gun-totin-wacko cinema

I just remembered something the other day, as I drove past a movie theater which was advertising the new Bruce Willis film "Live Free or Die Hard". Not sure why this escaped me for so long, but there you are. Here's a fascinating story...

A couple years ago, I came home from work one night, and when I looked at my Yahoo start page online, I saw a post from that bastion of taste and style, The National Enquirer. It mentioned something about a new movie that was going to be made, called "Die Hard IV". I looked at the article, because well, I'm a red-blooded American male. Die Hard is a matter of importance to us.

The article said that the movie had been green-lighted, but that at the moment there was nothing much to go on- not even a script. The movie (or perhaps gossip) columnist asked people to send in their ideas for a plot, with the winner getting $200.

Fifteen minutes later, I sent off my entry. It was as follows:

Die Hard IV:

John and his wife Holly have divorced. Holly has taken up with a younger man, leader of a gang of blow-dried Kaballah terrorists (played by Ashton Kucher). The climactic scene takes place at the Oscars, to which neither actor is invited. John and his sidekick, a Russian milkman named Tevye (played by Woody Allen) beat up all the terrorists, John beating his rival to death with a bottle of Kaballah water.

Meanwhile, a number of stars (most notably Madonna) show up to support the terrorists. Holly and Madonna get into a cat-fight, but later make up with a hot and juicy on-stage kiss during the show.

In the end, John is elected governor of California, where he balances the budget by imposing a 100% tax on everyone connected with “The Butterfly Effect”.

Remember, this came about a couple years ago. (2004, if I recall correctly). If you follow the whole Hollywood routine, it'll all make sense. And I must say, I think MY sidekick would have been the coolest ever. At least if you have a slightly twisted mind....

I would note that according to the later article announcing the winner, most of the entries mentioned Janet Jackson's breast. Very clever, I know. And quite topical, this being some six months after the Super Bowl in question.

As for my entry? Well, it was the easiest $200 I ever made.

And I got my name in The Enquirer. In the same issue with O.J. and Jessica Cutler, aka Washingtonnienne.

Sadly though, women don't seem terribly impressed with the line "I've been mentioned in The Enquirer". Though I admit, I never thought to use the OJ/Washingtonienne angle....

At any rate, my point is this: compare my plot idea to the one that was actually made, and then decide which one would have made a better movie.

Hollywood owes me a million dollars, at least.

Environmentalism and the American West

As I might have touched on before, I am now living in New Mexico. For personal reasons, and also because of the crappy state of affairs in my homeland of Michigan, I left last month. Still trying to get things going out here, but I have faith.

Last weekend, my sister and I went out horseback riding with a friend of hers. Now I'm a city boy through and through. I love the idea of riding horses, but this was the first time I've been on one since I was in high school, which is a long long time ago.

I made it through the day in one piece. I got tossed once at the very beginning, but that was it. We didn't go much faster than a walk, since the horses hadn't been out in a while and were a bit more feisty than we wanted. The host lives on a few acres, close to a state park, so we rode on over to the lake there, and then back. About 6-7 miles round trip.

As we rode back, I remember sitting there looking around me. We were out of sight of the lake and the people there, far from any roads, and with only a few houses in view. Off a bit to our left was a small herd of wild horses, maybe a dozen or so. And I realized for the first time ever, on a really deep, primal level, the attraction of The West.

It's hard to imagine if one hasn't ever been there. Sitting on a horse, in the middle of an open area. A short distance to the right was a small mountain range, or at least some good sized hills. In all other directions, just open ground. Fairly flat, but with some rolling terrain. The only sounds were the horses and the wind. You could see for miles, I guess, but there was very little to look at. Yet there was a sense of freedom, which made me long for a place that has more space yet. Somewhere like Montana, a place I've only seen a bit of. Someplace where you can just sit quietly on a horse and ride for miles without having to deal with another person.

