Looks like another lefty has grown tired of The Clintons™ and is now toeing the VRWC party line saying same stuff the right has been saying for years.

As a practical matter, a Hillary presidency with a semi-hostile D.C. press would make for some genuine entertainment. The rectal exams that should have happened in the past might actually happen if the O-man (Peace Change Be Upon Him) goes down due to some sort of Machiavellian back room convention maneuvering.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:03 PM | Comments (24)
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Yeah, I need the day off.

Posted by: Ace at 01:16 PM | Comments (31)
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Guess he must have lost a mill job. He certainly pretends to worship God and definitely hates people who don't look like him.

First reported by The Chicago Sun Times, Wright said that Thomas Jefferson, who partook in “pedophilia,” would also be considered unpatriotic these days because he wrote, “God would punish America for the sin of slavery.” He also quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said that the U.S. has a “congenital birth defect.”

Speaking of the seven lessons Pincham taught him, Wright said the judge’s faith “was not the jingoistic, chauvinistic ‘you’re either with us or against us’ demonizing kind of faith.”

“FOX News can’t understand that,” Wright said to rousing cheers and applause. “[Bill] O’Reilly will never get that. Sean Hannity’s stupid fantasy will keep him forever stuck on stupid when it comes to comprehending how you can love a brother who does not believe what you believe. [Pincham’s] faith was a faith in a God who loved the whole world not just one country or one creed.”Click here to hear Rev. Wright’s sermon

Posted by: Ace at 01:14 PM | Comments (43)
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I just spent the last 10 days driving from south FL to upstate NY and back again. The route I always take involves hanging a left at Baltimore and going through Harrisburg, Binghampton, then I88 up to Albany. This is 50 miles longer than the Delaware/NJ/NYC route, but involves zero tolls and lowers my blood pressure by 30 points, so its well worth the extra 50 miles.

Curiously, during that roughly 2900 mile round trip, I saw only a single Hillary bumper sticker, a single Obama bumper sticker, and no McCain bumper stickers. Usually I'm rolling at the speed limit, so almost every car on the road will pass me at some point. During the round trip I only overtook 3 or 4 cars.

It may be that the I95 demographic is atypical, but I'm forced to conclude based on what I saw that most people are pretty unenthusiastic.

I also saw a lot of empty billboards, confirming my billboard theory™ of the economy. When the shit is heading south, billboards become empty.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 11:23 AM | Comments (70)
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Oh no, not on Mexicans coming into the US, that would be racist. They are cracking down on Central Americans coming into Mexico illegally.

Central Americans without documents now face increased security within Mexico, including checks on the train for stowaways. It's also harder for them to head north once they cross into Mexico because of hurricane damage to the train tracks.

The result: The number of non-Mexican migrants stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol has dropped almost 60 percent from 2005, despite increased detention efforts. About 68,000 non-Mexican migrants — mostly Central Americans — were detained last year, compared to 165,000 in 2005. Non-Mexicans make up about 10 percent of all migrants caught by Border Patrol officers.

Mexico itself is also seeing fewer illegal immigrants — 120,000 were arrested last year, a 50 percent drop from 2005, when Hurricane Stan hit and destroyed the railroad, according to the National Immigration Institute. Since President Felipe Calderon took office two years ago, Mexico has added more soldiers and federal police on its border with Guatemala and more immigration and military checkpoints throughout the south.

Militarizing the border? Check points? WhatÂ’s next, a wall?

Oh by the way, thatÂ’s also the same President Calderon who famously said last fall that the Mexican government wouldÂ…

“energetically protest unilateral actions” of the U.S. Congress on the immigration front that he said “exacerbate the persecution of undocumented Mexicans in the U.S.”

Considering many, if not most, of these illegal immigrants are passing through Mexico on their way to the US, I guess the Mexican government wants to limited the competition for their citizens in the US.

How do you say chutzpah in Spanish?

Posted by: DrewM at 10:28 AM | Comments (20)
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Oh, the stuff I miss while away from the internet. Watching two liberal elitists fight over which one has less disdain for religious, gun-owning rural Americans is far too much fun to seem real. This has got to be a dream, right? If so...don't wake me just yet.

I'm blogging from the road and am currently surrounded by those "bitter" Pennsylvania voters near Reading. While driving up and down the insane hills on I-78 (really, Pennsylvania? You couldn't have blasted a hole through some of them?) I conducted a very informal "bumper sticker" primary? The results? More Obama than Clinton. Take it for what it's worth. My prediction is that Clinton will win, but not by the overwhelming margin she needs to stay viable.

Still, it is fun watching these two tear into each other. I've decided to offer some campaign assistance - some visuals to help them appear more...authentically rural. more...

Posted by: Slublog at 09:44 AM | Comments (23)
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Mark Devlin at Industrial Equipment News easily disembowels a 90-page paper written by a couple of Oxford academics.

The authors suppose an interesting direction: engineers radicalize. On the other hand, I donÂ’t see the authors trying to prove the reverse: that itÂ’s handy and serves many of their purposes for radicals to become engineers.

The following is just incredible (Page 19 if youÂ’re following along). Here, I thought IÂ’ve made some leaps of thought in my timeÂ…

Before attempting to explain what’s ‘wrong’ with engineers, we must consider the further question of whether they are overrepresented also among a different group of violent Islamic extremists from the ones we considered in the first sample, namely those born in or residents of Western countries who became active in recent times, mostly after 9/11.

