A Warm Summer Sunday.

Summertime going to come and go my oh my.

What a glorious Sunday in the Valley! It was warm a 91 or 92 was our hight today but there was a nice breeze all day long. I was up and at 'em early and made some barbecued beans and a cucubmer salad for our dinner tonight. Did some shopping did some house cleaning and all of that. Put my Grateful Dead Alpine Valley DVD on and it was quite inspiring. As much as I like classical music nothing like the 'Dead on a nice warm summer day. NOTHING!

We had eight guests or so for dinner tonight. Had roasted corn, brats, sitaw, dried fish (aka tuyo), dried squid, rice, cucubmer salad, cole-slaw, barbecued beans, cake, beer (bud Light, Thanks Julie! & Summitt Heffe Weiss), and I know I am missing something.

I was bouncing ideas off of people and found a couple very eager about these ideas, others were so-so. So I know who I can approach further about trying to make those ideas reality.

I am glad we do not have an air conditioner. I am soaking up the warmth as much as I can. This weather really is not that hot, we CAN make it through without AC.

Besides, do you really want to return to the cold January? I do, but that is me.

Summertime going to come and go my oh my!

Oh Lutefisk Oh Lutefisk!

This story of lutefisk desecration is nearly unbearable. If I don't find something to pacify....ohhhhh!

Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

Paige Hopkins on Fox News was just moderating a discussion between a representative from the Democrats and one from the Republicans. The discussion was on embryonic stem cell research focusing on Bill Frist and his recent statement of support for the research.

The Dem rep made an incredible claim. She said people do not want men in Washington DC restricting research and getting in between them and their doctors.

Incredible. Claudia and I are going to be building a house. How dare a bunch of men in Washington DC prevent us from building that house! The Feds in DC are also restricing us from loading up on alternative energy! How dare they!

What is that you say? The Federal government does not stand in our way? Sure they do, they are not going to fund construction of our house and they will not purchase alternative energy sources for us!

Silly? Yes I agree. The Federal Government is not restricting embryonic stem cell research in the slightest. It may not be fully funding it, so? There are a lot of areas of study not being fully funded by any government or anyone.

States are choosing to fund the research on their own (this is called federalism and is in no way a jab at the President), private concerns are funding the research. The research is being done.

You know, I have little doubt we will learn from the research but at the moment the promoters of this research sound like snake oil salesmen who suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome.

On Geeks.

See for the complete story but here is a bit:

think it's a Darwinian thing. We're attracted to the people who have the best ability to survive and thrive. In the old days it was important to be able to run down an antelope and kill it with a single blow to the forehead.

But that skill is becoming less important every year.

Now all that matters is if you can install your own Ethernet card without having to call tech support and confess your inadequacies to a stranger whose best career option is to work in tech support.

Source: Scott Adams - Men Who Use Computers Are The New Sex Symbols Of The `90s

YASS: Yet Another Silly Survey.

You scored as Geek. Prep/Jock/Cheerleader 38% Geek 38% Loner 38% Punk/Rebel 31% Drama nerd 31% Ghetto gangsta 19% Stoner 13% Goth 13% What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com

Hate to Needle You!

But here is the latest on needle-aquitick.

Doyle's chief of staff has apologized and kinda squirmed and tried to tell us medical waste is not that bad. Wonder why they have those loudly marked and special boxes at clinics for sharps.

So far this story was briefly featured on Fox News and Kevin tells us the story also is featured on WSJ's website.

Not Photoshoped!

Over at the Jawa Report they post a photo of an altered American flag. They have the stars & stripes but instead of the 50 stars they have a crescent moon. In front of the flag is a guy with his head bowed undoubtedly point at Mecca.

The initial thought was:

When I saw this image at Clarity and Resolve, I thought that it was one of Patrick's making. He's no slacker when it comes to Photoshopping:....Imagine my surprise when I followed a link to discover that it was actually included in a CBS News online article.

An article, by the way, about the so-called "fatwa against terrorism" issued today by representatives of the Religion of Peace residing in the United States.

Source: The Jawa Report - Dan Who?

Tell me know, what can that mean? Can it mean there is thought of Islam co-existing peacefully with the rest of us here? Can it mean the Muslims believe in separation of church and state?

A Drumroll Please!

Everyone!

Welcome The Jawa Report to the Blogger Beer blogroll! Congratulations Dr. Rusty Shackleford for making it onto the Blogger Beer Blogroll!

Ta-Da!

The Chinese Need...

To get out of Iraq!

The Last Bit.

Treasurer, originally uploaded by maurelius.

Now you know why we call him the TREASUREer!

Joe Sullivan OCRP treasurer at the T'Ratts game! Way to go Joe in not spilling the treasure!

If Only...

India would get out of Iraq!

Hansen Gets it Wrong.

Come on along with me as I go on a fisking trip! I found this note in today's Appleton Post Crescent.

I’m one of those “whiny” liberals that Lewis Rusch (Letters, July 24) says are blinded to “historical facts and truth” because of our “hatred” for George Bush. For the information of Mr. Rusch and others on the right that believe it is un-American to criticize the president, who have a solid grasp of historical facts and keep a tight lock on truth, a brief history lesson.

The Civil War was not fought to end slavery, and we didn’t enter World War II to bring down Hitler or end the Holocaust. (We fought to restore the Union, and Hitler declared war on us after Pearl Harbor.)

Oh my. Like so many leftists confuses intentions with results. Also, like so many leftists doesn't go beyond the surface. Anyone who thinks slavery did not enter into the cause of the Civil War is a fool. Slavery was the wedge which was dividing the Union. Yes, the stated cause at the beginning of the Civil War was not slavery but it was the cause of the stated cause.

While I missed Lewis's letter I get the feeling Mr. Hansen overstates his case here on the un-American charge as leftists tend to do.

Why did we enter WWII? Again, we have stated causes and we have a whole history which demonstrates that FDR was not so concerned with Japan but much more concerned about Hitler and Hitlerism. Japan was maneuvered into taking the first shot (due to its activities in China) and for whatever reason (Hitler was not bound by the terms of the Tri-Partite pact) Hitler declared war on America. FDR, was anxious to get into Europe, and if awful Adolf did not declare war, then similar maneuvering which went on with Japan would have happened with Germany. Remember, there was a fair amount of pro-German sentiment here in the States. Of course Mr. Hansen sees the shiny surface of the lake and assumes there is nothing underneath that surface.

When blaming “evil ... radical Islam” for starting wars, don’t forget the millions killed by evil, radical Christians who have killed millions over the centuries in the name of the Prince of Peace.

The History of the Crusades must be the abused history of all time. The crusades were fought to re-take land once controlled by the west. The Crusades as it turns out were a defeat for the Western world. The Crusades were followed by invasion of Europe and please note, Vienna nearly fell to the Turks.

“Black September” (Munich, 1972) had as much connection to “Muslim jihadists” as the 9-11 terrorists have to Saddam Hussein.

Wow. What blindness! As to the later point, this is not as settled as leftists like to believe it is. There is the matter of that Iraqi guy who got a job at the Kuala Lumpur airport via Iraqi Intelligence and who aided and met with the 9/11-19 in Kuala Lumpur.

If a president’s first duty is to protect us from our “sworn enemies,” why did Reagan sell arms to the Iranians, who supported the killers of our Marines in Beirut?

Both Beruit and dealing with Iran were not Ronald's best moments.

I believe Mr. Rusch may have missed those facts because he was blinded by his faith in our leader. If President Bush deserves our support for keeping us “free” but that my criticism of his policies is un-American, then what is it that I am free to do, praise “the leader”? No thanks, I’ll just keep studying history, seeking truth and exercising my First Amendment rights ... while we still have them.

By the way, if criticizing the president’s policies is un-American, those on the right may want to have a talk with the Republicans in Congress and the talk-show hosts about their treatment of former President Clinton.

Bill Hansen, Appleton

Mr. Hansen please do "...keep studying history, seeking truth" because your letter above shows your understanding of history is off and you have yet to find any truth.

The Scandal Continues.

Nope, not the needle scandal, not the Plame-Wilson faux scandal but the political scandal in the Philippines. Willie Galang provides some good commentary on the matter.

I too am generally supportive of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) if for no other reason than who else?

His main point is GMA is handling it poorly:

I am also not satisfied with how the government is defending itself against what I believe is the biggest demolition job so far by the Estrada-Poe-Marcos cabal on Arroyo. Yesterday, Arroyo faced the media for the first time since the current scandal broke out but the press conference turned out to be a farce. Questions were pre-screened. Media men were not allowed to ask anything about “Gloriagate” matters. Even the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) wasn’t allowed to join. Now I wonder, how can President Arroyo mount a credible and strong defensive stance on all the charges hurled against her if she can’t even face the media to answer questions straightforwardly? Her credibility is dwindling -- and fast. It’s not a surprise that, in a recent survey, a lot of Filipinos were ensnared into thinking that the Marcos dictatorship and the Estrada kleptocracy were better administrations than the present one. (Sorry but I will not fall into that trap.)