And I recall thinking that I was At One With Nature in a way that the Gores of the world probably don't really grasp. I understand that there is pollution and that I'm not seeing the world in a perfectly natural place. But still, I felt a peace that one doesn't get in the city.

And if you have the chance to sit on a horse, alone with your thoughts in the open spaces of the West, you understand that this really is a privilege. It's not something that can be faked. And you find yourself wanting to protect it. I had a piece of gum in my mouth, and after a couple hours of riding, it was hard and completely tasteless. I wanted to get rid of it, but how? I didn't feel like swallowing it, and there were no trash cans nearby, but when I thought "I should just spit it out", I couldn't do it. It just seemed so.... indecent. Perhaps "immoral" would be a better word. I knew there was little chance anyone would ever step on it, but it still felt wrong. So I kept chewing that rock hard piece of gum for a couple more hours. I didn't feel any sense of triumph or morality over it. It just felt like it was the right thing to do.

I never felt that sense of nature in Michigan, even when out in the woods or on a lake. Much of it, I guess, is the scale. Michigan, even in the most pristine areas, is either wooded or built up. So it's rare to be able to see more than a couple miles at any time. Out here, it seems sometimes that you can see forever. If I ever get the chance to visit Montana for more than a few hours, I suspect it would be like that- after all, it's called The Big Sky Country for a reason.

In the end, it opened my eyes a bit. I'm not generally a person that throws my trash out on the side of the road by any means, but I'm not a fanatic about the environment either. Nor do I worship nature. But I do understand why so many people over the millenia have done so. It's amazing.

Well, it's time to bring this one to an end. So here's a thought, from a favorite song. This is from a New Mexico native, the late great John Denver (though he didn't actually write it. The composer was Kent Lewis). Still, it's kind of a pleasant thought that ties in with how I feel. The tune is called "Song of Wyoming", and here are the final few lines:

"... wakin' up on the range,
Lord I feel like an angel
Feel like I almost could fly
Drift like a cloud
out over the badlands
Sing like a bird in the tree
The wind in the sage
sounds like heaven singin'
A song of Wyoming for me
A song of Wyoming for me".

The newest winner

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted, but too much other stuff going on. Plus, I have a crappy internet connection, so it's slow going. At any rate, it's time to present the second winner of the G-T-W exclusive feature, the "WTF was he thinking?" award.

This time around we had only two nominees. The first was a pair of teachers in Indianapolis, who gave out their awards (not as cool or as well- thought-out as mine). Among the end of the year awards they gave out were awards for "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot". As Jenera remarked on the original post, "How insane!".

The second nominee was Hollywood writer Peter Mehlman, who made the usual leftist comparison of Bush to Hitler. The difference here was that Mehlman went further and argued that Hitler at least had the best interests of the German people at heart. You know, except for the part where he led them into a war against the 3 greatest powers of the day, and wound up destroying Germany completely for a couple generations.

On the other hand, according to this towering monument to intellect and history, Bush simply is a moron, whose ideas have no merit, no thought behind them, and prove that he doesn't even mean well.

Anybody that has read along with me over the last few months can probably guess which candidate I prefer. Mehlman is, by nearly any normal standard, a complete moron, who is blinded by his hatred of Bush. So he would be the likely winner, right?

Wrong. While I feel nothing but contempt for this idiot, he gets a pass. He clearly suffers from Bush Derangement Syndrome, or BDS. I'm told that this is now considered an actual psychological condition, which of course only afflicts leftists. In their insular, generally upper-class world, Bush really is an evil on a par with Hitler. And as I pointed out in the original post, far exceeding Stalin, Mao and the whack-jobs in North Korea,all of whom have the advantage of being Communists.

At any rate, I suspect that Mehlman really believes that Bush is worse than Hitler. The facts that can be brought out to prove him wrong would have no effect on his thinking. In his world, his statements are completely logical and truthful. So he knew what he was saying, and thought it through before he made the comparison. He's an idiot, but he's not guilty of carelessness, merely stupidity and/or insanity.

