Friday - May 27, 2005

Leaving The Left

Nightfall, Jan. 30. Eight-million Iraqi voters have finished risking their lives to endorse freedom and defy fascism. Three things happen in rapid succession. The right cheers. The left demurs. I walk away from a long-term intimate relationship. I’m separating not from a person but a cause: the political philosophy that for more than three decades has shaped my character and consciousness, my sense of self and community, even my sense of cosmos.

SFGate

Posted by Drew458     on 05/27/2005 at 02:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Skipper Is AWOL

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Skipper will be AWOL until next Wednesday, June 1st. He had some personal difficulties come up and has “gone over the fence”, so to speak, leaving me in charge. I realize this is quite sudden and I am sure an explanation will be in order when he is apprehended by the MP’s. He has passed control of this .. uh .. blog .. to me for the duration. He has left me some pictures to entertain you this weekend while we honor the fallen warriors in our military but other than that I have no idea what I am doing here. After all I’m just a ghost.

Perhaps, I can call upon Mr. Tannenberg and Mr. Stanley to assist me over the next several days? I will keep you updated on the Skipper’s whereabouts and condition as I am able. For now, carry on, my fellow Americans. This weekend, remember those who died so you could be free. They made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our “shining city on the hill” alive and flourishing. Honor them. God bless you all and God bless America.

Posted by Ronald Reagan's Ghost     on 05/27/2005 at 02:13 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Brits To Revert To Stone Age

It is now official. Brits are being completely disarmed. British researchers have completed a study that shows knives are being used in too many crimes and are pushing for legislation to ban them.

The study found links between easy access to domestic knives and violent assault are long established.

French laws in the 17th century decreed that the tips of table and street knives be ground smooth.

A century later, forks and blunt-ended table knives were introduced in the UK in an effort to reduce injuries during arguments in public eating houses.

The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime.

“The Home Office is looking for ways to reduce knife crime.

“We suggest that banning the sale of long pointed knives is a sensible and practical measure that would have this effect.”

Home Office spokesperson said there were already extensive restrictions in place to control the sale and possession of knives.

“The law already prohibits the possession of offensive weapons in a public place, and the possession of knives in public without good reason or lawful authority, with the exception of a folding pocket knife with a blade not exceeding three inches.

“Offensive weapons are defined as any weapon designed or adapted to cause injury, or intended by the person possessing them to do so.

“An individual has to demonstrate that he had good reason to possess a knife, for example for fishing, other sporting purposes or as part of his profession (e.g. a chef) in a public place.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/27/2005 at 11:29 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

40 YEARS AGO COME SUNDAY

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com

In 1965, a rear-engined racer won the Indy 500 for the first time.

“There was nothing graceful about the way the old guard at Indianapolis accepted the revolution that occurred on the Championship Trail in the sixties.  Its members fought with the tenacity of true reactionaries to prolong the ten-year reign of the roadster, despite the obvious superiority of the new, lightweight, rear-engined European cars which began invading the Speedway in 1961.  The men of the old guard were inherently suspicious of change—unless they brought it about themselves.”

The Indy roadster was a unique front-engined machine developed after World War II.  It represented a refinement of the classic “sprint” car, the characteristic car of dirt tracks, and regular winners at Indy until 1953, when Bill Vukovich put a roadster into the winner’s circle, a car designed and built by the legendary Frank Kurtis.  Other designer-builders followed Kurtis’ lead, and in the late 1950’s, A.J. Watson came to the fore.  By the early 1960’s, his products were generally the cars to beat at Indy.  Veteran driver Rodger Ward claimed that there were none better, and many agreed with him.

”If you had had it in mind to win the 500 in 1960, you would have gone to A.J. Watson’s shop in Southern California and ordered a roadster chassis.  For $30,000 Watson would have built you a stout, tubular-framed car on a 96-inch wheelbase, with 18-inch rear wheels on a live rear axle and 16-inch wheels suspended on a solid axle at the front.  He would have slipped a 256-cubic-inch, four-cylinder, Hillborn fuel-injected Offenhauser engine into that long, broad nose, fitted a gas tank behind the driver, and rolled your car out into the light of day with a dry weight of around 1700 pounds.”

