Category Archives: Scribbles

Changing the subject

Glenn Greenwald’s Guardian piece on how the National Security Agency is data mining American telephone calls (just the call numbers, folks, not grandma’s conversations, at least not so far) has the ring of a planned distraction from the real scandals engulfing President Wormtongue and his leftist minions.

After all, Greenwald is a noted Leftist and the Guardian a Leftist rag of the first water and who would they likely try to protect but another Leftist? Certainly they wouldn’t seek to expose him. Plus their “big story” is about six years old. It was detailed exhaustively by USToday back in 2007, as the WSJ noted yesterday in an editorial supporting the call collections for traffic analysis.

Not everyone agrees, of course, such as Mead and Steyn. But they have always enjoyed piling on. And there’s the apparently independent PRISM revelation which has all sorts of  economic implications. I doubt the IRS furor will get lost in the shuffle, but Benghazi might and it’s the one scandal capable of getting Barry impeached and Lady Macbeth politically neutered.

Meanwhile, get this, after a long silence, ol’ Worm has deigned to appear in public to “answer” a “furor” over a “scandal.” I smell a rat and his name is Glenn Greenwald.

UPDATE:  The PRISM revelation was not independent but came from the WaPo, another sterling backer of the administration, and the Guardian (perhaps working together) so the rats are multiplying.

Remember: Evian is naive spelled backwards

Bernie at Planck’s Constant can’t help but wonder at the pols requiring expiration dates on bottled water. He thinks they’re stupid.

Actually they’re crooks. Expiration dates mean more sales and passing laws like that mean more bribes from the lobby. We have the best pols money can buy, after all, though it ain’t sayin’ much.

Cockroaches all the way down

Vanderleun’s nominee for most revolting headline of the year to date:

“Boston Bombing Suspects’ Muslim Identity Provides Few Clues To Motivation For Bombing.”

Via the Puffington Host, but it could have been The Boston Globe which is owned by the NYTimes and later published another bit of denial that was very similar.

Can they succeed in obfuscating the obvious religious motivation? Barry’s minions are certainly gonna try. And his Canadian friends, too.

When will they ever learn? The answer is blowing in the wind.

UPDATE:  The numbers speak for themselves. Five Jihadis have reached their targets under King Pinocchio, who chokes on the words terrorist and jihadi. Under Bush the younger, who nevertheless coined the ridiculous phrase “religion of peace”? None.

Birth, not abortion, then murder

Amazes me that some of Dr. Gosnell’s women clients (“patients” seems too innocent a word) aren’t on trial with him. They knew what they were doing:

” The grand jury report says that his method of ridding women of their unwanted late-term pregnancies was to induce labor and deliver the child. That’s not abortion. That’s childbirth. We’re not even in the gray area where a strange term like ‘partial-birth abortion’ could be used. It was complete birth, followed by murder.”

Mass murder at that.

Via Althouse.

Even so, the snooze media keeps finding excuses not to cover the trial. It’s not Trayvon Martin, you see. Blacks aren’t the presumed victims this time. They’re the perps.

A Mississippian in Texas

Jess McLean of Dallas, author of the only compendium of the troops of the 13th Mississippi Infantry Regiment (of whose unit I am finishing the first regimental history), is trying to preserve this old grave in Lyons, southeastwest of  College Station.

The lieutenant named on the tombstone, William H. Davis, began the war as a private in the 13th’s Spartan Band (later Company H) and had the doubtful distinction of being in command of the remnant of the regiment that surrendered at Appomattox in 1865.

Somehow 1LT Davis, who was from Chickasaw County, Mississippi, wound up buried on private property in Lyons, Texas. Jess still is trying to figure how that happened as well as trying to interest the SCV in protecting the grave with a fence. It needs one because the new landowner’s seasonal mowing has periodically scarred the stone and knocked it down

Blocking Pamela Geller

Funny how the “progressives” are always trying to stop their opponents from speaking. Seldom see it the other way around. So progressive, eh?

Pamela Geller is an excellent example of a speaker who gets the “progressive” treatment everytime she’s scheduled to speak somewhere—including by their pals in the snooze media who always try to plan ahead.

For instance….

UPDATE:  Of course, their favorite target is Karl Rove.

AT&T games

Seventy-two hours into intermittent DSL Net connection via AT&T. Have talked to robots, human techs, Googled the various boxes that pop up, and the beat goes on. And off. On and off. When it does work, it’s verryy sloow.

First it was an IP address conflict. Working together Mr. B and I satisfied ourselves there was/is no conflict. The box still pops up whenever the system goes down again. Next possibility was/is defective filters between phone lines and modem causing interference. Plan to buy two new filters today and see if that helps.

Also trying to update the firmware in the Netgear WiFi router, but so far the router can’t connect with its home base on the Web to check for updates. Grrrr.

If this isn’t resolved by tomorrow night, it’s bye-bye AT&T. Hello Time-Warner. Not that I expect one big, impersonal corp to be any better than another, but at least the problems will be new. These old problems are really old.

UPDATE: Two human techs later, the DSL problems have been solved but the landline still won’t take incoming calls. Supposedly a third tech will work on the latter. I hope s/he can fix it without screwing up the DSL.