Carnival time again

Yes, the Carnival of Comedy is back.
And yours truly is among the "wits" represented.
Pay a visit, if you will.

No pictures

There is a "disturbing" trend developing among some of my regular reads.
The authors are putting their pictures on their blogs.
Now, that in and of itself isn't bad.
The Exile from Hillary's Village started the trend. Handsome devil, he.
Then, The American Princess revealed her facial appearance to us.
Most recently, joining the ranks of the pictorially-adorned was Regular Ron.
Fortunately, there has been no cry for the visage of this author.... which doesn't matter, because if any pictures go on this blog, it will be those of (A) my kids, for whom I want the best and don't see it happening with liberalism; or (B) my dogs, Mackie the lovable lug and Jasper the wonder barker.
Consider yourselves fortunate.

Someone up there gets it

There is a Canadian of some import who gets the War on Terror.
Fortunately, he's now in charge of the Canadian armed forces.
Canadian Press has this report about General Rick Hillier:
If Canadians were shocked that the head of their military called his enemy "detestable murderers and scumbags," they better get used to it. Gen. Rick Hillier has never minced words, nor is he likely to start any time soon.
His blunt assessment of terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere this week has the wholehearted backing of the prime minister.
"General Hillier is not only a top soldier, he is a soldier who has served in Afghanistan," Paul Martin said Friday in Nova Scotia. "The point he is simply making is we are at war with terrorism and we're not going to let them win."
Wow. This week's Paulie Librano is tough on terror.
The general had more good stuff to say, too.
"We are not the Public Service of Canada," he declared. "We are not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces and our job is to be able to kill people."
The terrorist bombings in London underscore the need to take the fight to the enemy in failed states where they have room to thrive, said Hillier.
As a Western society that values rights and freedoms, Canada is already in conflict with "what people like Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and those others want."
"These are detestable murderers and scumbags," Hillier said. "They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties."
Of course, the CP found dissenting views in quite a hurry.
The Polaris Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Ottawa, said Friday the defence minister needs to "clarify" Hillier's "very alarming" comments.
"His use of epithets such as 'scumbags' and 'killers' is reminiscent of language used by (U.S.) President (George W.) Bush and U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld," said project director Steven Staples.
Taken alongside recent defence policy changes and an increase in the defence budget, Staples said they "show an unmistakable trend toward the Americanization of the Canadian Forces."
Adrian Gordon, executive director of the Centre for Emergency Preparedness, gave a qualified endorsement of Hillier's blunt talk.
"Part of me agrees with that, part of me says that's true," Gordon said in an interview from Burlington, Ont.
"But at the same time, if we're really going to deal with this problem and have a hope of putting an end to terrorism, then we have to work towards understanding the root causes, which go much deeper than current events in Iraq and Afghanistan."
I won't even dignify Mr Stapled Head's remarks.
But Mr Gordon, if you really want to understand the root causes of terror, they're very simple.
What part of "they want to kill you because they hate you" don't you understand?
General, a salute to you, sir!

