“If there is anything I am lacking in, I’ve got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life,” McCain joked. “I’ve got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again.”

But McCain quickly defended his musical taste, citing the Swedish bandÂ’s longevity and crossover success on Broadway.

“Now look, everybody says, ‘I hate ABBA. Oh ABBA, how terrible! Blah blah blah,’” he said. “How come everybody goes to ‘Mamma Mia?’ Huh? I mean really, seriously, huh? ‘I hate ABBA, they’re no good, you know.’ Well, everybody goes. They’ve been selling out for years.”

Oddly enough, Obama's had plenty of time to keep up with all the latest music.

I've always been suspicious of these Democratic liberal older men showing how down they are by name-checking current bands. Like that jagoff Howard Dean giving a shit-eating, too-cool-for-school grin when he told an audience that one of his favorite bands was, "and I don't know how many of you have heard of him, Wyclef Jean."

Obama also named Wyclef Jean in his top ten.

I sort of expect serious-minded men to put pop fads behind them at least by age 40.

I have no idea who Wyclef Jean is. Furthermore, I am proud that I do not know. I do not wish to know. Developing a taste for Wyclef Jean would take away from more important endeavors, like punching the clown and/or choking the chubacabra.

He also sounds suspiciously swarthy. And of course I fear brown people.

Via Petite Dov.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:28 PM | Comments (44)
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Gee, I seem to remember cries that the US was deliberately assassinating journalists in Iraq when one journalist got hit at extreme range by a stray bullet (which wasn't even necessarily fired by US troops!).

And yet... at a checkpoint, in this must-watch video, Russian troops open full-auto fire at an SUV which I have to imagine looked nothing like a tank.

And no caterwauling. No rebuke for Russia. No claims that Russia is deliberately targeting journalists -- which would be a supportable charge, given the fact Putin has been on a murder rampage against reporters who say bad things about him for years.

Why is that, do you think?

Thanks to CAD Daddy.

Posted by: Ace at 03:10 PM | Comments (75)
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Maybe a superhuman force for good intervened
and saved us all.

"The Great Arctic Ice Mystery:"

Just a few weeks ago, predictions of Arctic ice collapse were buzzing all over the internet. Some scientists were predicting that the "North Pole may be ice-free for first time this summer". Others predicted that the entire "polar ice cap would disappear this summer".

The Arctic melt season is nearly done for this year. The sun is now very low above the horizon and will set for the winter at the North Pole in five weeks. And none of these dire predictions have come to pass. Yet there is, however, something odd going on with the ice data.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado released an alarming graph on August 11, showing that Arctic ice was rapidly disappearing, back towards last year's record minimum. Their data shows Arctic sea ice extent only 10 per cent greater than this date in 2007, and the second lowest on record....

The problem is that this graph does not appear to be correct. Other data sources show Arctic ice having made a nice recovery this summer. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center data shows 2008 ice nearly identical to 2002, 2005 and 2006. Maps of Arctic ice extent are readily available from several sources, including the University of Illinois, which keeps a daily archive for the last 30 years

Even if one takes the alarmists' data as correct -- that ice has "merely" increased by 10 percent this year, rather than 30 -- all those drama queen predictions, dripping with emotional hyperbole, of an "Arctic free of ice this summer' are dead wrong.

Look, making predictions is a fucking fundamental element of science. It's what tests theories and shows them to be right, wrong, or somewhere in the middle (flawed, incomplete, what have you).

These suckers of cock continue making predictions and they're always wrong.

But they do not seem to adjust their theories at all.

Next year, we'll hear of the Great Arctic Ice Melt-Off again. And again it won't happen. And the MSM will continue trumpeting these dire predictions, and never once mention we've heard this all before, and it was wrong.

Thanks to Arthur for the link and the The Great Slublog for the photoshop.

Oh: And check this guy out. A NJ politician demands Corzine repeal all global warming measures because (and I believe he's being puckish here) the new predictions call for 10+ years of global cooling before the earth starts melting again.

Posted by: Ace at 02:49 PM | Comments (60)
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So what, you say?

The woman's name is -- and as far as I know this is her given name -- Mi Sook Yoo.

I guess her parents kinda cast the die right there on her birth certificate.

Pussy Galore and Alotta Fagina just emailed me to say, "No way, that's just too silly."

Thanks to tmi3rd.

Posted by: Ace at 02:28 PM | Comments (32)
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Speaking of Georgia, McCain said:

My friends, we have reached a crisis, the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War. This is an act of aggression.

