A Taliban commander, that is.

Jack Straw wants to know why we're learning of this from the Times of India, rather than the American MSM.

(I think that might be a rhetorical question on his part.)

A Taliban commander was among 16 people killed in Afghanistan, as Afghan and NATO forces surrounded around 200 Taliban fighters in southern Uruzgan province, officials said on Tuesday.

Eleven Taliban were killed when Afghan and NATO forces attacked their hideout in the Seuri district of southern Zabul province Monday night, General Rahmatullah Raoufi, army commander for regional south said.

He said joint forces acting on a tip-off surrounded the Taliban compound and asked them to surrender, adding that the joint forces opened fire after being fired on by the insurgents from inside the compound. The ensuing battle left eleven Taliban dead. None of the Afghan or NATO troops was wounded.

...

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said the militants came under siege when they gathered for a meeting in the Chora district of the province and were warned to surrender or face attack.

He said the surrounded militants included some top Taliban commanders, but did not name any. However, Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Hadi Khalid told the security commission of the upper house of parliament Monday that it was possible that Mullah Dadullah, the top rebel commander for the southern region, could be among the fighters under siege.

Dadullah is believed to have been responsible for the recent beheading of an Afghan journalist and his driver.

The Taliban rejected the claim that their fighters, including Mullah Dadullah, are surrounded by Afghan forces, saying there was no need for such a large number of their fighters to gather in one place.

Note the "commander" killed is apparently not Dadullah, or at least there's no positive indication it's him.

Correction: The first sentence's linkage of the 200 surrounded Taliban and this attack made me believe they were in fact related -- which they appear not to be. Sorry for passing that erroroneous reading on to you.

Thanks to Allah for noting that.

Posted by: Ace at 02:25 PM | Comments (26)
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Absoulte moral authority from Cindy Sheehan.

And here: weapons-grade crazy.

If we are to believe the emerging timeline of events, Cho Seung-Hui killed a woman and her RA in a dorm, went back to his dorm and captured a QuickTime video rant, burned a DVD, trekked to the post office with two 9mm weapons in tow, mailed the DVD, along with photos and miscellaneous writings to NBC, and then marched over to Norris Hall and killed another thirty or so people execution-style.

Add to this a bevy of “experts” on television this evening declaring Cho Seung-Hui to be obviously paranoid schizophrenic. Excuse me, but paranoid schizophrenics, minus medication, have a difficult time stitching two coherent sentences together, let alone methodically engaging in homicide, managing to escape undetected, and then recording thoughts after the fact and conjuring up the wherewithal to send out a press release.

Actually most psychiatric experts refuse, as genuine experts do, to evaluate a subject they haven't studied or interviewed, and, to the extent they do indulge in speculation (which, in fairness, they almost always do, after stating they're not supposed to), they denied that Choad was a schizophrenic or psychotic (i.e., suffered a "break with reality," was incapable of distinguishing reality from fantasy and halluciantion).

He was probably psychopathic, an entirely distinct condition from being psychotic or schizophrenic.

But this is the point where Boone tells me "Forget it, he's rolling."

IÂ’m not buying it.

But what I can buy, or at least entertain, is the possibility Cho Seung-Hui is, for lack of a better term, a Manchurian Candidate. Do a Google search on Project Bluebird, the very real CIA experiments in brainwashing and multiple personality engineering.

“BLUEBIRD was approved by the CIA director on April 20, 1950. In August 1951, the Project was renamed ARTICHOKE. BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE included a great deal of work on the creation of amnesia, hypnotic couriers, and the Manchurian Candidate,” writes Colin A. Ross, MD. “ARTICHOKE documents prove that hypnotic couriers functioned effectively in real-life simulations conducted by the CIA in the early 1950’s. The degree to which such individuals were used in actual operations is still classified…

Before you write me off as another tinfoil hat nut case...

Too late.