Shape up, Madame President. It’s not too late.

Source: Willie Galang - Charter change used as a diversion

His comments focus on GMA's call for a cha-cha (charter change, or con-con constitutional convention) that he believes (and so too do I) is diversionary and will not solve a single problem. I too agree, I do not see how things will get better with a parlimentary system. Instead of having a corrupt congressmen, senators, and executives you will have corrupt MPs and PMs.

A Happy Event!

It has been a long time since our friends Augusta & Adria have been mentioned here.

Augusta phones this morning to inform us Adria gave birth to a 7lb 7oz girl very early this morning!

Congratulations to the proud and exhausted (one more so than the other) parents!

Claudia and I are anxious to visit you two!

Elizabeth Kastner & Needles.

Kevin at Lakeshore Laments reports on a storm that straddles the Green Bay (body of water).

Apparently, a leftist activist from Fish Creek (Door County) collected needles used to give her daughter insulin. Then she gave those needles to Governor Doyle's office who then delivered them to John Gard's office. The stunt was designed to generate pro-embryonic stem cell research publicity.

Kevin then googled Elizabeth Kastner and found her all too plenty leftist activities and affiliations. When I read that blog last night I then went to Wisconsin's Circuit Court Access Program (an easy google) and I plunked Elizabeth Kastner into it. It too has plenty of returns and it seems the returns are all consistent with what is known about this peronality we refer to as Elizabeth Kastner. Nothing too big, and one must remember there are medical problems in her family and it is medical problems are the root cause for the majority of bankruptcies., and medical problems can lead to financial difficulties. [7/30/2005 10:52 pm, the striken text while coming close does not properly characterize what a search on the CCAP reveals. The new text is a much better fit.]

Anyway. Rereading the blog this morning I wonder why the focus is on Elizabeth? From Lakeshore Laments:

Doyle aide Patrick Guarasci delivered [emphasis added] a brown paper bag filled with more than 1,400 capped needles and syringes to Gard’s office on July 19. The bag was given to Doyle’s aides during a visit to Baileys Harbor on July 14 by a woman whose daughter suffers from juvenile diabetes.

Source: Lakeshore Laments -
The Wisconsin MediaÂ’s New Star

It may have been Elizabeth giggling and snorting with laughter who suggested this foolish prank, but it was Doyle's office and aides (and Kevin points out discrepancies on reports of Doyle's knowledge of this affair) who actually executed the prank. To be fair, I highly doubt Governor Doyle would have known about this, while I happen to disagree with Doyle on most everything he does seem to be grown up. OTOH, Elizabeth and Mr. Guarasci have some growing up to do.

You know, there is a reason the needle boxes in hospitals and clinics look scarey and try to encourage us to treat those boxes with those needles with caution.

To the left, if you want to talk about embryonic stem cell reasearch then do it in an adult fashion.

Sunshine in the Valley.

Good Morning One, Good Morning All!

I have gathered enough material to create an agenda today.

• Elizabeth Kastner. Distributing Needles and on Dirt Searching.


• Willie Galang's Latest Commentary on Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's problems.


• Saying Sorry is Easy and Cheap. Not Saying Sorry is Hard and Dear.


• As It Comes.

Cheers!

Animal.

Al-Pazeera reports that another man who participated in the murder of Daniel Pearl has been captured.

He was the guy who setup "the meeting" where Daniel's murderers kidnapped him.

WWW: Wonderful Wisconsin Welcome...

Please, a wonderful Wisconsin Welcome to Blogger Beer's latest Blog-roll addition: Willie Galang: From the Filipines

I stumbled across his blog this morning whilst reading The Command Post's - Global Recon - Philippines section.

Welcome and congratulations Ginoong (Mister) Galang!

Tammy Bruce Takes on Chait.

Jonathan Chait is a writer for The New Republic a leftist magazine of opinion.

Apparently Mr. Chait is concerned our President exercises.

Tammy Bruce notes

Chait finds the fact that the president makes time to exercise "astonishing." He then notes: "My guess is that Bush associates exercise with discipline. ... The notion of a connection between physical and mental potency is, of course, silly. ..."

Really? Not according to the medical establishment and the surgeon general's office, which notes the benefits of exercise. Such as? Better sleep, reduced tension and stress, reduction of high blood pressure, reduction of anxiety and depression, reduced risk of colon and breast cancer, healthy bones, muscles and joints, improved self-image, and generally improved physical health.

Source: Tammy Bruce - The Increasingly Ugly Left

Here are some facts about myself. When I am working out regularly I am more organized, more ambitious, am able to resist certain bad habits more resolutely, and find I am capable of doing more. When I am not working out the TV has a bigger draw for me, I do not sleep as well, sleep in more often and longer, and generally fall into other bad habits.

There is a growing call in our society to regulate fast-food, to sue fast-food, to blame others for our lack of health. The same side that advocates driving fast-food out of business then turns around and screams when the President leads by example on healthy living. So, once again you are to take no initiative, no action on your own. Just sit by oh ignorant ones, us smart people from the left will take care of your every whim.

Tammy then points out some Chait ignorance.

Chait tries to assert his point about the "silliness" of connecting exercise with mental acuity by arguing, "Consider all the perfectly toned airheads in Hollywood - or perhaps, even the president himself." The last time I checked, most actresses in Hollywood are emaciated, they are not "perfectly toned." There is a difference between being thin and being healthy - a distinction lost on Chait and Hollywood in general.

Source: Tammy Bruce - The Increasingly Ugly Left

You really have to read the whole article. Tammy does a very nice job of connecting the silly Chait comments to general attitude of the left. From the slovenly Michael Moore, to those desperately needing dentistry and haircare at a NOW Convention. She even takes on the critic who heaped scorn upon John Robert's family because they were neat & clean when on TV the other night.

I tell ya!

HT: Little Green Footballs.

A Maureen Dowd Tribute.

No, not a tribute to Maureen Dowd but one written by her. This column is about her mother who recently passed away.

My sympathies Maureen.

HT: Michelle Malkin.

The Marketplace Protects Itself.

While, the product in this story is bad, it is a very interesting illustration how marketplaces are self regulating.

Michelle Malkin picks up on a story about another nefarious Osama Bin Laden plot.

The New York Post is reporting that "Osama bin Laden tried to buy a massive amount of cocaine, spike it with poison and sell it in the United States, hoping to kill thousands of Americans one year after the 9/11 attacks."

The plot failed "when the Colombian drug lords bin Laden approached decided it would be bad for their business - and, possibly, for their own health, according to law-enforcement sources familiar with the Drug Enforcement Administration's probe of the aborted transaction."

Source: Michelle Malkin - BIN LADEN COKE PLOT?

Michelle then quotes another blogger as saying how nice of them when their product already causes uncounted death and woe. Yes, but that is the wrong take here. The take we should take out of this is how Coke manufacturers realize what someone poisoning their product would do. Yes, they could have scored a big sale but if Bin Laden then would have poisoned the product and sold it then what would happen to the Drug Lord's business? Of course, it would decline. The marketplace protects itself.

However, I am slightly suspicious as to the truth of the story. Terrorists often use illicit drugs sales to help their finances. They too often have the same interest in making sure the consumers of illicit drugs continue to purchase. Also, I just have this notion that a surge in deaths due to illicit drug contamination would not attract a whole lot of attention.

It seems to me most people would just say "when you play with fire..." and use it as lesson to their children not to use illicit drugs. Every now and then this happens anyway, usually the product hitting the street is more pure than normal and addicts use their regular mixing ratios and end up overdosing.

Speaking of Crashing!

The movie "The Wedding Crashers" is catching some heat. One of the scenes supposedly has the two crashers talking about how going to a wedding and showing off purchased purple hearts wins free drinks and babes.

Well, some people are not finding that funny and have asked the producers to come visit Walter Reed. Indeed, but let us face it, there are scoundrels out there who will abuse their medals or medals they have purchased.

If you are interested the details are here.

The Funeral Crasher.

Here is Michelle Malkin's latest blog on the Pennsylvania Funeral Crasher.

Michelle points out this from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

But even though Mr. Rendell said "our state supports the men and women who are fighting this war," he echoed Knoll's ghastly war remark: "It's not the business of state government to support the war."

Which would be news to those federal agencies, D.C. politicos and nongovernmental organizations to which the state has been whining about potential military base closings in Pennsylvania, citing the war effort and national security.

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Knoll & Rendell: Disgraceful remarks

The half-apology was half-accepted by the family.

It is noted the Lt. Governor had problems find the immediate family but no problems finding the immediate vicinity of TV cameras. Think they will make a movie?

Nearly an Eight-Ball!

Found in today's Appleton Post Crescent.

Letters: Plame leak another administration betrayal

John Bittman writes in the July 17 Post-Crescent about the "appalling ... feeding frenzy aimed at the president" over the exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame and speculates whether the source may actually have been "someone close to Ms Plame, such as her husband?"

