THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER

Wow. How much more like President Hoover do the Dembulbs plan to get? First they pony up a trillion in additional debt, then we discover it actually includes a barring of foreign iron and steel for infrastructure projects. Can Hoovervilles, 1930s shanty towns for the unemployed, be far behind? More change, no hope.

UPDATE:  Barry says economic recovery will take years. My bet is he wants it that way. All the better to impose more socialistic programs to warm the cockles of a community organizer's bitter heart.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Alas, Rancho Roly Poly is just a few miles south of U.S. Rep. John Carter's 31st District. It would be so cool to be represented by the author of the Rangel Rule, which won't pass but if it did, we'd all get to cheat on our taxes like New York Dem Charlie Rangel (not to mention Barry's appointees Tom Daschle and Tim Geithner). Nice try, John. Keep up the meaningful work.

Via Doug Ross @ Journal.

UPDATE:  Then Carter tried the direct approach, asking the House to vote on forcing Rangel to step down from his, wait for it, tax-writing committee. Got that? He writes taxes for us. He just doesn't pay them.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 05:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I enjoyed seeing the old Radio Shack PC, and the telephone-receiver modems of the day. But the day being in 1981 (still a few years before the GUI), I'm wondering how they got those front page photos to show up, even if they are only in black-n-white. Much more fun to read now. Still hard to make anywhere near the print version's profit, tho. Which is why, as the print paper craters in 2009, and more papers move to the Web, the staff is being radically reduced.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 05:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're waiting for the fireworks to begin over nationalized health care, dream on. The Dems aren't going to allow a national debate like the one they lost back in 1993. They've already rammed through the House its very beginnings, hidden in the so-called "stimulus" bill. So, pretty soon, it'll just slowly unveil itself.

By the time anyone notices, like say the Dem sycophants of Big Media, we'll all be enrolled on Medicaid and Medicare. No fuss, no muss, and zero democratic debate. How do you like this fascism? Well, you wanted change, didn't you? Not this much, this fast? Oh, boo hoo.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strategic retreat, indeed. B. Hussein Obama hinted at such a retreat in his interview with Al-Arabiya, looking back thirty years (the Carter administration) to a purported U.S.-Arab Golden Age. Not that the bloated Pentagon couldn't lose its spare tire, but the times certainly are not propitious for dieting. With all that battered equipment from Iraq that needs replacing. Especially not with a trillion in civilian pork already moving through the Congressional intestine. ACORN could get a few billion. The military must cut fifty-five billion.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Best news I've heard since Barry won the election. Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele is fully-equipped (heh) to play the "outsider" race game, but from a conservative viewpoint and with more political experience than B. Hussein Obama. As MS says: "It's time for something completely different." The Dems better watch out. Even with the obstructing Big Media on their side.

MORE:  Cobb, another black conservative, has some interesting insight on Steele--though his liberal commenters are almost foaming.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It doesn't surprise me that some of the U.S. Airways passengers who got dipped in the freezing Hudson River would want to sue. Not because I'm cynical about our litigious society, or Americans, but because I can imagine how they feel. They were frightfully lucky, so frightfully that they can imagine better than any of us what might have happened but for their good luck. Moreover they lost who knows what in their luggage and the airline's $5,000 compensation surely won't be enough for some. Add in the inevitably-lasting trauma and nightmares which some of them are inherently ill-equipped to handle.

Of course they should thank the skilled pilot and the airline for employing him (and I'm sure they do) but, really, couldn't both have been a bit more careful about taking off into a flock of geese? Even if not, even if it was all an unavoidable accident (and we will know when the official reports are released), there is the unsettling news that one engine on the plane had suffered problems on the previous flight. Moreover, you have to remember that the airlines continuously sell what is an inherently dangerous means of transportation as natural, safe, etc. In that sense, they deserve to be at risk of lawsuit and to draw a few when something like this happens. And, face it, they know it and have plenty of insurance

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

At one level, I can understand this Illinois school district's decision to remove Veteran's Day as a school holiday. School holidays usual include a district's need to let teachers and administrators conference during the year, and there can only be so many days off. But the excuse given, that the students don't understand the meaning of Veteran's Day says more about district politics than the students.

It's probably also a clue as to why Illinois (along with Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri) provides only twenty-two percent of the military's recruit-age men (aged eighteen to twenty-four), according to this 2007 2008 study. Not as bad as the Northeast, which comprises just thirteen percent of the total, but only a bit more than half the forty-three percent from the South, which leads the nation.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who, Barry? Yeah, Barry. We're going to get taxed for big carbon footprints. While The One keeps his thermostat at Hawaii levels. Do as he says, not as he does. Sounds a lot like the Gorebot. No surprise there.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Barry is crafting a conciliatory letter to Mad Mahmoud (L). Hope Howard Howie (R) gets to come along on the visit.

UPDATE:  VDH is usually agast at what B. Hussein Obama plans or does, as here, in "Dancing Among Landmines," but we'll see who's right: whether a prez can really harm anything taking the appeasement route. 

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fix the recession. Who, you? Hey, why not you? You sure couldn't do any worse than Barry and the Congress.

