Cat Blog Friday

Not my cat, but I couldn't resist posting it.

NATO Head...Quarters

President George W. Bush, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else but here, speaks at a news conference at NATO Headquarters in Brussels today. The U.S. is deeply concerned that the E.U. countries will lift the weapons ban on China that was imposed over China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The EU pledged at a summit with China in December to work toward lifting its embargo. Chirac has been the most determined EU leader to push for scrapping the embargo, but even Britain, Washington's closest EU ally, has backed ending the ban.

"There is deep concern in our country that the transfer of weapons would be a transfer of technology to China, which would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan," President Bush said at a news conference after the the 26-nation NATO summit.

Chinese leaders say they want the ban lifted because they view it as an unfair obstacle in relations, not because they want to go on an arms buying spree.

Of course not. Just look at how much progress China has made in human rights since the embargo. None. If anything, their human rights abuses have worsened.

Arming a country like China with advanced weapons technology is a bad idea on many levels. In typical consequences-be-damned fashion, the E.U. must be playing 'follow the money' because there is no logical reason to lift the ban.

Follow the money. Whom are the Chinese paying off and for how much?

Happy Washington's Birthday

"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company"----George Washington

First President 1789-1797

Born: February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia

Died: December 14, 1799 in Mount Vernon, Virginia

Cat Blog Friday

Kinky...a studious tortie.

The Baby Name Wizard

Have you ever wondered how popular your name is?

Find out by typing your name in The Baby Name Wizard

Cube isn't listed...hmmmm.

[The BLOG tip o'the hat to Geek Press]

71 Days, 14 Hours, 18 Minutes, & 33 Seconds

British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur jumps for joy aboard her giant trimaran B&Q after smashing the record for single-handedly circumnavigating the globe.

You go, girl!

A Bold Bluff?

One in a series of works depicting dogs playing poker, the painting 'A Bold Bluff,' by artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, sold for $590,400 at auction on Tuesday.

The winning bidder was a private collector from New York with questionable artistic taste & way too much money.

My favorite was the painting of the poker dogs which showed one dog with an ace, clearly visible underneath the table, stuck in his hind paw...A Canine Cheat?

Furrowed One To Vote Aye...Or Not

Democratic Sen. John Kerry, whose pre-election botox treatments appear to have worn off, said on Tuesday he would back President Bush's new $81.9 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan.

In October 2003, a year after voting to support the use of force in Iraq, Kerry voted against an $87 billion supplemental funding bill for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later, he did support an unsuccessful alternative bill that funded the $87 billion by cutting some of Bush's tax cuts.

The Massachusetts senator, defended his decision to not back the president's previous request to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now defends his decision to back the new $81.9 billion request.

"It's part of my nuanced plan," Kerry explained. "I usually vote for something before I vote against it."

Death Star Moon

Saturn's diminutive moon, Mimas, poses as the Death Star - the planet-destroying space station from the movie Star Wars - in an image recently captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

A giant crater 138 kilometres across dominates the landscape of Mimas and represents almost one-third of the moon's diameter.

The entire article can be found at The New Scientist

Tum, tum, tum, tum ta-tum, tum ta-tum...

Urinade?

A dozen swimmers from Warren Mott High School in Michigan were suspended from the team for the rest of the season for pulling a prank on their coach. The swimmers drove to their coaches' house Sunday from a Super Bowl party and placed a bottle of Gatorade filled with urine on her front porch.

The prank was a tradition where the team member who worked the hardest during the previous meet is presented with a bottle of Gatorade as the "Thirst-Quencher Award," according to the report.

When asked how they felt about Gatorade being indistinguishable from a bottle of urine, executives at PepsiCo Inc., refused to comment about the swim team prank, but did want to discuss plans for the unveiling of an upcoming sports drink that would be markedly less expensive than the Gatorade line.

Happy Valentine's Day

In The Moxie Tradition

In reply to Moxie's call for Friday booze photoblogging ...

The BLOG prefers quality versus quantity.

Al Qaeda #2 Condems Freedom!

An audiotape purportedly of Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri hit out at the US concept of freedom, saying it was a cloak for spreading corruption and injustice in the Islamic world.

Liberty as construed by the Americans was based on "usurious banks, giant companies, misleading media outlets and the destruction of others for material gain," charged the voice in the recording aired by Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera.

First of all, doesn't it seem as though Al-Jazeera has a direct, almost instantaneous, conduit to terrorists and their ever ready supply of propaganda tapes? Talk about misleading media outlets...