The burly, reliable Offenhauser burned alky instead of gasoline.  It was descended from the famous Harry Miller engines of the 1920’s, and had appeared during the Great Depression as an economical yet durable engine “for the masses.” Its design was stretched through numerous modifications over succeeding decades, giving it a competitive life at Indy exceeding four decades.  Its high torque made possible a car with only two speeds, characteristic of the Indy roadsters.

A.J. FOYT AND HIS WINNING 1964
WATSON-OFFENHAUSER ROADSTER
http://indy500.com

”The old-style Indy driver was born on lethal, pockmarked, rutted, dust-choked small-town dirt tracks.  He was baptized on tight, short, paved ovals where he rapidly learned that a mistake would bounce him off the wall and into the path of the oncoming pack.  Only if he could endure this apprenticeship and avoid Valhalla would he come to confirmation at the Speedway.  A man who hadn’t flipped a midget or put a sprinter through the fence on Saturday night was likely to be dismissed as ‘a sporty car driver.’ Any car that didn’t have a chassis made from scaffold poles and an engine that ran on 10 percent nitro was a ‘toy racer.’ It was as simple as that.

“It wasn’t an indefensible point of view.  No foreign driver had won the 500 since Italy’s Dario Resta did it for Peugeot in 1916.  No foreign car had even impressed at the Speedway since Wilbur Shaw won the 1940 race in an 8CTF Maserati.  During the fifties, Fangio and Ascari, the best drivers Europe had to offer, came to the Speedway and were easily rebuffed.  And in 1957 and ’58, a group of Indy vets took their fat, pearly roadsters to Italy for the Two Worlds Trophy races and challenged the top European grand-prix drivers on the banking at Monza.  The Americans, led by Jim Rathmann and Jimmy Bryan, broke the track record and buried the opposition….This was the context in which the invaders assaulted the old guard anew early in the sixties.  This time with devastating effect.”

English Grand Prix driver Jack Brabham, who had won two successive world driving championships, turned up at Indy in 1961 with a tiny rear-engined Cooper-Climax.  It did not have the power to match the roadsters on the straightaways, but it was much faster through the turns, and it completed the race, finishing ninth.  This raised many eyebrows in Gasoline Alley, but it was only the beginning.

In 1962, Dan Gurney, veteran Formula 1 driver, entered a rear-engined car built by master hot-rodder Mickey Thompson, who tried his hand at Indy on several occasions in the 1960’s.  Gurney did not finish the 1962 race, but he was hardly deterred.  Even a third or fourth place at Indy in those days would pay more than a whole season of successful racing in Europe.  So Gurney persuaded British designer Colin Chapman, of Lotus, that building a winning Indy car would be well worth the investment, and he connected Chapman with the Ford Motor Company, which was interested in getting back into racing as part of a new “youth marketing” campaign (to which, incidentally, we owe the Mustang).

While Ford was busy producing a 256-CID V-8 engine that would run on straight gasoline instead of alky, Chapman revamped his revolutionary Formula 1 Lotus monocoque chassis with a longer wheelbase and a left-side offset to run at the 1963 Indy 500.  His champion driver Jim Clark got one such car, Gurney got another, and a third was held in reserve.

They nearly pulled it off, too.  Clark finished a close second to Parnelli Jones, driving his well-known “Ol’ Calhoun,” a sturdy Watson roadster with the classic Offy engine.  The finish, however, was clouded by controversy over an oil leak from Jones’s car that allegedly caused Eddie Sachs, among others, to spin out.  Many felt that Jones should have been black-flagged, and the issue remains controversial to this day.

JIM CLARK IN HIS 1963 INDY LOTUS
http://indy500.com

In 1964, 12 of 33 starting cars were rear-engined, several of them built by A.J. Watson.  Eddie Sachs and Rodger Ward were among those who migrated to rear-engined machines, while A.J. Foyt, who had amply expressed his mistrust of the new “funny cars,” elected to remain with his front-engined roadster.  Parnelli Jones did likewise.

