Hopefully President HopeandChange has been catching up on his sleep because things are about to get tougher than gift shopping for the UK Prime Minister (and that simple task didn't go so well).

Yesterday I blogged about the Chinese getting frisky with US ships and now things are ratcheting up with the North Koreans.

On Monday the US and South Korea started 12 days of military exercises and like a petulant child, the North Koreans are demanding some attention. However unlike a screaming child, the North Koreans are threatening a 'satellite' launch and warning that any attempt to interfere with that launch will lead to war.

Here's where it gets really interesting...the US has parked almost half of it's anti-ballistic missile defense equipped ships off the coast of Korea.

I'm affraid 'this is above my pay grade' and 'can't I just eat my waffles' are not options this time.

On the upside, perhaps his unanimous reelection to North Korea's Parliament will put Kim Jong-Il in a better mood.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:16 AM | Add Comment
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Following up on yesterday's post....this didn't take long.

Following the biggest political firestorm of the 2009 legislative session, a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the financial and administrative management of the Catholic Church has been canceled. The bill is dead for the rest of the legislative session.

As soon as word spread about the bill, the Legislative Office Building was flooded with telephone calls and e-mails on Monday. The bill, virtually overnight, became the hottest issue at the state Capitol.

The cancellation came less than 24 hours after Senate Republican John McKinney of Fairfield called for the cancellation, saying that his caucus was unanimously against the bill because they believe it is clearly unconstitutional.

This is the danger of politicians and activists living in a cocoon. What seems reasonable while talking to other true believers turns out to be bat shit crazy when normal people hear it.

Via The Corner

Posted by: DrewM at 09:53 AM | Comments (2)
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I made the suggestion in a comment about a week ago that the US government should be doing the same thing with our SPR if we were smart. But we're not smart, we're fucking retards wearing drool bibs easily distracted by shiny objects.

...China has filled all four of its state-owned emergency oil reserve tanks to the brim and should now invest in oil tankers to add more to inventories while oil prices are low, a senior industry executive said on Monday in a rare acknowledgment of Beijing's secretive oil inventories.

Coupled with data last week showing a one-third rise in commercial crude oil stockpiles last year, the admission suggests that a large share of of China's oil import growth last year was pumped directly into storage...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:53 AM | Comments (1)
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Let's try to have a post that doesn't reference the infamous "Four Words Flap" that just will not die. I swear to God, it's like a Police song: No ending, just a constant repetition of the chorus until the tape in the studio ran out. ROXXXXXXANNE! PUT ON THE RED LIGHT!

Anyway, I wanted to share a thought I had about bear attacks. I watch a LOT of Discovery Channel, and one of my first cousins moved to Alaska back in '91 for postgraduate work in biology. Did she work with bears? No, apparently she arrived late and all the bear positions were snapped up early, so she ended up studying hibernation in ground squirrels. Now don't get me wrong here; bears are pretty freakin' vicious, but there's NOTHING that will make you crap your underoos like being jumped by a cornered ground squirrel. Vicious little bastards.

Back to my point here (AND YES, I do have one): How a person should respond to a bear attack depends on which type of bear is attacking you. In North America, we have Polar bears, Black bears and Brown bears. Grizzly bears are a subset of browns, so I'll just include them in with the Browns.

The vast majority of attacks on hikers by Brown bears occur because the bear feels that the human is invading its territory. Either the hiker walks up on a bear using a trail, or he/she gets between momma bear & her cubs. These attacks usually only last until the bear determines that the person is no longer a threat. Occasionally the bear might go ahead and eat the person, but most of the time it will just maul them and then go on its way.

Attacks on people by black bears are fairly rare. Black bears usually react to humans by running away, which is probably best for both parties. There's a chance that momma black bear MIGHT attack a person who gets too close to her cubs, but most of the time they will simply call to the cubs and retreat. When a black bear DOES attack a person, the odds are that it doesn't fear people and it wants to see what "long pork" tastes like.

