Monday, January 30, 2006

Asking For Trouble

Those lovers of peace, tranquility and little kittens known as Jihadis, are all lit up (oops, bad pun) over a couple of cartoons that were printed depicting the beloved Pig Prophet himself, the great Arab child molester known as Mohammed the Prophet, founder of Islam, killer of Jews and Christians.

Islam prohibits images of the Pig Prophet, ostensibly to discourage idol worship (notwithstanding the irony that Allah is a false god).

I just thought I'd post a picture of the Despicable One here just for fun. If my Photoshop skills were better, I'd show him having sex with pig. Look at that picture, he's probably got his eye on some goat on the hillside to defile next.

Wikipedia seems to have bowed to some political correctness by not posting any historical depictions of Mr. Pork Product on its page devoted to Father Terrorist.

Jesus has a picture.

Buddha has pictures too.

Abraham is shown preparing to sacrifice Isaac.

We can even go back to Adam.

I don't think about Krishna too much but he gets one also.

Wikipedia even gave the devil his due.

Update On The Twins

I wanted to let the weekend pass before giving you all an update on the twins mentioned a couple of posts ago.

Cole and Tristan seem to be doing just fine and are out of any immediate danger. They're still small but they're being watched very carefully. They're not totally out of the woods yet so please keep them in your prayers.

On another note (of far less importance), sorry for the light blogging, I've been very busy.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

The Liberal Bill Of Rights

...or in thier case, the Bill of Lefts.

Go read The Liberal Bill of Rights.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Prayer Request

A friend of mine has twin grandson's that were born less than 2 weeks ago and they were very premature. One of them was just under 2 pounds, the other was just over 2 pounds.

It was beginning to look like they were stable but they took a turn for the worst today and are back on ventilators and they both had to have blood transfusions today.

Please pray for these little guys, they're fighting for their lives. They are named Cole and Tristan.

The pictures below were taken just after they were born.

The sad part is that people abort babies that are farther along than these two.


Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Is Google Evil?

Google has agreed to censor results for the China based portal which it has just rolled out.

I started to get upset about it then I considered it a little more. There is no reason at all to be upset by this. If anything it is cause for at least mild celebration. I'm not naive, Google is operating on a pure profit motive. The effects of their motive (call it greed if it makes you feel better) could bring China closer to being a more open and free society.

Some might say that commerce is the engine that drives war. Indeed there has been much fighting over trade routes, high tariffs, outright bans on goods from other countries etc. Most wars fought in the name of commerce are like most religious wars; a pretext. Entrepreneurs, left alone by government and unable to appeal to government to restrict their competition will find ways of making money. They generally don't care about race, religion, borders, ethnicity, culture or ideology as it relates to commerce. Merchants don't fight wars though they sometimes urge governments to do it for them. What those people generally don't understand is that the same government fighting for them today will punish them tomorrow when a stronger lobby get the ear of the government. A properly limited government will not (should not) have the power to prosecute a war for any other reason than a direct physical threat to the nation. That's idealistic I know, but if we strive for the ideal, we'll get closer to it.

The Chinese government is losing control of it's tight reins on the people through the sheer volume of information available to them. They can NEVER fully control it. Let them try. It might take another 10 to 20 years, but China must adopt the traits of a free society if they want to survive. I can not tell what form that will take but it can only be better than what they have.

The 2008 Summer Olympics are going to be in China and that will force them to at least put on a good face and clean up their act. The Chinese people are going to be quite upset after the stadiums are empty and the people have gone home when the government attempts to wrest control from the people it allowed an illusion of liberty to. After the Olympics (perhaps during) when the government is bragging about what Communism has done for the Olympics, we could see an event that will make Tienanmen Square look like a bake sale.

Information, commerce and a small taste of liberty are the things revolution are made of. If China does manage to throw off the yoke of communism and embrace a semblance of democracy or republicanism, Americans will be flooding their shores looking for adventure and profit.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Birth Announcements

Unto Us Some Blogs Are Born! **updated**

Two Three long time friends have just started blogging.

My good friend Joel is one of the guys that first preached the Gospel to me back in high school. Joel's decided to start his blog to express his discontent over things going on at his daughter's school. I suspect that Joel's blog will go off in MANY different directions; sometimes simultaneously. It should make for some interesting reading.

Joel named his blogThanks For All The Fish. He doesn't have much there yet but drop by and give him a little encouragement to keep writing.

My other friend Ron recently started blogging also. I have also known Ron since high school. We were in POT class together. No, I'm not going to explain. Anyway, I've kept in touch with Ron here and there over the years; mostly through Joel. Ron is also counted among The Redeemed and so far his blog is dedicated to Biblical topics.

You can find Ron at What Is Life About?