Return for re-grooving returns

Another weekend, another round of Return for Re-grooving.
Let's get started.
Melissa Chavez. According to Earthlink News, this woman tried to hitch a ride from a police officer in Santa Fe, N.M., on Thursday. The officer who stopped conducted a warrant inquiry. Authorities say the inquiry showed Chavez had an outstanding warrant for failure to comply with provisions of a prior charge of criminal damage to property. Melissa wound up getting a ride to the Santa Fe County jail. Yo, Melissa, you need a re-grooving. Now.
Bob Goodenow. Any lawyer who costs his clients hundreds of millions of dollars through sheer incompetence, as the NHL players union chief did for his clients, deserves a thorough re-grooving. Start immediately.
John Nilson. The health minister of Saskatchewan has urged Saskies to contact friends and relatives in Alberta about Alberta's new health care proposals. Isn't that called interference? (Shoutout to Kate.)
Melissa Tanner. Must be a tough week for Melissas out there. This Bartlesville, Okla., woman is accused of having a blood alcohol content close to three times the legal limit when she gave birth to a baby girl on June 30. Yes, I know -- albeit not from first-hand experience -- that giving birth can be a painful experience, but I don't think half a case of beer, self-administered, is the recommended anesthetic. Re-groove, please.
Joe Wilson. This so-and-so has thrown out more lies that have been bought by the MSM and the Dumbocrats in l'affaire Rove. Turns out that even the New York Times, that ultimate purveyor of liberal rubbish, prints that the reporter who blew the cover on Wilson's wife as a CIA operative told Rove -- and not vice versa -- about the story. And who were Robert Novak's sources, anyway? I'm betting a couple of Wilson's buddies in the State Department... if not Wilson himself! Probably Dumbocrats, at that. Why do you think the Times is so stubborn about keeping their reporter in jail, rather than blowing the source? No way they protect a Bushite, my friends. Re-groove Mr Wilson, Dennis.
Till next time.

Border insecurity

The Minutemen are at it again, according to the Washington Times.
More than 15,000 volunteers will man observation posts and conduct foot and horseback patrols this fall along the Mexican border from Texas to California and in seven states along the Canadian border in a new Minuteman vigil to protest what organizers call the government's lax immigration enforcement policies.
Chris Simcox, who heads the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said volunteers from throughout the country who are "concerned that the U.S. government must be made to act and take control of our borders" are signing up in record numbers for the new monthlong patrols set to begin Oct. 1. ...
He said the new volunteers will be deployed in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and that other Minuteman groups will patrol the border regions of Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Vermont and Washington.
By my geography, a couple of states are missing from that list.
But I hardly expect the Alaska border would be a source of problems. And I guess we trust Albertans and Saskatchewanites, so there's no one in Montana. Even New Hampshire's tiny slice of the border is such difficult terrain that they don't expect problems.
But where are the volunteers in New York?
The state closest to Canada's largest cities, Toronto and Montreal.
The state closest to the cities where terrorist groups are known to be in operation.
No volunteers there?
Mr. Simcox, get some people to New York for your project.

Toronto, friend to terror?

Canada in general and Toronto in particular are places to watch for terrorist cells, a former FBI agent who specializes in terrorism studies told a conference in Canada this week.
You won't find this story as important enough for the Red Star to send a staffer, so you'll have to rely on this report from Canadian Press:
The perception of Canada as an immigrant-friendly place with myriad ethnic backgrounds makes it a perfect destination for would-be terrorists, a former FBI agent said at an international conference on disaster management.
Ty Fairman, who has interviewed several of the world's most notorious terrorists, said Muslim radicals looking to travel to the western world look at settling in Ontario because of the high concentration of Muslims already living there.
Sixty-one per cent of the country's estimated 750,000 Muslims reside in the province, Fairman said, and five per cent of those live in Toronto — the most of any city in North America.
Fairman, who helped conduct raids of Al Qaeda safe houses in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said training manuals compiled by the infamous terrorist network outline how aspiring insurgents can best infiltrate western nations.
"One of their main missions, as far as expansion, is to travel to places undetected, unnoticed, go to places with lenient immigration laws," Fairman told more than 500 delegates in today's keynote speech.
"Hmm, ring a bell? Canada."
Ooh, did this one get the anti-American Librano government up in arms.
The federal government swiftly rejected any notion that the country's immigration policies are a draw for international terrorists.
"Our immigration laws take into account the same issues and the same commitment to openness and immigration as the U.S. and the U.K.," said Alex Swann, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan.
"There's no need to single Canada out in that regard."
Oh, yeah, Mr Swann? Last I looked, we didn't allow al-Qaeda families to set up shop and get support from the government, which your government is doing with the Khadrs.
I think there's a very special need to single out the current Canadian government in that regard.
And, Mr Swann, one other thing... you have a lot of chutzpah comparing your policies to those of the US of A. After all, your politicians tend to think we're bastards.