Polar bears? Nasty, brutish animals. In their environment, anything that moves is prey. If you're attacked by a polar bear, you can be sure that if you passively wait for it to stop mauling you, you're going to end up as part of several bear bowel movements scattered across the tundra. Polar bears don't just attack people when they're startled; they actively stalk people when they have the chance.

You might be asking yourself right now: "Russ, what's your freakin' point?"

Well, how you respond to bear attacks is a guide on how you should respond to criticism from the mainstream media.

If you're a conservative, then you can be 99.7% sure that the media is made up of Polar bears. You're nothing more than meat to them, and they'll keep coming until one of you is dead.

If you're a moderate Republican who thinks that bipartisanship is the best thing since sliced bread, then the media is a Brown bear. They'll mess you up bad, and they might even eat you if they need a meal, but they won't actively stalk you unless you do something to provoke them.....like running for President or voting against the Porkulus package.

If you're a Democrat or a liberal Republican, then the media is a Black bear. Attacks will be rare, but when they DO happen they'll be fatal. Gov. Blago knows what a Black bear attack feels like.

discuss amongst yourselves

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 06:52 AM | Add Comment
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Let Us Point And Laugh

Teh Stupid, it is expensive:

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – A New York man is suing a New Jersey psychic, claiming she defrauded him of nearly $250,000 he paid her to craft a golden statue that was supposed to ward off negativity.
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Silveira also wants Miller removed from a $700,000 home he bought for her last year.

The stupid person in this story is the charlatan psychic who couldn't be bothered to make a little statue for a perfect mark. Now she's going to be kicked out of her home.

She didn't see that coming?

Posted by: LauraW at 04:47 AM | Comments (2)
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Prop 8 opponents are gathering signatures on two ballot props. They have already received a title and summary from the AG, so now they are in the signature collection stage.

The first, which has been around since January (PDF), is a straightforward repeal of Prop 8.

The second, which was certified yesterday (PDF), substitutes the phrase "domestic partnership" for "marriage" in California law; preserves all the rights of marriage in the new language; applies equally for straight and gay couples; and repeals Prop 8.

Supporters of the second initiative say they want to put the state out of the marriage business. They must collect 700,000 signatures by August to get their initiatives on the ballot.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:37 AM | Add Comment
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Another day.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:03 AM | Add Comment
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Now with 100% less content!

Posted by: Open Blog at 09:12 PM | Add Comment
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9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 9/11 coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh, financial backer Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, MohammedÂ’s number 1 Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and USS Cole bomber Walid Bin Attash, filed a document with the court: "The Islamic Response to the GovernmentÂ’s Nine Accusations."

The five detainees at Guantánamo Bay charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have filed a document with the military commission at the United States naval base there expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting full responsibility for the killing of nearly 3,000 people.

In their filing, the men describe the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks and the killing of Americans as a model of Islamic action, and say the American governmentÂ’s accusations cause them no shame, according to the excerpts read by the government official.

“To us,” the official continued reading, “they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor.”

The court ordered that the document be released, but objections from two of the defendant's lawyers held things up. It is expected that the full statement will be released to the public on Tuesday.

For the sake of completeness, I should note that the excerpts obtained by the N.Y. Times were not authorized by the government. Someone leaked the excerpts over the phone to a Times reporter.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:08 PM | Add Comment
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He shows his displeasure by flinging stones or bits of concrete at the human intruders, but finding a suitable weapon on the spur of the moment perhaps isn't so easy. To prepare, Santino often begins his day by roaming the enclosure, finding stones and stacking them in handy piles.

On some days, he's barraged visitors with up to 20 projectiles thrown in rapid succession, always underhand. Several times he has hit spectators standing 30 feet away across the water-filled moat.

The behavior, witnessed dozens of times, has made Santino something of a local celebrity.

This won't end well.

UPDATE [D in T]: I'll tell you what won't end well... more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:46 PM | Comments (1)
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