Tom Bevan wrote a post about Hillary Clinton possibly giving a concession speech tomorrow earlier today. He titled the post “Is The Fat Lady Clearing Her Throat?” Shortly later he had to come up with another title for he received lots of complaints from angry Clinton supporters who thought he was referring to their candidate as a “fat lady.”

Now, I’m not American, nor is English my native language, but even I understand that he was referring to the proverb: ‘it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.’  (more…)

These 3 events have at least 2 things in common. What are they?

First, the father who microwaved his 2-month-old “loves his baby” and today refused to give up his parental rights.

Second, some un-heroic Transportation Security Administration workers have been accused of having forced a woman to remove her nipple piercings with pliers in order to board her domestic flight.

Third, a Dallas strip club that allowed a 12-year-old girl to dance nude won’t be shut down.

(more…)

Here’s more evidence that democracy can yield piss-poor leaders.  Happily, the process is self-correcting.

Carty Finkbeiner, the mayor of Toledo, Ohio - you know, that eminent American city in the heart of the midwest that’s known for producing the Mud Hens of M*A*S*H fame and very little else - has kicked the United States Marines out of town, overriding his own police chief in denying them permission to train in the city.

(more…)

This is just silly: Dallas News has declared “the illegal immigrant” person (Texan) of the year.”

He breaks the law by his very presence. He hustles to do hard work many Americans won’t, at least not at the low wages he accepts. The American consumer economy depends on him. America as we have known it for generations may not survive him,” Dallas News reports. (more…)

In what’s one of the most ludicrous, idiotic and silly Christmas stories I’ve heard this year, Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests beat each other up in Bethlehem when they were cleaning the Church of Nativity.

“The basilica, built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born, is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities,” CNN explains. (more…)

PatHMV displays his infinite wisdom by writing:

Bad luck: A plane hits your house.
Good luck: Nobody is hurt.
Bad luck: The police investigating the crash find your marijuana crop in the back yard.

Read the post at Stubborn Facts, it is hilarious.

There you are, sitting in your garden, smoking your home-grown marijuana; suddenly a place crashes into your home. You call the police, afraid - you’re panicking - terrorist attack? Police come, see it was just an accident, everybody - including the pilot is fine. Then the police take a closer look at your home and your garden and… before you can pretend not to be high, you’re arrested.

You’re in jail, exchanging stories with your fellow inmates about what you did and how you were arrested, everybody rolls on the floor laughing: you’re saying a plane ratted you out? Right. What exactly were you smoking again?

That’s what Smithsonian secretary Lawrence M. Small must have been thinking when he “took nearly 10 weeks of vacation a year during seven years running the vast museum complex and was absent from his job 550 workdays while earning $5.7 million on outside work.”

I just received an e-mail from one Paul den Cole. Paul has an offer for me I can’t refuse. Below is the entire e-mail. Sender e-mail address: paul_dencole@abnamro.nl

Hello!

I quite understand the nature of things round the world of Internet, due to the recent internet abuse many people believe that every transaction that comes from the internet is not generous, i will treat this issue very sincere to your understanding. The recent thought over merging my bank Abn Amro N.V. with Barclay’s Bank Plc United Kingdom, I was made head of service in my department by the Board of directors of my bank ABN AMRO N.V. (The Netherlands) to compile all credit accounts that has been in operation with the bank.

Details About The Merging News Visit The Web Site Below:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6469417.stm

During the compilation of all credit accounts, I discovered a credit account with A/C N0: NL85ABNA6008341843 and (7,467,000.00Euros) deposited. My investigation of the said account reveals that the investor died in 2000 in a plane crash, It was A German who Ran carmaker BMW’s museum and that was the exact period the account were last operated. I can confirm with certainty that no body has ever came as heir apparent of Late Engineer Christian Eich.

Details About The Plane Crash Visit The Web Site Below:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

The Netherlands law demands that I notify the fiscal authorities after a statutory time period of seven years when dormant accounts of this type are called in by the monetary regulatory bodies. The above set of facts underscores my reason of writing and making the following proposal to you. I have chosen to seek your consent to work with me as a partner to achieve this fund under the legitimacy as the heir apparent of Late Engineer Christian Eich. Without any fear of doubt arising from the bank authority. Please, do let me know your readiness towards achieving this goal together as a partner.