Unfortunately, the facts don't support this at all; conservative reporter Robert Novak, who first mentioned Ms. Plame in public, cites two un-named officials in the White House as the source of his information.

Funny, how it was not Robert Novak who was threatened with jail by the special prosecutor. Only, those who can be characterized as hostile to the Bush Administration have either refused to cooperate with the special prosecutor or threatened to.

Mr Bittman's "interesting" speculation therefore doesn't even begin to sound plausible.

By casting the Plame affair in terms of partisan bickering, Bittman and others attempt to distract attention from the real issues.

No, "partisan bickering" is exactly what it is. The left thinks it has a case to damage the President and is going full out with it. Very simple. Question, why is Judy Miller in jail? I very much want to know who she is protecting.

First, somebody in the White House - maybe not Rove - appears to have committed a felony by exposing Ms. Plame's identity as a CIA operative.

Second, this act appears to have been done to discredit information critical of the Bush administration's push to invade Iraq - information that ultimately turned out to be correct (Iraq had no active WMD program).

Apparently the writer is in the dark about the statute in play here. None of its terms appear to be met. Second, Ole Joe himself is the discredited one. He claimed he went to Niger on behalf of the Vice President. No such thing happened, he went at the insistence of.... yes his wife a CIA analyst.

Third, the war in Iraq was started on false pretenses, and more than 1,700 American troops have died as a result, with thousands more injured and uncounted thousands of Iraqi civilians killed or injured.

The American people deserve to learn the truth behind this sordid affair. All the desperate hand-waving by the administration and its supporters only continues the betrayal of the trust the American people put in the Bush administration after the 9-11 attacks.


John Thompson,
Appleton

Only leftists like you Mr. Thompson think there is anything behind Ole Joe's hyperventilating fantasies of frogmarching.

The war did not start on false pretenses, Saddam was in direct violations of the cease fire from '91. Joe's report bolstered the claim that Saddam's cronies were in the Niger looking for yellow cake (in any event it hardly sounds like sitting around a pool drinking sweet mint tea and talking with government officials is a real serious investigation).

It all comes down the NYT's Judy Miller. I can not help but to think she is covering someone's butt that would really blow this open and demonstrate once for all what a piddling goofy affair this really is. Come on Judy, Karl signed a waiver of confidentiality, lets hear how evil Karl did it all. Or was it someone else?

Disgusting!

Remember early on in the Iraq War, when leftists would condemn the President for not attending funerals of the fallen or for not visiting with the grieving families? Remember that?

The President, as a matter of fact, was visiting with the families (not all of course, but he was) but NOT making a show of it. For a couple of reasons, first and foremost it really is not a show and it was the RIGHT thing to do. Second because those same iggies condemning the President for not visiting with the families would condemn him for using the visits to score political points and to create flattering images of a caring president ("I feel your pain"). Of course, if the President had made public show of those visitations, his critics would be RIGHT to criticize the visitations as cheap politics.

Well, Michelle Malkin and other bloggers document such politicking going on at funeral for a fallen soldier in Iraq. According to reports, Lt. Governor Catherine Baker Knoll of Pennsylvania. Not only did the Lt. Governor show up UNINVITED.

The Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh broke the story.

The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Lt. Gov. crashed Marine's funeral, kin say, Tom Barnes

Let us compare with another memorial speech delivered in Pennsylvania:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Source:Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Blackfive notes an e-mail the deceased soldier sent to his wife:

I swore to myself that I would not let them down. They sacrificed and gave to me something that I could never repay; freedom.

Source: Blackfive - The uninvited Lt Governor

Clearly, the Lt. Governor does not believe in what we are doing in Iraq. Perhaps, she felt a need to attend, most families I believe would be flattered and grateful for such a visit from one of our political leaders. But, to act in the officious matter she did and then to stick it to the family and the memory of their fallen soldier the way she did is beyond decent.

The reports I have been reading indicated that Governor Rendell is apologizing for the incident. Why? The Lt. Governor should go on prime time TV and apologize for this incident.

A Trumpet Fanfare Please...

Everyone,

Please put your hands together for Letters in a Bottle!

I noticed this morning, This blog and a visitor from the link. Per Blogger Beer Policy Letters in a Bottle is now on the Blogger Beer Blog Roll.

Everyone please welcome Letters in a Bottle! wild cheering and applause!

Run of the Mill.

So it is with Fratellos in Appleton.

Fratellos which is connected with the Fox River Brew Company in the Fox River Mall and with Fratellos in Oshkosh recently bought a restaraunt along Prospect Street (Just east of Mermorial Drive, south of Prospect, west of Oneida) in Appleton.

Scenery and Ambience

The building is right on the Fox River just downstream from some dams. The setting is stunning, with seagulls, ducks, gease, turkey vultures, and occasionally the town's resident bald eagles come to dine on the fish in the river. The wing dam is partiuclarly beautiful to view.

Fratellos is in an old paper mill and used to be another restaraunt and another patron said the old one tried to be more upscale, he said smaller portions, bigger prices, probably more artful food. The bar and dining area gave that distinct atmosphere.

The Bar

The barroom was nice. Brightly lit and if you don't like light it may pay to go until after sunset. The view of the river was nice. They were conducting wine tasting per request and twice we saw tasting sessions go on with Ravens Wood old vine zinfandel. They brought out four bottles from four of Ravens Wood's vineyards. This impressed a guy from LA who is moving to Wisconsin. I had a couple of ginnentonics and they used Tanqueray for the gin, note, next time ask them to use the cheap gin for my ginnentonic. Tanqueray is for martinis. Claudia had her usual lemon lime soda with "less ice" unfortunately, they missed "less ice" and loaded up.

Signs of Bad Things To Come

Okay. So far so good. When we sat down at the bar we were told about a 45 minute wait. Well, two ginnentonics later (actually it would have been three or four, but after the second I decided to order again would just encourage them) and about 1-1/2 hours later our pager buzzed. Claudia's lemon-lime soda was more like water with bubbles in it.

A Long Wait Made Longer

We were finally brought to the dining room. We ordered, I ordered crabcakes for an appetizer, the beef ravioli and a glass of carbenet sauvignon, and Claudia ordered the chicken marsala.

After some waiting the crabcakes came out and they were fine but nothing special. Then the wait went on. Our waiter came and offered to have the manager come out and talk to us, I simply asked if that would speed things up. Duh! Then after a very long wait our orders came.

The Food

I had a salad and Claudia had the New England clam chowder. Why doesn't anyone ever serve Manhattan style clam chowder? It was good, just "same but different". I have only been to one restaraunt in the area that serves Manhattan Style Clam Chowder and that one is in Fond du Lac.

The ravioli was good and I was impressed but wine was missing and I was depressed, it was beef stuffed ravioli with a sauce of pesto and reduced balsamic vinegar. Claudia had a couple bits of her chicken marsala and did not care for it. I will see how it was from the leftovers.

The menu appeared to be identical to the one from the Fox River Brew Company in the mall, which IMO was bad. They can upscale the menu.

In Short (order)

In short the place shows promise but really disappointed last night. To be fair they were busy, the parking lot was full and the headwaiter thought they are starting to see EAA (Expreimental Aircraft Association) business.

The view I give a 5/5 (0 being overlooking a stockyard).
The Ambience I give a 4/5 (0 being a joint with the stud walls still not covered over).
The menu I give a 3/5 (0 being "you get what I give you").
The food itself I give a 3.5/5 (0 being Irish sausages).
The service I give a 1/5 (0 being you have to wash your own dishes afterwards).

Overall I give 3.5/5 (0 being they would have to pay me to eat there again).

The scenery and the ambience will bring me back. Even though I do characterize it as "run of the mill" I do suggest you check it out, the scenery and the ambience does makeup for its other shortcomings.

Baghdad Bob Strikes Again!

I was just trying to read something over at Winds of Change. Unfortunately, they have a broken link and this is what I see: Baghdad Bob says: "Yes, those lying, imperialistic dogs have lied to you again. We do not have that page.

However, we have learned that you can not trust what Baghdad Bob says. So, WOC where is that page?

When Did You Stop Beating Your Wife?

so goes the title on the Al-Pazeera story. Wow! Our guards give better treatment to the Qur'ran. I would be careful, lest the Freedom from Religion Foundation take that as an endorsement of religion. The ACLU may even step in.

Oh, wait a minute it is only Christianity that must be stamped out!

Sounds like the treatment described herein was never any worse than an NEA funded art exhibit.

#61 On Goldberg's List.

I know at least one of my readers who is going to be disapointed with this blog.

Michael Savage the radio talk show host is #61 on Bernard Goldberg's list of the top 100 people who are screwing up America.