NHL hockey is coming back!

They've got a deal. The players won't like it. The owners will love it.
Will there be enough fans to support it?
In some cities, yes; in others, no.
What should happen next, or at least within six months -- both Butthead Bettman and Not Goodenough Goodenow should be turfed.
I don't know who should succeed Not Goodenough, but Wayne Gretzky should be in charge of the NHL. The game now needs a salesman. Gretzky can do it.
---
The fine print's still not out there yet, so I'll have to conjecturize and see what Devils are in the details. I will, however, go out on a limb and make a few predictions.
** Buyout City will be a busy place, with the likes of John LeClair, Tony Amonte, Martin Lapointe and perhaps even Jaromir Jagr topping the list. (As I read the deal now, even after the rollback, Jagr's take would break the 20 percent max going to one player.)
** Calgary's Flames are going to have to make a tough decision, one that could cost 'em the league's best player in Jarome Iginla, thanks to that 20 percent rule. They're either going to have to spend more than they've spent in recent years to maximize their cap position, and, in turn, Iginla's salary, or leave him far enough short of the league max that he will have to move on to maximize his profits.
** The New York Rangers will do at least three stupid things in the mad rush to get enough players under contract to open training camps right after the U.S. Labor Day.
---
At any rate, it's about time we got some good news on this front.
Now, if we could just do something about the Martinites...

Some people are so thick

It now appears that the London blasts were the work of murder-suicide bombers.
The Islamokillers don't seem to run out of these types, do they?
It boggles the mind, especially when you realize that these guys are told beforehand that they're going to hell, yet they still strap on the explosives and blow themselves and others to smithereens.
Why do I say they're told they're going to hell?
Well, Osama Looney Bin Laden, al-Zarqawi and their ilk are promising these souls 72 virgins, courtesy of Allah, when they arrive at their final destination. Why 72? Who knows? Maybe there's some significance in 72 that I'm missing.
But these folks are buying into it.
There's only one small problem.
The murder-suicide bombers are not going to be in a position to do a thing with any of the 72.
You see, they're dead.
And dead men don't have sex.
When you die, you are no longer a corporal being. You become a spirit. Spirits don't have sex. So having 72 virgins at your disposal and no means to satisfy your primal urges is hell, isn't it?
There is, of course, the possibility that you could undergo reincarnation... but I believe that only applies to Shirley MacLaine, who in her next life will return as a moonbat. (Oh, you say she's one now? Never mind.)
Also, the way Osama, al-Zarqawi, etc. present Allah don't exactly put Allah in the most positive of lights. They make him out to be some sort of sexual procurement agent (translation: pimp).
I would tend to think that Allah should not be quite so sexist. After all, there are female murder-suicide bombers, too.
And what good would 72 virgins do them?

Courthouses and the Decalogue

The truth about the Ten Commandments and courthouses is really pretty simple. The Decalogue has no place at a courthouse.
How do you think lawyers, judges, politicians and fixers like being reminded of their weaknesses?
Imagine...
"Thou Shall Not Steal."
"Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery."
"Thou Shall Not Lie."
I think the operative phrase these days would be "hostile work environment."

Shoutout: Adapted from a missive from my cousin Allan. Where he found the original, I don't know. But this needed to be seen.

Intermittency

For the rest of the summer, it's going to be a wild run of either big bursts or dry spells. Too many projects drawing my attention at the homestead, plus vacation time, plus family visiting us, etc., etc.
Today's a big burst day after a wild weekend.
Thanks for keepin' the faith.

Is the Screech getting it, maybe?