Via The Seablogger.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

B. Hussein Obama has assured the oil ticks that Bush's (admittedly half-hearted) push for liberty in the Middle East is a thing of the past. Geez. Eight years wasn't very long. Bad Bill will make lots more foreign speaking money now, and Jimmy Carter will be a power once again, certifying phony democratic elections. Well, it IS change. But hope? Not at all.

UPDATE: And worse: "Obama didn't call for the release of the tens of thousands of political prisoners held in more than two dozen Muslim countries or a moratorium on executions that each year cost the lives of hundreds of dissidents." Instead, he praised the Carter years, the years of America's strategic retreat. Bad road ahead.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Barry strode into office proclaiming that the economy was going to hell and the little guy was gonna die. Dems always do that, especially when it isn't true. Like now. As we in Texas, where the economy remains quite good overall, know only too well. That's one reason we didn't vote for the charlatan. Dem hysterics spent eight years accusing Bush of promoting fear, when Bush had a good reason in the Jihadi terrorists, and now the Dems are gutting his solution, the war on terror. Did you like 9/11? Are you ready for another one?

Meanwhile, Barry is promoting needless fear. He said in his inaugural speech that we're in an economic crisis. Crises like the housing bubble Dem hacks like Barney Frank helped puncture while he blamed Bush. Crises are necessary for Dems to grow government with more high-tax, feel-good, do-little programs that guarantee political corruption and nonsense. Ah, but also temporary jobs for their cronies. The funny thing is how dumb so many of their supporters are, especially the Hollyweird elite. They've spent eight years accusing Bush of promoting facism, proving they don't know the meaning of the word. Barry and his personality cult are the real fascists. Wait until they try to kill conservative talk radio to suppress opinions they don't like. Maybe then even a dumb actor will be able to figure it out.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good for her. Sure, it will be an uphill climb, especially when Big Media and assorted others are in the tank for The One. But persistence makes perfect. Or something like that. And, like they say, "hope dies when Barry lies."

Posted by Dick Stanley at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here in Central Texas, anyhow. Severe to moderate. Yesterday's drizzle, meanwhile, preceded a deep cold front. We're back in the icebox.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The beauty of these Internets (or Innertubes, as Scott Chaffin likes to say), is you get to look at the latest Congressional boondoggle in full without having to wait for your local fishwrapper to get around to synopsizing it. Or, more likely, ignoring it altogether. If you have the time, of course.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bad Bill and the Hildusa (name coined by Iowahawk in his Obamacles epic) walked off with anything that wasn't nailed down. It's a wonder they didn't steal the Lincoln bedroom after renting it out for eight years. By contrast, W. and Laura only took home what belonged to them. How quaint.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Dems are hot to ferret out the "war criminals" in the defunct Bush administration. So they start with Karl Rove, a truly nice Austin fellow who the Lefties spent eight years suspecting of everything from war crimes to personally causing manmade global warming.

The pols do this sort of thing in the Texas Legislature, too. Almost every biennial session. They create some sort of issue circus so the lobbyists and the corrupt can push through new sweetheart regs and otherwise steal unobserved. I wonder what will really be going on in Congress while Conyers and his fellow nitwits rant and rave. Er, make that rant and Rove. Since, so far, he's refusing to show up.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joey Hairplugs tells Big Media sycophant cBS that he is not "deputy president." An apparent allusion to the Dem charge that Dick Cheney was. Of course, Cheney has brains and ethics. Joey is remarkably deficient in both areas.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 04:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Barry is paying off his campaign debts in the usual Dem way, by throwing taxpayer money at them:

"Incredibly, the Democrats’ [economic stimulus] bill makes groups like ACORN eligible for a $4.19 billion pot of money for 'neighborhood stabilization activities.'"

Yep, that'll boost the economy. Well, ACORN's economy. Hopenchange, folks. Hopenchange. Bleh.

UPDATE: The bill passes the House, opposed by all Reps and eleven Dems. Will it pass the Senate?

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just a light drizzle. Not enough to even nudge the drought. But it should take some of the ash juniper pollen out of the air--which will help diminish my "cedar fever" allergy.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Scott at The Fat Guy, apparently already suffering from the noise and traffic of San Antonio, although he just recently moved there from Dallas, has taken up a casual comment I made about considering moving to Mason County. He likes winding, dark, two-lane roads, fly-fishing, hunting, and plenty of open spaces and few neighbors. The links he found and the comments he's drawn so far make me wish I could move tomorrow. That's the great thing about these Internets. You can go back to the country and still make a living, if you need to. But, until Mr. B. finishes school (about nine more years) and Mrs. Charm retires, it will probably not be possible for me.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sad but true. For all I imagine the reasons might be, just five queries drive most of my search traffic, according to Compete Analytics:

* Texas Longhorn Pumpkin Carving at 26.97 percent. Probably this one.

* French invasion of Mexico at 23.34 percent. Yes, I remember this.

* Portable spittoons with 21.45 percent. I remember now.

* Pictures of John McCain as an aviator for 15.93 percent. I remember it, but I can't find it.

* Air Force pilot eject over Rockies winter survival at 12.15 percent. Huh?