I can not say I am shocked nor am I particularly up in arms about that. Savage comes up with some good things now and then. He was not turning his head away from the horror that was the Islamo-fascists beheadings of Nick Berg, Johnson, and Pearl. The guy needs to let go of his anger since he doesn't control the anger it controls him and that is why he is on Goldberg's list.

A Poor Bench Performance.

Wretchard at the Belmont Club speculates the attempted attacks on the UK Subway and on the bus were not copycat attacks, but a follow up.

It appears my speculation from earlier today was not correct.

Wretchard talks about the importance of rings of defense and his belief these rings impeded today's would be murderers enough to disrupt their attack. I am skeptical of that, but there may be something there. The murderers from two weeks ago went 4/4 today they went 0/4 so perhaps something or someone in their support system was unable to perform up to expectations.

The overall point Wretchard makes is a good one. He refers to the techniques the USN developed to fight the kamikaze threat:

When faced with the suicide attack problem (Kamikazes) during the Second World War, US fleets adopted the concept of the layered defense around battlegroups, consisting of attacking enemy airfields, providing a radar picket on enemy lines of approach, creating a combat air patrol to intercept incoming Kamikazes and then presenting a succession of long, medium and short-range antiaircraft fire, before finally falling back on warship evasion, armor and damage control. Each component in the defense contributed its statistical share of the defense.

Source: The Belmont Club - The Second Wave of London Attacks

That is, the defense against the Kamikaze threat manifested itself in ways not apparently connected with defense or kamikaze attacks. That is the part about attacking Japanese strongholds. In addition, there was not a single layer of defense but multiple.

The left in our nation says the Iraqi war is a huge misallocation of resources in the GWOT. They often claim we could better use those resources to protect our busses, subways, airports, sea ports etc. This is unreality.

First off, there are simply not enough resources to secure all of our planes, trains, busses, seaports, and airports. Rich Lowry at National Review recently penned a column on how the homeland defense budget has become yet another food-trough.

The next thing to ask is if a massive homeland defense buildup is going to be another Maginot Line? The answer is yes it would be. The French were so confident their wonderful new fort would keep the Wermacht out of France they neglected all other military considerations and felt they could be completely at ease. As we all know (or as we all should know) this magnificent Maginot Line did absolutely nothing to stop the Germans.

We need to defend our Western culture and way of life and part of this is to eliminate those who would impose dhimnitude upon us.

The Thirsty Corn.

Is getting another little drink of water. It is raining again.

This rain while being more substantial than yesterday is still just a tease. At first, the rain was just right, not hard but soft and enough water was coming down. Now, if it will start up like before and maintain itself for a couple of hours.

I don't want to mow lawn, but I want the crops to thrive for our farmers and markets.

A Botched Attack or Diversion?

The reports as I have seen from London make little sense when put into the standard framework of thought.

Terrorists have been on record as taunting the UK citizenry and authorities. They say they can carry out such attacks at will and the cameras don't stop them. Duhhhh! Cameras are for post-incident investigation not for prevention. The camera at the intersection doesn't stop anyone from running a red-light, it allows the authorities to ticket them! Obviously if someone is going to kill themselves to carry out an attack they are not worried about cameras.

The reports indicate there were pyrotechnics that did go off in the trains and the bus. The reports go on to (the one or two I have read) liken the pyrotechnics to fireworks. I have yet to hear of any injury related to the bombing (though, it seems likely with the bus windows being blown out) the only report of injury seems to be linked to panic and not the actual attack.

Speculation has been that the bombs must have malfunctioned. We have four bombs and not one works as one would expect? I am skeptical, I am worried we are looking at a diversion here.

These were not suicide attacks. Reports indicate further, in at least one instance one person dropped their package (a rucksack with the bomb) and split. Train riders attempted to detain the man but failed.

Reports Indicate...

Three stations and a double-decker bus with incidents.

There are reports of gunshots as well. The Sky News commentators Fox is rebroadcasting are speculating the gunshots may actually have been detonators going off.

Nothing real solid coming through yet.

Another London Attack?

Reports are coming in from the radio and from Fox news that there are reports coming out of London of three new underground attacks. Details are very thin at the moment.

And Krazy Kos Kiddies This Is Why.

Iowahawk wrote that Abu Musab Zarqawi commentary.

One of trackbacks to the above blog is entitled "And Your Extremists are Better?" and says:

Michelle Malkin this morning tries to paint all liberals as the violent anarchist type. I guess this guy who was just given two life-sentences must've been a Dean supporter then, right?...

No, they are not. However, we do not try to excuse or cover up their actions. I do not hear the likes of Michelle Malkin or Charles Johnson trying to defend Mr. Rudolph. We wash our hands of this guy and condemn what he does.

OTOH, Ward Churchill's suggestion that conscientious objectors go to Iraq and frag their officers or comrades is not just idle speculation. When the left and their representatives disown those who carry signs saying "We support the troops when they...<INSERT VIOLENT INCITEMENT AGAINST THEIR OFFICERS/FELLOW SOLDIERS> or those who urge violence against our fellow citizens then come back here with that.

If the left wants to start getting their voters back, they had better relearn genuine patriotism and give up the faux-patriotism they profess. When I used to tend bar a couple of the regulars sounded very Democratic when it came to jobs, protectionism, and matters economic, but they were tough when it came to foreign policy. They complained to no end when HW stopped our troops short of going into Bagdhad and politicians supported by those suggesting the soldiers murder their officers would not be listened to or worse.

UPDATES:
7/21/2005 6:59 pc CDT: Some edits performed to correct some hideous writing. No signficant changes to the meaning or intent of my points were made.

Iowahawk Under Investigation!

UNS - 7/20/2005 Washington D.C.

Director of the FBI's Computer Crime Division Hillary Shaftus announced an investigation into the blogger known as Iowahawk. "This investigation was instigated by complaints from The Progressive Action Network (PAN). Iowahawk allegedly cracked their network and without their permission downloaded secret documents; property of the PAN."

Leophilus Cunninglingus from the PAN in a press release said "Iowahawk must have cracked our network. This document resembles our anti-Bush judicial nominee press release to a tee! You know it is ours because if you look back at the press releases from the Owen, Roders-Brown, Pryor, Estrada, Scalia, Thomas, Sourter, Rehnquist, John Marshall, John Rutledge, and John Jay confirmation battles it is the same press release verbatim. The damage is incalculable, we will now have to change our Word macro on conservative judicial nominations. He cracked our computer system and we want Iowahawk frog-marched yesterday! Investigations are obstruction!"

WisconsinEagle a friend of Iowahawk says his friend is innocent. He states "Isn't it all too obvious? They have not changed their playbook in the entire history of the nation, only they could be so blind to it."

Sources:
Iowahawk - He or She Is The Wrong Man or Woman For The Court

EITTL Network!

EITTL: Excellence in Twitting the Left!

Iowahawk must have cracked a leftist computer system, and downloaded their Bush judicial nomination macro.

The below is lifted from his site, I do not put it in my quote style 'cause I do not want to break up the flow of it all.
=============================================================
Critical Urgent Community Action Bulletin
from the Progressive Action Network For American Progress
For Immediate Release

The Progressive Action Network For American Progress is extremely concerned by today's news that President Bush has selected ___JOHN ROBERTS___ as his nominee for the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. Unlike outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the widely respected and admired moderate consensus-building sensible mainstream compromisist, ___JOHN ROBERTS___ has a shocking record of extremely extreme fringe legal positions that fill us with grave concerns about ___HIS___ fitness for this critically crucial office.

Make no mistake: no one should be fooled by the administration's public relations efforts or ___JOHN ROBERTS___ 's seemingly "moderate" appearance. ___JOHN ROBERTS___ has a record that suggests that ___HE___ would deny women the right to reproductive choice, stop important life-saving medical stem cell research by extending the Patriot Act to draft their unwanted fetuses, and turn these conscripted fetuses over to dangerous tax-supported 'Creationist' religious indoctrination laboratories. The Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment, and America needs to know whether ___JOHN ROBERTS___ supports the GOP's secret plan of a Rush Limbaugh Jesus army of unwanted, unquestioning fetus zombies programmed to urinate on the Korans of Guantanamo detainees.

. . .
=============================================================

See more at:
Iowahawk's website! I wish I would have followed up on my earlier thoughts! Oh well!

RAIN!

It is starting to rain here in Appleton.

The smell of rain is wafting into my house and it is sweet! It is a gentle and sparse rain, we all hope it picks up a fair amount, and stays for a long while.

Backing Off The Tough Starting up with the Mealy.

One wants to come up with Churchillian rhetoric in a time like this. One wants to come up with words that inspire and motivate in times like this. We do not need words, even the likes of London's mayor seems tough at the moment. I will not be so lofty.

Source: Blogger Beer - The Bombing.

The reference was to London's mayor Ken Livingstone. Well, I was shocked he even tried to feign resolve in the face of those who would murder commuters. Well, Ken has changed his tune: This LGF blog notes:

Ken Livingstone yesterday blamed western policies for contributing to the spread of the extremist beliefs that inspired the London bombers. The mayor of London highlighted the West's role in the creation of al-Qa'eda by saying: "We created these people. We built them up. We funded them."

