Baby Giant

Hard to belive, but this 5.4 ounce newborn will grow into a giant panda.

Panda research and protection centers in China are reporting a record-high 25 births this year.

Murthagate?

From The Astute Blogger comes a fascinating post theorizing that the the reason behind Congressman John Murtha's "loud tear-filled call for immediate withdrawal" from Iraq "was a smokescreen to misdirect attention from impending ethics investigations" over both Murtha and the Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi.

The real kicker is that Murtha can now claim that the Bush administration is trying to punish him for his comments.

Read Murthagate for yourself for the dirt on both of these House Democrats. Talk about a culture of corruption...

Pelosigate does has a nice ring to it.

Depp Doo Doo

Johnny Depp is so shocked by the riots raging through France, he's considering abandoning his home in the country. The star moved to Europe when life in Los Angeles became too violent.

He has since divided time between the two continents - but he fears France will be scarred permanently by the current troubles.

Depp chose to move to France because life seemed so simple there.

Aw, poor, poor Johnny. Now you'll have to move back to the dirty, crime-ridden, religion-forcing, free speech-impaired, right wing radicalized United States run by the fascist President Bush.

You know, life in the USA isn't perfect, but at least we know how to quell riots and enforce law & order. France should take a page out of our book for a change.

I say, let them eat croissants!

Cat Blog Friday

OK, now what?

Scared Gene

Scientists may have found a gene for fear -- a gene that controls production of a protein in the region of the brain linked with fearful responses.

The gene, known as stathmin or oncoprotein 18, is highly concentrated in the amygdala, a region of the brain associated with fear and anxiety, the researchers report in Thursday's issue of the journal Cell. Stathmin-free mice, for example, show no fear of the things mice fear routinely.

Scientists are hopeful that this research will lead to much needed treatment for fear-striken liberal Democrats who are looking for any excuse to cut and run from the war on terror.

Free stathmin suppression shots?  It sounds promising.

Thunderbirds

Two U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform a mirror formation during Aviation Nation Air Show @ Nellis AFB in Vegas.

This picture makes my heart just swell up with pride.


[Photo credit: AP photo/Jae C. Hong]

Heart Disease Rx

New research indicates that patting a dog can relieve a heart patient's anxiety and perhaps even help recovery during a visit to the hospital.



OK, maybe not this dog.

Ailing Dictator

From the Miami Herald comes the news Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has been suffering from Parkinson's disease since 1998. The CIA is warning U.S. policymakers to be ready for trouble if the 79-year-old ruler's health erodes over the next few years.

If his health erodes? Should'nt that be when?

Trouble? Shouldn't that be when Cubans will be dancing for joy in the streets?

I wonder if Hallmark makes a "Hurry Up And Die, Bloodthirsty Dictator" card.

Once A Quisling...

Ex-president Bill Clinton, a bloviator of Brobdingnagian proportions, gave a speech at the American University of Dubai, and told students that the United States made a "big mistake" when it invaded Iraq, and cited the lack of planning for what would happen after dictator Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

Clinton, whose presidency was marred by scandals galore...financial scandals, extramarital scandals, sexual harassment scandals, impeachment proceedings for perjurious testimony and obstruction of justice, and, of course, inaction against the growing threat of terrorism, is desperately looking for a legacy.

Doesn't it occur to him how harmful his words are to the troops in Iraq? Didn't the lesson of his protests against the Vietnam War in England in the 1960's teach him anything?

No.

The "big mistake" the U.S. made was electing a despicable, self-absorbed, two-timing, lying traitor like Clinton to the presidency in the first place.

Anthropodermic bibliopegy

Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the technical term for books bound in human skin.

While it's not clear how many extant books actually have been bound in human skin, many older libraries (such as the library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia which has four such books, including one with a visible tattoo) have these books in their collection, suggesting there may be hundreds.

Read the rest of this rather morbid, but fascinating article entitled Deviant Behavior from The Record (The Independent Newpaper @ Harvard Law School)...if you dare.

Frankly, I can't believe how much like leather it looks.

Hitch Hits Back

My favorite columnist from the progressive left, Christopher Hitchens, hits back against the claims of the MSM and the loony left in this article entitled Believe It Or Not in Slate.

Hitch begins with asking, "What do you have to believe in order to keep alive your conviction that the Bush administration conspired to launch a lie-based war?" and he proceeds to elucidate, in his superb and inimitable style, the ways in which "a few little strokes of Occam's razor are enough to dispose of this whole accumulation of fantasy."

This erudite piece ends by Hitch asking whether they can they be this dumb and gullible.

Actually, I think there is a calculated, agenda-driven campaign to make people think President Bush "misled" us into war...
and the economy is tanking...
and there is a culture of corruption around the Administration...
and America is bad and deserves to be losing the war on terror...

