Feste...a foolsblog

Hello, I must be going

Jan 15, 2005:

Some maybe be wondering why so little posting of late? I just can't work up any interest in the current political/news cycle. Maybe it's election burnout or information overload, perhaps a bit of both. I find that I'm simply shoveling better informed, smarter, more thoughtful blogger's content to remain current and not doing that very well — so it's time for a change.

I believe warbloggers, collectively, made a huge difference after 9/11 and leveled the information playing field by challenging the MSM's bias. Blogging the past two years was exciting and addictive, especially the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the election cycle. No matter how small my role, I am proud to have been part of The Command Post and creating a citizen-driven, information medium.

However, blogging, like all addictions, takes control of your life and eventually you wake up one morning and the buzz is gone, it's no longer fun. While my blog jones hasn't resulted in pawning the family jewels or electronics, it has taken time from my family and increased career-related time pressure to an unsustainable pitch.

Rachel Lucas's departure and return, made me realize that I too need to step back for a while to regain my perspective and choose a new direction...and like Rachel perhaps a new blog name and meme, who knows?

-- Feste

Hmmmm....

Is it just me or is Lileks slyly alluding to film genre/directors with his My Size Barbie series (scroll down), starting with Chuckie or Baby Jane?

This one's a given: Hitchcock

But this one has me stumped; Lulu Bains or Frenchy on library detention?

The Coen's "Barton Fink" or Kubrick's "The Shining"?

The period woodwork says the Overlook on first glance, but the wall paper is sooo Hotel Earle.

I can't wait to see how he works Star trek into the mix.

Such A Pretty Mouth

Okay. This is just wrong and disturbingly erotic.

(Thanks Jools, I needed a laugh after my previous post!)

Bears, Bears & Mo' Bears

Today is the last day of the Friends of Iraq Blogger's Challenge.

So far, the Friends of Iraq Blogger Challenge has raised $89375.00. That is awesome! Thank you!

Looks like the North Alliance will win the challenage, but there are no losers in this endeavour, take the quiz, mail the html code to soa(at)foolsblog(dot)com and help us win hearts and minds:

What Kind of Bear Are You?

Foolsblog would like to thank all who played along and has donated $75 to date, a dollar for each reader who hit the quiz and emailed a copy of their HTML results to soa(at)foolsblog(dot)com.

Today Foolsblog will donate $5 for each of you clever folk who take the quiz and email the results html to soa(at)foolsblog(dot)com.

How about How about making a donation right now! Any amount is greatly appreciated and it's tax-deductible!

Bonfire of the Vanities #76

I was fruitlessly casting around for a holiday metaphor when it arrived on my doorstep with a thud.

Aha!

The Bonfire is to Blogosphere carnivals as the Fruitcake is to Christmas.

Fruitcake presents itself as a mass of rum-soaked Sultanas, nuts du jour, coma-inducing glace fruit, glow-in-the-dark Dye #6 red cherries and chewy sour citron bits bound together with a substance that definitely isn't cake. One isn't quite sure what to do with it when it arrives and as the Bonfire re-gifting lives on in browser caches, Aunt Tillie's fruitcake, circa 1946, lurks in your mother's pantry, awaiting it's next destination.

Also like the Bonfire, fruitcake has it it own Festival in Manitou Springs, CO, origins in many cultures, a clever branding campaign at the prestigious FPI and the entire enterprise of consuming one is vastly improved with a wee dram or two of whiskey on the side.

That said, shall we throw a pint or two of 151-proof Bloggy Bilge Water on the Bonfire?

Sneakeasy the Mad Macedonian's "He Coulda Been a Contendah" has a point in there somewhere.

The Unrepentant Leftist writes that his days of florescent orange hair are gone. Say it ain't so, Rob.

Ghost of a Flea manages to work Martin Amis and a semi-nude photo of Farah Fawcett into the same post. Howzah!

In the ever helpful This Blog is Full of Crap, Lair offers advice on powdering one's nose at the table...of course he doesn't address passing the straw to the right or the left.

Chainik Hocker posts the only thing worse than a bad post is the post that COULD HAVE achieved greatness.

Spirit Fingers claims If you look like a stud, you feel like a stud. Dammit!

Shall we pause to consider that?

Ferdinand the Conservative Cat offers helpful advice in The Tongue Incident. Ouch!

I'm shocked, shocked! The American Mind points out Bill Clinton's new twist on accoona matata.

Rick at Right Wingnuthouse claims there is such a thing as using the word "moonbat" too many times in a post. I think not.

VH1 Reinforces My Pet Jawa's homophobia and all this time I thought Jawas were bi-mu.nuvian.

Andrew Ian Dodge lists New PC terms. As an Owner Operator, I'll drink to that!

Opinionated Bastard says Nice Guys Finish First, oh fine, now he tells me.

"Probably my dumbest post ever." We'll be the judge of that, Lair.

The fantasy football season is almost over and Josh at D-42 is feeling dirty for starting the archenemy's defense.

Interested-Participant sends word that Cherrypicker kills banana farmer. Police are investigating. No film at 11?

Joe's Blog posts the mother-of-all reminders that these people are not our friends. [Warning Severe Eye Damage May Ensue]

Classical Values opines that James Wolcott can't drive a semi without a colon in Divinely Discontented Drippings of Deliverance.

Mad Anthony complains about poorly written help files in modern computer software. Yabbut can you complain in Hindi?

Espresso Sarcasm had a slow posting day and sends along the lamest excuse yet "it's not really even a post, just a comment I left on another blog." Kudos Norman!

PoliARt asks the final burning question of BOTV Numero 76: Girls in Tube Tops or Christians?

My entry is the sorriest idea of the year.

Cheers! We're Done!

However, if you should get your hands on one of these babies, then a good Bourbon will be called for in copious quantities.

Next week's Bonfire will be held at The Zero Boss

Thanks for participating, let me know if I karked up your link or missed a Haloscan trackback.

Hearts & Minds

Spirit of America's Jim Hake sends email about his meeting last Thursday with President Bush.

Yes, it's true - along with Omar and Mohammed from Iraq the Model and
Friends of Democracy - we met with him for 30 minutes in the Oval Office.

VISIT WITH PRESIDENT BUSH

On Thursday, Omar and Mohammed from Iraq the Model and Friends of Democracy, Kerry Dupont from SoA and I met with President Bush in the Oval Office. It was a half-hour meeting with the President. Paul Wolfowitz was also there. I'll be posting more information in the next two days but here are two items.

About half way into the meeting the President said to Omar and Mohammed, "I want you two to know that we are going to stay until the job is done. It doesn't matter what the rest of the world says. It doesn't matter what the UN says. We are going to stay until the job is done. It's important that your country knows that." It was a powerful and moving moment.

After talking about Spirit of America, Pres. Bush turned to Omar and
Mohammed and said, " You see gentlemen, that is the beauty of America. I never met this man before but he's out there helping to win this war on terror just as much as Wolfie here. That's what I believe in." He went on to talk about the importance of private-sector, grass roots initiatives like SoA.

Wolfie?

BUWAHAHAHAHA! Wait a minute...wolves live in the woods don't they?

Close enough.

Ta Da!

Here's where l shamelessly beg for a donation: Spirit of America.

BOTV Reminder

Send your entries in for Bonfire of the Vanities Week #76 to bonfire(at)foolsblog(dot)com by Midnight PST tonight...that gives East Coast slackers an extra three hours.

Comments On

Okay...upgrade done with barely a burp. Kudos to Six Apart.

BTW-TypeKey comment registration is turned on, don't have a TypeKey account? Go here.

Bear-ly? The secret word!

Ta Da!

Here's where l shamelessly beg for a donation: Spirit of America.

Selma Hayek's Breasts

The Blogosphere can never have too many smart-asses.