I didn't remember posting anything on the last one. Indeed, I never did. But I did post several times on the air force, eject, the Rockies, winter and survival.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This lady is one great writer and story teller. Such a pity she died so young. Nevertheless I am still happily plowing through her thirteen eleven twelve (confusing bibliography) published novels. I started here, and recently finished this post-apocalyptic one and this fantasy one.

Last night I finished her short story collection, Blood Child, and came away with five favorites out of nine there, including the title tale about species symbiosis and a sympathetic, loving tale of incest. Her deceptively simple prose is enticing, even when the stories are strange. Her genre is science fiction and fantasy, after all. More of the latter than the former, it seems, though that may just be where I am in the trek. Harrowing as some of her tales are, they usually end satisfactorily, even hopefully. Like classic science fiction often does. Give her a try, if you haven't already. You won't be sorry.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

That's Mr. President, Barry, Barack, B. Hussein Obama, The One, whatever you prefer. I mean just because it's seldom heard doesn't mean that it isn't self-evident. Geraldine Ferraro was the first to say it out loud: that no white man with Barry's political and social baggage and lack of experience could possibly have won either major party's nomination.

Not with a racist pastor of twenty years, a convicted gangster who helped him buy his home and an unrepentent American terrorist who not only baby-sat his daughters but is the suspected hidden co-author of his one literary achievement. But because Barry is half black, you can turn Dr. King's famous quote around, and give BHO a pass based on the color of his skin as opposed to the content of his (questionable) character. Hence, he is our first Affirmative Action President. He won't be the last.

MORE: Iowahawk, who actually lives in Chicago, updates his classic Barry bio: The Epic of Obamacles.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

No new economic ideas apparent yet. Hey, maybe they can all work for the Post Office.

UPDATE: Maggie Thatcher's old line: "The trouble with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." So work for the Post Office. But don't count on being there long.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

One day after the IDF withdraws from Gaza, the Hamas smuggling tunnels are back in business. And B. Hussein Obama, he of the fortuitous middle name, wants those Gaza border gates to Israel thrown wide open. In exchange for which he says smuggling of rockets and other arms will cease (how, exactly, he doesn't say), but Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas in 2006 apparently isn't part of the "deal." No Hopenchange here, unless you're a suicide bomber.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

He may be CINC now but he shouldn't let it go to his head. He still looks silly using a military salute as he did at the inaugural parade. Mainly because he's never been in the military. Maybe Bad Bill did it, too. I don't remember, but I wouldn't be surprised. They are the only presidents since World War II who didn't serve. Both Dems, of course. So take my unsolicited advice, BHO and stick with the hand over the heart. Achieves the same thing and, for an always civilian like you, it looks a lot less like you're playing plastic soldier.

MEANWHILE: Now they're asking. After swooning for Barry's campaign, Big Media wonders who he is. For instance, he obviously can't be everywhere, and he did lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. But he also rather obviously blew one military affair that not even Bad Bill forgot. Still, he made the one for himself (i.e. CINC), even if it was a bit edgy.

UPDATE:  On the matter of the salute, apparently there's precedent and law custom for his doing it. Still, I think he looks ridiculous. In fact I think anyone in civilian clothes doing it looks pompous.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These folks are going to lower the seas and cleanup the environment? Heh. They didn't even pay attention to The One's call for service. Instead, they waited for someone else to clean up their mess.

UPDATE:  The "garbage blizzard," via Iowahawk. Blowin' in the wind. Andrew Jackson couldn't top it.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 03:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I pledge not to watch this stupid, elitist video clip again. Once was enough to creep me out. Bleh. (The incomparable Iowahawk skewers it good.) From hating Bush for eight years to kissing Barry's ring. Please.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The usual so-called artists, Hollyweird and their television clones still insist they are "speaking truth to power" when they satirize Judeo-Christianity. You know, Piss Christ, and etc. I'm still waiting to see them do something truly breathtaking, like take on Islam and Mohammad. Good luck with that. This legal crimp on free speech will make it harder than ever. And hard ain't in it for those guys. They always take the easy way.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sounds like someone's name. In a way, it is. Two people. Thirty-six years ago today, the US Supremes handed down their decision in this Texas case--establishing a right to abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment. Almost immediately it became the political cause celebre that has preoccupied the country ever since.

Reinforcing the right by forcing the rest of us to pay to promote them abroad was one of the first things Barry did was expected to do. It's long been said that black women get the most abortions. I've always supported it, with restrictions such as banning them in the third trimester unless the life of the mother was clearly threatened. But for some who still fight "the culture of death" that's never been enough.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have avoided the wussy IPOD as just another over-priced piece of Apple detritus. But if it can forecast and track a sniper's bullet from muzzle to impact, well, maybe not. So long, jihadis!

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now that the IDF has left Gaza, it's time for the poor, poor Palestinians stories. Pull out the stock footage, boys, like Flat Fatima and Dances-with-AK.  Nevermind that they not only voted for Hamas but sat by while their government rained unguided rockets on Israeli towns, civilians, schools, daycare centers, etc. None of that matters to Big Media. Any Israeli retaliation is disproportionate, don't you know. Illegal, etc.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Jonah Goldberg noted some cliche clunkiness ("gathering clouds and raging storms"), strained sensibility ("For us, they...endured the lash of the whip" For us?), and pure nonsense (we will harness the sun to power our factories) in BHO's speech.