... consider this document, released from the CIA under an FOIA request. In part, the document states:

“Miss [redacted] was instructed (having expressed a fear of firearms) that she would use every method at her disposal to awaken Miss [redacted] (now in a deep hypnotic sleep). Failing this, she would pick up a pistol and fire it at Miss [redacted]. She was instructed that she would not hesitate to “kill” [redacted]..."

Must kill Papp-Smear... Must kill Papp-Smear...

Of course, the existence of Project Bluebird and the search for Manchurian Candidate is hardly conclusive evidence Cho Seung-Hui was a programmed murder zombie. On the other hand, the picture painted by the corporate media, that Cho Seung-Hui was simply a mentally deranged and violent loner who stalked women and wrote disjointed plays does not make sense, especially considering his reported proficiency with handguns and the series of methodical tasks he accomplished soon after gunning down two people in cold blood.

Either way, the largest massacre in American history, carried out on the campus of a prestigious engineering school, will certainly jack up the fear ratio—to say nothing of launch yet another salvo at the Bill of Rights, two things certain to please our control freak rulers.

Cui bono?

Who benefits? Um, the left? The gun control advocates?

How the hell does Bush benefit from a mass-murder during his presidency?

Oh right, he gets to "shred the constitution and Bill of Rights"... by abolishing the Second Amendment, as many lefties are now agitating for.

Thanks to Max for that.

Posted by: Ace at 02:02 PM | Comments (38)
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Not just indecent, but most pretty repellent. Would it be worse if she said this before dinner, putting everyone off food for a week, or after dinner, possibly causing projectile vomiting?

ROSIE O'Donnell's blue humor made faces red when she emceed the Matrix Awards in front of 2,000 feting New York's most accomplished women in media at the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom yesterday.

The loose-lipped lesbian dropped the F-bomb as Barbara Walters lowered her head on the dais and covered her face with her hand. O'Donnell concluded a rant about Donald Trump by grabbing her crotch and shouting, "Eat me!"

O'Donnell also said she was sad when Trump called her "disgusting" and "fat" because, "it was always my dream to give an old, bald billionaire a boner."

What makes this even worse -- if it could be any worse -- is that now Donald Trump will feel required to respond to the particulars of Rosie's offer to take him to the mung cheese buffet. I don't see how Trump -- super-classy though he is -- can restrain himself from speculating upon the character, texture, pungency and hygiene of Rosie's gunt.

It's like the worst Red Lobster restaurant... in Hell.

Posted by: Ace at 01:49 PM | Comments (46)
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She claims it was a joke.

Really? Thanks to a commenter I can't remember, here's her original post on the One World One Square life philosophy. If someone can point out the tropes typically used to indicate ironical intent here, I'd appreciate it. Seems to me like a list of earnestly-proposed "solutions."

I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming. Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. One of my favorites is in the area of conserving trees which we heavily rely on for oxygen. I propose a limitation be put on how many sqares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required. When presenting this idea to my younger brother, who's judgement I trust implicitly, he proposed taking it one step further. I believe his quote was, "how bout just washing the one square out."

I also like the idea of not using paper napkins, which happen to be made from virgin wood and represent the heighth of wastefullness. I have designed a clothing line that has what's called a "dining sleeve". The sleeve is detachable and can be replaced with another "dining sleeve," after usage. The design will offer the "diner" the convenience of wiping his mouth on his sleeve rather than throwing out yet another barely used paper product.. I think this idea could also translate quite well to those suffering with an annoying head cold.

This next idea I have been saving but I will share it with you if you promise not to steal it. It is my latest, very exciting idea for creating incentive for us all to minimize our own personal carbon footprints. It's a reality show. (I feel pretty certain NO ONE has thought of this yet!). Here is the premise: the contest consists of 10 people who are competing for the top spot as the person who lives the "greenest" life. This will be reflected in the contestant's home, his business, and his own personal living style. The winner of this challenging, prestigious, contest would receive what??.... a recording contract!!!!!