Seriously.

Blogosphere = Big Hearts

From Jim Hake at Spirit of America:

Blogger Challenge

The "Friends of Iraq Blogger Challenge" is in its last week. So far, 162 bloggers have raised more than $52,343 for Spirit of America projects. Whoa!

Thank you bloggers! Real-time results are at SOA/FOI. Here are the top 5 rankings:

TEAMS

Northern Alliance of Blogs
Castle Argghhh! Fighting Fusileers for Freedom
TTLB EcoTeam <----Go Bears!
Buzzmachine
A Mighty Wind

INDIVIDUAL BLOGGERS

Little Green Footballs
Roger L. Simon
Iraq the Model
The Adventures of Chester
Chrenkof

YBYL

Sorry I've been missing in action the past two weeks, but a brutal work load has made it impossible to keep up with the news cycle or the blogosphere. Looks like there's light at the end of the work tunnel this week, so please bear with me.

Bear? Yikes! that's the secret word!

Here's where l shamelessly beg for a donation: Spirit of America.

Have a looksee at a few of the Ecoteams excellent sites:

Depressing Demographics for Democrats is an interesting piece from Stand in the Trenches.

Attilla at the Pillage Idiot pens Requiem for Allah.

Chris at The Spoons experience has had a really full week. I too had a panic attack in the MRI resulting in months of nightmares involving small spaces. I hate small spaces. But then that's a whole blog unto itself, ain't it.

Cao's Blog pretty much sums up my feelings about the 9/11 recommendations and she has a bit of eye candy fer the wimmin folk...now that's a blog strategy I can get behind and you need to get behind Spirit of America.

Dis 'n Dat

A very cool blog idea via BoingBoing

"Someone found a huge box of old postcards (1898-1922) in an antique shop. Not all that unusual, but what made them interesting was that they were all sent between members of the same (huge) family. Their finder is now scanning them in, transcribing them, and sticking them online.

It's the best of all possible things: you get to pry into the personal lives of strangers, see cool, old pictures (like a wall covered in skulls and London before the tourists arrived), as well as getting a rare glimpse into the past. As far as I can tell, these people used their postcards like we used email the post was so good the cards (and their reply) could arrive the same day."

Isobel...does anyone name children thusly nowadays? I hope so.

You'll get a giggle out of Xeni Jardin's test run at MSN's free hosted blogging platform, called "Spaces" and MSN's lame censorship heuristics.

Scroll down for an innovation the spammers might foist off on us next: ASCII text & images. Don't think it's possible? Have look at ASCII Babes.

So's Chris

Welcome back, man...you were sorely missed.

We're Baaack

Time to put our wallets where our mouths are and support Spirit of America's Blogger's Challenge. This year the fool proudly link-whores to the max and joins

The TTLB Blogosphere Ecoteam

---developing-----

Something Wicked Good

This way comes....MT 3.01!

Upgrading today...I'm fed up with the trick n treat spammers...some spooky seasonal bidness has been going on behind the scenes too as the cats take over the blog for Halloween....'round Midnight.

Now if cat blogging isn't scary enough... contemplate the photo below and whom would be only a hare-breath away from the Oval Office.

BOTV

"Oh no, not again."

"Shee, you guys are so unhip it's a wonder your bums don't fall off."

OHMYG*D Curious, and Curiouser

You have to see this one for yourself.

Oh Please, Oh please... let the Globe run it.

UPDATE: There something very odd going on with this story and the Professor...the PDF now says that he didn't use a typwriter to make the comparisons...but likely typefaces, likely available at the time(?!) and he is editing the docs not realizing that his folders are in an unprotected directory.

UPDATEII: Get yourself over to Kevin's ...it's a mystery in many acts...unfolding as we type.

Get These Guys Some Jammies

Little to no posting until mid-afternoon...a Powerpoint deadline looms...but INDC posts an interview with CBS...it's...um... illuminating.

Karas(CBS): "The truth of the e-mails were absolutely irrelevant to the piece, because all the story said was that people were worried. It’s a story about human beings that are afraid of the draft. We did not say that this (e-mail) was true, it’s just circulating. We are not verifying the e-mail."

The truth is CBS reports biased viewpoints, innuendo, junk e-mail and gossip.

UPDATE: Lileks turns a nice phrase:

big media operations are too lardy to move as quickly as they should. They’re brontos lumbering into velociraptor territory.

The Hive Memory

Lileks totally geeks out today...

...bless his heart, for who else can evoke childhood memories such as Woolie's paper cone & metal soda holders? He omitted the cloying scent of Paris Nuit perfume and Coty face powder wafting over the entire store like a cloud of WMD...but that would be carping.

Enjoy.

Yes, We Have No Pajamas

There's a blog on our screen
It's run by a Geek.
Another posts many things he's seen
But you should see this one link!
When you ask a question, he never answers "no".
He just mocks you to death,
As Mr. Green, pours a drink...
"Yes! We have no pajamas
We have no pajamas today!!

But yes, we have no pajamas
We have no pajamas today."

(lyrics & Music by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn -1923. Cheesy midi warning!)

All Byte, No Bark

Bloggers join the big dogs on the porch.

Andrew's TIME column A Blogger's Creed and How to knock down a story repleat with a photo of Power Line's John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson...alas, pajamas are no where to be seen.

Irony Writ Large

I don't which is funnier the obvious pun or the ironic twist.

Watch This Space

Sorry for the light posting, but the company called and I've been pressed back into service part time and will take me a few days to get blogging and the work schedule synched.

In the meantime, here's a story for the "What were they thinking?" file.

And this one makes my heart trill with joy, fellow Bear Flagger, Patterico stares downs the LA Times, and the Times blinked. (via Sneakeasy)

SWWBO has the Carnival of Recipes up with a smorgasbord of tasty treats to try and Carnival of the Vanities 101 has gone back to school.

Juliette has the birthday blues and is pretty much over what's-his-name. Aren't we all Girl, aren't we all.

Here's a page to cheer Jules up and one to make you jump and shout HaTikvah!!

Fashion, Smashion

Lileks touched my last good nerve today with his Fall fashion preview as catalog after catalog packed with the worst looking, ill-fitting merchandise at outrageous prices arrives daily at the Feste manse. What are these people thinking? Oh, that's right, it's FASHION. No thinking or taste necessary, just heaps of attitude, a willingness to look really foolish and a platinum credit card are required.

Firstly, I must advise James to shop at better stores. Ponchos for $29.95? Puhleeze! Glide into the lux environs of Neiman-Marcus and one can have this little number in mahogany mink to cover one's elbows and upper torso for a mere $2995.00! [That the PETA crowd will be very annoyed may be a side benefit, depending on the amount of spray paint such an item acquires.]

Although, one suspects this poncho, or one a little less pricey, may appear at Jasperwood. Is this cute or what?

However, cute is not under discussion, crappola is.

Perhaps The Lawyerly Wife would care to attend court in a silky half-slip and pink open-toed pumps? Such an outfit will most certainly confuse the opposition, Hizzoner and security.

Is this not the perfect shirt to skulk around the local Target Home Decor department, snapping up future yard sale items?

Lastly, Child Protective Services really should hunt down and sterilize parents who would do this to a child.

Now we know why Land's End, Eddie Bauer, Old Navy and their ilk do so well. Comfy, long lasting, reasonably priced clothing in natural fabrics and simple colors that bump along in our daily rut with a minimum of care. After we reach the age of majority, most of us simply are not interested in slavishly following fashion dictates, regurgitated 60's/70's themes, dress as an absent-minded tart, a Brit Bad Seed or wear a Peter Max explosion, at any price.

Of course, having said that, I must have one of these for the upcoming Hallothanksmas Eve celebrations.

