I don't know if anyone's in the mood for this, but the natives seem restless.

So here's a flame-war thread. The last one sucked. I hope this one's better.

Remember, there was a whole thread in which commenters admitted the most embarassing stories about themselves. All good ammunition.

Have fun, if you're of that mind. Just try to keep it jocular and fun, because if you get too mean, JeffB. will start crying, because seriously, the kid's the biggest pussy I ever met in my life.

And I toured with Up With People. I had to share a bunk with a kid who was always complaining that our "Be Friends and Really Really Nice To Everyone" sketch was "too edgy," and man, JeffB. makes that kid look like Bill Friggin' Romanowksi.

Posted by: Ace at 09:30 AM | Comments (288)
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Unfortunately they can't question him:

A man has been shot dead by police at Stockwell Tube station in south London, as officers hunt four bombing suspects.

Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said officers fired after the man was challenged and refused to obey police.

The incident was "directly linked to the ongoing and expanding anti-terrorist operation", he said.

BBC crime correspondent Neil Bennett said the man shot dead was not thought to be one of four bomb suspects shown in CCTV images released by police.

...

Sir Ian told a press conference: "I need to make clear that any death is deeply regrettable but as I understand the situation the man was challenged and refused to obey police instructions."

Our correspondent says the man was under surveillance as a result of evidence gathered from the scenes of the four attempted bombings.

Stockwell passenger Mark Whitby told BBC News he had seen a man of Asian appearance shot five times by "plain-clothes police officers".

"One of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him," he said.

Via Michelle Malkin, who has more links.

Including to Athena from Terrorism Unveiled, who thinks these bombers were in fact part of the same cell and plan as the 7/7 bombers. Why was this attack so much less successful? She speculates that perhaps a non-British bombmaker came into the country to make the explosives for the first attack, and then was forced to flee due to the police getting too close. So the other terrorists had to assemble his bomb-parts themselves.

Seems plausible. More plausible, as she points out, then copycatters putting together a very similar operation in two weeks.

Update: Shoot To Kill From Foxnews.com:

Police are believed to be under orders to shoot to kill if they believe someone is about to detonate a bomb.

A hair-trigger rule of engagement, but sadly necessary. Long story short: If the cops tell you to freeze, freeze.

I know that's a bit controversial among some harder-core libertarians, but I do believe that any society -- even one governed by a libertarian regime -- requires citizens to obey the lawful orders of police.

Posted by: Ace at 09:16 AM | Comments (38)
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I wonder if the Kosmonauts will still be calling him an American Hero:

"One's life is probably in no greater danger in the jungles of deepest Africa than in the jungles of America's large cities," he writes. "In my judgment, much of the problem has been brought about by the mollycoddling of criminals by some of the liberal judges who have been placed on the nation's courts in recent years."

Mr. Byrd essentially endorsed Mr. Bush's primary stated strategy for picking Judge Roberts and other judicial nominees. "The high court's share of the responsibility for our increasing lawlessness lies in two areas -- its zeal for bringing about precipitous social change, and its overconcern for the rights of criminals and its underconcern for the rights and safety of society," he writes.

Mr. Byrd detailed the advice he has given presidents about the importance of naming conservatives and strict constructionists to the bench.

Okay, I guess I agree with that, but...

One's life is probably in no greater danger in the jungles of deepest Africa than in the jungles of America's large cities?

Africa? Jungles? Cities?

Did I mention this guy used to be in the KKK?

Como se dice "racial code words"?

Jeepers, even I'm offended. And Lord knows I'm not the easiest person to offend.

Thanks to NickS.

Posted by: Ace at 08:30 AM | Comments (22)
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Sounds about right.

Next week the Senate Women's Caucus will be feting Sqeaky Frome.

Posted by: Ace at 08:20 AM | Comments (5)
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No wonder so many British men defer their success in achieving an erection:

London - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralising pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.

A spokesperson for the group said it wanted to avoid labelling children. "We recognise that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.

"But I recognise that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.

Shut up, really??!!

