Okay, I've got nothing, and I don't even have the time to express that nothing.

Posted by: Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (30)
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In addition to trying to get a show together, and then giving up, I'm working with a web-designer to change the site's look.

I've been a bad blogger the past three days, I know.

The Hoist the Black Flag show will be going on hiatus at least through the week of New Year's Day, partly because Karol will be on vacation, partly because this is a tough time to get guests, and partly because I am just overwhelmed with stuff that I have to do right now.

Maybe when we come back we'll be more professional... but I doubt it.

Posted by: Ace at 11:45 AM | Comments (34)
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This comes from Americablog, and the less-credible NBCNews, so perhaps it should be tasted with a nice sprinkling of salt.

Still, if it's correct, I have to admit it does seem to be a case of overreaching by the Pentagon:

A secret Pentagon document obtained by NBC News reveals that the military has been spying on what they call "suspicious" civilian meetings - including many "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" protests.

Only eight pages from the four-hundred page document have been released so far. But on those eight pages, Sirius OutQ News discovered that the Defense Department has been keeping tabs NOT just on anti-war protests, but also on seemingly non-threatening protests against the military's ban on gay servicemembers. According to those first eight pages, Pentagon investigators kept tabs on April protests at UC-Santa Cruz, State University of New York at Albany, and William Patterson College in New Jersey. A February protest at NYU was also listed, along with the law school's gay advocacy group "OUTlaw," and was classified as "possibly violent."

All of these protests were against the military's policy excluding gay personnel, and against the presence of military recruiters on campus. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network says the Pentagon needs to explain why "don't ask, don't tell" protesters are considered a threat.

I suppose most of these groups are possibly violent. Passionate people of a left-wing stripe are given to vandalism, harassment, and even personal violence from time to time.

I do wonder what genuine evidence the Pentagon might have to deem them so dangerous as to be considered possibly terrorist.

Note that that particular charge -- that the Pentagon deemed them to be a "credible threat" for terrorism -- does not come from the NBCNews report but rather is just a claim of an advocacy group. So there's a good chance it's utter bullshit.

Posted by: Ace at 10:36 AM | Comments (39)
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Angela Merkel fails first test as new Fuhrer(ess?)

In order to free a Muslim German being held hostage in Iraq, Merkel has set free a convicted terrorist wanted in America for the murder of a US sailor.

As someone who spent over 3 years in the former Third Reich as part of the 3rd Armored Division, all I can say is Pull Out All The Troops Now!

Commentators have speculated that Hamadi's release may be connected to the freeing Sunday of German hostage Susanne Osthoff in Iraq. German authorities had already tried to use Hamadi as a bargaining chip in the late 1980s to secure the release of German hostages in Lebanon. However the German Foreign Ministry denies any link between the releases of Hamadi and Osthoff. "There is no connection between these two cases," Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jäger said in remarks to Reuters.

In related news, the defeat of Germany in 2 World Wars had nothing to do with all those American troops in Europe.

Posted by: Tanker at 08:30 AM | Comments (26)
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Predictable. Joker politics again:

One of his statements has already been published as a bona fide opinion piece in that liberal bible the Guardian (under the heading 'Resist the new Rome' in January 2004), and now there's this new book from the leftish literary publishing house Verso. It's a collection of bin Laden's statements from 1994 to 2004 with a handsome and serious jacket cover and discoloured, raggedy-edged pages to give it the look and feel of an instant classic. Reviewers have fawned over its 'magnificent, eloquent, at times even poetic Arabic prose', and claim that it shows the 'author' bin Laden (he's not really the author, being stuck in a cave and all and with few means to receive royalties) as a 'charismatic man of action, an eloquent preacher, a teacher of literature and a resilient, cunning, wonderfully briefed politician'[.]

There's a reason Western lefties like bin Ladin's screeds so much-- because bin Ladin is just parroting their anti-American cant:

How did this happen? Why has Verso brought out a book of bin Laden's statements and why is it being treated so seriously, complete with a promotional push in Waterstone's in Piccadilly, one of the biggest bookstores in Europe? I don't know much about Arabic prose so I will have to suspend my disbelief that bin Laden does it 'magnificently' and 'eloquently'. I do know, however, that something must definitely get lost in translation, because this English end product is turgid, repetitive and irritatingly religious: bin Laden can't get through a sentence without mentioning God, peace, mercy or blessings. Is it that the dumbing down of public life is now so complete that even a loon like bin Laden can get five stars from literary pundits for saying things like 'kill the Americans and seize their money wherever and whenever you find them' (December 199 and 'My kidneys are all right' (November 2001)?

I think there's more to it than that. I reckon the reason why some commentators in the West seem drawn to bin Laden's prose is because at times - and I'm not going to beat around the bush here - he sounds an awful lot like them. Seriously, it is uncanny. What comes across most clearly in this 10 years' worth of rants is the extent to which bin Laden borrows and steals from Western media coverage to justify his nihilistic actions. From his cynical adoption of the Palestinian issue to his explanations for why he okayed 9/11 to his opposition to the American venture in Iraq, virtually everything bin Laden says is a rip-off of arguments and claims made in the mainstream media over here. He has taken the justifications offered by left-leaning pundits for al-Qaeda's existence and actions (in the words of one commentator: 'There is a simple reason why they attack the US: American imperialism') and made them his own. And now these pundits have returned the favour by giving him his own book and glowing reviews to boot. It is the unholiest of marriages.

Read the whole thing.

Thanks to Allah.

Posted by: Ace at 07:49 AM | Comments (23)
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This happy little span exists in West London, and is known, appropriately, as the Rolling Bridge:

ThatÂ’s right, the bridge rolls up. Now what you got to say to that, sucka?

Yeah, thatÂ’s what I thought. (A little info here. )

It’s certainly novel. I do wonder, though, about the smoothness of its rolling action – whether it’s a nice, fluid contraction or if it’s all herky fits and bobbing pauses. As I’m a shallow man, this will greatly influence my opinion of it.

(h/t We Make Money Not Art which mentions the bridge in passing, concentrating instead on the architectÂ’s new walnut looking design for a Japanese Buddist temple. Crazy.)

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 09:12 PM | Comments (13)
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The Chronic (what?) nles of Narnia.

PS: Now being discussed whether we will see Brokeback Mountain. I'm against it.

Posted by: Ace at 04:41 PM | Comments (27)
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Hey, Ace, while you're discussing how to do it like a Viking (politely), perhaps you could get Allah to call his office? Michael Ledeen wants to talk to him.

Edit: I see that Dave at Garfield Ridge mentioned this in the comments previously. Well, at least now we ALL know about it.

Posted by: Harry Callahan at 03:57 PM | Comments (4)
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And we've just ordered another 12 pack.

The weird tbing is, Allab is neitber a celebrity nor a mutant. (This sentence was written by Ace, hence the spelling issues)

Posted by: Ace at 02:50 PM | Comments (42)
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It's not that it's necessarily so funny... I'm just amazed at what amateurs can do with special effects these days.

Thanks to John.

Incidentally, Saturday Night Live actually had a funny bit on it this week. Chris Parnell and some new guy (Adam Sandburg? I don't know) did a great gangsta rap, explaining their plans to see the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm looking for it now, but if anyone catches it, please email the URL.

Posted by: Ace at 10:39 AM | Comments (15)
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