So, despite my true feelings that Mr. Mehlman is a moron, I have to give the award to the two unknown teachers in Indianapolis. Their asinine idea of giving out joke awards demonstrates a complete lack of the normal thought processes we take for granted. Their actions can't be excused by insanity or anything else. Therefore, I have no choice but to say to them

"WTF were you thinking?"

A quick suggestion

Anybody out there who believes in Truth, Justice, or The American Way, should sprint over to Gates of Vienna and check out today's posts there.

We've been sold out. Bush is speaking tomorrow at a Mosque, where he'll likely spout more "religion of peace" piffle. The US government is working with unelected officials from our neighboring countries to create an American version of the EU. And a real live "moderate Muslim" in Britain, a member of Parliament no less, is resigning because of death threats. He had the audacity to force the government there to request extradition of a couple brutal murderers from Pakistan. These animals tortured and killed one of his constituents, and he thought they should be punished. The Foreign Office disagreed, and apparently so do many British Muslims.

The governments of the West are selling out their people every chance they get. And they're no longer even pretending to care what we think.

Something has to give. Either we run the show or they do. Perhaps it's time we show them who it is. Because before too long, it'll be too late.

Another solid candidate

And we don't need to fear... I was concerned that I'd have to give the "WTF was he thinking?" award for this week to the Indianapolis teachers.

But our leftist friends have come through. We have another, probably better, candidate. A writer in Hollywood (there's a shocker) named Peter Mehlman wrote a piece the other day in which he went a bit further than usual. Rather than explain to us in the usual detail that Bush=Hitler (I've written in the past that Bush never equals Stalin or Mao, both of whom did more damage to their own countries than to others. But the point there is that they were both Communists, and therefore Good. Hitler being a Fascist, was Bad. Never mind that Nazi means National Socialist. But I digress)

At any rate, Hitler, while he did slaughter millions of Jews, Gypsies, Gays, Slavs, mentally and physically Handicapped; started a war that killed tens of millions of people and so on; had one advantage over Bush: He meant well. Bush of course, doesn't.

The supreme irony here, of course, is that Mehlman, as most readers have likely already figured out, is... A Jew.

Of course, one could also point out that he comments about how "everyone from Helen Thomas on down" says Bush is the worst president ever. Not sure why, other than being 372 years old, leftist, and god-awful ugly, Ms. Thomas is so important that she rates being on top. Aside from her liberal credentials, which are impeccable. That right there could perhaps earn Mehlman a nomination.

But why pile on? At any rate, for his incredibly stupid comments, Peter Mehlman is nominated for the second "WTF was he thinking?" award.

Oh, and a big old hat-tip to Ace Of Spades for this one.

A new candidate

Well, after a quiet week, we have another candidate (two actually) for the "WTF was he thinking?" award. Not sure whether it's a case of he or she, but it doesn't matter. Any time a schoolteacher gives a kid an award for "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot", there's something seriously wrong.

So the two unnamed teachers in Indianapolis are nominated for the second round of WTF was he thinking. Congratulations.

Idiots.

Coolest thing ever

A video of England's legendary Zimmers. Watch and enjoy!







Oh, and to explain further, here's a bit more about them.

Scare tactics

Just saw this article on Yahoo. Apparently, with the leftists there on the verge of getting their butts handed to them in the election for parliament, they've discovered that democracy is dangerous:

"the left and centrists said a crushing right-wing majority was unhealthy and threatened democracy."

Of course, a crushing left-wing majority would be A Good Thing.

Poor babies.

Well this is just.... odd

Feel sorry for the girl's parents, but wow. What are the odds? I also feel badly for the manufacturer, cuz they're gonna get hammered.

Deservedly or not.

And the winner is....

Jimmy Carter. Congrats to the former president for being the first ever winner of the G-T-W "WTF was he thinking?" contest. It wasn't really even all that hard to pick our winner.

