--- Kofi In a Nutshell

--- Kofi In a Nutshell

Now, despite revelations about bribery in the UN's oil-for-food
program for Iraq, the world is clamouring to entrust Annan with the
future of more than 20 million Iraqis who survived Saddam Hussein
dictatorship. That is because of who Annan is and what the UN has
become: an institution in which no shortcoming, it seems, goes
unrewarded.

Go read the whole thing.

(Hat tip: Instapundy)

Posted by: Kathy at 10:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

--- Kofi In a Nutshell

--- Kofi In a Nutshell

Now, despite revelations about bribery in the UN's oil-for-food
program for Iraq, the world is clamouring to entrust Annan with the
future of more than 20 million Iraqis who survived Saddam Hussein
dictatorship. That is because of who Annan is and what the UN has
become: an institution in which no shortcoming, it seems, goes
unrewarded.

Go read the whole thing.

(Hat tip: Instapundy)

Posted by: Kathy at 10:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

VATICAN CITY : The abuse

VATICAN CITY : The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US
soldiers is a scandal offensive to God himself, the Vatican said, in
its first public comment.
"Violence against people offends God himself, who made humans in his
own image," the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo,
said in a pre-recorded television interview due to be broadcast later
on Friday...

*

Posted by: Kathy at 10:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

VATICAN CITY : The abuse

VATICAN CITY : The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US
soldiers is a scandal offensive to God himself, the Vatican said, in
its first public comment.
"Violence against people offends God himself, who made humans in his
own image," the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo,
said in a pre-recorded television interview due to be broadcast later
on Friday...

*

Posted by: Kathy at 10:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

Apparently, the Cake Eater Chronicles

Apparently, the Cake Eater Chronicles is in the top five results for
Google searches on Muntada al-Ansar, which is the website where the
Nick Berg video originally aired. Why this has happened, is beyond me.
I don't do algorithms. Never got that far in high school math. If
you're one of these people, welcome to Cake Eater Land. I'm assuming
you're looking for the video so please to the Northeast Intelligence Network.
Scroll down and you will find a link to the video.
(Apologies to Northeast Intelligence Network. I emailed, but received
no response and I really wanted to get this post up. Please hit the
link on the side and email me if you would like it removed.)
Their servers apparently have been slammed, so it will take some time
to download. And, if possible, you should hit their tipjar to defray
some of the bandwidth costs they're incurring to provide this very
valuable service. A service, I will add, that should have been provided
by the mainstream media but to date has not been. Show your
appreciation in an appropriate way.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.

Apparently, the Cake Eater Chronicles

Apparently, the Cake Eater Chronicles is in the top five results for
Google searches on Muntada al-Ansar, which is the website where the
Nick Berg video originally aired. Why this has happened, is beyond me.
I don't do algorithms. Never got that far in high school math. If
you're one of these people, welcome to Cake Eater Land. I'm assuming
you're looking for the video so please to the Northeast Intelligence Network.
Scroll down and you will find a link to the video.
(Apologies to Northeast Intelligence Network. I emailed, but received
no response and I really wanted to get this post up. Please hit the
link on the side and email me if you would like it removed.)
Their servers apparently have been slammed, so it will take some time
to download. And, if possible, you should hit their tipjar to defray
some of the bandwidth costs they're incurring to provide this very
valuable service. A service, I will add, that should have been provided
by the mainstream media but to date has not been. Show your
appreciation in an appropriate way.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.

...It's only basketball, after all.

...It's only basketball, after all.

Peeler's punch happened. It's over. Bring on Game 7. That,
in Garnett's case, provides a perfect opportunity to dig deep in his
bag of metaphors.
"This is it, all the marbles," he said. "I'm sitting in the house
loading up the pump, I'm loading up the Uzis, I've got a couple of
M-16s, couple of [guns] with some silencers on them, couple of
grenades, got a missile launcher. I'm ready for war."

Yeesh. And people said Barkley was bad about shooting his mouth off. (Pun intended.)

Posted by: Kathy at 10:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 100 words, total size 1 kb.

...It's only basketball, after all.

...It's only basketball, after all.

Peeler's punch happened. It's over. Bring on Game 7. That,
in Garnett's case, provides a perfect opportunity to dig deep in his
bag of metaphors.
"This is it, all the marbles," he said. "I'm sitting in the house
loading up the pump, I'm loading up the Uzis, I've got a couple of
M-16s, couple of [guns] with some silencers on them, couple of
grenades, got a missile launcher. I'm ready for war."

Yeesh. And people said Barkley was bad about shooting his mouth off. (Pun intended.)

Posted by: Kathy at 10:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 100 words, total size 1 kb.

"WHERE'S MY METAMUCIL, GOSHDARNIT!