Goldberg: "Why not distill energy from our strategic unicorn manure stockpile?"

The Seablogger is logically moved to wonder if The One (the great backtracker, after all) is reversing course on anthropogenic global warming: "[W]hen he promises to 'roll back the specter of a warming planet.'" A specter, after all, is a ghost.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

OCS buddy Chuck Waldron reminds me that forty years ago today we were on standby to guard Richard Nixon's inaugural as platoon leaders in the Sixth Armored Cavalry Regiment. We sat in an armory nearby in case we were needed in those times of periodic nationwide rioting which had little, if anything, to do with Nixon. We weren't needed. Chuck remembers all of that much better than I do because he and his platoon had to stand in the cold while mine enjoyed the warm armory. He was reminded, he said, because he spent today out in the cold as part of an American Legion honor guard for the funeral of a Korean War veteran.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I agree with his critics that Jimmy Carter was one the worst presidents of the Twentieth Century. He's certainly done nothing since then, other than building a few houses, insulting President Bush and the Israelis, to change my mind. But his was the only inauguration I ever bothered to watch.

It had the distinction of featuring a new president who didn't take himself too seriously and didn't bother with pomp. He actually walked from the Capitol to the White House. I doubt if BHO, who has already shown himself enamored of European speeches and Greek columns, will take step one in that direction.

On the other hand, the daily has a front page photo of him this morning wielding a paint roller at some D.C. teen center. Then they spoiled it with a pretentious, pompous pose of him on the front of their special inaugural section. Nothing like a Dem president to prompt Big Media to speak adoration to power. Truth, obviously, can wait.

UPDATE:  Unsurprisingly, the big government spender's big day could not please the markets. The Dow was at its lowest ever for an inauguration day. Nevertheless, he did walk for at least part of the way from the Capitol to the White House. So I was wrong to expect that he wouldn't. I'd be pleased to see moresuch good surprises.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

B. Hussein Obama's choice of the leader of a group with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to present a prayer at his inauguration is probably just diversity run amuck by our first Affirmative Action president. We can only hope that's all it is, because among other things the lady has a history of trying to set Christians and Jews against each other. We're certainly going to find out, we are.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Via Little Green Footballs.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, in my support of the IDF, I haven't forgotten the innocents of Gaza. Namely the children who suffered and died during the late unpleasantness. But it's not enough to say they were the victims of the fighting, which Hamas started and continued even after the IDF took them under fire. Hamas, and the PLO before it, have long sacrificed the children of Gaza and the West Bank in the name of a higher hate. They call it jihad. But it's really much older. It's Moloch, the child destroyer, come again.

MORE:  Meanwhile, the unilateral IDF truce in Gaza isn't open-ended. If fired upon, they fire back.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is Instapundit's somewhat surprising advice for any Jew or their supporters who feel threatened by these mad Musslemen and their scum supporters who invade Jewish neighborhoods with threatening anti-Semitic demos. Fortunately most of this is going on in Britain, Australia and Canada. Gun laws are rather restrictive there. Not so here. Of course the laws differ from state to state on when you're allowed to shoot somebody. Generally speaking the perp has to be stealing or destroying your property on your property. But if it makes people feel better just to have some .45 Long Colts handy for use, it works for me.

MORE:  Thou Shalt Not Kill? Try Nehemiah, chapter four, verse fourteen.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just in time for B. Hussein Obama's planned carbon taxes, even some elite scientists are denouncing the anthropogenic global warming fraud. Will Barry listen? Probably not. He's a pol, not a scientist. Pols ride on bandwagons and this one left the station a long time ago.

Via Power Line.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 02:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That's how many voted for the other guy. But, frankly, I wouldn't be any more interested in watching John McCain's inauguration than I am about B. Hussein Obama's. Well, other than seeing Sarah, but veeps get short shrift in these basically meaningless whizbangs which play to the supporters of the party in power. And since the veep in question is Joey Hairplugs, well, thank goodness for small favors.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 02:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Waiting for deicing at JFK. The view from the cockpit, flight deck, here, on the A320 crash and much else in a unique specialist's blog by another "electric bus" pilot.

MORE: What went right in the ditching. Reminds me I forgot the Airbus was loaded with jet fuel, which means if they had tried to land at an airport and run off the runway, it might have exploded. As it was, the fuel being lighter than water, the fuel helped it stay afloat as long as it did.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 02:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Black Five has a good video on the men and women of the IDF which, inronically, uses an anti-war song to show how much we have in common with them: liberal democracy, professional military, and many of the same enemies.

MORE:  While you're at it, send them something via PayPal. In other words, support the IDF.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Be sure to watch the video of the Canadian soldiers' "embedding" themselves in the beachhead. Be afraid. Be very afraid. When you can stop laughing.

Via Simply Jews.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Big Media, as usual, is twisting the discovery of the methane to mean that there probably are microbes beneath the windblown soil of the Red Planet. But the researchers say it could as easily be the result of geological processes. I agree with Instapundit that it would be best if the source was not microbial. If it was, we would then be faced with worrying about contamination of Mars from visiting humans or, perhaps worse, of Earth on their return. Be simpler all around if Mars is a reasonably sterile wasteland. Especially for the (admittedly debatable) dreams of making it a second, habitable home some day away from the threat of nuclear war.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As the IDF continues to push infantry into densely-populated Gaza City, where the brave leaders of the Hamas jihad are believed to be hiding in the basement of a hospital, Washington apparently is working on yet another doomed-to-fail ceasefire to keep the dictator's club happy.