The first nominee was Phillip Wellman, the minor league baseball manager who inspired it all. He gets a pass because, while he was completely obnoxious and way over the top, he was presumably trying to be entertaining.

The second nominee was Gary Sheffield of the Detroit Tigers, for his "Hispanics are more common in baseball because they're easier to control" lecture. He gets a pass because, as more people commented on the topic, it turns out that there is some degree of truth to it. I never knew that players from outside the US are not "drafted" in the normal way. The teams just find youngsters (Thanks to Ernie Harwell for that term), bring them to the US, and pay them whatever they can get away with. Given the desperation of these kids to make it and avoid going back to a life of poverty in Guatemala or wherever, the money is appallingly bad.

In fact, Sheffield might deserve a degree of praise. Perhaps his comments will bring this out into the open, and force MLB to change the way they do business in Latin America. Not necessarily likely, but it could happen.

Which brings us back to Dhimmi Jhimmi. There are no excuses for his particular brand of stupidity. I still shake my head in wonderment when I read this:

'In the Soviet Union, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko laughed at Carter's human rights record behind his back, but knew how to manipulate Carter in public. Gromyko browbeat Carter, telling him the USSR's health care and housing trumped America's. "I couldn't argue," Carter winced in his book, "Living Faith." "We each had a definition of human rights, and differences like this must be recognized and understood."' (emphasis added)

As I mentioned in the original post, there's no logical basis for Carter's statement here. The facts would be easy for anyone to discover, especially if one has the CIA, the NSA, Congress, and the entire US government to assist your research.

So congrats to our worst ex-president. I suspect we'll be seeing him a lot more in the next few years.

And as commenter Eduardo Stump said, Carter might even be a candidate for a "WTF was he thinking?" lifetime award. Maybe I'll hold off on that kind of prestigious award until the next time he opens his ignorant mouth.

Which will likely be another week or two.

Cool bit of audio

Just found this clip. It's possibly the coolest song ever. It's from 1947. My dad had the song on a 78 speed record, but it was a special type of disc, so it warped and died.

I've been looking for it pretty much since I got on the internet, and just found this clip. Thanks to Stephen Howard for having it on his page.

Enjoy the dulcet tones of "Humphrey the Sweet Singing Pig", by The King's Jesters.





And if you doubt the coolness factor, check out the original record itself.

Hometown blues

Not that I really care anymore, since I haven't lived there for 20+ years, but I just looked up the old hometown, and looked at the census data.

In the time frame that roughly matches my lifetime, the population has declined by approximately 50%. The population's been dropping since the 1950s. This would seem to be a serious problem.

Sadly though, the people in charge are still clueless. The City Council takes long vacations to discuss urban problems, the Mayor uses City funds as his own personal bank account (allegedly), and throws a temper tantrum when asked about it, the schools are garbage (a study by the US government some years back found roughly half the population functionally illiterate), and on and on.

And they're unable- or unwilling- to do anything about it.

Fortunately, it's not my concern. Talk about "white flight", but the fact is that, to the best of my knowledge, every single person I know that lived in Detroit has either moved out or died. And that's over the last 20 years. To my knowledge, the last person of my acquaintance to live there was my uncle, and he passed away some 15 years ago.

It's a dead city, and it's providing a blueprint for other cities in Michigan. All the places that were built on the auto industry are following in Detroit's tracks. Flint, Saginaw, and now Lansing( my current home) are either dead or dying. All making the same mistakes. And it's not getting better, in part because of the idiot politicians around here. When you have a single-state depression, it's your own fault. Do something right- or at least, do something.

But they won't. And a lot of people are leaving. In a week or so, I'll be among them. Perhaps I'll be back, maybe even as soon as next year, but I don't see it. Other than my family, there's not really much here. Love the State, but the people... not so much.

So we'll see. It's been getting worse over the last 25 years, and the people running the State still haven't figured out what to do about it. So it just keeps getting worse.

Ah well. Just a few more days.....