Source:Little Green Footballs: Red Ken: We Deserved the Bombings

This is more like it Ken! I was starting to worry you were ill when you were talking tough! Peace in our times, if we only give in, right Ken?

Sunshine in the Valley.

Good Morning,

We are bracing for a water outage today! They need to cut the water line, apparently the water line is in way of the new storem sewer that is going in. I still have some time. We have pots full of water scattered through the house and I have started a cooking project already in anticipation of this. Perhaps, it is a Cousin's day for lunch.

Well, there is enough comment fodder out there today there is no shortage of events to comment on. The first one is the nomination of John Roberts to the SCOTUS. Obviously I will not refer to the impending confirmation battle as a "Battle Royale".

Of course, we still have leftists convinced this little non-scandal they are frothing at the mouth over is actually real. Last night, I saw some blogs saying KR is a subject of what was characterized as a perjury investigation. Nevermind Fitzgerald has repeatedly said none of the big names in this affair are targets of the inquiry, but if the facts so far have not convinced the left this is nothing why, would a mere statement by the lead investigator?

While there is comment fodder, there is nothing specific on my mind, take it as it comes!

Have a good day and remember don't wish your life away wishing for Friday!

The Last Bit.

It is that time again.

We have major construction going on in front of our abode. They are putting in storm sewer, so we lose our ditches, yeah! Right now, during the day I park the car across the road since I never know if and when I have to go somewhere that I can due to equipment or gear blocking our drive.

I will be at my workstation doing what I am doing and I am subjected to all sorts of rumbling, and mini-earthquakes, and noise and so on. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Tomorrow will probably be the worst day, as at 8:00 am our water is to be cut and they told me they could not give an ET on the restoration of water. So we filled up all sorts of water containers and my coffee maker is loaded and the needs for cooking are set aside, I'll have to shower early.

At least the weather has cooled but are in great need of rain.

Good Night.

More Lefty Lovin'

Regarding my Iowahawk trackback.

Doing a google on Blogger Beer I noticed another site (Tacitus) that referred to Blogger Beer regarding the Iowahawk blog. In fact, Blogger Beer is explicitly referred to as the only offensive post in the trackback section.

Hmmm.

Kos comes up with one of the most novel descriptions of it all "The New McCarthyism". I tell you, I can see Screw 'Em blowing off the old playbook from the '50s & '60s and finding that treasure. He says, wow! I wonder if that one has been used lately? The sheer originality of it all. I tell you, I would expect as much from a ninth grade English writing student.

Anyway, the point of Screw 'Em's blog was to question why after the Durbin episode we would do essentially the same thing? I suppose the left is all into moral equivalence and so Screw 'Em and the Krazy Kos Kiddies see the situation as morally equivalent.

Well. Inevitably when I see when leftists gather in large number there are bound to be signs along the order of "We support our troops when they kill their officers." Churchill from Colorado essentially (hypothetical though it was) essentially called on the troops to murder their officers. How many times have we heard those on the left call for the murder of our leaders? These same people then have the nerve to turn around and call themselves patriots.

Turban Durbin OTOH, reads a description of what is of course less than nice treatment of a Gitmo detainee and likens it to The Nazi Concentration camps, Stalins gulags, Pol Pot's Cambodia? WTF? People on the order of millions died in those places, and those deaths were not necessarily humane. Recall what Mengele's is reputed to have done. The gulags prisoners were forced to work in sub-zero temperatures with little protection from the elements and food.

Perhaps, the piece paints with a wide brush there are leftists with the spine to fight Bin Laden and defend Western values and Culture. Sounds like some more converts were made of late.

Blogger Beer on The Daily Kos!

Hey!

I just found out I get noted on The Daily Kos!. Screw 'Em copies the essay from Iowahawk's site complete with the trackbacks. IIRC I am the second trackback on that blog.

It all has to do with that Essay on Patriotism by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi over at Iowahawk.

That is still a hot referral for Blogger Beer!

Kool!

Al-Pazeera Is At It Again.

A report by Al-Pazeera (aka the AP) borders on misleading.

A 1982 law prohibits the deliberate exposure of the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

Wilson believes the Bush administration leaked the name as retribution for his criticism.

First, the law is more complicated than what the single sentence lets on. There is absolutely nothing that has come out to date that indicates Valerie Plame was covered by the law. A brief filed by a consortium of newspapers details two separate incidents of the CIA inadvertently blowing Valeries cover. In any event Valerie had been a simple desk jockey analyst at CIA HQ.

So what about what Wilson believes? Unfortunately the MSM believes it too and no amount of contrary facts are going to convince them otherwise.

Once again both Rove & Chenney's aid's conversation to reporters involved saying "Yeah, I heard that too" in response to a reporter's query about Plame being a CIA agent. It's called denial and blind spots.

President Bush said Monday he would fire any member of his staff who "committed a crime," a change from his previous vow to fire anyone involved in the leak.

This is an outright falsehood. The President has maintained anyone guilty of criminal activity would be fired from the very start. This is a real slick piece of trickery here.

The past two weeks have brought revelations that top presidential aide Karl Rove was involved in leaking the identity of Plame to Novak and to Cooper.

What or who is Judith Miller shielding? Karl Rove has waived any expectations of confidentiality. Who told Judy about all of this? I guess the left isn't interested in getting to the bottoms of Judy's story, huh? It might ruin a very good fundraising scheme.

BTW the story focuses on a memo that the State Department wrote about Wilson & Plame and Wilson's pool-side sitting & tea drinking investigation adventure in Niger.

Read the complete Al-Pazeera piece here.

Unanimous Consent I Suppose.

Michelle Malkin points out the schennanigans of the American Association of Law Libraries. They have a resolution:

calling for the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq and for a shift of U.S. government budgetary priorities to, among other objectives, provide assistance for the reconstruction of cultural and other resources of Iraq

Source: Michelle Malkin - SHUT UP AND STACK BOOKS

The resolution did not receive majority support with the comment that it requires a supermajority to not consider a resolution. What happens when a supermajority shoots it down in a final vote? Unanimous consent is required for disapproval?

Here a RINO, There a RINO, Everywhere a RINO.

Recently one of the blogs I read on a regular basis noted Al Ott is proposing legislation to make it harder to have recall elections.

A couple of comments then heaped it on Al in what I consider to be an unfair manner. First off let me be up front, I have not seen the legislation and am not certain how much harder it would be to hold a recall. Secondly, I acknowledge there are good arguments both pro and con for recalls. My very quick take on the action is that it should be hard for the electorate to change its mind in between elections. As the old saying goes you made your bed... Same for the voters, if they made a bad choice they should suffer through it and learn a lesson. I don't have any links handy, but Jonah Goldberg has burned a column or two on the subject and my view on recalls flows from those articles.

Now, I find in the blogosphere (and it seems the left blogosphere has the same thing going on) in general the distance between the roadway and the cliff is quite short. That is, a political leader has very little room to dissent before the blogosphere starts to howl and yell RINO (or I suppose DINO). I think in the case above this is way too quick. As I said in the above case there are good arguments against recalls.

In any event I find the cry of R(D)INO is starting to morph into an anti-concept. The term was never explicitly brought out but the implication of what was stated was loud and clear.

Sunshine in the Valley!

Good Morning,

The coffee is consumed and the first movement of the 3^rd Brandenburg Concerto is playing! What a way to wake up!

Anyway there is one blog kicking around in my mind that I will place on the agenda. Quite a few in the Wisconsin Blogosphere are (IMO) WAY TOO QUICK to use the RINO epithet or to use similar language regarding Republicans who take stands they do not agree with. More later.

Have a good one!

The Last Bit.

Land, originally uploaded by maurelius.

This is a picture of the lot Claudia and I are in the process of purchasing.

The house next door is nearly complete. This picture is in mid-spring and the leaves are not yet out. They are now! I can not wait to see this lot during the fall!

We also received word today it perc'ed conventional and that satisfies our contingency. The train just left the station.

Good night & God Bless!

Add Anti-Tax Talk to The Check List.

If in order to exercise speech you have to consult a checklist to know what is not going to get you into trouble with the government, then I would call it something other than free-speech.

This story has been in the works for sometime and Michelle Malkin has been following it. See also Part II and Part III (current). Thanks Michelle!

Apparently a radio station in Washington state is an opponent of a gas-tax referendum in the works. It has made editorial comments on air about their opposition. A judge has ruled those comments must be reported as in-kind political campaign contributions!

I tell you this campaign finance reform stuff sounds as sweet as sugar but it is poison! I know quite a few of my conservatives friends and family were all up in arms over the 527c organizations and so on and so forth. Money in a campaign is not hard or soft, it is SQUISHY try to grab onto it, try to regulate it and it will just squirt, gush, and ooze out between your fingers.

