Chamblee54

One of the bloggers in the frequent folder here is Avitable. At the top of his homepage, he is riding in a convertible eating an ice cream cone. The other passenger is Adolph Hitler. The slogan below that is “tact is for pussies”.
He was recently sent five questions by Hilly. He invited his readers to give their answers in his comments. This is a “green” blog that recycles. These five questions will make the nucleus of a dandy post here.
1.) What is the one thing that a blogger can do to really annoy you? The one thing would be music players with auto start. Jasmine Cannick has an auto start player. It would have been rude to turn it off, so I had to hear a performance by Shirley Q. Liquor.
2.) Even though I HATE this phrase, do you consider yourself an “A List Blogger” or do you see it a different way? I am lucky to get into double digits most days. Technorati has me in the top 800,000. In honor of our new president, I am going to claim to be an ” O List Blogger”.
3.) If you did not work for yourself, what kind of job would you like to have? Something that does not cause brain damage, and where the checks don’t bounce.
4.) If I dared you to talk dirty to me, could you do it? Why or why not? It depends on who “I” is. If it was Avitable, I seriously doubt it. Mostly, I feel silly talking dirty.
5.) How many folders do you have in Google Reader and what are their labels? There is a file on my machine which does not allow me to use google products. This is the reason I went from Blogger to wordpress. As for the whole rss thing…I just do it manually. I have a frequent folder with shortcuts to the blogs. Drag the thingie into the firefox, and I don’t miss anything important.

There are a few things to like about Sarah Palin. She is not famous because of her husband or father.Todd is the decorative spouse, or “first dude”. She is pretty, especially for a grandmother in her forties. In the video going around this week, she sits with a stocking covered knee displayed. In much of the world, and in much of our own history, that would be a scandal.
It is known that candidates for public office are puppets. There are interests pulling the strings. If we are going to have an actor reading lines off a teleprompter, then it may as well be a pretty face.
OK, so much for nice things. This is a blog, it is not supposed to be fair. Fair is a baseball hit between first and third base. And this video is full of nonsense.
Will conservatives EVER quit whining about liberal media? The corporate media here is a profit attempting endeavor. They tell people what is convenient to say. With the internet, more people have access to the unwashed public. With the recent reprieve from the water shortage, maybe a few will take a shower.
Yes, there are people who still suspect that Trig is not really Sarah’s baby. Cajunboy has been on the story, and presents a summary of what is known ( Check the comments). At the very least, there were some strange things going on. The story of flying from Dallas to Alaska after starting labor… well, it just doesn’t hold water.
As for the family of Ms. Palin, there are some unique circumstances. You see, SEX was a big issue in the campaign. Gay marriage, abortion, sex education got a lot of attention, even more than 150k troops in a war eight time zones away. Ms. Palin was an advocate of abstinence only sex education. Her unwed daughter gets pregnant. Life is bad fiction. In a perfect world, yes, the family would be off limits. In this perfect world, girls would not get pregnant before their wedding night.
When BHO did a fist bump with his wife, there was lots of criticism. Mrs. O caught a lot of flack for saying that she was proud of America for the first time in her life. If Caroline Kennedy ever runs an election campaign, you can rest assured that the New York press will cover her every move. It is already happening, and she hasn’t even been appointed yet. Maybe she can buy the senate seat in Illinois. Oh, and this is for the Senate, not Vice President behind a 73 year old President.
In the interview, Ms. Palin was asked how she would have been treated if BHO had chosen her as his running mate. This is about as likely as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking her to be assistant Ayatollah.
Sarah Palin ( her name is spelled correctly) is going to be with us for a while. She is the photogenic heroine of the conservative movement. Between the makeup and a thick skin, she can take criticism. This video is just more preaching to the choir. 2012/2016 is a few years away, and the conservatives are not going to tire of her. Many of the rest of Americans already are.

