This short piece is actually a reading comprehension test on Ace's Open Blogger instruction email – specifically, the part that reads:

Rule #1: Don't screw up.
Rule #2: In case of any questions, refer to Rule #1.
Rule #3: What did I tell you?

I'm posting it now because – at least, in theory – there's still time to fix the blog and revoke my Open Blogger invitation before I gin up any significant amount of content. This also responds to another portion of the Open Blogger instruction sheet: “Try putting up a post, if you have some quickie, tomorrow, to see if you've got the gist of it.” – although I'm still somewhat unsure about the relationship between blogging and “quickie”. [Did anyone else get the same thing in their email???]

I have great plans for an extended post tomorrow about new developments in the application of rhetorical devices and their effects on postprandial diversions....

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:20 PM | Comments (53)
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Ok, in an effort to mitigate the bleed over of football talk into ONT talk, I present to you a football thread for Sunday Night Football, now with less Olberdouche and more cheerleader.

Tonight's matchup:

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:59 PM | Comments (135)
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Is Ace visiting our English cousins in the Albion? He says no, but the video says oh yes!

Security Camera Footage Below the Fold. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:30 PM | Comments (122)
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Media reporter Howard Kurtz seems to have left a box or two of his liberalism behind with his recent departure from the Washington Post.

That’s easy to do I suppose . . . you can’t remember everything when changing companies and mainstream “journalists” apparently aren’t immune to leaving a box or two behind. Howard Kurtz of course is the ”reporter” whose beat is ”reporting” on the actual media itself.

A rich assignment indeed to be able to write liberal script about those who churn out mainstream media’s liberal script. An assignment that must be sort of like a fraternity brother writing a weekly newsletter about the goings on in his college frat house. If ever there were a ”reporter’s” dream gig inside the mainstreamer’s universe, it would have to be writing about the media from the liberal bunker of the Washington Post and “reporting” on same from CNN. Kurtz has done both and continues to host CNN’s Reliable Sources program. Oh the irony in naming a CNN program, ‘Reliable Sources.’ There’s probably enough material in that name alone to go on for hours . . . it’s like a big fat low hanging grapefruit, hanging about a foot off the ground . . . such is the case with most of CNN’s programming schedule though.

OK . . . back to Kurtz. Kurtz gave up his plum (or shall I say grapefruit) Washington Post job last month to become Bureau Chief of the up and coming political website named, The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast is a mixture of news, entertainment and political opinion and is run by former Vanity Fair editor, Tina Brown. And was just in the news last week when it announced a formal merger with Newsweek.

Remember Newsweek? The news magazine that sold for one dollar back in August? I bet The Daily Beast’s merger with Newsweek had to have been a difficult business decision – Hmm, should we merge with a liberal media company that sold for $1? Would the upside be greater than a dollar? Apparently they figured out it would and now we have . . . a Beast in Newsweek. Sorry about that, I couldn’t resist.

So now that Kurtz has settled in over at The Daily Beast he is back to the media beat and is cranking out his script . . . however, there is a glint of hope that Kurtz has indeed lightened his liberal pen. Not a glimmer, just a glint. The glint of hope can be found in Kurtz’ latest article – an interview of Fox News founder Roger Ailes. It’s quite an interesting read and mostly free of liberal snipe. Let’s just hope Kurtz keeps writing this way with his new Beast of a pen.

Kurtz’ Daily Beast article on Roger Ailes is entitled, ‘Fox News Chief Blasts NPR Nazis’ and you can read it here.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 02:06 PM | Comments (74)
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At HotAir.

Continuing his defiant rhetoric, this morning John Pistole took a tough stance on TSA procedures and said they would continue:

Pistole stated unequivocally Sunday morning during CNNÂ’s State of the Union that the procedures would not be changing despite widespread criticism of them this week.

“No, we're not changing the policies, because of that, because of the risks that are” there, he said.

Hours later he changed his tune:

Heeding a sudden furor, John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said in a Sunday afternoon statement to POLITICO that airport screening procedures “will be adapted as conditions warrant,” in an effort to make them “as minimally invasive as possible, while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve.”

TSA's new flexibility comes as the government gears up for a flood of travel over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Administration officials say any changes are more likely to be in the implementation of the security procedures than in the security measures themselves.

Why the abrupt turnaround? My guess is that even people in the Whitehouse are getting uncomfortable with videos of children being searched. As the public outcry continues to grow.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 02:04 PM | Comments (58)
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The "Diplomatic Editor" of the Daily Telegraph (UK) points out a useful bit of history, about one of the origins of the Clash of Civilizations.

The great Portuguese navigatorÂ’s journey to India brought about the first great collision between Imperial Europe and Islamic Asia. It sparked off a great jihad against the West, complete with suicide attacks, which dragged on for three centuries.

Religious chauvinists might see that war as the outcome of an irreducible hostility between Islam and Christianity. For political realists, however, they hold out an altogether different lesson.