"WHERE'S MY METAMUCIL, GOSHDARNIT! I'M SO CONSTIPATED THAT SHIT IS ABOUT TO FLY OUT OF MY EARS---AND IT'S PAINFUL!

Posted by: Kathy at 10:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 27 words, total size 1 kb.

"WHERE'S MY METAMUCIL, GOSHDARNIT!

"WHERE'S MY METAMUCIL, GOSHDARNIT! I'M SO CONSTIPATED THAT SHIT IS ABOUT TO FLY OUT OF MY EARS---AND IT'S PAINFUL!

Posted by: Kathy at 10:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 27 words, total size 1 kb.

Christ. ST. LOUIS - Energizer

Christ.

ST. LOUIS - Energizer Holdings Inc. is appealing to the
rock 'n' roll sensibilities of baby boomers by enlisting 1980s rocker
Pat Benatar (news) to boost sales of hearing-aid batteries. "Our
generation has helped shape American culture, especially since we're
the first to be raised on rock 'n' roll," Benatar says in a brochure
for Energizer's new marketing campaign, "It's Hip to Hear." "From
Aerosmith to the Rolling Stones, our music defines us, but all those
years of rockin' are beginning to take a toll," she says.

Yeah, and Social Security and Medicare aren't going to be around by the
time I hit the mandatory retirement age (which will be roughly around
the same time that Methuselah cacked) because said boomers are going to
suck those programs dry. Not like I mind all that much. I've got other
plans, but damn. Must we be subjected to years of advertising dedicated
to easing their aging pains whilst paying for it simultaneously?

Posted by: Kathy at 09:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 171 words, total size 1 kb.

Christ. ST. LOUIS - Energizer

Christ.

ST. LOUIS - Energizer Holdings Inc. is appealing to the
rock 'n' roll sensibilities of baby boomers by enlisting 1980s rocker
Pat Benatar (news) to boost sales of hearing-aid batteries. "Our
generation has helped shape American culture, especially since we're
the first to be raised on rock 'n' roll," Benatar says in a brochure
for Energizer's new marketing campaign, "It's Hip to Hear." "From
Aerosmith to the Rolling Stones, our music defines us, but all those
years of rockin' are beginning to take a toll," she says.

Yeah, and Social Security and Medicare aren't going to be around by the
time I hit the mandatory retirement age (which will be roughly around
the same time that Methuselah cacked) because said boomers are going to
suck those programs dry. Not like I mind all that much. I've got other
plans, but damn. Must we be subjected to years of advertising dedicated
to easing their aging pains whilst paying for it simultaneously?

Posted by: Kathy at 09:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 171 words, total size 1 kb.

Immanuel Kant was a real

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away--
Half a crate of whisky every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And René Descartes was a drunken fart.
'I drink, therefore I am.'

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he's pissed

--- Monty Python, The Philosopher's Drinking Song
And that my friends is about all the levity you will get from me this
evening.
It's a handy little tool, though, for trying to remember the core
teachings of a few philosophers, don't you think? If I can read Leviathan
over a weekend, enter class and have my political theory professor sum
up that massive and incredibly boring book in six words---"Life is
nasty, brutish and short"---and then move on to Rosseau without even
discussing it, I can most assuredly refer you to a drinking song to
remind you what Descartes core message was. Rene Descartes was a drunken fart, I drink therefore I am.

Cogito Ergo Sum. I think therefore I am. Descartes was part of
that great post-Renaissance philosophical movement in the Baroque Era
in Europe. He was part of that group of men, emboldened by the
intellectual break from the Church due to the Reformation, yet still
very religious, who wanted to figure out how the world worked. That
included human thought. To quote the link above:

{...}The two most widely known of Descartes'
philosophical ideas are those of a method of hyperbolic doubt, and the
argument that, though he may doubt, he cannot doubt that he exists. The
first of these comprises a key aspect of Descartes' philosophical
method. As noted above, he refused to accept the authority of previous
philosophers - but he also refused to accept the obviousness of his own
senses. In the search for a foundation for philosophy, whatever could
be doubted must be rejected. He resolves to trust only that which is
clearly and distinctly seen to be beyond any doubt. In this manner,
Descartes peels away the layers of beliefs and opinions that clouded
his view of the truth. But, very little remains, only the simple fact
of doubting itself, and the inescapable inference that something exists
doubting, namely Descartes himself. His next task is to reconstruct our
knowledge piece by piece, such that at no stage is the possibility of
doubt allowed to creep back in. In this manner, Descartes proves that
he himself must have the basic characteristic of thinking, and that
this thinking thing (mind) is quite distinct from his body; the
existence of a God; the existence and nature of the external world; and
so on. {...}

So, we think therefore we are. Descartes did the work for us. He's
stripped everything down and then, much like a Marine drill sergeant,
built it back up again, using doubt as his ally. Go here,
brace yourself, then scroll down and view the barbarity.
What about this act or barbarism makes you think that the members of
this band of merry men have done the same? Have they doubted? Have they
wondered about how the world works? Have they asked the questions? Have
they realized that their version of God exists, but that they cannot
make assertions of His will because he is separate from them, and they
are separate from Him? I would think that the resounding answer would
be no. They haven't done the work. They've never doubted. They don't
see the reason to because their God has everything they could ever
possibly want. They're uneducated barbarians who have never seen the
light of reason, let alone contemplated doubting in their one true
faith or the world that surrounds them.
I think therefore I am. How much thought, I wonder, went into beheading
an innocent man while the participants screamed "Allahu Akbar!" ?

