Howard And Robin Love BSG!

I was listening to Howard Stern this morning, and Howard got an advanced preview of the BSG Season 4 premier episode. He loved it, and Robin was jealous that she didn't get one, since she was the one who got Howard hooked on it. They both claim it's the one of the best shows on TV.

As we all know...

I'm buying the 3rd season on DVD tomorrow, and will tape the new 4th season episodes on DVR for when I'm done. So, like ejp, I demand no spoilers.

At least until I'm more caught up than him. Then, let's taught the procreating fucker...

I love evil; why am I not a cyborg?

Remember this every time you see a CAIR spokesman

CAIR Exposed: Part 1
As IAP Offshoot, CAIR Followed Pro-Hamas Agenda From the Start

by Steven Emerson
IPT News
March 24, 2008

(The following story summarizes our first dossier installment on CAIR which can be found at http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/109.pdf)

From the Hamas ties of its founders in 1994 to its solicitous stance toward accused terrorists today, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demonstrated that its actual mission is far removed from the civil rights advocacy it claims to pursue.

Still standing as perhaps the clearest evidence of CAIR's insidious role, two key leaders of the group attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia called by Hamas members and supporters to devise a strategy for torpedoing the Oslo Accords aimed at Middle East peace.

An analysis of secret recordings of the meeting led the FBI to conclude that the gathering was held "to determine… [the participants'] course of action in support of Hamas' opposition to the [Oslo] peace plan and to decide how to conceal their activities from the scrutiny of the United States government."

Coupled with their support for the jihad in the Middle East, the attendees recognized the critical importance of domestic lobbying in the United States. One discussed encouraging the Islamic community "to be involved in the political life of this country," adding, "We should assist them in this task. This will be an entrance for us to put, through the Islamic community, pressure on the Congress and the decision makers in America."

That's where CAIR came in. Participants in that 1993 meeting discussed tailoring their message to an American audience, speaking of outright deception at times and of softening their rhetoric at others, as the following exchange between CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad shows:

Awad: What is important is that the language of the address is there even
for the American. But, the issue is how to use it.
....
Omar Ahmad: There is a difference between you saying "I want to restore the '48
land" and when you say "I want to destroy Israel".
....
Awad: Yes, there are different but parallel types of address. There
shouldn't be contradiction. Address people according to their minds.
When I speak with the American, I speak with someone who doesn't know
anything. As for the Palestinian who has a martyr brother or something, I know how to address him, you see?
....

Read it all at IPT.

Geeky Saturday

@ The GateTree

Jesus, Why Are You Doing The Big-Arms Thing?

I almost posted Eddie Izzard's take on Easter, but then remembered I already had.

Good BSG News

SciFi has decided to pick up BSG Caprica, the on-again, off-again prequel pilot/miniseries.

The "War on Easter"

We all knew the Christers were going to start bleating about a "War on Easter," just like Christmas, but who knew it would be so funny? Check this out from an extraordinarily ignorant imbecile named Charlotte Allen.

Each time I would be shocked to realize that I was a member of a dwindling minority of people who regarded Good Friday as different from the other 51 Fridays in the year.

Because it's not; time doesn't stop, space doesn't split open, lions don't lie down with lambs, Skittles don't fall from the sky...It's a Friday.

Next she sets her irony phaser to stun: cooking magazines and the Emerald Isle share in the blame.

My latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine arrived the other day, featuring what would have been known in former times as an Easter dinner: roast lamb, asparagus soup, angel food cake. Here, it’s identified as a “spring” dinner, and the issue otherwise contains not a hint that some of its readers might wish to mark the spring by celebrating Jesus’ triumph over death. Not even a recipe for dyed eggs or baby chick-shaped cookies graces the pages of the magazine.

More ominously still, St. Patrick’s Day falls this year during Holy Week for the first time since 1940. The usual green-beer binges did not abate in honor of the solemnity of this week. The saint himself, famous for having brought the bonfires of the Easter Vigil to Ireland, may well turn over in his grave.

Now they're upset that there are TWO religious holidays in the same week? And that some of that religion chose to make one fun? And that cooking magazines won't teach their Christian audience (apparently the only audience worth considering) how to make cute pagan symbols? What do they want Fine Cooking to do, add a step in every recipe that says, "Stop and thank Jesus for dying but then not really dying 3 days later?"

