Really just an excuse to post the pic:

Germany's celebrity polar bear cub Knut has received an anonymous death threat, causing alarm at Berlin Zoo on Thursday and prompting heightened security.

Top-selling Bild newspaper said the zoo had received a hand-written fax from a suspected animal hater with the words: "Knut is dead! Thursday midday."

But that deadline came and went safely for media star Knut, who has been on newspaper front pages around Germany and the world for weeks. "He is safe and in good spirits," said zoo official Ragnar Kuehne after the time had passed.

Berlin police said they had investigated a letter containing a threat but did not believe it was serious.

Posted by: Ace at 08:37 AM | Comments (15)
Post contains 127 words, total size 1 kb.

Geezer tipped me to this. He prefaced it with 'Don't read it if you don't want to get pissed.'

Too late for me, I'm afraid.
Fair warning; the article at the link contains a graphic description of two terrible murders.

TEST YOUR GOOGLE-FU: Find me some coverage on this case from a major or National media outlet. I dares ya.

Another bit of perspective from The Conservative Voice:

"I can guarantee that I'm not the only one who is suspicious over whether the lack of coverage is a concerted effort to brush the story under the rug. Even if it wasn't, it is a huge fumble not to have reported the case. But if my suspicions are correct, it'll only reinforce a sad truth that I've come to learn: The most devastating and important cases are simply passed over when they don't fit the agenda."

That quote is not from a conservative, but from Stefanie Williams, a thoughtful young woman whose article in the University of Maryland's student newspaper appears to be the only media source for details of this horrific crime.

MSM: What are you good for anymore, anyway?
Even a liberal (for now) Junior in college can do your job better than you, and see right through you, too.

Ace's Update: I previously linked a Jack Dunphy column about this on NRO, recapitulating the satanic evil of the crime and the MSM's lack of any interest in it whatsoever.

Dunphy also notes that several tabloidy crime stories became grist for the media mill around the time of this outrage, so it's not like they were retreating from covering lurid crimes. And yet -- no coverage of this one at all.

Why?

Well, as Mitchieville notes, look at the pictures of the victims, and look at the pictures of the savages who tortured, raped, killed, and incinerated them. Wrong color on both.

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:32 AM | Comments (116)
Post contains 325 words, total size 2 kb.

Unbelievable, just by the statistics.

Eight years ago, [Regina Rohde] was a freshman at Columbine High School in Colorado when two classmates, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, came in armed to the teeth and bent on murder.

She was in the cafeteria, the epicenter of the attack, but was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape the building even before the first calls went out to police. Twelve students died in that assault.

...

And now, on Monday morning, it was happening again. Rohde wasnÂ’t in the direct line of fire, but she knew that a gunman was on the prowl, and she found herself experiencing the same emotions as she had in 1999.

"It was a lot of the same reactions. ‘What’s going on? Who’s hurt? Where do we go?’ — the same kind of questions that we asked ourselves" at Columbine, she said.

Not to be glib, but I have to imagine "Why does this keep happening to me?" had to one of those questions as well. How could it not be?

Thanks to dri.

Posted by: Ace at 08:01 AM | Comments (36)
Post contains 195 words, total size 1 kb.

...which turned out to be as bad an idea as it sounds.

From the Once Bitten Twice Shy Department:

A rape suspect was "walking a little funny" when authorities found him after an alleged attack Monday morning.

Sheriff Mike Blakely said a 32-year-old Belle Mina woman was asleep at her home when she awoke to someone smothering her with a pillow.

The attacker said, "Lay still and do what I say," Blakely said.

The woman finally convinced her attacker she would comply if he would let her breathe, the sheriff said.

Blakely said the man stood up and she grabbed a lamp and hit him in the head twice.

Enraged, the attacker threw her to the floor and choked her, Blakely said.

"He then ordered her to perform oral sex," Blakely said. "That's when she bit him."

The attacker ran from the house.

...

"He was walking a little funny, kind of bowlegged," McNatt said. "He claimed he hurt himself in a bicycle accident."

Deputies doubted that story and took him into custody. A medical examination at the jail showed the injury was a bite mark and that the woman had bitten him hard enough to draw blood, McNatt said.

I'm surprised this brain surgeon didn't indulge his sexual fantasies about a woman erotically tickling his ass with a shotgun.

Thanks to Marcus.

Posted by: Ace at 07:56 AM | Comments (23)
Post contains 243 words, total size 1 kb.

...to the tune of Barbara Ann.

I'm not sure if this makes me like him more or makes me worry about his flakiness.

Video clip via Hot Air, noting that McCain's support among independents is shakier than it had been.

I guess his electoral fortunes -- as well as everyone else's -- depends on where he comes down on the scary-important issue of Japanese whaling, a decisive issue for six in ten swing voters.

Posted by: Ace at 07:42 AM | Comments (20)
Post contains 88 words, total size 1 kb.

Chicago White Sox Pitcher Mark Buehrle threw a no hitter on Wednesday night, as the ChiSox beat the Texas Rangers 6-0.

I caught the highlights of the game on ESPN. Buehrle had only one blemish on his pitching line, a walk to Sammy Sosa that cost him a Perfect Game.

