PEACEKEEPERS

France has offered to send PEACEKEEPERS to Lebanon to separate Hezzbollah from the IDF...in addition they are to work with the Arab forces to make their military units more "professional". Each French soldier is going to be issued new pocket knives, as pictured above...they will also bring sufficient numbers to equip Hezzbollah.
This might be a good thing...besides, if nothing else they could feed them well.

HEAT WAVE

Today was said to be the hottest day in four years here in River City. Of course, the weather-pukes pegged it at a mere 100 degrees. I tend to ignore them. After all, they put their thermometers in the SHADE...so it is likely that 100 was not the top temp on those walking outside or driving around today. Tomorrow is expected to be worse.

Now, if one is going to live in the DC area, one must be prepared to deal with two things...HEAT and bullshit. (the latter regards politics and is for another discussion).
SO...I remembered the above picture of my pool duck, who resides in and around my pool all year...he was caught (unhappily) in a bit of a snow shower this past winter...
I never complained about the recent winter, except for it's lack of snow in sufficient amounts...so...too aid in cooling off, I offer Mr. Yellow Duck, avec snow. Circa 2/06.

The Brilliance of the WaPo

According to the Washington Post, the US may suffer a backlash for it's unbridled support of Israel in the current fighting in Lebanon.
A backlash??? Ya really think so??? Like the one in 1973?? Or the one in 1978???
You remember that, don't you?? GAS LINES...odd or even fill up days based on your tag number...fights over idiots cutting in line...inflation...Jimmy Fucking Carter...
Is that the backlash that the WaPo speaks of???

Well, only in part...they also mention the "isolation" of the US when it went off on this Iraqi adventure a few years ago...when most of Europe was opposed to the move...(and remain opposed today)...we are frying in our own grease...the grease that makes people like Bush/Chaney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/et al think that they know every damned thing there is to know, especially when God talks to them and guides them...I have to wonder if this is the same God who guides Hezzbollah or the same G-D who tells the Israelis how to go forward... If it is, then this Supreme Being has one rather warped sense-of-humor.
Anyway, I am forced to agree with the WaPo...one reason being that they asked me if I thought that was the case. The other being that I don't see any happiness about to break out anywhere we hoped it would any time soon...the media dolts take surveys asking if the average American (what ever the hell that is now), thinks that there can ever be peace between the Israelis and the Arabs...Overwhelmingly these average American's say NO...but what is really interesting is how much we are going to suffer this time...much more so than in '78...granted, we have just as big of a dumbass in the White House as we did back then, maybe bigger...and both were/are religious nutbars of the first order. But where things differ this time is with the depth of damage an oil embargo will cause this time around...no "per-capita averaging", no "adjusted for inflation" crap...just pain...plain old every-friggin'-day pain...Ole Chevez in Venezuela just loves the hell outta Iran, and old Iran just hates the shit outta the US...and our little policies of trying to constructively destabilize all of those Arab countries, having failed, is being used against us...(you didn't think that this little fracas in Lebanon was all for the hell of it, did you??)
Iran saw a way to turn back on us our own game...and to distract the world from Iraq (where they are assisting the "foreign fighters"), and their own nuclear development...meanwhile, the IDF gets its clock cleaned (which surprised everyone!) and is made to look even worse than usual with the many dead civilians in their wake...(see picture of arty fire above) it doesn't matter who did what to whom, what matters is how the world sees what it sees...and it is seeing Israel as the aggressor, and the US as the backstop for said aggressor...and our policy is not going to change, no matter what the damage to the US or it's citizenry...
We can only hope that they use at least a modicum of KY-Jelly.

Poor ole Mel...

So Mel gets drunk and rives, and when he is stopped by the local cops for DUI, he begins to spout off about Jews causing all the wars...naturally, this becomes big news...(I wonder tho, if his real name weren't Gibson, but Blaustien, and were he badmouthing the Goyim, would this even be news??? Not really!) Besides, he has a point.

SO Mel apologizes, but the various Jewish groups jump dead in his shit...Nikki Finke (a known nutbar) reports a convo with a prominent Rabbi at the Weisenthal center in LA, in which the good rabbi lays it on Gibson about being a bigot etc...You see class, bigotry is only permissible if you are a member of a protected group...otherwise you are not allowed to be human enough to have any negative thoughts against said protected group...and Gibson being white and rich is not even close to protected.
I think it is a good thing that Mel has a wad of bucks...'cuz he may have some trouble with movie making hence forth...unless he comes up with another great movie, in which case all fears of bigotry will be surpressed for the time it takes to make money for the powers in Hollywood. Never let it be said that they stood in the way of profit over little stuff.

Sometimes, a little editing is necessary...

In Case You Wondered...

For those of you still young enough to not quite
understand how life works,
I present this pic.
Discuss it amongst yourselves; however, don't be stupid enough to dispute the facts.
THAT is why I am the Soothsayer. I understood this way, way, way back.