All daffy. But daffiness is the left's stock in trade. Whereas irony, self-awareness, and humor generally are not.

So please, someone inform me of how Crow was, as people do when they joke, indicating she was winking at the audience.

John Kerry just emailed to say he believes Sheryl Crow. "Comedy is hard," he writes.

If we're to believe that Sheryl Crow was just joking, by the way, should we also believe that Julia Roberts thinks she can stop global warming -- and offset the wood consumption due to her new $20 million home -- by simply re-using paper grocery bags?

The thing is, this sort of nonsense -- proposing idiotic solutions this supposed catastrophic problem, solutions that are, conveniently, either on a very low level of sacrifice (reusing paper bags) or something that can never be verified by the public (using one square) -- are the Hollywood ditzes' stock in trade.

They want to be perceived as doing their part for the cause -- sacrificing for it -- without having to engage in actual sacrifice.

So, I call bullshit on her. She said a stupid thing, and now she's claiming it was a joke. But she's said things nearly as stupid before, and will say things even stupider in the future. Someone who is consistently comcially stupid cannot trot out the "silly joke" defense with much credibility, because so little separates their alleged "jokes" and their serious beliefs.

Ah, well. Let's just chalk it all up to nuance. Lefties want a free reign to speak in absurdities, but also want us to go along with their calling verbal mulligans when their absurdities become punchlines.

Posted by: Ace at 01:28 PM | Comments (51)
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Tough stuff.

The Vatican's second-highest ranking doctrinal official on Monday forcefully branded homosexual marriage an evil and denounced abortion and euthanasia as forms of "terrorism with a human face."

The attack by Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was the latest in a string of speeches made by either
Pope Benedict or other Vatican officials as Italy considers giving more rights to gays.

There's that word "attack" again. Does the left never attack in the eyes of the MSM?

In an address to chaplains, Amato said newspapers and television bulletins often seemed like "a perverse film about evil." He denounced "evils that remain almost invisible" because the media presented them as "expression of human progress."

He listed these as abortion clinics, which he called "slaughterhouses of human beings," euthanasia, and "parliaments of so-called civilized nations where laws contrary to the nature of the human being are being promulgated, such as the approval of marriage between people of the same sex ..."

Amato spoke at a time when the Vatican and Italy's powerful Roman Catholic Church are at loggerheads over plans for a highly controversial law that would give unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples some form of legal recognition.

The Church and Catholic politicians, even some in Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition, see the proposed law as a Trojan Horse and say it could lead to gay marriages.

Amato, who is said to be very close to Pope Benedict, criticized the media's coverage of ethical issues.

After denouncing "abominable terrorism" such as that carried out by suicide bombers, he condemned what he called "terrorism with a human face," and accused the media of manipulating language "to hide the tragic reality of the facts."

"For example, abortion is called 'voluntary interruption of pregnancy' and not the killing of a defenseless human being, an abortion clinic is given a harmless, even attractive, name: 'centre for reproductive health' and euthanasia is blandly called 'death with dignity'," he said in his address.

Meanwhile, the left has made anti-Semitism fashionable again, but it's not resting on its laurels by a longshot. Bringing anti-Semitism back -- kind of easy. It never really went away.

The real coup is bringing back anti-Catholicsm. How is this any different than turn of the century rants against "Creeping Papistry"?

You know what concerns me?” Rosie O’Donnell asked last week on ABC’s morning gabfest, The View.

“How many Supreme Court judges are Catholic, Barbara?”

"Five,” responds host Barbara Walters.

“Five. How about separation of church and state in America?” asks constitutional law scholar Rosie, after the Court’s sweeping decision upholding a federal law banning partial birth abortion.

Barbara counsels against drawing conclusions, saying “we cannot assume that they did it because they’re Catholic.” But the theologian in Rosie can’t help herself.

“If men could get pregnant,”Rosie opines, “abortion would be a sacrament.”

...

