Take note: when mild-mannered Tony Blair starts talking military options, you're all on f'n' notice.

TONY Blair last night issued a clear threat to Iran and suggested that military action against the Islamic republic could no longer be ruled out by the international community.

Departing sharply from Britain's previous cautious stance, the Prime Minister expressed his fury at the president of Iran's call for Israel to be "wiped from the face of the Earth".

...

Speaking after the European Union leaders' meeting at Hampton Court outside London yesterday, Mr Blair declared that Iran would be making "a very big mistake" if it believed Iraq will distract European and US leaders.

Admitting that he has previously come under pressure to rule out military action against Iran, Mr Blair predicted that in the wake of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments on Israel, he will now face calls to consider that very option.

"If they carry on like this, people are going to believe they are a real threat to world stability," Mr Blair said. "If they carry on like this, the question people are going to ask me is, 'When are you going to do something about this?'"

Describing himself as "very angry" and Mr Ahmadinejad's comments as "a disgrace," the Prime Minister said he held very little hope of Iran changing course without some form of international intervention.

Thanks to DB.

Posted by: Ace at 09:18 AM | Comments (8)
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Thanks to Sidehe for these. Maybe they're showing up in everyone's email box, but if you weren't one of the, uhh, lucky ones, here they are.

Content Warning for nudity, simulated nudity, questionable taste, and disturbing imagery.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:05 AM | Comments (11)
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The interesting thing about it is that it doesn't listen to words; it reads facial/mouth forms and positions, so you don't have to speak in your own language. You just mouth it out and the little whatsit translates for you.

Also: translator... goggles? With a word for word translation appearing on the inside of the lens for you to read? As the article says, it's like subtitles in real life.

Thanks to Da Shadow.

Posted by: Ace at 08:51 AM | Comments (3)
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Over at Lorie Byrd's site, she's posted her favorite horror movies, with links to other lists.

I was sort of beginning to compile my own list when a question hit me:

Given that vampires are probably the best-known and overall best monsters, why are there so few vampire movies that are any good whatsoever?

Really, the only good vampire movies I can think of off the top of my head are Lost Boys and Fright Night, which is, I contend, the best vampire movie ever made, despite the fact that it's partly a comedy.

Thinking about those two movies made me curious: What are the real rules of vampires, anyway? Lost Boys has one set of rules and powers (an expansive set); Fright Night a more limited set.

Skip this unless you really want to geek out on vampires. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:19 PM | Comments (97)
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The BBC (scroll to bottom of link) reports a giant pyramid, Europe’s first, may have been recently discovered under a Bosnian hill:

"The pyramid is 100 metres high and there is evidence that it contains rooms and a monumental causeway ... The plateau is built of stone blocks, which indicates the presence at the time of a highly developed civilisation," the daily explains.

Unjournaled, a blog, has pictures of the hill (which looks, whaddya-know, much like a giant pyramid covered with dirt) and quotes the main archaeologist, a Mr. Osmanagić, hypothesizing “[The] 'Bosnian pyramid of Sun’ was a temple, built by pre-Illyrians, people who lived… 27,000 years ago.” He also suspects a nearby hill is the 'Bosnian pyramid of Moon.' more...

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 08:37 PM | Comments (31)
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The BBC (scroll to bottom of link) reports a giant pyramid, EuropeÂ’s first, may have been recently discovered under a Bosnian hill:

"The pyramid is 100 metres high and there is evidence that it contains rooms and a monumental causeway ... The plateau is built of stone blocks, which indicates the presence at the time of a highly developed civilisation," the daily explains.

Unjournaled, a blog, has pictures of the hill (which looks, whaddya-know, much like a giant pyramid covered with dirt) and quotes the main archaeologist, a Mr. Osmanagić, hypothesizing “[The] 'Bosnian pyramid of SunÂ’ was a temple, built by pre-Illyrians, people who livedÂ… 27,000 years ago.” He also suspects a nearby hill is the 'Bosnian pyramid of Moon.'
more...

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 08:37 PM | Comments (31)
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I understand that Hugh Hewitt was pro-Miers. I understand the (underserved) cache of the Times and the quite human desire to reach a broad audience in that erstwhile paper of record.

