Initial Reporting - Tidewater Virginia Eata an Animal for PETA Day Festivities
Missed the expedition to PETA headquarters, but Meryl should have some good shots of her, Bill and Alice, CJ, and Dave in the PETA parking lot with some of the Eat an Animal posters. Dinner was a blast, picking out the right chunks of FRESH, JUICY, RED MEAT and tossing them on the OPEN FIRE. Meryl took plenty of shots of Bill and I picking out our top choice, grade A, aged to tender perfection hunks of DEAD COW, and searing them to scrumptious perfection. Great to meet Bill, and the lovely Alice. Fantastic seeing Meryl again, and good to meet CJ and Dave. Mongo sleep now. Mongo stuffed. And I forgot to take the damned plate. *sigh*

Exchange rates
Seen via SSDB from The Group Captain, this observation of international exchange rates from Steel Navy -

Good News..Canada has offered to help the U.S. in the war on terrorism! They have pledged 2 battleships, 6,000 troops and 10 fighter jets.
Bad News..With the current exchange rate, that comes out to 2 canoes,a Mountie and a couple of flying squirrels.

Taste? Why, it was good, thankyouverymuch
Murray sends along this picture from his BBQ extravaganza in support of the Eat an Animal for PETA Day festivities down-under

Momentum building, lamb chops looking good already. May have to eat more sausages wrapped in bacon while I wait for lunch time. What is this word "vegetable"?

Hello, Matthew
In the midst of our Merylanche, I noticed several refferals from a site I was previously unaware of. Matthew Kennicott is operating 'Stars and Stripes', and has nice things to say about Silent Running. Thanks Matthew! Nice work you're doing there, too. Adding you to the blogroll - welcome!

Quite the excellent suggestion
Looking over some of Meryl's material on Eat an Animal for PETA Day (yum! Dinner tonight!), noticed her link to the absolute best suggestion I've seen for causing them grief over the blatantly offensive Holocaust on your Plate affront Ad campaign. Admiral Quixote recommends not only flooding them with emails expressing disgust, but hitting them in the pocketbook, as well. Creating a definite negative impact to their actions sounds like an excellent deterrent to me, and his proposed methodology of using their own resources against them is fantastic. Simply expressing outrage at these people is useless. As noted by Chris in an email to Meryl, they've already put the cyber fingers in their ears in the form of filters on their e-mail for anything with the word 'Holocaust' on their inbound mail. He offers some tips for negating the obstacle. But even getting past that, simple expressions of disgust will most likely be ignored, even if they do have to manually clear the traffic off the mail server. Quixote's idea elegantly combines direct action with a bit of 'information warfare' (oooo, I like it!), to get to the organization, using their own tools to make them uselessly expend time, money, manhour resources, and leave a general mess to be cleaned up afterwards. Slick! While not as direct as Scottish school kids dumping milk on a cow-suited PETA ninny...it works for me.

LOOKS LIKE I'M A WET AFTER ALL...
Democrat - You believe that there should be a free
market which is reigned in by a modest state
bureacracy. You think that capitalism has
some good things, but that those it helps
should be obliged to help out their fellow man
a little. Your historical role model is
Franklin Rosevelt.

Which political sterotype are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

PAY ATTENTION Why you shouldn't burn the US flag... its an extremely disrespectful thing to do, many people will be very annoyed with you and say bad things about you while admitting you're perfectly within your rights. Why you shouldn't burn the Australian flag...its an extremely disrespectful thing to do and some of those old diggers have no sense of humour and still know more about hurting people than you'll ever learn. Why you shouldn't burn the New Zealand Ensign... its illegal, shit for brains! Besides cunt, there's a chance I'll get to you before the police. This bit of refuse burnt my flag in protest at New Zealand's "pro war stance". Great, shit on from the outside by the US threatening our economy (again) because of our "lack of support", stuck with this scum on the inside for our support of the war. BTW, he's a school teacher and will be back in the classroom on Monday to continue his indoctrination of New Zealand children. Praise be to God for my attending schools in military areas. [This is Murray's post, which I'm putting up on his behalf]

Eat an Animal for PETA Day update
Although Murray won't be able to join us at the Grate Steak on Saturday Night, he will be munching along in solidarity...

From: Murray Hill Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 7:07 PM To: info@peta.org Cc: info@petauk.org Subject: Celebrating your message. Dear PETA, tomorrow my friends and I will begin observing a 40 hour feast in observance of what may well be the most offensive add campaign I've ever been appalled to read. Since one of my uncles got rich running a large chicken farm and I worked there during the holidays shovelling shit, carrying out summery executions of those not fit to live and operating the crematorium, I'm assuming you'll be passing my details on to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. Tomorrow we'll be starting off with bacon and sausages for breakfast. Lamb chops for lunch, Shari Lewis couldn't make it but we'll make do. We move onto nice, big, bloody chunks of semi-raw cow for dinner. They'll only be shown the grill because hey, what's dinner if there isn't blood running down your face? During the evening we'll have to pace ourselves with chicken nibbles because Sunday will be an all day barbeque. Only about a dozen of us will be taking part but we hope to account for 1 pig, two sheep, half a cow and seven chickens in honour of your group. These animals might have lived if you hadn't been the offensive blight on humanity that you are and their deaths are a direct result of your campaign. I offer you a humble, yet bloated and greasy two thumbs up from the South Pacific for your inspirational message. Murray Hill Wellington, New Zealand

Sir, we raise our forks in salute!

Eat an Animal for PETA Day Posters
Beaker nails it with this one. Although I thought Michele's (see, only one L) first one is a hoot too...

ORIANA FALLACI - SHE'S GOT YOUR BACK No matter that she's around 173 years old, she fought in the Italian partisan army when she was just a girl, and I suspect she'd jump into Baghdad with the 101st Airborne or 6 Para if anyone was intelligent enough to invite her. Damn, I wish I could have met her when she was 17! Here, she talks about her own encounter with the much-feared and ruthlessly professional Iraqi military back in Gulf War I.

