Crescent of Embrace. Design change, or just the name?

Earlier this year there was an uproar (at least in the blogosphere) over the design for a memorial for Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Admirably, Michelle Malkin was all over it. Today she tells us about a change in the memorial in which the "Crescent" will now be a circle, and Michelle seems to approve. I'm wondering if she even looked at the new design. For your examination, the old design and the new:

Old




















New:




















It looks like all they did was change the name. The red crescent is still very visible, and that is still offensive. I hate to say it, but I actually agree with someone at the HuffPo again. This time it is Michelle Pilecki:

The stories heralding the "change" in the design note the new name, "The 40 Memorial Groves," and report that "a round, bowl-shaped area would replace ... a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees." But the bowl-shaped area was always there. And if you actually look at the design (page 4 of a pdf document), you'll see that it's still a crescent -- sorry, broken circle -- of trees. Lots more trees (i.e. a bigger "crescent," but less obviously a crescent shape in this drawing), with 40 stands of trees, one for each of the Flight 93 heroes.

Though the nation's media aren't playing it that way, it's still basically the same design, but with a new name and more trees. The former should keep the RW critics happy, the latter should please the tree-hugger types.

Pilecki is wrong on one thing. This right wing critic is still not happy, even if Michelle Malkin is.

Update
Error Theory goes into some serious detail on the problems of this memorial. He sees much more than just the red crescent.

Glenn Reynolds is a smart man

Indeed. Read that post on his switch to the Pajamas ads. He is being very careful to make sure he doesn't burn any bridges with BlogAds. In fact, I dare say his lips may have been a little chapped after that post.

Loose Lips Sink Ships Award, November 2005

It has been a while since I've handed one of these out. I believe it was to Tommy Thompson in January for his comments on the vulnerability of our food supply. The latest Loose Lips Sink Ships Award goes to Harry Reid. The topic is something so sensitive I don't really want to discuss it, but some others are and I'll let you read about it for yourself here.

Hurricane season ends today; Tropical Storm Epsilon tries to make the playoffs

Okay, I don't have much to say besides that headline. It just seems absurd that the end of the hurricane season is being trumpeted like it means anything. Those are arbitrary dates. Case in point, TS Epsilon.

Flannels Media

If you read this, then this is pretty damn funny.

Will leftists now embrace Bush?

Will leftists now embrace Bush? I ask because for a few years now they've been calling him a chicken-hawk and implying that people with no combat experience have no right to make decisions of war. Today the President said this:

"People don't want me making decisions based on politics," Bush said. "They want me making decisions based on the recommendations of our generals on the ground. And that's exactly who I'll be listening to."

Well, there it is. The President is listening to you by listening to his Generals. Unfortunately for anti-war leftists, the boots on the ground want to see this thing through because they believe in the mission. So if the President is basing his decisions on the opinions of professional soldiers, does that mean the anti-war left will begrudgingly fall into line with their President?

Note: All of the questions are rhetorical. The answer to each is no. It is no because no one has politicized Iraq more than the anti-war left.

21,000 Big Macs

As I sit here and watch the finale of The Biggest Loser, I'm also reading about Don Gorske of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Gorske is Mr. McDonald's, the anti-Morgan Spurlock, and this week he ate his 21,000th Big Mac. Whereas Spurlock unhealthily ate McDonald's for a month, even gorging himself to the point of puking, Gorske has eaten one or two Big Macs every day since 1972 and is thin as a rail. I love Gorske's story because he is living proof that Morgan Spurlock is a full of sh** propagandist.

Sheboygan space port

The talk about putting the framework in place for a possible space port/launch site in Sheboygan is picking up. With it looking more and more like private enterprise is going to take on space, I applaud this decision, but at the same time I'm somewhat skeptical of putting any money towards this yet. Has anyone really looked at the technical feasibility of this project? After all, this is Wisconsin, and last time I checked traditional space craft and ice are not good friends. Would the site be useable for the 4 or 5 winter months? Additionally, is this a project that gets Sheboygan a head start on commercial space travel, or is it a present day St. Laurence Seaway, a project that was begun just before radical changes and which was outdated the day it opened? I'd like answers to these questions before I see an authority put in place to approve spending projects.

96 year old woman ready to rumble

The only thing that could make this story better would be if she said, "Ever dance with the devil in the pale moon light?"

A 96-year-old woman fought off an attack by a 42-year-old fellow resident at Romeis Apartments at 607 N. High St. in Chippewa Falls on Sunday, according to police. Now John S. McCabe is in jail after being arrested for attempted murder.

They grow 'em tough in Chippewa Falls. It wouldn't surprise me if the woman were the daughter of one of the lumberjacks that built the city.

Fireside Chats, a different view point

From Mary Laney at the Chicago Sun-Times:

There's too much static noise out there regarding the war. It's filling a vacuum caused by the administration's failure to keep us regularly updated on what is happening throughout Iraq. It's time for the Bush administration to step up and tell us what is going on -- with regular reports, weekly updates, fireside chats, talks with soldiers -- through the entire country of Iraq.

We're getting our reports from hotel rooms in Baghdad.

It's time for the whole story from over there.

I stick by my position that Fireside Chats would only add to the static, but she brings up some interesting points in the article, as does Steve in the comments of my original post. The question becomes how do we get the stories from the boots on the ground to a mass audience of Americans? Blogs help, but blog readership is still small (in relative terms). The media has already shown us that it isn't interested in doing it. With the exception of the Bruce Willis project, ditto that last sentence for Hollywood. Must it be done via the President? If so, how do we do it without every last piece of the message becoming politicized?

Questioning patriotism

One of the left's biggest whines over the last 4 years has been about people questioning their patriotism. For some reason, the level and nature of their patriotism is supposed to be unassailable, even tangentially. I don't buy it. If I want to question someone's patriotism, I'll do so. And if I do, that person has some options: Ignore me, admit that they aren't patriotic or defend why they are. Notice that pretending to be patriotic isn't on that list. While anyone has the right to pretend to be patriotic when they really are not, I reserve the right to point that out when I see it.

Loose ends

It's been a long holiday weekend. Between real life and blog life, I have a couple of things to finish up on here before heading into a new week.

-Great job Charlie, Owen, Jessica, Professor McAdams, and Jeff. Sunday Insight did an excellent job covering the basics of the blogs. It is a tough task to accomplish in the time allotted. And yes, I very much appreciate the mention Jiblog received.
-Speaking of Jessica McBride, she has an excellent post on how the ravaging of President Bush has weakened us in regards to Iran.
-Psst, here's a little secret that I'm going to let everyone in on. Next Saturday, the Badger Blog Alliance turns 1 year old. It wasn't much for that first month, but it more than made up for it in the ensuing 11 months. For that, I applaud all of the BBA participants and readers, as well as Charlie Sykes for a well timed show in January on the Wisconsin blogosphere.
-The Wisconsin blogosphere has really matured in this last year. It has been a pleasure to watch and participate in.

World's largest bottle of Pabst

Lacrosse, Wisconsin has the world's largest 6-pack at the City Brewery. A good, beer lovinging Wisconsinite should know that. But did you know that the world's largest bottle of PBR is in Newark, New Jersey? The bottle, which was a water tower at a Pabst brewery that closed in 1982, used to be painted a glittering gold and was lit up at night. The brewery is now being torn down, but no one is really sure of what to do with the bottle. I'd recommend that they keep it where it is, because judging by these pictures, it is the most attractive thing in that neighborhood.

Morning in America

Thanksgiving morning, to be exact.

Additional
If you like photo blogs, check out two that I stumbled upon today. The first is The Daily Drink, where the blogger posts at least one picture everyday, and they are quite good (you have to dig a little bit). The second is the new photo blog by Belle from Leaning Blue.