The buyers at NM are indeed all aflutter.

BOTV 1968

Feelin' Groovy. Not. The fargin' scanner karked part way through a cigar box 'o gen-u-wine 1968's buttons. I broke out the digital camera and shot them with varying degrees of success. Not quite a bonfire, more of a mixed cultural bag , much like the submissions.

King of Fools is having a really bad day involving Babies and bodily fluids.

Meanwhile Josh Cohen is all about Madden NFL 2005.

Andrew Ian Dodge has a solution to feeding wedding guests!

Sneakeasy asks Where Were You? and his alter ego The Cycling Dude channels Will Rogers.

Lair advises when chivalry kicks in or the knife comes out in Short Changed in Sacramento.

Brian shares a traumatic experience from his youth: fear of Hurricane David. In Milwaukee.

Kevin explains why some women can never be too rich, too thin or too greedy.

Spirit Fingers begs For the love of God, woman put those things away.

Mog meets her dream guy. Not.

Do we detect a meme forming? Mad Anthony fisks a guy complaining about giant armpits.

Nikita Demosthenes lists 10 Ways the Liberation of Iraq Supports the War on Terror. One assumes they're on our side.

John Beck tries, unsuccessfully, to keep profanity to a minimum in spite of Iranian provocation.



Susie of Practical Penumbra tosses a Viking Kitty our way as she bolts for work. Thanks. I think.


Sean at The American Mind posting about an Alan Keyes' napkin for sale may not have been the most hygenic idea he ever had.

Lastly, Foolsblog gets corny and offers a couple of buttons popular on campus for those who think politics is nastier than in the past. Yes, I was a liberal once in a galaxy far, far away.

Thanks for participating in my maiden Carnival effort. Next week's Bonfire will be warming up the cockles of Aaron's heart at Rantblog

BOTV

Kevin Donahue breaks the BOTV standing, sitting and running world record for the flaming spear toss with a mighty chuck into the Bonfire of the Vanities and missed a slot on the Olympic Flaming Spear Chucking team by —that— much.

BOTV

The keg is tapped and the Blogosphere's worst is slowing turning on the spit as Bonfire of the Vanities cranks up at Cold Beer 4 The soul.

My Own Private Idaho

No, this is not about Gus Van Sant's dreary teen paean to "Henry IV, nor a gratitous, ass-kissing review of blogger Steve Graham's cookbook "Eat What You Want & Die Like A Man" to cage traffic... it's a word play on potato flour and a full bore, unabashed plug.

While Steve deserves kudos for a great read chock full of wry humor, bon mots such as Strategic Grease Reserve (you do have a Bell jar of bacon grease in the fridge, don't you?) and irreverent cracking-wise, "God: '...I love corn on the cob' ", Rubens tossing doughnuts imagery and very un-PC effrontery we've come to love and expect from Steve, it's the recipes that make EWYWADLAM a must-have for anyone who cooks or eats. My copy already bears witness to his genius with greasy fingerprints, dog-eared pages and a cracked spine from wedging it under a heavy flour cannister.

While I admire Steve's shamless embrace of lard, extole his fluffy biscuits, exhault over Ribs from Hell and go all goosebumpy over his silky flan, it is his masterly doughnuts that made the price worth while for me (and it's ridiculously cheap, friends).

You see in my mis-spent yute, a local doughnut shop called Spudnuts was Valhalla. As soon as the parental eagle screamed, we'd pump our little legs off biking over to blow our allowance on maple bars, custard filled *spit* french *spit* crullers, dark crispy cinnamon-pecan twists coated with a heavy vanilla glaze that covered your tee-shirt in sugar snowflakes... but it was their lighter-than-air raised doughnuts that made children cheer, women swoon and strong men weep.

In the days when anything with a hole in it was judged by how many you could wedge onto your pudgie fingers, Spudnuts were taller than our digits were long and so light they almost floated into your waiting maw, the thinnest of glazes crackling onto your chin. Forget Crispy Cremes, flat, overly-sweet imitations of the beloved Spudnuts. I never thought I'd taste those lovelies again, I was wrong.

Now I can die happy and I've made myself hungry.

UPDATE: An original recipe Spudnut shop still thrives, near Richland, WA, if you're lucky enough to live nearby, go and eat one or two for me.

MT and Firefox

Is anyone else having a log-on problem with MT 2.6x and Firefox?

Sunday Zozo logged in and out. Feste logged in the next session, yet Zozo is radomly appended as author...as today's post clearly demonstrates, Feste is logged in yet Zozo is written as author.

This is making me nuts. Firefox has other issues with MT 2.6x editing menus as well...I am about to abandon FF altogether.

Any fixes out there? email feste (at) foolsblog (dot) com.

Update: A kind emailer points me to another hack. Sorry, but I really don't want to participate in an open source project.

Grmmar Cop

It's an ugly job, but someone has to do it.

Heh.

iNstaRobot

Leftie progaganda flicks abound, but they've overlooked the REAL conspiracy: evil Glenn's domination of the Blogosphere.

Yes, fellow bloggers, we all know evil Glenn weilds the deadly Instalanche, thereby flooding our feeble servers. Fear not!

The Alliance is well aware of his evil plot. Alliance Films are playing on a blog near you, go now, see them all. Fair and balanced? or Propaganda?

You Decide: iNstaRobot

(hat tip to Susie for a good belly laugh and inspiration)

BOTV #54

Beck of INCITE puts it best "Welcome to the web's 54th edition of the Bonfire of the Vanities, the weekly roundup of self-appointed rubbish from the blogosphere. Submissions seem to pretty much cover the entire spectrum of rubbish"...and if there's one thing Beck knows, it's rubbish.

Must Read

Kat of The Middle Ground debunks the Blood for Oil meme. Big Time

Busting Conspiracy Theories (#1) - Blood for Oil

Read One Week Later too....heck read the whole June archive...she's good.

Go.

Balderdash! Piffle!!

"Picture the universe of information as a big glass jar. You fill it with "big media marbles" and you swear on your mother's grave that the damn thing's full and there's no room for anything else. Blogs are the sand you pour in to fill the spaces in between."

Hot Damn! It doesn't get any better than Harvey's riposte to a critique written by a PC twit with an ego the size of Montana who obviously can't master HTML or a blog tool...but has manged to post a beg button. One can imagine elistist nostrils flaring, lips curled into a sneer as Mac Diva's très chic opinion poured forth onto her screen...pity only 2% of her readership gives a shit.

Yeah, It's like that

Google Search: french military victories

Heh.

(hat tip to John Little)

...if you liked that one you'll love Haikuenheit 911

Read This!

Nothing is more fun than an exercise in vanity and general showing off...via the Rev Pixy at Ambient Irony:

From Rob of XSet this little meme:

- Bold those you’ve read.
- Italicise those you started but never finished.
- Add three of your own.
- Post to your blog.

Like so:
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien.
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen.
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman.
4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling.
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee.
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne.
8. 1984, George Orwell.
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis.
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte.
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller.
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte.
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks.
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier.
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger.
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame.
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens.
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott.
19. Captain Corellis Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres.
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy.
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell.
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerers Stone, JK Rowling.
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling.
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling.
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien.
26. Tess Of The DUrbervilles, Thomas Hardy.
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot.
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving.
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck.
30. Alices Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson.
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett.
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens.
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl.
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson.
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute.
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen.
39. Dune, Frank Herbert.
40. Emma, Jane Austen.
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery.
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams.
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald.
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas.
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh.
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell.
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens.
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy.
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian.
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher.