"The first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War" is of course wrong. He's attempting to underscore the seriousness of Russia's aggressions and unveiled imperial ambitions, but he does so by denigrating the various other crises we've faced since then.

So, he's wrong, and the remark is dumb.

But here's how one lefty blogger responds:

Not the invasion of Kuwait? Or the first Gulf War? Or the Afghan war? Or the second Iraq war? Or Darfur? Or Bosnia? Or 9/11? It's this kind of emotional hyperbole that should worry people about McCain in the White House. He's a drama queen on these issues. With a finger on the trigger.

Which lefty blogger is accusing McCain of "emotional hyperbole" and being a "drama queen"?

If you guess the answer, I'm impressed.

This lefty blogger routinely displays his gross lack of self-awareness, often accusing others of faults that he has in high spades redoubled.

But this -- this -- shows past-mastery in obliviousness that I just didn't know was possible.

The man frequently called "Mr. Excitable" and who trades in unhinged conspiracy theories that would make Lyndon LaRouche blush really, really needs to take a good hard look at himself, try to get past the sweaty, desperate narcissism, and contemplate the possibility of his own flaws.

Posted by: Ace at 02:16 PM | Comments (35)
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Strange inventions that never caught on...like an individual mini toe sock for your big toe.

Toe socks? WTF? Not even QVC would sell something that useless.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:52 PM | Comments (11)
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Eh, looks kinda good. Not great but better than expected. more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:41 PM | Comments (26)
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Diplomacy with Russia continues to bear fruit:

A reluctant Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday he signed a cease-fire agreement with Russia and declared in the presence of the chief U.S. diplomat that the West had behaved in ways that invited the invasion.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had been assured that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign an identical document. The United States says the pact protects the former Soviet republic's interests despite concessions to Moscow.

So the war is over, yay! What? Russia is still moving forces towards Tbilisi? Secretary Rice is reported to have said, "Non, non. I have ze, how you say, ze assurances of ze Russians zet eet is done."

President Bush and Secretary Rice have been saying that the parties must return to the status quo ante bellum. But the ceasefire does not do that.

Now they have been forced to back down on the key issues of the mandate of Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, which did not previously include outside patrols, and the territorial integrity question, which Russia ostensibly accepted before but no longer does. [...]

The cease-fire would allow Russian peacekeepers who were in South Ossetia before the fighting broke out to stay and to patrol temporarily in a strip of up to 6.2 miles, or 10 kilometers, outside, officials said.

Of course, when you lose a war you are hardly in any position to dictate terms.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:02 PM | Comments (15)
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I am saddened and chagrined and in all other ways very put out.

Biscardi showed reporters two blurry photos, claiming one was the mouth of the "creature" while the other was another creature running through the Georgia woods. The men claimed they "stumbled on the creature," but would not reveal more because they were concerned about it being an "endangered species."

Biscardi reiterated his invitation to FOX News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly to come to Georgia and view the body, and plugged his Internet radio show.

He said there wouldn't be anything more revealed Friday, but promised that he would "assemble" a group of scientists to examine the alleged corpse.

Whitton recounted how he and Dyer found the "body," and said that more Bigfoots "paralleled" them as they were loading it onto a flatbed truck.

Biscardi said Whitton and Dyer had gotten death threats from Sasquatch fanatics, whom Whitton deemed "psychos."

My Pet Jawa has the coolest Bigfoot video anyone's posted, a reenactment of the Bigfoot hunters' epic fight with the legendary beast. Tom Biscardi is played by Colonel Steve Austin (astronaut; a man barely alive).

Posted by: Ace at 12:47 PM | Comments (38)
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Real men of genius stuff here.

I got tipped on this by a lefty who had hoped to "educate" me or something. Well... in a way.

When wingnuts go looking for terrorists

Thursday, August 14, 2008

-- by Dave

It seems a strange Somali man from Canada was found dead in a Denver hotel room this week with a pound of sodium cyanide in his room. It's an unusual case and certainly raises concerns about the potential for a terrorist incident at the Democratic National Convention later this month.

The wingnutosphere, of course, leapt quickly into action. Led by Michelle Malkin and her band of flying monkeys, the man's Somali ethnicity immediately became ground for suspecting yet another evil Muslim terrorist plot.

One small problem: They're wrong, as usual.

...

In the case of the Denver cyanide carrier, the wingnuts leapt to all kinds of conclusions. Even though FBI agents found no evidence of a conspiracy and no clear evidence that the cyanide was being planned for terroristic purposes, Malkin and Co. were scoffing at this.

