To: The Washington Post From:

To: The Washington Post
From: Me
Re: Arafat's Death

I hate to tell y'all this, but Arafat was a Muslim, hence he can't ever go up for canonization. I'm no imam, but I'm pretty sure they don't have saints in Islam.

Which means, on the whole, you might want to leave off with publishing sentences like,

For virtually his entire adult life, Yasser Arafat had one
dream, and he pursued it with such energy and zeal -- some would say
fanaticism -- that he came to personify the dream itself.

Or this

By dint of ruthless violence often directed at civilians,
artful manipulation and the sheer theatrical force of his personality,
he managed almost single-handedly to elevate the grievances of a few
million disenfranchised Palestinians to a prominent place on the
world's political agenda.

Or this

He was reviled by many Israelis, who saw in him a
modern-day Hitler, revered by many Arabs, who loved him for restoring
their shattered sense of honor, and lionized by the Norwegian Nobel
Committee, which awarded him the Peace Prize in 1994.

Or this

His trademark black-and-white checkered kaffiyeh headdress,
folded and draped meticulously to describe the shape of Palestine,
became a sartorial symbol not only for the Palestinian cause but for
Third World revolutions in the Cold War era. The fascination with his
persona was so great that dozens of Western interlocutors felt
compelled to ask him why he kept his scruffy salt-and-pepper beard (he
liked it) and why he didn't marry (he finally did, at 61).

Or this

Still, few doubted his knack for survival, the product of astonishing talent, luck or intuition.

Or this

He was a born activist, obsessed with Arab politics and the
fate of Palestine by the time he was a teenager, and he was endowed
with a knack for ingratiating himself with his peers and leading them.
While a college student, he plunged further into the cause, and before
he was 19, he was helping to buy and ship arms to Arabs in Palestine in
the twilight of the British Mandate.

Or this

He seemed an odd choice to lead them; his family lived in
Cairo, and unlike the men he commanded, he had not been driven from his
home by Zionists. Yet none was as dedicated as Arafat. He neither
smoked nor drank, cared little for restaurants or European travel, had
no family and made little time for women. The Palestinian cause was his
life.

I could go on, but I think you get the gist. The reverential tones you
have employed for the obituary of a terrorist are entirely unpalatable
and would be making me gag, provided I'd eaten breakfast this morning.I
haven't yet.But after reading that piece of crap, I don't believe I
will be for fear of losing it.

Posted by: Kathy at 08:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Most of the networks have

Most of the networks have called MN for Kerry.
Ummm, the husband begs to differ.
And I quote:
As of 12:47 am CST on this site,
there are 2,265,433 voters reported, and so far 76% of the precincts
have reported. That leaves approximately 543,000 votes left to report.
The margin for Kerry at this time is 91,381 votes. If the remaining
votes split 60/40 for Bush, the totals would be: Bush - 1,366,221 and
Kerry - 1,348,862. Judging by the other results of the outlying MN
counties, a 60/40 split in favor of Bush is very likely.

UPDATE: I don't think it's going anywhere, and I'm going to bed because I'm freaking tired.

The networks are pussies. They could have called Iowa an hour ago.

Shitheads.

Also, Teddy Kennedy is an asshole.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This woman needs to stop

This woman needs to stop driving in circles.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi
has sued the United States because its economic embargo on Iran is
blocking publication of her memoirs in America, a literary agency said
on Wednesday. Iranian human rights lawyer Ebadi said she wanted to
write a book for a U.S. and international audience about her life and
career "as a woman, a mother and a lawyer living and working in a
country that confronts many human rights problems." The suit filed by
Ebadi and the Strothman Agency seeks to strike down U.S. Treasury
Department regulations requiring a license to publish authors from
embargoed countries such as Iran -- a nation dubbed in 2002 as part of
the "axis of evil" by President Bush along with Iraq and North Korea.
"The ... regulations seem to defy the values the United States promotes
throughout the world, which always include free expression and the free
exchange of ideas," Ebadi, who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, said in
a filing to the court. She has completed a draft of the book in Farsi
but needs the help of an agent and editor in America to translate and
re-write the book for international readers, she said. But Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) rules are blocking her from signing a
contract with the Boston-based Strothman Agency, which wants to
represent her and negotiate with publishers on her behalf.