For Christ's sake, in 1991 the Iraqi army deflated like a pricked balloon. It disintegrated so quickly, so easily, that even I captured four of its soldiers. I was behind a dune in the Saudi desert, all alone. Four skeletal creatures in ragged uniforms came toward me with arms raised, and whispered: "Bush, Bush." Meaning: "Please take me prisoner. I am so thirsty, so hungry." So I took them prisoner. I delivered them to the Marine in charge, and instead of congratulating me he grumbled: "Dammit! Some more?!?"

She also does something that you VERY rarely see Oriana do. She apologises. To Tony Blair, for essentially labelling him a wimp in her book. Truly, these are the days of miracle and wonder.

Looks like we have a poster for Eat an Animal for PETA Day
And isn't it just the cutest little thing? Awwww......

WE ARE NOW OFFICIALLY IN HURRY UP AND WAIT MODE Do not freak out. This will be new to many of you and you will make all the rookie mistakes. The fact is we are fully committed and we're cocked locked and ready to rock. For some reason nothing is happening. We've eaten all the chocolate out of our ratpacs, swapped the revolting canned tuna with that weirdo from 3 platoon that likes the stuff but doesn't like the deserts. But still nothing happens. Now you're getting twitchy, little doubts are starting to eat at you, you're checking your M16 is loaded for the ninth time... STOP IT. Your weapon was loaded when you checked it two minute ago, its still loaded now. Take a look around, the old hands are looking relaxed and even catching some z's while they can. Very soon we're all going to be very busy. Don't blog yourselves into a nervous break down. Alea jacta est. Stop making arguments for what is now as certain as the sun coming up, no one is changing their minds at this point. Chill out, drink some wine, eat some cheese and catch some rays. Distract yourself with our naked boobies competition, which is in no way related to our spike in hits but is simply my way of keeping you all entertained till things start going bang. Save you energy for the work that's coming, there will be plenty. [Note: This is Murray's post, but his computer has a glitch, so I'm posting it on his behalf - Bruce]

NELSON WRITES:

Hello Alisa. I have an idea that could help clarify a bit the discussion about why more Palestinians have died in this Intifada than Israelis. It is the following: To classify the dead according to their origin is wrong, because Israelis have not been killing Israelis, but Palestinians have been killing each other. Thus, the results should be presented as the total numbers of those killed by the Israelis compared to all those killed by the Palestinians. This last number would include not only those who have been lynched as suspected collaborators of Israel, but also those who died in "work accidents" and the suicide bombers themselves, because what they all have in common is that they were killed by Palestinians (in the case of the suicide bombers, by Palestinian suicide bombers). I know it may seem somewhat repellent to lump together suicide bombers and their victims, but they were not killed by Israel and it is the Palestinians who are responsible even for their death. If we classify the data this way, I think we'll obtain more realistic numbers that would help subvert Palestinian victimology.

I have to agree that this would be a much more correct approach. After all, it is a blame game, and blame should focus on the killers, not the killed.

QUOTE OF THE DAY Tex at Whacking Day tees off on the International Socialist Organisation for accusing Australian commander in East Timor, General Peter Cosgrove, of collaborating with the Indonesians.

You filthy, worthless Stalin-loving hypocritical cunt bastards.

After that, he gets mad. And then he starts losing his rag. Tex is visiting the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave soon. If you see him, be nice. You wouldn't want to get him angry, trust me.

ITS TIME TREND SETTERS Vote soon, vote often, the poll will stay open till it drops off the page... about thirty seconds if Bruce has another case of writers block then hits us with the new version of War & Peace now called War & Peaceniks.

What I was going to blog
Were some torturous observations on the torturous state of the discussion in the blogsphere that we have been tortured with lately. It basically boils down to the same gripe I had about the discussions over arming the pilots. I won't put it in terms of devising a last ditch defense strategy to thwart a plane hijacking, because the discussion aborted that notion, and hijacked the issue, along with the discussion, into a free for all over whether John Q. Airline pilot should be allowed to pack heat or not. Screw everything else. Same thing is happening with the discussion on torture. Everyone is bandying about taking stances on the moral dilemma (or professed lack thereof, in the case of terroristas) of the rubber truncheon, the bamboo under the not fake fingernails, etc. Fine. Great. Have an Instalanche or two over it. Couple of discussions I've yet to find - exactly what constitutes torture? We certainly have enough lawyer bloggers that someone can surely offer a pointer to the relevant statutes or case law. On a simpler level, while everyone would certainly head nod in agreement that a car battery attached to the nads crosses that line, does the serious mind fuck really get there? The example: Little Abu gets nabbed, and a member of his family is picked up also. The very large interrogator type, who, incidentally likes crochet during his spare time, informs Little Abu of the horrific things that will happen to his beloved family member if he doesn't start talking, like yesterday. Very large interrogator leaves to let Little Abu ponder the situation, and shortly afterwards, horrific inhuman screams are clearly audible to Little Abu, while his beloved family member is totally oblivious in another building altogether, actually being treated quite well by these nice folks that want to talk with little Abu. Is it torture? Discussion number two. Is it actually torture to use methods that nullify the subjects will to resist divulging information that do not involve physical harm? Some have skirted with the discussion by unilaterally declaring the immorality of torture participation or involvement by medical personnel (but I can't find the post, think it was CalPundit). That blanket declaration holds true for the case of physical abuse, which is the issue being discussed singularly. But what about methods for interrogating, probing for and extracting desired information from a subject, that do not include physical harm? Particularly the inducement of altered states of consciousness, where the aim is to keep the subject as 'healthy' as possible? To put it bluntly - drug therapies. This seems like it should be a hot button topic with all sorts of folks. There are quite a few facets to this that I don't see anyone going near. It seems to be settling into the same line of tug-o-war. Almost as exciting as watching two pit bulls tugging on a thick piece of rope. Aw hell, now someone is going to rat me out to PETA saying I encourage dog fighting or some such crap.