The list is 451 titles long...click below for the full monty:

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer.
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman.
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden.
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens.
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough.
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett.
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton.
67. The Magus, John Fowles.
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett.
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding.
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind.
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell.
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett.
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl.
75. Bridget Joness Diary, Helen Fielding.
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt.
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins.
78. Ulysses, James Joyce.
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens.
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson.
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl.
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith.
83. Holes, Louis Sachar.
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake.
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy.
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson.
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley.
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons.
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist.
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac.
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo.
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel.
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett.
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho.
95. Katherine, Anya Seton.
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer.
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson.
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot.
100. Midnights Children, Salman Rushdie.
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome.
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett.
103. The Beach, Alex Garland.
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker.
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz.
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens.
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz.
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks.
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth.
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson.
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy.
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend.
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat.
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo.
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy.
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson.
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson.
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde.
119. Shogun, James Clavell.
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham.
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson.
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray.
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy.
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski.
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver.
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett.
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison.
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle.
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt.
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov.
131. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood.
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl.
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck.
134. Georges Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl.
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett.
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker.
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett.
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan.
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson.
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson.
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque.
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson.
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby.
144. It, Stephen King.
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl.
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King.
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere.
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett.
149. Master And Commander, Patrick OBrian.
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz.
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett.
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett.
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett.
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan.
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson.
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier.
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey.
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad.
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling.
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon.
161. Moby **** , Herman Melville.
162. River God, Wilbur Smith.
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx.
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving.
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore.
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson.
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye.
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl.
170. Charlottes Web, E. B. White.
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley.
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams.
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway.
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco.
175. Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder.
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson.
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl.
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov.
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach.
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson.
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens.
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay.
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot.
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis loved.
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith.
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh.
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine.
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri.
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence.
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera.
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons.
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett.
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells.
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans.
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry.
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett.
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White.
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle.
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews.
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien.
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan.
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan.
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan.
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan.
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan.
207. Winters Heart, Robert Jordan.
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan.
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan.
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan.
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto.
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland.
213. The Married Man, Edmund White.
214. Winters Tale, Mark Helprin.
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault.
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice.
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell.
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer.
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten.
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke.
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn.
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice.
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand.
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson.
225. Tartuffe, Moliere.
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka.
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller.
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka.
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles.
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles.
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther.
232. A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen.
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen.
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton.
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry.
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read.
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono.
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde.
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley.
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson.
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny.
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon.
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon.
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole.
245. Candide, Voltaire.
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl.
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven.
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault.
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein.
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline LEngle.
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde.
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan.
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson.
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith.
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony.
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum.
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon.
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde.
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde.
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel.
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver.
264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris.
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder.
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls.
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock.
269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland.
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. OBrien.
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt.
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor.
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg.
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster.
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin.
276. The Kitchen Gods Wife, Amy Tan.
277. The Bone Setters Daughter, Amy Tan.
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child.
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire.
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman.
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry.
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum.
283. Haunted, Judith St. George.
284. Singularity, William Sleator.
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson.
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King.
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk.
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby.
289. The Bookmans Wake, John Dunning.
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns.
291. Illusions, Richard Bach.
292. Magics Pawn, Mercedes Lackey.
293. Magics Promise, Mercedes Lackey.
294. Magics Price, Mercedes Lackey.
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav.
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker.
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice.
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love.
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace..
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison.
301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.
302. Enders Game, Orson Scott Card.
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland.
304. The Lions Game, Nelson Demille.
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust.
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh.
307. Foucaults Pendulum, Umberto Eco.
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson.
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk.
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz.
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand.
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk.
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu.
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry.
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin.
316. Xenogenesis (or Liliths Brood), Octavia Butler.
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold.
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold.
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil).
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill.
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman).
322. Beowulf, Anonymous.
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell.
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley.
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey.
326. Passage, Connie Willis.
327. Otherland, Tad Williams.
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay.
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry.
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison.
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore.
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin.
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume.
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo.
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev.
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover.
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson.
338. The Genesis Code, John Case.
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen.
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton.
341. Phantom, Susan Kay.
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice.
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman.
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher.
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson.
346: The Winter of Magics Return, Pamela Service.
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz.
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok.
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler.
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime ONeill.
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare.
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas.
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats.
354. Sati, Christopher Pike.
355. The Inferno, Dante.
356. The Apology, Plato.
357. The Small Rain, Madeline LEngle.
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick.
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater.
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier.
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier.
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf.
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder.
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King.
365. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass.
366. The Moors Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie.
367. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson.
368. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster loved.
369. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky.
370. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux.
371. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg.
372. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy.
373. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones.
374. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown.
375. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo.
376. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer.
377. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck.
378. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby.
379. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston.
380. Time for Bed by David Baddiel.
381. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold.
382. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre.
383. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
384. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff.
385. Jhereg by Steven Brust.
386. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane.
387. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville.
388. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte.
389. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz.
390. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje.
391. Neuromancer, William Gibson.
392. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
393. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
394. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault.
395. The Gunslinger, Stephen King.
396. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare.
397. Childhoods End, Arthur C. Clarke.
398. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman.
399. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott.
400. The God Boy, Ian Cross.
401. The Beekeepers Apprentice, Laurie R. King.
402. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson.
403. Misery, Stephen King.
404. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters.
405. Hood, Emma Donoghue.
406. The Land of Spices, Kate OBrien.
407. The Diary of Anne Frank.
408. Regeneration, Pat Barker.
409. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
410. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia.
411. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway.
412. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg.
413. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede.
414. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss.
415. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine LEngle.
416. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman.
417. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) - translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest.
418. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown.
419. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill.
420. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris.
421. The Things We Carried, Tim OBrien.
422. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb.
423. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk.
424. Enders Shadow, Orson Scott Card.
425. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card.
426. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen.
427. The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles.
428. The Four Feathers, A.E.W. Mason.
429. The Jester, James Patterson.
430. Cry the beloved Country, Alan Paton.
431. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath.
432. The Stranger, Albert Camus.
433. Deathscent, Robin Jarvis.
434. Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice.
435. My legendary girlfriend, Mike Gayle.
436. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip K Dick.
437. Bored of the Rings - Harvard Lampoon.
438. The Pelican Brief - John Grisham
439. Schild's Ladder - Greg Egan.
440. Excession - Iain M. Banks.
442. The Manchurian Candidate - Richard Condon
443. A Death in the Family - James Agee
444. Fup - Jim Dodge
445. One For The Morning Glory - John Barnes
446. The Book of Three (Prydain Chronicles) - Lloyd Alexander
447. A Separate Peace - John Knowles
448. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Jude Blume

An interesting execise...many required reading, others leisure and some morbid curiosity I suppose...Although I kept thinking to myself "what no Twain!?" and then I didn't add any. Go figure.

Anyhoo my three:

449. The Hero With A Thousand Faces- Joseph Campbell. 450. The Plato Papers - Peter Ackroyd. 451. Serenissima- Erica Jong

Uh-huh

In case you're wondering, this is why flyboy's get the all the good lookin' women.

She's Baaack

Heh.

Welcome back, now please get to the serious ass-kicking...it's been too long since we last heard from one of the blogosphere's most distinctive voices.

A tad too obsequious you say? Gimme a break, it's in my job description (Fool) to suck up, enlighten and entertain...so I can at least fulfill one expectation. Right?

Music Meme Of The Day

Now for something fun....Last week I posted a book meme from WarDialer.

