Gee, I wonder why Americans never believed the Comprehensive Piece of Shit would secure the border.

Four billion more dollars to patrol the borders.... but without actually patrolling any borders.

More from Hot Air: long-time illegal finally deported; Geraldo once again avoids discussing illegal immigration in an interview about illegal immigration.

Not Really Related: Ron Paul fans: please defend these remarks by Ron Paul's favorite radio host.

This little scumbag pussy is calling for my death, and yours, and virtually everyone you know.

Posted by: Ace at 09:32 AM | Comments (11)
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Britain's new de facto state religion. Would a declared state religion be treated with any additional special privileges by government institutions like the BBC? Perhaps, but not too many more.

This is what a state religion looks like -- and it comes to you from those who are supposedly the most vigorous guardians against such a thing.

The De Facto State Religion of Italy and Scotland: "The sound of civilization committing suicide," Theodore Dalrymple writes.

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 09:09 AM | Comments (7)
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I guess it's simply a case of the law acknowledging actual local practice.

It's actually a mistake in the drafting of the law, but it will be seized upon to make fun of bumpkin Arkansas, which is how it should be.

A law passed this year allows Arkansans of any age -- even infants -- to marry if their parents agree, and the governor may have to call a special session to fix the mistake, lawmakers said Friday.

The legislation was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry but also allow pregnant teenagers to marry with parental consent, bill sponsor Rep. Will Bond said.

An extraneous "not" in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.

"It's clearly not the intent to allow 10-year-olds or 11-year-olds to get married," Bond said. "The legislation was screwed up."

Thanks to Alice H.

Razorback Bashing: Eh, why not. Kaspar Hauser:

You know why there's no "CSI-Little Rock"?

The DNA is all the same and there are no dental records.

Posted by: Ace at 08:57 AM | Comments (24)
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Superbad has had huge insider buzz and has been widely predicted to be a huge hit despite the fact its director and cast are all but unknown. (Yes, it has George Michael from Arrested Development, the loser dude from Knocked Up, and Vincent Price from Saturday Night Live, but they're not huge stars... yet. Judd Apatow's name is always mentioned, but he's the producer, not the director.)

So, is the buzz on what seems like such a small movie justified? Yup. The insiders weren't just jerking you around. I saw this Saturday night and wanted to mention it, in case it takes me a week to write one of my six billion word reviews.

It's funny all the way through, with lots of big laughs along the way, and smiles and giggles even in its other parts. It earns every bit of its R rating, mostly through faithfully capturing what high school boys talk about (chiefly "vaigzsh," and various other corruptions of vagina, along with calling each other faggot and such). There are three obligatory gross-out bits, but two are so brief that they feel obligatory, a nod to what's expected in this sort of movie. The third is the raunchiest and most detailed, but it's so funny and inspired it justifies itself. (Also: it only involves doodles on a notepad. Some seriously funny (and R rated) doodles.)

The commercials for it are okay, but don't really show off the film's funniest bits, which is welcome -- they've only given away a smallish number of jokes, so watching the movie, for once, isn't just waiting for the funny bites you've already seen in the ads. One bit that seemed pretty dumb in the commercials -- the fake ID with the unlikely name "McLovin" (just "McLovin," like Prince or Madonna) -- actually turned out to have a whole lot more potential than I thought. After the movie I began rating stuff according to how "McLovin" it was (meaning how totally kickass and superbad it was).

Three and a half stars, easily the funniest comedy since the last truly funny comedy. Which I guess would be Wedding Crashers or the Will Ferrel race car movie. A constant stream of vulgarity and bad behavior, but nothing that will put you off if you're reading this site.

Posted by: Ace at 08:35 AM | Comments (12)
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Actually surveyed by Foreign Policy, but that itself is published by the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace.

More than half of top U.S. foreign policy experts oppose President George W. Bush's troop increase as a strategy for stabilizing Baghdad, saying the plan has harmed U.S. national security, according to a new survey.

As Congress and the White House await the September release of a key progress report on Iraq, 53 percent of the experts polled by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress said they now oppose Bush's troop build-up.

That is a 22 percentage point jump since the strategy was announced early this year.

The survey of 108 experts, including Republicans and Democrats [ed. --- note it says only the survey includes both, not that (as is implied) both are equally represented], showed opposition to the so-called "surge" across the political spectrum, with about two-thirds of conservatives saying it has been ineffective or made things worse in Iraq.

Foreign Policy, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the experts polled on May 23 to June 26 included former government officials in senior positions including secretary of state, White House national security adviser and top military commanders.

In related news, a new poll conducted by the Carnegie Endowment of Kicking Their Ass and Taking Their Gas found that 30% of experts supported "Kicking their ass," 30% supported "taking their gas," 20% supported both, and 20% support something called "The Red Dawn 'Wolverine' Strategy," which seems to involve arming C. Thomas Howell to the teeth and filling him with hate (which keeps him warm).

Via Hot Air's headlines.

Posted by: Ace at 08:21 AM | Comments (10)
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Funny video with Moderate Content Warning for language and general douchebaggery.

Thanks to Michael S.