There is a blog called “People who deserve it“. The basic concept is to describe examples of annoying people. The answer for everything is to hit the person in the mouth.
Did you notice the word people instead of man? PWDI does not discriminate. An example is #58 “Everything’s an emergency girl” “remind her you can’t cry wolf with a mouth full of fists”
A search of “about” or “terms of use” does not show that these people are kidding. It also does not show a face or name of who is responsible. The “about” page even says “On this space log, you will find examples of socially responsible reasons to punch someone in the face. And remember, we do it for the kids”
While it is understood that you should not take the internet literally, some people just do not get it. Add alcohol, anger, religion, and general human nuttiness into the mix, and a suggestion to hit a person because he/she is wearing sunglasses inside may be taken seriously. If the person is armed there might be fatal complications.
We have a violent society. Force is seen as the answer to a lot of problems. From the Gaza strip to the Standard restaurant, there is way too much might makes right. The verbal abuse of the Jesus Worship church fuels the fire. And then PWDI appears, and makes jokes about hitting women.
The internet has done very well without censorship so far. The appearance of irresponsible nonsense like PWDI should not be the final straw. The obvious answer is that PWDI should do an entry about themselves… that people who say to hit women need to taste a knuckle sandwich. But two wrongs do not make a right. HT to Andrew Sullivan.

PG was going to write about war and murder. Then he got an email. Man’s cruelty to his fellow man is not going to go away.
PG does not vouch for the accuracy of the following statements.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee…If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb… The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet…A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 minutes…A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death… Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories a hour…The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off… The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field…The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds…Some lions mate over 50 times a day… Butterflies taste with their feet…The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue…Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people…Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump… A cat’s urine glows under a black light… An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain…Starfish have no brains…Polar bears are left-handed…Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

JoemyG-d has been running videos of number one hits lately. Today, the numero uno is from 1967. It is by the Monkees, called “I’m a Believer”.
PG always liked the Monkees. They were the twelve year old’s band when he was twelve years old.
There was an article in the Saturday Evening Post about the “Pre Fab Four”, and a classmate of PG said that he was disillusioned. Certainly no one was confused about the made for tv nature of the band. The rumors…which turned out to be true…said that the Monkees did not play the instruments on their debut album. Still, a seventh grader is easily amused, and the show was fun to watch.
“I’m a Believer” was written by Neil Diamond, aka the Jewish Elvis. Mr. Diamond played guitar on the Monkees version of IAB.
IAB is part of the rock tradition of misunderstood lyrics. PG thought that Mickey said he “needed sunshine on my brain”. PG did not learn the truth for many years. One afternoon, he heard a band on the radio do IAB, and the lyrics were understood. What the song really said was, “when I needed sunshine I got rain. “

It is a notorious quote, used to fan the fires of war. It may yet lead to a nuclear Holocaust. The only trouble is, the famous quote is not exactly what he said.
The phrase in question is by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is the public face of the current government in Iran. The amount of power he holds is a matter of conjecture. The quote in question is about “wiping Israel off the map”. The exact quote is “Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.” Catchy, huh?
Many scholars maintain that what he really said was “”The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”. The original is a quote from Ayatollah Khomeini. It would seem that quote refers more to a change of government than a mass slaughter of Israelis. This is similar to the “regime change” that the US pulled off in Iraq, though hopefully not as expensive.
Mr. Khomeini was in charge of Iran after the Shah was evicted. During his tenure, Americans were held hostage at the US embassy, which upset a few people. Could it be that some want revenge for the hostages?
Another event of the Khomeini regime was a nasty war with Iraq. During this war, Iran bought weapons from the USA, with Israel serving as a middleman. This reporter does not know when Mr. Khomeini made the original call for regime change in Jerusalem. Was it before or after Israel helped ship weapons to Iran?
Getting back to Mr. Ahmadinejad, he is playing games with the quote. Whenever he is asked whether he called for the destruction of Israel, he changes the subject.
The source of this feature is THE MOSSADEGH PROJECT. Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh was the Prime Minister of Iran. He was overthrown by a CIA led coup in 1953. HTs also go to Detain This and the WordPress home page.

Every year, Lake Superior State University issues a list of words they would like to see eliminated. This year, in one paragraph, they not only described the process, but used a lot of the forbidden phrases.
“It’s that time of year again!”
Lake Superior State University “maverick” word-watchers, fresh from the holiday “staycation” but without an economic “bailout” even after a “desperate search,” have issued their 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. This year’s list may be more “green” than any of the previous lists and includes words and phrases that people from “Wall Street to Main Street” say they love “not so much” and wish to have erased from their “carbon footprint.”
This list is also a good excuse for slack bloggers to put up yet another post. Last year, this reporter posted this list. The very next post to come up at APWBWGTTD was our social chair displaying her engagement ring. There is no guarantee that this will happen again.
So, here we are again. Below is the list of wirty dords from Michigan. If you want more commentary, go here.

maverick,first dude
wallstreet-mainstreet,bailout,____monkey
<3, icon-iconic
green,carbon footprint/carbon offsetting,game changer
staycation, desperate search,not so much
winner of five nominations,it’s that time of year again

There is a war going on in the Gaza Strip. BHO and GWB are on vacation. In the case of GWB, this is probably for the best. Meanwhile, BHO is dodging the hot potato in Gaza, and hoping the inauguration can be moved back to March 4.
BHO has a dandy website, change.gov. A big part of it is devoted to his agenda. It is interesting to see what this says about foreign policy.
The first section is about the “greatest threat” to America. To BHO, this is the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Queda. The call is for increased troop levels in Afghanistan. As for the ticking time bomb ( with nukes) in Pakistan, there is one sentence… ” Obama and Biden will increase nonmilitary aid to Pakistan and hold them accountable for security in the border region with Afghanistan”
The next section is about the “gravest danger” (as opposed to greatest threat). This refers to the spread of nuclear weapons. There is no mention of Israel getting rid of its nukes.
Skipping over “Iran” and “Energy Security”, we get to the section “Renewing American Diplomacy”. The third “bullet point” is the Israeli Palestinian conflict. “Obama and Biden will make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority from day one. They will make a sustained push — working with Israelis and Palestinians — to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.”
The next section is Israel. At this point we see where BHO’s heart lies. This is directly related to what his campaign contributers have told him to think. “Barack Obama and Joe Biden strongly support the U.S.-Israel relationship, and believe that our first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel, America’s strongest ally in the region. They support this closeness, and have stated that the United States will never distance itself from Israel. “ During the July 2006 Lebanon war, Barack Obama stood up strongly for Israel’s right to defend itself from Hezbollah raids and rocket attacks, cosponsoring a Senate resolution against Iran and Syria’s involvement in the war, and insisting that Israel should not be pressured into a ceasefire that did not deal with the threat of Hezbollah missiles. He and Joe Biden believe strongly in Israel’s right to protect its citizens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have consistently supported foreign assistance to Israel. They defend and support the annual foreign aid package that involves both military and economic assistance to Israel and have advocated increased foreign aid budgets to ensure that these funding priorities are met. They have called for continuing U.S. cooperation with Israel in the development of missile defense systems.
In other words, nothing is going to change. A “key diplomatic priority” just doesn’t hold up against a “first and incontrovertible commitment”. The slaughter of children in Gaza will continue.

PG was upset, and, as is frequently the case, can blame nobody but himself.
He had been saving change for years. The coins go from his pocket, to a bowl, into four peanut butter jars. There is one jar for each type of coin. The machine at Kroger takes a percentage, so PG spent a few delightful afternoons rolling the coins.
The last time PG had taken coins to the bank, the rules were different. You had to have your account number on every roll. Now, in the modern age, the account number was not wanted, but standard coin wrappers were. PG had to take his box home, and re wrap all those coins per the new procedure.

The headlines are so antiseptic… “Israel air strikes demolish Hamas compounds, over 200 dead”
It seems there is a pecking order for tragedy. When it is a Caucasian English speaking American, the media goes bonkers. A dark skinned American gets a more muted response. If the deceased lives in a foreign country, the response is a bit less. If the dead children live in a territory next to Israel, they might as well not exist in the first place.
It is a familiar story. The rockets were coming out of the Gaza Strip, and landing on Israel. The Israeli government decides to take action. No one is really sure how many of the dead were Hamas, and how many were children. Children born into a hell hole, who had no control over who their neighbor is.
The response is predictable. The spokesman for the White House said “Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza.”
With the internet, people can leave comments when they read a story. In the yahoo system, comments are rated, and those with a low rating are not shown at first. You need to click on a link to read these comments. On the first page of the comments, all the ones not shown due to low ratings, all of them are pro Gazan.
Some of the pro Israeli comments make Israel look bad. Like this WAY TO GO ISRAEL! YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER LEFT THE GAZA STRIP IN THE FIRST PLACE!See what you get for letting the world dictate how you are to act! Israel, destroy these cowards from the face of the earth. Give them what they want, a martyrs death. So they can go to hell where allah, and mohammed are roasting eternally in hell’s fires.
There are a lot of people in Gaza. Some want them all killed. This is the solution of the Nazis. There is one more solution in the comments: We must send Preachers, Evangelist and Christian missionaries to the Gaza strip , Palestine, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan so that people can “saved” and turn from their wicked ways.

Now that the election is over, we can take another look at the war in Babylon. While our media seems to think we are winning, the truth is a tad more complicated.
Abbas Shawazin has a feature about the size ten salute given to our President recently. He offers this * ::||:: * as an emoticon for shoe. Be sure to leave spaces before and after, or you may wind up with a smiley face. Then you will have happy feet!
Mr. Shawazin talks about men with strange sounding names. This is normal for reports coming out of Babylon. There is a video showing a man beating a picture of Saddam Hussein with a shoe. Saddam liked to say “‘I am the one who made the barefoot Iraqis wear shoes.”
It is also noted that the shoechunker, Muntazer al-Zaidi, was a communist from Sadr City. The residents of Sadr City are known as being tough ghetto guys. Many of them are the core of the Shiite Sadr militia, which is going to be a force to deal with in the future Iraq.

Layla Anwar is an angry young lady. Here is a sample of her prose: ” Get ganged raped and tortured by your “liberators”, have acid thrown at you, be forced to shut up, lose your home, lose your kids, lose your parents, lose your husband, lose your brothers and sisters…But hey, be a lady now ! ” And you thought bloggers in this country had attitude. Do not read this if you are sensitive to cuss words. Ms. Anwar does not like “ALL THOSE WHO FAILED TO STAND BY ANTI-ZIONIST, ANTI-IMPERIALIST, IRAQ AND HER PRESIDENT THE MARTYR, HERO SADDAM HUSSEIN, WHO WAS LYNCHED BY NONE OTHER THAN THE AMERICAN IMPERIALISTS AND THEIR SECTARIAN IRANIAN SHIITE DOGS.”

Vanity Fair  has a good story about torture. This is one part of the Bush regime that has brought a lot of criticism.
The focus of the article is not morals, or whether torture is justified. The thrust of the article is whether or not torture gets good information. On this issue, there seems to be a lot of macho posturing, and talk show hosts who think that torturing the bad guys is a great idea. Many in the intelligence community see things differently.
The ticking bomb scenario gets a rundown. You all know this…a terror suspect is arrested, he knows where the nuke is planted, is torture justified to disarm the device. It is a favorite on talk radio. Back in the real world, a “retired senior officer who was privy to the agency’s internal debate, there was hardly any argument about the value of coercive methods: “Nobody in intelligence believes in the ticking bomb. It’s just a way of framing the debate for public consumption. That is not an intelligence reality.”
There is also the concept that men who are being tortured will say anything to make the suffering stop. What they tell you is not always the truth. Also, when a man is captured, any plans he knows about are going to change.
Several high profile cases are discussed. Many of the men have names which Americans find difficult to pronounce, and have a way of sounding alike. One was a person, who apparently was a greeter at a safe house for Al Queda. Our forces got the idea that he was important, and, after “extraordinary interrogation”, he confessed to a connection between Pre invasion Iraq and Al Queda. This was one of the arguments that was used to promote the invasion.
In one case, a detainee admitting to going to a web site that told how to make a “dirty bomb”. The CIA believed him, and added this to the charges against him. As the story unfolds: ”…his “confession” to reading instructions about building nuclear weapons on the Internet was cited in Mohamed’s Guantánamo charge sheet. Yet it was a joke: such a Web site, with instructions about how to refine bomb-grade uranium with bleach and a bucket, has been doing the rounds on the World Wide Web since at least 1994. In 2005, the conservative columnist Michelle Malkin cited it in her blog as evidence of al-Qaeda’s deadly intentions. She was swiftly disabused by readers, who, unlike the C.I.A. and M.I.5, immediately recognized it as satire”
There is going to be a new man in the white house soon. How he deals with the torture issue ( and the erosion of the rights of American Citizens) remains to be seen. BHO seems to stick his finger in the air before making a decision, and to see what political advantage can be made. The recent episode with Slick Rick Warren is a good example.
America and the world is waiting to see what happens.