morning raid on the house in northwestern Baghdad had been part of a two-week-old citywide security sweep, Operation Lightning. But there had also been a tip about the house's occupants, he said, adding that no one was hurt in the operation.So the hostage was found during a planned security operation and the house was targeted because of specific intelligence. Sounds accidental to me.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:49 AM | Comments (0) |
June 14, 2005
A Different Perspective
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Tuesday Photoblogging
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June 13, 2005
Monday Photblogging
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June 12, 2005
The American Catch-22
A little perspective from Egypt:
The front page of this week's Sawt Al-Umma newspaper features a somewhat daring, and certainly telling, banner. On one side of the page, US President George W Bush is pictured talking on the phone. "Allow people to vote without being intimidated," the serious- looking American president is saying. "Allow the opposition to appear on TV... People ought to be allowed to carry signs and express their pleasure or displeasure... People ought to have every vote count..." On the other side of the page, President Hosni Mubarak -- on the receiving end of the phone call -- merely says, "OK!!".So the problem with U.S. pressure in the mid-East is not whether it is good for the recipients, but whether those affected will overcome their disdain for America enough to see it.Even though both the government and the opposition consistently and vehemently refute the idea that the US is affecting -- for better or worse -- Egypt's political dynamic, reality shouts otherwise. In fact, Sawt Al-Umma' s Bush-Mubarak illustration perfectly mirrors a general public sentiment that sees Washington as having a great influence on domestic developments. The mere fact that this fearlessly satirical headline appeared in the first place also demonstrates this influence; while the paper was clearly being critical of US pressure on Egypt, it was also in effect taking advantage of the increased margin of press freedom that may have been catalysed by that same US pressure.
Hisham Qassim, chairman of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) and a prominent member of the newly founded Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) liberal political party, believes that "80 per cent of political freedom in this country is the result of US pressure." Only "20 per cent is the result of domestic pressure," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. This equilibrium might change in the future, however, as growing domestic pressure for political reform expands, and takes different shapes and forms.
This also poses a moral question for America. Do we let the knowledge that our influence is most probably unappreciated stop us from doing that which is right for Egypt, or do we continue to press for freedom regardless of the realization of its cost. One is the way of convenience, the other is the way of courage.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:40 PM | Comments (0) |
June 11, 2005
Saturday Photoblogging
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June 09, 2005
Democrats: The Party of the Rich
Debunking the claim that the Republicans are the party of the rich is a recurrent theme here at Slings & Arrows. The latest installment come courtesy of every Republican's favorite Demorat, Howard Dean. In an article detailing Senate Democrats who are "circling wagons" around their embattled chief, this little factoid slips out almost unnoticed:
The departure of Siegel and two other top financial aides in Washington and California had been cited by Dean's critics among party donors as a sign of turmoil at the top, but Siegel denied any falling-out with Dean and stressed that she supports his mission. She said the New York City fund-raiser had been moved to the Essex House because ''it was a more central location."One only has to do the most minimal research to determine that out of the top 100 political contributors, the Democrats ($165 million) garner greater than 70% more cash than the Republicans ($96 million).She also noted that the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which outlawed unlimited soft-money contributions and now caps annual individual contributions to a national party at $26,700, hurts Democrats, who historically relied on huge donations from a few dozen wealthy donors.
Tell me again, which is the party of the wealthy?
Update: The above links to 2002 figures. OpenSecrets also publishes cumulative data from 1989-2004 and that shows the Democrats (approx $729 million) still collect a larger slice of the big-money pie, raising 50% more than Republicans (approx $513 million).
Posted by bubba138 at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) |
Crony Capitalism
The good ol' boys network is alive and active, but not in a way which Democrats are quick to admit (or condemn):
For decades, longshoremen's locals have been controlled by clans, and it is not uncommon for grandfathers, fathers, and sons to be in the union at the same time. A law enforcement source and an industry official involved in the investigation said the scheme, which allegedly involved issuing the children union cards and putting them on the payroll for a few hours a year, appears to have been an effort both to guarantee high-wage jobs for the children of union members and to keep jobs inside traditional union families...One wonders if the Deaniacs and Kerryites will be as quick to jump on this corruption as they are with Tom DeLay and Halliburton.Because seniority is determined by when a union member first receives a union card, regardless of the number of hours worked, union members who got their children enrolled as members are believed to have ensured that their children would receive higher pay, Schwartz said.
"Years later, when these children have become adults, some of them have become [union] members who have been hired to offload ships at Conley Terminal," the statement said. "While these [union] members may have worked for a relatively short period of time, they are being paid as if they were longtime members because they first appeared on the union payroll years ago, when they were young children."