Posted by: Ace at 07:34 AM | Comments (19)
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This story is interesting on a couple of levels.

First, identical quads? That’s taking efficiency (4 kids from 1 zygote) to a ridiculous level.

Second, the children were going to be delivered 2 months premature and in need of neonatal intensive care. Unfortunately, the virtues of socialized medicine weren’t as evident in practice as they are portrayed to be in Democratic presidential debates or Michael Moore films:

A medical team and space for the babies had been organised for the Jepp family at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary but several other babies were born unexpectedly early, filling the neonatal intensive care unit.

Health officials said they checked every other neonatal intensive care unit in Canada but none had space.

And what metropolis could provide the care unavailable in Calgary (pop. 1,079,310) or the whole of the great north? Why it was that well known center of advanced medicine in the US…the megalopolis of Great Falls, Montana (pop. 56,690).

I know data is not the plural of anecdote but there’s something seriously wrong when the health care system in a nation of 33 million people cannot absorb 4 addition premature births without outsourcing it to the land of evil for profit medicine. more...

Posted by: DrewM. at 07:25 AM | Comments (19)
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This story is interesting on a couple of levels.

First, identical quads? ThatÂ’s taking efficiency (4 kids from 1 zygote) to a ridiculous level.

Second, the children were going to be delivered 2 months premature and in need of neonatal intensive care. Unfortunately, the virtues of socialized medicine werenÂ’t as evident in practice as they are portrayed to be in Democratic presidential debates or Michael Moore films:

A medical team and space for the babies had been organised for the Jepp family at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary but several other babies were born unexpectedly early, filling the neonatal intensive care unit.

Health officials said they checked every other neonatal intensive care unit in Canada but none had space.

And what metropolis could provide the care unavailable in Calgary (pop. 1,079,310) or the whole of the great north? Why it was that well known center of advanced medicine in the USÂ…the megalopolis of Great Falls, Montana (pop. 56,690).

I know data is not the plural of anecdote but thereÂ’s something seriously wrong when the health care system in a nation of 33 million people cannot absorb 4 addition premature births without outsourcing it to the land of evil for profit medicine.
more...

Posted by: DrewM at 07:25 AM | Comments (19)
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I hope Ace will indulge me this one post even though it is Monday morning, but if you go to the link here, you can read an excellent account of the Beauchamp debacle from an author (Richard Miniter) who has made phone calls, talked to people, etc. In other words, he's done some original reporting. Good "inside" stuff and, if that weren't reason enough, our own beloved AoSHQ gets several prominent mentions.

Hat tip to the Unmentionable One.

A Correction To That Article [by Ace]: Robert McGee ("Gracie") is reported to have said the following:

McGee’s leaks would continue as he learned more. On July 25, “I first leaked Elle’s [Elspeth Reeve’s] name late Wednesday evening, in a private email to the guy who runs the Ace of Spades.”

Not true, actually. He may have leaked the name to another blogger -- maybe this one -- but he never told me. I searched for it but couldn't find it, as I didn't know "Scott Thomas'" real name, either, until TNR disclosed it the day after.

Robert continued saying "TNR staffer" to me. I only said "TNR staffer" on my blog until Liberocky ran a search and came up with a Beauchamp-Reeves wedding registry on an online site.

I posted the name on this site first, but I wasn't the first to know it. DiscardedLies actually held off on it due to trouble verifying it -- a problem Liberocky solved for me.

A Clarification To That Article, Too: Miniter discusses the Reeves-Beuachamp marriage without mentioning they'd known each other previously in college. Reeves interviewed student activist Beauchamp at least twice.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:09 AM | Comments (35)
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Yeah, I cleaned up the title. One should never put four letter words in the headline if one wants to be linked. And I should be linked. Often and passionately. Kevlarchick, are you listening?

But that's beside the point. When my "Yahoo! News Alert" triggers on the word "Bob Dylan" I expect something quite different than the story I got this morning. Apparently there is an 11 year old boy in Alabama named Walker Yancey who is, according to the Birmingham News, the second coming of Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.

The second coming of Dylan, Hendrix and Cobain? At the ripe old age of 11? The dude must have some serious musical chops? Yes?

Ummm.....no.

Don't believe me? Listen to one of his original songs entitled "Four Eyed Beast". If you don't say "What the F*** is this S***" about 30 seconds into it, you owe me a different headline.

Now those of you hip to the folk scene, like me and Dave in Texas, will recognize the chord pattern as being a re-working of "House of the Rising Sun". The rest of you will just mutter darkly to yourselves and wonder why the Birmingham News never wrote a feature article about you and the way your dulcet tones reflect off of the finely tuned acoustic tiles in your shower each day.

So give Mr. Walker Yancey a listen. Maybe the "four eyed beast" he sings about is Chthulu. It's hard to tell, really. And the kid does (if you read the article) express admiration for the planet (yeah, I know) Pluto.

If anything, at least it isn't a cover of that "Chocolate Rain" song.

Which is a shame.

Because if Walker Yancey ever covers "Chocolate Rain" I am so buying that track.

Posted by: Jack M. at 05:33 AM | Comments (41)
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