Michele discovered another, via Treacher:

1. Grab the nearest CD.
2. Put it in your CD-Player (or start your mp3-player, I-tunes, etc.).
3. Skip to Song 3 (or load the 3rd song in your 3rd playlist)
4. Post the first verse in your journal along with these instructions. Don’t name the band, nor the album-title.

Cuando you and me
we were just chiquillos
we would always run
through the tall nopal
we would often say
say to each other
there could be no fin
siempre los dos

Go back to Michele's post, then Treacher and follow the links, comments & trackbacks and see how many songs you recognize. I won't shame myself by admitting how few I knew. Blogger's have esoteric tastes that's for sure. Gees.

Now I feel so lame.

Team Spirit Update

The other sides in the Battle of the Blogs haven't quite conceded, but we have all decided to pool our resources to get to the magic $50,000 for Spirit of America by midnight tomorrow night.

The BIG push is on. You know what to do. All three Team Spirit Donate links appear below.

Bodacious Ta-tas Easter Egg

Today's Fusileer Easter Egg Hunt Has been won by Puddle Pirate, who correctly identified Joanie's delectable clevage, a donation of $75.00 has been made to SOA. BTW-there were 7 hidden pix.

The Booby mating ritual parallels the human in many ways. The male parades around his territory, flaunting his assets in an exaggerated, high-stepping walk, and presents small pieces of bling to the female.

Flight Display: the male also flashes his assets at his mate in an airborne "salute".

Pointing Display: The female angles her assets to the sky and the male then utters a thin, piercing whistle, while the female gives groaning calls.

Carnival of the Cats #6

A duel purpose cat post this week...Zoe poses for Carnival Of The Cats at The Waterglass and raised some dough for SOA.

This weeks carnival is outstanding. Go. Now.

Zoe is getting too fat for the perch next to my 'puter station. This pix was taken this morning as she tried to enjoy the early morning sun but her butt kept slipping off and the nap was easily pierced. It never ceases to amaze me how cats can sleep while precariously perched and yet seldom fall.

Can you find and identify the second cat in the photo? Mouse over the computer screen for a bigger picture of the inspiration for the egg, The Blobmonster.

WINNER! Kam correctly identified the kitty on the screen as Edloe and SOA gets another $50. Thanks for playing along.

Wictory Wednesday

Timeout for Wictory wednesday. Rush pens an opinion piece in today WSJ that sums up this non-story perfectly.

Woodward at War

A "Plan of Attack" against George W. Bush?

BY RUSH LIMBAUGH
Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Bob Woodward is back with yet another book, "Plan of Attack." That title made me first think the work was a manual on unseating George W. Bush. Discussing his book on CBS's "60 Minutes," Mr. Woodward said, in essence, that Dick Cheney ran the Iraq war and talked President Bush into it, though President Bush was never crazy about it; the CIA botched everything again; the one man in the administration we can trust, Colin Powell, was kept out of the loop; God talks to President Bush and President Bush listens; and President Bush is an idiot who disdains the truly smart people of the world.

[...]

But even if the president had decided to go to war against Saddam in January 2003, what's the big deal? Congress knew full well that war was imminent, as did the rest of us. In October 2002, Congress voted overwhelmingly to give President Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq. The Senate approved the measure 77-23, the House by 296-133. In November 2002, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441 giving Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations." There's nothing secret about these public acts, which were deliberate and debated. Saddam remained belligerent, making war unavoidable. If he'd opened his country to unencumbered inspections, there would have been no war.

As for some of Mr. Woodward's observations about the president's intelligence, his supposed misapplication of funds for military preparations against Iraq, his personal relationship with God, etc.--how elitist! And strange. Remember this from JFK's inaugural address? "In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. . . . The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world." The World. It sure sounds to me like Mr. Bush is a man of his times and that his critics have lost their anchor. And their heroes.

Are we done now? Is the media really planning to spend the next six months brewing up tempests in teapots?

While the Presidents numbers have held up pretty well in spite of the media's best efforts and three months of wall-to-wall negativity, we can't take re-election for granted. Every Wednesday, I ask my readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign.

If you've already donated and volunteered for the Bush campaign, then talk to your friends and enlist them in this battle for America's very soul.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And do e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com so that you can be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:

Monday Moggy Musings

I never thought Feste would leave tonight...Molly an' me been waitin' to post some new cat stuff. First, here's a pix of Molly slightly baked on catnip.

WaIT, juSHT oNe MiNtue, I wAs Not BakeD, I wAS tOAsted...bIg Diff yA kNOw. HUMph.

Nevermind that Molly, move over...leave the mouse alone! It's my turn to post.

This week's post for Lair's Carnival of the Cats #5 stars guess who? Tada! Me.

Mr. Sneakeasy is making hoity-toity music over at the Joint with the Bestofme Symphony #20.

Finally The Donovan's Fusileers are getting ready to kick some serious Dean of Whizbang ass...or something. I'm not too sure...Feste babbles a lot about this shit...who listens anymore? But I think it's real important and you should check it out.

Time for some salmon jerky, this typing with paws is a lot more work than you might think.

Zozo out.

Fighting Fusileers for Freedom

For a year I've bitched and griped about Al-Jazeera's coverage, now I have the opportunity to do something about it, so can you.

I figure you can't go wrong hanging with the side that can hold their likker, is heavily armed and can operate lethal machinery. I'm joining the Imperial Armorer's Fighting Fusileers for Freedom!

Okay, here's the deal. Dean Esmay has arranged things with the Spirit of America people, who are working with the Jarheads in Iraq to give the Iraqis an alternative to Al-Jazeera. . Starting Monday or Tuesday of next week, the Castle Argghhh! Fighting Fusileers for Freedom will be joining a 10-day campaign to raise funds for U.S. Marines to equip TV stations in Iraq. There are two fronts in this war. The Spirit of America website will have donation buttons for the three Alliances. More, if more form.

Dean Esmay, and Rosemary, Queen of All Evil are one party. The QOAE is offering a peek at her rack if we'll join their side.

The other is Michelle, of A Small Victory. She has the coolest looking website, and is taking the high road, refusing to pander to pervy pulchritude.

Good blog fun aside, we need to do this. I've written about Spirit of America's good works from time to time. However if you're not familiar with the organization, go have a look at the varied missions they've undertaken. Link to whichever blog coalition you like or form your own, but get the word out and blog for hate-free airwaves in Iraq.

A Plethora of Riches

Yet another entertaining blog, Bastard Sword, recommended by Den Beste offers opinion serious and folly gleeful.

Go read, George Turner pens wicked clever song parodies, wears chain mail and thinks Galileo started it all.

Can't argue with any of that.

A New Voice

Insults Unpushished has a new contributor, David Andersen , who not only uses elegant phrases such as Panglossian assertion but promises truth telling, which is akin to juggling Jell-o in a wildly spinning Blogosphere.

Welcome aboard.

Erk

Flu food poisoning strikes the Feste manse....blogging to resume Monday.

Scotland The Brave!

Today, I choose to honor The Royal Scots and say "Thank You"

Our Brothers-in-Arms, The Royal Scots, 1st Battlation is serving in Iraq. Visit their web site and click on Company A, C and R for an Irag diary and photos. You might give them a shout on the regimental email. Recce Coy in Basrah

Today is the Blogosphere's Tartan Day, you can find a list of participating blogs at Blackfive or Absinthe and Cookies. While I'm not a Scot, I appreciate the culture and adore the people, the heartbreakingly beautiful countryside, and their bemused fondness for Yanks, not just because of shared ancestry, but because like the Scots, we take names and kick ass. They get it.

A bit of military history for those who appreciate such things:

The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) is the oldest Regiment in the British Army and as such is the senior Infantry Regiment of the Line. It was raised in 1633 when Sir John Hepburn, under a Royal Warrant from King Charles I, recruited 1200 men in Scotland. The first battle honour awarded to the Regiment was Tangier 1680, since when a further 148 have been gained in a history which has involved them in almost every campaign the British Army has fought.