Memory lane...

Sure John Sure...

Just a few days ago Democrap John Kerry told a group of folks at a fund raiser, that the current situation in the middle east (including the one in Lebanon) would not be happening if he were president.
Ya know what?...he is right...none of this would have happened, not Iraq, not Afghanistan, not Lebanon...why???
BECAUSE WE'D ALL BE PRAYING TOWARD MECCA BY NOW...the radical sons-of-pigs-and-dogs would have kicked our asses into the ground...and might well have done the same to Western Europe too...and Islam would be the big dog's in our place...
SO...as much as I dislike Bush & Company, it could have been even worse...much, much worse...

blogger.com sucks...

I have been asked why I don't post more often...aside from other reasons, the big problem is that good old blogger.com just plain sucks! Twice today alone I posted about ongoing events...only to have blooger.com mysteriously "disconnect"...this is a regular occurrence...and customer service at blooger.com is akin to asking Hizbollah to eat pork.

SO...I post when I can get thru...which isn't often...
I am getting what I pay for...

REGRETS...

This past Friday night, ex-AOL puke Steve Case told Charlie Rose that he regretted the AOL Time/Warner merger...note: he REGRETTED it...ah ha! This little rectum single handedly wiped out TWO HUNDRED BILLION in stock in shortly more than the blink of an eye. He ought to be Kozlowsky's butt-buddy in prison, not cruising the world with the billion or so he saved from AOL...
He was totally damned incompetent at AOL (remember 1997???) and I was amazed that T/W went his way..now the two companies are shadows of their former selves, and if AOL even exists in five years it'll be a bone fide miracle.
But don't worry about Stevie, he is doing well...he lives on a double lot at the Reserve in McLean, VA...

Miami Vice

Well, it appears some more of those Hollywood-types are remaking the old TV shows again, this time for theatrical release. This continues to demonstrate that Hollywood is totally and completely befret of ideas, so they return to the well of yesteryear...but they never ever do a good job when they go to that well...in fact, they blow it...(pun intended).
Now they have remade the 1980's thriller series MIAMI VICE...as it happens, I was a fan of the TV series and watched it when I could...to the folks who remade it and to the actors who play in it I have only this to say:
There is ONE Sonny Crockett and ONE Ricardo Tubbs...they are pictured above...and you ain't them...and you never will be.

POLO???

OK...so Christie Brinkley's husband (#4) Peter Cook had an affair with a 19 year old kid out there in the Hamptons. Granted, that is something sure to make a high maintenance woman like Christie freak out...Understandably. OTOH...if you have ever had a conversation with Ms. Brinkley, you would want to run as fast as you can to somewhere or someone whose IQ and bra size are not equal. Altho it appears that Mr. Cook just has a thing for really young girls and Christies lack of actual intellect didn't seem to bother him...
Christie is a self appointed expert on Nuclear Power...(she is opposed, and sometimes cites Three Mile Island (TMI) as why) {SIDEBAR: TMI was entirely media hysteria...more people died at Chappaquiddick than at TMI}
She is also PETA and on and on and on to the point of vomit. But now comes the thing that I find the very most insulting: The Mercedes-Benz Polo series at Bridgehampton polo Club this year is "just not the same" with Christie being absent...ARE YOU SHITTIN' ME??? She is a fucking spectator...she isn't playing in the match! That is pretty damned good polo, if any of the self-described beautiful people in the M-B tent bothered to look at the field...but since CB is hiding out in CA with her kids, it just ain't the same...
I wonder if Usma has the grid coordinates for the Hamptons???

{SIDEBAR #2: The mother of the 19 year old claims that Cook took her daughters "innocence"...ah huh! Maybe Mom shoulda told her that when a man gives you a job and a car et al, if he isn't your dad, then he is expecting something in return beyond a thank you note. Anyone else see a lawsuit coming??? and the kid isn't even very pretty or well spoken...Oi!}

REST IN PEACE

Mickey Spillane-(1918-2006) Critics hated him...readers loved him. That is all that need be said.

Stem Cell Research...(I am in favor of it)

NOTHING IS UNTAXABLE...

Enterprise rent-a-car commissioned a study by some of the lads at Brookings to determine the damage done to their industry by local rental car taxes...

It was determined that people will go out of their way to avoid
this silly-assed tax, even if it means traveling to a more
distant rental agency . For example, in the St. Louis, MO area
the tax is four bucks per day. People are driving to Kansas to get away from that tax.
Why would they do this??? Because the tax is used to
fund such things a sports stadiums and convention
centers. Thus, those brilliant rectum's running Missouri
are screwing both their locals and their visitors to give breaks
to the fat bastards who own the sports teams!
It appears that this is not uncommon as many states
have the same tax, but in varying amounts.