Next, they'll be studying whether or not the Tooth Fairy has an alibi...
As the blind squirrels continue the acorn hunt, the latest thing being examined for possible source of the damage to the Shuttle is wind shear. Apparently, there was a reading that indicated the orbiter ascended through a strong gust during liftoff, not unusual when poking around in the altitudes associated with the jet stream. At the core of this is the fact that we're still using 70's technology, and a compromise version of that, as our 'cutting edge' to space. They've recovered about one fifth of the pieces that used to be Columbia. They can find every single last piece, but the fact remains - we need something better. And we need a goal, other than just puttering about in low earth orbit, dreaming up gee-whiz science projects simply to justify the entire exercise. Without the goal, there is no reason to come up with something new. Without a goal, what we have now is deemed 'good enough' while at the same time being ripe for the justifiable criticism of being a huge waste. Because without a goal, its just that. A waste of time. A waste of money. And a waste of lives, when the best reason that we can come up with for going to orbit includes watching a bunch of spiders build a web. Fascinating it may be, with the potential to provide the holy grail of 'raw data' to fuel the advancement of mankind's knowledge. We want something else. We are curious to know what happened, to be sure, but we want something else. We want a challenge. We want a goal. We want a reason for going, that we can get behind and cheer for. I have a really hard time cheering for a bunch of spiders. I'd have no problem cheering for an effort to construct an orbital transfer point, for facilitating access to the Lagrange points, or to colossal energy collector systems, or lunar mining and manufacturing operations. I'd love to cheer for a concerted effort to pave the way to Mars, with the plan of establishment of Martian settlement. I'd be beside myself to cheer for even the initial steps towards exploitation of the mineral stores found in the metallic objects populating the asteroid belt. No, I won't be cheering for the spiders.

Brain Going To Explode I was just engaging in a little word puzzle solving (exactly how many Oxymorons are there in the phrase: United Nations Security Council?) when I started thinking.... Global Warming, Country & Western Singing Green Lefties, anti-war nudism, France and now this. My brain can't take much more of this. Somebody please stop the world, I wanna get off.

Need a favor
Can someone tell me who the dumb son of a bitch is that first started describing the Cold War in terms of the US 'containing' the Soviet Union? I have an overwhelming urge to smack the crap out of them, and it could take a while, so I want to get started as quickly as possible. Thanks in advance. Update: Hat tip to Poliblogger for this -

The concept and term dates back to George F. Kennan's famous "X" article in Foreign Affairs (1947) entitled "The Source of Soviet Conduct."

It puts forth the theory and states the need, but I was looking for the bonehead that started the trend, of late, of describing 'containing' the Soviet Union, as if it actually frikking worked, and was responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. We sure contained them out of Afghanistan. We contained the hell out of them supporting Ho Chi Min and Fidel. And we contained the crap out of them in Eastern Europe, particularly in Prague. Well, on further consideration, we did contain them into not thinking about doing anything stupid that would result in Moscow being a glowing sheet of glass...

What the hell is up with this?
First off, the Iraqis launch a fighter reaction against the U2 flights supporting UNMOVIC, a definate no-no, and then, to add idiocy to the mix, UNMOVIC is apologizing to the Iraqis?. Thats right, apologized for the 'job' they are supposed to be doing. UNMOVIC shouldn't be apologizing, and they also shouldn't be having to give Saddam's goat ropers a frikkin schedule either. It ought to be as simple as this - if its over 60,000 feet, don't screw with it. Period. End of discussion. There's nothing else out there that's going to be flying around at that altitude other than a U2. Keep this crap up, buckwheats. Pretty soon that whole stinkin piss-pot of a country is going to be a no-fly zone for a while. If the UNMOVIC crowd is 'interested in safety' as they claim, then the launch of ANY Iraqi high performance aircraft during a U2 overflight should be strictly prohibited, and the Iraqis should be infomed that such actions constitute a material breach of resolution 1441, and will be reported as such. Further, the rules of engagement should be adjusted for US Forces to consider any Iraqi aircraft launching during a U2 flight in country as a hostile act, that any airborne Iraqi fighter during a U2 flight is an automatic threat, and as such is an approved target for the immediate direct application of whatever force is necessary to negate it. My vote would be a double tap of AMRAAMs per bandit.

More signs of increased Global Warming...
Icy Weather Freezes Surface of Three Great Lakes

Canadian Ice Service said satellite images showed that Superior and Huron froze over for the first time this year on Feb. 27, after record low temperatures, without a hint of the warming trend that is normal for this time of year. That frigid weather continued into March. Last week, the temperature fell below minus 13 Fahrenheit in southern Ontario, the coldest for March in a century, according to Environment Canada.

MUST-READ COLUMN Lee Harris at Tech Central Station has a brilliant and lengthy analysis of the underlying reasons for the war on terror (or, as SBS News last night said "the so-called war on terror", barstards).

This gives a sense of Greek tragedy, with its dialectic of hubris and nemesis, to what has been unfolding in the Islamic world. If they continue to use terror against the West, their very success will destroy them. If they succeed in terrorizing the West, they will discover that they have in fact only ended by brutalizing it. And if subjected to enough stress, the liberal system will be set aside and the Hobbesian world will return - and with its return, the Islamic world will be crushed. Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. And the only way to avoid this horrendous end is to bring the Islamic world back to sanity sooner rather than latter. Nothing but force can break them from their illusion. Not because there is something wrong with them as a race, but simply because they are acting like any other individual who has been permitted to live in a dream world - they continue to fantasize. And who can blame them? It is only brute fact that shakes any of us from the single most cherished of our illusions - the myth of our own grandeur and omnipotence. And this is as true of a culture as of an individual.

There's more - much more. I reccomend reading the whole thing.

FOR SOMEONE WHO COMPLAINS HE CAN'T WRITE... ...I sure do run off at the mouth, don't I? Just as a final word on Congressman Moran, what does anyone make of this bizzare incident in which he was almost jacked by an eight year old kid?

2000-04-12 - Rep. Moran confronted by boy claiming he had gun in pocket Rep. James Moran said today he has nothing but affection for an 8-year-old boy who tried to steal his car by claiming to have a gun and wishes he could adopt the youngster. After talking with the boy, "I just wanted to hug him," Moran, D-Va., said on NBC's "Today." Police said Moran was picking up his two sons from an after-school recreation center Friday when the boy approached him in the parking lot, said he had a gun in his pocket and demanded Moran's keys. Moran held out the keys but then grabbed the boy, police said. The youngster had no weapon. Moran said the boy told him he learned to act like a thief from his stepfather. Then the boy's mother arrived and yelled obscenities, he said. He criticized the boy's parents and said he would love to adopt the child, although he did not expect that to happen. He has a daughter about the same age as the boy. Moran said he did not want the boy charged. Police had said they would not press charges without the congressman's cooperation.