Posted by: Kathy at 09:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 729 words, total size 5 kb.

Immanuel Kant was a real

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away--
Half a crate of whisky every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And René Descartes was a drunken fart.
'I drink, therefore I am.'

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he's pissed

--- Monty Python, The Philosopher's Drinking Song
And that my friends is about all the levity you will get from me this
evening.
It's a handy little tool, though, for trying to remember the core
teachings of a few philosophers, don't you think? If I can read Leviathan
over a weekend, enter class and have my political theory professor sum
up that massive and incredibly boring book in six words---"Life is
nasty, brutish and short"---and then move on to Rosseau without even
discussing it, I can most assuredly refer you to a drinking song to
remind you what Descartes core message was. Rene Descartes was a drunken fart, I drink therefore I am.

Cogito Ergo Sum. I think therefore I am. Descartes was part of
that great post-Renaissance philosophical movement in the Baroque Era
in Europe. He was part of that group of men, emboldened by the
intellectual break from the Church due to the Reformation, yet still
very religious, who wanted to figure out how the world worked. That
included human thought. To quote the link above:

{...}The two most widely known of Descartes'
philosophical ideas are those of a method of hyperbolic doubt, and the
argument that, though he may doubt, he cannot doubt that he exists. The
first of these comprises a key aspect of Descartes' philosophical
method. As noted above, he refused to accept the authority of previous
philosophers - but he also refused to accept the obviousness of his own
senses. In the search for a foundation for philosophy, whatever could
be doubted must be rejected. He resolves to trust only that which is
clearly and distinctly seen to be beyond any doubt. In this manner,
Descartes peels away the layers of beliefs and opinions that clouded
his view of the truth. But, very little remains, only the simple fact
of doubting itself, and the inescapable inference that something exists
doubting, namely Descartes himself. His next task is to reconstruct our
knowledge piece by piece, such that at no stage is the possibility of
doubt allowed to creep back in. In this manner, Descartes proves that
he himself must have the basic characteristic of thinking, and that
this thinking thing (mind) is quite distinct from his body; the
existence of a God; the existence and nature of the external world; and
so on. {...}

So, we think therefore we are. Descartes did the work for us. He's
stripped everything down and then, much like a Marine drill sergeant,
built it back up again, using doubt as his ally. Go here,
brace yourself, then scroll down and view the barbarity.
What about this act or barbarism makes you think that the members of
this band of merry men have done the same? Have they doubted? Have they
wondered about how the world works? Have they asked the questions? Have
they realized that their version of God exists, but that they cannot
make assertions of His will because he is separate from them, and they
are separate from Him? I would think that the resounding answer would
be no. They haven't done the work. They've never doubted. They don't
see the reason to because their God has everything they could ever
possibly want. They're uneducated barbarians who have never seen the
light of reason, let alone contemplated doubting in their one true
faith or the world that surrounds them.
I think therefore I am. How much thought, I wonder, went into beheading
an innocent man while the participants screamed "Allahu Akbar!" ?

Posted by: Kathy at 09:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 729 words, total size 5 kb.

--- And this woman still

--- And this woman still has custody of her child?

Why?

Posted by: Kathy at 09:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.

--- And this woman still

--- And this woman still has custody of her child?

Why?

Posted by: Kathy at 09:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.

To the person who keeps

To the person who keeps finding their way here whilst looking for a translation for 'de recta non tolerandum sunt,' it means NO ASSHOLES WILL BE TOLERATED.

That, of course, is a loose translation. In Latin 'Recta' actually means this. This is the motto the Python Lads and if you look carefully at the picture,
you can clearly get the gist of what they were going after. If the
Pythons were looking for a literal translation, they would have gone
for something like "intestinum."
(Realize that not everything in our modern world has a Latin name
simply because most of the stuff in our modern world---like
rectums---weren't thought to exist back then. Back then your intestine
covered everything from your gullet to your bum.) But intestinum a. is
a stupid word and b. doesn't make any sense and isn't easy to get the
gist of if you're not fluent in Latin, right? You probably sussed out
"tolerandum" as the Latin word for "tolerate" and you knew "non"
probably meant that something would not be tolerated, but what? If they
used intestinum, you'd be thinking, "Intestines will not be tolerated?"
What the hell does that mean? Here's the Etymology Yellow Brick Road:
recta=rectum=lower part of your intestine=assholes. That's what
wouldn't be tolerated. There is no Latin word for assholes. They
improvised.
I like Monty Python, and I laughed when I read it, soooo, I took their
motto for my own. I'm a plagiarist, I know, but hell, this is the Internet.
Did you honestly expect any better?
There's an email link over on the left hand side-- next time click on
it and ASK.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 283 words, total size 2 kb.