The “Easter parades” of yore in which people strolled in their finery after church are much diminished, if they continue to exist at all.

When the hell was "yore?" I don't ever remember such things. And what does wearing nice clothes and walking down the street with other people have to do with the magical, mythical resurrection of a mystic rebel Jew?

Most importantly, why is this deeply religious bible reader not complaining about the lack of Passover observance? It is a very biblical holiday, after all. What's behind her "War on Moses?"


Thanks to Ed Brayton.

Keats in Space

Our friend Keats Wilkie works for JPL/NASA and has an experiment on the latest Space Shuttle mission. He sent me a note and pictures:
- Mission is going great, thus far. Astronauts activate the experiment Sunday night (Monday morning) at 0030 CDT. NASA may show it live on NASA TV, although you might miss it if you blink. All the astronauts have to do is throw one switch, confirm a light came on, then go back to bed.
- There are some cool pictures of Endeavour on-line now, with the flight experiment (RIGEX) barely visible in the cargo bay. The RIGEX flight experiment is that small can all the way in the back, passenger side, with Air Force decals all over it. It's looking kind of lonely in that last shot. ;-)
- At flickr: one, two, three.

Excellent analysis

The Grey Lady examines that strange specimen, Geert Wilders

Geert Wilders is the Dutch MP who is producing a film on the Qur'an that has the Islamic world in a frenzy even before anyone has actually seen it. This New Duranty Times profile is, well, not as bad as it could have been, but contains several sly digs at Wilders, whom it treats with condescension throughout, and contains almost nothing about the fantastic disproportion of the Muslim reaction to his film, and the necessity of preserving free speech even when some may find it offensive.

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

All Will Be Revealed

It's coming soon,
I can feel it.
Season 4 on 4/4/8.
Season 3 is out on DVD. Must have soon.

I love paleontology

Mummified dinosaur unearthed in North Dakota

BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP) -- Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all.

Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb.

"This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large parts of a dinosaur actually looked like, in the flesh," said Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Manchester University in England, a member of the international team researching Dakota.

Read it all at CNN.com.

Origins of the Robot Holocaust

When the Robot Holocaust comes, none of us will be surprised. We know it's scheduled, and it's really just a matter of whether or not the zombies get here first. We, you and I, are paying for the (incredibly cool) seeds of our own destruction. Turn your sound down, apparently there will be a lot of annoying whirring of gears and motors when the Robot Holocaust comes.

The Strangers.

Looks like something we should check out.

Okay, count me in on this crazy "energy independence" thing

Achieving energy independence

There is no doubt that our resistance to the global jihad is severely hampered by our continued purchase of oil from the Saudis, who have done so much to finance the same jihad. And now six and a half years after 9/11, the President of the United States cannot cajole the Saudi King into agreeing to lower oil prices, as gasoline approaches the four-dollar-a-gallon mark, and yet he has done nothing to initiate any coherent plan to free us from this energy dependence.

It doesn't have to be this way. The Alaskan oil reserves could have been opened up years ago, over environmentalist objections, as a matter of national security. The U.S. could have pursued other oil options much more aggressively than it did, while undertaking a full-scale Manhattan Project to find viable new energy sources. And now in Energy Victory: Winning the War On Terror By Breaking Free of Oil, Robert Zubrin outlines what we can and should do now to keep from continuing to pay at the gas pump for our own destruction.

Zubrin, who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering and was for many years a senior engineer at Lockheed Martin, here outlines a clear and practical program for achieving American energy independence within ten years. He explains in detail that even a non-specialist like me can understand (at least partially!) that a rapid transition to high-alcohol fuels -- methanol and ethanol -- is both practically feasible and desirable.

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

(In case you don't recognize the name, Robert Zubrin is a founder of a society I joined.)

Funny Games

This American version is supposed to be a shot-by-shot remake of the controversial original by the same director.

Strangely Compelling

Brass

Blessed Are The Televangelists, For They Shall Be Filthy Rich

NBC is going after televangelists (and it's about time). And they're hitting the fake, disgusting, tacky Paula White first.

One church board member told NBC News that he was surprised when a 2006 audit reported the church had $25 million in debt, even though it had brought in $35 million that same year.

