The Saints and the Colts are 8-0. Cowboys are on a 4 game win streak and top of the NFC East. The Giants are on a 4 game losing streak.

And I am on a never ending rollercoaster of suck. Actually I would have improve in order to suck. Mediocre is an unattainable dream, above average is lost in the mists of antiquity.

People who seem to grasp the concept are doing thusly:

buzzion 79
Peoples Republic of Baltimore 76
Monkey Sleeping 76
paranoid polly 76
Aewl 74
Sockpuppet Steve 74
Jay in Ames 74
Red State NY 73
moflicky 73
svenster61 73
Martinis at Night 73
francisthegeek 73
DaveR 73
Superfly TNT 73

Thanks again to Ben for doing the dirty work.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:16 PM | Comments (47)
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No link for the pot-smoking case-fixing scofflaw.

Reading Dana Priest's summary and then the document itself, it seems to me that in some ways, Hasan was airing an important debate. I don't glean from the notes for his lecture that he was necessarily an Islamist fanatic, merely that he could see how Islam could be seen as incompatible with military service in Iraq and Afghanistan. His view is pretty close to what many critics of Islam argue. Of course, the power-points cannot convey the tone of content of his actual remarks, so I may be wrong. But as a piece of analysis, it's admirably candid and very clear about Islam's total rejection of a separation between church and state. It seems to me from this evidence that his looming deployment, and the impossibility of a conscientious discharge, were contributing factors to his mass murder. The lecture almost reads like a cry for help, rather than a warning.

Anything to protect Obama.

Posted by: Ace at 12:52 PM | Comments (439)
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The Democratic instinct to crush free speech is surpassed only its sister predisposition to crush religion. So it really is no surprise that Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey is suggesting that the IRS revisit the Catholic Church's tax-exempt status.

In her own words:

The role the bishops played in the pushing the Stupak amendment, which unfairly restricts access for low-income women to insurance coverage for abortions, was more than mere advocacy.

They seemed to dictate the finer points of the amendment, and managed to bully members of Congress to vote for added restrictions on a perfectly legal surgical procedure.

And this political effort was subsidized by taxpayers, since the Council enjoys tax-exempt status.

When I visit churches in my district, we are very careful to keep everything “non-political” to protect their tax-exempt status.

The IRS is less restrictive about church involvement in efforts to influence legislation than it is about involvement in campaigns and elections.

Given the political behavior of USCCB in this case, maybe it shouldnÂ’t be.

There are so many things wrong with this it's hard to know where to begin, so we'll just start with one of the most obvious: the tax-exempt status of churches, religious organizations, and other non-profits is not a subsidy. This insidious line of thought is characteristic of Democrats, who are so twisted that they believe whatever the government forbears to take by force of law is a "subsidy" the recipient should be thankful for. It is therefore something the Democrats wield against organizations like the Catholic Church which do not demonstrate sufficient deference to the all-powerful Government.

Representative Woolsey should be ashamed of herself. Not for her threat, which frankly is what religious Americans have come to expect from "progressive" Democrats. Rather, she should be ashamed for her ignorance.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:14 PM | Comments (291)
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I'm so proud of Time. Next we can move on shapes and colors! Like Big Boys and Growing Girls!

Golly Gee Willickers -- do you think maybe it's possible that Hasan's obvious terrorist sympathies were overlooked because he's a Muslim and there are special rules protecting Muslims? And that you could get your career ended in a hurry for asking the sort of questions you'd ask of any non-Muslim?

As everyone here keeps saying: If a white Christian reader of this blog was in the military and began writing letters to White Supremacist groups and openly stating his first loyalty was to "his race" with his country and constitution placing a distant second and third, it seems rather likely that investigations, and dishonorable discharges, would ensue.

So why not this guy?

Because the Muslim lobby screams bloody murder and goes on lawsuit jihads whenever a correligionist gets so much as three seconds of Stink Eye from anyone.

And this is killing people. People are being murdered due to hurt feelings being elevated above human life.

As it was long contended it would.

Army officials strongly deny any suggestion that Hasan's religion resulted in his being given special treatment. But one officer who attended the Pentagon's medical school with Hasan disagrees. "He was very vocal about being a Muslim first and holding Sharia law above the Constitution," this officer recalled. When fellow students asked, "How can you be an officer and hold to the Constitution?," the officer said, Hasan would "get visibly upset — sweaty and nervous — and had no good answers." This medical doctor would only speak anonymously because his commanders have ordered him not to talk about Hasan, he said.