You'd think American politicians would be smart enough to have figured out what the secular liberal newsrooms of Big Media can't: that Hamas is a religious movement intent on taking all of Israel back for the Muslims who once controlled it. That's the reason for their rockets and why no ceasefire will work for long or do anything but allow them to resupply until they can start all over again.

UPDATE: It's official. Happily, there are no immediate plans for the IDF to withdraw, however. Good thing, as Hamas followed the announcement by launching eight more missiles. And young IDF soldier Gilad Schalit is still their prisoner. Some Israelis feel betrayed by their own government.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Of course, the two-engine A320 with 155 people was no glider, but it still could be flown like one. Meanwhile, the non-pilot nitwits at the AP, who used to have more sense than this, already are criticising the guy.

UPDATE:  A security camera video shows the Airbus floated for at least six minutes. Amazing in itself.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A Treasury Secretary who will oversee the IRS but hasn't paid his own taxes for four years, a Commerce Secretary who stepped down before confirmation after being caught in a payoff scheme, and a reversal of a much-pubicized 95 percent tax cut "promise." Despite those and a few others I haven't enumerated, I'm still waiting to see just what kind of president Barry is going to be. Since I don't expect much besides corruption and incompetence, anything better will be interesting.

UPDATE:  This is funny. But, if anything, it probably underestimates the certain calamity ahead.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I voted for GWB in 2004 because I knew the liar and traitor John Kerry would be much worse. But GWB disappointed me in every way except on Iraq. He didn't have to let the Dems and media browbeat him so much without fighting back. But he did. Worst of all was the way he let Iran walk. He's left Barry to deal with their nukes and Barry doesn't have the cojones, let alone the political backing.

So in that sense GWB was a lousy president and history (insofar as anyone is left to write it after the nukes start going off) will say so.

With that in mind, we're going to damn the recession and fly ahead to D.C. on Mr. B.'s spring break in March. We'll tour the Capitol, the White House, the museums, the zoo, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, and visit his grandfather's grave in Arlington. Because, among other reasons, it seems to me to be perfectly possible that none of that will be around much longer. When the terrorists start setting off their Iranian nukes, D.C. very likely will be the first target.

UPDATE:  Nevertheless, I agree with Thomas Sowell. Bush was and is an honorable man.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Code Pink and their ilk probably won't like it when they see Barry's installation in the White House accompanied by a martial parade. But, guess what? The U.S. Army "has been a major participant in the inaugural tradition," says Army magazine, since 1789 when "members of the Continental Army" joined George Washington's "escort to Federal Hall, where he was sworn in."

The old Continentals will be represented Tuesday by the U.S. Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps and the Old Guard itself, the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the only army unit authorized to march with fixed bayonets. It also guards the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. Lest I forget, the U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) will lead the parade. So suck it up, anti-warriors. Suck. It. Up.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This novel by Vernor Vinge is one of the most imaginative I've read. It easily compares with the works of the old masters of scifi. Ostensibly a murder mystery, it's also about the last two hundred or so human beings left on earth, thousands of years in the future--to the extent that they stay on earth when not "bobbling" forward through time. Their travels caused them to miss what they call the Great Extincton of humanity and they don't know what caused it. Now they must figure out how to start over again, if only at a nineteenth century level. 

Posted by Dick Stanley at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Patrick McGoohan, the anti-Bond, fascinated me in The Prisoner. Alas, today we are all numbers. We have to present our Social Security numbers for practically everything. Freedom, obviously, has gone from being an absolute to merely something in the eye of the beholder.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This trend to turning English into a foreign language based on misspellings, faulty typing, and computerese is not a good thing, as far as I can tell. Face it, we already have plenty of wouldbe citizens struggling with the old form of the language. Why complicate things for them? Or me?

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eight full-size school buses fit in the nose shroud of the Ares V rocket NASA wants to use to send astronauts back to the moon, according to the space agency. Or a telescope about four times wider than the Hubble with, consequently, a much bigger light-gathering mirror. Theoretically, this is all about the International Year of Astronomy. But it might also have something to do with the skepticism recently raised by Barry's aides about NASA's back-to-the-moon plans. Or not.

Via Space Weather.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pretty cool, unless you're a committed skeptic dedicated only to your pleasure and pets. How shallow.

Via No Left Turns.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Life in Mullah land. It ain't like Disney World, where adulterers get hotel rooms. Well, not in Iran.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Looks like this morning's low of eighteen at the airport and thirty in the central city will be the worst we get even after the advertised Arctic air mass dives east and southeast on Thursday. It's expected to bypass us in South Central Texas, partly because of another air mass of Gulf moisture pushing northwest tonight. So we'll sympathize with all you freezing snow bunnies but rejoice that we don't have to join you in the misery.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I gotta admit, for sheer elegance nothing beats a few rounds from an SKS, .45 LC and a Mossberg Persuader.

