Supposedly it was an old gambling paddler that burned to the keel with 250 souls on board, and yet the Gamblin' Dead continue plying up and down the river, always pissin' and moanin' about that asshole who stayed in with a pair of fours and got a third one on his last card.

Wait, no it's not that at all. It's supposed to be a stealth ship, either a stealth patrol boat for sneaky interdictions or a "SEALion" SEAL infiltration craft.

Kinda cool.

Posted by: Ace at 01:53 PM | Comments (8)
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Claim: Most differences in IQ are due to two sequences of DNA

Good. Someone can prick my finger and find out I'm a genius. I'm so tired of the bother of those grueling on-line IQ tests with all those funny geometric shapes and strange words, or constantly having to argue with people how damn scary-smart I am.

In related news (kinda), pointy-heads say that blinking causes parts of your brain to actually turn off during each 100-150 milisecond snap of the eyelid.

Which is why, they say, we don't notice our own blinking. Which, you know, is pure ass, because after reading this article, I can't stop noticing my own blinking, and it's driving me a little bit batty.

Stupid pointy-heads.

Posted by: Ace at 01:11 PM | Comments (15)
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Ummm... hmmmm....

It doesn't lend credibility the "Islam Means Peace" slogan that Muslim clerics keep making demands on their host-countries with terrorist violence none-too-subtly threatend if their demands aren't met.

A controversial Toronto imam warned Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan at a closed-door meeting to stop "terrorizing" Canadian Muslims.

"If you try to cross the line I can't guarantee what is going to happen. Our young people, we can't control," Aly Hindy, the head of Scarborough's Salaheddin Islamic Centre, recalls telling the minister at the May meeting she held in Toronto with dozens of Muslim leaders.

The meeting was part of an effort by Ms. McLellan to reach out to Canadian Muslims amid complaints that the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service are engaging in racial profiling.

The minister and her officials have been meeting community leaders to explain they are not targeting Muslims generally, only individuals with possible terrorist links.

The imam only meant well, though, he claims:

"The police came to me and said, 'This is a kind of threat,' and I said yes," he said. "But it's for the good of this country.

Ah-ha! Terroristic threats as a public service!

Well, Christians have Goodwill and the Salvation Army. This Imam just figured he'd do his part.

There is a terrorist threat. It comes, almost exclusively, from radical Muslims. Muslims and non-Muslims alike are getting sick of being terrorized -- for real -- ourselves.

This sonofabitch had better get right with the Lord and realize that if these sorts of open threat keep spewing from influential Imams, the "cycle of sassiness" just may well spiral out of control. And it won't necessarily be to his liking.

Not to make threats myself-- I really am against violence -- but other peoples besides Muslims have succumbed to irrational sassiness throughout history.

Not even Candians will put up with dimmitude-through-coercion in their own f'n' country.

Thanks to Jonah at NRO.

A Nice Counterpoint: In England, an Islamic scholar has a different take:

were told they must learn more about British culture while outside National Front extremists organised a flag waving demonstration.

More than 200 NF supporters proclaimed "Britain for the British" while a similar number of police prevented them from approaching the mosque in Regent's Park the moderate Swiss Muslim Dr Tariq Ramadan addressed the meeting.

...

Speaking to several hundred Muslims on the theme of the "middle way", Dr Ramadan asked younger members of the audience: "Which path will you take?"

He said: "Islamic education is not only about the Koran, it should also be about the environment. It's not just about what we have to promote but also about British history, culture, literature and what we know about the people." He added: "Not everything that comes from our culture is good and not everything that comes from British culture is bad."

Dr Ramadan called on his audience to be more ready to listen to non-Muslims and told them "to stop being on the defensive about being British citizens".

He said: "We have to deal with mistrust. We need mutual trust and knowledge and to return to the Koran. Your brother is not only Muslim, but also non-Muslim."

Dr Ramadan called for an independent inquiry into the shooting at Stockwell Tube station but urged Muslims not to add fuel to the flames: "Our response is to say clearly, altogether we are fighting the same enemy and we are all in the same boat."

All good to hear.

But, as I've said before, laws against criminal incitement are sharply limited (very nearly nullified) by the "clear and present danger" test, at least here in America. I presume other countries similarly limit what is considered actionable incitement.

In the current climate, this sort of speech does in fact constitute clear and present danger. These bastard imams cannot preach hate and violence and terrorism all day long without someone getting the idea that Allah wants blood.

Posted by: Ace at 12:16 PM | Comments (43)
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As the man says, just keep scrolling.

The veteran's- funeral-crashing anti-war-preaching soon to be ex-lietenant governor; how PC kills; the left's unhinged war on John Roberts; and John McCain's plans to limit and PC-ify military interrogations and thus help us lose the War on Terror.