That's enough not-writing for one evening, I'm off to watch "Buffy". I'm sad this is the final season, but I respect the story too much to ever want the series to start limping. No one tell me how it ends, okay, we're months behind the US episodes here in Australia. Anyway, it's better to burn out than fade away. These endless days are finally ending in a blaze.

YES FOLKS, IT'S ANOTHER "JEWISH WAR" We have it on the authority of no less than James P. Moran, a Congressman of these here United States, representing the Old Dominion State.

In a speech March 3, Moran "blasted the Bush administration for its rush to war but saved some of his harshest criticism for Jewish leaders in the United States," the Connection Newspapers of northern Virginia reported Wednesday. "The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should," Moran said.

Ah yes, well I suppose we'll just put the matter up for debate at the weekly Secret Cabal Meeting of the Elders of Zion, wave our hands and mysterious, hidden forces behind the scenes will maipulate, deceive and lie to honest Christian working folk, using the terrible power of usurious financial shennanigans to gain hidden control of the nation's destiny. You know - the usual. What's next? We're poisoning the wells? We're scheming about how best to entice innocent young Christian maidens to commit unspeakable acts of race-mixing? Well, that part is more or less true, as a glance at almost any Woody Allen movie should prove. But the bit with the wells is crap! We have Muslims to do that for us! Unfortunately, the winter book numbers are distinctly umpromising when it comes to the liklihood of this turd's constituents rising up as one and defenstrating him from the top of the Capitol Dome. They wouldn't have to go far to do it, his district is basically around Alexandria. Campaignline estimates him as favored to be re-elected 3 to 1 (75% chance). D.C.'s Political Report has the 8th District race as a three-star Democratic hold. Goddamnit! And that's despite the Washington Post revealing his "acceptance of campaign cash from individuals sympathetic to the terrorist organization Hamas or under investigation for terrorist ties." What does it take to lose an election in the United States? Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge in the 60s, and left a girl to drown, and he's still a Senator! Why is Moran so complacent about getting re-elected that he thinks he can get away with this shit? Moran Helping Part-Time Federal Employees Federal Employees Unions Endorse Moran National Education Association Endorses Congressman Moran State AFL-CIO Endorses Moran Oh. Never mind then.

GEORGE MONBIOT, PLEASE REPORT TO THE NURSES STATION FOR YOU MEDICATION Masks are starting to slip all over the place. George Monbiot, writing in the Wanker, comes as close as he ever has to honesty about the struggle against Islamofascism. He essentially admits that for him, the important thing is to defeat the United States no matter how much better the world will be if George Bush wins. We begin with the heading (why not?)

Why can't liberal interventionists see that Iraq is part of a bid to cement US global power?

They can George, and they don't particularly care. The US is the world's only hyperpower, and judging by all the other possible candidates for that status, we're bloody lucky it is. The US actually has no particular desire to rule the world, it's doing this because it absolutely has to in order to be safe. In a world in which any random shithead with a country, like Robert Mugabe, can get chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, the US cannot permit any potential threat to exist. Hence even liberals can support this struggle. They prefer being alive and possibly compromised to be being ideologically correct corpses.

The war in Afghanistan has plainly brought certain benefits to that country: thousands of girls have gone to school for the first time, for example, and in some parts of the country women have been able to go back to work. While more than 3,000 civilians were killed by the bombing, while much of the country is still controlled by predatory warlords, while most of the promised assistance has not materialised, while torture is widespread and women are still beaten in the streets, it would be wrong to minimise gains that have flowed from the defeat of the Taliban.

Do we sense a "but" lurking in the background? I think we do...

But, and I realise that it might sound callous to say it, this does not mean that the Afghan war was a good thing.

It wasn't done by the United Nations, and authorised by Clare Short and the editorial staff of the Al-Guardian. Sorry Fatima, no more school for you. Back to the executions at the soccer field and women not being allowed out of their houses. Terribbly sorry, this liberation does not meet with George Monbiot's approval, we have to start again. What about Iraq though? Again, here's the windup...

Those of us who oppose the impending conquest of Iraq must recognise that there's a possibility that, if it goes according to plan, it could improve the lives of many Iraqi people.

And now the pitch!

But to pretend that this battle begins and ends in Iraq requires a wilful denial of the context in which it occurs. That context is a blunt attempt by the superpower to reshape the world to suit itself.

Sorry Raed! Sorry Walid and Suha! Your liberation is not taking place within a properly post-colonial ideological construct. And we apologise, we can't get your cousin Shaaban out of that torture chamber, the context is all wrong, don't you see? It's the US doing it, which makes it very problematic and difficult to fit into a theoretical framework. But you can wait for the Left to take control of the West and liberate you correctly, or until Hell freezes over, whichever comes first. Hope you don't mind having Uday Hussein's grandson be the one to finally step down. George Monbiot is a monster. Only an intellectual could write something so foolish. It's a good thing he and his cohorts are about to be swept into the dustbin of history, along with their precious Marx and Lenin. Oh, the delicious irony.

A WINNING COMBO - STOP THE WAR SENTIMENTS, AND COUNTRY MUSIC! Excuse me while I decide whether to claw my own eyes out to avoid looking at the lyrics, or perhaps jab knitting needles through my eardrums. Australian country singer (and that's bad enough for starters) James Blundell is, according to the enigmatically named Green Left Weekly writer Buster Southerly, "singing a different tune to the posse of good ol' boys in the White House, led by George “Texas Ranger” Bush." Oh. Sarcasm. Gosh. How effective. Now please don your industrial-strength protective goggles, as I expose you to potentially deadly levels of anti-war logic.

“Before we step right off the edge Before `We are at war' is said Before we start to count the dead Back it up Everybody breathes, Everybody bleeds.”

Everybody drops a big 'ol turd in the toilet too, and this may be what's happened here. The Green-Left Weekly goes on.

Blundell hopes these lines from the song will be heard by millions and will make them think about the consequences and justness of the looming war.