Via The Fat Guy.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Somehow, in the course of showing why Big Media has lost its influence in the Internet Age, Press Think's Jay Rosen manages to make it sound like conservative war supporters get the media grease while anti-war liberals get left out. What planet is this guy on? He starts out belaboring the obvious, then turns reality on its head. If this is what passes for academic journalism these days, no wonder the newspaper industry is falling apart.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Funny how kids, even Palestinian ones, can always pick out the democratic soldiers.

Via Monkey In The Middle.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is stupid, but worrisome, because the Corruptocrats, who are especially impressed by Harvard academics, will tax anything--especially if it (allegedly) produces significant carbon dioxide.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

More eloquent than the usual talking head because simpler and more ordinary: PJTV's Joe the Plumber. Especially since the usual talking head can't be bothered with Israeli children but only Palestinian ones.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Her name was McGill and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy..."

Not my Magill, who isn't from "the black mountain hills of Dakota," either. And, as far as I know, never knew Rocky Raccoon. But she does seem to have disappeared in recent years, possibly having to do with some heart surgery she had a few years ago. Where have you gone, Magill? Get in touch, okay?

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first American to earn an international pilot's license (in 1921), Bessie Coleman was a cool Texan from Waxahachie who bought her first biplane at Love Field in Dallas: an old JN-4 ("Jenny") with an OX-5 engine. With it she became a sensational barnstormer and occasional parachutist. But in 1926 she fell to her death from its open cockpit when the plane went out of control. Nowadays she's memorialized all over the place, including the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame--and in at least one book.

Inspired by Miriam's Ideas.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was inevitable and it has come to pass. Mr. B. has become enamored with Wizard 101, an online computer game. It was developed, as it happens, by folks in Austin and Dallas. It even has recommendations from Austin school district teachers, as well as good reviews. Seems safer than the average first-person shooter and, in fact, isn't violent at all. Just the thing, apparently, for a third grader. We shall see how it goes.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Israeli consul general Belaynesh Zevadia of Houston was the most interesting aspect of Thursday's well-attended service of solidarity and hope at the JCC. A good rebuke for the uneducated who think Jews are a particular race, she is one of fourteen thousand Ethiopian Jews who have immigrated to Israel. Alas, the microphone wasn't that good and she was hard to understand, but she epitomizes something she said in San Antonio in 2006: “Everybody knows about the Israeli conflict. Nobody knows about what’s going on in Israel.” Thank Big Media's laziness for that. She also said the first word she spoke as a child was "Jerusalem." Mr. B. and I enjoyed the service, especially the cantorial singing and the prayer for the safety of the IDF. But we had to leave early to get home in time to make supper for Mrs. Charm.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That's what Meryl Yourish calls the double standard the world applies to Israel. Every other democratic country has the right to defend itself from attacks. Israel doesn't. Indeed, the obvious instigator of the attacks becomes at worst a controversial player. Thus the daily's report this morning on yesterday's JCC rally, which Mr. B. and I found to be part information, part religious service, is shocking in its timidity: the fulltime religion reporter feels she has to attribute every sentence and make clear that the Jewish views are outliers. This is Hamas we're talking about, people, a terrorist organization with a service club's veneer. Where are your guts? Where is your humanity? Whose side are you on? Bleh.

MORE: Whatever, military strategist Edward Luttwak, himself something of an outlier, has a refreshing view: that the idea that Israel might as well quit Gaza because they can't win is b.s. He says Israel essentially won the 2006 battle with Hezbollah and is winning this one with Hamas. Krauthammer agrees.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm not among those who think that Oklahoma's loss to Florida means Texas ought to be No. 1. No, Florida is No. 1, and plainly deserves to be, after figuring out how to get past the Sooners defense. The one the Big Twelve wasn't supposed to have, eh? That's the way it is under the current BCS system, which is the only system we've got.

Utah done good, but they play in a weak league. USC also performed, at least in its bowl game, if you can call beating Penn State a big deal.The Pac 10, like the Big Ten, sucked during the regular season. And Texas used another one of its trademark come-from-behind, last-two-minutes touchdown drives to get by a really good Ohio State defense.Then smothered OSU's schizophrenic offense for the win.

Maybe Texas should have played in the title game, instead of Oklahoma, but the Big Twelve's method of tie-breaking is as old as the conference and sent the Sooners there, instead. Pity Big Game Bob couldn't pull it off. Again. He really should have left Sam Bradford alone instead of changing the plays before practically every Oklahoma snap. As a result, there was none of the hurryup that had worked so well for the Sooner offense during the regular season. Once again, BGB made the Big Twelve look bad. Ah, well, there's always next season when, I'll bet, it'll be the Big Twelve vs the SEC once again. Get used to it.

UPDATE: AP, dishonest in national politics reporting and so most else, rolls over and plays dead to rank Utah and USC higher than Texas. What a joke. Not that I particularly care, frankly. Bowls are money and Utah provided a more exciting game and beat a team of note. But USC? Same old, same old East and West  coast bias. Bleh.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is classified as a science fiction novel, a genre I've been consuming lately--though mainly the contemporary masters Sterling, Stross, and Gibson--but even the author, the late Octavia Butler, said it was more a fantasy since there was no science in it. Well there is some, but it's mainly modern medicine contrasted with early nineteenth century ignorance of common diseases and cures.

