BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin will pry your Klondike bar from your cold dead fingers.

calendar   Monday - March 31, 2008

When all else fails …

There’s almost always a new Pat Condell video to post

Pat has another go at jisslam and talks about the Fitna Fiasco, and all the interesting phobias inherent in islam ... epistamaphobia, homophobia, gynophobia, etc.

I’m not seeing much in the news or around the web tonight to write about. No point even in post the Cuss o’ Meter Rachel ran with: BMEWS scores a 0. A ZERO. Which means every other blog out there has a worse case of potty mouth than we do. Stercus. Stercus stercus stercus!!


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 11:37 PM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA •  
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NJ plans to reduce government: farmers complain

TRENTON, N.J. (AP)—New Jersey farmers are starting to worry that their state lawmakers are about to take the garden out of the Garden State.

Gov. Jon Corzine is proposing to make New Jersey the third state without a Department of Agriculture as he looks to slash spending amid chronic state budget problems.

Some argue the move will chase away farmers who persevered for generations while New Jersey grew into the nation’s most densely populated state.

His administration contends the move would save $4 million by having the environmental protection and health departments take over the agriculture department’s functions.

Those savings would hardly put a dent in the state’s $33 billion budget and “would send the worst kind of signal,” said Mary Jo Herbert of the Hopewell Heritage Farm.

“I am a third-generation farmer and I, perhaps naively, believed that our state government was committed to preserving our farming heritage,” she said.

This news article neglects to mention that Ms. Herbert is (or was last year) President of the State Board of Agriculture. I’m sure they just forgot that little fact.

About 10,000 farms work 790,000 acres in New Jersey. They generate about $924 million per year and provide nearly 12 percent of the state’s jobs.

That’s an average of 79 acres per farm. That’s a square plot of land 619 yards on a side, about 1/9 of a square mile. Not exactly what I’d call big farms. But it includes ex-governor Christie Whitman, who plants hay in her big front yard, thereby getting a major tax break. But these 10,000 folks have their own personal branch of the state government, which is involved in almost every aspect of their economic life.

Farmer John Hauser said the proposal has ramifications that far outweigh any budgetary benefits.  “Of far greater value is the predictable loss of jobs, revenue, reinvestment by individual farmers in their operations, scenic vistas and, in general, quality of life for New Jersey’s citizens,” he said.

So am I reading this right? Without a special, nearly useless, government department all their own, all the farmers are going to lose their jobs. Which will force them, just force them, to sell their little plots of land to developers for millions of dollars.

Hey, you know, I support farmers. I’m really glad that we have people willing to raise food for the rest of us. But there’s a part of me that’s just sick to death of their never ending complaining. Too hot? The farmers complain. Too cold? The farmers complain. Too dry? The farmers complain. Too wet? The farmers complain. Not enough handouts from the government? The farmers complain. They’re getting paid to not grow stuff? The farmers complain. The price supports aren’t large enough? The farmers complain. So now they might have an opportunity to get out from under the yoke of total government control, even if it’s only for a little while. So what do they do? The farmers complain.

There is a farm just over the hill from me. Well, I probably should call it a ranch, because they raise cattle. About 2 or 3 dozen head. And that’s one of the larger farms around here, much bigger than the microscopic Hopewell Heritage Farm down the road a couple miles in Titusville, where they “farm” racehorses.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 09:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Now here’s the voice of reason

Rapper 50 Cent switches from being a Clinton supporter to being an Obama fan. “But don’t count on me” says he. Gosh, another in an endless list of “why is this even on the news?” stories.

(CNN) – Hillary Clinton appears to have lost a high-profile backer to rival Barack Obama.

Rapper 50 Cent, who told Time magazine last September he was supporting the New York senator’s White House bid, now says he has decided to shift his allegiance to Obama.

The multi-platinum star, born Curtis Jackson, told MTV News Friday that Obama’s recent speech on race was the deciding factor for his decision.

“I heard Obama speak,” he said. “He hit me with that he-just-got-done-watching-’Malcolm X,’ and I swear to God, I’m like, ‘Yo, Obama!’

“I’m Obama to the end now, baby!”

Fiddy, Fiddy, what have you done? Your fans, they believed in you, and now? This is no time to get wobbly!!

But the musician also admitted he’s lost interest in the protracted Democratic race, and may not support either candidate.

“To be honest, I haven’t been following that anymore. I lost my interest,” he said. “I listened to some of the debates and things that they were saying, and I just got lost in everything that was going on…Don’t look for my vote, for me to determine nothing on that. Just say, ‘50 Cent, he don’t know, so don’t ask Fiddy.’