Edinburgh Military Tattoo

We were living in the UK and attended the 1983 Tattoo when the Regiment celebrated its 350th Anniversary and it was spectacular. I recommend the Tatto as a must see for anyone holidaying in the UK in August.

The word tattoo is a corruption of a Dutch phrase meaning "turn off the taps"....when a lone drummer would play a "tattoo" or drum roll to signal the inkeepers to stop serving beer and to summon the troops back to barracks. This ceremony was performed by the British while they were in the low countries during the early 18th century, but it is a custom common to many armies of that time, in particular the various German princeapalities of the day. Over time the Tattoo evolved into a more elaborate affair as more bands and musicians were drawn into its fare and 1947 became the Tattoo we know today.

There are usually five or six pipe bands massed in the Edinburgh Tattoo. In 1983 they pulled out the all the stops for a massive celebration attended by the Royals... it was a peak experience.

The infantry battalions of the Scottish Division are always well represented and the regular services will provide at least one other band -perhaps from the Guards, the Cavalry, the Gurkhas or the Royal Air Force. The musicians in these bands are all fighting servicemen for whom combat must take priority over piping and drumming. In the infantry, for example, the pipe band usually has the official role of battalion machine gun platoon.

On 30th June, 1667 Samuel Pepys met Lord George Douglas in Rochester and mentions seeing his Regiment; he records that "here in the streets I did hear the Scotch March beat by the drums before the soldiers, which is very odde."

The battle marches (mpeg- turn up your speakers) struck fear in the hearts of their enemies as they heard the din of the drums and pipes marching towards them, knowing the fiercest of the fierce were just over the hill and it was their day to die.

Monday, Monday...

Catching up...Laughing Wolf asks the question that has been on my mind since the imagery from Fallujah aired. It is obvious that media anti-war/anti-American bias is the elephant in the world media's living room, when will they police and censure their own? Wait...I know. Never.

Baldilocks posts a dissing of Air America...not the lame content...that's a given...but their take-over of a black community radio station in the NYC market. Way to go guys.

One would think the Dems would have a boffo campaign given that the mass-media/marketing and entertainment industry are avowed supporters...how to explain the darth of ideas and crappy presentation. The Back Country Conservative comments on their latest effort at cleverness. Nor can Kerry come up with a resonating campaign motto..."A New Direction For America"?

Yeah, as in a hard left turn at speed onto a short pier.

A Fool's Day Out

In honor of our special day, I offer the Blogosphere's Fools:

• King Of Fools
• Useful Fools
• Fool's Eye Blog
• FoolBlog
• Fool's Blog
• The Barefoot Fool
• A Gathering Of Fools
• Med Fools

Of course one would be foolish indeed not to honor the Grandfather of Foolishness:Punch Magazine.

Partake of the bounty of wit, opinion and folly our freedom bestows, for if you allow yesterday's savage acts to deprive you of a smile then as the hacks say; the terrorists win.

Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Wednesday Woundup

Susanna Cornett, in her post New Coke vs Classic Coke, points out another heartless media corporation taking a 30-year veteran broadcaster off air to fix what ain't broke. Yeah, you'll be surprised.

Juliette asks the obvious question: Was Richard Clarke playing with a stacked deck? and when will pigs fly?

Another melding of blog voices arrived recently as Deb Yoder's Accidential Jedi and Jay Solo's Verbosity join forces in the all newAccidential Verbosity. If you are ahead of a fool's learning curve then nevermind. As you were.

Yum...lamb. The Delightfully Venemous Kate tempts the palate with two mouth-watering lamb recipes. I plan to make the Picatta tonight! Thanks Kate! I'll send one back at ya in the extended entry, just because I can.

Shanks For The Memory;

Lamb Shanks in Casserole:

This recipe is a perfect dish for a weekend dinner when you are hanging around the house and have time for the pot to simmer in the oven. Do not be put off by the condensed soup, you could use your favorite stratch-made mushroom and cream of tomato soup recipes if you wish, you'll need 2 cups of each...but I promise you'll never be able to tell the difference. Serve with a green salad and crusty bread for sopping up the juices. I usually serve cold stewed fruit with gingersnaps and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Serves 4 generously as the finished dish is very rich.

You will need:

4- lamb shanks approx 1.25 - 1.50 lbs each is the usual size (the bone is large)
1- Can Campbell's condensed Cream of Tomato soup
1- can Campbell's condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
1- Medium yellow onion (omit if onions are not liked or tolerated)
1-teaspoon cooking oil: olive, corn, safflower, canola...doesn't matter
4-6 Fresh medium-sized Button mushrooms, thinly sliced
4- large Russet potatoes
Fresh minced Parsley (Garnish-optional)
Salt & pepper
2-1/2 Qt. Covered baking dish, casserole or Dutch oven.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees; place the rack in the middle position.

Method:

Lightly coat the casserole or baking dish with oil, rub it around evenly with your fingers or a bit of paper towel.

Coarsely chop the onion and evenly place in the casserole. Rinse the lamb shanks with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel. Lightly salt and pepper the shanks on top of the onions. Scatter the sliced mushrooms over the shanks

Whisk (a fork works fine) together both cans of condensed soup and 2-Cups of tepid water in a bowl. It may look a little lumpy and unappetizing at this point...that's okay. Pour the soup over the shanks, cover and place the casserole in the center of the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes, remove from the oven, the dish should be simmering nicely, gently baste the shanks, scraping the sides of the dish down. Turn the oven down to 325. Cover and return the dish to the oven for an additional 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the peeled, quartered potatoes (you want nice big wedges)...lightly salt, cover and return to the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

Serve each person a shank with 3-4 wedges of potatoes and lots of sauce in large soup plate or shallow bowl. Garnish with a sprinkling of parsley and a grind of black pepper. Serve hot. Enjoy!

Sharpen the pitchforks, Mabel!

Cartography buffs and members of the VRWC take note, the Commissar has unearthed a seminal Blogosphere document that delinates the historical political divide clearly...in his own mind at least.

Kill All The Clowns

I HATE the jester...it seemed like a good idea at the time... new layout tonight.

Jury pool call this afternoon. That should be fun...the casts from Cocoon and the Road Warrior up close and personal.

Best Of Me Symphony #17

Ted at Rocket Jones excellently hosts this week's Symphony from Munuvia. Head-spinning, pulse-weakening and will-sapping...Ted bravely slogs on in a NyQuil induced haze... with a minimum of whining and embellishments...knowing that good writing, like the cheese, stands alone. Ted's nominaton for the all-time best album cover is a nice touch. Ah...those were the days...when cover was art.

Carnival Of The Cats#2

Okay fine...it's the weekend and I'm sick of the Bush-Clarke media pukeathon...I'll pimp out the cats for a little Carnival of the Cats fun at Lair's. There's mighty cute Yourish kitties, the tale of Buttons and much more.

In honor of the occasion I downloaded a few cat pages from my family site. Here's a really smaltzy page 'o kitten pix ...and if that doesn't send the cat haters screaming into the night...then try this one....or perhaps Zozo's page will fill the bill.

Dot Disaster

I've pushed Paul's meme as far as possible and this story ruined the mood.

Now that the UN's Iraqi Oil scam is finished they are looking for another cash cow.

The United Nations wants a big piece of the Internet.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan set the tone in a speech Thursday, criticizing the current system through which Internet standards are set and domain names are handled, a process currently dominated by the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. Such structures "must be made accessible and responsive to the needs of all the world's people," Annan said.