I originally bought Kindred (in a "25th anniversary" edition, no less) because of the American slavery theme, a subject that interests me, and the admonition that this was not a politically correct view of it. Well it is in some ways, less so in others. Although I really only encountered one PC sentence in its 264 pages and that was not about slavery. It's a harrowing ride that is hard to put down. Ms. Butler was a very smart and humane person, indeed, and it's a great pity that she died so young, just age fifty-eight, apparently from a stroke following a fall. I'll be sure to try one of her other fifteen scifi novels soon.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Those strange, floppy "shower cap" helmet covers that IDF infantry wear were introduced in 2006 as a way to cut the contours of an ordinary helmet when seen by a sniper or other enemy soldier in urban as well as rural terrain. It's said they were also a reaction to the Israeli use of new U.S. Kevlar helmets, which were too Nazi-like in appearance for the Israelis. Curiously enough the mitznefet, or "clown hat," as the cover is called in Hebrew, even has an ancient Jewish religious significance.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More than twenty years after author William Gibson coined the word cyberspace, I finally got around to reading one of his so-called cyberpunk novels. Count Zero, the scifi sequel to his famous Neuromancer, is a hipster's view of a post-apocolypse America where giant corporations with biotech consumer products rule everything and almost everyone. This was in the days before the GUI made the Internet accessible to ordinary people. So this is a scifi notion of the computer net, via brain electrodes, as a means of augmenting normal thought--and a pathway to the gods. Altogether a far cry from Facebook or displaying baby pictures on the Web. Strange stuff, with an underlying secret-agent-man plot. I enjoyed it. But that might be because I enjoy the Web. I'm not sure I would have cared for this when it came out back in 1986.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Was listening to Hugh Hewitt on PJTV a while ago and finally realized something about the Fiesta Bowl outcome. Hewitt is an Ohio State alum. He said his team "was robbed" of the victory. Suddenly it clicked. I'd been wondering why my old OCS chums who usually crow about their Ohio State team had been utterly mum since the game ended Monday night. I'll bet they also feel robbed.

I had previously seen an ESPN clip where the pretty New York face claimed Ohio State had "dominated the game." Well, if they were so dominate why did they only put up six points in the first half? Definitely not dominant in the third quarter when the Texas no-huddle, hurryup offense had OSU's defenders running ragged. And obviously not the fourth quarter when Texas won the game. Sore losers these Big Ten fans. No surprise there. I've noticed it before. I laugh. What a bunch of dorks. That's twice in three meets Texas has beaten the overrated OSU. What can you expect from a team named for a useless nut?

UPDATE: The who's No. 1 argument seems silly to me, but this is a good one. Although, as expected, even the commenters disagree

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It'll be interesting to see whether the new Obama administration continues Bush's support for Israel's campaign against Hamas after his inauguration in a couple of weeks. Optimists cite Barry's previous remarks condemning the Hamas rockets, but he's well known for turning on a dime.

Al Q is already blaming him for Gaza. Whether that matters to him remains to be seen.

I don't get a lot of commenters, as you can tell. So I haven't drawn the foul-mouthed anti-Semites that other pro-Israel blogs have. But I drew a stranger the other day with a relatively mild rebuke of US support for Israel. I thought about it, but I decided there's plenty of places for that in Big Media and elsewhere on the Web. This is my private turf and I'm declaring it an Israel no-bashing zone. If you want your comment deleted and you banned permanently, like he was, just try me.

Meanwhile, there's an Israel support rally at the JCC on Thursday. Mrs. Charm will be working, so I'm taking Mr. B. I got the above banner from their email announcing it. Should be interesting. The JCC is gated, with armed security guards who I'm sure are nervous despite Austin's relative calm. This is, after all, prime time for jihadis and assorted scum who've been popping up around the country defacing synagogues and so forth.

But, for the first time in such a conflict, we have the alternative of Pajamas TV from Jerusalem.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hamas knows it cannot beat the IDF militarily so it must try to do so in Big Media, particularly using gullible, if not converted, organizations with permanent, sycophantic staff in Gaza, such as BBC, Reuters and Al Jazeera to convey the Hamas propaganda.

It is chiefly photos of bleeding children and wailing women. Of course they are may be real and unfortunate. But the journos never seem to ask how they got that way. Hamas blames bloodthirsty Israelis. But Hamas, itself, created the situation by shooting thousands of rockets into Israeli cities and uses Palestinian children and women as shields, puppet tenants for their ammo dumps, to produce the needed pictures.

Too little of Big Media isn't seems interested in the story about the rockets terrorizing Israeli children. The Israeli government builds shelters for them and doesn't use them as shields. So no pictures of them bleeding, and no coverage, no interest from the coifed, empty-headed journos. It's hard to believe that a war can be won this way. But it sure better change. If Israel can be destroyed like this, so can all of us.

UPDATE: When a fuzzy-minded liberal like Alan Colmes does get his "disproportionate response" ears pinned back by a warrior, it's a treat to see.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You can believe Al Reuters, which never stops shilling for the jihadis, when it says the school was a hiding place for refugees frightened from their homes. Or you can take the IDF's word, which is that it was another Hamas ammo dump with an active mortar tube and rocket launcher. I've made my choice.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

David Bogner has a discerning eye for the detail behind the facade, and here he  finds the inherent bias in Sky News' presentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict readily apparent for all to see.