During the same period, the Whites appear to have prospered with a $2.1 million waterfront home in Tampa, a $3.5 million condo on Park Avenue in New York City and salaries reported to exceed $1 million each. There’s also a costly Bentley convertible, driven by Randy White.

It's like they are trying to live up to atheists' expectations of them, as though they saw their own caricature and mistook it for a mission.

Here's Paula, looking sad. If she loses everything, her plastic surgeon is going to be sadder.

Christians Are Precious

I would file this under "Why The Gays Really Only Vote Democrat."

The gays are worse than terrorists? We're infiltrating city councils? Listen to this and replace "gays" with "Jews." It's a really fun game I like to call "Pin The Hate On The Nazi."

Distracting "Distraction"

Admiral Fallon, who is basically in charge of the military from Afghanistan to Africa, is resigning after reports came out that he opposes Bush on his Middle East policies.

Adm. William J. Fallon, one of the most experienced officers in the U.S. military, said the reports were wrong but had become a distraction hampering his efforts in the Middle East.

Oh, please. Stories known to be true are distractions? If they are untrue, how are they distractions? How distracting is this distraction, and how does it distract? The media will really accept that as an answer?

Here's your real reason:

Gen. David Petraeus, who runs the Iraq war from Baghdad but is technically subordinate to Fallon, was known to have differences with Fallon over the timing and pace of drawing down U.S. troops from Iraq. Fallon has favored a faster pullback.

It's no secret that the higher-ups in the Navy do not like this administration. That they let someone like Fallon stay around as long has he did is rather surprising: these people don't like dissent, however well reasoned and right it may be.

Meanwhile, Petraeus is helping Bush "frame" the war. Bush started by giving a speech mixing "faith and foreign policy" (gag) to those bilking fetishists at the National Religious Broadcaster's convention. I would have a bag handy if you try to read the transcripts.

My Constant Canadian Oil References

Tar Sands in Alberta
Tar Sands in general and the Athabasca Oil Sands - I really got a lot out of this article I didn't know.
A column on our failure to buy it - IBD.

Pachebel Rant

Because y'all (my band geeks) will understand:

Odd disjointed Website - Much Like the Show

Friends of Father Ted - apparently we're not the only ones who occasionally need a "cup of tea father", a "Ferraro Roche", or an exploding Milk Float. Remember - Bishop's love scifi. wiki

I'm adding to the Sunday zombie theme:

The Clintons, a horror film that never ends
by Andrew Sullivan

The Clintons have always had a touch of the zombies about them: unkillable, they move relentlessly forward, propelled by a bloodlust for Republicans or uppity Democrats who dare to question their supremacy. You can’t escape; you can’t hide; and you can’t win. And these days, in the kinetic pace of the YouTube campaign, they are like the new 28 Days Later zombies. They come at you really quickly, like bats out of hell. Or Ohio, anyway.

Read it all at TimesOnline.

Teller Zombie Short

Zombie short/commentary on Vegas tourists:

& Teller

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Music To Buy

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

My new favorite album ever of this month.

Our Journalists Suck

I just heard an interview with Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security (gag), by the BBC. Were that our journalists so cogent and inquisitorial. The interview succeeded in making the administration he works for look like the disgusting authoritarians they are without his realizing it.

And try not to vomit when you read this and this.

I'm officially voting for a Democrat. For the second time. That makes me sad, but I'd rather the Supreme Court be filled by semi-lunatic fascists than by full-out ones. And at this point, my usual Libertarian protest vote just seems empty.

I WANT Republicans to lose, big-time. Because when they do, they become real Republicans. And because I really think that Hillary or Obama will be more fiscally responsible and more pro civil liberties than John McCain. Really. How fucking sad is that?

Fangoria Radio?

Yep, and only on Sirius. Channel 102, 9-11 central Friday nights. I just found out about this, but I think Dee Snider hosts. How fucking cool is that?

Just another reason to pay the $150/year to not listen to tired, soporific terrestrial radio.

And fuck Congress for delaying the Sirius/XM merger. Competition exists in plenitude; and it's not as though, once the merger happens, XM's and Sirius' satellites will spawn missiles and lasers to shoot down competitors.

Gay Marriage Devastates Massachusetts

Not really. Actually the opposite: the state is doing very well thanks to an influx of gay professionals.