Somehow, this woman who apparently is intelligent enough to win the
frickin' Peace Prize , yet isn't smart enough to realize that Shari'a
isn't ever going to allow her to publish her seminal work...ever.
Yet, somehow, she believes she's entitled to publish her work here,
even though there's a law against doing just that, because Iran is a
repressive country that sponsors terrorism worldwide and the United
States has said we shouldn't do business with them.
Hmmmm. To be clear about it, Ebadi, has gone on record claiming that
Shari'a---particularly the Iranian version of it---is a valid form of
law. Even though she was a judge and the mullahs don't think she's
qualified to be one anymore because she's a woman.
Even though the people she defends have generally been shafted one way
or another by the government because they've run afoul of Islamic law.
She still thinks this system works; she's just advocating her clients
and perhaps striking a blow here or there.
Ahem. Bitch, if you want to publish your work here, move here. Only
then you will be entitled to conduct commerce on our shores. If you
want to publish your work in Iran, well then maybe you should stop
supporting repressive legal systems and work toward a free society.
One, in particular, that respects women and treats them as equals. I,
for one, don't want to read a book about a "{..}a woman, a mother and a
lawyer living and working in a country that confronts many human rights
problems." And I really don't want to read a book written by a woman
who supports a country she claims "confronts human rights problems"
when it's obvious even to Stevie Wonder that Iran is all about doing
precisely the opposite. To quote John McClane: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Stop being part of the problem.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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(Ha Ha. Get it?) Lileks:

(Ha Ha. Get it?)

Lileks:

{...}What matters is the quality of coffee. I don̢۪t like
Caribou Coffee very much; it has a burnt and oily quality that reminds
me of . . . well, Starbucks. But at least Caribou isn̢۪t trying to
sell me a Lifestyle, and Starbucks always tries to flatter me with CDs
and bookstore tie-ins and pretentious backstories for the various
blends. {...}

Oh, please. He's getting it all wrong.