Another nominee

Here we have another nominee for our brand new feature: Gary Sheffield, of the Detroit Tigers. Last week, Shef announced that if he were suspended for throwing a bat, he would inform the world about a huge conspiracy.

It turned out to be the fact that Blacks are not as common in Baseball as they used to be. Since it's obviously not a lack of athletic gifts, then it must be because baseball is actively trying to recruit more Hispanics. Why, you ask?

Well according to what he told GQ (hat tip to With Leather) it's because... '[It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them"'.

Brilliant, eh?

On the other hand, not unusual for him. Again via WL, here's a link to some of his all-time best.

So for managing to look like a racist, even though some of his best friends are Hispanic, and once again showing why athletes shouldn't be allowed to speak in public, Gary Sheffield gets a great big "WTF was he thinking?"

That gives us 3 nominees for the inaugural award. Anybody can vote, just leave a comment here. If nobody votes, then I get to decide. The winner will be in the running for the monthly award.

As a clarification, I've decided that I obviously have to nominate Phillip Wellman, the moron that started the whole idea. Together with Jimmy Carter, we now have 3 nominees. Oh the joy!

Warm fuzzy memories

Anybody that grew up in the Detroit area during the 70s, as I did, will remember certain things. I just found on youtube a video that puts it all together.




This is an absolutely iconic commercial for Detroiters of my age. It's for Faygo, the local soft drink, (and something to be experienced. Faygo Red Pop is awesome, and if you've ever had Rock & Rye, well consider yourself blessed).

A tiny bit of history. The boat they're on is one of the Boblo boats. Once upon a time, Boblo Island was the local amusement park. Located in the Detroit River on the Canadian side. (Fun fact I just discovered: It's actually Bois Blanc island. Heard the name, and never realized they were one and the same).

Riding the Boblo boats to the Park is one of the great memories of my youth. Truly a tradition there. On the other hand, I recall my last trip: I was 17, about to start college. My two oldest sisters had graduated college that spring, and for some reason we decided to go to Boblo. All I really remember was going on one specific ride... It was in the middle of the Park, and it was one of those spinny rides. That day reinforced something that I didn't keep in mind very well. I don't do spinny rides. I remember sitting between my sisters, moaning that I was gonna puke. They just kept telling me to look at them rather than outside the car, so I wouldn't.

My response was that if I looked at them, I'd puke on them.

In the end, I made it off in one piece. For the rest of the day, whenever we passed that ride, I had to look to the side- just looking at it made me queasy. Needless to say, I've never done a spinny ride since.

Anyhow, back to the commercial. I've loved it all along, and over the years, I've found some websites devoted to Detroit as it used to be, and this always gets mentioned.

True fact: A few years back, I was visiting a school friend and her husband and son. We were watching TV, and this commercial popped up. She and I were just standing up for something when it started. We immediately started singing along and swaying to the music just as they do in the commercial. Her family just stood there watching us, puzzled. As soon as the commercial ended, we came out of the reverie, and went about our business, like nothing had happened. Of course, we had to explain it to her husband...

That, my friends, is what you call effective advertising. When people sing along and immediately are transported back in time by your commercial twenty-some years later, you done good.

One final note: If you weren't grooving to this commercial, then I think you're dead.

A lesson on what I should have known

Do you recall the story of Jessica Cutler? She's the woman that started a blog called Washingtonienne, in which she wrote about her prolific and varied sex life. The part that caught the most attention was that she was working as a staffer for a congressman at the time, and her partners- one can't call them "lovers"-were also working for the Government. A big sex scandal was promised, with some chuckling that the evil Republicans would get their payback for the Clinton scandal.

Didn't happen, of course. Most of the people were too minor for anyone to care.

The blog lasted only a couple weeks before she was "outed" by another blog. In the end Ms. Cutler was fired, and one might say disgraced, over her admissions of sex for money, sex with up to 6 men (not at the same time), sex with married men, etc. A tawdry tale indeed.