Second of all, Islam is involved in the spread of terror & tyranny though bloodthirsty beheadings & the bombing of innocents. Not only is this a wee bit contradictory for a 'religion of peace', but qualifies as the destruction of others for gain or otherwise.

But logic is wasted on these lunatics, so I won't bother with it.

This rant, like those before it, is moronic & deserves a loud & resounding 'Phhhfffftt' [sound of spittle-laden raspberry] ,in unison, from the collective citizens of the USA.

Wouldn't it be nice if Al-Jazeera aired that tape...

Year Of The Rooster

Today marks the start of the Chinese New Year. The annual week-long Spring Festival holiday ushers in the Year of the Rooster.

To all fellow roosters out there... May our year be a joyful & prosperous one.

...and maybe I'll see some traffic on The BLOG.

Hellfire

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami speaks at a ceremony to mark the 26th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution at Azadi (which ironically means freedom) Square west of Tehran. Iran, facing mounting U.S. pressure over its nuclear program, promised Thursday a 'burning hell' for any aggressor.

The tens of thousands who marched to mark the 26th anniversary of its Islamic revolution are familiar with the concept of hell...they've lived with it for 26 years.

Commercial Success

If you missed it during the Super Bowl...
salute to troops commercial.

Thank you Anheiser-Busch for thinking of the troops.

This one beats the Miller Lite ads hands down.

Chutch: The Nutty Professor

This post from Iowahawk about Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill is a hoot. LMHO.

Left-wing, America-hating, nihilists like Professor "Kimosabe" Churchill receive tenure at our universities and continue to fill our students' heads with pure, unadultured garbage. He's not playing Devil's advocate to engender healthy debate, and any university, like the University of Colorado, that condones this lack of professionalism in their faculty should be boycotted by the very people that pay the tuition bills every semester.

Parents, don't send your kid to that school!

If your kid is already enrolled there, register the little darling at another school at your earliest opportunity.

The University of Colorado can keep their tenured 'darling of the left' anachronistic prof... but they don't deserve to have any students within earshot of his kooky views.

Talk To The Hand, Arafat

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made no acknowledgement of Yasser Arafat's grave when she met the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah on Monday before concluding a whirlwind trip to Israel and the PA.

Unlike a long line of other leaders who paid some kind of homage to Arafat's grave at the entrance to the Mukata, when visiting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Rice's car simply pulled into the compound, passed the grave and Rice got out and walked into the building.

On the way out, she also made no acknowledgment of the grave, unlike other leaders, like EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana who laid a wreath or British Prime Minister Tony Blair who walked by and nodded, and President Jimmy Carter and Senator John Kerry who groveled and prostrated themselves before the glass-enshrined tomb.

Bad Drivers

Not to be outdone by the 4-year-old boy who drove his mother's car to a video store a quarter-mile from their apartment in Grand Rapids...


In Tampa, Florida, Miss Kitty, a 1-year-old silver tabby cat, drove her owner's car to a nearby PetsMart for some cat treats and a mouse-shaped squeak toy.

JavaSlide Interactive Slide Rule

My only complaint about the virtual
javasliderule is that it won't fit inside my pocket protector.

Not So Lyrical Lyrics...

These are the lyrics to what very recognizable theme song?


Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flight
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.


If you can't figure it out, look here

Bush Doll Captures UBL Doll

The response to the terrorists taking Special Forces GI Joe hostage...

I guess that's why they call them action figures now.

[The BLOG tip o'the hat to Lazamataz for posting this photo on Free Republic.com]

Unhand me, you fiend!

Handler Bill Deeley holds a squirming Punxsutawney Phil, the weather predicting groundhog, as Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle Presdident William Cooper looks at the groundhog before the reading of the proclamation that there would be six more weeks of winter after Phil saw his shadow.

"Phil is a handful, but it could be worse," said groundhog handler, Bill Deeley, "We could be working with Punxsutawney Ralph, the raccoon."

Hill Takes Spill

Blaming a lingering stomach virus, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton fainted Monday during a speech at the Saturn Club in Buffalo, New York. However, much speculation has circled around Senator Clinton's recent politically calculated turn towards the center of the Democratic party. One insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confided, "All that talk about rare abortions and frequent mention of God & prayer in her life just didn't agree with the Senator's stomach."

Columbia: In Memorium

Rick Husband
William McCool
Michael Anderson
David Brown
Kalpana Chawla
Laurel Clark
Ilan Ramon were killed on February 1, 2003.

The 2 years have flown by but I haven't forgotten.