Via Fark.com, it took one day for someone to take the video of drunk fan Gregory Gall stealing the football from Brett Favre and superimpose "The King" in Gall's place. See the video here.
This is a funny video, and I hate "The King". Personally, I'd like to see McDonald's score some points off this whole thing though. They should take the video of the security guard laying this guy out, superimpose "The King" over Gall, and then superimpose Grimace over the security guard. Watching Grimace rattle "The King's" retinas would ensure that I ate 20% more McDonald's.
Monday, October 31, 2005
HuffPo brings us the dumbest blog post ever
Steve Cobble at HuffPo brings what may be the dumbest blog post I have ever read. The post, titled Morality Play: Diverse Team Wins, Monochrome Team Loses, tries to make the case that the Chicago White Sox are somehow more deserving of a World Series title because they "look like America," whereas the Astros are a very white team. A taste:
On the theory that even HuffPost readers cannot live on Scooter & Karl alone, I cannot let the just-ended World Series go by without a comment. It was a great series.It was made better for me by the fact that the very diverse Chicago White Sox, who look like America, defeated the retro-looking, and very pale, Houston Astros.
Here's why this is the dumbest blog post ever. The pre-Jackie Robinson, all white Major League Baseball was a terrible thing because talented and very qualified ball players were kept out of the league solely because of the color of their skin. Since the 1970's, though, Major League Baseball has become about the most color blind entity you can imagine. What counts in today's baseball is the production on the field. With a stupid post like this, Cobble sets the sport and to some extent the country back 40 years. Who cares if the Houston Astros were a very white team? Those white players were the best talent available to the Astros, and that collection of players was also the best team in the National League this year. Part of the reason we celebrate Jackie Robinson today is because when he broke through the color barrier, he started baseball on the path towards becoming a meritocracy where race doesn't matter. The "very pale" Houston Astros earned the National League pennant. By bringing race into this, Cobble is dirties the meritocracy that Jackie Robinson started the sport towards. It would be a very different issue if their were any proof what so ever that the Astros were discriminating against hiring minority ball players, but that's just not the case. In fact, if any of the top ten minority ball players in the game said they wanted to play in Houston at a price the Astros could afford, I guarantee you the team would jump at the chance to sign them.
This is just another example of how far the left has jumped the tracks of traditional liberalism. If the goal of the Civil Rights Movement was to create a color blind society, current liberals, nay, progressives are doing their damndest to prevent it by interjecting color into everything.
Miers a class act
Andy McCarthy makes a point at The Corner that should be repeated often:
I'd like to note this before it gets lost in the swarm of deserved coverage about Judge Alito's merits. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that White House Counsel Harriett Miers was with the President over the weekend, helping him sort through the available choices and settle on a nominee for the Supreme Court seat that was dangled before her up until her honorable withdrawal last week.Couldn't agree more. The dissent over her nomination was never about her being a bad person or incapable. It was about her not being the best person for the job.
That had to be a very hard thing to do, but judging from the apparent choice, she did it with her characteristic professionalism.
I don't know her, but she sure sounds like a class act. The President and the country should be grateful for her service.
Alito's Way
It's official, President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. Gird your loins for battle, conservatives. It is going to be a knock down, drag out fight to get this confirmation, and we'll need to battle at least twice as hard as we did against the Miers nomination.
Conservative bloggers, a good way to start might be to join Blogs for Bush's Alito Coalition.
Conservative bloggers, a good way to start might be to join Blogs for Bush's Alito Coalition.
A flu story
Tonight the History Channel had a special on the Avian flu. It was a worst case scenario, as are all media portrayals. It seems authorative and scary, but when it comes down to it, their scenario is an educated guess. No one can predict how deadly a mutated Avian flu would be to people, and no one can predict how societies will react to it. With that, I'd like to present my own fictional guesstimate as to what the future holds as something of a counterpoint to all of today's dooms day scenarios.
Somewhere in a densly populated, poor region of Asia, possible China or Malaysia or Vietnam, the bird flu mutates. The mutated virus becomes easily transmitted between humans. At very first, the mutation is overlooked, but all too soon it becomes apparent to the entire world that the virus has mutated as a large portion of the host nation's population becomes sick. Borders around Asia are shut down. Western nations close their borders to anything from Asian nations. The flu very quickly spreads in Asia, as closed borders are not enough. The Western media goes into full crisis mode, and governments begin to panic a little. And so do citizens.
National economies slowly begin to close up to the outside world, but they do not halt. In fact, within nations there is a huge spending splurge as people buy the things they think they need. But then it happens. A case of the Avian flu pops up in Turkey. Then Canada. Then Russia. Then Western Europe. Then the rest of the Americas.
The flu spreads more quickly than any illness has ever spread across the globe. International travel never ceased, it just closed up to "common" people, and the remaining travel of diplomats, militaries, and other government and business officials spreads the flu around the globe. Panic fully sets in, aided and abetted by media outlets. Poor nations become very violent. Rich nations become violent and their economies slow greatly, but black markets surge. Things look very bad.
But then something becomes apparent. When the virus mutated, it became easier to transmit from human to human, but it also became less lethal. Fewer people are dying than was expected. Instead of half of the infected dying, health professionals are discovering that roughly 7% or 8 % of the infected are dying. The number of people dying from the flu still strains societies' abilities to process the dead, but it is not unmanageable. And in healthier, wealthier nations, people's immune systems are much more capable of fighting the virus, leading to lower death rates.
Unlike past pandemic flus, the worst of this one passes very quickly-in one flu season. By the end of the first season of this flu, several things have happened. A vaccine has been developed and manufactured. Scientists sequestered by governments also make a breakthrough on the treatment of flu viruses. These two events allow humans to set up something of a firewall against the virus before it can go through a second or a third wave of infections.
The world economy by this time has taken a hit. The combination of ill and dying workers and people willingly removing themselves from the free market for black markets leaves the world in a depressed economy. Things begin to ramp up quickly, though. A lot needs to be done, and and people need to be hired to do those things. In looking back on the pandemic, a couple of things become apparent. First, people panicked unneccessarily, in part because they had been conditioned by mass media to do so. Second, scientists admit that they could have created vaccines in advance of the pandemic that would have given people some but not full immunity to the virus. Had those vaccines been made and distributed, it would have reduced further the lethality of the virus. Third, leadership in many nations is found wanting. Had the leaders in those nations actually led, they would have calmed their populations and reduced the panic.
The most disturbing legacy of the avian flu is a distrust in state governments and market economies. People become more willing to accept global governments and the influence of global NGO's, thinking this is the only way to exert control of these situations in the future. They also become much more willing to accept socialization, thinking this is the only way that they can be taken care of in these situations in the future. The budding global economic recovery stalls as nations find their place in this new world.
....
I hate writing on this topic, and this prognostication is not exactly rosy. But this seems much more logical than the dooms day scenarios the media spins out, scenarios that have hundreds of millions of billions dying and the global economy all but shutting down.
Somewhere in a densly populated, poor region of Asia, possible China or Malaysia or Vietnam, the bird flu mutates. The mutated virus becomes easily transmitted between humans. At very first, the mutation is overlooked, but all too soon it becomes apparent to the entire world that the virus has mutated as a large portion of the host nation's population becomes sick. Borders around Asia are shut down. Western nations close their borders to anything from Asian nations. The flu very quickly spreads in Asia, as closed borders are not enough. The Western media goes into full crisis mode, and governments begin to panic a little. And so do citizens.
National economies slowly begin to close up to the outside world, but they do not halt. In fact, within nations there is a huge spending splurge as people buy the things they think they need. But then it happens. A case of the Avian flu pops up in Turkey. Then Canada. Then Russia. Then Western Europe. Then the rest of the Americas.
The flu spreads more quickly than any illness has ever spread across the globe. International travel never ceased, it just closed up to "common" people, and the remaining travel of diplomats, militaries, and other government and business officials spreads the flu around the globe. Panic fully sets in, aided and abetted by media outlets. Poor nations become very violent. Rich nations become violent and their economies slow greatly, but black markets surge. Things look very bad.
But then something becomes apparent. When the virus mutated, it became easier to transmit from human to human, but it also became less lethal. Fewer people are dying than was expected. Instead of half of the infected dying, health professionals are discovering that roughly 7% or 8 % of the infected are dying. The number of people dying from the flu still strains societies' abilities to process the dead, but it is not unmanageable. And in healthier, wealthier nations, people's immune systems are much more capable of fighting the virus, leading to lower death rates.
Unlike past pandemic flus, the worst of this one passes very quickly-in one flu season. By the end of the first season of this flu, several things have happened. A vaccine has been developed and manufactured. Scientists sequestered by governments also make a breakthrough on the treatment of flu viruses. These two events allow humans to set up something of a firewall against the virus before it can go through a second or a third wave of infections.
The world economy by this time has taken a hit. The combination of ill and dying workers and people willingly removing themselves from the free market for black markets leaves the world in a depressed economy. Things begin to ramp up quickly, though. A lot needs to be done, and and people need to be hired to do those things. In looking back on the pandemic, a couple of things become apparent. First, people panicked unneccessarily, in part because they had been conditioned by mass media to do so. Second, scientists admit that they could have created vaccines in advance of the pandemic that would have given people some but not full immunity to the virus. Had those vaccines been made and distributed, it would have reduced further the lethality of the virus. Third, leadership in many nations is found wanting. Had the leaders in those nations actually led, they would have calmed their populations and reduced the panic.
The most disturbing legacy of the avian flu is a distrust in state governments and market economies. People become more willing to accept global governments and the influence of global NGO's, thinking this is the only way to exert control of these situations in the future. They also become much more willing to accept socialization, thinking this is the only way that they can be taken care of in these situations in the future. The budding global economic recovery stalls as nations find their place in this new world.
....
I hate writing on this topic, and this prognostication is not exactly rosy. But this seems much more logical than the dooms day scenarios the media spins out, scenarios that have hundreds of millions of billions dying and the global economy all but shutting down.
Observations
I was doing one last pass through of the Badgersphere for the evening, and I saw that October was Leaning Blue's blogiversary (Happy blogiversary, Belle!). I went back and checked out Belle's first month, and then got all nostalgic for my October and early November last year. It was a very exciting time for this humble blog. One year ago today, I wrote The Ghost of Curly Lambeau, a post in which I declared that John Kerry had called down a curse upon himself when he called Lambeau Field Lambert Field. That curse cancelled out the Washington Redskins predictor of Presidential elections. On November 1, Hugh Hewitt linked to the Ghost post, and this website had its single biggest day traffic-wise. Additionally, I got called out on a liberal website, Watching the Watchers, as a racist. I enjoyed being challenged and fully engaging the ignorant oaf. November 1-2 of last year were probably the two most enjoyable days I've had as a blogger, just edging out being mentioned on TV.
But I also learned a big lesson immediately after those two days. Traffic was huge, and then I went off to Las Vegas, as I will do this week. My room did not have an internet connection, and I was unable to write for several days. That huge rush of traffic dried up immediately. When I did not have new or compelling material, I lost most of the audience the "Hughicane" had brought me. After thinking I was big blog on campus for a couple days, I came to learn that traffic blitzes are fleeting, and that building a regular audience over time is much more important. Would I love this blog to be a million visit site right now? Hell yes. But I haven't earned that yet, and I'm happy to see the traffic slowly and consistently grow. Maybe if I'm patient enough, I can just out last everybody else. :-).
I don't say it often enough. Thank you to my regular visitors, my occasional visitors, and my one time visitors. I used to write in a journal, and I'd lose interest in it quickly. Whether you like it or not, those of you who stop by here to visit, and maybe comment once in a while, keep me going. Thank you.
But I also learned a big lesson immediately after those two days. Traffic was huge, and then I went off to Las Vegas, as I will do this week. My room did not have an internet connection, and I was unable to write for several days. That huge rush of traffic dried up immediately. When I did not have new or compelling material, I lost most of the audience the "Hughicane" had brought me. After thinking I was big blog on campus for a couple days, I came to learn that traffic blitzes are fleeting, and that building a regular audience over time is much more important. Would I love this blog to be a million visit site right now? Hell yes. But I haven't earned that yet, and I'm happy to see the traffic slowly and consistently grow. Maybe if I'm patient enough, I can just out last everybody else. :-).
I don't say it often enough. Thank you to my regular visitors, my occasional visitors, and my one time visitors. I used to write in a journal, and I'd lose interest in it quickly. Whether you like it or not, those of you who stop by here to visit, and maybe comment once in a while, keep me going. Thank you.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
A tale of two papers
The Journal Sentinel and the State Journal both published stories today on Halloween in Madison. I'm not sure which to believe. The State Journal's story made last nights event look like a small number of rabble rousers who got pepper sprayed, and who probably deserved it. The Journal Sentinel, on the other hand, tries to make things look like it was just short of the night of the long knives, with gross police abuse of power. I'm leaning towards giving the State Journal's version of events a little more validity than the Journal Sentinel's. The Journal Sentinel seems just a little too sensational.
Was anybody there last night that can comment on this?
Read Letters in Bottles for a first hand account with pictures.
Read Letters in Bottles for a first hand account with pictures.
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
I had to observe Wigderson's trick or treat rule "Other #1":
1. Don't ogle the sixteen-year-old in the cheerleader costume. Especially if you play pro football or if you've been drinking or if you have a hot tub. Or all three.That's just wrong. I have a parents' rule for trick or treating. If your son has grown facial hair or your daughter has moved on from that training bra, it might be time to put the kaibash on trick or treating. If they have their driver's license, it definitely is. If they can legally buy smokes but are still trick or treating, and doing so in revealing clothes, its time to kick them out of the house and call the cops.
Vote Wigderson
Jiblog endorses Wigderson Library & Pub for this week's MKEonline Blog of the Week contest. Go and vote now!
Tagged, I'm it
Normally I don't play blog tag games, but I was tagged by Mary Eileen with this one, and I've found it amusing. Here are the rules:
I'm going to break a rule of the game now. I'm not going to tag anyone. But if you want to give it a try, consider yourself tagged by me.
1. Go into your archives.Okay, here's my 23rd post, titled "Crib notes". And here is the fifth sentence:
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to it).
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along
with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.
It was their's for the taking, a political ruling class in the name of Kennedy.I like the sentence. The entry was about possible bitterness that lefties had over the fact that there is a Bush dynasty.
I'm going to break a rule of the game now. I'm not going to tag anyone. But if you want to give it a try, consider yourself tagged by me.
Drudge makes fun of MoDo
A couple of posts below, I briefly touched on Maureen Dowd's latest piece of self pity. In that article, there is a 30's style picture of Dowd all tarted up, sitting at a bar. It is an odd picture to be included with an op-ed piece, even if that op-ed is in a "magazine" as this was. Today, Drudge makes fun of it, opening up a caption contest for his readers. My favorite so far?
"If You Want To Keep The Beer Cold, Put It Next To My Heart."Heh.
Wilma's 2
Drudge brings us this radar image of Wilma. I'd link to the original article but it doesn't seem to work. Notice the 2 in Wilma's eye. I'm not a 'signs' type of person, but on this one I'm willing to believe that Wilma was telling us what she planned to do to Florida-a number 2.
Madison Halloween-I was wrong
Halloween in Madison came off rather peacefully. Outside of a small group of idiots who volunteered to be pepper sprayed, everyone else pretty much behaved themselves. I was wrong in my bubbling cauldron prediction. Madison officials, enjoy this one. I'm right much more often than I'm wrong.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Quebec to divorce Canada?
The secessionist movement is picking up steam again in Quebec. Every ten years or so, Quebec begins feeling grievously unloved by the Canadian government and makes a stir about seceding. I know it would be a headache for our Canadian brethren, but it is time to call that whiny province's bluff. Put up or shut up, Quebec. When you leave, you get your share of the Canadian national debt. Don't let the door hit you on the rump on the way out.
It ain't easy being Mo-Do
Life must be hell for Maureen Dowd. One of the things she loves in life, men, is the thing she may resent more than anything else. On top of that, now she feels betrayed by modern women.
The art of a future serial killer
Ever look at handwriting or a drawing and facetiousl say, "there's a serial killer"? Even if you haven't, I give you exhibit A. Future serial killer, thy name is David Mamet.