But one shouldn't wonder long.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:39 AM | Comments (0) |
Thursday Photoblogging
Posted by bubba138 at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) |
Fish Car
If this car looks funny to you it is because its design is based upon a fish, believe it or not. Don't knock it, though, the kooky design has its benefits:
The concept car itself achieved a coefficient of 0.19, which is quite something considering it's fully roadworthy has space for four occupants and their luggage. Any production car which can beat 0.30 is regarded as doing exceptionally well.With gasoline prices at $2.50 a gallon, fuel efficiency like that isn't something to sneer at....the concept car also uses the boxfish as a model for its construction techniques. The skin of the fish is made up of a great many bony hexagonal plates which provide maximum strength for minimum weight.
The upshot of all that is that the concept car achieves around 66mpg on the combined EU fuel economy cycle, while nitrogen oxide emissions (for an explanation of which see our separate feature) can be reduced by up to 80%.
More here:
...it wasn't the "fast, sleek swimmers such as the shark or dolphin that came closest to the ideals of the research engineers, but a creature that looks anything but streamlined and agile at first sight: the boxfish."Whodda thunk?It turns out the boxfish's home is also very much like many places on dry land, since the coral reefs, lagoons and seaweed force it to "conserve its strength and move with the least possible consumption of energy, which requires powerful muscles and a streamlined shape. It must withstand high pressures and protect its body during collisions, which requires a rigid outer skin. And it needs to move in confined spaces in its search for food, which requires good manoeuvrability."
Posted by bubba138 at 08:22 AM | Comments (0) |
June 07, 2005
Hijacking 9/11
Debra Burlingame gives us an early peek at the 9/11 Ground Zero Memorial:
The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man's inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich's Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona.How can this be? After all hadn't we confirmed that politicizing 9/11 is bad?
Posted by bubba138 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0) |
Yip Yap
Three top fundraisers at the Democratic National Committee have resigned at a time when its chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, has come under fire from fellow Democrats for controversial comments and his Republican counterpart has raised more than twice as much money.The committee’s finance directors for the two biggest hubs of Democratic fundraising have quit. Bridget Siegel, finance director for New York and the surrounding area, resigned last week, and Lori Kreloff, finance director for California, left the committee last month.
A third top DNC fundraiser, Nancy Eiring, the director of grassroots fundraising, has also resigned, citing strategic differences with aides to Dean
Posted by bubba138 at 03:25 PM | Comments (0) |
Amen
Robert Murray McCheyne, an 18th century Scottish pastor, remarked, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” I believe this. But I want to connect all talk about holiness with mission. Holiness is not about a stale legalism or a desire to build walls in order to keep the world out. Holiness is about reflecting God’s character in our lives. Holiness is a witness to the world about the salvation that God offers to all through Christ.Exactly.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:29 PM | Comments (0) |
Tuesday Photoblogging
More here.
Posted by bubba138 at 05:42 AM | Comments (0) |
June 06, 2005
Democrats Dumping on Dean
Finally established Democrats are calling out Howard Dean for his extreme rhetoric. The most amazing thing isn't that Democrats are speaking out against him but that (1) they seem surprised at Dean's spewage, and (2) took so long to notice.
After all, the majority of Dean's rhetoric occurred before he was made DNC chief. It is not as if the Democrats did not know what they were getting when they elected him. It speaks to the absolute deafness of the DNC that they thought their biggest problem was/is that of motivation/mobilization -- that they thought all they needed to turn the corner was an super-energized cheerleader. But as S&A noted last February, the Dems assessment was wide of the mark:
Many think Dean will reignite the party, but last election showed that ignition was not the party's problem. As John Kerry oft points out, he received the second highest vote total of any presidential candidate. This shows that Democrats were more motivated -- more ignited -- than ever before. This fact was brilliantly illustrated by the days upon days worth of tin-foil-hat demonstrations during the Republican convention. The Democrat flame burned brightly in 2004 -- and it scared the be-jeebers out of middle America. G.W. Bush recieved the highest vote total in history, precisely because moderates saw how important it was to squelch the Democrat flame.No the Democrat's biggest problem has little to do with energy and everything to do with policy...or lack of it.Now the Democrats are cementing their lurch into looney land by making Howard Dean their standard bearer -- consigning America to continued and increasing Republican domination. That is bad for the Democrats. It is bad for America too.
Consider, where do the Democrats stand on the current situation in Iraq? We know they are against everything Bush does, but what is their plan? They have none. Even' John Kerry's much touted plan for Iraq mirrored the President's point-for-point. The one distinctive was that Kerry wanted to change the push back the deadline for the national vote. We can now all see what a mistake that would have been.