Now I'm a National League fan, and I detest the designated hitter. But I do have to say that pitching a no-hitter in the AL, where a pitcher doesnt have to face the almost guaranteed out that is a NL pitcher at bat, is an impressive achievement.

I found a second link on the ESPN website that was interesting to me as a fan of Baseball's rich history and tradition. They have a link that compiles every no- hitter thrown since 1876.

Here's a quick quiz for you? Do you remember who threw the last no-hitter prior to Buehrle's last night? I have to admit, I had completely forgotten about this particular game. I would have guessed the Randy Johnson game against Atlanta in 2004.

Anyway, if you are a baseball fan check out the link. It's an interesting mix of names of folks who are legends and folks who pitched their no-hitter and were never heard from again.

Posted by: Jack M. at 09:23 PM | Comments (43)
Post contains 221 words, total size 1 kb.

If that's compassion, mark me down as a fan of vendetta.

If it helps the students get passed this, fine. But usually forgiveness is granted to those who ask for it.

Cho was too narcisstic, crazy, and evil to ask for forgiveness. He was too arrogant to ask for forgiveness -- arrogant in that very special way that only a dysfunctional loser with nothing at all to be arrogant about can be arrogant.

So how can forgiveness be extended to him?

Posted by: Ace at 06:00 PM | Comments (91)
Post contains 93 words, total size 1 kb.

I've never gotten the Ron Paul deal. Always seemed like a freak to me. This sounds like a pretty familiar syndrome:

Then September 11, 2001 hit. My boss, Ron Paul, all of a sudden changed dramatically. Whereas before he was a reasonable non-interventionist, he was now rabidly so.

...

But after Sept. 11, things changed. He became morose. He became bitter, and quite pessimistic.

I had to literally beg him to support the vote authorizing the President to send Troops to Afghanistan. I actually threatened to resign if he did not vote that way. And another key District Staffer, practically threatened to resign, as well. At the last minute Ron voted in favor of the Authorization. I suspected he only did it, cause he knew if he hadn't he would cause the Republicans in the District to oppose him, and he wouldn't win reelection.

But 9/11 served as a wake up call for me. I started questioning how it is that I could work for such a man.

A lot of lefties behaved the same way after 9/11 -- and are still acting like petulant children to this day -- because their pretty belief systems had two large airplanes crashed into them.

I'm afraid I can't see the good in such a doctrinaire arch-ideologue. A guy whose primary emotion after 9/11 isn't anger, but bitterness that his "America's business is business" sloganeering has lost some of its cache.

He shares another policy position with lefties: He seems to think the Jews are causing all the world's ills.

"Balance:" Rho in particular is angry at this "one-sided" account. I'm not sure if it matters; Ron Paul is going to be the Republican nominee like I'm going to be the Republican nominee.

However, for his positions -- not that they matter -- he's an interview with him at Politico.

Though I don't see this contradicting his aide's account:

IRAQ:

The president, if we are attacked or there is an imminent threat, has the authority to go to war. That's been clearly understood since the Constitution. ... The president, as commander in chief, can defend his country in times of emergency. But you know what? That has never happened in all these years. Even with the Soviet threat.

It has never happened in all these years?

Not even on September 11th?

If he means that the president has not acted on his own inherent authority to defend the country, he's wrong; presidents have done so on a small-scale basis since Washington. And Bush didn't attack Iraq on his own inherent authority; there was the little matter of the authorization for the use of military forces passed, easily, by Congress.

If he's one of those guys getting hung up on the "formal Declaration of War" thing, well, I'd prefer those myself, but it seems a rather childish point and I prefer Presidents not being overly concerned with wording. That's the sort of argument for a college bullshit session. It shouldn't serve as the basis of a real foreign policy.

Americans may be childish, but we like to pretend we don't go to "war." I don't underderstand that childishness myself, but we prefer euphemisms like "police actions" and "uses of military force." I think it's equally childish to say, "Oh no, we can't use the military unless we do so by legislation expressly called 'Declaration of War.'" That seems juvenile to me, and further, a silly little manner of trying to make it as hard as possible for the country to go to war.

Which is a fine and noble tradition. It's just not mine.

I consider that about as serious as Kucinich's proposed Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

Posted by: Ace at 04:57 PM | Comments (103)
Post contains 650 words, total size 4 kb.

It's too dirty to link on the site (even though I really want to, but I don't want to cause problems for people at work).

But here's that photoshop I had asked for.

I hope this spawns a lot more. Not really how this creep wanted to be remembered.

Thanks to a guy who says "Don't even bother with the hat-tip."

Another One. A little more realistic, and showing off his preference for white meat.

Thanks to Master Shake.

Not sure we need any further dildo ones, at least not with that picture. Explore the studio space.

Arms And The Man: Compensation!

I've Got Man-Glue On My Forehead: I was about to ask, where are all the ones featuring semen? Come on, tap your inner fifth grader.

Then a4g sent this one, entitled "Chostain."

more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:38 PM | Comments (16)
Post contains 191 words, total size 3 kb.

Lot of good ones. I think the cleverest was the guy who got his back tattooed with HTML page-definition commands -- /body, /div, /side, etc. -- but I figure this would be the best one for you morons:

...because there's an ass in it.

Thanks to Warden.

Posted by: Ace at 04:27 PM | Comments (20)
Post contains 51 words, total size 1 kb.