Mixing Vegas and Wisconsin
Over at the Journal Sentinel, Mandy Jenkins discusses her recent visit to Las Vegas in her blog:
As much fun as it was to keep an eye on everyone in Vegas, I was ready for disinteresting quiet on the redeye flight home. Wisconsin again did not show up to sit quietly. Settling into my seat after two plane delays, I quickly noticed that the middle-aged couple in front of me were completely obliterated (I spent the delays reading, they spent it getting liquored up). I (and everyone else within a few rows) could hear them start arguments over every little verbal misstep, ranting in slurred drunk-speak. As the stewardess went down the aisle to check seat belts and hand out pillows, the woman grabbed her arm and asked for a Jack 'n Coke (what is it with the JD?). The attendant looked taken aback. “Um ... we don’t offer in-flight drink service until we’re at cruising altitude.”From Wednesday through Saturday of this coming week, things will be sporadic here as I will be working in Vegas. Yes, believe it or not, some people do work there. If history is any guide, I am going to be exhausted by the time I board the plane back to Milwaukee. I can handle seeing everything Mandy saw in Vegas, but by the time I get on that plane Saturday night, all I will want is peace and quiet. Something tells me I won't get it.
When that time came, the woman wanted another drink, but her husband talked her into getting some soda, straight-up. Within seconds, she had dumped the drink all over her seat, all over the arm of her man’s UW sweatshirt and all over my bag under her seat. So they were moved across the aisle and thankfully passed out....
Happy Black Tuesday!
Today is the 76th anniversary of the stock market crash that led us into the Great Depression. For better or for worse, Black Tuesday ushered in a decade of dust from the farm field to the pocket book. It also ushered in the era of Big Government in America as people began to suplant God with government.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Cheney's Fitzmas
This is the song some Democrats probably think conservatives are singing tonight (sung to the tune of Snoopy's Christmas):
The news it came out in the Plame War
The bloody Fitzgerald was flying once more
The George Bush Command ignored all of its men
And called on Cheney to do it again
Was the night before Fitzmas and Miers’ no more
When Cheney went out in search of his foe
He spied Fitzgerald and deftly they fought
With things getting tight, Cheney knew he was caught
Fitzmas bells those Fitzmas bells
Ring out from the land
Asking peace of Democrats
And good will to man
Fitzgerald had Cheney dead in his sights
He preached to the Grand Jury to put up a fight
Why he di’n’t indict, well, we’ll never know
Or was it the bills, that the D.C. bestowed
Fitzmas bells those Fitzmas bells
Ringing through from the land
Asking peace of Democrats
And good will to man
Fitzgerald made Cheney give up Libby
And forced him to kiss Ted Kennedy’s behind
Cheney was certain that this was the end
When Fitzy cried out, “Merry Fitzmas, mein friend!”
Fitzgerald then offered Libby to toast
And Cheney our hero saluted his host
And then with a bore they were both on their way
Wond’rin’ if they’d meet on some other day
(repeat chorus)
The news it came out in the Plame War
The bloody Fitzgerald was flying once more
The George Bush Command ignored all of its men
And called on Cheney to do it again
Was the night before Fitzmas and Miers’ no more
When Cheney went out in search of his foe
He spied Fitzgerald and deftly they fought
With things getting tight, Cheney knew he was caught
Fitzmas bells those Fitzmas bells
Ring out from the land
Asking peace of Democrats
And good will to man
Fitzgerald had Cheney dead in his sights
He preached to the Grand Jury to put up a fight
Why he di’n’t indict, well, we’ll never know
Or was it the bills, that the D.C. bestowed
Fitzmas bells those Fitzmas bells
Ringing through from the land
Asking peace of Democrats
And good will to man
Fitzgerald made Cheney give up Libby
And forced him to kiss Ted Kennedy’s behind
Cheney was certain that this was the end
When Fitzy cried out, “Merry Fitzmas, mein friend!”
Fitzgerald then offered Libby to toast
And Cheney our hero saluted his host
And then with a bore they were both on their way
Wond’rin’ if they’d meet on some other day
(repeat chorus)
Do they know it's Fitzmas time at all?
Chirp. Chirp.
That silence you hear is the American public reacting to the indictment of Scooter Libby. May justice be done, but the Democrats are grossly overestimating how much this story resonantes with the American people.
(Headline idea gratuitously borrowed from Lakeshore Lament's "So this is Fitzmas?" post, which I found devilishly creative. Head over there for deeper analysis of 'Fitzmas'.)
That silence you hear is the American public reacting to the indictment of Scooter Libby. May justice be done, but the Democrats are grossly overestimating how much this story resonantes with the American people.
(Headline idea gratuitously borrowed from Lakeshore Lament's "So this is Fitzmas?" post, which I found devilishly creative. Head over there for deeper analysis of 'Fitzmas'.)
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