Senator John McCain

Through Campaign Finance Reform, I championed every American's fundamental Constitutional right to be shut up and not heard. And I think it's only right to extend the same courtesy to terrorist murderers.

Posted by: Ace at 11:53 AM | Comments (3)
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Slated for 2006, listed as being "in production" on IMDB, but that would seem to be early pre-production, as no cast members are listed.

Director? Supposedly it will be Bryan Singer, who definitely knows how to take genre scrips and fill them with class, intelligence, and something approaching human drama.

Thanks to "Imdb reader."

Okay, since Hollywood just wants to make remakes of kinda-sucky old sci-fi movies that they (and we) fondly remember from our childhood... come on, I never thought that Westworld was quite as good as it could have been.

And after you're done with that: Re-do Michael Crichton's LOOKER. Kickass low-budget sci-fi thriller. Could be a little better than it was originally, especially if you explain how the hell the looker gun makes the wielder invisible. Never quite got that bit.

(But don't re-do Runaway, please.)

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (16)
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Two of America's Three Biggest Unions Will Split From AFL-CIO Over Political Differences

Megan says "Wow," over on her forum The Pit.

A press report from the separatist unions, calling themselves "Change to Win," stated "We hope to underscore the continuing problems with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's management, while continuing to pretend we have any intention of ever actually supporting a Republican candidate for office."

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (8)
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Russia's biggest spammer murdered in his apartment.

Initial reports say there was a knife stuck through his forehead inscribed "Thank you but no, I'm quite happy with the size of my penis and/or breasts."

But seriously:

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.

Medical technicians arrived on the scene and immediately pronounced him "404: An unexpected error has occurred. Please make sure your URL is correct or try pushing your refresh button."

I've got a lot of these jokes. Not a one of them is any damn good, but I've got a lot.

Okay, I'm not endorsing vigilante murder against society's pests and parasites.

But then again: That's what I call justice. Ace of Spades Justice.

Thanks to NickS.

Posted by: Ace at 11:11 AM | Comments (17)
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Anonymous comments that The Island, as much as it swipes from Logan's Run, actually swipes a lot more from a B-grade film called Parts: The Clonus Horror, featuring a nearly identical premise and plotline.

That film seems to have swiped from LR too, but The Island may have come a little too close for comfort. The producers of that movie -- apparently chiefly remembered now for being ripped on Mystery Science Theater 3000 -- are contemplating legal action against The Island, including a federal injunction against its further exhibition or distribution.

Eh, they'll get paid off a little bit.

Word to the wise: Guys, don't take "net points" in the movie. Gross points, gross points, gross points.

Loose shit: Yeah, I got net and gross points backwards. Eeesh.

I really did know the difference. Brainfart.

Posted by: Ace at 10:45 AM | Comments (11)
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Violated Paper's Ethical Guidelines Regarding "Undo 'Sassiness'"

Sassed; Sussed; Sacked. From the Times On Line (registration required; www.bugmenot.com can give you a password, as usual):

The Guardian has terminated a reporter's one-year training contract after a blogger revealed the writer was a member of a extremist Islamist political party and had not declared his interest to the newspaper when he wrote for its comment pages after the July 7 attacks.

The Guardian's move - according to the newspaper, taken after reporter Dilpazier Aslam refused to resign from the party, Hizb ut- Tahrir - echoes recent media oustings in America, but is the first time a British journalist has been forced to step down after coming under fire from bloggers - independent web diarists.

Scott Burgess, who runs the Daily Ablution blog, revealed Mr AslamÂ’s ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir, which operates legally in Britain but is banned in several other countries.

The Guardian is of course in full Dan-Rather "internet political partisan" mode, shooting the messengers. Curiously, once again, the leftwing media -- supposedly there to inform us -- is very angry at the public being informed [emphasis added]:

Rightwing bloggers from the US, where the Guardian has a large online following, were behind the targeting last week of a trainee Guardian journalist who wrote a comment piece which they did not care for about the London bombings.

The story is a demonstration of the way the 'blogosphere' can be used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed.

Within hours, Dilpazier Aslam was being accused on the internet of "violence" and belonging to a "terrorist organisation" - both completely untrue charges.

Oh really? Another article in the Guardian reports this:

Different countries and organisations take varying views of the Hizb ut-Tahrir. It is banned in Russia, Germany and Holland. In this country the National Union of Students has barred Hizb ut-Tahrir from its unions, claiming the group is "responsible for supporting terrorism and publishing material that incites racial hatred".

But this terrorist-apologist-apologist continues:

These ravings were posted alongside more legitimate questions as to whether a newspaper should employ a reporter who belongs to a controversial political group linked to the promotion of anti-semitic views.