First off, Caribou is trying to sell you a lifestyle.
I know. I used to sell the lifestyle. Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but
they do have CD's for sale. They've also got neato travel mugs, too.
And little stuffed Caribous. They've even got a drink called The Campfire Mocha
which, as Mr. H. made me taste the other day, is a combination of
chocoate, coffee and marshmallow flavoring, designed to make you
remember the smores you concocted over the campfire when you were a wee
cub scout. The one organic blend they have is Rainforest---which I will
fully admit is garbage---but the minute you mention "organic" people
are all over it like white on an albino. They're trying to sell you the
Caribou lifestyle, which is something like "stop by the Bou on
your way up to the North Woods! We won't care if you're decked out in a
thousand dollars worth of Patagonia fleece and look absolutely
ridiculous, we don't care!" Second, of course, there are also
pretentious backstories for the coffee. You just won't get the story
unless you sidle up to the counter to buy a pound of beans, or the
employee behind the counter has time to blow. The La Minita Peaberry, for example, is a special kind of coffee, or so I told my customers. It's
exclusive to Caribou. A peaberry is a rare coffee bean, only one out of
every twenty beans that are picked are peaberries: they look like a
little football and have a denser flavor to them. La Minita is our
plantation in Costa Rica, and we purchase all of the peaberry. No one
else has it, and we only have it for a limited time. Oh, well, it is
expensive, but I can tell you because it's what I keep on hand at
home---when I'm able to get it---that you won't run through it as
quickly as you would a normal coffee bean. Because of its denseness you
get more ground coffee from one peaberry than you'll get from ... I
think you get the picture: part bargain (which, to this day, I will
stand by because it's true), part yuppy buying incentive because of the
exclusiveness, and part romantic ideal that this is coming to them
straight from the mountains of Costa Rica. He misses all that, but then
when it's time to get down to brass tacks, he says the coffee "{...}it
has a burnt and oily quality that reminds me of . . . well, Starbucks."
Oh, my. Where to start?
1. While Caribou is more than pretentious in many aspects, what they
are not pretentious about is how they care for their beans. They do
care. While it sounds pretentious in itself, Carbiou tailors the roast
of the beans to the natural flavor of the varietals (i.e. Costa Rica,
Kenya, Ethiopia) and blends (Daybreak, French Roast, Espresso). In
other words, since Kenya has a lot of flavor naturally, you wouldn't
want to lose that flavor by burning
it. Conversely, the beans that comprised the French Roast blend were
ones that were best served by being roasted in the flames of hell for a
long period of time. I explained this to, literally, thousands of
customers over the three years I worked for Caribou, and you wouldn't
believe how many of them simply refused to believe that Caribou's Kenya
is what Kenya should taste like. The story would go something like
this: I had a great Kenyan AA at (insert some random store name
here)in (insert random city name here) and it was the best thing I ever
had. That's what Kenya should taste like. It tasted nothing like your version.
Taste is a peculiar thing; when you're commodotizing something that's
already been commodotized a thousand times over, by a thousand
different people, you're never going to win.
I have no idea what kind of coffee Lileks has set in his mind as the
coffee standard, but Caribou's coffees, unless you're specifically
drinking the dark roasts, aren't going to taste burnt. They just don't.
2. I never thought Lileks would fall prey to an urban myth, but he has.
Contrary to what Melita tells you when it sells its filters---ahem---there is supposed to be oil in the coffee when it is brewed because that's where the flavor comes from. Like, duh.
There should be an oily residue on your tongue when you take a sip
because, again, that's where the flavor comes from. This is a texture
issue not one of taste. There's a difference. A cup of brewed coffee
without oil on the top is sludge. I can't tell you how many people I've
had to disabuse of this stupid myth over years of selling coffee. If
you want coffee without oil swirling around the top, well, start
drinking Folgers brewed through a filter thicker than your average
dishcloth. 3. When I worked for the Bou, the worst thing anyone could
ever say to us was that our coffee tasted like Starbucks. Not only did
we have to deal with people coming in and ordering a "Vente
Frappacino," we were being held to the standards of a chain that
honestly couldn't have given a rat's ass about its coffee. It was an
uphill slog and it still is for the people who work at Caribou. I still
won't spend money at Starbucks. I refuse to. There was a reason why we
gave them the nickname "Charbucks." They roast the hell out of their
beans, (because, cough, cough, they buy cheapo wholesale beans!) and
all that fabulous flavor that's naturally imbued into the bean is lost
because they're tailoring their product toward a customer who sincerely
believes that the darker the roast, the higher the caffeine content.
(Another myth: the lighter roasts on Caribou's scale,
like Kenya have a higher caffeine content.) I would recommend that
Lileks try the lighter roasts, like Daybreak or even the LaMinita if
the store has it brewed that day. That's what coffee is
supposed to taste like. Honestly, some days it was like being a
sommelier at a five star restaurant and having to convince people that
no, Night Train is not what wine is supposed to taste like.

I totally realize this throws me completely into the geek department, but I don't go off and critique Star Trek
episodes, do I? Nope. I don't. I don't touch them with a ten foot
cattle prod. Mainly because you couldn't pay me to, but also because I
don't know anything about it. I do, however, know a lot about Caribou
and I honestly believed in the product when I was selling it for a
living, and I still believe in it because that's where all my coffee
comes from when we can afford it. They put out a good product. If
you're looking for me to slag off on them, well bring up their
management compensation/promotion plan and I'll go to town!

Posted by: Kathy at 01:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So, sometime this week is

So, sometime this week is my birthday. My brother, Tim, sent me a card,
like he usually does. Accompanying the card was a CD of pics from his
recent trip to Kauai. Bastard. Does he send me a present? Nope. Does he
send me a gift certificate for a facial? Nope. Does he send me cash?
Nope. He sends me none of these things. Instead, for my
birthday he chooses to send me pictures of his and his wife's 15th
anniversary trip to Hawaii. And this after I downloaded a batch of
music and fried a CD for him, especially for his trip. So, you know,
he'd have something to listen to on the long flight over. Since I have
nothing better to do, I thought I'd share with you all. Because I'm
generous like that. Unlike my brother*.
*And Timmy, should you be making one of your infrequent
stops here, realize that this is a JOKE and that I really do like the
pictures very much. But you still could have forked out for a facial.
Really.

Of course, should you be of the opinion that bigger really is better, click on the photo for, er, enlargement.


That's Darlene, Tim's Wife. She's totally innocent in all of this.


I could spend a few hours there. Wouldn't hurt me at all.


Apparently, they took a cruise around the island.


More hot boat action.


Kauai is beautiful. Who knew?


Check out the whale!


Smooooke on the mountain....


Of course, you must have a little romantic sunset action. It is their 15th wedding anniversary, after all.


Speaking
of which, today is their anniversary. So....
Happy Anniversary, Tim and Dar!

Posted by: Kathy at 12:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This notation was penned

This notation was penned in beside the photograph:

"...Josh...oops,
I mean Brad kept trying to feed me straw. Jane's a hottie, but her
husband's a friggin' idiot. Fer chrissakes, dude, I've got a butt going
here. Is he blind? I'm trying to smoke and here he's are trying to
domesticate me. Get a clue. I'm on my break and I'm a UNION llama: I
get what I want, when I want it. That's the power of labor!"
Sigh.
So, here we have more evidence of the Llamas descension into
leftist-celebrity brownnosing hell.
They really are a pair of suckups, aren't they? I wonder if there's a
twelve-step program for this sort of thing? I'm sure there is, but I'll
admit, I'm just too lazy to go looking for it. Anyhoo, as we all know,
the first step in any recovery of this kind is admitting you have a
problem and Steve's in serious denial. And I believe an intervention is called for.

Because, you know, I really do
care.
I hate to point out the obvious, but I never actually admitted defeat.
I simply said that a llama in a waistcoat would be better at playing
Mr. Darcy than Matthew MacFadyen. Nothing more. Nothing less. Methinks
the technical term is "projecting," but I'm no shrink, so I'll leave it
up to the medical community to label him appropriately. But for me,
I'll just say this: Good Gravy, man! Realize that's Josh Lyman trying
to feed you straw? Have you no shame?

Posted by: Kathy at 11:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I wonder if they're going

I wonder if they're going to charge interest?

Posted by: Kathy at 11:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Or at least I think

Or at least I think that's how the French say it. And spell it. Erm. Anyway...

Ahem.

I just came across this and I do believe I'm going to succumb to a case of the vapors, ala Mrs. Bennet.

Kiera freakin' Knightly???????

I think not.

Jane, bring the salts!

Posted by: Kathy at 11:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Interesting article from the NY

Interesting article from the NY Times Magazine on Kerry's foreign policy.

Here are the highlights:

But when you listen carefully to what Bush and Kerry say,
it becomes clear that the differences between them are more profound
than the matter of who can be more effective in achieving the same
ends. Bush casts the war on terror as a vast struggle that is likely to
go on indefinitely, or at least as long as radical Islam commands
fealty in regions of the world. In a rare moment of either candor or
carelessness, or perhaps both, Bush told Matt Lauer on the ''Today''
show in August that he didn't think the United States could actually
triumph in the war on terror in the foreseeable future. ''I don't think
you can win it,'' he said -- a statement that he and his aides tried to
disown but that had the ring of sincerity to it. He and other members
of his administration have said that Americans should expect to be
attacked again, and that the constant shadow of danger that hangs over
major cities like New York and Washington is the cost of freedom. In
his rhetoric, Bush suggests that terrorism for this generation of
Americans is and should be an overwhelming and frightening reality.
When I asked Kerry what it would take for Americans to feel safe again,
he displayed a much less apocalyptic worldview.
''We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not
the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance,'' Kerry said. ''As a
former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end
prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're
going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the
rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally,
it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the
fabric of your life.'
This analogy struck me as remarkable, if only because it seemed to
throw down a big orange marker between Kerry's philosophy and the
president's. Kerry, a former prosecutor, was suggesting that the war,
if one could call it that, was, if not winnable, then at least
controllable. If mobsters could be chased into the back rooms of seedy
clubs, then so, too, could terrorists be sent scurrying for their lives
into remote caves where they wouldn't harm us. Bush had continually
cast himself as the optimist in the race, asserting that he alone saw
the liberating potential of American might, and yet his dark vision of
unending war suddenly seemed far less hopeful than Kerry's notion that
all of this horror -- planes flying into buildings, anxiety about
suicide bombers and chemicals in the subway -- could somehow be made to
recede until it was barely in our thoughts. {...}The challenge of
beating back these nonstate actors -- not just Islamic terrorists but
all kinds of rogue forces -- is what Kerry meant by ''the dark side of
globalization.'' He came closest to articulating this as an actual
foreign-policy vision in a speech he gave at U.C.L.A. last February. ''The
war on terror is not a clash of civilizations,'' he said then. ''It is
a clash of civilization against chaos, of the best hopes of humanity
against dogmatic fears of progress and the future.'' This stands in
significant contrast to the Bush doctrine, which holds that the war on
terror, if not exactly a clash of civilizations, is nonetheless a
struggle between those states that would promote terrorism and those
that would exterminate it. Bush, like Kerry, accepts the premise that
America is endangered mainly by a new kind of adversary that claims no
state or political entity as its own. But he does not accept the idea
that those adversaries can ultimately survive and operate independently
of states; in fact, he asserts that terrorist groups are inevitably the
subsidiaries of irresponsible regimes. ''We must be prepared to stop
rogue states and their terrorist clients,'' the National Security
Strategy said, in a typical passage, ''before they are able to threaten
or use weapons of mass destruction against the United States and our
allies and friends.'' {...}By singling out three states in particular-
Iraq, North Korea and Iran -- as an ''axis of evil,'' and by invading
Iraq on the premise that it did (or at least might) sponsor terrorism,
Bush cemented the idea that his war on terror is a war against those
states that, in the president's words, are not with us but against us.
Many of Bush's advisers spent their careers steeped in cold-war
strategy, and their foreign policy is deeply rooted in the idea that
states are the only consequential actors on the world stage, and that
they can -- and should -- be forced to exercise control over the
violent groups that take root within their borders. Kerry's view, on the other hand, suggests that it is the very
premise of civilized states, rather than any one ideology, that is
under attack. And no one state, acting alone, can possibly have much
impact on the threat, because terrorists will always be able to move
around, shelter their money and connect in cyberspace; there are no
capitals for a superpower like the United States to bomb, no
ambassadors to recall, no economies to sanction. The U.S. military
searches for bin Laden, the Russians hunt for the Chechen terrorist
Shamil Basayev and the Israelis fire missiles at Hamas bomb makers; in
Kerry's world, these disparate terrorist elements make up a loosely
affiliated network of diabolical villains, more connected to one
another by tactics and ideology than they are to any one state sponsor.
The conflict, in Kerry's formulation, pits the forces of order versus
the forces of chaos, and only a unified community of nations can ensure
that order prevails. One can infer from this that if Kerry were able to speak less
guardedly, in a less treacherous atmosphere than a political campaign,
he might say, as some of his advisers do, that we are not in an actual
war on terror. Wars are fought between states or between factions vying
for control of a state; Al Qaeda and its many offspring are neither. If
Kerry's foreign-policy frame is correct, then law enforcement probably
is the most important, though not the only, strategy you can employ
against such forces, who need passports and bank accounts and weapons
in order to survive and flourish. Such a theory suggests that, in
our grief and fury, we have overrated the military threat posed by Al
Qaeda, paradoxically elevating what was essentially a criminal
enterprise, albeit a devastatingly sophisticated and global one, into
the ideological successor to Hitler and Stalin -- and thus conferring
on the jihadists a kind of stature that might actually work in their
favor, enabling them to attract more donations and more recruits.
{...}He would begin, if sworn into office, by going immediately to
the United Nations to deliver a speech recasting American foreign
policy. Whereas Bush has branded North Korea ''evil'' and refuses to
negotiate head on with its authoritarian regime, Kerry would open
bilateral talks over its burgeoning nuclear program. Similarly, he has
said he would rally other nations behind sanctions against Iran if that
country refuses to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Kerry envisions
appointing a top-level envoy to restart the Middle East peace process,
and he's intent on getting India and Pakistan to adopt key provisions
of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. (One place where Kerry vows to
take a harder line than Bush is Pakistan, where Bush has embraced the
military ruler Pervez Musharraf, and where Kerry sees a haven for chaos
in the vast and lawless region on the border with Afghanistan.) In all
of this, Kerry intends to use as leverage America's considerable
capacity for economic aid; a Kerry adviser told me, only slightly in
jest, that Kerry's most tempting fantasy is to attend the G-8 summit.
{...}When Kerry first told me that Sept. 11 had not changed him, I was
surprised. I assumed everyone in America -- and certainly in Washington
-- had been changed by that day. I assumed he was being overly
cautious, afraid of providing his opponents with yet another cheap
opportunity to call him a flip-flopper. What I came to understand was
that, in fact, the attacks really had not changed the way Kerry viewed
or talked about terrorism -- which is exactly why he has come across,
to some voters, as less of a leader than he could be. He may well have
understood the threat from Al Qaeda long before the rest of us. And he
may well be right, despite the ridicule from Cheney and others, when he
says that a multinational, law-enforcement-like approach can be more
effective in fighting terrorists.{...}

{my emphasis)
So, according to Kerry there isn't a war on terror, per se, but rather
an overlarge, yet "myopic" response to the attacks on 9/11. Not a clash
of civilizations but rather a "clash of civilization against chaos." A
more effective way of dealing with those chaos-inducing terrorists
who'd like to kill us is by serving them with indictments, even though,
dare I say it
when Clinton did the same damn thing it didn't really serve as a
deterrent to future attacks, ya dig?
He, basically, thinks it will all just go away if a law enforcement
tack is taken. Americans will rest easy, they'll go to bed at night not
worrying about waking up to see planes slamming into tall buildings.
Because, of course, unless you have him out there chatting up world
leaders and mullahs and doing his diplomacy bit, you don't have the
"law" part of "law and order," do you? Gotta have that law. It's
crucial. Because everyone respects laws, don't they? I mean, the UN is just a friggin' palace of virtue, right? It has to be. It's the
UN after all. Al-Qaeda is just like organized crime, only with rags on
their heads rather than fedoras. There's no difference between thugs,
after all.
Christ.
You want more attacks? By all means, vote for Kerry. If he should win,
however, I don't want to hear one goddamn word out of anyone about why
did this happen? how can we prevent it from happening again? why do
they hate us so much when we took the warm-friendly-bunny approach to
foreign policy? You either get it or you don't. If you don't, and
you choose to vote for Kerry, well, you'd better keep your trap shut
the next time we're attacked. I don't want to hear your whining.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Devoted Cake Eater Readers I

Devoted Cake Eater Readers I present to you Tommy Lee: University of Nebraska-Lincoln...student.

LINCOLN, Neb. - Multi-tattooed rocker Tommy Lee (news), a
high school dropout, plunged into life as a University of Nebraska
student Thursday — for reality TV. Lee mingled with fellow
Cornhuskers for an NBC show in which he'll take classes in chemistry,
literature and the history of rock 'n' roll. Flanked by production
crews and cameras, Lee bought books and Nebraska apparel at the
University Bookstore while a mass of onlookers strained for a glimpse.
"It's like a big circus," student Paul Penke said. On Monday, the
Motley Crue drummer will even try out for the Nebraska marching band.
NBC spokeswoman Susan Ross said the network hopes to get six episodes
worth of footage for a series set to air next summer. Lee will have a
tutor and live off-campus.

Since the football team's not doing so hot this year (by Nebraskan
standards, anyway)I'm sure Tommy's visit to Lincoln will be the hottest
thing since they filmed Terms of Endearment there and Jack Nicholson flew in for a few hours to shoot.

He'll have to drive to Omaha to find hookers, though.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Man, are we living in

Man, are we living in a nanny state or what?