This officer said he was so surprised when Hasan gave a talk about "the war on terror being a war on Islam" that he asked the lieutenant colonel running the course what Hasan's presentation had to do with health care. "I raised my hand and asked, `Why are you letting this go on — this has nothing to do with environmental health.' The course director said, `I'm just going to let him go.'" The topic of Hasan's presentation, the officer says, had been approved in advance by the lieutenant colonel.

The officer says he and another colleague complained to staff at the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, but got nowhere. "It was a systemic problem — the same thing was happening at Walter Reed," the Army Medical Center several miles away, where Hasan was working as a psychiatrist. (The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Hasan gave a similar presentation at Walter Reed in which he said Muslims should be released as conscientious objectors rather than being force into combat against fellow Muslims.) But "political correctness" inside the military, the officer asserts, insulated Hasan. "People are afraid to come forward and challenge somebody's ideology," he says, "because they're afraid of getting an equal-opportunity complaint that can end careers."

A retired four-star officer says that, based on the evidence gleaned so far, it was Hasan's career that should have been cut short. "They could have given — him a dishonorable discharge and said what he's doing works against good order and discipline," said the general, who also requested anonymity. But rather than any preferential treatment given to Hasan because of his religion, "My guess is he fell through the cracks," the general said.

And my guess that is General McCaffrey speaking, who emailed Michael Yon making the same basic point.

This investigation will go nowhere, because no one will ever admit they refrained from acting out of fear they would be punished and their careers terminated for doing so. In other words, the government has created a perfectly self-sustaining system of willful ignorance: They will cashier people who lodge complaints about people about to "Go Muslim," but, on the other hand, those people, having failed to take the necessary steps to protect human life, in order to protect their careers, will never have the guts to admit they did so, and will blame their inaction on other factors.

Which is just what the government wants: It wants these things swept under the carpet and deliberately overlooked, and it furthermore wants its very policy of sweeping these things under the carpet and deliberately overlooking them to itself be swept under the carpet and deliberately overlooked.

That's the way it perpetuates this scandalous indifference to security and human life: It has created such a perverse system of rewards and penalties that no one can publicly admit to being so monstrous and callous as to act according to that system of rewards and penalties. A system so corrupt that no one can admit to acquiescing to it.

Who can possibly come forward and declare: "Yes, I chose to allow a risk of human life to proceed undisturbed because I valued my own career more than life or my country's security"? No one can say that. The government has a system of penalties for whistle-blowers, but those dissuaded from whistle-blowing can never admit to being cowardly enough to have refrained from action due to government threat.

The system will remain in place, because no one dares admit the very existence of The System at all. The System requires denial of The System. In fact, that's rule one of The System.

And so we see here, everyone who could have acted to stop Hasan's murderous rampage quickly ascribes their behavior to any other motive -- well, we just need mental health professionals in the Army; even -- dare I say especially? -- mental health professionals who are themselves dangerous lunatics, because hey, personal experience and all -- rather than admitting to following the covert, cowardly policy the government actually favors and enforces. Secretly.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (170)
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My one hope, which won't be realized, is that the 12 soldiers are not referred to as 'victims'. They are casualties of war, as much as if they had been killed by an Islamic terrorist in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Here's the text of Obama's speech. He didn't call the dead 'victims' but did call the attack a 'crime'.

Livestream [ace]: This actually seems to be down at the moment, but the livestream of the memorial is here.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:43 AM | Comments (171)
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Really.

Fruit bats 1, me 0.

Fruit bats regularly engage in oral sex, according to groundbreaking new research published in Science magazine.

The study found that more than two-thirds of female short-nosed fruit bats (Cynopterus sphinx) performed fellatio on their sexual partners, and that they were rewarded with longer bouts of intercourse as a result.
Previously, the only animals known to carry out oral sex – apart from humans – were bonobo chimpanzees.

However, the study, by Libiao Zhang and his team of biologists from Guangdong Entomological Institute in China, found that female bats were enthusiastic fellators, with 70 per cent performing oral sex on their mate during intercourse.
Science magazine reported: “Both sexes groomed each other during courtship. But then came the shocker.

“After the male mounted the female from behind, she bent over and began licking his penis.”

Great. Another scientific study proving my life sucks. Thanks, science.

Didn't we already know this from Sesame Street?
more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:35 AM | Comments (139)
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Rounding up the polls that were already rounded up at Hot Air:

46% of Maine GOPers disapprove of Olympia Snowe, while only 40% support her. And 59% of Maine GOPers would chose a "more conservative alternative" in a primary contest. Only 31% would stick with Snowe.

The PPP poll blog speculates that if Snowe is to continue in office, she'll have to do so as an Independent.

For those who can't get enough of the "shoot the RINOs" stuff: Yeah, I happen to agree, this is a low-cost, high-possible-reward situation where, indeed, conservatives should get behind and support a challenger to Snowe, and not really care too much if she (predictably) leaves the party. She's simply not doing enough for the party on any issue.