Let me get this straight: dipshits get paid to show up for work maybe 30 hours a week and draw decent mid-to-high level government salaries to think of ways to replace one servicable and accurate word with another less servicable and less accurate word in order to trick children into thinking that something which is objectively bad is not in fact really bad, although it's still bad, and so they should avoid it, but if the don't avoid it, it's okay, although really, they should avoid it.

As if children are actually brain-damaged and won't be able to figure out that "success" is better than "not success."

Okay. Sign me up. I can do this.

From now on, "afterschool detention" will be called "Cream Soda and Chocolate Cookie Party."

"Impaired eyesight" -- man, did that scare the shit out of me as a kid; I knew I needed glasses, badly, but desperately did not want that fact learned by my parents -- will be called "Elton John Emulation Opportunity."

Wait, that's sort of damn scary too. I'll work on that one.

"Mistakes" and "errors" will be called, oh, let's see... ummm, here. "Paper clips." Right on the desk. I'm on a roll now. "Remedial class" will be called, uhm, uhhh... "Signed Photograph of Burt "Paulie" Young Hanging On My Wall."

Hey, I met him in Reno. He's a nice guy. Smells like fine sausage.

And of course "Having a passionate fourth grade crush on the girl who's starting to grow breasts but has no idea you're even alive" will be called "Dungeons & Dragons -- Your Portal To Endless Adventure!"

Crazy blog-money never panned out, but I'm on to an even greater scam-- crazy educrat grant-money!

Thanks to Checkers McBamp.

Posted by: Ace at 10:24 PM | Comments (26)
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At the threshold, an agent whose identity has been revealed must truly be "covert" for there to be a violation of the Act. To the average observer, much less to the professional intelligence operative, Plame was not given the "deep cover" required of a covert agent. ... She worked at a desk job at CIA headquarters, where she could be seen traveling to and from, and active, at Langley. She had been residing in Washington -- not stationed abroad for a number of years. ... he CIA failed to take even its usual steps to prevent publication of her name.

Answer over at Captain's Quarters. And it's a good one.

Posted by: Ace at 07:34 PM | Comments (6)
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As a rejoinder to the reality opt-out "i don't consent to being searched" t-shirts:

Yup. The slogan: i do not consent to being blown up"

Reminds me of something Coulter wrote a while ago. The New York Times reported on called Islamic bombings of non-Muslims in... who cares, wherever, they do it everywhere, and the Times, in true knee-jerk fashion, called it a "cycle of disagreement" or something like that.

Coulter replied (approximately): "Yes, it's just a cycle of disagreement. Radical Muslims want to blow people up, and their victims don't wish to be murdered."

Simplistic? Yes. It fucking is that simplistic.

The monster who rapes children has goddamned reasons for the way he behaves. He might have been molested as a child himself, he might be insane, he might simply have some bad-wiring in his head that makes it very difficult for him to resist raping children.

There are reasons for every action, good and bad, taken by everyone on the face of the earth.

But reasons are not justifications.

There's a term for a "reason" for a crime, and it's not "justification," usually, except for a very small set of circumstances justifying what would otherwise be a crime.

Usually we just call the reason for a murder the motive for the crime.

There seem to be an awful lot of people confused on this point.

We don't usually say "The man killed his wife to collect her insurance money, therefore, we should be understanding of the 'root causes' of his butchery." That's not an excuse; that's an element of the crime.*

It's strange... If I walked into any terrorist-apologist's house and shot his family to death, and then told him, "Hey, I was pretty pisssed off about the US not doing enough to control illegal immigration," I really don't think even the terrorist-apologist would find that much of a justification. "So you disagree with US foreign policy--what the hell does that have to do with my family, whom you just murdered in cold blood?"

And yet when other people's loved ones are blown up in Britain, America, or, especially, Israeli, these terrorist-sympathizers have no problem rattling "justifications" for the murder of a civilian.

So, the lines are drawn on t-shirts. Some will refuse to acknowledge that people want to kill them, and will, whether deliberately or not, aid terrorists by causing problems in searching bags.

Others accept the world as it is and have decided they'll do what is necessary to live.