This list goes on ad nauseum.

As Hitchins so cleverly illustrates, logic and facts will always beat out bumpersticker slogans and baseless ad hominem attacks. I find it funny that it takes a principled person from the left to point this out.

A Leg Too Far Gone?

No, not the loser in the buttkicking contest... that would be about as sad as a mosquito sucking on a mummy. It's Argentina's Lionel Messi stretching during a training session before the game against Qatar.

Snuppy?

Snuppy, the first cloned dog, is Time magazine's pick for the most amazing invention of 2005. The puppy, a 5-month-old Afghan hound, was cloned at Seoul National University in Korea by a 45-person team led by Professor Woo Suk Hwang. Snuppy was created through somatic nuclear cell transer using a single cell taken from the ear of an adult Afghan.

If you're going to clone a dog, why in the world would you pick an Afghan? They aren't particularly attractive dogs, and they shed like crazy. I don't get it.

Cubi XXVII

Cubi XXVII, a large-scale metal sculpture by American artist David Smith has become the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction, fetching 23.8 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York. Five bidders competed for Smith's "Cubi XXVII", but it was finally snapped up by Manhattan dealer Larry Gagosian. 

Cubi XXVII is a great title..., but honestly, I wouldn't want that thing in my yard, much less pay almost 24 million for it! Sheesh, must be nice to have all that money to waste.

Tossed Dogs

Don't mess with this angry pup. It just took care of a pair of unruly socks & it will take care of you next.

Most dogs aren't so tough or so lucky. A Brooklyn man was arrested Wednesday after beating his mother with a vacuum cleaner and then tossing the family dog out the window of a fifth-floor apartment, authorities said.

The dog, a 55-pound pit bull mix named Gemini, was killed.

In September, a Yorkshire terrier named Poochie died after being thrown out a sixth-floor window during a domestic dispute in Brooklyn.

What is it about Brooklyn and loons pitching dogs out windows?

People, toss your salads, not your pups.

OohRah!

Happy 230th Birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps!

Thank you for your service to our country.

Pretzel Logic

In her first interview since being fired, former CBS News producer Mary Mapes maintains that her controversial "60 Minutes II" story on President Bush's National Guard service was "true" and that "no one has proved that the documents were not authentic."

First of all, the documents were proved to be forged (remember the IBM Selectric faux pas), and second, I thought a journalist checked the facts before writing a story. Since when is it incumbent on the public to disprove a journalist's story?

Mapes just doesn't get it because she doesn't want to get it. Looks like the MSM has been making up stories and playing us for fools for years. All we had to do was disprove them!

CIA Disinformation

Out of the American Spectator comes an excellent article The CIA Disenformation Campaign, by Jed Babbin that is a must read for anyone who thinks, as I do, that the whole Wilson/Plame affair stinks to high heaven.

Babbin continues, "And the smell is coming from Langley. Porter Goss should receive credit for working hard to fix the CIA. The Wilson affair isn't his problem, it's ours. Right now, the CIA's disinformation campaign has cost Scooter Libby his future, threatens other White House staffers and -- most importantly -- burdens the credibility of the president in time of war. It affects our standing in the world, our relationship with our allies, and our strength in the eyes of our enemies. In short, this damned thing needs to be unraveled, publicly, and right bloody now."

Amen to that.

Babbin also goes on to say that "the Senate Intelligence Committee should, immediately, investigate and get the following questions answered publicly as soon as possible:

1) What precisely does the CIA criminal referral that started the Fitzgerald investigation say? It should be declassified and published;

2) Who approved the criminal referral and why?

3) Was Pavitt the person who approved the Wilson mission? Who else approved the mission and how it was to be performed?

4) Why did they choose Wilson instead of someone qualified?

5) Why wasn't Wilson required to sign a confidentiality agreement?

6) Were his various op-eds vetted at CIA?

7) Who else, beside Vallely and his wife, knew Plame was a CIA employee, when did they know it, and from whom?

8) Who was Bob Novak's source? Was it Wilson? Pavitt? Someone else at CIA?"

This is what the American public should be demanding right now. Don't let these liars get away with this travesty of justice. Write your senators at www.senate.gov.

Froggy Smiles

Not something you see everyday!

French Toast

French President Jacques Chirac's political rivals are criticizing his handling of the Moslem riots.

Sounds good on the surface. There isn't a sane person who doesn't feel the situation has been mishandled. But from Breitbart.com comes an article by Jamey Keaten entitled Chirac Attacked For Handling Of Crisis which highlights these complaints, which run
from calling the curfews repressive and calling for more support to troubled suburbs, new social support and jobs programs.

Read it and weep. There is nobody in the entire weak, wishy-washing Socialist Utopia of France that can handle this problem.