Although the U.N. process is still in its early stages, the result could dramatically reshape the way the Internet is run and put an end to some of the informal, collaborative processes that exist today. The master root servers that serve up addresses for country codes and all other top-level domains, for instance, are operated in part by volunteers instead of through a U.N.-style apparatus.

Dozens of delegates from developing nations echoed Annan's remarks throughout the rest of the day, arguing that their governments do not have a voice in the way the Internet is operated and that more money and investment from richer nations is the only way to end the so-called digital divide. Khalid Saeed, the secretary of Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology, said his country must "play an active role in all layers" of organizations that control the operation of the modern Internet.

Many delegates to the Global Forum on Internet Governance appeared to favor the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency, taking over at least part of ICANN's functions. "We don't have to create any new organizations," said Alain le Gourrierec, ambassador from France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We don't have to create any new agencies. The U.N. exists for this reason. The main point is to make sure the developing countries are part of this movement to make the Internet part of society."

The few representatives of Internet technical bodies, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), who participated in the summit were outnumbered but emphatic.

"The IETF has an extremely open process," said IETF Chair Harald Alvestrand. The group, which sets most of the standards that keep the Internet working, is "a place where stakeholders come together...Make sure when you talk about Internet governance, you're talking about things that really need governing."

"We're in danger of overregulating," not underregulating, said Karl Auerbach, a former ICANN board member and a veteran Internet engineer.

VeriSign/NetSol sucks at a task they invented and have the most experience in managing. In a very short order the UN Internet would be totally FUBARed and burning money like a drunken UN diplomat in a French whorehouse.

A UN takeover of ICANN can only result in a two tier Internet. One can imagine English speaking counties in North America, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan and a few Southeast Asian countries maintaining the current US-based top level servers.

A tip of the chapeau to Linda at Civilization Calls.

Doin' The Peat Bog Two-Step

I have no idea why this is so funny.

Oho! because it is.

(How am I doing Paul?)

Hey Ma! Look...

...I'm bloggin'!

Heh.

Blogging 101

Brilliant.

Insightful!

A MUST READ!!

BOTV

This weeks Bonfire of the Vanities is off to an auspicous start as Craig at MTPolitics snarkily proclaims a fest of meta-lamness as he roasts each entry before tossing them on the bonfire of Blogoverse opinion. Whew! I'm outta lame metaphor as well...so on with the weenie roast!

Symphony #16

Susie at Practical Penumbra, hits all the right cultural notes as Moose and Squirrel perform this week's Best Of Me Symphony libretto.

BOTV #37

Cheeseboogie, cheeseboogie. Cheeps. No Coke! Pepsi!

The irrepressible Aaron grills up a meme for this week's Bonfire of the Vanities. Throw on a thong and head on over while the Margaritas last.

Awright!

They're baaaack...not a moment too soon.

Bestofme Symphony #14

By the data to date, there is only one opinion in the Blogosphere dangerous to the blogger -- his own. So he must supply his own indispensable competition. This week's Symphony is cleverly annotated by Christine at Irritable Blog Syndrome

Best Of Me Symphony #13

Pixy Misa host's this week's Bestofme 'R' Us an amusing arrangment of blog ditties, show tunes and riffs at Ambient Irony.

Best Of Me Symphony, Opus 12

Gary Cruse channels H.L. Mencken for this week's Symphony of bloggy goodness at The Owner's Manual.

Bonfire of the Vanities #31

Outside the Beltway hosts this week's blog dreck fondly known as Bonfire of the Vanities.

While you're there, James has a must read post of the intelligence inquiry: KEEGAN: INQUIRY POINTLESS

Bush had to get out front and form a posse before the Dems found a suitable hanging tree, but unless the inquiry looks at the Clinton Administration intelligence failures, in particular Clark and Albright's war on Kosovo, an inquiry will be little more than political salve or election year ploy and resolve nothing.

More Vodka Sergey!

Russian winter long and dark, Commissar reduced to carving playing cards from turnips until Spring, when comrade wife bathes.

DemCom Deck of Cards for Operation Bloggi Freedom
DEMCOM - (For Immediate Release)

DEMCOM has issued a deck of 52 playing cards to assist our troops in Blogistan to identify dangerous bloggers, regime holdouts, and hardcore Blaa-blaah-ists.

Bestofme Symphony #9

Perhaps contributors should have taken the 5th as TPB, Esq. presents a multi-count indictment for the jury's consideration at Unbillable Hours.

Keep Hands Inside Car

Tripping the light fantastic in search of a quote (too lazy to get the friggin' book down and type it ) when I stumbled on an ill-formed URL and fell head-long through a tear in the hyperspace compendium, landing with a startled "splat" upon the pages of Tie-Dyed Brain Rays.

Awright.

Today's post Get The Phone demonstrates the futility of the telephone as a means of communication.

Go. Read. Laugh. Blogroll.

Bestofme Symphony #8

This weeks Bestofme Symphony is up at Dodgeblogium and very nicely tuned, I might add.

Bonfire Of The Vanities

Bonfire of the Vanities #28 is roaring along nicely at the evangelical outpost, bring your own marshmallows and religious texts.

A Noteworthy Event

This is just so cool. Congrats!

New Weblog Showcase Picks

Mayor Rudy Giuliani offered an interesting anology to the war on terrorism on Imus this morning (I am paraphrasing from pre-coffee memory). Giuliani said that it was like the battle against organized crime, the government couldn't take on all the crime families at once, they were too well financed and entrenched, they brought them down a family or organization at a time until they had all the capos, and finally the di Capo di tutti, that it was an ongoing struggle that would require constant vigilance.

This why it is so important that we keep the team we have in place until the key terrorist organizations are eliminated and sponsoring regimes deposed or decapitated. We must make sheltering, arming and/or funding terrorists too punitive to contemplate. That millions of Arabs will be free to create their own government and a better future is a benefit for the civilized world. This is an underlying truth that the Dems and Euroweasels are beginning to realize and will not be successful in thwarting. A free Iraq is the genie that escaped the bottle of Arabic despotism and tyranny... just as Poland's rebellion was the bellweather event that signalled the fall of the Soviet empire...there's no going back.

My choices in this week's New Weblog Showcase understand that we are on the brink of success with Iraq...we must not elect a president who would retreat from the battle of civilizations just as we've begun to turn the tide.

Um...so that's what it is about Dean...read the whole piece... the illustrative photos are a hoot... Patrick Spero is high on my short list of this weeks best.

Angry Howie and "the point"

My parents always taught me pointing was rude. I agree with them. I don't point at people and I know I don't like it when people point at me.

Since then, I have read politicians are trained not to point when speaking publicly because it gives them an air of arrogance and anger.

Well I have to admit it. I cannot stand Howard Dean. I disagree with him on virtually all of his current policy positions, but that is the case with many other politicians who I enjoy listening to. So what is it about Dean?

It's well-know Dean has tapped into the Angry Left and he himself seems to be fuelled by a hatred of all-things Republican. That might be it, but I don't think so because I am friends with many Bush-haters.

Looking through some pictures of Dean I think I realized what it is about him. It is his tendency to point.

Dan K. O'Leary gets it...in spades.

Bush, Saddam, and Howard Dean

"With Saddam apprehended, we still need to deal with the threats at home. Namely, Howard Dean. As Joe Lieberman said, "If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place." We must be vigilant the next 11 months if we are going to ensure that men like Saddam and his networks of violence and terror are to be taken down. Our national security is too valuable to be in the hands of a pacifistic liberal like Howard Dean. ".

Then there's this from Justin at My Word:

The Politics of the Lord of the Rings (scroll down to Wednesday, December 17, 2003)

"The Lord of the Ring, Return of the King was released in theaters today. It is a wonderful day. I've been a fan of the books for years. Yet deep down inside I feel guilty going to a movie with a person so misguided like Viggo Mortensen. He has been an outspoken anti-american activist. He compared the US to Saruman in an interview with Charlie Rose. Comments like that to me stab to the heart. I love this country, and it saddens me that I, who am now studying theatre and acting, have to hear people of my own trade make such outrageous unfounded and hateful comments. It has become the fad in hollywood to use your status to push the lemmingesk degrading of America..."