And for that, of course, we're branded "simplistic racist warmongers."

Thanks to Thanks to Confederate Yankee.

* Well, technically, it's not really an element of the crime, although it can be a required aggravating factor for imposing the death penalty or something. I'm kinda speaking loosely here for effect. Give me a break, you rotten bastards.

Photoshop? Seems like a good, easy thing to photoshop. Robert just sent me one reading

you're not being searched,
you fucking moonbat.
your bag is.

Posted by: Ace at 07:09 PM | Comments (32)
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We also need to spotlight the "excuse makers," the former State Department spokesman James Rubin said. After every major terrorist incident, the excuse makers come out to tell us why imperialism, Zionism, colonialism or Iraq explains why the terrorists acted. These excuse makers are just one notch less despicable than the terrorists and also deserve to be exposed. When you live in an open society like London, where anyone with a grievance can publish an article, run for office or start a political movement, the notion that blowing up a busload of innocent civilians in response to Iraq is somehow "understandable" is outrageous. "It erases the distinction between legitimate dissent and terrorism," Mr. Rubin said, "and an open society needs to maintain a clear wall between them."

-- Thomas Friedman

This isn't something a million conservatives haven't said a hundred times. But Friedman is a liberal at the New York Times, and it's good to have such a person on record as calling the apologists only one (1) step less despicable than the terrorists themselves.

Yes, that's right-- if you're a terrorist apologist, you're a soft supporter of terrorism and murder, and you're part of the morale support network sustaining these animals. And you are partially responsible for the lives they lay to waste.

Such moral simpletons and pleaders for tolerance of mass murder sure the hell won't listen to me. Frankly, they're probably too far gone to listen to Friedman, either, and consider this soft-headed liberal a Zionist Nazi.

But it can't hurt.

Posted by: Ace at 06:48 PM | Comments (5)
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The t-shirt reads i do not consent to being searched, of course in reaction the NYPD's prudent (though bothersome) decision to begin checking bags at subway entrances.

It's very simple. There are some on the left that don't like the real world. They'd prefer a different world, one in which terrorism wasn't occurring, and if it were perpetrated, then perpetrated by White Male Corporate Pigs rather than Oppressed Heroic Multicultural Victims that they're supposed to feel solidarity with.

So they're just checking out. This world doesn't please them, so they'll engage in a bit of collective communal fantasy -- a bit like live-action role-playing, except with Birkenstocks and moccachinos instead of broadswords and wizards' staves -- and wish all the icky stuff away.

Fine. But just be aware of what you're doing, and allow the rest of us -- those of us not LARPing around in the real world -- to handle real life while you're earning experience points in delusion and denial.

Posted by: Ace at 04:47 PM | Comments (31)
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Anyone think that a similar story about lynching aborignals would have gotten a prize? Or do you think that kid would have been expelled and/or put into forcible psychotherapy?

I waken to the sounds of bombs. Women and children crying. Rubble. That is all there is to see.

Baghdad: once filled with beds of flowers and happy smiling faces. Now destroyed homes: destroyed families -- no peace, no hope ...

I miss my ma and papa so much. Images of their mangled bodies lying in pools of blood will never leave my mind ...

The back door opens. Two American soldiers. The enemy. The destroyers, who say they are here to save us. I hate the Americans ...

"Get them to the camp," the gruff one orders ...

A prisoner of war with nothing to live for except maybe to uphold the memories of my beloved Allah, my parents and my country.

To truly show the world what it means to be Muslim, I reach under my salwaar kameez and release the catch of dynamite strapped to my chest. Two minutes. Silence. THEN!!!!!

Kids take their cues from teachers. This girl knew this terrorist splatterpunk would please her Give Terrorism A Chance teachers.

A very broad, very noisy, and very influential swath of the hard left is pro-terrorist and are effectively enemies of America. They are, as Excitable Andy described him before his heart went a-flutter at the thought of court-imposed gay marriage, a treasonous Fifth Column.

Full fucking stop.

Enough is enough.

Posted by: Ace at 04:27 PM | Comments (14)
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