Hustle the East

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."

~ Rudyard Kipling, The Naulahka

What do you expect when you run a bridge through Oakland?

Officials: Crack may keep Bay Bridge closed past Tuesday

Obama and Congress want this type of medical care for everyone

Further evidence of the superiority of altruistic, government-provided medical care:

At least 1,200 veterans across the country have been mistakenly told by the Veterans Administration that they suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease.

More than 10,000 veterans exposed to possibly infectious bodily fluids while undergoing endoscopic procedures at three VA hospitals in the Southwest.

Nothing like this ever happened before guns were invented

New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica lays the blame for Steve McNair's death squarely where it belongs: with America's gun culture.

Meanwhile, the benighted sorts over at Taki's Magazine insist that McNair's death had something to do with his decision to carry on an extramarital affair with an emotionally unstable 20-year old woman. Someone needs to bring these people into the 21st century!

Mr. Lupica also wisely reminds us that America's gun collectors, hunters, target shooters, and self-defense practitioners collectively murdered Yetunde Price, the half-sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Pay no attention to the reprobates who would say that Ms. Price's death might have been the result of her decision to choose, as her new boyfriend, a known gang member just out of prison on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and illegal firearms possession, and of the boyfriend's decision not to get Ms. Price to a hospital promptly after she caught a bullet intended for him.

Mr. Lupica noted that the pistol used to kill Mr. McNair was a semiautomatic. Perhaps, in a future column, he will tell us the type and caliber of gun used to kill Julius Caesar.

Somehow, it's just not the same

Audie Murphy and 50 Cent share the distinction of having suffered more gunshot wounds than any other film actors.

Chump change you can believe in

Obama continues spending like a drunken Congressman. What depression recession?

Ahmadinejad: Neda's death is 'suspicious' - CNN.com

"CIA spokesman George Little responded, 'Any suggestion that the CIA was responsible for the death of this young woman is wrong, absurd and offensive.'"

Nah, they'd never do anything like that!

Stars and Stripes accuses U.S. military of censorship in Iraq - CNN.com

From the story:

CNN has been denied embed requests on occasion but never because of the past conduct of individual journalists.

Indeed. It is difficult to imagine an organization more servile to the regime than CNN.

Navy Vet Who Foiled Israeli Attack Honored

42 years later, the cover-up of the attempted massacre of USS Liberty continues. The truth is slowly leaking out.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen (18 March 1893 - 4 November 1918)

Rapper Dolla contracts lead poisoning, dies

Our cultural firmament is made darker by the extinguishing of this potty-mouthed idiot bright young star.

I'm too broken up to continue. Please excuse me.

Use a Gun, Go to College

Student who shot classmate to graduate, no jail time

Sadly, I don't believe we've heard the last of this sociopath.

Government-Run Health Care

Somehow, I'm supposed to be thrilled with the prospect of a similar system to this for me and my family.

Leni Riefenstahl, Call Home

Flickr pretend photographic adoration of the Leader is something new.

From My Cold, Dead Hands

Obama, Calderón: Assault-gun ban could curb border violence





I don't own one of these and I don't know anyone who does, but drop me a line if you know where I can get one cheap before these two buffoons heads of state get their way and ban them. My wife and I will have to park both our cars on the street to get it in the carport, but if it saves one life, it's worth it.

Proposition 1D

I have no interest in California's Proposition 1D, a falling-out among thieves over shares of the loot. But Andrea Urton's letter (Proposition 1D bad for young children, San Jose Mercury News, April 12, 2009) struck a responsive chord with me.

California's budget is in deep, deep trouble. Proposition 1D would divert tobacco tax money from its "for the children" pretext commitment to the state's General Fund. California's off-highway vehicle (OHV) community will be familiar with this phenomenon, as their OHV registration (Green Sticker) fees have for years been used for every purpose but that for which they are legally and exclusively earmarked -- the construction and maintenance of OHV recreation areas.

Ms. Urton is Associate Director of EMQ FamiliesFirst in Campbell. No, I don't know why "FamiliesFirst" is run together like that; probably someone thought it was trendy. Her organization is 91% tax-funded, so she has a vested interest in the Prop. 1D squabble. I don't know if she has ever protested the persistent raiding of the Green Sticker fund.

Ms. Urton wants to know "What is wrong with our society that we would even consider disrupting... the values of investing in our children, keeping them safe and facilitating family strength come before anything else?"

Ms. Urton apparently hasn't noticed, but we've been doing just that for decades. Welfare, no-fault divorce, mandatory public "education", Section 8 housing subsidies, glorification of unwed maternity, a tax code that all but forces mothers into the workforce (for their own "liberation," of course), and a host of other intrusions into personal and family life, all work to undermine the very values Ms. Urton extols.

Of Pirates Large and Small

Of Pirates Large and Small

A discourse concerning Somali pirates, and their American, British, and Ethiopian counterparts.

The Audacity of Nope

NATO refuses Lyndon Baines Obama's request for combat troops.

Is it possible that someone finally checked a map and realized that the North Atlantic is some distance from South Asia? Or are the bureaucrats of this long-obsolete organization hoping to shake down the Avatar of Change™ for additional consideration somewhere down the line? I'd feel a lot more comfortable if NATO, on this their Historic™ 60th anniversary, had voted to disband.

A Few of My Favorite Things

A Few of My Favorite Things
Originally uploaded by Daryl Davis

A cheerful little, "Up Yours!" to all the self-righteous, meddlesome, Nanny State prigs out there. You know who you are.

I so need one of these

Ebony Wholeplate Camera