Anyone with the faintest idea of what the HELL kind of drugs "Australia's singing cowboy" was on when he wrote this is advised to let me know immediately so I can get some. Must be some powerful stuff indeed. Hmmm, everybody bleeds eh? Actually, when a suitcase nuke detonates in Central Park, there won't be so much bleeding as instant vapourisation, flesh being flayed from bones in a microsecond, the pressure wave ripping buildings apart, people being burned to death, buried, irradiated and a wide variety of gruesome deaths. I'd prefer that that not happen, but then I'm a brutal warmongering Jew Zionist Imperialist Pig Tool of the Fascist ruling classes of Amerikka. What can I say? You got me.

I CAN'T WRITE What am I supposed to say? I think we all know what's about to happen, why, and where we all stand on it. I've said my bit as well as I can, and I doubt anything I could write at this late stage will cause any readers of the Green-Left Weekly to suddenly slap themselves on the forehead, declaim loudly that they've been such utter FOOLS, and rush off to fill out Liberal party application forms and sign up for the territorials. As usual...heck, as ALWAYS, Lileks says it better than I ever could. I swear, that man is going to wind up forcing us all to stop blogging by simply being so much better at it.

The other part of the problem is that there is simply nothing to write about, because soon there will be everything to write about. We’ve been sitting at the top of the rollercoaster for about five months now. Today I saw a NEWS ALERT that suggested there might be another UN resolution that would extend inspections another three weeks, and I nearly shed my skin. No, please no. I cannot take another three weeks of UN maneuverings, another three weeks of haughty diplomats lecturing down to the rest of us, another three weeks of pretending Cameroon matters, another three weeks of ignoring the fact that Mexico - Mexico! - is holding out. And incidentally, isn’t that instructive? I don’t think Mexico is peeved that we haven’t signed Kyoto or the ICC, and I don’t think the Mexican population is ready to take to the streets to protest the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. I was under the impression that Bush and Fox had a warm relationship. Apparently not. Fine. Mine the borders.

In the Category of Blog Person Who’s Naked Breasts We Would Most Like To See And The Nominees are…. Angie Schultz Alisa “Its an honour to be nominated” Bruce/Tom … Special request for pre diet pic, leading to discussion on wether Alisa should be disqualified on “psychiatric” grounds. This was dismissed for the reason that mental stability has not been a prerequisite for any other activity here. Cassandra Do we all remember Cassie? Strictly speaking she hasn’t actually posted, but the judge has ruled she will be allowed to enter and indeed appears to leading by a.. er out in front… I mean she’s winning. Sarah Details sketchy on this mystery woman, but violence looms between Murray and Mike (again)… this time over girl. Murray Has been nominated but is unable to participate after having developed an allergy to being clipped on the nut by a softball bat. Surprise absence from nominations: Wind Rider And boy is her getting all bitter and twisted about it. Even threatening more successful nominees. Fat Old Sailor I mean come on, you know you want to see all the tattoos. 24 hours of nomination time to go, get em in and get em bared!

So you think I'm the crazy one... An Introduction, Bernie Shapiro, many thousands of years ago was my lead scout. He is the reason I didn’t bother to get glasses until I was driving a bus for a living. Back in the days of the Gulf War v1.0 I had to physically restrain Bernie from getting on a plane and heading off to single headedly save Israel from scuds. I had no great fear for him personally, but New Zealand/Israel relations may have taken a hit or two. Besides, I was still using him myself. Bernie has waxed loquacious on the subject of “Greens” or liberals you may call them. I know many people have a view of New Zealand and Kiwis that is less than flattering at times. I submit Bernie as an example that not only am I not an extreme and minority Kiwi, I am in fact a moderate. Speak Bernie… Ahhhhh memories. Funny how I've lost the "Get on the first plane to oblivion" factor and would rather spend time in the hills potting Indonesians... Er - deer. Deer. Sorry. I get confused these days... Hope they run outa trees before I run outa knees. I can't wait all day for em out there... Quote me as much as you want. Greenies are the worst kind of social reprobate. The one who "Cares for the environment" but drives a car; who wants to "Save the children" but wears Nike shoes or other sport brand attire; who wants to chain up all dogs and take away their freedom as animals, but won't eat meat as its "Inhumane"? GRRR They can all take a great big backwards up a gum tree for all I care, the bunch of pot smoking, misty eyed, empty headed "read it in a book once" or "saw it on the Paul Holmes show" losers. Give me a room full of Greenies and a room full of stuffed toys [shudder - the eyes... the staring staring eyes...] and issue me with any weapon of choice. Lock me away in either of these rooms and see what will happen. Cuddly toys: all toys will be gutted, skinned, dismembered and I will be sitting on the floor in the middle of a pile of stuffing suffering from the quivering giggles while fluff rains down slowly thru the air. Greeenies: Either the door will be flattened in my attempts to escape or I'll top myself before they get to me with their propaganda and soft voices... Oil and water. Greenies and reality. Me and stuffed toys - I guess. Hmmm... Personally the sooner they open up a season on the mung bean munching, hysterical, politically correct, vegetarian, karma enhancing, feng shui focussing, robe wearing, jandal slapping, insecure, gentle, love bead wearing, bearded friends of Greenpeace, the sooner we can start shooting possums in the bush and stop poisoning the waterways for fear of getting rangers' feet wet and backs sweaty.

Time To Dress For Dinner

Naked for Peace...getting warmer
The ever vigilant Tim Blair, never one to let significant newsworthy items pass by unnoticed, points to this indication that the stripping for peace movement is getting more and more worth paying attention to. (Caution, may NOT be work friendly, although it is really only PG-13 or so). There. Now can we call off the boobs for whatever contest before we're subjected to a partially naked picture of Murray?

You're either with us, or with the terrorists
Michael Ledeen puts forth a disturbing theory on where France & Germany fit into that statement on National Review Online. Although it borders on so radical that it is likely to be either ignored, dismissed, or plainly decried as paranoidal, he does make some damn good points - the kind the average apologist or hard-lefty would sidestep in a heartbeat to keep from acknowledging.

One contest we won't be hosting...
at the "Eat an Animal for PETA Day" celebration on the 15th of March. Sorry, Bill.