It’s not surprising that Rosie’s remarks have taken off like wildfire on talk radio, with conservative commentator Laura Ingraham leading the outcry. After all, it’s Rosie. This is the same person who shocked blacksmiths across the world with her declaration that September 11th was the “first time in history that fire has ever melted steel.” And the woman who implied that the terrorist attacks were an “inside job.” And the person who said “radical Christianity was just as threatening as radical Islam.”

But RosieÂ’s comments about last weekÂ’s 5-4 abortion decision arenÂ’t as isolated as you may like to believe. Respected thinkers, including the former dean of my law school, are contributing to a growing anti-Catholic backlash over Gonzales v. Carhart.

HereÂ’s what Geoffrey Stone, former law school dean and provost at the University of Chicago, had to say:

“All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic. The four justices who either are Protestant or Jewish all voted in accord with settled precedent. It is mortifying to have to point this out. But it is too obvious, and too telling to ignore,” Stone wrote on the University of Chicago Law School Faculty blog. http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/2007/04/our_faithbased_.html

And why is it telling, Dean Stone?

“Ultimately, the five justices in the majority all fell back on a common argument to justify their position. There is, they say, a compelling moral reason for the result in Gonzales,” Stone writes. “By making this judgment, these justices have failed to respect the fundamental difference between religious belief and morality.”

Read the whole thing.

It seems to me only three religions are now socially permissible: vague new-agey Gaiaism, evangelical atheism, and, of course, Islam.

Posted by: Ace at 01:22 PM | Comments (37)
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I didn't even know this was a sport.

Oh, that's right -- it's not.

This is officially the worst blogging day of my life. At least put a squirrel in a cowboy hat on the rabbits. Give me something.

Thanks to royone, who really can't be blamed no one thought to give the bunnies cowboy squirrel riders.

Posted by: Ace at 12:50 PM | Comments (26)
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It seems a bit more scathing than the quoted language indicated.

What's most troubling about Senator Reid's comments yesterday is his defeatism. Indeed, last week, he said the war is already lost. And the timetable legislation that he is now pursuing would guarantee defeat.

Maybe it's a political calculation. Some Democratic leaders seem to believe that blind opposition to the new strategy in Iraq is good politics. Senator Reid himself has said that the war in Iraq will bring his party more seats in the next election. It is cynical to declare that the war is lost because you believe it gives you political advantage. Leaders should make decisions based on the security interests of our country, not on the interests of their political party.

Posted by: Ace at 12:46 PM | Comments (30)
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Crazy Blog Money? No.

The admiration and respect of his friends, family, and blogging peers? Not happening.

A Britney Spears/Sanjaya Malakar album? Bingo, baby!

Pop princess Britney Spears' taste continues to become more and more “Toxic."

The bald beauty is eager to work with ridiculed reality star Sanjaya Malakar, Star magazine reported.

The mag quoted Brit as believing that the two would make “beautiful” music together.

Although Mr. O'Spades could not be reached for comment, a statement issued by his publicist claims that "Mr. O'Spades is excited to learn of this project, and looks forward to having a 'listening party' with Allah upon the album's release."

Posted by: Jack M. at 12:33 PM | Comments (13)
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It's officially a bad blogging day when I'm linking stuff that's clearly old and also about cats.

I kind of think there's a can of tuna inside the piano. The cat sure keeps pushing its nose up close to the keys.

Eh. It's better than the last entry.

Posted by: Ace at 12:30 PM | Comments (12)
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I don't really want to bust on the internet's most notorious high-quality a woman again, but I really can't see how I can avoid it.

Here she is posing with a new vibrator and penis cupcakes.

High-quality penis cupcakes, I'll have you know. They scored a 82% "Hot" rating on the Genital Shaped Pastry Hot or Not website.

The pictures are not really work safe, and probably not home safe either. It's just a disaster all the way 'round.

Thanks to spongeworthy.

It's Old: Spongeworthy now tells me this is from 2005.

Still freaky.

Posted by: Ace at 12:19 PM | Comments (27)
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