Check out the multiple layers of fact-checking here:

Mr Burgess fished out a website article written by Mr Aslam before September 11 for Hizb ut-Tahrir. He quoted one line: "Establishment of Khilafah [the worldwide Islamic caliphate] is our only solution, to fight fire with fire, the state of Israel versus the Khilafah state."

A fellow blogger, Dsquared, promptly accused him of using quotes out of context. "It is more than four years old, written when the author was a teenager, before 9/11 and during a really nasty episode early in the intifada. How many people posting on this blog would like to have their teenage scribblings used as an assessment of their politics as an adult?

Ummm, Aslam is listed in the other Guardian article as being 27. 27 minus 4 is 23, which is not generally considered "teenaged."

And yes, this editorialist is quoting someone else -- but someone else whose opinion he clearly approves of, and so he doesn't bother fact-checking. Or, here, even basic arithmetic checking. This cocksucker misinforms, either deliberately or through willful negligence, the public into thinking that Aslam wrote this hateful lunacy as but a young lad, knee-high to an RPG.

When the media exposes the dirty-doings of others, they loudly proclaim that sunlight is the best disinfectant, the public has a right to know, an informed public is the bedrock upon which democracy and enlightened civilization are built, etc., and then pat themselves on the back.

When anyone else exposes their own dirty-doings, they cry "unfair partisan attack" and "ravings."

Look, if the Guardian thinks it's appropriate to have a terrorist-supporter write columns justifying terrorism against Londoners, let them say so and explain why.

But they won't. They just fired this guy. So, publicly at least, they seem to agree he is not the sort of person they want on their staff.

I think a lot of leftists actually think the man should be promoted, not fired, for speaking the truth. And that's fine-- if that's what you believe, grow a pair and admit it, and say so forthrightly.

But they continue to play this game where they want to do things in secret -- like, say, hire terrorist-friendly Islamist extremists -- and not inform the public about it (the Guardian admits it knew of his membership in an extremist Islamist organization, and that he "made no secret of it," and further that it should have been mentioned in the tag to his terrorist-justifying editorial, but claims, rather lamely, that the editor of this piece just plum didn't know about it. Everyone else knew, except this one guy. Riiiiight.)

And then when things they'd like to do but keep from the public are revealed by nasty rightwing bloggers, they throw a hissy fit.

Well, assholes, they say that "character" is defined by what you do when no one's looking. I don't expect you lying twats to develop character anytime soon, so I will just warn you: Someone is looking, so you'd better act as if you have character, at the very least.

And you can call us all the vile little names in the book, but we're going to keep on looking, and telling people all the dirty shit you want to keep quiet. You have no right -- no more than corporations or politicians or the people you harass on a daily basis -- to keep secrets from the public.

Didja Ever Notice? When the establishment media wants to claim superiority over the Shadow Media, it makes much fuss about its multiple-layers of editorial fact-checking and oversight.

Multiple layers. Multiple. From the Greek "muliplex," meaning a theater having more than one screen showing March of the Penguins.

But whenever they fuck up -- as the Guardian did here, not revealing this guy belonged to an extremist (if not outright terrorist-friendly) organziation, or as the New York Times did, in inserting false quotes into the mouth of an armed forces reservists -- they claim that just one person was responsible for the error, and the error got through, by implication, because no one else checked that SINGLE editor's work.

Well, which is it? Either you assholes have MULTIPLE layers of editorial oversight or you have just one editor looking closely at this stuff most of the time. You can't keep talking up your MULTIPLE layers of editorial fact checking and then lamely pinning the blame on ONE editor who goofed.

I don't have multiple layers of editorial fact-checking. That's one of the reasons I make mistakes. (Other reasons: I'm lazy; also, I'm a moron.)

I have a single editor-- me. (Well, actually, I have a lot of editors -- that would be you, the readers -- but they only edit once the piece is up and public.)

If we both really have only one editor, you can't keep claiming a difference between us.

Posted by: Ace at 10:36 AM | Comments (12)
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Two cool things:

1, fingers crossed, I'll finally get the chance to interview Jonah Goldberg. He says he's all set to be my "bitch" (if by "bitch" I mean "person doing a brief phone-in intereview") and, barring some snafu with timing, he'll be on the show.

2, Karol can't make the show tomorrow, but hopefully I'll have a Special Guest Host.

Update: Apparently Karol's too important to do the show now that she's quoted in the Times (UK) Online. Thanks to Si for the tip.

Another Update: Karol will be on the show. I suspect it's just because Jonah will be on.

Posted by: Ace at 08:49 AM | Comments (11)
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