More details Blix forgot to mention...
I've already noted that Hans Blix seemingly forgot to mention the UAVs the Iraqis were developing, but failed to declare, but wait! There's more. This NYT Article (free subscription required) points out something else buried deep in the report that Mr. Blix glossed over, and could be said to have grossly mis-represented before the Security Council - cluster munitions specifically for dispersing chem/bio weapons from 122mm rockets. With indications of the work to fit such payloads onto SCUDs. The Iraqis certainly have a much larger inventory of 122mm rockets, a tried and true Soviet design, than the 100 or so developmental and not quite perfected home grown missiles they reluctantly offered up to be run over by bulldozers. Blix has made it no secret that he wants to avoid a war at just about any cost. It appears that desire has brought him to the point of boldly spinning, or omitting, the very evidence he and his inspectors were dispatched to look for. The argument has been between those pointing out that the inspectors were simply auditors, present to receive cooperation and evidence from the Iraqis of their efforts and results at disarming, and those that characterize the inspectors task as one big scavenger hunt. This latter position insisting that the 'lack' of any evidence is proof that all this nasty weapons talk was sheer nonsense to begin with, instead of being the result of any deliberate attempt by the Iraqis to deny, deceive, or otherwise thwart the effort to discover their wunder-weapons. These latest revelations bring a new dynamic. Regardless of the previous stance on the issue of inspections, how can it be said that either described function (auditor versus hunter) is being actually performed, when the head of the inspections team distorts the findings that are made? When the chief mouthpiece sits up and issues banal platitudes about illusory 'progress' based on Iraqi spin and promises, when the background details of his report paint such an opposite picture, even for the most casual observer? To put it bluntly, Hans Blix is either a naive fool, a useful idiot, a boldfaced liar, or some combination of all three. The result is that he is enthusiastically serving the same purpose as the magician's assistant - distracting the audience with meaningless hand gestures and banter so they don't notice the elephant being positioned on stage. Somebody needs to come along and shove his ass into the orchestra pit. Will it be Jack Straw, or Colin Powell, or a group heave-ho?

ISLAM IS PEACE...TOLERANCE...LOVE...RESPECT... ...but if India beat Pakistan at cricket, they're going nuclear!

I've also been busy depressing myself with the cricket, it's sad to see Pakistan not play well, and when they do, they still get beaten, but I'm getting kinda used to it. I've just realised how much I dislike hindus, especially after the recent riots in India after the cricket game. May Allah curse those fools who worship a cow and think it's urine is holy water. I'm also kinda angry cos I can't access the CG website from college, but I can at home, thnk the college ISP may have blocked it, cos some other ISP's have blocked the CG site too. It's amazing how much these kuffar fear the youth of Islam!

Yes, there's a vast, interlocking global security agency devoted solely to tracking spotty college kids who frequent Islamofascist websites and mouth pro-terrorist slogans...um...actually that was meant to be sarcastic, but come to think of it... Note: Unfortunately, the link Tom used won't work. Seems the young college lads from the UK working the site haven't bothered to set up their blogger archive templates, or at least not to do so correctly. Seems they've been occupied cramming for chemistry and biology exams. Hmm. Chemistry. Biology. nahh, probably nothing more than general prerequisite type courses...there's absolutely nothing they've posted that would give any of us kuffars [sic] cause for concern. Go see for yourselves. WR

Terrorist Alert for the Shire In a follow up to previous threatening letters New Zealand police have released the following details of the most recent: It is the intention to attack “American, British & Australian interests” in New Zealand. The method of the attacks will be: Poisoning of water supplies. Cyanide in tap water. Poison gas in a cinema. Explosive devices. The target areas: Auckland Wellington The time frame: March 28th has been designated as the day “a demonstration of power” will be made. Your advice from on site SR Staff: This is very likely to be a hoax and risk is considered to be minimal. However, I personally will be avoiding crowds and in particular I will not be going to the Embassy theatre. The risk, although extremely slight, does however exist. No sense in going hunting for trouble. Get your news live on March 28th with this view of the Embassy theatre. I will also not be in the area for the world premier of the third Lord of the Rings instalment to take place here next year.

INTREP: NEW ZEALAND Things may not be quite as Dear Leader Helen likes to pretend when it comes to the entire nation marching in lock-step towards a glorious new People's Peace Policy, and shouting "Valiantly Strive to Implement the Decisions of the 43rd Labour Party Conference! Smash the Four Evils, the Six Ideological Errors, and the 49 Complete Stuff-Ups! All Hail Dear Leader Helen! All Hail the Waikato University Disabled Black Cuban Lesbian Studies Department, Vanguard of the Revolution! How Long Do We Have To Chant This Drivel Before We Get That Free Lunch Helen?" A message has been smuggled past the border guards and been passed to me via the underground, and it makes for interesting reading.

Amazing poll result published in al-Sunday Star Times here yesterday: Despite nearly every media outlet in the country - save for Ian Wishart's magazine/radio show and the odd Lindsay Perigo article - being anti-invasion, 33% of NZers responded that they felt Australia was right to support the US in undertaking unilateral (non-UN sanctioned) action, and this number jumped to 46% for those who didn't disagree. Perhaps the media haven't been a total disaster - every time Minto or Locke get their face on TV support for the Yanks seems to jump another point. Mark J (obviously a guerilla nickname) PS The 1000 plus that wll get reported protesting the Howard luncheon here today was actually 350 max, and that would include the undercover cops.

Perhaps openly attempting neuro-linguistic programming on an entire population by portraying anyone daring to disagree with the anti-American position as mad, evil, or stupid isn't working correctly. No doubt Helen will order TVNZ to just increase the dosage.

Some days are better than others. Cost of train trip in to protest: $3:50 Cost of banana to throw at Aussie PM’s car: $1:20 Getting taken out by pissed off little girl: Absolutely fucking priceless!!! See: Peace Pussy Decked by a Little Girl at NZPundit. I really must get into town with my camera more often.