Kent Woods and the 33rd

I'm going to bend my rule about discussing the 33rd Assembly District race. I am going to give Kent Woods a lot of credit for one thing-he identified the fact that he needed to win bloggers over. He has been trying very hard to present his case to a number of Wisconsin bloggers, this one included. I'm still not going to weigh in on the race, but I will say that it looks like he has an uphill battle ahead of him.

Yipee-kay-yay, Mr Willis

Give Bruce Willis credit. He's willing to defy popular convention in Hollywood:

Hollywood A-lister Bruce Willis is set to buck the Hollywood trend of running from the heroics of the American troops in Iraq and is set to make a pro-war film about the American soldier.

In the film, American soldiers will be accurately depicted as the brave fighters for freedom and democracy that they are, according to a report in the Sunday Times UK.

He'll even be basing the movie in part on the writings of venerable war reporter/blogger Michael Yon. This is a movie I'll gladly plop down my $8 to see.

Fireside Chat

On Meet the Press this morning, Republican Senator John Warner recommended that President Bush use Fireside Chats (a la FDR) to deliver updates on Iraq directly to the American people.

"I think it would be to Bush's advantage," said Warner, who served in the Navy during the war.

"It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have, about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public," he said.

I have to believe that Warner made this statement off the cuff, because it doesn't seem all that well thought through. FDR's Fireside Chats were highly effective ways of communicating and calming the American public...in the early 1940's. In that day and age, Americans had three sources of news: The newspaper, news reels at the theater, and the radio. When FDR came on the radio to give a Fireside Chat, that was a major event for Americans. You didn't hear the President's voice everyday, and he was on every channel available to you. You invited the President's voice into your home. After the speech, you might get some news, or the station may return to regular programming. The next day in the newspaper, you may read about the speech, but the coverage certainly didn't go after FDR with a blood lust.

Today, the President has some sort of interaction with the media nearly everyday. He gives speeches on Iraq regularly. Seeing or hearing the President is no longer viewed as a special occasion. When he does have prime time television events, people flock to their cable channels or the internet or their iPod to avoid it. In a sense, the American people are numb to the Presidency because they are so inundated by it every single day. The audience for a Fireside Chat would be small and mostly partisan. And that leads into the next problem.

In the 1940's, FDR faced political opposition from the Republicans, but they did not attack him hard on the war. Today, attacking the President over war is a cottage industry. Putting the President on TV to give a Fireside Chat would not help inform and calm Americans, it would freak them out even more because it would give the President's opponents a spotlight from which to attack him. Does anyone actually think the President could have a Fireside Chat on the situation in Iraq and not see John Kerry come on after the speech to say Bush lied, or Ted Kennedy come on and rage about the administration? Not a chance. Part of the reason that FDR's Fireside Chats worked in the 1940's is because they could cut through the clutter and communicate ideas and messages directly to Americans. Today, a Fireside Chat by any President in anything but a national emergency would only add to the clutter.

The Fireside Chats were great for FDR's era. In a less media saturated era, they did allow the President to develop relationships with Americans. That is just not possible today. I'd love it if it were, and I'm sure most Presidents would, too. Unfortunately, Fireside Chats would just be more of the same, only with a nice throwback name.

Thanks

Sometime in the next couple of days, Jiblog's trafic for this month will surpass that of November 2004, giving this site its best month of traffic ever. Thank you to everyone who has stopped by, and I'm excited about the prospect that we'll enjoy an even bigger and better 2006 together.

This isn't your father's Bose(mobile)

If you listened to Paul Harvey once, then you know about Bose's 'revolutionary' (and expensive) wave radio. But Bose isn't just about speakers anymore. Soon, Bose may be behind the suspension in luxury vehicles:

A childlike grin spreads across 76-year-old Amar Bose's face as the vehicle does something most can't: jump over the board, like a cat bounding over a fallen log.

The sedan's experimental, Bose-designed suspension, driven by four electromagnetic motors, had quickly pulled each wheel up, then down.

It's a stunt, triggered when the car passed over a reflective strip that activated a sensor linked to the suspension. But the feat hints at the more practical capabilities of a suspension system that is Amar Bose's answer to a longtime engineering challenge: giving a car good cornering capabilities without sacrificing a smooth ride.

Don't expect this technology in your Chevy anytime soon, but it may be on the higher end vehicles. It will reportedly cost $5000.

Death penalty in Wisconsin, part I

The death penalty debate is returning to Wisconsin. A little later this week, I'll be posting on why I support bringing capital punishment back to Wisconsin. For the time being, I would like to just briefly touch on the subject of religion and capital punishment. It is well known that the Catholic Church does not support the death penalty. It is not as well known that the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod recognizes the right of government to impose the death penalty. You can read the LCMS's position here. Note that they allow individual church members the freedom to oppose the death penalty, but the church itself supports the death penalty. The LCMS is but a small portion of Christianity, but their position is a starting point for reading up on why and how a Christian can support capital punishment.

For the Record
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) opposes capital punishment (and is dang wordy about saying so).
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) supports capital punishment.

What to do with a quitter

Boots & Sabers brings us the story of a Wisconsin woman who had joined the National Guard to pay for her tuition at University of Texas. By the time she was called to duty, however, she had a change of heart about the military. She now wants her discharge. I had two thoughts on this story immediately, and the first two commenter at B&S actually end up stealing my thunder by expressing them. But after thinking about this a little more, my opinion has changed a little bit.

First, the courts should not allow her status as a conscientious objector. This is a woman that clearly joined the Guard to pay for school with no intention of ever putting her butt on the line for her country. She did not begin making noise about her supposed conscientious objection until after her unit was chosen to go to Afghanistan. Second, she should be ordered to deploy with the rest of her unit. When she refuses, court martial her, try her, and make her do her time. Once she has done her time, discharge her dishonorably, and make her pay back the educational aid she received as well as any signing bonuses. This young lady tried to play the system, and it didn't work. Now she wants a get out of jail free card, but there are consequences to her actions. She tries to play the ignorance card, but she signed onto this. If I sign the papers for a mortgage that costs me more than I want to pay, I can't feign ignorance and say that I didn't know there were interest costs, and walk away from the mortgage scott free. It was her responsibility to learn this stuff before signing on, and now she has to deal with it.

A lesser reason why I'm thankful I believe in God

As I was reading this HuffPo post by everybody's favorite, Deepak Chopra, and a new reason that I'm thankful that I believe in God dawned on me. It must be exhausting to be an athiest or secularist and to have your beefs with God and religion so dominate your thoughts. And believe me, most who put a label on their lack of faith in God think about God and religion a lot.

The Rock

Chances are you haven't heard of the newest military vehicle in Iraq. It is known as the Rock, and it is built on the frame of a Ford 4x4, the vehicle is armored, well armed, air conditioned with an auxilliary generator, can do 80 mph, and it weighs in at 15,000 lbs.

Right now their are only ten of the vehicles in service, with 9 more coming from the manufacturer Granite Global Services. According to W. Thomas Smith Jr, one of the vehicles took a hit from an IED this morning and suffered no major damage and its occupants no injuries. It is nice to see a little innovation in troop vehicles in Iraq.

Sources:
The Corner
Granite Global Services
Granite Global Services (Pictures)
Navy SEALS.com

White Friday

Today may be Black Friday, but it is turning into a white Friday in portions of Wisconsin.

(In the) Black Friday

Wait a second. You mean to tell me people go shopping the day after Thanksgiving?

This day, Black Friday, almost single handedly ruined Christmas for me. For three years while I was in college I worked in retail, and then for a couple of more years after that in retail management. Prior to that experience, I was a Christmas freak. By the end of that 5 year period, I loathed it. The Christmas season brings out the best in a lot of people...unless they are in a store. The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas entails a lot of hard work for retail employees-keeping the shelves stocked for your shopping convenience is no small task. Then heap on top of that long hours, very rude customers, sick, wailing children, and an overdose of Christmas music, and you have an unhappy season for many with retail jobs. Poor bastards. I'm glad I got out when I did.

Rest in Peace, Arnold

Pat Morita, probably best known for his role as Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid, has passed away at the age of 73. Morita was something of an adopted son here in Wisconsin, though. He received his first big fame as Arnold, the owner of Arnold's Diner in Milwaukee, in the TV show Happy Days. Morita also starred in the Reggie White film Reggie's Prayer and was seen on the sidelines at Lambeau Field. Rest in peace, Pat.

Photo via www.margorochelle.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I realize that this is a little late in the day, but I've been away from internet access. I've personally given much thanks for all of my blessings today, but there is one thanks that I think deserves to be on this site. As much as we political bloggers go after one another, I'm thankful that I live in a country where that is possible. We go through periods in the United States where we like to say that public discourse has become uncivil. As unpleasant as those periods are, I'll take the uncivil discourse over the alternative anytime.

I guess there is one more thing. I'd like to thank everyone who stops by to read Jiblog. I'm much appreciative of all of you, even when we disagree.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone, and if you have a little time on your hands, stop back by for new stuff here at Jiblog.

Who am I? #1

Okay, I'm going to test a new feature here. Every blogger has quirks and patterns to their writing. So I'm going to pick a few little sayings representative of a blogger, and your job is to guess the blogger. This first one should be an easy one to start with.

Here's the blogger. Who is it?

"Indeed."

"Heh."

"Yes, I've noticed this pattern myself."

The prize for the first person who guesses correctly is a big fat handful of nothing-and you'll be thankful for it, dammit!

Nielsen spams my living room

Two weeks ago I received a call froma nice young woman at Nielsen. Despite the fact that I was a little annoyed that Nielson is allowed to call me despite my name being on the state and federal no call lists, I answered her questions. At the end, the young woman asked if I would help them by filling out their journal for a week. I said no. She then reminded me that this was a chance for me to represent my community. I again said no. So we politely ended our conversation.

Then last week I started getting mail from them. One of the pieces of mail was the journal and $5. This in spite of the fact that I said no to participating twice. If it were up to me, I'd have pocketed the five bones and tossed out the journal. It wasn't up to me, though. Upon receiving the $5, Mrs. Jib had some sort of guilt pang and decided that we would be filling out the journal.

Our survey period begins tomorrow. This afternoon I received another phone call from Nielsen to remind me to fill out the journal and how to do it. All of this despite the fact that I said no to participating quite clearly way back in the beginning. With Mrs. Jib acting as my conscience, we will be filling out the journal truthfully and acurately, but after receiving the unwanted phone calls and mailings, my first impulse is fill out the journal incorrectly. If my word isn't good with Nielsen, why should my journal be any different?

Lafave on Lafave

Debra Lafave's ex-husband Owen says the only thing a man can say to maintain his sanity after his hot wife cheats on him with a 14 year old:

Lafave's ex-husband, Owen Lafave, said Wednesday that she was being treated for mental problems when she committed the crime, but it was a double standard that she avoided prison.

One would have to assume that he is correct about the mental problems. Additionally, she deserved to do time for this crime, mental problems or not. One has to feel sorry for Owen Lafave. Not only must this be difficult for him emotionally, his last name is forever tied to this story.

Et tu, Barber?

I am one month and two days away from my 30th birthday. For me, this is at the same time not a big deal but also bothersome (It's tough to explain, and I won't bore you with it). Given that, yesterday I went to my barber. I'm a barbershop kind of guy and I'm in tune with the culture of the barbershop. One thing that a lot of old men have done at the barbershop that younger men often times do not is to have their eyebrows trimmed. The damn things get a little bushy with age. As for me, I'm pretty happy with my eyebrows. They are pretty well defined and they aren't going wild on me. That is until this exchange:

Barber: (Turning me towards the mirror) How's that look?
Jib: Good.
Barber: Do you want me to get those eyebrows?
Jib: Wha?! No, that's quite alright.
Barber: M'kay. Suit yourself.
Jib: (sob)

Bastard. How dare he confront me with the truth! I'm thinking about changing my hairstyle to something radically difficult for him to do just to get even with him next time.

Random statement on the War on Terror

Every once in a while I piece together a couple of sentences that I really like, but which I don't have greater context to use it in, so I save it in a Moleskine for possible future use. This one really pokes at me though. I really, really like it, so I'm going to post it as a stand alone statement. My only problem is that I like it so much, it feels like somebody else has alrady written or said it. Here it is:

We’ve been given a choice in America. We can either let our modern Mongol Invaders gather at the gates to our shining city on a hill and battle them within, or we can choose to meet them on a faraway plain where our sisters, mothers, wives, children may be safe from the battle.

Getting back into rhythm

Grr. Things have been a bit busy for me of late, and that caused me to get out of rhythm here at the blog. Once I got out of rhythm, I was becoming the last person to note stories, which made it difficult to find a unique view point on them. So then I started looking for quirky stories no one else had, and was coming up empty. Then the writer's block set in. So now that I've pulled some hair out and things have slowed down, it's time to find the blog rhythm back.

(Side note: Does anyone else find rhythm to be a funny looking word? There should be at least one more vowel in there.)

What's NBC's point?

Umm, I'm confused. NBC Nightly News ended its broadcast tonight with a story about the annual pardoning of a turkey by the President. Rather than a light hearted fluff piece, it tied the turkey pardon into bad events happening to presidents at the same time, even tying in Lincoln's death, even though the turkey pardon had not even begun yet. I'm left wondering what the hell their point was.

Unintended results

I enjoy writing about politics, but I also enjoy being a little goofy from time to time. So occasionally I put out a post or a link similar to this one about a real live buck that mugged a 400 pound concrete buck and had his way with a 400 pound concrete doe in Western Wisconsin. I really should avoid making such posts at the Badger Blog Alliance, though, unless I have something serious to follow up with which will push the goofy story down the page. I made that post thinking Monday would be a busy day, and the damn thing sat at the top of the page all day.

The CNN X challenge

Here is my challenge to the blogosphere. Find out what the the hidden text at the bottom of the CNN/Cheney X out says. As I've said before, I'm terrible with Photoshop, but surely someone talented out there can fiddle with it and decipher this text. As a reward, if you will meet with me after finding out the text, I'll buy you drinks (hey, I'm a man of meager means). Oh, and did I mention that figuring out what the text reads will make you a minor celebrity for at least 15 minutes? Here is a link to the original image.

Update
No sooner did I post this than I got my answer via Michelle Malkin. The text reads "Transition begins after 5 frames of black". See for yourself here.

Bridges of Jefferson County

Shhh! Don't tell Mrs. Jib, but I have the camera.
Actually, I was granted visitation rights, mostly because I acted like a three year old. Click on the picture for better detail.

Chickens, coming home, and roosting

I hate the cliche "the chicken has come home to roost," but it applies here. Hugh Hewitt takes a look at a fundraising gap between the National Republican Senate Campaign and the DemocraticSenatatorial Campaign Committee. The gap is $20.5 million to $9.1 million. Hewitt:

But grassroots disgust with the Gang of 14 in the spring, and now the Alito delay, the Kavanaugh deep freeze, and last week's meltdown over the Warner Amendment have crippled efforts to rally enthusiasm behind the 2006 Senate races in which the GOP holds an opening edge because of the map.

I can't say with certainty that the gap is due to the ham handed politics of Republicans this year, but it certainly is the logical jump. I know that I have no desire to donate to the Senate Republicans, and why should I? They've been inept, and I have no desire to support their ineptness. The House Republicans made a big stride in regaining the confidence of conservative Republicans last week, and they need to continue to do so. In the Senate, Bill Frist needs to do the same and quickly, because the 2006 campaigns start now. While this deficit isn't the end of the world (The RNC still has more cash on hand than the DNC), it is an indicator that Republicans may have taken the starch out of their conservative base, and they need that base to win elections.

