No videos kick more ass than these, they say.

Ahem.

I'm pretty sure they're kidding.

Old?

Posted by: Ace at 12:32 PM | Comments (14)
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And he thinks that's a pretty good deal.

This borders on parody, so it may be a plant. Then again, most of this crap borders on parody, and many dKos commenters seem willing to give the proposal a fair hearing.

While it appears from more than one point of view that the War in Iraq and the War on Terror are situations from which we may never be able to extricate ourselves, from the mountains of Pakistan comes a very simple solution: convert to Islam.

Before we reject this out of hand, lets seriously consider it for a moment: Osama Bin Laden promised the wars would be over if Americans convert to Islam.

This may sound like a lot to ask from the most religious country in the industrialized world. But of all the Christians in America today who profess to be religious, how many of us are seriously devout?

How many of us are really just religious lightweights, happy to simply go to church every Sunday, attend church socials, knock back a drink or two every Christmas and not worry ourselves about the deeper implications of our faith?

Given the way most of us pay any real attention to the tenets of our faith, life really wouldnÂ’t be that different if we were to exchange one faith for another. The prayers would be different, but we would recite them just as mindlessly as we do today. The sermons would in all likelihood be exactly the same, and weÂ’d continue to snore through them.

Sure, there are a few people here and there who take religion seriously, but they are in such a small minority that their protests can be easily ignored.

Or converted at the point of a sword. After all, some "collateral damage" must be accepted if you hope to win a surrender.

Posted by: Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (40)
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Stubborness, a lack of intellectual curiosity, a deep-seeded Messiah complex, an unwillingness to confront uncomfortable facts, a "faith-based" belief in their ability to prevail.

I don't know about you, but I'd say it's time to attempt a "new strategy" and perhaps reassign John Cusack, Robert Redford, and Hollywood's other pinks to an "over the horizon redeployment" to Okinawa, where they perhaps can make low-budget chop-schlockey martial-arts films that can at least earn back the price of their prints.

Posted by: Ace at 11:44 AM | Comments (73)
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Yesterday, I posted on Rudy Giuliani's tough torture talk in Davenport, Iowa, in which he definitionally removed waterboarding and sleep deprivation from torture. John McCain ripostes today:

"All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” McCain told The New York Times in an interview.

McCain, who is vying for the GOP nomination, said his fellow presidential candidates: "They should know what it (waterboarding) is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.”

McCain has a record on torture: he wanted to outlaw (as in, criminally penalize members of the armed services and intelligence agencies for) torture in December 2005. But he went well beyond Giuliani in providing protections for terrorists:

By establishing the Army Field Manual as the uniform standard for interrogation of detainees, the McCain amendment bans not just the worst forms of torture, but also tactics that have been labeled “torture light” such as lengthy sleep deprivation, the use of painful stress positions, removal of clothing, exposure to extremely uncomfortable cell temperatures, and the use of scenarios designed to convince the detainee that death or severely painful consequences are imminent.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:05 AM | Comments (48)
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Also decent is this Renault commercial, showing off the cars' survivability by crashing them into each other in a desert demolition derby:

Thanks to Petite Dov.

Posted by: Ace at 10:52 AM | Comments (8)
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I'd like shot of rum with an Admiral Nelson liquified flesh chaser:

In 1805, British Admiral Horatio Nelson was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain. Most sailors were simply put to rest at sea, but as an admiral, Nelson had to be brought back to England for an official burial.

To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.

Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood.

Mmmm... the rum's aftertaste is of naval courage with just a hint of post-rigor lividity.

Thanks to krakatoa.

Posted by: Ace at 10:37 AM | Comments (54)
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He already confessed publicly to lying about the Burned Woman. This proves he lied about the other two incidents in "Shock Troops" as well:

Read Bryan at Hot Air for comment on those.

Foer's claim that Beauchamp did not recant -- and its claim that even an Army official says he didn't recant -- is simply wrong. Foer is lying, as usual. Apparently he's clinging to something like his defense for the Burned Woman incident, in which lying about where and when the incident (supposedly) occurred is a rather minor detail which doesn't disprove the "fundamental veracity" of the tale.

Foer is probably now thinking, "Sure, he never *saw* the dogs get run down as he claimed he did, but claiming to be an eyewitness to an event is small potatoes. Likewise, claiming to have seen a human child skull used as a yarmulke is pretty close to merely finding some animal bones in a garbage dump site."

Franklin Foer Grave-Digging Update: Somewhere between the earth's mantle and core.

Posted by: Ace at 10:11 AM | Comments (24)
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Ugh. Worth watching.

Near the end is a Western-looking guy, beardless, wearing sunglasses, announcing his support for the strict rules on modern dress. The narrator then informs us that apparently he's not familiar with Ahmadinejad's plans to force men to wear beards and to stop wearing infidel sunglasses.

Posted by: Ace at 10:00 AM | Comments (61)
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I'm attending the YAF conference at the Reagan Ranch on November 9th-10th. For once, someone was kind enough to invite me... and comp me.* So, pretty sweet.

I'm heading out there the week before to hang out with steve_in_hb. Some have expressed an interest in an "Aceapalooza West" or something. Not sure how serious that interest is, but if anyone wants to do the legwork necessary to make that happen, I'd love to meet some of the West Coast Morons.

Plus, I need something to do. I know from my last visit with steve: He gets annoyed with me being all in his space and up in his grill after approximately 36 hours.

* Oh, I should say the first person to offer to comp me was US Citizen/Traction Control, who offered to pay my flight costs for the Gun Bloggers convention in Reno. Alas, I couldn't make that one. But that was a pretty sweet offer.

Clarification: I guess I was a bit vague in describing my visit to the monstrous state of California.

Specifically I'll be in HB for the week and then Santa Barbara for the weekend. As I imagine the Santa Barbara/YAF/Reagan Ranch thing will fill my schedule, I don't plan on meeting anyone else there (though if you're in the area and want to know what bar we're at, I'll be happy to tell you).

Mostly I'm thinking LA or environs. Because I've never been to LA. And it seems like a good place to do it.

As far as San Fransisco/NorCal readers: Sorry, I think that's a bit too much travel for one week. Plus, it's, you know, San Francisco. On one hand I'm told it's a pretty city. On the other hand I hear that people defecate freely in the street. Which is awesome, but I have an addictive personality, and I'm afraid I'd like it a little too much.

Posted by: Ace at 09:55 AM | Comments (35)
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Giuliani still way out ahead, though.

On the presidential front, Mitt's now no. 2: Guiliani – 33%; Romney – 17%; Thompson – 13%; McCain – 9%; No opinion – 17%. Among Ds: Clinton – 53%; Obama – 19%; Edwards – 9%; In the general election: Hilliary Clinton – 37%, Rudy Guiliani – 34%, Undecided – 29%. She beats Thompson 39-31 and Romney 39-32.

Allow me to make the hack observation (I've heard this eighty billion times) that Democrats usually have a wide-open race with lots of unexpected winners and the Republicans usually just dutifully nominate the candidate whose "turn" it is.

Obviously here that rule (if it ever was one) is turned on its head.

Posted by: Ace at 09:43 AM | Comments (15)
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