*what would Pele do? Methinks Pele would say whatever
the Portugese equivalent of "What the f@$k are you people thinking?"
happens to be.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Courtesy o' Martini Boy, The

Courtesy o' Martini Boy, The Horserace Blog has done some interesting research on
county voter registrations, and it doesn't look good for Kerry.
The thing the Strib continuously ignores in its rush to define
Minnesota in Garrison Keillor terms is the massive demographic shift
that's been going on since the mid-90's. According to the Strib,
there's still great respect for the Scandahoovian Liberal way, and of
course we'll all respect that great liberal tradition and vote
accordingly. Despite the fact we have a very
conservative Republican governor. Despite the fact that the majority of
our House representation is Republican. Despite the fact that Normy-Boy
Coleman bitchslapped Walter Mondale (the Walter Mondale. Former
VP. You know who I'm talking about) to become Senator after Wellstone
died. Wellstone's memorial service did the DFL no favors in that
election, either. The facts are there for anyone who cares to look. The
place is going conservative. It's happening and has been happening. Are
my findings of a scientific nature? Nope. They're strictly the product
of my observations. Look at the most recent poll conducted
by that pillar of journalism, The Star Tribune. If Minnesota is really
as liberal as the Strib and everyone else would have us believe, well,
why is Bush within seven points? I think it's an exceedingly fair
question, given what the nation believes about Minnesota's political
views and given the last two elections, where Republicans have
succeeded over DFL guys they wouldn't have beaten ten years before. To
be fair, the Strib has admitted that Minnesota is in play, but
still...the editorial endorsements will, generally speaking, be DFL
across the board, and I guaran-frickin'-tee you that in at least one
endorsement, probably the one for Kerry, they will blather on about the
great Scandahoovian liberal tradition that is Minnesota's and will
suggest that people vote according to that tradtion, because it's our own.
Maybe twenty years ago it was our own. Not anymore. While I'm not
discounting the fact that redistricting has been kind to Republicans,
seats were shifting right before the Legislature got its hands on the
census reports. Jesse Ventura, while still to the left of Norm Coleman,
nonetheless beat out the uberliberal Skip Humphrey (yeah, he's Hubert's
kid)for governor in 1998. To my mind, Mark Dayton's election to the
senate in 2000 is an abberation because he outspent Rod Grams by
millions of dollars. And I mean millions of dollars. You couldn't turn
the damn TV on without seeing an ad for Mark Dayton. It was disgusting.
Moving along, if Wellstone had lived, my gut feeling is that he would
have been reelected, but by a very small margin that would have been
chalked up to the incumbent factor and not because he convinced anyone
that he was the best man for the job. Normy Boy's a popular creature
here in the Cities, and he ran a great campaign in 2002. But what's
more is that, even though he's a Republican, he genuinely appeals to
conservative Democrats. After all, he used to be one. What's surprising
about his success, though, is that he never suffered for his
switcheroo. Everyone kept bleating on about how he would pay and he
never did. If Jesse hadn't appealed to so many 18-24 year-olds, well,
it's very possible he would have been governor. Norm came in second in
that very close race. But, like I said, none of this really means
anything because they're just my observations, but still...the
evidence, once you look at it rationally, adds up. It's tight now, and
it's going to get tighter. I'm going to be the only person in the state
of Minnesota who's not
surprised if Bush takes it. I genuinely think it could happen. If it
does happen, it will be by a few thousand votes and not a few hundred.
Such a defeat will leave a mark on the DFL'ers and will force people to realize that---duh---Minnesota's going conservative.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In a piece he wrote

In a piece he wrote for the Weekly Standard Jonathan Last is nicer to George Lucas than I have been.

A small sampling:

These changes, counterproductive as they are, should be
endurable. After all, George Lucas created these movies. He has the
right to wreck them if he wants. But Lucas isn't just putting out
newer, flawed versions. He is embarked on a campaign to create The One
True Version of the Star Wars mythology. You see, every time Lucas
tinkers with one of his movies, the changes becomes the official
version. The older versions are then quietly and efficiently erased
from the public record.
If you want to see the Star Wars movies as they once were, tough luck.
You'll need to go to eBay or the black market and pay hundreds of
dollars for the 1993 laserdisc set, or find a bootlegged DVD of the
same. The early, unscarred VHS editions are all aging and deteriorating
and besides which, were mostly in pan-and-scan full screen.
In a few years the original versions of the Star Wars trilogy will be
vanished completely. Many filmmakers put out director's cuts of their
movies, which are sold alongside the theatrical versions. George Lucas,
on the other hand, is so obsessed with airbrushing history that at the
end of the day, only Jar-Jar Binks will be left seated on the couch
with Lenin.