CNN X's Cheney

This is a bizarre story. Drudge is reporting that during a live speech this morning, CNN was briefly flashing a black X over Vice President Cheney. Hopefully this is some sort of a technical glitch. If you look closely at the screen capture, you can see text of some sort overlaying the white "Cheney: "I do not believe it is wrong to criticize," text, with the word black clearly visible to the right. CNN had best hope this was a glitch, because if not, someone with better Photoshop skills than myself will eventually decipher that text.

Zarqawi dead?

As always with these stories, I advise caution because they have a way of not panning out. But after a battle in Mosul, we are checking to see if one of the 8 dead in a house is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi:

In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."

This house is apparently receiving a lot of scrutiny, so this could end up being the real thing.

Walmart and the $50 DVD player

The $50 DVD player at Walmart. It is quite popular right now for the left to bludgeon the American consumer with the words "insatiable desire" and "$50 DVD player at Walmart." I get a kick out of it everytime I see it. Why? Because Democrats and the left fancy themselves as the protector of the little guy, and they view WalMart as one of the evils bedeviling the little guy. It's an easy view for them to take, because many of them could afford that DVD player if it were $200-$300 dollars. The little guy they claim to represent couldn't afford that. Even if we indulged their fantasies and say that the wages of all of the little guys would rise if not for WalMart and its overseas purchases, what they fail to realize is the price of a lot of goods would rise at a higher percentage than the increase in wages. WalMart has brought many luxories to classes of people that could not afford them prior to WalMart, and that is why WalMart is the behemoth it is today.

2006 Republican rallying cry

This has been circulating around the blogosphere, but I'm going to post it here, anyway. The Republicans have a rallying cry for victory in 2006 if they just embrace it:

Win the war.
Confirm the judges.
Cut the taxes.
Control the spending.

Clear and to the point. I like it.

403-3

House Republicans finally draw a line in the sand. After being pushed around for weeks, they finally take a worthwhile stand. Keep it up, now, ladies and gentlemen of the House.

Chai Vang cleared in Clark County case

Late last year, after Chai Vang went on his murder spree in Rusk County, some began to wonder if he was also involved in a deer hunter murder in Clark County in 2001. In that case, a hunter was killed and three men were seen driving away from the area. The vehicle was similar in description to a vehicle Vang owned, and the description of one of the men matched Vang.

The Clark County Sheriff's Department followed up on the possibility that Vang was involved, and it resulted in them clearing Vang of the crime. Too often we focus on police when they do the wrong thing and overlook all the times they do the right things. I applaud the Clark County Sheriff's Department for doing the right thing in this case.

Tonight important for Iraq

Tonight's vote on an otherwise symbolic proposal to pull troops out of Iraq is important. Senate Republicans are push-overs who capitulated this week by voting for the Warner Amendment. They signaled that they no longer had the will to see through what this country has started. By doing so, we started to slouch towards defeat in Iraq. House Republicans have the opportunity to repudiate the cowardice of their colleagues in the upper house of Congress by rejecting John Murtha's proposal. I will be immensely proud of the House Republicans if they do it. I will continue to have no use for Senate Republicans, though.

Republicans and blacks

Larry Elder's column yesterday took a look at the Republican party's role in black history. It is quite a significant record. But of course, if you are a fan of NBC's The West Wing, you know from the live "debate" that only "liberal" Republicans were responsible for those things.

The house of Murtha

I had a stressful, busy afternooon and I was out of the loop all day. I'm really disappointed that I missed all of the Murtha fun:

House Republicans, seeing an opportunity, maneuvered for a quick vote and swift rejection Friday of a Democratic lawmaker's call for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq.
...
By forcing the issue to a vote, Republicans placed many Democrats in a politically unappealing position - whether to side with Murtha and expose themselves to attacks from the White House and congressional Republicans, or whether to oppose him and risk angering the voters that polls show want an end to the conflict.

Murtha offered a resolution that would force the president to withdraw the nearly 160,000 troops in Iraq "at the earliest practicable date." It would establish a quick-reaction force and a nearby presence of Marines in the region.

House Republicans planned to put to a vote - and reject - their own resolution that simply says: "It is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately."

The House Republicans seem much more politically capable than Senate Republicans.

Family sues over 14 year old's death from using the patch

I'm going to let the AP tell the story:

MADISON, Wis. - Parents of a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl who died last year are suing the makers of a popular birth control patch for failing to warn people sooner about serious side effects.

Eighth-grader Alycia Brown died of blood clots on May 7, 2004, after using Ortho Evra for about six weeks, according to the lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Madison.

Regardless of the merits of the suit, why the hell was a 14 year old on birth control? Even in my most liberal of moments, I can't understand it. A 16 year old? Perhaps. 15 year? Borderline, if she has a wild streak. A 14 year old? Inexcusable. Most parents should still be able to keep their 14 year old child from having sex.

Carnival of the Badger at Uncle Jimbo's

This week's Carnival of the Badger is up over at Military Matters. Head over and check it out, as well as the rest of Uncle Jimbo's site.

More pushback

FrontPageMagazine.com brings us an interview with Bill Tierney, an UNSCOM inspector from 1996 to 1998. The interview with Tierney offers some interesting reasons why the search for WMD turned into such a mess. I recomend the article, but out of a spirit of fairness, I'll let you know up front that he has his opponents. SourceWatch, a left leaning arm of the Center for Media and Democracy, really doesn't like him.

Boogie to Baghdad

I feel for Byron York. He really tried to make "Boogie to Baghdad" a media rallying cry. For everyone who isn't familiar with boogie to Baghdad, I'll let York fill you in:

It was in that context that (Richard) Clarke believed that if the United States made bin Laden’s situation too hot in Afghanistan, then, in Clarke’s non-famous words, “old wily Osama will likely boogie to Baghdad.”

He's refering to the 9-11 report and Clarke's role during the Clinton administration. Yes, Richard Clarke believed that if the Clinton administration made things too hot for bin Laden in Afghanistan, Osama would "boogie to Baghdad."

No relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq, eh? Even Richard Clarke believed they had ties.

Bird flu sense

The Weekly Standard has one of the calmest, most reasonable reads I've seen on the Avian Flu yet:

What we can say with confidence is that there is never such a thing as helpful hysteria. And the line between informing the public and starting a panic is being crossed every day now by politicians, public health officials, and journalists.

Amen to that. Oh, and about that 50% death rate:

One panic button now being pushed repeatedly is that half of all persons contracting H5N1 die. "Right now in human beings, it kills 55 percent of the people it infects," Laurie Garrett told ABC's Primetime, on the same show that featured Redlener's billion-death prediction. By comparison, the Spanish flu is believed to have killed 2.5 percent to 5 percent of its victims. The typical flu death rate is less than 1 percent.

The cold-hearted reaction to these reports, paradoxically, is one of relief. A virus that kills its hosts so efficiently cannot easily propagate. (This is one of the reasons Garrett's predicted Ebola pandemic never materialized.) But in fact the reported mortality rate is problematic because of two types of "sample bias."

First, all avian flu deaths so far have occurred in countries with medical systems that are dismal compared with ours. Would you choose a Cambodian hospital to treat your flu? Second, that more or less 50 percent death rate comes from those ill enough to require medical attention--the sickest of the sick. Our experience with normal influenza is that many who become infected have no symptoms at all, nary a sniffle. So we know the numerator, but without the denominator it's useless.

Read the whole thing. There are a lot of calming facts about the bird flu, which we need more of in the face of an avalanche of panicky stories.

The Warner Amendment

I must say, I've spent a few days mulling over the Warner Amendment, and I really have no clue what Senate Republicans were trying to accomplish. My best guess is that they were trying to shore up their left flank in advance of the 2006 elections, but this doesn't really do it. In fact, it gives the Democrats a huge upper hand because it makes Republicans look like they are trying to meekly back away from Iraq. If this wasn't a political maneuver (and I still believe it is), and they truly are trying to extract us from Iraq, then it still doesn't make sense. I have had serious doubts about Bill Frist's leadership, and this is just making those doubts worse.