Torture
The subject of using torture to extract information from captured Al Qaeda goons seems to be bouncing around, particularly with the plucking of useful plum Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. At least one media mainstreamer doesn't even want to think too hard about it. Glenn has stepped out and disagreed with Oliver and Radley Balko, who seem to be in favor of it, on the grounds that torture is wrong. I have to say that I agree with his final answer, but not exactly with his argument of moral standpoint. And while I agree with the sentiment of Radley and Oliver, in that the thought of someone beating the crap out of the terrorist slime balls doesn't cause me a moment's pause, nor lack of sleep worrying about it, I don't subscribe to their 'go ahead' conclusion, either. Why? Because of the goal. That goal is to extract useful information in order to deter attacks by disrupting the plans the detainees were privy to. I'm absolutely in favor of taking drastic measures which would under no circumstances be tolerated in the United States, or most Western Democracies for that matter, to achieve that end. But not torture. Simply for the reason that became apparent through the examples of the living nightmares created by some of the masters of the craft. The KGB. The Gestapo. The Inquisition. The North Vietnamese. Distinguished Latin American Meat Packing glitterati, etc. The lesson? It just doesn't frikkin work. The goal is accurate, timely information. Depending on the will of the individual (which does eventually break), and the severity of the methods employed, both the length of time to extract the information and the validity are simply too much in doubt to be useful. The timing, because despite the severity of the assault, a relatively strong willed individual may be able to hold out past the point where such information would be timely and relevant. As far as validity, consider, can you truly rely upon the utterances of a creature so consumed and enveloped in pain that they're willing to say absolutely anything, anything at all, to make the pain stop or subside just a bit, for only a little while? No. But those practitioners previously mentioned knew that full well, and conducted it anyway simply for the terror factor and out of sheer sadism. Coercive, invasive methods to get the information? Yes, please. So long as they are effective, and leaves the slime balls alive and kicking for quite some time to savor the reality of their complete and utter defeat. I'm certainly no expert, but I'd support the use of advanced psychiatric methodologies, to include the use of psychotropic drugs, to achieve the effect of parting the information from the carriers. I'd have a lot less sympathy for the argument of how much 'pain and suffering' this causes the subjects, than if the argument involved the relative merits of burning them with lit cigarettes as opposed to attaching a car battery to their genitals. Save the lamentations of the irreparable 'damage to their self esteem' or other such half baked poo for someone willing to entertain such cocktail party drivel. Keep in mind, we're dealing with hostile combatants, operating outside the laws and norms of civilized society as we've come to know it - and it was by their own hands that they tore the rule book up and tossed it into the wind. Mind fuck 'em all you can, I say. And that should include more than just keeping them awake for three or four days at a stretch. But you can't use information obtained that way in court!!! Yeah, and? Not talking about putting them on trial for what they were planning to do. There should be plenty enough evidence to do that trial thing, eventually, on what has already transpired, without the info on their future ops. So have at em. Just don't waste the time of 'torturing' them.

Eat an Animal for PETA - Update:
As those that were thinking of participating may have heard already, the site survey of the PETA (lying, thieving bastards) Headquarters building pretty much ruled out the possibility of a tailgate party. Seems the folks that love to protest everybody else have picked up some lessons learned from their activities, and settled into a pretty hard to get to locale, with damned little free space around it for boisterous stunts. And what damned little space there is, is completely out of sight from everything, except the front of a storage warehouse, or owned/leased by PETA. I doubt they'd let us use the little green spaces they have between the building and the waterline to have our cookout, even if we told them it was tofu shaped like burgers and steaks. Probably why the local radio station that tweaks their noses annually uses a riverine approach. After quick consultation with Meryl, seems we are back to plan 'A'. So here's plan 'A'. Saturday night, 7:30, at The Grate Steak in Hampton, just off Mercury Boulevard. Got a reservation in place already. This link will take you to a map, but it's pretty easy to get to. Exit 263B off of I-64, right at the first light, restaraunt is on the left side, mid-block. Best to park across the street in one of the Hotel parking lots. The invitation is open to any and all bloggers within walking, crawling, driving, or single bounding distance of the greater Hampton Roads Metroplex and Drive-thru to join us. Just be sure to drop Meryl or me a note (I refuse to use that stupid, stupid, snooty french derived four letter abbreviation) so I can adjust the reservation as necessary. And so, what WILL the special gift for Ms. Yourish be? Hmmmm. Hint: Yes, it will be useful. No, batteries are not included, nor required.

Iraq Has French Military Advisors!!! A Silent Running Exclusive Yes your Intel team here at Silent Running are the first to join the dots kids, those people have the French giving them military advice! Not to mention non-sanctioned weapons the French have been flicking them for years. In an incident that can only be described as total and conclusive proof of Frances military involvement, Iraqi soldiers have begun surrendering! In short, they heard shooting, assumed the war had started and played their part by biffing their weapons and attempting to surrender to a group of British paras who were rather at a loss as to what they should do with them. It was explained that the war hadn’t started yet and they would let them know when it was time to surrender, and then sent back to their own lines. I wonder if the Monty Python team have anything that would cover this... why yes, yes they do...

Update for Achmed and Ali...Ooops! "A German scholar made a fairly startling discovery this year. It turns out the 72 virgins these guys expect upon arrival in Paradise might not be virgins at all. Oh, I don't mean that they might have played the field in college (or burka-knitting school) or anything like that. I mean, they might be raisins. It turns out that the passage which so many of these psychopaths considered their eternal nookie ticket was mistranslated over the centuries. Because of a grammatical glitch, it's quite possible that the Koranic passage which promises that salvation is an eternal Fleet Week for young men who massacre innocents more likely promises that you get a nice bowl of juicy white raisins when you go to Heaven."