This was the race marred by the tragic, blazing crash of Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald in the early going, a crash that resulted in widespread safety reforms for cars and pit procedures as well.  Clark, back again in a Lotus, all but ran away with the race until forced out by tire problems, and veteran A.J. Foyt won in a Watson roadster, the last victory for a front-engined car.

In 1965, 27 of 33 starters drove rear-engined cars.  Foyt and Jones were in two such, but this time, there was no stopping Clark and his Lotus, who led the race almost the entire distance.  Parnelli Jones came second, two laps behind.

COLIN CHAPMAN AND JIM CLARK, 1965
http://indy500.com

The revolution was now half complete.  Some Indy drivers, such as Jones and Foyt, successfully adapted to the new rear-engined cars.  Others, however, could not, and they either fell back to dirt-tracking or retired.

In 1971, the revolution was over.  Rear-engined cars did not adapt to dirt tracks.  Young drivers coming up through the midget and sprint-car divisions of USAC found that advancement to Indy cars was no longer the logical thing that it had been for decades.  Thus, in 1971, dirt tracks were dropped from the USAC Championship Trail, and half a century of tradition vanished overnight.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:  Quotations are from Charles Fox, “The Great Cars and Drivers” (New York:  Grosset & Dunlap/Ridge Press/Madison Square, 1972).

For more information, visit these websites:

http://indy500.com

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com

Posted by Tannenberg     on 05/27/2005 at 11:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (12) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Help Wanted: Human Shields

oes anyone else besides me remember two years ago, when the US was preparing to invade Iraq to depose mass-murderer Saddam Hussein, there were hundreds of so-called “human shields” who went to Iraq to protect the dictator and his military from the evil US invaders? I’m sure you remember those liberal nut-cases from all over Europe and the US who went to Iraq to place themselves in front of Saddam’s army in the misguided hope of saving Saddam’s regime from the US, don’t you?

Well, where are they today? Probably back at home telling and re-telling how they stood up to the “US Military Industrial Complex” to stop the bullying of that poor fellow who was recently embaressed by having photos of him in his BVD’s splashed all over the news. As you may remember, they all ducked and ran when the Marines rolled into Baghdad and Saddam was left to fend for himself.

The irony here is that Saddam is now safely in prison and the Iraqi people are under seige from outside terrorists from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Iran. These terrorists are blowing up car bombs and killing or beheading hundreds and thousands of Iraqis.

Where are the human shields? This time it is being left to the Iraqi people who are forming a ring around Baghdad to protect themselves from these murderers, some of whom are former Saddam loyalists .... who were protected by the “human shields” two years ago.

Where are those “human shields” now? The Iraqi people need them. Innocent women and children are being killed every day by these madmen. Will none of these brave “human shields” come to their aid? Or do they just engage in protecting dicators and mass murderers?

If they were brave enough to stand in front of an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza why aren’t they brave enough to stand in front of an Al-Qaeda car bomb in Iraq?

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/27/2005 at 04:24 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Terrorists •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Useless Humans: Part XXVI

It isn’t often that a news item like this crosses my desk. Which is a good thing ....

Spartanburg County Teen Accused Of Having Sex With Dog

CAMPOBELLO, S.C.—A Campobello woman says she witnessed her neighbor doing the unthinkable.

Cory Michael Williamson’s neighbor told sheriff’s deputies that she saw the teen having sexual contact with her 6-month-old dog over the weekend.

Williamson, 17, is now in the Spartanburg County Detention Center charged with buggery.

Last year, Williamson was charged with criminal sexual conduct against a 4-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl.

The solicitor’s office said Wednesday morning that it has petitioned a circuit judge to revoke bond for Williamson.

The hearing is scheduled for next Friday.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/27/2005 at 04:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Outrageous •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Coming To America

It was the first day of school and a new student named Pedro Martinez, the son of a Mexican restaurateur, entered the fourth grade.