Awaiting Green

I'll admit it, I've been a bad state conservative. I've barely paid any attention to the Wisconsin Governor's race so far. We are far enough out that discussing Doyle v. Green/Walker is probably going to prove futile. And as for Green v. Walker in the Republican primary, I'm slowly awakening, ready for a spirited campaign. I am still maintaining an open mind about the Walker/Green race. I am still kind of a free agent on this one. I am a little concerned about one thing, though, and that is Green has had very little impact on my daily conciousness so far. Here where I live, I am in the Madison and Milwaukee media markets. I hear a lot about Walker, and I'm beginning to see some nice conservative credentials develop with him. But I'm not hearing/reading/seeing as much about Green. I'd like to, and I'll probably start searching out the information on my own, but if Green wants a strong result in this part of the state, I think his campaign is going to have to work to penetrate the Madison and Milwaukee media markets a little more. A good number of voters are passive receivers of information, and I think Walker has a big advantage in Southeast Wisconsin right now because of that.

Refraining from comment on the 33rd

Unless something drastically changes, I am going to refrain from discussing the special election for Wisconsin's 33rd Assembly district. I am of two minds on the issue. First, I want to see the 33rd send the best conservative candidate to the State Assembly, as the Wisconsin legislature seems woefully short on true conservatives. On the other hand, I do not, nor have I ever, lived in the 33rd. Those who live in the 33rd know their district and can therefore discuss the issues from personal knowledge and experience, whereas I cannot. I'd rather see their opinions get full play and not be muddied by mine here in the 37th.

Mondays in the springtime

Night is now falling before many of us leave work, there is a chill in the air, and the holidays are fast approaching. With all of that, we will soon be subject to numerous stories about the endemic of depression and suicide common to this time of the year. While you should not ignore the warning signs if displayed by a loved one, don't let these canned stories get you down. Why? Because this time of year is perhaps not as bad as the news stories make it out to be. After all, the most common time for suicides is actually Mondays in the springtime.

Hat tip: The lovely Mrs. Jib

Here's to a safe Wisconsin gun hunt

Bright and early on Saturday morning, Wisconsin hunters will begin trudging out to their favorite hunting spots in the hopes of bagging that trophy buck. Lingering in many minds will be the events of last season in Nortwest Wisconsin, namely the Chai Vang murders. Hmong and Asian hunters will inevitably have contact with white hunters. There may even be some edgey encounters. Let's hope hunters across Wisconsin keep their calm and that we have a safe a successful hunt this year, particularly in the Northwest part of the state.

So when does he get his Nobel Peace Prize?

This news is a little dated, but I had to comment on it:

President Jacques Chirac said yesterday that more than two weeks of violence in the poor suburbs of France is the sign of a "profound malaise" and ordered measures to reach out to the angry rioters.

That should give the French hope. Their President is talking like Jimmy Carter. I can't wait until the day Domique de Villepin decides to take a ride in a tank.

Pajama's Media now Open Source Media

Pajama's had their big launch today, announcing their new name and some of their plans:

OSM will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers will be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generate.

The ad-supported OSM site will also carry news feeds from Newstex, which in turn receives stories from The Associated Press, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service and other traditional media organizations.

I wish luck to everyone participating in OSM. I'm just not very convinced it is going succeed. A good business starts with a good business plan-a rock solid blue print for success. Everything I'm reading so far indicates that their business plan is a little shaky at this point. The ideas are fine, but it takes more than good ideas to be profitable.

Bud Light the new 'new Coke'?

Miller is claiming that Anheuser-Busch has changed the recipe for Bud Light:

The latest fight in the U.S. beer battle is a matter of taste. Miller Brewing Co. says rival Anheuser-Busch has altered Bud Light in the past year to make it more bitter and bubbly, rolling out the claim about Bud Light in national television ads that began airing Friday. The company said data it has collected show Bud Light's bitterness and carbonation rose from last year.

Miller has begun fighting Anheuser-Busch very hard for market share. Given the dominant market share A-B has over Miller, I applaud the new, feistier approach. The trick for Miller will be in not overdoing it and turning people off, though.

Little known Jib factoid #4

Amongst casual acquaintances, I have pretended to be a liberal for the sake of keeping the peace. I am quite convincing, but I always feel like I need a shower afterwards.

Consequences of government actions

I love this post over at Boots & Sabers.

But you have to read all of the way to the end of the story to find this:

Bussan, who blames Madison’s new smoking ban for some of the downturn in his business, said he hopes to provide health insurance again if business picks up.

Here we have yet another unintended negative consequence from a liberal policy. While the liberals in Madison are attempting to save everybody from themselves, they are pricing families out of health insurance. Typical.

In the comments, those who favor Madison's smoking ban avoid this discussion of the economic impact on the employees and instead argue the topic on safe workplace grounds. That argument does not make any sense, though. First, employees are free to leave for a nonsmoking workplace anytime they choose. Second, even if you buy the statistics on second hand smoke, a work environment with second hand smoke is still safer than many industrial, construction, and agricultural work places. By the logic of Owen's pro-smoking ban commentors, we'd have to start banning combines, saws, augers, and really any kind of moving machinery that routinely kills and maims Americans on the job. There are many jobs in this country that are inherently risky, and we all have the freedom to decide if they are worth the risk before we take them.

The exodus from California

It has been predicted, and now it has begun: The exodus of businesses from California. Somewhat quietly, Nissan last week announced they were moving their North American headquarters and 1300 jobs from California to Tennessee.

California has actually become a ridiculous place to try to do business. It has a highly regulated culture, taxes are high, the cost of living is high, and over the road transportation is a snarled mess. As a result, it is expensive to run a business in California. I know a small businessman that realized this 5 years. Rather than lose his business, he opted to pick up his family and business and relocate to Colorado, which was more business friendly.

I'm hoping (perhaps in vain) that our representatives and Governor in Madison are observant. Wisconsin isn't the most friendly business state. It may not be as unfriendly an environment as California, but Wisconsin doesn't have a lot of the natural blessings that California does, either. Minnesota and Illinois would love to steal away any number of Wisconsin businesses, and in recent years they've been successful. It may be natural for a Democrat to take a position that is passive aggressive to business in their effort to appear progressive and populist, but that is a very dangerous game to play in a highly competitive environment amongst the states for businesses. A state economy needs a healthy business environment and lots of jobs to pay for expensive progressive government programs. If you drive the businesses and jobs across your borders, it gets real difficult to pay for those programs.

How does Andrew Sullivan say, "You're demoted"?

If you can't beat 'em, get 'em to join you. Andrew Sullivan will be moving his blog to Time in January. But that's not what has me interested in his announcement. Instead it was this line:

My invaluable business partner, Robert, who has managed all the technical and financial aspects of running a blog for over five years will be able to focus on other things; and I will continue to be able to concentrate on the writing.

I'm sure Robert will continue on as Sullivan's business partner, but it sounds like a bit of demotion, doesn't it?

As to Sullivan's move, I hope this means the end of his begging for donations like he were Oral Roberts.

10,000 security personel at the Super Bowl

Drudge is reporting that there will be 10,000 people involved in securing the Super Bowl in Detroit:

Detroit police and the FBI will unveil an unprecedented security plan Tuesday for Super Bowl XL -- an effort by more than 50 federal, state and local agencies across Metro Detroit that tops all other preparations.

The DETROIT NEWS will report: "Including private security guards, we'll have upwards of 10,000 people involved," said William Kowalski, the assistant special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI.

Canada and the United States are still negotiating the extent of a "no-fly zone" during the game. This is the first Super Bowl to take place so close to an international border.

Dozens of security cameras and an FBI command center that will be staffed 24 hours a day for the entire week preceding the game and during it. SWAT teams -- aided by digital maps covering every inch of Ford Field -- will be at the ready.

I'm sure that there is a ton of concern about the proximity of Ford Field to Canada, but can anyone else think of another reason that the FBI may be concerned about a Super Bowl in Detroit? This other reason seems like the elephant in the room to me, but I'm curious if anyone else is thinking about this as well. I'll give you a hint: Think demographics.

666 KEN

Remember a few years back when the Wisconsin Lottery Pick 3 numbers on Halloween were 666? This one is almost as creepy:

Ken Hasenmueller didn’t order vanity plates for his family’s 1996 cherry red Oldsmobile Cutlass.

But last Wednesday he received plates emblazoned with a message that was a little too personal for his liking. The Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles randomly assigned 666-KEN to the Altoona man’s car.

On the plus side, it shouldn't be too hard for him to find his vehicle in a crowded parking lot. It'll be the one everyone is afraid to park next to.

Should Iraq accept Saudi money?

Saudi Arabia is now offering $1 billion in aid to rebuild Iraq:

Saudi Arania's foreign minister said he is less worried that U.S. policies in Iraq will bring on a civil war there and pledged anew to contribute $1 billion for rebuilding that war-ravaged country's shattered infrastructure.

That is good news, but the question is, should Iraq accept it? It seems that with Saudi money comes Wahhabism. Iraq has enough divisions to worry about, does it want to worry about Wahhabism encroaching on the country from Saudi Arabia?

New camera

Everyone has that obnoxious friend or family member who is always taking pictures. Well, in my circle, that's me. I've purchased a new camera, and I am taking pictures of anything and everything. Take this picture, for example. I was trying to take a picture of my wet deck through a rain drop spattered glass door last night. My goal was to get a little bit of my reflection in the shot, but I set the shutter speed way too slow, and mostly got the reflection.Fortunately for all of you, Mrs. Jib will be taking the camera away from me soon. She contributed towards this camera as my Christmas/birthday gift, and once I'm sure it works and doesn't need to be returned, I lose it again for a month. Drat.

Windy

It is a windy day across Wisconsin. In fact, where I was standing on the shore of this lake, there was a sustained wind of around 40 miles per hour.

Gut feeling: Packers win

I woke up this morning with a gut feeling that the Packers are going to pull out a victory today. This is the first game all season I've been excited about on Sunday morning. Strap 'em up boys, and knock heads.

(Disclaimer: Jib's gut feeling could just be gas.)

Update
Hey, whadayaknow! It wasn't gas.

Goofy heresy

Althouse asks: "Where did Jesus get his Y Chromosome?"

All I can imagine is a scene reminiscient of the old Sherry Oteri & Will Ferrell cheerleader skit.

Oh my God. Holy Spirit, do you know what we need right now? THE PERFECT CHROMOSOME!

Even I can't explain how my synapses turned Ann's question into that thought.

Prison made him do it?

Ann Althouse posts on the Steven Avery/Project Innocence topic, and an odious thought arises in the comments, namely the possibility that 18 years of false incarceration turned Avery into a killer of young women. One look at Avery's record prior to his rape conviction proves that defense absurd. The man had a record that was a pretty good indicator that he might be capable of commiting a crime such as this. Being innocent of a specific charge does make one an innocent person. Avery was a bad person before his 18 years in the can, and he's a bad person now.

Still burning

Paris, by the way, is still burning.

My hero

This 109 year old Brit Vet is my hero:

The last survivor of the Battle of Jutland said: "By coming here, you recall things you want to forget.

"But I do the best I can and I come here to pay homage to these brave men.

"We owe so much to these men who gave all they could have given on my behalf and everyone's behalf. It is so important that we acknowledge them."

Mr Allingham was accompanied by 12 trainee aircraft engineers from RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton.

He wished them success in their careers, adding: "I'd like to join up again. I'd give it another go if I could."

If I am blessed enough to live to 109, I'm only going to have two things to say. Get me a beer, and change my diaper.

Oops

Early today I posted to a new blogger who may not have wanted the attention yet. I've pulled the post after I received an email from a third party. Unfortunately, as I look across the Badgersphere, I think I may have let a cat out of a bag that I wasn't supposed to. My apologies to the blogger that I linked to if indeed I shouldn't have. I feel bad about this.

Ya see that Pandora's box over there? Yeah, I'm the dumbass who opened it.

The President gives an excellent Veteran's Day Speech

If you haven't heard or read the President's speech today, go over to National Review and read it. Stick with it because it is long, but it is worth the time it will take to read. As I read it, I thought about a common barb the left throws at the President: That he is a divider, not a uniter. That's simply not true. He's picked up the flag and has been trying to unite the troops (us) under it. The problem is there are too many people in this country who refuse to salute that flag anymore, and thus choose not to be united.

Avery to be charged

Steven Avery will be charged with the murder of 25 year old Teresa Halbach. I think the gloves can come off now. While Avery is presumed innocent, the evidence is clearly pointing in his direction. When a group of law students worked to free Avery from a wrongful conviction for rape, they struck a victory for justice but not for humanity. The irony of all of this is that there is probably someone walking around this state today because Avery was in prison for 18 years. Sadly, Halbach isn't because Avery was freed.

Credit to Jordanians

I am one of many bloggers who criticize Muslims for not standing up to those who are hijacking their religion. So when something like this happens, it is only appropriate that I give them some credit:

Calling the al Qaeda in Iraq leader a "lowlife," Jordanians on Thursday flooded the nation's capital in bitter protest of the triple suicide bombings that shook the city a day earlier and killed at least 56 people, most of Arab descent.

"Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" hundreds of protesters shouted, denouncing the terrorist network's leader -- a Jordan native -- after an Internet posting stated his group was responsible for the attacks.

Standing up to terrorists is half the battle. Fighting back is the other half.

Unsatisfying flu shot

I got my flu shot today. In years past, I've taken some satisfaction in the fact that the dull pain in my arm meant that I wasn't going to get laid out be the flu that year. Today I ignored the bird flu and tried to find that happy place, and then I read this post by Warren Bell at The Corner:

If it's a numbers game, we're in bad shape. According to most estimates, birds number somewhere between 100 billion and 300 billion. People top out at 6.6 billion. In fact, there are more chickens than there are people. Start eating! As for the question "where are they?" the most common answer is "right above my car." But the only scientific-ish answer is that birds are everywhere (which may be why they scare me) but especially heavily concentrated near the South pole. Come back next week, when we play another edition of "Crush the One Who is Wrong."

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Now my arm hurts and I'm afraid I'm going to die.

Lechner an overachiever

The New York Times today brings more fame to the embarrassment of UW Whitewater, Johnny Lechner. But there is something striking in this story. It comes in this paragraph:

Mr. Lechner is not entirely unique. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said recently that she had found a student who had been enrolled in college for 17 years. Still, in an era of national anxiety over global academic competition, some state officials are indignant that Mr. Lechner's record is attracting a spotlight.

Read that again. There is a student that has been enrolled in college in this country for 17 years, and we know nothing of him or her. Now that, folks, is an accomplishment. That is a student who is so dedicated to mediocrity that fame has not even come to him/her. Lechner is a schlub going through 15 minutes of fame. If we want to celebrate mediocrity, let's celebrate that anonymous 17 year college student.

A couple of quotes from the lovely Mrs. Jib on this topic:
*They got one part right-the lech part in his name. It's disgusting that we celebrate an individual whose only talent is seducing naive freshman girls over a decade his junior. You would think he could manage to add a few more accolades to his resume after twelve years of schooling.
*This is what the New York Times now finds to be "All the news that's fit to print"?

As you can tell, this is a topic that gets her fired up.

Teresa Halbach

I've avoided writing about the Teresa Halbach story. Even now I'm having trouble finding the right balance to what I want to say. I'll say this right off the bat, I feel terrible for her family and friends. Given what they are going through right now, I wish there was a way to give them a curtain of privacy from everyone. There is nothing worse than having to go through something like this so publicly. And it is even easier to feel for them because a simple search around the internet gives a person the chance to see the world through Teresa's lense.

I started off this post planning to write about the person who is the prime suspect in her disappearance. Two things occured when I tried. I could not get over my contempt for him, and I could not write about him and Teresa in the same post. I decided that right now is not the right time for that conversation. It will be the right time soon enough.

Straightening out the UW system

Owen tells us of a conversation that he had with Congressman Green about the UW Eau Claire RA bible study mess. Owen wasn't quoting Green verbatim, but this selection stuck out in my mind:

I asked Green what the governor should do about it. He said that there is an institutional problem with UW. Its priorities are so screwed up that it needs a complete managerial overhaul. UW is out of touch with the rest of Wisconsin and needs to be reigned in.

I think that a lot of people in Wisconsin would agree that UW has some institutional problems and that it could use a managerial overhaul. As with everything political, though, success is in the perception. Presenting this as UW being out of touch and needing to be reigned in is an approach I can see backfiring. While a lot of people resent UW, this state also has a perverse pride in UW's quirky nature. On top of that, people do tend to bristle when it is suggested that a University be reigned in.

I'm no political scientist, but it seems to me that the best strategy for accomplishing some reform in the UW system is to just come out and say exactly that-the system needs some reforms and managerial changes. And when asked why, stick to examples. The UW system has made enough ham handed decisions over the last couple of years to give you a very powerful argument. Otherwise, you risk getting bludgeoned over the head with a lot of lefty rhetoric that sticks with voters.

Now granted, by the sounds of it, this was a pretty informal conversation, but as someone who agrees that the UW system needs some work, I'm really interested in seeing overhauls presented in a way that will resonate with the citizens of Wisconsin. Sometimes the semantics can make or break an effort like that.

Poo blogging ladies

I just realized something. Of the three female bloggers in my national blogroll, two of them-Dooce and The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, talk more about poop than the rest of the blogs on my blogrolls, combined. Talk about smashing stereotypes. I wonder if they like the Three Stooges, too.

Rudy

Okay, this is my last picture from my recent visit to Vegas. And it ain't even mine. My occasional co-blogger here at Jiblog, Col. Ollie, had the opportunity to attend a speech by Rudy Giuliani. Ya see, Ollie gets to do cool stuff. I don't. But I digress. Ollie says that Giuliani is the consumate professional. Rudy took time for the photogs to snap some shots, and went about giving an excellent speech on leadership.

One less most wanted terrorist

Azahari bin Husin, one of Asia's most wanted terrorists and who's known as the Demolition Man, expired on Wednesday when he finished his greatest demolition yet-himself.

Husin was trapped by Indonesian security forces when he decided to claim his 72 white grapes. Unfortunately for Husin, all he took with him were two other terrorists.

I find great satisfaction when terrorists turn their deadly skills on themselves, and only themselves. Enjoy your grapes, Azahari.

Stinging

Somebody buy the New York Times (and the rest of the media) a thesaurus.

Stinging Defeats for G.O.P. Come at a Sensitive Time
Schwarzeneggar Is Dealt a Stinging Rebuke by Voters
Harry Reid Experiences a Stinging in His Privates

Perhaps I made that last one up.

Lovin' or heavin'?

The Carolina Panther cheerleader story may not be nearly as interesting as we guys had hoped:

Another woman, Jennifer Chaconas, told the Charlotte Observer on Tuesday that she was in the bathroom and believes the cheerleaders were not having sex. She said she could tell the women were dressed and the brunette - later identified as Keathley - told the angry crowd her friend was having a problem. Chaconas assumed Thomas was sick from drinking too much, she said.

3 witnesses say sex. 1 witness says puking. I can't even fathom what the sounds coming from that stall were like.

Charity puts on skin show for kids

Charities in Colombia recently held an event to entertain and help kids in a poor neighborhood in Medelline. I desperately want to find a news story on this event, because at first blush some of the entertainment seems perverse. Some of the most popular Yahoo photos right now are of lingerie models who did a show for these kids. See the photos here. The caption for some of the photos even indicate kids were sniffing glue while they watched the undies show. What kind of charities were these, the Larry Flint Foundation? And how did they think a skin show was going to help poor kids?

Let them have their victories

Yesterday was election day 2005, and Democrats won a number of victories, including Governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, as well the defeat of several California referendums supported by the Governator. Let them have their victories. In fact, let them have their spin that this was some sort of 'test' of the Bush administration. The Democratic victories were pretty small and really did nothing to advance the party. As a Republican, I can take those types of defeats as long as Republicans get their houses in order in time for the 2006 elections.

A female GM in Major League Baseball?

This is a pretty cool story. Kim Ng may become the first woman to become a General Manager of a Major League Baseball team. She reportedly interviewed for the vacant Dodgers job. I hope she gets hired if the Dodgers find her to be the best candidate for the job.

Franken to run for Senate in Minnesota

[Insert maniacal laugh here]

Oh my. Just when I think that there might not be anything left to write about, there is a new geyser of material. Al Franken is seriously looking at running for Senate in Minnesota.

[Wipes away tears of joy and laughter]

This is like manna from heaven. First, it will give me a reason to take part in one of my favorite hobbies-making fun of Minnesota. Second, Franken will provide a bottomless pit of new material. I'm giddy at the possibilities, but also concerned. After all, this is Minnesota. The schlub could conceivably win.

I'm Batman

I'm ashamed to admit that I do these silly quizes all the time, but I only share when I like the results.

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause. Batman, the Dark Knight 75% Indiana Jones 71% Lara Croft 71% The Amazing Spider-Man 63% Neo, the "One" 63% William Wallace 58% Maximus 58% Captain Jack Sparrow 50% James Bond, Agent 007 50% The Terminator 42% El Zorro 42% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

France the example why we need controlled immigration

Loosely controlled immigration has been all the rage in Washington for some time now. Some have even advocated open borders. The reasons for this are many and varied, and I'm not going to cover them in this post. Instead, this post is going to be about why this loosely controlled immigration is bad for the United States.

Part of what has made this country what it is has been immigration. It takes a unique, risk-taking individual to travel to a new land, where they don't know the customs or language, and start a new life. That immigration has always had controls on it, though. It was understood that a country can only absorb so many new, often times poor, immigrants at one time. And that really is the key-absorbing immigrants. If you can allow new immigrants to acclimate themselves to their new culture and slowly work their way up the ladder, the country experiences a net gain from these new citizens.

What France is currently experiencing we could one day experience ourselves unless we shore up our immigration controls. When a flood of immigrants overwhelms a nation's ability to absorb them, those immigrants never acclimate themselves to the culture of their new home. Instead, they form tight communities that develop exaggeratedly strong nationalism for their old home countries. They also have little economic opportunity, which hardens them against their new home country. An economy has only so many entry level jobs for new immigrants. Loosely controlled immigration leads to a poverty in the immigrant population that further sets them apart from the existing population.

Look at France as a warning. We have time to tighten our policies. If we don't, we'll repeat many of France's mistakes.

Why sleep?

My brain seems to kick into a higher gear immediately before I sleep, although my readers may disagree with me on that. Because of that, I've always been kind of fascinated with sleep and why we even need it. Today, the New York Times looks at that very topic.

You CAN take the cheerleader out of the girl

The male portion of the blogosphere is agog over Angela Keathly and Renee Thomas, the two (former) Carolina Panther cheerleaders who got in a boatload of trouble after having sex with each other in Tampa club bathroom. But guys, have you stopped to look at those mugshots? Those mugs are not all that pretty. Apparently, the key to taking the cheerleader out of the girl is a late night visit to jail and a mugshot.

Update
As I folded some laundry, I realized that there is another way to take the cheerleader out of the girl. Pound on the door to their stall.