There is one more blogger I'd like to introduce. Carole emailed me a couple of weeks ago to give me some information on math resources for Little Dif. I encouraged her to start blogging and she took me up on it. Carole is the mother of 10 and 6 of those kids are still at home but somehow she's finding the time to blog?! Wow!

**update**

After posting this, I found out that one of the other guys that preached the Gospel to me also just started a blog. Chaplian Todd Luken, a recently comissioned Army Chaplain will be deployed to Iraq soon and relating his adventures to us all.

You can find Chaplain Luken at There And Back Again.

**end update**

Carole originally emailed me some info on math resources for Little Dif in response to one of my posts. She said she was a 'blogger wannabe' and I encouraged her to start a blog. She's got about 2.5 million children so I don't know where she finds the time to blog, but she's managing.

You can find Carole at Companion Of Ostriches.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Bin -Laden Scared or Smart?

Osama Bin-PigLover has apparently offered up a truce.

Among other things, Bin-PigLover tells us that there have been no attacks on the US because they are preparing, not because they have failed in any way. I'd guess that some attacks have been stopped (that we'll never know about ) and others have been under way for some time. I do expect that we will suffer another major terrorist attack in the next 2 years simply because they are planning and we can't stop everything. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see a successful suicide bombing here in that time frame also.

From the article, it seem that the terms of the truce are simply that we pull out of Iraq, Afghanistan etc. and just leave them alone. In turn, they will leave us alone.

I don't think for one moment that any truce will be honored. What is the point of offering it then? Is he scared or is he being smart?

I think that his offer for a truce will prompt the Left to action. After a slight lull; just long enough to put some distance between Bin-PigLover's message and their actions, the Left will renew their calls for an end to the war, decry the so-called torture at Guantanamo, and start lobbying Congress for a swift exit plan. Whether Bin-PigLover understands this effect is open to debate. I would think that he does hope that it happens.

Is he also scared? By his own admission, they don't have anything to lose. Why not offer a truce and see if something comes of it? Perhaps the only thing he can do right now to cause us a political setback because he no longer has the infrastructure to carry out large scale attacks. He's buying time. He wants to cause further division between the right and the left to break down morale, possibly stall funding increases for the war spur the anti-war activists who are just dying to take Bin-PigLover at his word.

What is he? Scared, smart or both?

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Is It Too Much To Ask?

Women frequently complain when men leave the toilet seat up. I don't see this as a legitimate complaint. Sure, you have to sit down to go pee but so what? Sometimes we get lazy and don't bother putting the seat up when we have to go. Often times this leads to an assortment of drips and splashes on the surface that you sit on. Wouldn't it be in YOUR best interest ladies for you to put the seat up when you're done to mitigate the possibility of this happening?

Frankly, I think it would be much easier for us guys to remember to put the seat up after completing a healthy dump than it is to remember to put up before peeing and down after we're done.

I think that if women could simply learn to put the seat up when they're finished that it would reduce at least one source of marital strife. Think about it. You ladies get upset when we forget to put the seat down but we wouldn't be upset at all if you happened to forget to put it up when you're done.

There is no downside to what I am proposing ladies but if you can come up with any logical arguments against it, I'd be more than happy to hear you out.

And in case you're wondering, nothing in particular sparked this post; it just a theory I've had in my head for a few years and I thought I'd share it with you.

Where I've Been


Everything in red is where I've been. If my plans for a motorhome trip come to pass, I'll be filling in a few more spots. I didn't include places where I either just landed at the airport or went through by train.

Create your own visited states map
Thank to Moonbatty who got it from Alli.


Oh, and just for the record. Here is the state (no plural) that Matildah has been in.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Just Let The Police Handle It

A California woman, who lived in fear of her ex-husband finding and killing her has been turned in to a criminal for carrying a concealed weapon.

She was in so much fear of being found by him that she went underground and utilized a state program that protected her true whereabouts.

Obviously, she understood that the police could not protect her so she took steps to protect herself. Unfortunately, she left her purse, with the gun in it at the checkstand of a grocery store.

End result? She's not allowed to have any guns at all AND her true address was published as part of the court records.

Fair and just laws? No, I don't think so.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Wicked Witch Of The West Coast

Since the Kennedy picture below seemed to be so popular, I thought I'd post this image I stole from Drudge.

Feinstein is a scary woman, aesthetically and politically. She seems very dismayed at the prospect of Alito being confirmed. The Democrats have absolutely failed in their quest to tarnish, disparage and destroy him.

Feinstein questioned Alito on abortion. Apparently she seems to think that killing babies is one of the primary foundations of freedom embodied in the Constitution of The United States of America.