WhatÂ’s wrong with engineers? How could seemingly intelligent, highly educated (characteristics that arenÂ’t necessarily associated) authors (of real books, apparently) begin ANY related thought process in such a way as to assume that thereÂ’s something wrong with engineers, and seemingly ignore the radical-TO-engineer direction so very consistently? Anyone care to comment on whatÂ’s wrong with sociologists?

The whole column is a joy to read. First, because the excerpts from the paper demonstrate that possession of a PhD is no talisman against profound goofiness. Secondly, because Mr. Devlin disposes of their arduous pap with alacrity.

Savor the difference in the intellectual competence of academics vs. a person who actually has to think for a living.

Please enjoy with my compliments, darling puddin' heads.

Thanks to Tom M.

Just Wondering... [ace] Okay, I know a lot of engineers read this blog and I don't want to piss them off, especially because they can make kickass letter bombs and shit.

I'm just brain-noodling here.

Question: Do any engineers believe their profession is overrepresented by those who are either strongly apolitical -- as in not just apathetic, but anti-political as a matter of considered principle -- or else strong ideological partisans for one party or the other or a fringe group like Libertarians?

Stop. Building. That Letter Bomb.

I'm asking because the engineer's mindset -- and likely then the personality type most strongly attracted to the profession -- is much concerned with streamlining, simplifying, cutting through bullshit, cutting down on wasteful steps, etc. And I wonder if then doesn't result in a tendency towards rejection of politics entirely as simply irrelevant to one's day-to-day life or else a strong identification with one political faction due to identifying one of any key factors (freedom, security, what have you) as primary and discarding most others as secondary at best.

I'm not talking extremists or radicals, necessarily. Just wondering. I really don't know myself; I just think it's an interesting question I'd pose to the engineers... and their girlfriends or boyfriends. (The latter would probably know better.)

I don't know many engineers but a friend of mine seems to me to have the personality type and brain type of engineers. His philosophy of life seems to be reduce all bullshit and all nonproductive/nonpleasurable distractions to zero, sometimes a bit further than I would. (Most guys are like this, anyway, of course; that's why, seriously, we hate holidays and sending cards and crap. It's all artificial nonsense and we rate it all as having low utility. Even though we know our moms and girlfriends like getting cards and thinking-of-you notes, we can't help being annoyed that you guys shouldn't derive any pleasure from that stuff. But I'm thinking engineers might tend to be uber-guys on this score.)

Again, I'm not knocking any engineers and I don't even have much of an anecdotal reason for asking this question at all. I know one dude who isn't even an engineer, he just seems to me to think like an engineer.

I'm just curious about human personality types. I have a pretty good idea what sorts of people are attracted to writing, for obvious reasons. And law. Just based on general lore I have an idea of what types of people become musicians.

I'm just wondering if anyone who actually knows notices any correlations between the engineering profession and personality type and political bent.

Posted by: LauraW at 08:29 AM | Comments (143)
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It's OK with me that bridal showers are so boring. Really. I will never complain about how tedious it is to sit around eating cake and documenting every gift the bride-to-be opens, ever again.

A bachelor party last summer for a Knox County sheriff's deputy where the groom-to-be was shot with an electroshock weapon, handcuffed, hog-tied with duct tape, oiled and feathered, and paraded through downtown Camden strapped to a lawn chair on the back of a flatbed truck, is under investigation by Sheriff Donna Dennison.

The video is here.

This would be a 'boys will be boys' kind of thing for me but for the taser.

The second time they tase him you might feel your blood pressure rise. The poor fuckin' guy, really. It looks like they were trying to be gentle with him, grabbing him before he hit the ground too hard, etc.

But the howls of laughter while the guy is on the ground in agony (do I hear him crying? Hard to tell), and the subsequent threats to tase him again...enraging.

Couldn't they have just hired strippers?

Thanks to eddiebear.

Posted by: LauraW at 07:18 AM | Comments (41)
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Why people suck, part infinity plus one.

I'd say 'Why lawyers suck', but I see this kind of CYA behavior from all walks of life, albeit never this egregious a case of self-serving rationalizations in making the broader immoral choice, regardless of the situational ethics.

Consider this:

Suppose you had information that could free an innocent person convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In revealing that information however, the guilty party might get the death penalty, you could lose your career. What would you do?

I say without hesitation that I would offer up the information, and any who might do otherwise is beneath contempt and undeserving of a place in polite society.

These two lawyers, Dale Coventry and W. Jamie Kunz, are two such examples of the lowest form of humanity, content to sit idly by while an innocent man served 26 years in prison.

Details below the break. more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 10:02 PM | Comments (244)
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Jawa Radio interviewed Gary Swenchonis Sr., whose son was murdered in the bombing of the USS Cole October 12th, 2000.

Listen to the archive here.

Don't forget, Ace joins us April 22nd.

If you'd like to hear interviews with Brad Thor, Robert Spencer, Charles Johnson, and others, go here and scroll down.

Feel free to join us live every Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central at the second link. Our format consists of a guest one week, and no guests the other.

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:22 PM | Comments (5)
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