Hey, I’m with you on that Fiddy. Me and 200 million other folks. Shut it off already. Bor-ring us all to sleep 24-7 and we still have 8 solid months to go!!

He also said he didn’t think the country is ready for a black president.

“I just think there’s people that might not be ready for an African-American president,” he said. “It’ll be an issue, believe it or not.”

“You’ve got to be conscious of racism, period,” he continued. “And it’s still there. We don’t deal with it as often as my grandparents did. My grandparents grew up in South Carolina, so they experienced the heart of that.”

And we all know that dear “50” knows his facts when it comes to race and stereotyping. So listen up and be told. Word.

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Niggas screw they face up at me
On some real shit son, they don’t want beef
I cock that, aim that shit out the window
Spray, there ain’t a shell left in my heat
Ya’ll niggas better lay down, yeah I mean stay down
Get hit with a K round, ya ass ain’t gon’ make it
You niggas gon’ get layed out in blood and ya brains out
Have you on the concrete, shiverin’ and shakin’
I’m from Southside mothafucka, where the gats explode
If you feel like you on fire, boy drop and roll
niggas’ll heat ya ass up cause they heart turns cold
Now you can be a victim or you can lock and load
The party jump, with shorty bouncin’ that ass
I won’t fuck, gimme a second, I’ma holla, I’ma see whats up
I got my razor in my hand, got my pistol in my trunk
Carve ya ass up nice, you play me like a punk

excerpt from In My Hood, by 50 Cent


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 08:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Are you F*ing kidding me?

3M forced to pay almost $700,000 to Fresno California because their 1” wide tape measures only 0.94”

This has to be the “our lawyers have too much time on their hands” BS story of the week. But it’s true. Citing a horrible, consumer-rapacious “6 percent difference”, the city of Fresno sued 3M and they were found wanting.

I hope 3M decides that Fresno has no more need for any of their products, from tape to roofing shingles. Let me tell ya, 3M makes a lot of stuff. Whadda buncha hosers!

FRESNO – In a case that proves that size really does matter, 3M has agreed to pay almost $700,000 to settle a Fresno County case that alleged the company sold undersized adhesive tapes.

Fresno County prosecutors made their case stick by showing that 3M’s Scotch and Tartan brand adhesive and packaging tapes were 6 percent narrower than their packaging said.

“They knew what the width was, and they seemed to want to exaggerate it,” said Alan Yengoyan, the Fresno County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case.

Under the settlement announced Thursday, 3M agreed to change its labels. It also will pay Fresno County $600,000 in civil penalties and an additional $75,000 into a state trust fund to benefit county and state weights and measures offices.

The company also will pay $18,000 to the state Department of Measurement and Standards, which investigated the case.  In settling the case, 3M did not admit liability or guilt. Company officials could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

A tape that was labeled for “1-inch use” measured 0.94 of an inch. That 6 percent deficiency also showed up on the company’s other tape products.

And yet bulletheads know that a 9mm and a .38 pistol bullet and a .35 caliber rifle bullet are all “the same size”, even though the diameters run from .355” to to .357” to .358”. Even .360” for cast bullets. Should we now all sue Smith & Wesson for “cheating us” because a .38 Special uses a .357 bullet? That’s more than 3 times the variance that got 3M in hot water!!!!1!!1! Where’s my lawyer, dammit!

Gosh, I guess nobody in California has ever heard of production tolerances. Or the slightest bit of generalization. Crusted second hand asswipes, the lot of them.

Was 3M wrong, in that their stuff was a hair (literally) undersized? Yes, but so what? Get a fucking clue already people; it’s not an adhesive micrometer. It’s a friggin roll of Scotch Tape you can buy for under a buck. Geez.

bat


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 08:11 PM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
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Now I’ll snag a link or two as well

I found these links while reading today’s favorite blogger Snoop.

The first post over at InstaPunk is called The Old Guys Perspective where he gives the GRD a good kick in the pants and utters the oh-so-forbidden truth we all dance around with our eyes tightly closed.

But the color-blind society has not been achieved. What’s more, we are constantly told—lectured, hectored, propagandized—that this state of affairs is our fault. We tend to accept the charge because the truth is we don’t spend all our time thinking about race, and so we defer to those who think about nothing else because, well, we almost never get up in the morning thinking about how privileged we are to be white, which we’ve come to accept as yet another of our endless insensitivities about race.