Where do the Democrats stand on Social Security? We know they are against everything Bush does, but what is their plan? They have none. Their vision for Social Security is to maintain what we have at the expense of my and younger generations. They advocate keeping legal a system that is based upon the same principles as Charles Ponzi's infamous scam, principles that are illegal in any other context.
Where do the Democrats stand on the war in Iraq and the war against terrorism? We know they are against everything Bush does, but what is their plan? They have none. Their best solution is to isolate ourselves from the globe, and only participate internationally to give money away. (How much money? Only more, more, more.) Only then, they postulate, will the bad guys somehow be overcome with our love and leave us alone.
Where do the Democrats stand on America? If they are like Dean, they believe a good chunk (30, 40, or 50%) of Americans are evil, no good, lazy industrialists that live off the sweat of the working classes. Even a goo portion that do work for a living are stupid, uneducated, uninformed, hypnotized, blind followers of Reichmister Karl Rove.
Are the Republicans perfect? Far from it. But what sets Republicans apart from Democrats in this period of history is that they believe in America. Republicans believe in Americans and their ability to make their own choices. Republicans subscibe to the belief that our international intentions are good, not driven by profit or a lust for blood. Republicans do not see a conflict in maintaining personal responsibility and helping those in need. Republicans believe that men inherently desire freedom above personal gain or sectarian attachment. They believe the global spread of democracy promotes world-wide security.
In short, Republicans believe.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) |
Monday Photoblogging
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June 05, 2005
Sunday Photoblogging
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June 04, 2005
Saturday Photoblogging
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June 02, 2005
Thursday Photoblogging
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June 01, 2005
Wednesday Photoblogging
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A Matter of Priorities
Jay Reding notices the same thing S&A did last week.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:03 PM | Comments (0) |
Memo to Fellow Californians
If you buy a house on the edge of a cliff, plan on it not being there forever (photos here).
Posted by bubba138 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) |
Islam's March Against Terror
What if a Muslim March Against Terror were held and no one showed up? Well that's just about what happened last week when Kamal Nawash of the Free Muslims Coalition (FMC) organized such a march so unimpressive the world barely stopped to notice.
Why was it so sparsely attended? Perhaps because the more influential, "moderate" Muslim organizations refused to participate:
Noticeably missing from the list of over 80 sponsors Nawash rounded up was any of the Muslim groups that claim to be moderates, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Though these groups pay lip service to opposing terrorism, they couldn’t put their money where their mouth is and bring themselves to stand side-by-side with the Free Muslim Coalition.But organizations such as CAIR, for instance, have pointedly refused to condemn Islamic terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, or even specific Islamic terrorist attacks. The best example of the latter occurred after the murder, burning, stoning, and mutilation of four American contractors in Fallujah. CAIR only condemned the mutilation as contrary to Islam, but did not condemn specifically the murder, burning, or stoning of the men—a position that was also taken by a leading Fallujah cleric.
MPAC’s apologist agenda has also become transparent. In a June 1999 publication, MPAC argued that Hezbollah’s 1983 attack killing 241 Americans in Lebanon was not a terrorist attack. From its "Position Paper on U.S. Counterterrorism Policy": "Yet this attack, for all the pain it caused, was not in a strict sense, a terrorist operation. It was a military operation, producing no civilian casualties—exactly the kind of attack that Americans might have lauded had it been directed against Washington’s enemies."
Posted by bubba138 at 09:37 AM | Comments (0) |
Middle Class Shifts Right
The Washington Times reports the Democrat's losses of middle-class voters is at a crisis level:
The Democratic Party, the self-proclaimed defender of the middle class, was trounced by Republicans among those voters in the 2004 election, according to a Democratic advocacy group that says the party faces "a crisis with the middle class."The reason for this? The Democrat's "big tent" holds too many splintered interests:The report says the economic gains of Hispanics have translated into strong Republican gains, as have economic strides across every category, save for black voters.
"As Americans become even modestly wealthier their affinity for Democrats apparently falls off. With middle income voters, it is Democrats -- the self-described party of the middle class -- who are running far behind Republicans, the oft-described party of the rich," the report says.
Polls show that voters identify the Democratic Party as the party of the middle class and that Democrats beat Republicans on middle-class issues such as jobs, health care and education, but that hasn't translated into votes, said Jim Kessler, policy director for Third Way, which was created after the 2004 election with the goal of "modernizing the progressive cause."Number 4 or 5 behind other interests. These would be interests like Hollywood, Eco-extremism, the GLBT lobby, and a peace movement that sides with dictators and murderers while calling the American President a nazi. Each of these causes run counter to the interests of the middle-class family that is trying to provide for and raise children with some sense of morality, take care of aging parents and maintain a sense of security in an ever more dangerous world."Middle-class voters think Democrats care about issues they care about, but they don't care about the middle-class voter as much as they care about other voters -- that they're No. 4 or 5 on the priority list," Mr. Kessler said. Put another way, he said, "they think Democrats care about somebody else's schools, health care, jobs."