Who would have thunk it? Having a bunch of (on average) educated, well-employed workers with lots of disposable income improves an area's economy.

Spc. Jeremy Hall update

Atheist soldier says Army punished him

TOPEKA, Kan. - A soldier claimed Wednesday that his promotion was blocked because he had claimed in a lawsuit that the Army was violating his right to be an atheist.

Attorneys for Spc. Jeremy Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation refiled the federal lawsuit Wednesday in Kansas City, Kan., and added a complaint alleging that the blocked promotion was in response to the legal action.

The suit was filed in September but dropped last month so the new allegations could be included. Among the defendants are Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Hall alleges he was denied his constitutional right to hold a meeting to discuss atheism while he was deployed in Iraq with his military police unit. He says in the new complaint that his promotion was blocked after the commander of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley sent an e-mail post-wide saying Hall had sued.

Read it all @ Yahoo News.

Focus On The Family Disapproves Of Teen (AHEM Male) Homos

Focus on [other people's] Family published an article that "debunks" gay "myths" for young homosexuals. It's all unforgivable ignorance ("science is fact--not theory"?) and transparent logical fallacies, their favorite as always being the straw man variety (what scientist, let alone science organization, has said there is a gay gene? NONE). It's as grotesque as the rest of that sick organization's pogroms, but I point out this one hilarious fact:

It only focuses on male homosexuals. The article only features pictures of young guys, and its arguments try to slip past the fact that gay female relationships and disease risk are very different from those of gay males. It's as though it never occurred to the author that there were really female homosexuals. Hmmmm...

I guess it's because the author thinks lesbos are H-O-T and gay males are gross little fags.

These Christians love the fantasy that the rest of us can't see the cards they aren't showing.

The Prettiest Film Ever

Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books

Why isn't this out on American DVD yet?

New Destroyer Class In 5 Years

The US Navy is beginning construction on the long-delayed, horrifyingly expensive new DDG 1000 destroyers. Estimated cost for the first 2: $3.3 billion each. And last I heard, its new, rather ingenious missile silos (they're along the hull of the ship and would act as protection by blowing outward if the ship is hit) and its long-range heavy guns (which fire rocket-assisted, GPS-guided munitions) still don't work after years of testing and development.

Meanwhile, the Littoral Combat Ship program continues to be plagued with cost overruns, construction delays, and other sundry problems. These ships would be frigates, but seem to me as underarmed as the program seems undirected. Two of each potential version of this new class were to be built, but now the Navy is settling for one of each as it tries to nail down these "cheap" ships' sky-rocketing pricetags.

Why am I so unexcited about the Navy's new ships? Am I missing something? And why the name that sounds like my local TV station's latest weather radar (DDG 1000)?

It does look fucking cool though...

In our backyard....

Chavez, FARC, Threaten Wider Regional Conflict
By Douglas Farah

The reaction of presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador to the killing of FARC commander Raul Reyes is now threatening to plunge South America into a disastrous conflict.

"This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said. He warned Colombian president Alvaro Uribe: "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois" _ Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.

This is no small threat. In the past several years Chavez has spent , according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, $4.3 billion in weapons in 2005-2006, more even than China. This includes a Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47) factory licensed from Russia. For a nation not at war, this is hardly an auspicious sign.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

30 Days

Said a little about 30 Days of Night over at my place.

Notre Dame?!?

The Wacky World of Tariq Ramadan
By Jeffrey Breinholt

Tariq Ramadan is an enigma. The grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna and the son of the late top Brotherhood leader in Europe, the Swiss academic is the probably the most celebrated Muslim public "intellectual" on the planet today. He is no longer welcome in France or Egypt, and his appointment to the faculty of Notre Dame is very much in doubt, based on the Department of Homeland Security's denial of his U.S. visa. The denial is premised on his financial support to Hamas, which Ramadan claims was - ha! - inadvertent. There is now the first book-length English biography of him, a translation of Caroline Fourest's Frere Tariq (in English, Brother Tariq). My review of it can be found on the website of the Investigative Project on Terrorism .

Read it all @ Counterterrorism Blog.

Evidence Iron Man Will Suck

Because this may be the coolest movie trailer ever: "Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."



A sharper version and article here.