The second post there, OldPunk Responds To Individual Commenters is a follow-on to the first, and deals with some of the reaction he’s received. Well, duh, you figured that out from the title I hope.

To all the commenters who looked in, saw the N-Word, and waved their wands in a superior way: BOO! If you’re black and never heard a white person mention this word, you’ve never had an honest philosophical conversation with a white person who wasn’t a race whore. And if you’re white and never heard this word used by anyone, you’ve never ventured far enough outside your social clique to recognize that at the university you attend(ed), all the black people are being systematically taught that you are irrevocable racists even as they are being induced to segregate themselves and fail at every real world test of success. Breaking through the propaganda to a non-politically correct discussion would be your only chance of having a real relationship with a person of color. But this you will never have.

And don’t miss his link to The Way of Harry, a sermon of a sort in 32 short chapters, that will give you pause. Because it might be utterly true. Or it might be the most racist thing you’ve ever read. Or both. Or neither. Just read it.

Damn, I wish I could write this well.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 04:03 PM   
Filed Under: • Politically-Incorrect •  
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New Addition to the Blogroll

Take a visit to Political Party Poop where Snoop, who describes himself as “I am an exceedingly pissed off Negro Conservative who blogs to keep from killing someone!” holds court. I’m sure he’ll soon also be known as LC&IB Snoop - but only if he wants to - as the Emperor’s fans are going wild for him today. His page is graphics heavy, and it’s just as nice to read as it is to look at. Well done.

Thanks to GrumpyOldFart for the heads up. Now go and spread the love.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 03:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Fitna try number 8

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“I will not submit”





Until we can get the damn thing to run properly on the blog, you can download the Fitna-English.flv file here, do a Save As, and run it on your own PC. It’s bloody huge at 37.9MB, but it works fine. Our version of ExpressionEngine, the thing that drives the BMEWS blog, is being a real pain in the buttocks.


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Sorry, this is just a screencap and a download link



If you don’t have an FLV player, try the Any FLV Player for free. It works great.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 01:33 PM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA •  
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This I Just Had to Post About.

Over at her blog Zoe Brain writes about Feminism getting piled higher and deeper. The post is about women in science, and how certain parties get the reason why women are disproportionately represented in certain field so wrong. Zoe is commenting on Math is Hard by Jonathan Kulick. As part of the article Mr. Kulick presents the following quotation.

The privileging of solid over fluid mechanics, and indeed the inability of science to deal with turbulent flow at all, she attributes to the association of fluidity with femininity. Whereas men have sex organs that protrude and become rigid, women have openings that leak menstrual blood and vaginal fluids. Although men, too, flow on occasion—when semen is emitted, for example—this aspect of their sexuality is not emphasized. It is the rigidity of the male organ that counts, not its complicity in fluid flow. These idealizations are reinscribed in mathematics, which conceives of fluids as laminated planes and other modified solid forms. In the same way that women are erased within masculinist theories and language, existing only as not-men, so fluids have been erased from science, existing only as not-solids. From this perspective it is no wonder that science has not been able to arrive at a successful model for turbulence. The problem of turbulent flow cannot be solved because the conceptions of fluids (and of women) have been formulated so as necessarily to leave unarticulated remainders.
(Hayles, N. K. (1992) “Gender encoding in fluid mechanics: masculine channels and feminine flows,” Differences: A Journal Of Feminist Cultural Studies, 4(2):16–44.)

As so many have so aptly observed, the stupid, it burns.


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Posted by mythusmage   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 07:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Odd-StrangePolitically-IncorrectScience-Technology •  
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Take out the trash

New versions of CCleaner and Spybot - Search & Destroy are out. Both are free, and they do a really good job at removing the junk from your PC. CCleaner removes cookies, fragments, and other junk, while Spybot gets rid of spyware. Spybot’s rootkit tool is still in Beta, but it’s still a great tool for your PC security.

Get CCleaner v2.06.567 by Piriform here

Get Spybot Search & Destroy 1.5.2.20 here


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2008 at 03:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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calendar   Sunday - March 30, 2008

Sign o’ the Times, episode 4

LA Buildings and Parks Designed to Defeat Drive-Bys

Civil Engineers in Los Angeles and other cities have taken a step into the future by looking hundreds of years into the past. They have added a new requirement to their designs: the ability to deflect or defeat gunfire. This in itself is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in urban areas, but it makes good sense. If you can’t cut down on the violence, then try and make things safer for the people who have to live and work there.

