Saturday, March 11, 2006

Ho Hum....Arkansas wins ANOTHER track national championship

This is for you scooter. Tonight, Arkansas won the NCAA 2006 Indoor Track and Field National Championship. That's NC #42 in track and field and/or cross country since 1984.

Congrats to the Hogs!!!! WOOOOOOOOO PIG SOOOOOOOIE!!!!

Word Test

This is kind of interesting. So far I have 14. I gave a copy to T and expect she'll have most soon.

via LauraW. at Ace.

UPDATE: We (mostly T) got all but two so far, 31 and 33. LJ's comment indicates he (probably mostly C) got them all. Thanks for the sports and South Africa hints.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Scooter's heading to Athens...

Back soon.

Sunnis and Shiites

Brief history of the conflict between the two from Gene Edward Veith at Worldmag.com reads in part:

The division and the unforgiven grudges go all the way back to 632 a.d. when Muhammad died. Who would succeed him as the leader of what was becoming both a religious and a political empire? One group claimed that the prophet had chosen his cousin and son-in-law Ali. These "Shiites"——a shortened form of the words for "the party of Ali"——believed that future successors should be physical descendants from the prophet's family.

The other faction believed Muhammad had said that future rulers should be chosen by consensus of the other leaders. They chose the prophet's father-in-law, Abu Bakr, to be the "caliph." His followers became the "Sunnis," from a word for followers of the "tradition."


Then followed a civil war; read the article to find out who won.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Re: Clever and silly

Yes . I started to write that what you listed wasn't smart enough, but I was wrong.

Re: Sudoku

She's the master.

Does Mrs. Michael Sudoku?

I've only recently discovered it.

Re: Clever and Silly

Monty Python, of course.

Others:

Cheers
Buffalo Bill
Airplane
Caddyshack
That early HBO comedy series...the book publisher who watched too much TV as a kid

My new favorite movie

Why doesn't the MSM broadcast these type of movies? Believe me, I love "Shawshank Redemption", but how many times a week does it need to be TV? To help with loading time, it is divided into 3 parts:

Part 1 (23 minutes)

Part 2 (24 minutes)

Part 3 (33 minutes)

Pop some popcorn...pour yourself a beverage... put on your conspiracy hat...and enjoy.

Athens, Texas Rep calls for Contract w/ US Redux

From today's Townhall.com:

Led by Representatives Mike Pence (R-IN) and Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) [including Athens], the unabashed band of conservatives proposed a return to fiscal sanity by introducing an austere federal budget proposal modeled after the budget proposal contained in the 1995 Contract with America. The RSC calls their proposal the Contract with America: Renewed.

Re: Begging the question

As I'm sure you suspected, a pet peeve of mine, too, especially when used by those who should know better.

I confess; I'm a language snob.

Begging the question

This drives me nuts. I read and hear people who ought to know better misuse this phrase all the time. Here's an example I read today from Doug Wilson, the chairman of Townhall.com and co-author of a book he's promoting in this post:

". . . thus begging an important question: Is highway funding still the federal government's business?"

No, no, NO. To "beg the question" is to make an argument that assumes the proposition to be proved and is a type of circular argument. See here (3b) and more expansively here (scroll down to "Modern usage" to see a description of my complaint).

I first noticed the corruption of this phrase about five years ago and it has exploded in the last couple of years. Fie!

How to destroy the Earth

Johnny Damon t-shirt seen @ Bosox Camp

From Russ Smith at the NY Press, quoting the March 5 Globe:



"Looks like Jesus, acts like Judas, throws like Mary."

Capitalism and Hattie McDaniel

Time for my weekly paean to Ms. Noonan. In her column today she points out that it was Selznick's capitalism that really pushed the frontier:


"It would be nice to see them start to understand that rediscovering the work of, say, C.S. Lewis, and making a Narnia film, is not 'giving in' to the audience but serving it. It isn't bad to look for and present good material that is known to have a following. It's a smart thing to do. It's why David O. Selznick bought 'Gone With the Wind': People were reading it. It was his decision to make it into a movie from which he would profit that gave Hattie McDaniel her great role. Taboos are broken by markets, not poses."

Update: Occurs to me that Branch Rickey (sp?) did the same thing.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Disaster strikes Scooter household

My remote broke.

Coulter says Hard out Here for a Pimp a step forward

More Coulter on the Oscars:


"I believe this marks the first time in Oscars history that an award recipient shouted, 'Thank you, Jesus!' upon receiving his award. Admittedly, this was the only part of the speech that didn't have to be bleeped and it was for a song titled, 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,' but it's still a step forward."

RE: Republican primary

Wow. You're in Delay's district? I thought he was Sugar Land...that's some powerful gerrymandering. Was it always so?

Re: LJ and Oscars and 40 OZ.

Funny you should ask. Before the telecast, I had never heard any of the 3 songs (even though I saw "Crash", I didn't remember the song). So after hearing them Sunday night, I thought that "Pimp" was the best of the 3 (not that that says a lot for the 3 songs). I wish they hadn't changed the words though - it was my understanding that they had the OK to say "ho" and "b*tches", but decided not to when they perfomred it. I could have done with out all the dancing and stuff though.

And speaking of NWA, they STILL kick a**! And don't forget Houston's own Ghetto Boys!! They were even more hardcore than NWA.

Do you know who Nina Gordan is? She was the lead singer of a group called "Veruca Salt". They had a couple of hits. She is solo now and has an AWESOME cover of the NWA song "Straight Outta Compton". Check it out here (warning, the lyrics are explicit and are not bleeped).