But I still have to say-- how the hell can Hugh Hewitt, or any Republican, allow himself to be used this way?

The right's embrace in the Miers nomination of tactics previously exclusive to the left - exaggeration, invective, anonymous sources, an unbroken stream of new charges, television advertisements paid for by secret sources - will make it immeasurably harder to denounce and deflect such assaults when the Democrats make them the next time around.

Partly because of this quote, I'm sorry to say. The left loves quotes like this; prepare to hear "Even Hugh Hewitt says..."

It's so sad. We all know the Times publishes conservatives only to hurt other conservatives, but they never seem to run out of volunteers for this task.

On Second Thought... Hey, we all knew Hewitt's opinion; he hasn't been shy about expressing it. And he's made this argument earlier (quoted earlier today).

I guess I just hate the New York Fucking Times. It's just so transparent. They almost never publish a conservative attacking liberals. Only conservatives (or at least RINOs) attacking conservatives.

Sorry, Hugh, But We Dodged A Bullet: The hearings would have been embarassing, not reassuring:

For Harriet Miers, the "murder boards" were aptly named. Day after day in a room in the Justice Department, colleagues from the Bush administration grilled her on constitutional law, her legal background and her past speeches in practice sessions meant to mimic Senate hearings.

Her uncertain, underwhelming responses left her confirmation managers so disturbed they decided not to open up the sessions to the friendly outside lawyers they usually invite to participate in prepping key nominees.

It was clear that Miers was going to need to "hit a grand slam homer" before the Senate Judiciary Committee to win confirmation to the Supreme Court, as one adviser to the White House put it. "Her performance at the murder boards meant that people weren't confident she'd get the grand slam."

And as for her alleged conservatism: If anything, she's a convenience conservative, not a conviction conservative. And you sorta need to be pretty convicted regarding conservative jurisprudence if you're to avoid "evolving in office" with the country's elites and swells slamming you for conservative opinions and praising you for liberal ones.

In Praise of Harriet: Pat Buchanan opines:

By withdrawing her nomination, Harriet Miers spared herself an agonizing inquisition and probable rejection by the Senate and did George W. Bush the greatest service of her career. She may just have helped him save his presidency.

Like a school marm indulging a teacherÂ’s pet, Miss Miers just gave George Bush permission to retake the final exam he booted badly. She has given him a second chance to succeed where Nixon, Ford, Reagan and his father all failed: To become the president who rang down the curtain on 50 years of judicial tyranny and reshaped the Supreme Court into the great constitutionalist body the Founding Fathers intended.

George Bush is a lucky man to have a friend like Harriet Miers.

Had her nomination been pursued through the judiciary committee to the full Senate, it would have meant civil war inside the party.

Dodged a bullet.

I hope President Bush appreciates this little come to Jesus session we've had. He fucks up a fair amount, but we stick by him because he gets the big things right-- or at least we expect him to get the big things right.

I hope, in a fit of pique, he nominates Janice Rogers Brown, hoping to show us all what buffoons we are-- Watch how they tear her apart, maybe he'll be thinking. And then, miracle of miracles, she gets through.

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 PM | Comments (108)
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Fitzgerald will ask for an extension to continue investigating Rove.

Oh, for God's sake. He's been at this for more than a year. And he still has nothing on Rove? Then end the f'n' investigation.

I can't wait to see the ticky-tack charges they got him on. Either some made-up fake charge of "conspiring to misuse classified information" (despite the fact that every specific provision of the laws wasn't broken) or a very thin perjury charge.

Posted by: Ace at 07:00 PM | Comments (36)
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If you like viewing interesting commercials.

Here's one for Allah, who we all know is a Lionel Ritchie FREAK.

Posted by: LauraW. at 06:25 PM | Comments (6)
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"A woman struck by a hit-and-run driver in northern England said she was told off by a police officer for using the F-word to describe the driver."

The F-word she used was fat.
The bobbie gave her a 'frosty' look and told her she couldn't use that word.

If you took a good tumble from a hit-and-run driver, how PC would you be feeling at the moment?
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Posted by: LauraW. at 04:56 PM | Comments (5)
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