What a crock o' crap.
http://www.newyorktimes.com/06/17/business

The Bastards at CBS

Way back when I was a wee lad, CBS was called the TIFFANY Network because it was considered to be a few cuts above the other nets in it's programming. Boy, are those days over.
The picture you see above is what will fill your 'fridge in Sept and Oct of this year...CBS has arranged to have eggs etched with ad's. These are the eggs we all buy at the market. These bastards have managed to invade our world in yet another way...Now, I have a habit of eating bacon/eggs/toast/grits on a regular basis...I can guarantee I will not be buying any eggs that carry ad's for anything...and the one program on CBS that I watch now and then will do without me for those two months...and I am their dream demographic.
Screw you CBS.

WHY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SUCKS...

In addition to the usual reasons, one must endlessly note that they just don't do the research necessary to caption photos. The above picture is NOT of a rocket launching...it is a cannon firing an artillery round. Although some artillery is rocket-assisted, this picture does not show one of those.
All it takes is a good copy of Jane's weapons books and the idiot photo editors of the world could get it right...but that would take actual effort...which is something these turds couldn't possibly expend. I have discussed this subject with several of them over the years. They respond that the public doesn't know any better so it doesn't matter. Apparently the same tack taken by the writers as regards truth.

On a hot, rainy DC day...a little humor...

Better & Better

The District of Columbia...the nation's capitol, is under an official CRIME EMERGENCY as I type these words. Not just because the routine crimes of robbery etc. have risen lately, but because murder is once again the past time of the Have-less/Have-not crowd.

On Q Street, NW ( Georgetown), in the driveway of a house I almost bought and moved to, a British man was knifed to death on Sunday morning. A group of four folks from the other side of town (one of whom was a woman), tried to rob this young man and the young woman with him. They also tried to drag away the young woman for obviously nefarious purposes. He died defending the woman, who got away...Apparently this crew had been "working" Georgetown for a few months, but never went so far as murder or attempted rape...the DC Police had a good idea where to look and scarfed them up within a few hours...
Perhaps even more terrifying is the fact that most of the murders are occurring amongst the folks on the other side of town...Killing each other for shoes, IPods, jackets etc. Sometimes it is hard to fathom that children or adolescents have so little empathy or actual feeling that they don't care if they kill a peer for his IPod...
What that says about our society, and their culture, is not something that causes pride...at least to me...This is one issue on which I don't have any workable thoughts about how to cure the situation...obviously it borders on anarchy in some neighborhoods...you'd think that the capitol city of the US would be able to do better, to become a model of everything, but no matter which party controls the government things remain the same...all the money, all of the programs are tested and implemented out in the country...and DC sits in it's own filth, unable and unwilling to break the cycle of stupidity.
How stupid??? A little over a year ago the Chief of Police had his car stolen...two weeks ago a mayoral candidate (a long-shot), who was confined to a wheelchair was gunned down...

If murders can occur arbitrarily in Georgetown, where police presence is relatively high, then it might just be time for this Crime Emergency...now if only they will do more than declare a problem and go to Dunkin' Donuts to discuss it.

Spare us...

Apparently, the arrival of Katie Couric to
the evening news is fifty-five days away.
I am aquiver with indifference.
Madame Couric wouldn't leave footprints in
the sand...

Gringo de Mexico

(posted without comment, as they are un-necessary)

Larry is on the scene...

Continuing the saga of Dr. Bartha, we learn that CNN had a man on the scene almost immediately after the blast. It seems old Larry King was staying in a hotel just around the corner ( 62nd/Madison). from Bartha's Blast. So, upon hearing it, he rallied on out to see what all of the commotion was about...(even senile folks will respond to an explosion). Larry went over there and covered the story live, via phone as I recall.
He lingered for quite a while until other CNN types got there with camera crews...it is apparently easy to linger when you wear Depends.

GO BOOM!

So, Dr. Bartha's divorce settlement wasn't all that he had hoped. NY's divorce laws are kind of harsh and uneven. Anyway, the good Doctor decided to blow up his house/office and kill himself in the process. Of course, he didn't die...plus several innocents were hurt and several business entities like DKNY and Hermes lost the old walk-in traffic during the time the general area of Madison and E 62d were closed off. Add the damage to his neighbors buildings and Doc Bartha better die, cuz the law suits are already piling up...one of his neighbors appeared on TV with the usual fear that IF she'd been looking out the window facing his townhouse and IF she hadn't gone to the kitchen for coffee and IF and IF and IF and so on, she might have been killed. Of course, none of those IF's happened, so she was perfectly unharmed...I daresay this woman has already called her shyster about Post-traumatic Stress Disorder...and now she can tell everyone who will listen that "...it was like being in a war..."
To which I say...BULL-FUCKING-SHIT.
(Obviously, MSNBC need to fill air time)

One More...

Enjoy the 4th of July...

Where I will be today...(except in my own real pool)