Sincerely,

Mr. Paul Den Cole
Appointed Auditor
Abn-Amro Bank N. V.
paul_dencole@crawler.com

It’s quite sad that people would use the good name of the ABN Amro for such an obvious fraud. Normally my spamfilter should catch e-mails like this, for some reason it did not however. If I were the ABN I would try to find out who sent this e-mail.

Just a post about nothing, but I find it interesting that people actually send e-mails like this one. It means, I guess, that some idiots actually fall for it, otherwise, they would not be sending these kind of e-mails.

Ai, I understand why WalMart decided to pull this t-shirt from store shelves.

A woman? President?

Now that is offensive! Since when are women considered to be capable of leading an entire nation?

ABC News reports:

A Washington, D.C. law judge broke down in tears and had to take a break from his testimony because he became too emotional while questioning himself about his experience with a missing pair of pants.

In his opening statement, Pearson said the case looks at the culture that allows a “group of defendants to engage in bad business practices for five years,” according to ABC affiliate WJLA.

But as he explained the details of the missing pants, Pearson struggled to get through his hour and a half of testimony and had to leave the stand at one point because he was so emotional…

The sartorial loss caused Pearson to suffer what he calls severe “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort.”

Someone, anyone, please buy the poor judge some prozac.

And for those who are wondering: the owners of the shop (Korean immigrants) offered judge Pearson $4,600 to make up for losing his pants. Better still: a week after they lost Pearson’s pants, they found it back. They tried to return the pants to Pearson, but he says that they are the wrong pants.

Now, this story had me laughing, I have to admit, until I read this:

“It’s not humorous, not funny and nobody would have thought that something like this would have happened,” Soo Chung told ABC News through an interpreter. Her husband agreed.

“It’s affecting us first of all financially, because of all the lawyers’ fees,” Jin Chung said. “For two years, we’ve been paying lawyer fees. And we’ve gotten bad credit as well, and secondly, it’s been difficult mentally and physically because of the level of stress.” Later, Soo Chung broke down in tears.

“I would have never thought it would have dragged on this long,” she said. “I don’t want to live here anymore. It’s been so difficult. I just want to go home, go back to Korea.”

“I’ve been in the dry cleaning business for 14 years, but this has never ever happened before. If anything happened to our customers’ clothing, we would always compensate them accordingly and fairly,” Jin Chung said through a translator.

I hope that the Korean couple will, one, win the lawsuit and, two, will be able to force judge Pearson to pay them a couple of million dollars in damages.

H/t Dan Schneider.

I had no idea, but it seems that carrying a sign that says “Equal Rights for Robots” can get you arrested:

On April 18th, I was arrested. This normally wouldn’t be big news, but the situation arround which I was arrested brings up serious questions. I was arrested at Kutztown University, where I am a student, because I decided to try to liven the mood after the Life and Liberty Ministries began to upset students. They came on campus with signs that featured aborted fetuses, lists of people who will be going to hell, and catchy phrases such as “JESUS OR HELL”. I have friends who are gay, and these people who came onto Kutztown University’s campus without permission or prior notice were upsetting students all over campus.

I decided not to simply let them upset people, so I went to the bookstore and purchased a posterboard and sharpie marker and made my own sign. It said “Equal Rights for Robots”, a saying I thought no one would be able to take the wrong way. The protesters had been on campus for about two hours at this time, and the whole time the police were protecting them from the students. To my knowledge, the protesters at this time had not been asked to leave. With my sign in hand, I walked out and waved my sign in the air.

I had some small support from students around me, as most saw the attempt at humor to lighten a rough situation. However, within about two or three minutes a police officer came over to me and told me to come with him. I was dropped off at the police area, searched and taken to the local precinct where I was held for an hour and a half.

Well, one cannot possibly blame the policeman of course. Everybody knows that civil robot rights activists are an unruly bunch.

The image above is the logo for the Olympic Games in 2012 in London. The British paid a mere £400,000 for its design. That’s approximately $800,000.

Not bad for such an ugly logo right?

People are comparing the logo to, among other things, the swastika.

When I first saw the logo, I thought to myself: “they could not have chosen an uglier and stranger logo.” Then I read this post at Samizdata:

What does it look like to you? To me it is obvious: a collapsing structure of some sort, perhaps a building at the moment of demolition. The sense of downwards motion towards the bottom of the page is palpable.