To the person who keeps

To the person who keeps finding their way here whilst looking for a translation for 'de recta non tolerandum sunt,' it means NO ASSHOLES WILL BE TOLERATED.

That, of course, is a loose translation. In Latin 'Recta' actually means this. This is the motto the Python Lads and if you look carefully at the picture,
you can clearly get the gist of what they were going after. If the
Pythons were looking for a literal translation, they would have gone
for something like "intestinum."
(Realize that not everything in our modern world has a Latin name
simply because most of the stuff in our modern world---like
rectums---weren't thought to exist back then. Back then your intestine
covered everything from your gullet to your bum.) But intestinum a. is
a stupid word and b. doesn't make any sense and isn't easy to get the
gist of if you're not fluent in Latin, right? You probably sussed out
"tolerandum" as the Latin word for "tolerate" and you knew "non"
probably meant that something would not be tolerated, but what? If they
used intestinum, you'd be thinking, "Intestines will not be tolerated?"
What the hell does that mean? Here's the Etymology Yellow Brick Road:
recta=rectum=lower part of your intestine=assholes. That's what
wouldn't be tolerated. There is no Latin word for assholes. They
improvised.
I like Monty Python, and I laughed when I read it, soooo, I took their
motto for my own. I'm a plagiarist, I know, but hell, this is the Internet.
Did you honestly expect any better?
There's an email link over on the left hand side-- next time click on
it and ASK.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 283 words, total size 2 kb.

The full transcript can be

The full transcript can be found here.

My favorite bit:

Our enemies in Iraq are good at filling hospitals, but they don't build any.
They can incite men to murder and suicide, but they cannot inspire men
to live in hope and add to the progress of their country. The
terrorists only influence is violence and their only agenda is death.
Our agenda, in contrast, is freedom and independence, security and
prosperity for the Iraqi people.

{Emphasis mine}

Cringe-inducing bit that I'm sure the media will be ALL over:

A new Iraq will also need a humane, well-supervised prison
system. Under the dictator, prisons like Abu Ghraib were symbols of
death and torture. That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful
conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and
disregarded our values. America will fund the construction of a modern
maximum security prison. When that prison is completed, detainees at
Abu Ghraib will be relocated. Then with the approval of the Iraqi
government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib Prison as a fitting symbol
of Iraq's new beginning.

Bush said "Abu Ghraib" three times and used three different
pronounciations. He only got it right on the last time---barely. As the
husband commented: "That's positively Freudian." I agree. Overall, it
was a good speech that outlined the plan quite clearly. It's lacking in
specifics, but those specifics, like the planned handover and the new
Iraqi leadership, have yet to be determined. They're coming down to the
wire, of course, but it would be foolhardy for Bush to line his ducks
up, announce them to the public only to have them change. And with
that, I bid you a'dieu for the evening.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 293 words, total size 2 kb.

The full transcript can be

The full transcript can be found here.

My favorite bit:

Our enemies in Iraq are good at filling hospitals, but they don't build any.
They can incite men to murder and suicide, but they cannot inspire men
to live in hope and add to the progress of their country. The
terrorists only influence is violence and their only agenda is death.
Our agenda, in contrast, is freedom and independence, security and
prosperity for the Iraqi people.

{Emphasis mine}

Cringe-inducing bit that I'm sure the media will be ALL over:

A new Iraq will also need a humane, well-supervised prison
system. Under the dictator, prisons like Abu Ghraib were symbols of
death and torture. That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful
conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and
disregarded our values. America will fund the construction of a modern
maximum security prison. When that prison is completed, detainees at
Abu Ghraib will be relocated. Then with the approval of the Iraqi
government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib Prison as a fitting symbol
of Iraq's new beginning.

Bush said "Abu Ghraib" three times and used three different
pronounciations. He only got it right on the last time---barely. As the
husband commented: "That's positively Freudian." I agree. Overall, it
was a good speech that outlined the plan quite clearly. It's lacking in
specifics, but those specifics, like the planned handover and the new
Iraqi leadership, have yet to be determined. They're coming down to the
wire, of course, but it would be foolhardy for Bush to line his ducks
up, announce them to the public only to have them change. And with
that, I bid you a'dieu for the evening.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 293 words, total size 2 kb.