Where T.O. was right

Terrell Owens was suspended and deactivated for the rest of the season by the Eagles yesterday. This was the result of a culmination of bad behavior by Owens, but he was right about one thing: The Eagles would be better with Brett Favre at quarterback right now. Part of this is because Donovan McNabb has been playing hurt, but even before that, Brett was the better quarterback. McNabb is a very good quarterback, don't get me wrong, but he's never really been a Favre caliber quarterback. Even this year, with the team rotting around him, Favre has been playing pretty high caliber football. I dislike Owens as much as the next guy, and I think he fully deserves his suspension, but not for the comparison of McNabb and Favre that he made on ESPN.

France a quagmire; French to pull out

Okay, perhaps the French won't give up that easily on their homeland. Yet. But it does seem that Chirac is fiddling while Paris (and the rest of France) burns.

Beer fights cancer!

I usually ignore "new studies" unless they tell me something I want to hear. The latest new study tells us that the hops in beer curb the growth of tumors. There is a small problem, though:

Mice studies show that the compound is metabolized quickly by the body, so it's hard to get a large amount in the body at one time, Stevens said.

Only if you aren't trying very hard.

Jet lag

I'm sure this will disappoint some of you who stop by here regularly, but while in Las Vegas I:

1. Worked hard.
2. Drank modestly
3. Went to sleep at reasonable hours.
4. Only gambled $4.

Still, this trip always wears me out. It was fun to ease my way back into blogging today, and I'd love to do my regular late night blogging, but I'm done for. I'm going to walk upstairs now, crawl into bed, and pull the bags under my eyes back up over my eyes and sleep the slumber of a house cat.

Hope for the Packer season

In 1984, the Packers started a season 1-7. That Forrest Gregg lead team had an exciting second half, ending the season with a 7-1 run and just missing the playoffs.

Of course, that team had more than 4 talented players, so I wouldn't get too excited...

Cheerleader dreams do come true

And you thought this was only the thing of fantasies:

Two Carolina Panther cheerleaders spent the night in jail after a rough night in Channelside. The Panthers were in town to play the Bucs Sunday afternoon.

Witnesses say Angela Keathley and Renee Thomas were engaged in some type of sexual activity inside a bathroom stall at Banana Joe's around 2:20 am Sunday. Another woman waiting to use the bathroom got into an argument with the pair.

Next week: Lingerie models have a pillow fight on the catwalk.

West Wing "debate"

I am watching The West Wing's live "debate" right now. It is like a car wreck, and I cannot turn away. It is a wingnut fantasy scene, with the Republican candidate being an asshole only concerned about money and the Democratic candidate a caring soul with all the answers. It is terrible. But in some sense I welcome it. As long as the far left continues to "misunderestimate" what those of us on the right are all about, they will continue to misunderstand Americans, and they'll continue to lose elections.

Update
I kind of wish that I had watched this from the beginning. It would have been fun to correct the factual errors and misleading statements.

Thank you, fellow bloggers

I've started to get caught up on the events of the past several days, and I have to thank all of the bloggers on my RSS feed reader. The posts have been wonderful ways for me to get back into the swing of things. And all of you certainly write a lot. I started with 1500+ posts to catch up on. I still have over 700 to sift through.

Duh

AP: "State battles likely if Roe overturned."

If you've had a civics course in high school and stayed awake for it, you'd know this, already.

Get used to it

When I left several days ago, the Paris riots were already a few days old. I anticipated that they'd be over and done with by the time I boarded my flight home. I was wrong.

The urban unrest that triggered scores of arson attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets across France reached the capital overnight, with police saying early Sunday that 13 cars were burned.

By 1 a.m., at least 607 vehicles were burned — including those in Paris, said Patrick Hamon, spokesman for the national police. The overall figures were expected to climb by daybreak, he added.

Europe had better get used to this. Several things are going to lead to more and more incidents like this in the "Old World." First, Europe's appeasement of radical Islam. Second, Europe's inability to grow its native population, along with the growth of Muslim immigration from north Africa. Third, Europe's socialism has led to an economic stagnation that is bound to create frustration in the young.

Although Europe may have called this upon itself, it still does not excuse the rioters. Nothing excuses setting an innocent 55 year old woman on fire. Period.

Where I've been

Mostly here.

The best laid plans...

So much for posting during my trip. Much to my disappointment, here at the airport is the only internet access that I've had. It's nice to see that the world still spins even without my pontification.

Off to Vegas

I'm off to Vegas for a few days, but make sure you stop by here every now and then. I'm going to try to do some photo blogging as my schedule allows, and perhaps some more in depth blogging in the evenings.

Speaking of hard hitting journalism

Nothing says "Edward R. Murrow" like pretending to be Marilyn Monroe. Can we finally admit that most network news is more about entertainment than news?

Burying ledes

In a Paris suburb, Islamic youths have been rioting for 6 days. If all you read was the AP, though, you may not get that "Islamic" part. In this story, they don't really mention who's rioting in the Paris suburbs. In fact, they only mention the makeup of these individuals once, in paragraph #11:

Suburbs that ring France's big cities, home to immigrant communities often from Muslim North Africa, suffer soaring unemployment and discrimination. Disenchantment and anger thrive in the tall cinderblock towers and long "bars" that make up the projects.

Ah yes, hard hitting journalism that gets to the bottom of a story.

Jib*log

By the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's logic, anyone who doesn't walk along in lockstep to racial stereotypes deserves an asterisk next to their name. As a blogger who is 1/4 Native American, and who possesses a brain of his own, I guess I deserve an asterisk. This site shall be known as Jib*log until further notice. Oh, and to the Journal Sentinel editorial board: **** off. There are for more for ya.

HT Sykes Writes.

Update
Ah, wait. 1/4 probably doesn't meet the proper quota to really be considered Native American. I'll have to pull that asterisk. After all, I'm a 3/4 white guy.

The new beer in town-Leinie's Apple Spice

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the latest from the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Leinie's Apple Spice. Apple Spice should be hitting the shelves of your favorite liquor store today. It will only be available in six packs and on tap, and it will be available through the end of the year.

I have tried my first sip of Apple Spice, and it is actually pretty good. The company says that they use two tons of apples in each batch of Apple Spice, so I expected this to be a very sweet beer. It really isn't. On my first sip, I could tell it was a Leinie's product. I can't explain it, but most Leinenkugel's beers have a taste to them that is trademark Leinie's. This one does as well. But after the second sip, the flavor of the apples really started to come through with a hint of cinnamon. It is a very mild beer and the flavors in it don't over power the way, say, a Berry Weiss does. In their promotional Leinie Lodge Legend newsletter, they say that the beer can be heated up and drank with a cinnamon stick. A) I did not believe them when I read it, and B) I didn't want to defile my beer that way, but I may actually try it.

If you have tried Woodchuck, don't pre-judge this beer by it. It has very little similarity to Woodchuck. Woodchuck is a very sweet beer that can get overpowering quickly. Apple Spice is much more mild and I can see a person enjoying several of them. For you beer purists out there, this may not be the beer for you, but I think you should try it just the same. I'm normally a purist enough that these flavored beers (like Berry Weiss) turn me off immediately. This is actually quite tasty, though.

As always, I do not receive dime one from the Leinenkugel Brewing company, unless you count the two free beers they allow me every time I visit their hospitality center.

This is creepy

For only the second time ever, I was going to reveal an image of myself tonight. The image, which you can kind of see in the upper left hand corner of this picture, won Mrs. Jib third place in a photography contest 10 years ago. But when I try to upload the image, I get this creepy return. Amongst the snow, I see three women in skirts dancing, seemingly in a chorus line. What makes this creepy is the image doesn't look like this on any of my imaging editing software, only when I upload it here. I think Jiblog may be haunted by some fun loving women of yesteryear.

Update
If you click on the image to view it at full size, the dancing women disappear. Wasn't Halloween yesterday?