Well. LOTR and a lemming meme?!...Bingo! My choice for this week's best is My Word...all three are fine additions to the Foolish blogroll.

Crap By Another Name

...still stinks.

A new voice Anti Anti War, currently #2 in this week's New Weblog Showcase 'splains why The Iraq war will be a success and bitchslaps a loathesome blogger exploiting a soldier's death and sitting at #1.

Link anti anti war now!

A Busy Blogosphere It Is

Time to nominate and vote for your favorite blog at Whizbang's Explosively Unique...2003 Weblog Awards

Welcome to the 2003 Weblog Awards.

Voting for the awards will be open to all, but you will only be able to vote once in each category. The final decisions as to the participants in each category will be mine, but I will try to take all nominations into account. There are enough categories that most sites that really want to participate will be able to find one they fit in.

Why am I doing this? I think most awards tend to favor established sites. I'm trying to create enough of a stratification system that blogs will compete on an equal footing with their peers. Who better to judge the merits of blogs than blog readers?

Missed It By THAT Much

The Politburo Diktat has developed unique, click-able map of

The Commonwealth of Blogosphere.

This humble blog being only a few hovels and a goat shed isn't listed, but we have high hopes that one day we will indeed make the map.

Reality Bites

Catching up on my blog reading backlog...what a joy to have two weeks of Lileks to peruse...sweet Gnat...cultural icons embraced and debunked...musings of the frozen North and of course James with a full head of steam. Lileks says exactly what has been on my mind since the Blogosphere began fawning over Salam Pax.

One day soon the Brit media whores stroking Salam for a quid will tire and London's Trotskyite ratbags will embrace the next cause celebe. The weight of history and political realities will overtake your fleeting fame, where you gonna go then, habibi?

UPDATE: James climbs down a bit from his tone, I wish he hadn't, it was perfect.

I Got Nothing

Maybe it's this damned El Diablo wind that has pounded the East Bay Hills for three straight days. We nervously watch the conflagration down south, knowing that it could strike us any minute. Makes a person downright antsy.

So I'm chilling...avoiding the news ...deep denial is always a good civil defense option (ask any Liberal/Democrat)... and working on the Halloween page...I think you'll hate it.

Muwhahahahahahah!

Go to Whizbang and check out the this week's Bonfire of the Vanities...always dreadfully entertaining.

Kevin's got the comment spam blocker link up too...check it out.

DOS Attack Hits Web Host

Well that was interesting...taking down many of the most popular and heavily read blogs.

Hosting Matters sez:

"Beginning at or around 1750 Eastern Oct. 16, we experienced a denial of service attack directed at our network. This was confirmed by the security team at the NOC with a peak inbound at 150 Mps, moving to 85 Mps as they continued to block the attack. This attack is on an order that requires our upstream to do the bulk of the work, as it not something that can be easily dealt with at our level. "

UPDATE: Dean Esmay posted:

"Just got an email from Michele Catalano, telling me that the attack was aimed at one site. It appears to be a pro-Israeli site, commenting on and reporting on activities in the middle east

Well. Now what do you know about that?"

UPDATE II: LGF's readers provide commentary on the DOS...The Fiery Celt composed a little ditty to while away the time: "Loggin' onto Nothin'"

HOOAH

I am sure you are way ahead of me, Blackfive, The Paratrooper of Love, is a must read. Readers not familiar with Matt 's blog might wish to start here...then read todays moving post. Check out his cool photo album...really look at the faces. Their humor and devotion to their avocation and country leap off the pages of this and other blogs by our military active and in-active. Just as his grandfather before him, Matt is the citizen soldier envisioned by our Founders... he's funny as all get out as well.

When the nightly network news appeasement, hand wringing and pissing on the military begins remember such men. Who do you trust more?

No fucking contest.

UPDATE: post edited as per suggestion.

How Much Is That TOW in The Window?

Can I add this site to my wish list? Go before the suits force it offline.

A hat tip to Misha's astute readers

The drumbeat grows louder

Who fired up the Wayback Machine?

Aimeriez-vous le fromage avec cette plainte?

This mental image is just so wrong.

"I don't want to freedom kiss my wife," says Woody Allen in a new ad spot. "I want to French kiss her."

Eew, eewww, eeewww.

French tourism is down an estimated $500 milllion so far this summer due to anti-Semitism and Chirac's back stabbing in the UN.

Mon Dieu! What to do? Zee 'otels, zay are eemptee!

What else? Hire a famous Jewish-American comedian to do a très chic commercial and when all else fails play the race card. Que?

Jean-David Levitte, France's ambassador to the United States whines:

"It goes beyond calls for French products," Levitte said. "When you insult the French people, simply because they are French, then it's a kind of racist campaign."

M'excuser! I know the French think their Merde pas l'odeur, but when did Gaelic become a racial category?

Silly me, all this time I thought they were shallow white people with poor hygiene, questionable toilet habits, tacky comedic taste and an inability to parallel park.

This proves beyond a doubt that the French have
a) no taste,
b) no clue,
c) are over.

Tuesday Funk

Guess I better write something...soon.

Ever notice how Tuesday-after-a-holiday funk is different than regular Monday ennui? Is it funkier? or am I just rambling on? Could be.

:::stalling:::

Oh hell, go here and I'll be back later.

[hat tip to Fragmented Fred]

The Weasel Dance...

...has begun in Cannes. A steady parade of self-righteous, sycophantic entertainment types will seek to curry favor and publicity in the French press by claiming they are being unfairly censored or oppressed in the US by the Bush administration. Film maker Wim Wenders seems to think that consumers refusing to buy products produced by people with whom they disagree is "McCathyism". Funny, all this time, I thought it was freedom of association and a free market place.

The 50's blacklisting was a cowardly, shameful response by the movie/entertainment industry. The studios didn't have the balls to stand up to the govt...even though they controlled the PR machine. Blacklists are only effective when the people who hold the means of production/distribution enforce them. The blacklisting was done to protect profits. Who do these people think they are fooling, Hollywood has zero integrity. They'll fold like a cheap suitcase if the product doesn't produce the expected grosses.

Buy a clue, asshat, a free market decides what they will endorse/buy...not whiny liberals.

Boo-fucking-hoo.

Weasel Watch

Emperor Chirac's naked ambition is revealed:

Chirac Again Warns East Europeans to Toe EU Line

ATHENS (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac, who outraged east Europeans in February by slamming their support for the U.S.-led war on Iraq, warned the new EU members on Wednesday to do more to find common European stands.

Speaking as 15 EU member states and 10 mostly ex-communist new members signed a treaty sealing the expansion of the bloc, Chirac said the new Europe must clarify its political ambitions to avoid the splits that emerged over the war.

In his stunning tirade in February, Europe's leading opponent of the war denounced east European countries as "not very well behaved and reckless" for siding with Washington and declared they had "missed a great opportunity to shut up."

His more diplomatic approach at the signing ceremony at Athens' ancient Agora or marketplace, the birthplace of democracy, clearly aimed at the east Europeans with its call for the expanding Europe to maintain unity in its growing diversity.

"This new Europe will not be able to fulfil our citizens' expectations if, as we are seeing in the current crisis, its political ambitions are not clarified and its running is not extensively rethought," he said.

"The European Union is about more than just a large market, common policies, a single currency and free movement," he said pointedly. "It is more importantly about a collective ambition, shared disciplines, firm solidarity and naturally looking to the European family."