Breathtaking. I mean what truly magnificent symbolism. The entire Olympic endeavour has been a massive looting spree with already grotesque cost over-runs (and it is only 2007), so surely something that conjures up images of collapse and disaster is really on the money…

There is something to that.

There are idiots… and there are idiots:

Ah, yes, another example of ‘Moderate’

I’ve been saying this for years, and this proves it; The “Moderate Voice” ….Isn’t. They keep trying to deny it, and then they keep coming up with garbage like this and proving me correct.

I see where their requiring logins to make comments, now. Could it be that they’ve had to much negative reaction to their version of “moderation”? I suspect so.

One scrolls a bit down at BitsBlog and what does one see:

You must be logged in to post a comment.

O sweet irony.

It is always sad when small bloggers think they can get more hits by attacking bigger, more successful blogs. They make themselves look pitiful, don’t they?

I always wonder what drives people to act like this. Why do they attack bigger blogs? If you don’t like a certain blog, don’t read it. It really is that simple. Don’t like TMV?

Move along, there are plenty of other blogs out there.

Benjamin C. Bradlee is pretty satisfied with himself / his life:

Sometimes I am embarrassed at how satisfied I am with my life.

I’m 85 years old.

My doctor has just told me I’m in good physical shape. Actually, he said, “wonderful” shape.

I am surrounded by the people I love. I live in fabulous houses, spectacular enough to be featured in national magazines, yet comfortable enough for someone who values “comfortable” above “beautiful.”

My kids are healthy and apparently happy. And the same for my 10 grandchildren.

I work out in the woods, clearing brush with a tractor and three chain saws.

My wife of many years is a spectacular person, and a great partner.

I had a great ride as editor of a great newspaper. I was lucky enough to fight in a war I believed in and work in a profession I believed in.

I’m still ensconced at The Washington Post. Some people refer to me as a stop-on-the-tour of the paper, but I’m still there.

More satisfaction at the Washington Post.

Some of the comments:

1- Jacob Jozevz “Life is so beautiful with Eclati-On’s.:

“Hello Mr. Bradlee, et al;

Sounds like your still 55. And sounds like You don’t have a worry in the World, and that probably includes your “Poof-TIME a-gonna” so to speaketh.

Please Note that, Your Wife Sally, had my blog truncated or more like purged. Is My “Cosmic Feelings Faith” a/k/a ECLATARIAN, too much for her Atheistic tastes? Please excuse me.

“Be Healthy & ALL Be Well” And Sholom!”

2- Jennifer:

“How wonderful to be at that point in your life and be able to say….”I’m satisified.” I hope on my 85th birthday…I can say the same…Bravo Mr. Bradley!!”

Friendly right?

Well… there are more comments:

1- Anonymous:
“every other sentence starts with the
pronoun “I”….and the emphasis is on
external, professional achievements.”

2- dennizen:
“Anonymous, above at 11:32 had much the same reaction as mine. Is SUCH SHINING self satisfaction to be admired? Though I will say the Washington Post, when you were in charge, was not the neocon flacker it’s become.
You left much undone, tough, mostly concerning your fawning coverage of corrupt Israel.”

3- Norrie Hoyt:
“I agree with Anonymous and Denizen. See my comments about worldly “success” in Randall Balmer’s thread. Professor Balmer also seems to base his “satisfaction” and happiness on worldly accomplishments.

Trumpeting one’s affluence and comfort in a religious forum is unseemly.”

4- milahim:
“Its not where one is. Its where one is heading. In other words its the graph’s SLOPE.
Also, I’ve noted that the truly satisfied rarely toot their own horn.
Anyway, have a good one.”

What a bunch of sad, sad people. This man accomplished a lot. He worked hard to get where he is today. He worked hard to be happy. He was, most likely, asked to write a thanksgiving-kind of article… And the loving commenters at WP’s On Faith decide to attack the man. Jealous anyone?

Always annoys me greatly when people only want to hear about the bad things in life.

Guess what? Life is good. That’s right. It’s good. Let me piss those commenters off a bit more:
I am very satisfied with my life: I’ve got great parents, who’ll support me no matter what.

I have a good relationship with God.

I have a wonderful girlfriend who I love more than I thought I could love anyone.

I have a good, wonderful blog with active commenters.

I am getting (reasonably) good grades.