Okay, enough background. I first heard of all this back as it was unfolding. I read the blog as posted somewhere, and even took part in some online discussions. I only made one post, and I do recall that the words "skank" and "pathetic" were among those that I used.

I also recall comparing her to a woman I once knew, who was so screwed up that sex seemed to be her way of finding a purpose in life. This particular woman asked me (her boyfriend had just dumped her, proclaiming that he didn't see her as someone he wanted to marry) "how can you sleep with someone for 5 years if you don't love them?"

Given how often this woman bragged about her prowess and appetite, and that her boyfriend was a stereotypical Frat Boy, I almost asked her if she was joking. But since she was pretty upset, I refrained.

At any rate, in my mind Jessica was equivalent to her. Perhaps so, perhaps not. Always tough to analyze someone you've never met.

And that was pretty much the end of my interest in the whole Cutler affair. Not long afterwards, she posed for Playboy. Yes, she's pretty attractive, though not IMHO gorgeous. I did see the pictures. Liked them too. And then I forgot about her. (insert "typical man" joke here, if you go that way)

But now, Jessica's being sued by one of the Washington men, claiming that it's an invasion of privacy "for public revelation of private facts". And she recently filed for bankruptcy, in part due to this lawsuit. Which brought it all back to my mind, and I've since glanced at her current blog.

So I was reading all this, some of her comments on the story that made her infamous, and the later events. And somewhere along the line, someone- I assume it was Cutler herself- pointed out that among other things, she lost her job; her privacy; and in some ways, her name. And while she's adapted well to it all, even turning the Blog into a "fictional" book, still she went through a lot. I kind of wonder how her parents took to the entire thing, for instance.

So it makes me wonder. Reading her current blogs, she might still be a "skank", assuming everything she writes is true. She might even be "pathetic", assuming my bit of psychoanalysis was correct. But it still must have been a bit of a hard time for her to go through, when the story first broke. And it's gotta be tough to have someone suing you. So maybe people were a bit hard on her.

I don't know. When you proclaim on your website that "I am a published author who jumps out of cakes for money", I think you're embracing your infamy. Shame doesn't appear to be part of her makeup, but perhaps it's something she covers up.

I dunno. I do think it was a bit harsh for me to proclaim someone I've never met a skank, and call her pathetic to boot. But then, I'm sure she heard both terms a lot in those days. I doubt she'd be bothered. Or even interested.

Doesn't matter. I doubt I'll ever meet her, and if I did, I don't imagine that I'd be introducing her to my parents, if you get my drift. From reading her blog, I doubt that if we met I'd be impressed, or vice versa. Likely, we'd say a few words and that would be it. No wild "he'in and she'in" either. Hell, I doubt even then we'd have much to say.

But still, she's a person and has to live her life. And for me to judge her on it, without remembering that the things I read over my cereal actually affect her, is wrong. She has to live with the outcome of whatever happened back then. All I have to do is pontificate on it.

Guess who's got the easier job?

I guess I'm finally learning not to judge people, a lesson I should've picked up a long time ago. Ah well. Sometimes I'm a slow learner.

Lovely summer in Michigan

Ugh. Yesterday, I finally got around to changing over my bed for summer. Took off the flannel sheets and the down comforter and replaced with something a bit lighter. So today it's all of 60 degrees out, and the weather forecast calls for a low tonight of around 40. Yeech.

But, this being the Midwest, no need to despair. Thursday it's supposed to be 90.

Wonderful, ain't it?

One for the WTF file

I'm always emailing hither and yon with a friend, over many issues. The other day, I sent him this quote:

'In the Soviet Union, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko laughed at Carter's human rights record behind his back, but knew how to manipulate Carter in public. Gromyko browbeat Carter, telling him the USSR's health care and housing trumped America's. "I couldn't argue," Carter winced in his book, "Living Faith." "We each had a definition of human rights, and differences like this must be recognized and understood."' (emphasis added)

It comes from the 7th part of this series about Carter's "leadership" of the US. As I told my friend:...this story tells me everything I need to know about him. If the man's incapable of responding to that lame of an assertion (read it again if need be), then his moral relativism and ignorance are staggering...