Ah, well. Jonathan's a pro and Lucas likes to sue. I can't blame him
for watching his words, which, by far, is the most eloquent sum-up on
the subject that I've read. Go read the whole thing.
But, hey, if you want to read a few posts about George that aren't
nearly so well-written, but are more vents to get that nasty, icky bile
out, you can go here, here, here and here.

And yes, I still think what he's done to Sebastian Shaw is particularly despicable.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you're going to commit

If you're going to commit an armed robbery,
it might behoove you to have arms that work, eh?

Posted by: Kathy at 10:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Holy Crap, that must have

Holy Crap, that must have been one noisy, bothersome chicken.
I don't think the dog earned any "man's best friend" points here,
either.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Cheney took Edwards over his

Cheney took Edwards over his knee and spanked him.

Try and get that
image out of your head, why don't ya? Anyway, I could go through the
minutiae and detail out how and why he was spanked, but the ultimate
conclusion would be the same. So, honestly, why should I bother?

Posted by: Kathy at 10:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yep. The BOOBIETHON'S still going

Yep.
The BOOBIETHON'S still going
on.
Get over there and DONATE, damnit! There's something for everyone.
And they also need *more* pictures from bloggers to be submitted. So,
if you're a blogger and haven't been involved to this point,now is the
time to bear your mammaries! Honestly. If I can get over myself to do
it, you can, too!

Posted by: Kathy at 06:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If for no other reason

If for no other reason than Michele is whipping the big guns out. She appears to be worried.

Hmmmmmm.

{Insert conversation overheard at the DIA smoking lounge yesterday}

First Guy: Yeah, there's nobody better than the Yankees. They'll win...eventually.

Second Guy: Yeah, they're just tired. Nobody's better than them. They'll pull it together. Like they did in '78. When that one guy hit it over the Green Monster. God, what was his name?

{Time passes. Brain fart ensues}

Kathy (who can't take their ignorance any longer): Bucky Dent?

Second Guy: Yeah, Bucky Dent! That's him! Thanks!

First Guy: Never heard of him.

Posted by: Kathy at 04:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, maybe not. Particularly if

Well, maybe not.

Particularly if there's the potential for a gun shot wound.

Posted by: Kathy at 03:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hmmmmm. So, Robbo denies cuddling

Hmmmmm.

So, Robbo denies cuddling up to Susan Sarandon. Typical. He calls it "slanderous." Well, no, Robbo, actually it's libelous, because I didn't say it, but rather published
it, but we won't quibble about the semantics. And that's only dependent
upon if it's actually a lie. (And he claims to be a lawyer!) Then he
threatens retaliations.
Well, Steve-o, on the other hand, reacted quite differently.
One can only assume this is because he's a tenured political science
professor and feels safe admitting he's actually a liberal. He shot
down the claim of libel quite quickly and decided to take a tack
reminiscent of a certain New Jersey Democratic Governor: he not only
admits that they posed with Susan "Everyone Should Drive a Hybrid, The
Death Penalty is Wrong Because I Played a Nun in a Movie That Won Me an
Oscar So That Opinion Must be Right" Sarandon, but submits that Heifer
International's catalog used the wrong photograph. One can only
assume that he means they airbrushed off some extra llama ass fat or
something like that. Until one actually reads what he has to say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah---like you'd turn down having Susan
Sarandon put you on a leash?(I'm talking to Macktastic Rusty Wicked and
INDCent Bill, folks!) Come on, that's one hell of a fluffy sweater---of
course I'm not going to ask what type of wool that is. As to Patricia
Heaton, we the LLamabutchers would not only allow ourselves to be
leashed, but I'd even let her pose with a croquet mallet.

Then he goes on the attack with a claim about who's holding out on whom. (And yes it's whom)

I submit for your persual:




Gack. Like I'd ever let Michael Moore take part of my caloric, chocolately goodness. Pffft. As if.
Yet, just to remind you to consider the source of this libelous attack,
I went snooping through the Llamas private scrapbook and lookie what I
found:



Just so you know, it's not just the hotties they're snuggling up to. One of them even let Ed Asner
hold their leash.
Consider the source, people.

Posted by: Kathy at 03:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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