Especially notable was Jay Tea at Wizbang, who theorized thus:

Let's play connect the dots: start with a Somali Muslim living in Canada. Then have him travel to the city that in just a few days will be hosting the Democratic National Convention. Then have him die in a hotel room. Finally, have police search the room and find a POUND of cyanide -- enough poison to kill a couple hundred people, if distributed and delivered properly.

Some lone nut? I'm not so sure. ...

The FBI says there's no apparent connection to terrorism, but I'm not buying it.

But all one has to do is read the original story to see that it's unlikely the man was a Somali Muslim; rather, he appears to have been a Somali Christian:

An online threat posted in July by a man with a similar name warned of death.

"Having the bible in one hand, and a bread in the other hand, is not a correct thing! Kill Them , Kill them, Kill them, that is my massage (sic),!" read the posting by Abdirahman Dirie on the 'Solmali's for Jesus' Blog.

It seems likely this man was yet another right-wing religious nutcase out to kill liberals. We'll reserve final judgment on that until more information comes in. But does anyone want to place bets on how quickly the story disappears from the bigotsphere's nattering schedule?

Um, Retard? Maybe you should try some reading. Here's Somalis for Jesus:

Somalis For Jesus! condemns in the strongest terms possible the barbaric murder of Ali Mustaf MakaÂ’il on September 7, 2006. Ali was shot and killed in Mogadishu by a militia member of the jihadist Union of Islamic Courts after he refused to join a QurÂ’an chanting crowd in response to the lunar eclipse.

Ali converted to the Christian faith eleven months ago and his killing is an attempt by the Taliban style jihadists to eliminate the Somali Christian community.

...

Powerful Muslim leaders in Somalia have repeatedly called their supporters to eradicate, to kill, to slaughter and to dispossess the Somali Christian community.

And here's the purported "Christian's" response:

Please donÂ’t talk shit , that man deserves what happened to him , simply because having the bible in one hand , and a bread in the other hand , is not a correct thing ,! Kill Them , Kill them , Kill them , that is my massage,!

Comment by Abdirahman Dirie — July 11, 2008 @ 10:33 pm

Um... I don't really know what the hell to say. A Somali Christian blog reports on the murder of Muslim convert to Christianity, and this Abdirahman Dirie cat says "that man deserves what happened to him" and that "having the bible in one hand, and a bread in the other hand, is not a correct thing,!" [sic], and concludes by saying "Kill Them, Kill them, Kill them, that is my massage" [sic], and from this record Dave "Professor Science" concludes Dirie is actually... a Christian urging more murders of his fellow Christians?

The Bible/bread thing seems to be an old complaint about Christian missionaries who spread the word of Christ while giving out food and other essentials. In other words, it's unfair to proselytize to people who have no choice but to come to you for aid. They're a captive audience, as it were.

Embarrassing.

From this record Professor Science concludes "Gee, this guy celebrating the murder of Christians and urging the murders of all the rest of the Christians must himself be a rightwing neocon Christian of some odd variety!"

But that's sort of Professor Science's schtick. He's an obsessive about rightwingers coming to kill him in his sleep, but he mocks those concerned about real, organized terrorist groups numbering the tens of thousands as having some sort of psychological defect.

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, Professor Science.

PS: As noted in the sidebar, the FBI Terrorism Task Force is, in fact, investigating this case.

But I'm sure it's just their Christian Malcontents Squad.

Nieuwert, who believes the government is lying to him at every turn about its covert support or at least tacit acceptance of "right-wing" "Christian" Aryan supremacy groups, apparently takes all statements made by the police that there is no evidence of terrorism (as of yet!) at face value. Gold standard, baby.

Even More: BethW writes:

One tidbit that the brainiac (once you figure out his nickname, let us know, ok?) left out of his post is that the moronically departed's sister said that he couldn't have been a terrorist... because he was a good Muslim, and that's against their religion. So much for that "Somali Christian" angle he was working on...

Oh yeah, I forgot that.

Still, we certainly can't expect Professor Science to read much about a case before dashing off a screedy post. The limited information he had -- a guy praising the killing of a Muslim-apostate-turned-Christian by Muslim-apostate-turned-murderers -- should have sort of tipped him off, though.

I do mean this: He is, I think, a diagnosable obsessive. I'm using that term clinically. He cannot bear the thought of Muslim terrorists because it diverts his attention away from his bete noir, the Christian right, and how they're all coming to kill him.

He's also a douchebag of the first order but that just goes without saying.

Posted by: Ace at 12:28 PM | Comments (48)
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