Posted by bubba138 at 08:49 AM | Comments (0) |
Ben Stein: Not a Felt Fan
OUCH:
Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?I'll say it again: OUCH.Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.
That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.
Update: Taranto over at Best of the Web points out that Felt's contribution may have been a high-water mark for main-stream media, but it did not work out so well for the Democrats in the long run:
Yet consider what has happened in the years since Watergate. The Democratic Party suffered a series of electoral defeats and today is arguably in its weakest position since before the New Deal. During the same period, the press has seen a steady erosion in its public esteem.This is in part because both the Democrats and the press learned the "lessons of Watergate" too well. The press is constantly seeking the next scandal, and the Democrats and the liberal left have taken to portraying policy disagreements as criminal coverups--the impulse behind both the Iran-contra scandal and the Valerie Plame kerfuffle. As if to underscore the futility of it all, yesterday, hours before the Felt revelation, the Boston Globe published an op-ed by Ralph Nader and some other guy arguing that President Bush should be impeached for liberating Iraq.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:07 AM | Comments (0) |
Beating the Clinton Drum
The Washington Post with this month's installment of "Bill Clinton wants to be General Secretary:"
"Some of the problems that have bedeviled him at home and made him controversial don't really exist abroad," Magaziner said. "My sense is he wants to make his ex-presidency one where he has really major accomplishments in the world."In the United States, the debate over Bush's approach to the world and Clinton's -- between force and persuasion -- remains unsettled. But it seems apparent which approach is more winning abroad. While Bush has generated deep suspicion, especially in Western Europe, Clinton is highly popular, European commentators said.
Europeans who chafe at Bush respond to Clinton's "inclusive, soft-toned way of communicating with the world, and especially with Europeans," said Arnout Brouwers, a prominent Dutch editor who has studied American politics in Washington with the German Marshall Fund. "His personal history, his charms, even his personal failings, helped people identify with him as 'one of us.' "
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, a friend of Clinton's, agreed. "The reason Bill Clinton is popular in Europe is very simple: He just is. He is a man of great charisma," Kohl said in a brief interview after a meeting with Bush in Washington.
Asked about Clinton's dream of heading the United Nations, Kohl said: "I do not know if Bill wishes to go to the United Nations. If he wants, I would support him."
Posted by bubba138 at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) |
Bush Up on Social Security
A new poll concerning Social Security is out today and says that if explained in a way that voters understand the benefit of private accounts, they give the proposed change a large margin of support.Yes, once they understand how it works, 52% of likely voters support the President's plan to partially privatize Social Security.
The mainstream press would have you believe President Bush is losing the Social Security battle. Don't believe them.
Update: One idea that isn't flying is that of cutting benefits for the wealthy while increasing their contribution...and you'd be surprised who is most against that strategy:
Liberals take an even harder line at denying benefits to the rich, saying the system should be considered a pension program. "It's a breach of faith to make the wealthy pay and get nothing in return," says Michael Ettlinger, director of economic analysis at the liberal Economic Policy Institute.The idea that rich and poor are treated alike in retirement programs is so central that Kennedy tried to block the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003 because it charged the rich more than the poor. "Hold on to your hat," he declared. "Today, Medicare. Tomorrow, Social Security."
Posted by bubba138 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0) |
Gerd or Angie
German columnist Marc Young says Germans are going to give themselves double of what they don't want...and it will be good for them:
The country has lately reminded me of the character in any number of catastrophe films that starts to scream how everyone is going to die. What's needed now is a cool-headed protagonist to come over and slap some sense into Germany and tell everyone to snap out of it.One wonders why there is such a widespread Germanic panic over "American-style capitalism" when their unemployment rate is more than double that of the U.S.And that's where we get to the point of this column: Sure, I'd pick Schröder as someone I'd chat with over a beer, but would I vote for him, if I could? While he certainly seems to be aware that tough choices need to be made in order to tackle the myriad problems plaguing Germany, I'm not so sure large sections of his party are.
Fears of "American-style capitalism" descending upon Germany's precious social market system might be overblown, but that constant pressure from the left has kept Schröder from taking more dramatic steps to reduce the ranks of Germany's unemployed -- currently near 12 percent of the total workforce. And oddly, that failure has buoyed Merkel's Christian Democrats, who most likely will impose more drastic measures to spark economic growth if they get elected.
In effect, Germans don't like what Schröder has done, so they're going to put somebody in office that will give them a double portion of it. Such a disconnect may be illogical, but if it brings to Berlin a government that can shake Germany out of its current stupor, then so be it.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:23 AM | Comments (0) |