I have a great sister and brother-in-law who have two beautiful, healthy and intelligent girls.

Although I am a student, I need not worry about money.

I am looking forward to the rest of my life and hope to accomplish a lot: to be inspired and to inspire.

Life is good.

On a more serious note: of course, everyone has his or her own problems, but it doesn’t hurt to look at what’s going well. There are struggles, there are problems, but sometimes we focus so much on those problems that they become all we see.

And that, is a major mistake. There is more to life than problems, there is more to life than darkness.

Heh:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who recently proposed an educational policy that urged “every financial barrier” be removed for American kids who want to go to college, has been going to college himself — as a high paid speaker, his financial records show.

The candidate charged a whopping $55,000 to speak at to a crowd of 1,787 the taxpayer-funded University of California at Davis on Jan. 9, 2006 last year, Joe Martin, the public relations officer for the campus’ Mondavi Center confirmed Monday.

That amount — which comes to about $31 a person in the audience — included Edwards’ travel and airfare, and was the highest speaking fee in the nine appearances he made before colleges and universities last year, according to his financial records…

He appeared at Stanford University, where he spoke on April 26, 2006; the Palo Alto institution paid him $40,000 to deliver his talks, according to financial records. And Edwards also headlined at the former University of Judaism — today the American Jewish University — in Los Angeles on Jan. 30, 2006, where he debated former Speaker Newt Gingrich before about 5,000 people. According to financial documents, the candidate received a fee of $40,000 at that appearance…

In 2006, records show Edwards made more than $285,000 speaking to nine colleges and universities, charging between $16,000 and Davis’ $55,000 for his talks. They ranged from the $12,000 he got on Jan. 10, 2006 from Gonzaga University Law School in Seattle to the $40,000 he banked from the University of Texas Pan American Foundation on May 22, 2006. Other schools that have paid Edwards to speak before he was a declared presidential candidate: Hunter College in New York ($35,000), Mount Union College in Ohio ($16,00) and Vanderbilt University in Nashville ($40,000).

Well, that’s certainly ironic.

John, listen, it’s simple: if you are going to campaign on the issue of poverty there are certain things you shouldn’t do. One of them is charging $50,000 for a lecture about… poverty.

He’s giving his opponents the gun and the ammunition to shoot him.

Her name is Tania Devereaux and she is the leading NEE party senate candidate in Belgium. More importantly, she promises to give 40,000 blowjobs “to anyone who requests one” on the website of the NEE party. For those interested, you have to sign up quickly because, well, it seems that a lot of men are willing to take her up on the offer.

Quite a stunt, isn’t it? Look at the photos, quite a beautiful woman.

Of course, it’s one big joke, but it’s funny as hell nonetheless. At least she’s getting exposure, right?

Well, not in the Belgian press. I’ve tried to find reports in the Belgian media about her but, I am afraid to disappoint many male readers, nobody in Belgium seems to have heard of this lady.

Strange people, those Belgians.

More at Barcepundit and h/t to Jules Crittenden.

These teachers should be ashamed of themselves and should be fired immediately. What a bunch of idiots.

Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

It was, according to the teachers, meant as a “learning experience.”

Good, lets turn this into a learning experience for the teachers as well. The lesson they have to learn: doing stupid things like that results in your firing.

The children will, most likely, be haunted by nightmares for days, for some even weeks and / or months to come.

Warning, this post and the clip I link to contain vulgar, adult language. If that’s not your thing, please do not read this post. If you do, you are warned.

Breitbart TV has a (sound)clip up of XM Shock Jocks Opie and Anthony’ engaging in a discussion (on Wednesday’s show) ‘about forced sex with the Secretary of State. A studio guest, Homeless Charlie, begins describing the scenario as the hosts laugh and encourage him. Anthony talks about the horror for Rice as the guest is “holding her down” and assaulting her. They invite Charlie to be a regular guest.’

About Condi: “I’d love to fuck that bitch. She’s the fucking man [supposed to be something of a compliment I guess]…” Humpty: “I just imagine the horror in Condoleezza Rice’s face, as you’re like just holding her down and, and, and fucking her.”

About Laura Bush: “And George Bush’s wife? I’ll fuck that bitch to death.”

In the meantime, good ole Charlie also insults Queen Elizabeth saying “fuck that bitch,” and “you lost bitch. What are you coming here for you horcefaced little bitch [imitates horse].”