Who You Gonna Call?

Call home? Ireland's obsession with the mobile phone has sunk to new depths with a growing number of people now taking them with them to the grave.

This gives a whole new meaning to the term dead air.

Whatever you do, don't call Ghostbusters!

Attack On Eiffel

Giant carousel horses, feeling disenfranchised from the French political system, and disenchanted with their inability to fit into Parisian culture, have mounted an attack on the most enduring symbol of France, the Eiffel Tower itself.

French Fries

President Jacques Chirac diddles while France burns. He vows stern punishment one minute, and a dialog of mutual respect the next. "Don't make me come over there!" Chirac warns the "disenchanted youths" on the 11th day of riots that have spread over 300 towns.

The Chicago Boyz blog does a fine job of questioning the validity of "the European social model of multiculturalism, socialist management of the economy, relaxed attitude towards work, high taxes, lavish benefits, antipathy to Christianity, and pacifism".
It's definitely worth a read.

When will they realize that we are waging a global war against Islamofascists and get on board with the U.S.? Ummm, don't hold your breath.

The Plame Kerfuffle

Slowly, but surely, the voices of reason are calling for the investigation of Valerie "Mata Hari" Plame, Joe Wilson, and the CIA.

Two great articles came out last week written by people I have admired for a long time. One from Victoria Toensing in the Wall Street Journal entitled Investigate The CIA and one from Zell Miller in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution entitled Rule Can Head Off Dirty Tricks At CIA .

If the MSM is your only source for news, you aren't getting the full story on any story, much less this one.

Cat Blog Friday

"Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons." ---- Robertson Davies

Potty Lizard

Toilet training can be a stressful time in anyone's life, but I'll bet none of you had to confront a carnivorous lizard during potty training like the poor little toddler from Oslo. The boy's mother discovered the three foot Teju lizard, a carnivorous variety from South America, as she helped her three-year-old use the toilet, the Bergen aquarium in western Norway said on Thursday.

The black, yellow-banded lizard, weighing in at 3.3 pounds, can hold its breath for up to a half hour, is thought to have escaped from a private importer.

Holy Herpetology! Talk about psychological trauma. That's like having the knife-wielding psycho killer show up on the day you take your first stand-up shower.

Michael Piller 1948-2005

Sadly, Michael Piller, a longtime executive producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, lost his battle with cancer yesterday. The co-creator of Deep Space Nine and Voyager and writer of Star Trek: Insurrection, whose most recent production was the ABC Family series Wildfire, died at age 57.

Piller, who produced more than 500 hours of Star Trek, also had writing credits on Simon & Simon, Miami Vice, and co-created UPN's Legend and more recently USA's The Dead Zone.

His work will be missed.

Mr. Pants On Fire

No, not Joseph C. Wilson IV pointing to the only non-lying bone in his body, but very close to it according to the LA Times...yes, The LA Times! In an article entitled, "Plamegate's Real Liar" Max Boot lists Wilson's multitudinous lies.

My absolutely favorite quote from this article has to be, " In his attempts to turn his wife into an antiwar martyr, Joseph C. Wilson IV has retailed more whoppers than Burger King".

Mr. Boot refers to Plame as Wilson's "Mata Hari wife", and closes with, "So much for the lies that led to war. What we're left with is the lies that led to the antiwar movement. Good thing for Wilson and his pals that deceiving the press the the public isn't a crime".

This article is a must read if you're sick of the liberal hand-wringing and indignation over this non-issue. Or better yet, read it if you're a liberal who is sick of the lies coming from the left.

Alito's Way

By now, everyone knows that President Bush has nominated Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Alito seems emminently qualified for the position and it will be hard for the liberals to derail his confirmation seeing as to how he has been confirmed as a U.S. Attorney and to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.

Well, it looks like the fireworks have already begun. The Alito family is shown here posing at the White House. Couldn't they have found a better place for this photo? I can't believe this was coincidental.



BTW don't you just love the name Alito. It's a great name. I love saying it.

A-L-I-T-O.

Cube Tagged!

I've been tagged by Kajira to take part in the the Blog Archives and Hidden Meanings meme. The criteria: Delve into your blog archive. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas.
Tag five people to do the same.

Well, I went through the archives and found this from 10/18/04: "That I hardly can believe I'm real".

Hmmm...existential angst, perhaps? The geometric construct questions the hexagonal congruity that is its very essense. But if existence preceeds essense, then there is no fixed cubic nature. Cogito ergo sum cubito? ... or should that be cogito ergo sum tesella? Is the human dreaming it is a cube, or is the cube dreaming it is human?

Most of what we see is really just empty space. What is really real, anyway?

Well, that's enough navelgazing for one day. If 5 readers out there want to get tagged with this meme, go for it. I dare you.