Fact I wasn't aware of: 68% of Maine GOPers consider themselves "conservative," and among that majority, 56% disapprove of Snowe.

A pollster finds that Obama did in fact hurt Deeds in Virginia-- a majority of voters there agreed with the idea it was important to put a "check" on Obama by electing a governor from the opposing party.

Voters opted for the check and balance by a 55%-35% margin. Independents (who voted for Obama by one point in 2008 in Virginia) opted for a check and balance by an overwhelming 58%-25% margin. Throughout our tracking, we regularly found open-ended comments from Independent voters saying they wanted to balance the overwhelming power that the Democrats have in Washington. Given the absolute power the Dems have in DC, that is a very strong message for GOPers running in 2010.

We tested the impact of the Obama endorsement — 24% said they were more likely to vote for Deeds, while 32% were less likely. The minus eight increment on that can not be encouraging to the White House.

Finally, we tested a simple agree/disagree: “Creigh Deeds’ policies are too close to the policies of President Barack Obama.” Fully 52% agreed and only 30% disagreed. By intensity, 30% strongly agreed and only 9% strongly disagreed. Revisionists on the left are blaming Deeds for not embracing Obama enough, but Virginia voters did not agree. Among Independents, it was 52% agree/28% disagree.

Meanwhile, President Prissypants is unable to sell his abortion to the public. The percentage of those who would urge their representative to vote for ObamaCare is down 11 points in a month.

Allah focuses on that particular question, which doesn't include leaners (leaners get reprompted and asked, "Come on, stop dicking around and give me an answer, you douche."). With and without leaners:

The leaners have backed away from supporting Obama care to opposing it -- a 15 point net swing (support -8, oppose +7) in a month.

That said, it has always been my belief (shared by Dick Morris, who recently said the exact same thing) that only when opposition gets to 60% is ObamaCare definitely beaten. Any lower than that and there is a good chance that Democrats will ram it through anyway, on the theories that 1, it's better to pass something unpopular than to pass nothing, and 2, it is easier to beg for forgiveness than to receive permission, and 3, this is a once-in-history chance to remake the US economy into a socialist one, and that's worth losing some seats over.

As a cynical commenter pointed out: There will be plenty of job opportunities for socialist bureaucrats in the Post-Obama age, so Democrats losing their seats will know they have a lucrative future in wealth redistribution.

Posted by: Ace at 09:56 AM | Comments (86)
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He's been serving his Iranian masters for years. I don't imagine his new gig will do much to change that.

John Limbert will be the senior Iran official at the State Department, replacing Dennis Ross, who has moved to the National Security Council (and who has not been heard from publicly since). Should America be concerned? Yes. Limbert is not a neutral arbiter; he serves on the advisory board of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

What is the National Iranian American Council?

The Council is widely considered the de facto lobby for the Iranian regime in America. It opposes sanctions on Iran, soft-pedals any controversial events in Iran, and counsels "patience" regarding Iran's stance towards its nuclear program. The NIAC has been at the forefront of lobbying against continued congressional funding of the Voice of America Persia service, Radio Farad, and grants for Iranian civil society. To top it off, the NIAC has reportedly received funding from anti-Israel advocate George Soros, who at the very least was an honored guest and speaker at one of its symposiums. (He called for a more equitable Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and advocated for America to renounce regime-change as a goal).

The NIAC staunchly opposes any military attacks on Iran. In other words, it all but serves as Iran's embassy in Washington -- though the NIAC vociferously disputes this characterization. However, there is very little sunlight between the views of the regime and the NIAC.

There's more. The head of the NIAC, in his spare time, writes absurd books blaming all of Iran's woes on (wait for it...!) Israel and "the neo-cons." NIAC board members also contribute to "J-Street," the odious anti-semitic lobby fronted by left-wing self-hating Jews.

Thanks to CPT. Charles.

Posted by: Ace at 09:33 AM | Comments (78)
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Her position was always "temporary," I believe, so this isn't because of her strangely-serious "joke" that Mao was one of her favorite political philosophers.

Related: Comic Nick DiPaolo goofed on her on the Dennis Miller show, in the special unrated subscriber-only bonus hour. F-bombs aplenty. They go off on something I hadn't noticed about Dunn: Apparently she licks her lips like a "Rottweiler who got into the peanut butter," or, I guess, like the Joker's least attractive moll.

Posted by: Ace at 09:03 AM | Comments (87)
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Kids in Superman costumes look on as Code Pink emotional terrorists tell them that they, and their fathers, are going to die.

Thanks to EdwardR.

Posted by: Ace at 08:27 AM | Comments (86)
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