I wonder whether there are any Americans who actually listen to this, excuse the language, crap. It is, first of all, not funny; it is second of all, incredibly insulting; it is third of all, below the level of the average first year high school student; it is, fourthly, not exactly original: they just repeat the same thing over and over again. It can be summarized thusly: “fuck that bitch (whatever woman) hard.”

O, and fifthly: my English isn’t always very good, mostly because my native language is Dutch. English is my second, not my first language.

What’s their excuse?

More at The Huffington Post, Hot Air and QandO.

Classy:

Last weekend Deb and Jerry VonSprecken of Olin received a call from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s campaign office asking them if they would be interested in holding a campaign rally on May 4, after she had donated to his campaign….[they agreed]…. …. On Tuesday Deb received a call from Giuliani’s Des Monies office and was asked to call New York…..”They wanted to know our assets,” she revealed, and added that she and Jerry have a modest 80 acre farm and raise cattle. ….. Later she received a call from Tony Delgado at the Des Monies location. “Tony said, ‘I’m sorry, you aren’t worth a million dollars and he is campaigning on the Death Tax right now.’ then he said they weren’t going to be able to come,” Deb continued.

H/t to the Hotline On Call for the excerpt: I could not access the original source, it gave an error.

Anyway: bad, bad publicity of course, and quite a stupid thing to do. Either they should have collected the relevant information beforehand or they should, when they found out that the family farm was not the kind of farm they were looking for, have gone ahead with it anyway.

On the other hand, this gives us bloggers something to write (and laugh) about, so thanks for that Rudy!

More at The Horse’s Mouth, Balloon Juice and the Washington Monthly.

This would be hilarious, if it was not so sad:

Look at this quote today from a newspaper in Indiana about a cheating scandal at the Indiana University Dental School in which nine students were kicked out of school and 16 were suspended and 21 more were reprimanded. That means that 46 students out of a student body of 95 were involved in the cheating — more than half of IU’s dental school.

So what do the academics who are teaching these students have to say for such a high rate of cheating in their institutions? They blame George Bush, of course.

Here’s what Dr. Anne Koerber, associate professor of dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, an expert in dental education had to say: “When you have persons in high places who clearly lie about what’s happening with weapons of mass destruction… I think the general public gets the idea that anything that makes money is what’s right.”

Heh.

Yeah, and I guess that after Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky the average American decided that there is nothing wrong with having oral sex with an intern every now and then.

Ludicrous.

Murray Waas writes for National ReviewJournal:

The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove’s, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Several of the e-mails that the Bush administration is withholding from Congress, as well as papers from the White House counsel’s office describing other withheld documents, were made available to National Journal by a senior executive branch official, who said that the administration has inappropriately kept many of them from Congress.

The senior official said that Gonzales, in preparing for testimony before Congress, has personally reviewed the withheld records and has a responsibility to make public any information he has about efforts by his former chief of staff, other department aides, and White House officials to conceal Rove’s role.

The anonymous official said: “If [Gonzales] didn’t know everything that was going on when it went down, that is one thing. But he knows and understands chapter and verse. If there was an effort within Justice and the White House to mislead Congress, it is his duty to disclose that to Congress. As the country’s chief law enforcement official, he has a higher duty to disclose than to protect himself or the administration.”

The secrecy is unbelievable, firstly and, secondly, the White House isn’t even good at keeping its secrets, you know, secret. This has the potential to hurt the image of Gonzales, of Karl Rove, and of the White House in general, quite tremendously. It will increase calls for thorough investigations, it will embolden Democrats in Congress, it will force Republicans to take a tougher stance against the White House; all in all, extremely bad news for Bush (Rove, and Gonzales).

What I am interested in is whether someone will actually be held responsible and accountable. Some leading officials seem to have stepped out of line, they have acted in a not so honorable manner… they should, yes, go.

Incompetence and secrecy rule. Never a good combination.

The effort of the White House, if the article at National Journal is accurate, to obstruct the investigation of Congress is impardonnable.

How anyone can actually defend the conduct of Gonzales, Rove et al. in this affair is beyond me.

Where’s the personal, and professional, responsibility?

More at The Washington Monthly, Think Progress, Balloon Juice and Obsidian Wings.

Cross posted at The Moderate Voice.