People might get killed in a terrorist attack, but there are more important things to worry about, according to the Screech.
From Canoe:
TORONTO - Canadians need to be better prepared to handle the psychological fallout of a terrorist attack like the one that struck London last week (emphasis mine), federal Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said Monday.
The efforts in recent years of police and the Canada Security Intelligence Service make it clear Canada is not immune to terrorism, but Canadians still seem oblivious to the danger, McLellan told an international conference on disaster management.
"CSIS and the RCMP, among other law enforcement agencies, have made it plain that there exists in this country those who might very well choose, either themselves or with others, to do harm," McLellan said.
Experience, she noted, has prepared Canada well for natural disasters such as floods, ice storms and hurricanes, and the SARS outbreak two years ago has sharpened the country's ability to respond to the threat of infectious diseases.
But there's still a lot of work to do bracing for the global threat of terrorism, such as establishing closer communication between urban transit systems, McLellan told the gathering of more than 1,500 emergency officials including police, military and medical professionals.
Nor is Canada immune to attacks just because it didn't participate in the Iraq war, she added.
"I think we have perhaps for too long thought that these were things that happen somewhere else . . . the self-image we may have of ourselves, it may be accurate, but completely irrelevant in the world in which we live."
Hmmm... there at least is a sign of consciousness. Not much, but a sign.
Better put a stop to that, Paulie. You can't have your Public Safety Minister saying that Canada, home to at least 50 terrorist organizations, including some that have donated to the LPC, saying that there are people now in Canada that might do Canadians harm, eh?

Humor, Hillary-style

Hillary was on the campaign trail this weekend.
This from Newsday:
The Democrat from New York also accused Bush of depriving U.S. soldiers of equipment needed to fight the war in Iraq and cutting funding for scientific research during the inaugural Aspen Ideas Festival, organized by the Aspen Institute nonpartisan think tank.
"I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Newman is in charge in Washington," Clinton said referring to the freckle-faced Mad Magazine character. She drew a laugh from crowd when she described Bush's attitude toward tough issues with Newman's catchphrase: "What, me worry?"
Points to consider:
* The Aspen Institute is no longer a nonpartisan think tank.
* Hillary Clinton's reading material consists of dated humor magazines.
* I'd rather have someone in the White House acting, not sitting around worrying. (We saw how efficiently terror was fought in the 1990s while Hillary was worrying about it... not!)

Tolerance

Tolerance.
Great word, isn't it?
What exactly does tolerance mean? The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others, according to Dictionary.com, at least as the first definition.
Seems to me there's something missing from that definition... the ability to discern between that which can and should be tolerated and that which cannot and should not be tolerated.
* I can and should be tolerant of the religious practices of a Hindu family that lives nearby. I cannot and should not be tolerant of the drug dealer who occasionally sets up shop a couple of miles down the road.
* I can and should be tolerant of the law-abiding family of a different ethnic background. I cannot and should not be tolerant of those who would break the law with impunity.
Tolerance, to me, requires a certain standard that should not be violated. Perhaps it's nothing more than common decency... and those who choose to flaunt that common decency should not be tolerated.
Tolerance therefore means I can accept those of any persuasion who comport themselves responsibly. When their behavior becomes irresponsible, I no longer consider myself under order to tolerate that behavior.
There are other definitions for the word tolerance, according to Dictionary.com.
The last seems of particular import these days, in the wake of London:
The ability of an organism to resist or survive infection by a parasitic or pathogenic organism.
Can our civilization resist and survive infection by the pathogenic organism that is the Islamic extremist movement?
Sadly, the answer, thanks to the likes of the hard left, is not certain.

Holy cow

You know, we've got all this mad cow discussion going on and have had it for years.
But our wonderful government in the US of A can track a single cow down with this deadly disease right from birth to its current residence.
Yet, we've got what -- 11 million or so -- illegal aliens (Translation for the politically correct: undocumented residents) here in the States that we can't find.
What's wrong with this picture?
My cousin Allan gets the shoutout for this riff, which he passed along in joke form.

Islam: Two perspectives

Over the weekend, two of my regular reads posted excellent reads on Islam.
The Great Pumpkin questions whether we can ever co-exist with Islam. Just Thinkin' tells the story of at least one Islamic family that has no truck for the terrorists.
Both are worth your time.