More Fom Richard Butler Here, by popular request (well somebody asked!) is some more of the very revealing interview with Richard Bulter that appeared on New Zealand's National Radio last week. This installment looks at Scott Ritter and... well, read on: Presenter: this question of where the weapons of mass destruction are and what weapons there still are, we had Scott Ritter on this Programme.. I mean you’ll know well. Now I mean, here is someone who says that from a qualitative standpoint Iraq has already been disarmed. You don’t accept that? Butler: oh, I’m sorry to hear that you were subjected to that. I mean I know Scott well and I saw him a few weeks ago in New York and he remains as lost as he has been since he resigned from UNSCOM. One of Scott’s last actions when he worked for me at UNSCOM was to send me a paper saying the Iraqis are lying, they have this, that and the other weapons and I demand that you allow me go and find them; and I declined to allow him to behave in the way he wanted to because it was just a bit too aggressive, and he then resigned and a few months later he’s decided to tell the world, as he continues to do, that all of that was untrue and Iraq doesn’t have any weapons. So, you know, Scott was either misleading me when he worked for me, or he’s subsequently misleading the public and I can assure you I know he wasn’t misleading me. I don’t know why he’s saying these things. You know, I share his passion for avoiding war if we can, but I don’t think that purpose is served by speaking in a misleading fashion and that’s what he’s done for some time now, and I deeply regret it. Presenter: so at the point when you and the other weapons inspectors pulled out last time round, the situation was what? I mean his version is that between 90 and 95% of the weapons of mass destruction, at that time had been destroyed. Would you put it that high? Butler: oh, this.. It’s nonsense. I mean quite frankly I despair a little that we’re wasting valuable time in talking about Ritter’s claims. I was just.. Presenter: the only reason I asked you about it.. Sorry to interrupt You.. Butler: but I just said to you a moment.. And please don’t interrupt me. I said to you a moment ago that he’s actually misleading the public. Now, we could waste a lot of time going into that, root and branch. Suffice to say this, that a very hostile Security Council in 1999, a Council that wished this whole problem would go away, when confronted with the facts, actually decided that… No, they couldn’t do that because it was the case that Iraq still retained weapons of mass destruction, and that was in circumstances where the Security Council really, truly, deeply wished that this weren’t the case and wanted some way to paper it over and have it go away. Now.. But they couldn’t because the facts were staring them in the face. Scott Ritter’s claims about those facts are nonsense and it’s not worth our time talking about them. Presenter: the context in New Zealand is that we have a Prime Minister who has adopted the French line of saying there is no evidence at this point in time that military action is necessary and, to a large degree, the New Zealand public have accepted that; because they haven’t been given another story, I guess. That’s where the.. That’s the context of Scott Ritter’s comments in the New Zealand environment are I suppose, is that at the moment you’re talking to a group of listeners who are not yet convinced that the weapons of mass destruction are there. Butler: well, they’re wrong. And you see you’re mixing up.. You know, you’re mixing up two things, which is the fact of the weapons of mass destruction and the usefulness of military action. What I was trying to say to you is this: Iraq does have weapons of mass destruction. That’s a fact. I mean for God’s Sake even they admitted today. Why the hell are they doing what they are doing? With the Al Samoud missiles, with the VX disposal, with the biological weapons. Can’t you see, they themselves are admitting that they have them, now that their backs are against the wall, trying to avoid war; they themselves are admitting that they lied. That’s the whole thing that we see unfolding now in Baghdad. So my point is, it’s not a question of whether or not Iraq has such weapons, it clearly does. That should not be confused however, with the idea that says because they do, the only way to fix it is to go to war. There I tend to agree with Helen Clark: I don’t think it is the only way to fix it. I think war is a terrible thing and it should be more than the rhetorical last resort, we should strive to find other ways to deal with it but you will not deal with this problem accurately if you start from the premise, Scott Ritter’s or anyone else’s, that Iraq doesn’t have weapons of mass destruction. In the name of God, they themselves are today admitting that they do. The issue is to find a way to deal with that without going to war.

Better than Pentathol!
Seems the CIA has ended up with two sons of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 9/11 architect. Yousef and Abed are reportedly being treated with 'kid gloves', with several government child psychologists on hand at all times. If they really want to put the screws to him, either he starts talking, or they'll announce that they're not really equipped at the federal agency level for proper direct handling of child welfare concerns, and they're turning the kids over to a US State-run foster care system. Say, Florida, for instance. But that would be cruel and unusual, for the kids, at any rate. Screw their shitbag father.

UN NOW OFFICIALLY DOOMED The Wanker says they're going to make it. The UN will survive this storm Coming up in future editions of the Al-Guardian, "Saddam Hussein Expected to Live Another Thirty Years", "Posh Spice to Take Vow of Silence" and "Archbishop of Canterbury Declares Belief in God".

CRAZY? OR CRAZY LIKE AN EXTREMELY CRAZY AND PROBABLY DANGEROUS CRAZY PERSON? Lets have fun with the anti-American Left shall we? Now, they all stand for freedom, equality and social progress, right? WRONG! But thanks for playing anyway. Yellow Times has disovered one of these possible post-liberation scenarios, and goes semi-ballistic over the possibility that one of the people running post-Saddam Iraq might be (gasp)...a woman! Gosh, it's almost as if the US wants to help Iraq join the 21st century or something. Firas Al-Atraqchi, who is described as a YellowTimes.org columnist in Canada, writes under the sober and reasonable headline: "Has the U.S. administration gone mad?"

The north and south of Iraq will be administered by two different retired U.S. Army generals, while the central portion, Baghdad and the surrounding areas, will be run by a woman; Barbara Bodine, former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen. (Bodine was ambassador to Yemen when the U.S.S. Cole was struck in 2000.) Sources in the Arab League, who were informed of the U.S. post-Saddam plans, are outraged. The Arab League had secretly proposed a mixed-Arab type commitment to maintaining security in Iraq. The U.S. ignored Arab pleas and opted to put an American woman to run Baghdad. This is sure to ignite the Iraqis. "Are they crazy? They want to bomb us, kill us, and now they insult us by putting a woman to rule over our heads?" asked Abdullah Azawi, an Iraqi cab driver in Toronto. "Iraqis will never stand for it. Never!"

Get stuffed. Do you want to be in charge? Win.

Whoa Dude... Flashback It's deja vu all over again - AGAIN! In yet ANOTHER disturbing case of freedom of speech being only for people you agree with, Wes Dabneys excellent blog has had its plug pulled after a troll who was eventually blocked wet his pants and decided to fuck Wes over. The REMF BS is now flowing freely and Wes is unlikely to be back. Details will not be shared. Those of you who have been with Silent Running from the start know where Wes is at now. Allow me to contemplate for a moment and give you my reaction…. FUCK! This incident and others like it have resulted in the Administration of Silent Running (Global Steerage Committee) adopting the following “Troll Policy”, to be known as the "fuck off and die asshole" policy, any person that exhibits troll-like behavior will immediately have their IP blocked and the details will be forwarded to ALL our links and blog contacts. Freedom of speech is a privilege, not a right and it frankly pisses me off that the people that do the most to ensure it for others are those who are most frequently denied it.