I mean, I think I could have rebutted it when I was 15. Of course, housing and medical care (not that the Soviets could have topped anything save a grass hut and witch doctor respectively with their system) aren't what I think of as "human rights" issues anyway. So dumbass caved on everything, just because he couldn't rebut an obvious untruth...

So for his inability to face up to a representative of a repressive and morally bankrupt regime, despite having the entire US Intelligence establishment at his service- which I suspect could have easily provided the ammunition to rebut Gromyko- Carter decided that "differences like this must be recognized and understood."

How stupid can someone be?

So for his complete inability to respond intelligently to what can only be called a taunt, I give "Dhimmi Jimmy" Carter a great big

WTF was he thinking?

************

A quick note. I'm thinking perhaps I should add to this new feature the ability to nominate people, and then select a winner every week, month, etc. Any comments?

A new feature

I was reading up on sports today, and I came across this link. I'm almost hesitant to link to it, because it's so incredibly over the top, but I had a thought.

As I sat here watching the video, all I could think was "WTF is this idiot doing? Is he trying to be funny, or what?"

So I've decided to start a new feature: "WTF was he thinking?" It'll be my little attempt to highlight the absolute stupidest things I see. It'll be random. Whenever I read something that pops that thought into my head, up it'll go.

I won't do a lot of commentary on the items I post. In this case, I'll merely mention that, if I ran the team this guy manages, he'd probably be out of a job before he gets to the clubhouse.

Completely inexcusable.

Telling it like it is

Just a quick post. I came across this piece by Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald Reagan.

I've never tried drugs. Of any kind. Never smoked a joint, never put anything up my nose, never even stuck a cancer stick in my mouth.

And I'm damn glad of it.

I couldn't imagine going through this kind of crap, just because I needed some way to keep awake for the whole night. Or whatever it is that prompts people to do drugs.

Robin Williams said it best years ago (paraphrase alert): Anything that causes paranoia and impotence? Sign me up.

It would be nice to see these kids get through it and fix their lives. But they seem to have the instant gratification gene. And on top of that, they also are young and successful enough to be indestructible, right?

Some time ago, I did a post on Britney Spears, and how tough things must have gotten for her. Now it seems Lindsay Lohan is in the same boat, more or less. But she has less excuse, I think. I still hope she can get it together, but I don't know. I'm not sure that Rehab is intended to be a mini-vacation. It should be a cast-iron bitch, methinks.

Maybe they should be tied down and have water dumped in their faces until they scream for mercy. Maybe that would work, maybe not.

Thank God I just don't know.

Later.

Another bit of progress

Here's a quick link to a story by Michael Yon, probably the best journalist of the entire Iraq war. Not for nothing is he sometimes compared to Ernie Pyle.

Does this show progress? Absolutely. Would CNN or Reuters do a piece like this? Doubtful.

Oh, and here's a nice little excerpt about our Al-Qaeda friends. Clearly, in their minds morality is for the other guys:

"...the Al Qaeda (AQI) terrorists who had brazenly made Anbar province a home base and slaughter pad with their marketplace car bombs, beheadings, and reputation for hiding bombs intended to kill parents in the corpses of dead children they’d gutted.

Over time, AQI provided ample demonstrations of their ruthless and reckless abuses of power over civilians, shooting people for using the Internet, or watching television, or other “moral transgressions” such as smoking in public. AQI’s claim of fundamentalist piety proved to be a thin veneer that was quickly eroded by blatant drug, alcohol and prostitute use. "

Did you notice the part about gutting the bodies of dead children in order to hide bombs and kill the parents? Or the part about using prostitutes?

Do as I say, not as I do. But hey, they're essentially abiding by the same rules as their prophet.

Sometimes I think that we need a better "final option" for these terrorists.... er, "freedom fighters" as so many people in the US call them.

Later.