MORE: To paraphrase one of David's commenters, any decent person would feel comfortable in the presence of any armed member of the IDF. Even a child would feel safe. Decidedly not the case with any Arab Palestinian with an AK-47.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Penalized fifteen yards in a stupid "celebration" rule (who, after all, was he intimidating by this?), Cosby won the game with sixteen seconds to play. Nice way to end your college career, Quan. Photo credit: DOUG PENSINGER / GETTY IMAGES

Posted by Dick Stanley at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The daily's good sportswriters, Kirk Bohls, Cedric Golden, Suzanne Halliburton and Alan Trubow are the icing on the cake after a satisfying Texas win. Even when the Longhorns lose, KB, CG, SH, and AT are there to explain why. Around the rancho, they complement the good game announcing/commentary of KVET-FM ("The Genuine Austin Original") and their Longhorn Radio Network. Thanks, guys, we wouldn't enjoy it half as much without you.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Crack them Nuts," was the message on Mr. B.'s barber's T-shirt when he got his haircut Saturday. But the daily's sportswriters seem a little more circumspect in this morning's Fiesta Bowl edition. Burnt Orange Nation is more upbeat and still has the best gametime forum. We're going to find out what's what at 7 p.m. It will only be the third meeting of the Horns-Buckeyes. They split the other two.

UPDATE: 6-3 Ohio State at the half. Texas will get the ball to start the second half but, so far, their offense is struggling against probably the best defense they've seen all year. Fortunately the Texas defense is holding its own, as well. Good game, but I don't have a good feeling about this.

FINAL: Texas wins 24-21. Very satisfying, considering Ohio State played hard to the end. What a year for the Tuscola Kid, whom OSU beat in 2006, and now wins his second crack at the Buckeyes.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SSG Emmanueloff, a 22-year-old infantryman of the Golani Bde, apparently is the first IDF KIA in the Gaza ground operation, at least according to the IDF's English-language site. Others have been seriously wounded. May there be no more, though that isn't very likely. This war that the Hamas terrorists have started isn't a game.

UPDATE:  Alas, there have been four more in quick succession. Small numbers to us are big numbers to little Israel.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's back, the annual winter malady whose culprit pollen isn't really cedar and doesn't really cause a fever. It's complicated. It's about junipers called mountain cedar, and when the stuff gets up your nose you just feel feverish. Mostly my eyes and the roof of my mouth itch, and of course my nose runs. Runs where? Not far enough. It's a Central Texas curse that simply must be endured until we get enough rain to clear the pollen out of the air. And in our continuing drought that will be a problem. Have to use the Neti pot. Bleh.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Julius's rising and falling Whuffie is a form of constantly-tallied wealth in the reputation economy of the post-USA, Bitchun Society. In this world, all are online, never die (unless they want to) and are free to work ad-hoc at whatever they please. Their Whuffie determines whether they can get a hotel room, a car, or a meal, even whether people will talk to them.

Sometimes Julius's Whuffie is high enough, sometimes it isn't, in his ad-hoc job at Disney World. Either way is entertaining in Cory Doctorow's 2003 Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, a so-called postcyberpunk novel bringing the Internet to SciFi. One thing's for sure, in my recent reintroduction to SF after years of ignoring it, I've found that I can't take seriously any plot without the Web in it. If you spend a lot of time online, you shouldn't either. It is the future, as much as the present, after all.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

                                     -- Psalm 130

Your battle is also our battle. Get some.

Via Monkey In The Middle. And with this.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Best confirming sign yet of 2008's biggest (perhaps only) blessing: US military's victory in Iraq.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Could be a sweet replacement for those huge, bladed windmills being touted nowadays. If it works.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It looks like the IDF is close to moving into Gaza, although the ground is wet from recent hard rains, because leaflets warning civilians to evacuate have been dropped and the mobile artillery prep appears to have begun. Good luck, guys.

UPDATE:  So it begins. Tanks, engineers and infantry move into northern Gaza.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great Israeli Air Force video of a huge secondary explosion at another air-struck Gaza mosque. The second mosque bombing video I've seen. Debka reports that Egypt is urging Israel not to bomb any more mosques, even when they are known ammo and armament dumps. So far the IAF is ignoring them. Keep it up. More bombing, please. Save the troops as long as you can.

Via LGF.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More improvements in the shallow end of the gene pool, in the 2008 Darwin Awards. Heh.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starting the year off right, with a starburst that began twenty-five million years ago, a mere eleven million light years away. A weekend trip into the black, when we get star travel worked out. Heh.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 02:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mr. Boy certainly got Viacom's message on Time-Warner's threat to remove SpongeBob and some of Mr. B.'s other favorites from TW's cable (our primary local provider). We do appreciate his little lesson in cutthroat capitalism and also the temporary agreement forestalling the Sponge's demise. But he and we wonder why Viacom really needs an extra four dollars per cable customer from TW to keep providing the Sponge and his pals? Must be all that debt Viacom is carrying. But TW has its share.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)