Seniors in Steel Plaza’s retirement complex in Pico-Union sometimes like to take their morning walks in the building’s courtyard, protected by a black wrought-iron fence and perched 30 feet above the intersection of West 3rd Street and South Union Avenue.

“We’re quite safe here,” said Victor Gamad, 73, who has lived in the building since it opened a decade ago. “We never get frightened, except for when someone sets the fire alarm off.”

Steel Plaza, which opened in 1998, was designed to be “drive-by proof.” It is one of the early examples of what has become a growing movement in urban sections of Los Angeles to blend public safety with architecture.

“If you just build boxes and windows, you’re not going to help,” said City Councilman Ed Reyes, an urban planner who has adopted the safety-by-design strategy to deal with increasingly crowded neighborhoods.
...
“Every development is geared toward the people that have to live there on a day-to-day basis,” Reyes said. “When we look at the pragmatism of our neighborhoods, we have to ask questions: Where is the bullet going to come from? What projectile elevation should we adhere to in our development? Where should we situate the trees?”
...
Reyes said his goal is to reduce the effect of density. “We can either run away from it,” he said, “or we can ask how we can create relief so that we have our places of sanctuary.”

It looks to me like some folks are using their heads for once. Yes, it would be better if the crime and the shootings went away, but until that happens, it’s better to increase safety when you can. And if you can do it in a way that doesn’t make people feel like they’re living in armored boxes, so much the better.

Parks are being built with earth berms around them so that there is no direct line of flight from nearby streets; bullets fired there would either be stopped by the dirt, or pass way over the people using the place.  I think I’d rather have my kids playing in such a place, if I had no other choice than to live in a drive-by kind of neighborhood.

One example of his office’s work is a 5-foot-high dirt hill built to shield visitors at Rio de Los Angeles State Park from drive-by shootings along San Fernando Road. The 40-acre tract, better known as Taylor Yard Park, opened last year. imageThe hill is fortified by a fence lined with bushes and trees on each side.

Anti-truck barriers are common everywhere these days, not just outside the US Embassy in DustBallistan. Some have even tried to make them attractive and to blend in with the overall architectural design. Naturally the NY Times worries a bit about how all this will impact our psyche, and sublty tries to blame it on Bush:

After 9/11, a craving for the solidity of walls reasserted itself. And the wars on terror, and fractious peaces, enforced it. The Green Zone in Baghdad, Jerusalem’s separation barrier, the concrete bollards that line corporate headquarters on Park Avenue — all are emblems of an unintended new mentality.  Four years after the American invasion of Iraq, this state of siege is beginning to look more and more like a permanent reality, exhibited in an architectural style we might refer to as 21st-century medievalism.



I should note that New York City has very little in the way of drive-by shooting going on, especially in the posh areas like Park Avenue. But the Times did almost come up with a good name for this phenomenom, which I’ll call Modern Medievalism. No windows on the ground floor. All windows at least 3 feet off the floor. Double thick flooring. Thick walls that can stop bullets or at least really slow them down. Barriers that can stop charging vehicles. Strong fences, security cameras, living areas that face inwards like surrounded courtyards. If the world outside has turned evil, you do what you have to do to keep it out.

Casa Loma, a 110-unit residential facility for single parents about four blocks from Steel Plaza, was built in 1993 by the nonprofit group New Economics for Women, which worked closely with Reyes to design the building.

A year before construction, the nonprofit group asked local residents what they wanted in an apartment building.  The result was one of the city’s first child-care centers in a public housing building, apartments built surrounding a large courtyard where parents could watch their children and laundry services on each floor. The apartments are above ground-level, and there are security cameras at all entrances.

“It’s done so the kids don’t have to sleep in the bathtub,” Reyes said. “I have parents telling me that they’re resorting to this because they don’t want their child to get hit by a bullet.”

Note: if you or your children are sleeping in the bathtub to hide from bullets, move. If you can’t - not won’t, but REALLY can’t move - then please make sure you have a cast iron tub. Plastic and fiberglass tubs won’t even slow the bullets down. Sandbags wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

While not actually intended to be bulletproof, many stores have found that they can reduce “smash ‘n grab” crimes by replacing their windows with laminated glass. Laminated glass has a layer or two of high strength plastic in between the sheets of glass, just like a car windshield. Hit it with a rock or a baseball bat and it will break, but into many little square pieces that tend to stay attached to the plastic. It takes more time to bust through, and the smash ‘n grabbers know that time is working against them.

“Laminated glass has gained such a reputation for security that, once the word is out in the criminal community that a store has installed laminated glass, the repeat occurrence of smash and grab attempts at that particular store drops dramatically!”
...
“Criminals will never dedicate more than two, or maximum three, minutes to a smash and grab attack since they know precisely the amount of time needed for the police to arrive from the first alarm bell”.

I do not know if laminated glass is available to the homeowner, but if I ever have to shop for replacement windows you can be sure it’s something I’ll be asking about.

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What about the rest of us, who don’t live in urban areas subject to drive-by gang shootings, or in places where the likelihood of terrorist truck bombs is slight? A post over at Say Uncle the other day got me thinking about home defenses, so I dragged up these old “let’s see what happens” posts over at Box O’ Truth, where I was reminded that most house walls won’t do a thing to protect you from bullets. Similar results were found, in a more scientific way, by this physics guy. About the best you can hope for is a well built, well insulated home with good solid real bricks on the facing. in front of 3/4” plywood sheathing. That should stop pistol bullets pretty well. And be glad that almost no criminals or terrorists use real high powered rifles or buffalo guns. You need about a foot of sandbags to stop them, or a mile or two of distance.

The wall in the diagram is also very quiet too, which is another good thing for urban design. 4” - 6” of cast concrete would probably do a better job, but that might be better suited to an industrial or commercial wall design.





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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2008 at 06:25 PM   
Filed Under: • CrimeSelf-Defense •  
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Another Light Posting Day. Sorry

I’ve got another job to do today, so my posting here will be light. I will really try and get some things up this afternoon, and I’ve given C the go ahead to post the Fitna video here if he can get it to upload (the system doesn’t allow some file types, beats me why). And I’ve got something interesting in the works, about architecture for goodness sake. You’ll like it.

Ok, I’m off to make some more money. Woo hoo!!

Oh, and not to brag too much, but I bowled a 251 in league last night. Best game all season, 5th highest score of my life, best game I’ve ever rolled in league. Our team has a lock on 3rd place at least, and I’m happy with that.  cheese

Ok kiddies, see ya later.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2008 at 01:55 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Fitna finds a home in the USA

big_us_flag  big_us_flag  big_us_flag  big_us_flag  big_us_flag 
The Fitna film is up online, and will stay online, at patdollard.com. Forever. Pat’s the guy who does the Bashman videos. LiveLeak pulled it after caving to threats, YouTube wouldn’t even think of running it. Pat stepped forward.
big_us_flag  big_us_flag  big_us_flag  big_us_flag  big_us_flag 

This isn’t an official “Bashman” video, but I had to turn on the video camera and say a few words regarding what happened over at LiveLeak, and the whole “Fitna” thing.

To all of the ragheaded, mooj, haji, goatfucker, pedophile-worshipping, piglets in the world who want to establish a global caliphate and try and intimidate free people everywhere…Fuck You.

Not on my watch.

Bring it, you miserable pedophile-worshipping piglet pukes…we will NEVER bow to your bullshit yappity yapping.

He says the video has gone totally viral, and has been viewed 10,000,000 times in the past 48 hours worldwide. So if you haven’t seen it yet, then go visit Pat and have a look. Way to go Pat. I hope 5 million more websites can get a copy too.

and when you’re done, read the comments. Mr. Christian points out this one as particularly choice

Tom

Where are the “brave” icons of the film community now?! Where is George Clooney and Matt Damon? They are such paragons of free speech and heck, they have done films about McCarthy and the dangers of totalitarianism.

Where is Hollywood? Marty Scorcese?

The rich elite left would have us believe that not buying the Dixie Chicks CD a few years ago was “censorship” but will not say a peep about Wilders’ film. It is being censored RIGHT NOW. By death threats.

And where are our heroes like Clooney? Getting a facial, botox or hair plugs. Ben Affleck who has heroically faced down Bob Novak on CNN is busy finding a new glue for his fucking toupee.

A film maker is facing true censorship. The ultimate censorship. And where are film makers?

(Crickets chirping.)

I keep seeing trailers for a movie called “Stop Loss”. It’s about an Iraq vet who is called back against his will to another tour. I am certain that the director and the people involved will slap each other on the back and call each other “brave” for making this film.

Wilders has only to look at Theo Van Gogh to know what he faces. Hirsi Ali has been in need of body guards for years. So apparently is Robert Spencer when he speaks.

Islam demands submission from all. Network Solutions has submitted. Liveleak apparently has submitted.

Freedom of speech is a foundational principal in our country and our civilization. It is being taken away by fascism in the guise of a “religion”.

Damn. I like it. I love it.

UPDATE
.... I just watched this film. It’s cut into two parts, and runs maybe 15 minutes. Set mostly to the lovely and ethereal music of Tchaikovsky’s Arabian Dance (what else?), almost the entire film is made up of quotes from the Koran, sermons by muslim preachers, headlines from newspapers, and clips from TV news. Almost every part of this film, you have already watched. Only the last minute or two has any direct message. How can anyone find this objectionable? How can the muzzies want to kill over this, which is nothing more than a reiteration of their own words?

However, put it all together and it’s a powerful presentation. I’m back again in a 9/12 frame of mind, and I want to fight. Good. Righteous anger is another thing that helps fight depression.

Please spread the word and make sure everyone you know knows where to go to see this film. I just watched it again ... and emailed off the link to all my friends and family. I am amazed by how innocuous this short film is. Honestly, there is nothing there, hardly at all. But muslimes want to kill the people who made the film. They want to kill anyone who hosts the film. They probably want to kill anyone who watches the film. And that’s the whole unspoken point of the film: we, the civilized world, have trained ourselves for decades to be as tolerant and accepting of each other as we can, in an effort to end the hatred, resentment, and bloodshed that has plagued mankind for so many generations. Islam is not part of this ascendancy. They are the ass-end-ancy, who have only one response to any criticism of anything they say, think, or do: I keeel you!!. Vx the whole fucking lot of them.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2008 at 12:57 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA •  
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calendar   Saturday - March 29, 2008

Thai Food Jones

Just a quick post. We got some take out Thai tonight from the fancy little place downtown here, and I’m a bit let down. It’s not that we didn’t know better, it’s that we’re spoiled. There are at least 6 top notch Thai places within an hour from where we live, several even garnering top Zagat ratings, but the local joint isn’t so good. But when you’re hungry, and you’ve got to have it now ... well, you know.

Masaman curry is my current favorite. While I cherish many of the other dishes, this one to me is just plain old comfort food. It’s a cross cultural delight; Masaman means Musselman, which is an old way of saying Muslim. So, to support our side, I always order it with pork. See, back in the day the traders brought spices and recipes to Siam from India and the Middle-East, and this one caught on there as an exciting foreign food. All it really is, is marinated meat simmered up in coconut milk with a hot and sweet red curry sauce with extra cinnamon and cardomom, with potatoes and onions added. Sometimes green beans or green peas find their way in, but the best recipes will always have some cashews cooked into them too. Or peanuts, but boiling cashews in coconut milk does something wonderful, whereas peanuts just get soft. Served over steamed rice, a good Masaman isn’t that hot*, just rich and flavorful. And so wonderfully addicting, if you can find a restaurant that makes it right. Our local place can’t. And they don’t even serve it with Ahjaad, which is cucumbers and onions in sweetened vinegar, and has to be the easiest and cheapest side dish on earth.

I’m going to try my hand at making it again. I’ve done this before, and failed. Badly. What I made was edible, but it was Masaman. Here’s one very basic recipe, and here’s a much more authentic one. I’ll get a can of the curry sauce from my favorite Thai place Sunday, and see what I can come up with.

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Masaman Curry with Ahjaad on the side

It’s just meat and potatoes done foreign style with a side order of almost-pickles

graphic snagged from Thai Table

* To those unused to eating hot spiced food, ”not that hot” means enough heat to make the top of your head or your upper lip sweat a little. This might be an upsetting experience to those folks whose spices are limited to salt, black pepper, and the occassional shake of paprika from a 20 year old can. “Quite hot” will cause your tongue to sting and you will sweat. Buckets, in my case. Proper Thai Hot is usually only experienced in a bowl of the classic shrimp, mushroom, and lemongrass soup called Tom Yung Goon. It really ought to be called Tung Sai Ow. Talk about an aquired taste - made properly this stuff smells like last year’s socks. The soup comes to you boiling hot, with little globs of death-pepper oil floating on the surface. DO NOT EVER slurp this soup. If you do the pepper oil will jump off the surface and blast the back of your throat, giving you a sensation akin to loading up a 12 gauge with needles and firing it right into your mouth. After weekly eating for over a year at a Thai place run for Thai customers, not for ”farangs” (foreigners, ie, you and me) we felt we had built up enough resistance to try the soup full power. WRONG. Forget the sweat or the searing mouth burn. Forget that your lips are on fire halfway across your face. No, even ignore that you swear your eyes are bleeding fire. REAL THAI HOT means you fingers sting from coming in contact with a couple drops of the soup. That’s too much for me to handle, ever. On a more positive note, this is the bad-ass dish, and everything else is much milder in comparison. But please, take my word for it, and start off with “not spicy”. After a dozen or so meals you might be able to work up from “mild” to “medium”, and honestly, that’s enough. Any hotter and you’ll miss out on the wonderful give and take of all the different flavors that makes Thai food such a great adventure in eating.

In the USA, a really good Thai restaurant will not serve you proper Thai spice levels until they know you on sight. At which point it’s over, and you can never get anything mild there again, regardless of what you ask for. Lesser restaurants will serve anyone anything, but their idea of hot is usually just piling on the red chili powder. This is hot, but it misses out on the whole idea. Hot should also mean rich, a balance of increased heat with increased flavor.

Neither of the recipes I linked to makes a curry anywhere near as hot as I like, I can tell just reading them. But I’ll try them first, and if they’re good I’ll add more chiles next time around.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/29/2008 at 12:34 AM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
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calendar   Friday - March 28, 2008

No Al, it ain’t the same

This is my contribution to the blogswarm. This story needs to be told and retold until a grassroots swell rises up and overtakes the MSM. We’re just starting to see such a thing happen with Obama and his hateful preacher. Now it looks like some people have finally had enough of Al Sharpton. Finally, finally some voices within the black community are starting to be heard that he’s gone too far. Too bad my voice doesn’t count for much. As a suburban white guy, I would have tossed his lying ass back in the Poughkeepsie gutter 20 years ago with the Tawana thing. 17 years ago I would have sent him to the scrap heap over his part in the Crown Heights affair. And there have been countless instances since then. I feel he is a rabble rouser, a race-baiter, a con man, and a hater. Another “reverend” cast from the same mould as “reverend” Wright, only with a bigger mouth and better fundraising skills. He’s a charlatan and an agitator, and his only purpose is to Keep Hate Alive because he makes money off of it.

Ok, here’s the situation. Two crimes occurred in Florida. On New Year’s Day in Boca Raton, two underage teenage girls went out drinking with 5 older teenage boys. Things “got out of hand” and now

five teens are charged with sexual battery on a helpless person because the then 13- and 14-year-old female victims had downed repeated shots of vodka. According to the teenage boys, at least one of the girls asked in her drunkeness to have sex. Asked repeatedly. Prosecutors recently amended charges so the teens cannot argue consent as a defense. The teens face of a maximum of 30 years in prison.

I’ve read in some comments that this is another case of “humper’s remorse”, which I will not comment on, but from what little I have read it does appear at least possible that this is a junior high school version of “Girls Gone Wild”. Except in Florida that’s a crime. So a hot drunken orgy becomes a statutory gang rape. I don’t even know who provided the booze. The girls? The young men involved all posted bail.

The second case, which happened last summer, is the infamous Dunbar Village gang rape. If you haven’t heard of it, this is another one of those horrendous crimes that makes you want to take a flamethrower to the entire human race, that such mental sickness could exist. A woman and her son were brutalized, gang raped by 10 thugs for 3 hours, beaten, robbed, and burned with chemicals. After cramming a bar of soap into the woman to clean up the evidence, her assailants poured household cleaners over her and her son, and the only reason they weren’t burned alive was because they couldn’t find any matches. And further horrors were perpetrated that you’ll have to go read the link to find out about. I just gave you the light stuff. What makes this horror even worse was that it happened in a Projects neighborhood, and all the neighbors heard what was going on and did nothing. For hours. Get a load of the screen clip from the MSNBC website, and read the caption - this woman gets my vote for Most Heartless Bitch of the Century:
image
Only half of the scumbags have been caught so far. Not only did they leave DNA evidence at the scene, along with fingerprints, they also took cell phone pictures of the crime as it happened, to share with their friends. Real pillars of the community. Those that have been caught remain in jail, waiting to be tried as adults. They range in age from 14 to 18.

The first crime I described was committed by white boys against white girls. The second crime was black on black, in a neighborhood that is almost exclusively black. The first case has a reasonable possibility of not being an act of deliberate criminal intent, the second case was perhaps 50 felonies committed as part of the same event, and was without question done on purpose. Hell, they even took pictures of themselves, to show how baaad they are.

Two weeks ago Al Sharpton pushed it too far. According to Al, with the backing and support of the NAACP, both these cases are the same, and should be treated the same, and it’s deliberate racist behavior that’s the only reason the Dunbar bunch are not free on bail.

WEST PALM BEACH — The Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP activists stood outside the State Attorney’s Office Tuesday morning, protesting what they say is disparate handling of black teens accused in the rape of a Dunbar Village woman and her son and white teens from suburban Boca Raton accused in the rape of their drunk friends.

Sharpton said the black teens remain jailed and the white teens are free on bond, despite them committing the “same act.” “To have different reactions to the same set of circumstances is a crime in itself,” Sharpton said.

What a fuckwit. No, I take that back. He can’t have a functional “wit” to make such a statement. What a moron.

The grassroots movement has started. The Reverend Doctor Renita J Weems, at her blog Something Within posts

This mass open letter is a call to action for all black people who care about the safety and welfare of black women and children in America. If you are concerned about the recent developments about Dunbar Village, please copy the post below, and email it to all of your friends and coworkers.

WE WILL NO LONGER BE SILENT ABOUT VIOLENCE AGAINST BLACK WOMEN.

and suggests that people make their voices heard:

IT IS TIME FOR SENSIBLE BLACK PEOPLE TO STOP THIS KIND OF NONSENSE ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Al Sharpton and the NAACP are banking on the belief that you and I will be just like this black woman’s neighbors. Join me by saying NOT THIS TIME. We will not turn a deaf ear to when we hear calls for help from one of our sisters and brothers who are being victimized.

Stop the NAACP and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network from committing this disgrace in our community. Just this once, let’s stand up and be counted by saying that we demand safe neighborhoods for our women and children.

Here is what you can do:

1. Spread the word. Forward this email if your conscience and concern have been raised. Send it to every concerned black citizen that you know.

2. Demand an explanation from your local NAACP chapter about this case. Cancel your membership to these organizations, and write a letter explaining that you will return when they prioritize the public safety needs of black women and children.

3. If you do not belong to these organizations, call and write them to tell them of your outrage and displeasure:

NAACP National Headquarters
4805 Mt. Hope Drive
Baltimore MD 21215
Toll Free: (877) NAACP-98
Local: (410) 580-5777

National Action Network
Rev. Al Sharpton
106 W. 145th Street
Harlem, New York 10039
212-690-3070
877-NAN-HOJ1

If you know an African American reporter or a black radio talk show host, forward this story to them and ask them to follow up on it.

She already has nearly two dozen black blogs running with this. Feminist blogs are chiming, along with black community cultural websites:

There’s no doubt in my mind that the four teenagers who are accused of gang-raping and sodomizing a Haitian immigrant in West Palm Beach, Florida for three hours straight last June and forcing her to perform oral sex with her 12-year-old son at gunpoint need help of the psychological kind.

What they don’t need, however, is help in being sprung from the Palm Beach County Jail. Yet that’s exactly what the Rev. Al Sharpton is demanding for those defendants, who range in age from 14 to 18.

Last week, the good reverend showed up in West Palm Beach to denounce the denial of bail to the defendants, saying that they are being treated differently from five white teenage defendants from Boca Raton, Florida who are accused of raping two middle school girls after a night of hard drinking on New Year’s Eve, but who were granted bail.

Sharpton needs to choose his battles more wisely.


Regular bloggers are climbing aboard too, because this manifestation of stupidity transcends race and gender issues. Fuckin Al exists only to piss gasoline on the fire, and folks have reached their limits. In the old days it would be time for the tar and feathers. These days what we do is spread the word and convince others, convince everyone, that this fool does not speak for me. Quoth the Rachel:

those two set of circumstances are not the “same”, asshole. Deal with it. That’s why there’s a “different reaction”.

So, Sharpton and the NAACP once again prove that facts, reason, logic, and real justice are the last things on their list of priorities. The good news is that many blacks are seriously pissed off about it.

I am glad that people are finally waking up. Let’s put “reverend” Al in the same lockbox as “reverend” Wright, and throw away the key. I am overjoyed that black groups and women’s groups are speaking up about the horrors of this crime. I support them fully. It breaks my heart that such a pestilential shit hole as Dunbar Village could even exist in the US. Burn it down. It’s a little slice of Hell, right off the beaches.

hat tip to Dr. jeff


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/28/2008 at 04:50 PM   
Filed Under: • CrimeRacism and race relationsStoopid-People •  
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