No, public financing is not the ticket either. Public financing is government selecting the candidates. How can anyone think that a good idea? Oh yeah, the Mullahs in Iran operate on that idea.

National Review Posts a Slew of Articles on Wilson's Idiocy.

National Review has been writing quite a bit on this story. They ran three articles over at NRO today.

Did the CIA "Out" Valerie Plame? Andrew McCarthy reports on how the CIA, twice leaked documents revealing what Valerie Plame was all about. Once the Cuban government saw the info. This could very well it was a very long time since Ms. Plame did any sort of field work.

We have Valerie's No Victim by Mark Levin. Mark points up (yet again, we will know this law inside and out before too long) the details of the law and why it doesn't apply. Mark then goes on and questions the motives of Wilson and Plame.

That's right. Plame started this phony scandal. And so far, she's gotten away with it. What do I mean? Plame has shown herself to be an extremely capable bureaucratic insider. In fact, we know she's accomplished - she accomplished getting her husband, Joe Wilson, an assignment he desperately wanted: a trip to Niger to investigate a "crazy" report that Saddam Hussein sought yellowcake uranium from Niger (her word, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, not mine). And she was dogged. She asked not once but twice (the second time in a memo) that her husband get the job. And there's more. The Senate Intelligence Committee investigation also found that a CIA "analyst's notes indicate that a meeting was 'apparently convened by [the former ambassador's] wife who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger issues."

Source:National Review Online - Mark R Levin Valerie's No Victim

Still, haven't had enough? Then read: Clifford May's article on how the first person to use the word secret agent and cover operative in relation to Ms. Plame was... David Korn from the The Nation magazine. Mr. Korn's main source? Joe Wilson.

The Corner has been posting a fair amount of discussion on this affair as well.

The latest developments were reports that it was the Vice President's assistant who "outed" Plame. Well, further reports have that "revelation" to be nearly identical to what KR is reported to have said.

Reporter: Hey, did you know Valerie Plame is in the CIA?
VP's Assistant: Yeah, I heard that.

Sunshine In The Valley.

Good Morning,

Time to wake up sleepyhead!

Anyway, not a whole lot going on so there is no agenda. So I guess it is a take it as it comes day!

The Last Bit.

I will be reviving "Sunshine in the Valley", and The Last Bit.

Tonight, Claudia and I were out and about escaping the heat by driving in the car with the A/C. I needed to get some dinner and did not feel like firing up the stove or doing any such thing. We went to a DQ (Dairy Queen) hoping it was a brazier but no such luck. There are two in town and they are both just ice cream shops. So, then we went to KFC.

A sticker on the counter says if you don't get a receipt the dinner is on KFC and I was able to collect a free dinner. Normally I might have just said nothing but it was the right thing to do. The girl behind the counter then started handing the receipts out. I darned near got another $20 out of it too! First she gave me like $11.00 and I pointed out that to be wrong, then another fellow came over and asked what I paid with and she retorted $20. So give him a $20 the junior rocket scientist stated pulling a $20 out of the cash register. I pointed out the receipt and said just $6.60 what it says my meal cost! I tell ya!

Claudia and I then went to one of those manual car wash centers. We had never been in one before but it is kind of bait and switch. It says $1.50 for a wash, but unless you are super super fast and your car really isn't dirty you will spend more. Nothing special.

A couple of friends of our met up and we drove to "The Lot". Oh, Claudia and I are working to become a Baroness & a Baron! We have an accepted offer on a lot outside of town. Total area is about 1.4 acres, buildable is 1.25, beautiful lot. Quiet, great views, on a named road, perfect for a walkout. Will keep you posted.

So we looked at it and walked it out a bit. Then chatted up with our friends and their boy.

Then we parted company and here I am in a hot room blogging. But I have not been sleeping too well so it is early to bed for me.

Take Care & God Bless!

Terminator Doctor.

Have your heard of this? A soldier in Iraq catches lead in the chest, his vest stops the bullet but the impact knocks him down. He gets up and then when the terrorists are captured what does he do? Turban Durbin (and many other leftists) might assume the soldier then kicks the living snot out of the terrorist, but that would be wrong!

He cuffs him and TREATS THE TERRORIST'S WOUNDS! The guy who was trying to kill PFC. STEPHEN TSCHIDERER winds up being treated by PFC. STEPHEN TSCHIDERER! Somehow I think that part is missing from Nazi/Communist How to Treat the Enemy Handbook.

See LGF for the details and Michelle Malkin also details the story.

The real cool part is the terrorists were videotaping. You can hear the camera guy coaching the gunman and then everything is set for camera and the gunman squeezes his round off to a chorus of "Allahu Akbar!" Apparently, the film then shows the soldier getting knocked down and surprises the snot out of the terrorist types when he gets back up. Unfortunately it is WMV format so this Windows Rejectionist is SOL on seeing the film clip.

Is It Cooler Near the Lake?

Over at Cooler Near the Lake Mike started up a little comment exchange regarding the reason we fight.

One commentator stated:

The ultimate irony, though, is that in this great war of ideology many on the right seem to be on the same side as Bin Laden. Perhaps I go to far with this? I don't know. You're familiar with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson?

Source: Comment by Scott

Yeap. Ole Jerry and Pat are constantly issuing death threats against those that desecrate the Holy Bible and our religious symbols.

One wonders why the left gets called treasonous?

Yes, Scott you go way too far.

Fatwas.

Over at the blog The Jawa Report they issue "fatwas" instead of trackbacks. So when I like to 'em and trackback ping 'em you will see "Fatwa issued against...', its great because it shows on their main page which helps with TTLB rankings.

However, Islamoterrorists have issued a this blogger reports a real fatwa issued against this blogger: Anarchangel. Anarachangel reports the FBI has contacted him about the matter and considers the threat serious. HT: The Jawa Report.

Anarchangel warns would be attackers he is armed, and his bullets are greased with pig-lard.

Lets hope it never gets to the point where those lard coated bullets are needed.

Of course Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson are just like the Islamists!

I am....

HT: Powerline

Meet Paul Bucher!

Found this in my inbox:

For your information, from the Bucher campaign:

You are invited to a meet-the-candidate breakfast with Attorney General candidate, Paul Bucher
Wednesday, July 27th 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. at the Perkins Restaurant, 3030 East College Avenue [Appleton] (we have reserved the room in the back)

This is a great chance to talk with Paul Bucher one-on-one and see where he stands on issues important to all of us.

We hope you can make it!

RSVP to Valerie Johnson at 920-326-5553 or gopwins@aol.com

Clarification.

Last night Claudia and I went to the Mall after dinner. Since we were there she decided she wanted to find a new dress for the wedding we will be attending in September.

Well, we were in one store and they had a wall display with purses and shoes. On top they indicated it was "Women's Accessories". I laughed at that, glad for the fact they made it clear they were not MEN's accessories!

Maladroit Messaging.

The President's maladroit extemporaneous speaking is famous. It seems his administration is also crippled by that bug. The Wilson situation is not the first time his administration has been hassled with events that clear and thought out communication could have dealt with.

The President speaks fine when working from prepared speeches, the administration should seak to emulate that!

The Evening.

I was going to blog some more on the USS Wilson and its commander who yells, damnn the truth, full speed ahead! But I will not the developments are not too major and in any event it is being well covered at bigger blogs than this.

We checked out a new eatery in town today. Fusion. We arrived shortly after their opening and were seated promptly. It was a very unusual setup. The front of the restaurant was a glass overhead garage door. They had two tables outside of that door and many on the inside. It was predominantly a dark read with white highlights as far as the color theme goes.

We were seated and the water was poured and the waiter shortly came with menus and a bottle of pinot grigio. He offered us a sample. Since I have been off of my meds for a couple of days now I took the offer. Claudia did not as she drinks next to nothing when it comes to alcoholic drinks. It was a good wine. So, I ordered a ginentonic and resolved to have a glass of the pinot grigio with my dinner which dictated (Friday too).

I ordered a seafood stuffed haddock, Claudia a tilapia fillet with (I can not remember the exact details on it) a light brown sauce. In addition we ordered an appetizer of mussels with some sort of garlicy sauce, bits of vegetables, an pasta. The appetizer was excellent!

Next came the soup and salad. I ordered a house salad and Claudia a bowl of the lobster bisque. The salad came dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette and did not contain a speck of iceberg lettuce! It had different sorts of greens and some clementine slices and some walnut pieces. It was very good but a little bit on the light side. The lobster bisque was good and would recommend it.

Then after another ginnentonic dinner was served. The haddock was good, IIRC it was stuffed with other seafoods and had a bacony flavor at times. It was covered with a cheese sauce, I enjoyed it greatly. The sides was serving of "Island rice" which was a combination of wild rice with some other type of rice lightly seasoned and topped with mango slices and they served a helping of freshly cooked beans.

I tried a bit of the tilapia and that was good too but did not have enough to really write about it.