Finally - 40 oz is correct (though I've never had one).

LJ and Oscars and 40 OZ.

As the whitest guy (LJ, not me) I know to have liked NWA (enter at own risk), I was wondering what LJ thought of "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp?"

Go Molly, Go!

I think Ms. Ivins needs a hug. If she really thinks these are the three issues:

1) Iraq is making terrorism worse; it's a breeding ground. We need to extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by staying.
2) Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from the halls of Washington.
3) Single-payer health insurance.

that will garner the most votes for "progressives" in 2008, by all means dems, jump on board.

Chuck Colson on "Crunchy Cons"

Here at Townhall.com.

Re: 9/11 conspiracies & not adding up

The ultimate why I guess would be so that ultimately we get into Iraq and make all those bucks for DDE's military industrial complex. But wow, what planning. Destroy World Trade Center to get to Al Qaida...to get to Afghanistan...to get to Iraq.

Re: NR in Houston

I don't exactly excel at such events without cover. I'll be in Austin.

Re: Steyn demographics

I think they did grow soft under our protection. Not having to field a military for 50 years has allowed them to develop their fat economic policies and give new meaning to the term "welfare state." As the cultures grew more and more self-obsessed, the less productive they became.

Being less productive (35 hour work weeks, WEEKS of vacation, early retirements, artificially high wages) has led, somewhat counterintuitively, to the decline of the populations.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Re: What doesn't add up?

1) Where is the wreckage from the Pentagon crash?
2) Why haven't we seen any footage of the Pentagon crash, even in the first few days when the MSM kept replaying the WTC footage over and over and over?
3) Where are the "black boxes"? Rescue workers say that 3 of the 4 were recovered - the FBI says none survived.
4) Why was the FBI inspecting the WTC complex with bomb sniffing dogs on 9/10?
5) Why were the tapes of the interviews with air traffic controllers destroyed?

To name just a few

What doesn't add up?

Re: 9/11 conspiracies

Reading for fun. There are all kinds of sites that talk about what happened and how it happened (in their view) - but none of them talk about WHY. Even if they talk about the military or some rogue section of the CIA or whatever, they never give any reasons why. That is what I'm looking for. Because I can (somewhat) buy into the theory that we haven't been told everything, that some things don't add up, that some things have been covered up, but I'd be much more inclined to believe the wacko theories if any of them answered the simple question of.......why?

Republican primary

I proudly voted against Delay, David Dewhurst, and Orlando Sanchez today. Thank you. Don't ask me whom I voted for. I voted against.

Re: Steyn demographics

They didn't go soft under our protection, did they? Doesn't the phenomenon Steyn is talking about start much later? Or am I missing your point?

Re: NR in Houston

I don't see how I can justify it. I expect you're on your own.

Update: Of course you'll stay here. Didn't mean to imply otherwise.

Re: Noonan

Here's her site. Nothing about speaking engagements.

Re: 9/11 conspiracies

I echo Scooter's inquiry: are you reading for fun or are you buying this stuff? I read you as the former. If not, lay out the "evidence" and let's have at it.

Re: Noonan

I've never heard her speak live but would love to some time. I'll see if I can find a website that calendars (is that a verb?) her engagements.

Re: 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

So Barbara Olsen spotted in Europe...that's the real reason Ted stepped down as Solicitor General.

RE: Hey, some of us have lives, you know & Sheila

I have no life so I have no excuse.

As to the 9/11 conspiracies, do you mean that you're enjoying reading the contorted logic for the fun of it? Or, are you seriously pondering why they can't come up with the why? Wow, if the administration/Halliburton was responsible, they sure moved quickly following the inauguration...or, had they been planning it for years?

(Glad you aren't so far gone that you'd be blinded by Sheila's raw intellect.)

Re: Sheila Jackson Lee

There are ONLY 2 reasons why I would ever move back to Houston 1) to move into Tom DeLays' district so I could vote against him or 2) to move into SJLs' district so I could vote against her. I honestly can't say who I think is worse - one is a crook and the other is an idiot.

Sadly - they can never lose in their districts (well, maybe DeLay these days), so I guess it wouldn't matter, so I might as well stay in Dallas.

More Steyn Demographics

From his website:

There is a third option. Unlike the Europeans, many of whom will flee their continent as Eutopia evolves into Eurabia, the Japanese are not facing ethnic strife and civil war. They could simply start breeding again. But will they? What’’s easier for the governing class? Weaning a pampered population off the good life and re-teaching them the lost biological impulse or giving the Sony Corporation a license to become the Cloney Corporation?

This is just getting depressing. While enjoying the benefits of living under American military protection, these nations have turned into soft, me-first economies/societies. The next 25 years are going to be interesting indeed.

Sheila Jackson Lee

Michael's favorite Congresswoman on Fox this morning, actually sounding somewhat sensible on ports issue though her call for a six month to two year moratorium on foreign deals seemed excessive.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Hey, some of us have lives, you know.

I have been chastised for not blogging in what, a couple of days? Geesh, give me a break.

Anyway....I've been perusing the net the past few days, reading up on 9/11 conspiracy theories. There are so many sites and articles talking about all the inconsistencies with pictures, images, debris, etc. I even found some talking about the helicopter flying around the Trade Centers before the planes hit (guiding them in according to the theories) and after (detonating charges that ACTUALLY brough the Towers down). Stories about how Barbara Olsen (supposedly on the flight that hit the Pentagon) is reportedly alive in Europe. And I could go on and on and on.

But what I can't find is anyone explaining why - why either persons and/or agencies of our gov't were behind it.

Anyone?