Alito was nonplussed by her questioning and not tripped up in the least. I would have liked to have seen Alito come out and say that SCROTUM rulings had been over turned in the past and he believes that the initial Roe ruling was wrong and set a bad precedent.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

I'm A Dork

Recent IM conversation with friend:

Poete: is there a way to make Word docs uneditable?
Difster: Yes.
Poete: how?
Difster: Print them out.
Poete: dork

I crack me up.

Little Dif Turns 5

My precious one turned 5 years old this weekend. She got to hang out with some of her friends and we had a great time.

Happy Birthday Little Dif!

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Shower Czars

Mises.org reports that an Arizona company named Zoe Industries Manufacturing is selling (among other things) shower fixtures that hearken back to the days of actually feeling like you're getting a real shower.

Believe it or not, Federal law restricts water flow from faucets (including showers) to 2.5 gallons per minute. That's perfectly fine for the bathroom sink but let's face, it makes for a pretty lousy shower. Zoe Industries Manufacturing gets around the law by selling shower fixtures with more than one head on them since the law specifies 2.5 gpm per shower head.

This blatent use of a loophole has Al Deitemann, head of conservation for the Seattle Water Board wetting his pants and complaining to FedGov about it.

Make all the arguments you want about the need for conservation but there is absolutely no Constitutional authority for the Federal Government to determine how much water comes out of my shower head.

Let's take a little ride down the slippery slope and look at some other areas of our personal lives that FedGov could regulate and possible justifications for it.

  • Television and Stereo Volume - People are damaging their hearing by having the their televisions and stereos up too loud and it creates noise pollution. This law would apply to car stereos and even portable audio players like the iPod. We must have Federal volume limits.
  • Book Ownership - We need limits on the number of books people can own. Trees are a precious resource and hoarding books is WRONG. No person should be allowed to own more than ten books at one time. There could be exemptions for professional reference works but that would require licensing and approval. You must prove that you either sold or recycled one of your books before you're allowed to purchase another.
  • Food Consumption - We clearly need regulations on how much food we're allowed to purchase, what type, how many calories, etc. We're too fat and it's creating a national crisis. Perhaps each person would have a limit of calories per month. Certain foods, such as chocolate would of course be outlawed immediately. We might as well just nationalize the food industry.
  • Computer Use - No one needs more than one computer. They take up way too much electricity and their manufacture consumes far too many resources. Besides all of that, people are sitting around at the computer getting too fat and anti-social.
If FedGov can regulate our showers, do you see any reason why they can't regulate the things I mentioned? The scary part is that when stuff like this is regulated bad laws are piled on bad laws in order to either carve out exemptions or close loop holes based on what is politically favorable at the time.

Monday, January 09, 2006

The Kennedy Conundrum

Ted Kennedy seems to have a problem with SCROTUM nominee Judge Joseph Alito. Kennedy said that Alito's record, "troubles me deeply." Well Teddy, you would know about 'deeply' wouldn't you? How deep did your car sink in to Chappaquiddick?

Kennedy doesn't like Alito's record on support for a powerful Executive branch. "In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture, and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling," he said. I guess Teddy prefers an all powerful but liberal Judicial branch that will continue to find rights in the Constitution that even the Founders didn't know they put there. By way of contrast, Kennedy's friends and supporters also seem to favor taking away rights that the Founders specifically enumerated. Ah, but that's just water under the bridge isn't it? Oh, sorry, bad pun.

I don't really have any position at all on Alito. I doubt he will return any sanity to the Court. It's at least possible he won't do much harm. Alito himself says, "No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law, and no person in this country is beneath the law." This is probably what concerned Kennedy the most. It is likely that he is outraged because he believes that he is in fact, above the law and he took Alito's comment as a personal attack on Kennedy's right to murder pretty young girls while he drives drunk.

And Teddy, please, in the interest of all that is good and right in the world, keep your clothes on in public.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

FedGov Busybody

The West Virginia coal mine disaster is certainly a tragedy for the family and friends of those involved. It's a shame that twelve people had to die so far under the Earth.

This is where the story turns stupid though. The White House has promised a full investigation in to the disaster.

Why? This happened in West Virginia, how is this a Federal matter? FedGov has no business wasting tax money investigating this accident.

Yeah, sometimes I do sweat the small stuff.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Things You Shouldn't Be Told

If someone has to tell you that you are empowerd, you are probably powerless.

If someone has to let you know that you are free, you probably are not.

If someone has to inform you that you are safe, you are likely in danger.

When someone has to insist that you can trust them, you probably can't.


There are things we should just know. When someone is emphatically telling you something that should be obvious, exercise some caution and analyze the statement. This is especially helpful in dealing with politicians, teachers, corporate bosses or anyone trying to sell you something.