The teacher said, “Let’s begin by reviewing some American history.  Who said ‘Give me Liberty, or give me Death?’ “

She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Pedro, who had his hand up. “Patrick Henry, 1775.”

“Very good!” apprised the teacher. Now, who said, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth?”

Again, no response except from Pedro: “Abraham Lincoln, 1863.”

The teacher snapped at the class, “Class, you should be ashamed! Pedro, who is new to our country, knows more about its’ history than you do!”

She heard a loud whisper: “Screw the Mexicans!”

“Who said that?” she demanded. 

Pedro put his hand up. “Jim Bowie, 1836.”

At that point, a student in the back said, “I’m gonna puke.”

The teacher glared and asked, “All right! Now, who said that?”

Again, Pedro. “George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991.”

Now furious, another student yelled, “Oh yeah? Kiss this!”

Pedro jumped out of his chair waving his hand and shouting to the teacher, “Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!”

Now, with almost a mob hysteria, someone said, “You little turd. If you say anything else, I’ll strangle you!”

Pedro frantically yelled at the top of his voice, “Gary Condit to Chandra Levy, 2001.”

The teacher fainted, and as the class gathered around her on the floor, someone said, “Oh shit, we’re in BIG trouble now!”

Pedro whispered, “Saddam Hussein, 2003.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/27/2005 at 03:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Ponderances

• Who is your favorite news commentator and why?


• Qualify happiness.


• What is the best thing you do for your physical health?


• What is the best thing you do for your mental health?


• What does Christianity have to do with being human?

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/27/2005 at 03:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Philosophy •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - May 26, 2005

RESURRECTION!

Allan,

Thought I’d sneak back into “action” slowly.............

Doing pretty well all things considered.

No pain meds since last Saturday and most of my left over “pain” is actually from leg strain in walking with the walker and leg exercises--sometimes feel like I just ran a marathon!

The pre surgery pain (real pain) is gone--I am healing quite well except for 2 staples that caused a small infection in their area= taking antibiotic for that.......I have a RX for pain & muscle relaxor but I suspect they will end up being trashed as I will not (hopefully) need either.

This past Monday, I did get a scare-- started seeing spots across my vision--just in my right eye......saw an eye doc in the hospital Tuesday night--he did a check bedside (with limited equipment) and the “floaters” in my right eye (the one that was whacked in the wreck)............so from discharge yesterday, I went directly to his office for a complete eye exam.  Good news, there is no tear in the retina base just some “protein globs oozing out and floating around in my vision----I just have to watch for any changes in the “floaters” making sure it doesn’t evolve into a black sheet, aka :retina detachment!

Home heath nurse will be coming in to change and examine my surgery site........and I start PT with my “old” PT this afternoon.

All thing considered, doing real good 10 days post opt.  (I was only in the acute bed for 1 night--the rest was in Rehab)--I still have a lot of weakness in my left leg - -no nerve pain, just exhaustion in the legs ache.

Probably will start blogging by the weekend and I’ll do some blog visiting this evening.

Looks like my sister kept everybody well informed--she has all email returns printed out---I’ll read them later...and I certainly appreciate (in advance of reading them) the thoughts.

Being a catholic hospital (requested no visits and my request was honored......until one after noon this woman (volunteers wore purple smocks, was at my door asking if I wanted some ‘special’ prayers...oh shit!  But then I saw who was going to pray--it was 2 rehab dogs.......alapsa--what ever and a sheltie!  As I talked to the dogs I advised the lady I had folks all over the world looking after me............on Sunday, would you believe, I was petting a rehab PIG (a baby)--full grown it will weigh 900 lbs!

Well, that’s a current update-I will be writing a “diary” of my stay from memory and a little creative addition for the blog.

My sleep was GREAT last night since I entered the hospital----they wouldn’t allow me to bring my bong you-know-what to the hospital--but I quickly found it last night--thus the good sleep!

I’ll be visiting tonight!

OldCatMan

PS: Looks like a low 6 figure amount (over and above bills paid) could be my settlement!!!!!  I found out that even thought the asshole has a 100K per injury max—MY AUTO insurance not only has uninsured benefit IT ALSO HAS an underinsured benefits so that if I need more than the guys insurance, my underinsured benefit kicks in!