They offered free valet parking (we arrived to early to avail ourselves of that) and opened the garage door. No, the tables outside of the garage door do not count as outdoors if you want to light up (they do not seat people at those seats unless the door is open) and the door opening is not as spetacular (but our waiter said it is more reliable) than opening the roof at Miller Park.

Overall my impression was that Fusion is an incredible value. Yes, it is certainly more expensive than McDonalds but not so expensive as Appleton's The Seasons and the food and atmosphere was on par with The Seasons.

The Hey Joe Saga Continues.

Heard on the radio this morning an interesting note. It was about Bob Novak's testimony in front of the Grand Jury. According to the report it was Bob who let Karl know Valerie Plame's job. I would like to hear this report again but it is not shocking.

Here are the top 10 myths being pushed by Joe Wilson as fact.

Again, who or what is Judy Miller in jail for?

A Novel Or a Novella?

One of the blogs I regularly read has inspired me to write fiction. (yeah, yeah yeah leftist, outside of my satire, poetry and UNS stories I don't write fiction here)

It is turning out to be a Tom Clancy-ish at least in terms of the story, in fact the story will probably reflect one of his books very closely but it would be a mirror image of it. Tom Clancy (TC) IS not the inspiration for this story and I will not be able to get real techno-detailed the way TC does.

I cranked out nearly 1,800 words of it today. I don't know how this rates. Unfortunately, I don't know if I can keep cranking out 1800 words/day (plus probably about another 500 or so here) with all of the other things going on in my life. I will try!

Ann Coulter's Mission Implausible Excerpt

Karl Rove was right. The real story about Joseph C. Wilson IV was not that Bush lied about Saddam seeking uranium in Africa; the story was Clown Wilson and his paper-pusher wife, Valerie Plame. By foisting their fantasies of themselves on the country, these two have instigated a massive criminal investigation, the result of which is: The only person who has demonstrably lied and possibly broken the law is Joseph Wilson.

Source: Ann Coulter - Mission IMPLAUSIBLE

Again, who or what is Judy Miller hiding?

Backing Off.

Has anyone noticed the guy who once said he couldn't wait for the day when Karl Rove would be frog marched out of the Whitehouse in handcuffs is willing to settle for less?

A Word From Our Sponsor: Wilson & Co.

This portion of Blogger Beer is brought to you by Wilson & Co. Makers of Shabbily Built Strawmen.

Tired of losing arguments? Tired of arguing when the facts do not support your position? Come to Wilson and Co and we will be glad to furnish you with the lamest weakest shabbiest strawmen available. You will be able to do more than just knock them down but you will be able to utterly destroy them! We guarantee our strawmen! If you can not knock down your Wilson and Co strawmen, come back and we will provide you with another.

When the facts do not fit, come to Wilson & Co Strawmen.

Now back to Blogger Beer.

Joe Wilson was quoted on CBS radio news this morning as condemning the right's argument that Rove never mentioned Valerie Plame by name. Who is making that argument? I am sure there are a few out there doing so but every source I go to sees it for what it is a Clintonesque argument and does not use it (again a generality). In fact, why stop there? There are much better arguments to defend Karl Rove with than Wilson's silly little strawman.

Hey Joe, where are you going with that strawman in your hand?

What Side Are We On?

Wretchard blogs on the idea this GWOT is as much a Islamic Civil War as it is a war between Radical Islam and the West.

One of the major characterizations of Islam in those not afraid to resort to more bellicose talk is that of "Religion of Peace". You don't need to hear or see the speaker to detect the sarcasm of that characterization. Unfortunately, Islam is getting a bad rap because of what happens to those Muslims who do speak out against the radical Jihadis. They get blown up, they are kidnapped and have their heads sawed off and....well, you get the idea.

Wretchard points out the London bombings took place in an area that is heavily Muslim. The young men who committed this act I don't think were lashing out at the West so much as punishing their fellow Muslims for not being sufficiently Muslim.

This point is missed by quite a few commentators. The terrorists in Iraq recently kidnapped and brutally murdered the envoy from Egypt. Many commentators said something along the lines of (with some surprise)"Oh, look what they are doing to their fellow Muslims!" Well, the statements AQ released said they considered the Egyptian envoy not Muslim but an apostate, that is, he did not toe THEIR line.

This is yet another reason why I am not screaming (ala Michael Savage) to make this a war on Islam.

Daniel Schorr's Divorce from Reality on Rove.

Daniel Schorr sermonized today on NPR about the Rove/Plame situation. It was a very pathetic showing for Mr. Schorr. The information he left out of his analysis, the lies repeated in his analysis and the conspiratorial thinking he did not weed out of his analysis make it hard to believe he is a national correspondent on a fairly well known network.

How, anyone can think the conversation revealed shows how Rove was out of bounds is beyond me. Yes, he was attacking Ole Joe Wilson, he was showing how Joe was being deceitful, he was warning Mr.Cooper how Joe's story does not match the facts. As the Wall Street Journal editorializes Karl Rove was a whistle blower, which it seems are like minorities in that if they are conservative they do not count.

The last point worth bringing up is to ask why Judy Miller is still in the can? Who are you protecting Judy? What is it you don't want to say Judy? The source everyone supposes she is protecting has signed a waiver of confidentiality. Is there another source? Joe Wilson perhaps? If the left and Joe want to get to the bottom of this then why do they not demand Judy testify? Instead they demand the opposite. It certainly seems like this is yet another mystery the left does not want demystified.

An interesting piece of Judy Miller history is refreshed by John Podhoretz at NRO's The Corner. Please note she found about the upcoming raid on the Holy Land Foundation's office and let the Holy Land Fndn. know about it. Well of course one doesn't know the damage that caused (if any) but it sure as heck was improper!

A Community Not A City.

Tonight, Claudia and I ventured out of the house. 7:00pm in Pierce Park Tuesdays in Appleton there is a winds concert. They are a good band and play a wide variety of music. Last week they played a modern piece of music and I disliked the PC baggage but the song was good.

It is something. There is a bus or two from various old folks homes that show up. There are young families with small children about, there are children on the playground equipment and there is fine music. The weather was very nice (last week was a bit chilly) and perfect for the concert.

The sunset was nice too, enough clouds to add color not enough to refuse the sun. Even though we did not run into anyone we knew, we know we live in a community and not a city.

The MSM's Tanks Are Warming Up.

The MSM is getting ready for a full out war.

Unfortunately, they are going to war against President Bush and Karl Rove.

I can hear it now. We will get bombarded with front page headline after front page headline from the NYT and leftists will still complain how dissident voices are suppressed.

If only they could get this excited about prosecuting the GWOT.

PROJECT TIDE: A round Table and a Symposium.

I proposed over at the Badger Blog Alliance a set of activities to coincide with the 2006 Republican Party of Wisconsin Convention.

Here is what I have in mind.

A PROPOSAL!

First off, try to get the RPW to sponsor a blog workshop/discussion as part of the convention activities. I am hatching a proposal to write a paper. I am creating the outline of what I have in mind, but I want to focus on the following areas.

1. How to do it.


2. The Future of Blogs.


3. The Impact Blogs are having on our Political Culture.

Call for Collaborators

I will try to get the outline up as soon as I can. I hope, if you are a Wisconsin Blogger I hope you will want to collaborate on this project. While, this is being geared towards the right side of the political scene, I welcome offers from leftist bloggers to participate and in fact if we get a workshop/discussion session going I would hope you can join us in that discussion. I would hope you would be at least willing to participate in a traffic study.

A Blog Big or Two

Just across Wisconsin's Western Border we have one of the TTLB Ecosystem Higher Beings. Powerline. We need to work on one or all three of these gentlemen to participate. Failing that perhaps we can work on Blackfive to participate. Someone other than myself is going to have to ask him, since I dropped the FIB bomb in his comments section after Illinois lost the NCAA this previous March. I do not think we will much chance of getting any other Blog Big to come without having to come up with big $.

A Study of Wisconsin Blog Traffic

I propose to conduct a study of the Wisconsin Blogosphere. I propose to create a php program that will be called from one of the domains I control that will register traffic information. I hope to place this code into as many Wisconsin blogs as possible to study traffic trends (very similar to site meter and TTLB Ecosystem). Yes, most of us have site meter and/or TTLB counters on our sites, but with my own system I can pull the statistics together in a unified and consistent way. I would share this data with all participants and perhaps offer to sell it to interested third parties (terms of that would have to be worked out, nothing is solid or decided yet).

A Symposium

I use the word symposium in the third sense. After our workshop/round-table lets all get together at one of the brew pubs in Appleton to socialize and get to know each other face to face. On this point I am not really certain how we want to do this. It is my opinion we arrange something in advance with our venue of choice. Perhaps get a sponsor or two or three or four or... amd then see what the Venue can throw at us. The place I have in mind has a comedy club up on the top floor, so there are many many possibilities!

Leave a comment or e-mail your thoughts!

Wretchard Reveals Wretchard!

Wretchard of the Belmont Club reveals his true identity to the world!

He is Richard Fernandez of Filipino birth, Australian citizenship, and of USA education.

He states to us he has a master's degree in public policy from Harvard.

This explains much. The only mystery remaining, is how he managed to retain (or obtain) the outlook of the world he expresses at the Belmont Club.

A Letter to the Editor.

Below is a letter to the editor of a local newspaper I plan to submit. If you have any comments on it please do so. Anything, punctuation, grammar, wording, the ideas being expressed. Have a take and don't suck!

Thanks

Do Not Cry Wolf!
===================================================
A shocking ignorance of history was on display in this section. Paul Carron's letter decrying the treatment of the inmates of Guantanomo Bay. First off, did we give trials to the Germans we detained in WWII? No, crazy you say? I agree crazy question but it is exactly what Paul Carron is suggesting should have happened.

Our forces did not detain these people for shorting customers on mutton, these are hardcore terrorist types. Some of those we have released have been killed or re-captured in action fighting in Afghanistan (http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041018-124854-2279r.htm).

He goes on and parrots Dick Durbin's ludicrous historical comparisons. Stalin's USSR was responsible for an estimated 20 million deaths, Mao's China 60-65 million deaths, and 2 million in Cambodia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Book_of_Communism). Nazi Germany just from the concentration camps snuffed out around 6 million lives. In addition the crimes committed in these places went way beyond the simple murder of innocents, they certainly went beyond a inmate piddling on himself.

Now, explain to me how placing an inmate in a room without AC or too much AC is equivalent? Explain to me how giving them 3 halal square meals a day is similar to the above? Explain to me how being apologetic for treating their Qur'rans better than a New York City artist would accord the Holy Bible is equivalent to the above?

I would be careful about making such charges. Next time it could be a legitimate complaint and no one will listen.
===================================================

The Highly Original Comment.

I picked up a comment on my Please, May We Call The Traitors? blog.

It consisted of a calling the CinC a traitor and trotting out that cutesy little saying about deceit and death. They also left a link to a website.

I deleted the comment. Why? Because it contributed absolutely nothing to a conversation and is a waste of bandwidth. In fact, I suspect it was comment spam. Now, this is MY blog. If you go through the comments here there are criticisms of me and my positions. JPE lodged a good criticism the other day on something I said about restraining orders. Back when the Schiavo memo was uncovered I had some people call me for insinuating they were bogus. I think their criticism was off of the mark and I said so, but delete it I did not.

As Jim Rome would say have a take don't suck! The spambot who left that comment on the above blog sucked and was consequently run for it! BBBBBBBEEEEHHHHHHH!

Name Calling in Debates.

Frequently it is said name calling when discussing politics is the sign of being on the losing side of an argument.

I just engaged in that sort of thing over at the Belmont Club. There is a discussion going on a blog by Wretchard. The theme of the blog is how the left seems to think the terrorist movement in Iraq is not constrained by the normal laws of economics and we are constrained by a superrestrictive set. Wretchard talks of e-mail he gets from a Sweedish prof who claims the Marines were wrecked as a fighting unit by the assault on Fallujah.

Anyway there is one commentator who posited we have yet to do anything to go after Al-Qaida. I mentioned well what about Afghanistan? Well, he later responded by asking how that was going after Al-Qaida.

HUH? WTF? What can one do? I pointed out the obvious but if that commentator isn't swayed by the facts at this point....

I can understand the idea people have on how they think Iraq is a diversion (not a position I support) it is an argument we can have, but Afghanistan? Quite obviously this person is not going to buy anything so why argue? I called him a MoveOn/CodePink nutter and gave him a brief introduction to Arabic, as all good Muslims should at least try to learn Arabic.

Iowahawk Is Not Funny Today...

But recounts his last visit to London.

People like my new old friends the McMuffins, who proved to be the best pub mates ever despite our obvious political differences. How a people this civil and polite and funny once conquered half this earth, God only knows.

Source: Iowahawk - London.

As I said, don't be sad, be angry! See my full blog for further commentary.

The Pinaka-Idiotic Statement of the Day!

Pinaka is a Filipino superlative. So I am talking about the most idiotic statement of the day.

That goes hands down to Michael Scheur formerly head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit [snark suppressed]. He wrote a book before the election dissing our efforts in the WOT but the book's main goal was to elect John Kerry.

Anyway, he was on NPR today and tried to claim our leaders and people in the know were going to try to cover up the fact it was Al-Qaeda responsible for the bombing. This is of course after plenty of talk from leadership types who already said it was Al-Qaeda. I think Scheur was still stuck in Spain on 3/11 trying to replay what Aznar's govt did and not leap to conclusions too quickly.

After all, what was your impression when the Oklahoma City Bombing occurred? I was getting ready to go swimming in Arabia and was thinking the same thing you were!

Congratulations Michael Scheur! You are today's recipient of the Eight Ball Award!
Mr. Scheur's Eight Ball Award!

Wretchard On The Left.

Just a few comments in the aftermath of the attack on London. The first and most important hard fact to grasp is that this Al Qaeda strike, their first against an Anglosphere city since 9/11, has caused much less damage than that on New York. This despite the fact that Al Qaeda has had nearly four years to brood on its humiliations and losses and to plot its revenge. The reasons for this are simple: the enemy is now operating in a much more hostile environment. The accessible methods of mass destruction, such as wide body aircraft, have been secured; not perfectly, but for a defense to work it must only be sufficient to blunt the onslaught of the enemy. Increased surveillance, tighter controls on movement, etc have all played their part. The second reason the enemy is weaker is Iraq. It is widely accepted that thousands of Al Qaeda fighters, the cream of their rancid crop, is fighting to expel the American infidel from the Land Between the Rivers. A moment's reflection will show that if they are there they cannot be elsewhere -- in London, Paris, Rome or Boston -- sowing bombs on buses and trains. Furthermore, fear in formerly smug circles within Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya at sharing the fate of Saddam have left terrorists have fewer powerful confederates. Thirdly, allied forces are in contact with the enemy all over the world, buying intelligence with their blood, just as a SEAL team in Afghanistan did. Nothing yields as much information as the act of grappling with the enemy. Liberals often talk about the need to improve intelligence capability without admitting that you can't gather it without being in action against the enemy.

The Al Qaeda have characterized the attack on London as 'punishment' for Britain's temerity to resist the inevitability of Islam. It is the kind of punishment these self-ordained masters of the universe are accustomed to meting out against harem women and insolent slaves. A few administered licks, and no doubt the cowardly kuffar will crawl back to his place. The tragedy is that Al Qaeda's perception is perfectly correct when applied to the Left, for whom no position is too supine, no degradation too shameful to endure; but incorrect for the vast majority of humans, in whom the instinct for self-preservation has not yet been extinguished. It will result in history's greatest case of mistaken identity; the mismatch that should never have happened. The enemy is even now dying at our feet, where we should kick him and kick him again.

Source: Belmont Club - A Blessing and a Curse.

Go to: The Belmont Club and start regularly reading Wretchard! The above is his latest blog and the question about intelligence is spot on. The Left has spent years kicking the life out of the CIA. Now, when it fails they act all indignant and notice there is little humint capability and Al-Qaeda is smart enough (and patient enough) to work around our elint capabilities.

The only time the left is supportive of the CIA is when it can be used against the effort to defeat worldwide terrorism.

Personal Notes on Today's Events.

Claudia has family in the London area.

Apparently the husband of one of Claudia's nieces was originally scheduled to be riding the London Underground on the way to work on Thursday morning. But he called in and was told he did not have to come in. He was at home when the bombings occurred. I don't know if he would have been on one of the bombed trains, but he wasn't on them period.

Thanks to God.

The Bombing.

09/11/01
10/12/02
03/11/04
07/07/05

The list grows. This does not sadden so much as anger. Note people, Al-Qaida talks about Afghanistan in their statements just as much as Iraq. This is not about just Iraq and Afghanistan either, this is also about Al-Andalusia. This is about a frustrated entrance into Vienna. I hope we come to thank God for the dates above. I hope it wakes us up to the Trojan horse growing within us.

One wants to come up with Churchillian rhetoric in a time like this. One wants to come up with words that inspire and motivate in times like this. We do not need words, even the likes of London's mayor seems tough at the moment. I will not be so lofty.

We need to track down those bombers, their enablers, their supporters, their motivators and serve them back to their mothers with their 'nads stuffed into their mouths. Here you go mom! Nad stuffed son!

Recently it was reported the Aussie and the Swede just recently released from captivity in Iraq have hired hunters to go after those that kidnapped them. The Swede reports a couple of his captors have been caught (after that he says he asked no more, he was probably winking when he said it). Of course our "betters" have tut-tutted such base attitudes.

On one website there was a report of some young Islamic ex-pats sitting around a coffee shop in London talking about how cool it would be for a major attack to hit London.

What do we call a creature that lives off another while causing it ill?