Da Gama’s epic journey took place at the dawn of the period which gave birth to the international system which now holds our world together. His journey unleashed forces which disrupted existing systems of power; specifically, the Indian ocean trading routes controlled by Muslim seafarers and merchants. For the most part, this jihad – magnificently chronicled by the historian Stephen Dale – was in fact about wealth and power.

He points out that for five hundred years, Islamic supremacists have reacted to Western threats to their political and economic hegemony by encouraging jihadists, cajoling them with the promises of rewards in Paradise and glory in this world as martyrs. His answer to that challenge is that the West needs to force Muslim nations into what he calls "the complex systems of norms that bind the modern system of states."

Britain in India, the Dutch in Indonesia and, later, the US in the Philippines, used military force to deal with the Islamist uprisings which targeted them. But they also encouraged the growth of modern nationalist movements, set up bureaucratic and administrative institutions that brought about a dramatic expansion of government, and restructured the relationship between state, political structures and civil society.

Today this is called “nation-building”. In Afghanistan, it almost without doubt isn’t going to be anywhere near completion by 2014. But if it isn’t, the end of the war there is profoundly unlikely to mean the beginning of peace.

At the current NATO summit, our allies are agitating for a full NATO pullout from Afghanistan by 2014. Our Feckless Leader seems incapable of convincing them that leaving according to a calendar rather than a set of achieved objectives will be foolish. I hope our descendants don't look back from the 26th Century on 500 more years of the Clash of Civilizations -- especially not if they look back on it in celebration of the fall of the West and the forced submission to Islam of their ancestors (that is, our children and grandchildren).

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:33 PM | Comments (78)
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So I suggested to Ace that we do a Midday Overnight Open Thread this week, on account of everyone's going to be wandering around in a haze of tryptophan and Valu-Rite and "playing the TSA home game" on themselves instead of making news for the next ten days, and we need something to keep the Morons occupied. He responded, "A Midday Overnight Thread sounds so stupid we can't not have it on the site. Makes no sense, so it's perfect."

Sounds like the Ace Seal of Approval© to me!

'Cause they're drunken seals...panda...thingies...

Anyway, it's midnight in Bangladesh, so just play along, okay?

More crud after the jump. It's my first post, be gentle. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:55 AM | Comments (178)
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Vice President Joe BidenÂ’s bleating utterances of stupidity seem to be occurring more frequently - if thatÂ’s even possible.

Lately, BidenÂ’s linguistics in the key of stupid are occuring like 2 minute contractions-and are quite painful for the general public. That is, the general public who had sense enough not to vote in a socialist with Biden baggage. On the DC cocktail circuit the president and his bag of veep tricks are the talk of the town and the laugh too.

The 2008 pixie dust of mainstream mediaÂ’s storm of incomplete journalism and vacant vetting, has completely settled . . . and the Obama/Biden hangover has set in.

The hangover has been rough for most of America . . . the thinking set sees it as an Obama/Biden carnival ride.

The carnival ride ainÂ’t stopping for a while. We were reminded of this earlier in the week when ABC News' Jake Tapper blogged about the veep's in flagrante (verbal) delicto.

ABC NewsÂ’ Karen Travers reports:

Last night Vice President Biden sat down for an interview with Larry King – his 49th appearance on the CNN host’s program.

The always-loquacious vice president had a colorful message for the Afghans regarding the timeline for transferring security by 2014, a plan that will be outlined here at the NATO summit in Lisbon.

“Daddy is going to start to take the training wheels off in October — I mean in next July, so you’d better practice riding,” he said.

Just days before President ObamaÂ’s meeting with Hamid Karzai, Biden did not convey confidence in the Afghan leader.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:20 AM | Comments (40)
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OK, we have the first Early NFL Thread. Early games are Oakland vs Pittsburgh (Oakland covers the spread easy), Bungles at the Billers, the Detroit Kitties vs the Cowgirls, Skin's vs Titans, Caridnals vs the Chefs, Packers vs Favre, Dirty Sanchez vs Cowgirls lite, Ravens vs the other little kitteh team and the Browns (what is that) vs another kitteh team named the Jags. What game are you all looking forward too?

This picture brought to you by the only member of the Redskins that played against the Eagles!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (229)
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Interesting theory.

Things are looking up for Barack Obama.

You might not think so, given the flow of news lately. His foreign policy has met with limited success, at best. And, back home, unemployment is mired at 9.6 percent. Earlier this month, in a major political blow, Democrats lost more than 60 seats and control of the House of Representatives.

So what is there for Mr. Obama and his supporters to cheer about? Try this: Based on the facts at hand right now, Mr. Obama is likely to win the 2012 election in a landslide. That, at least, is the prediction of Ray C. Fair, a Yale economist and an expert on econometrics and on the relationship of economics and politics.

As best I can tell, this fanciful prediction appears to be based on a delicate blend of about 10% wonkish, highfalutin gobbledygook and 90% "Let's cross our fingers and pray that the economy miraculously rebounds over the next two years, despite all the obstacles Democrats have eagerly set in place to prevent that from happening."

But I'm just a moron. What do I know?

h/t: Newsbusters.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:25 AM | Comments (146)
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