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/26/2005 at 06:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
• Comments (13) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Late Night Humor

Leno
■ Everyone’s talking about all these “Star Wars” fans dressed in strange costumes. They look like aliens and weird creatures from outer space. No, I’m sorry. That was outside the Jackson trial yesterday. I was in Santa Maria yesterday. I got confused.

■ Actually, yesterday I ran into Jackson in the lobby before going in to the courtroom. And ironically he was on his way to the little boys room.

■ You know the strangest thing about testifying yesterday? After the trial O.J. Simpson picked me up in his ford bronco and took me to Robert Blake’s house for an Italian dinner.

■ The word is Dick Cheney is thinking of running for president in 2008. He’s already come up with a pretty catchy slogan “the pulse stops here.”

■ You know what’s interesting? Cheney was the commencement speaker at Auburn University this past week where he told graduates that he actually dropped out of Yale. He quit Yale. Do you know what that means? President Bush is the smart one.

■ “Star Wars” has made $158.5 million since it opened last Thursday. The point 5 of course is the money it made from women going to see the movie!

■ Police in Springfield, Illinois say a man in a Darth Vader mask walked into a movie theater, grabbed an undetermined amount of cash and ran away. The sad thing, it was Mark Hamill.

■ Some sad news – Henry Corden, the man who was the voice of Fred Flintstone has died at age 85. Ironically, he was killed when he got a plate of ribs at a drive-thru and it tipped his car over.

Letterman

■ We’re getting ready for the Letterman family Memorial Day picnic. Last year Uncle Earl, God bless him, but he gets a little confused. Last year he confused his flask with the charcoal starter fluid.

■ Mom always makes chili for the family cookout. Her big secret is when she buys the ground beef - she tips the butcher to throw in a finger.

■ Last year on Memorial Day mom got into the margaritas. She passed out on the lawn with deer licking the salt off her lips.

■ Have you seen the pictures of Saddam in his underwear? Now I come from the school of thought that if you want to see a hairy guy in his underpants just hail a cab.

■ Did you see the Donald Trump movie? A movie about Donald Trump. It’s a story of a man that goes from being a billionaire to a millionaire.

■ Actually the movie was about how one man was able to change the New York City skyline with just his hair.

Conan
■ Britney Spears had to get rid of her dog because it didn’t get along with her husband Kevin Federline. Apparently he just sat around all day licking himself – the same as the dog.

(-- thanks to NewsMax)

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/26/2005 at 10:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Quote Of The Day

Why, they ask, when it comes to Arabs, should the whole world be involved?

Egyptian presidential candidate Nawal al-Sadawi says Arab countries have never tried to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/26/2005 at 08:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Steel Storm

Somebody woke up over at The Steel Deal and just posted up a storm of stuff. Something for everyone. Go say hello to Steel before he burns out.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/26/2005 at 06:48 AM   
Filed Under: •   
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Grab The Money And Run

Michael Schiavo evidently wasted no time in grabbing the money. Just a few hours after Terry Schiavo died, his attorney was in court to grab the estate of the deceased woman.

Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com)—Terri Schiavo’s estranged husband Michael wasted no time in pursuing what was left of Terri’s estate after she passed away on March 31. The disabled woman died after suffering from a painful 13 day starvation and dehydration.

Terri died just after 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the 31st and court papers filed with Circuit Court Judge George Greer show Michael’s attorneys filed the estate request just hours later.

By 1:35 p.m., Greer had ruled in Michael’s favor to receive Terri’s estate.

(-- thanks to “sleepyrae” for the tip)

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/26/2005 at 06:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (38) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Global Values?

Amnesty International has its knockers in a wad over US treatment of Al-Qaeda prisoners (a.k.a. captured terrorists & murderers) at Gitmo and are accusing the US of ignoring something called “global values”. Bohemian Conservative has the enemy in his sights. Fire when ready ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/26/2005 at 06:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • International •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner