Give It A Rest

The Boston Herald simply will not let go of the attempt to whip up a controversy over Justice Antonin Scalia. Even though it is now damaging their own folks, they continue.

The photographer who released the picture of Scalia’s gesture has been fired by the Archdiocese of Boston. You know, the picture that proves categorically that the Herald lied. The picture that shows the gesture was not obscene. They do continue to try to spin the undoubtedly fabricated story that Scalia actually used a verbal obscenity. Even though there is absolutely no corroborating evidence. This verbal obscenity story only surfaced after Justice Scalia exposed the original lies. If the obscenity had been spoken, the Herald would have run it in the original story. It would have been more controversial.

The Archdiocese says the photographer violated the editor’s trust by releasing the picture. I wonder if it was that or that the photographer is such a blatant liar that they didn’t feel he was worthy of employment.

Someone here at Blue Crab Boulevard has something to say to the Herald about it’s high journalistic standards.

Even the gesture impaired Herald should be able to figure that one out.

UPDATE: Via Ann Althouse. It seems we now have even further proof of the High Journalistic Standards™ of the Boston Herald. They provide experts to analyze Scalia’s original hand gesture. Who are these experts? Why no less than the actors who are part of the cast of The Sopranos. With a straight face the Herald quotes the opinions of actors to prove their contention. The mind boggles.

An Eye For An Eye

Well, the jackass judge who effectively stopped the execution of a convicted rapist/murderer by placing restrictions on the execution that he KNEW could not be met, went to visit San Quentin today. He questioned death row guards about procedures used in the execution of condemned prisoners. It was fact-finding prior to his hearing on whether lethal injection is "cruel and unusual".

Because we wouldn’t want the poor, poor man to suffer.

Just so you know, the monster that judge spared committed a crime. Here’s the sfgate (not exactly a conservative voice) description of the crime. Don’t be distracted by the "he’s a changed man" stuff - read about the crime.

Oh, and by the way, the affidavits the defense filed on the killers behalf that got the judge involved were forged.

The convicted murderer strangled her, beat her with a hammer, raped her then stabbed her. Her name was Terri Lynn Winchell.

The killers name is not worthy of being repeated.

Let’s just go back to hanging. Screw the needle stuff. Since needles might be cruel. Better yet, kill him in exactly the same way it was done to Terri.

Sorry folks, my sympathy meter failed low on this one. I think Terri Lynn Winchell deserved better than what has been granted by the munificence of the jackass judge.

Blog Burst

Joanne Jacobs is trying to get a blog burst going to promote her book.

Even though I have a really, really small (but one I am grateful for) readership, I am trying to lend a hand. Joanne’s is the very first blog I ever read. I have been reading blogs ever since. Her blogroll introduced me to other blogs  - their blogrolls introduced me to still others.

Damn it, Joanne, you’re the reason I am what I am. A blogger for God’s sake. Could I be any lower?

Seriously, Joanne has a lot of really, really good stuff on education, and read her book. (No, I have not, but I did place an order on Amazon for a copy. I’ll post a review when I finish it.)

And I was not able to ping Joanne back due to a server error.

Logical Discussion

One of the biggest problems with trying to have a political discussion these days are the two major types of debating techniques in common usage. One type tries to use logical argument, supported by fact and thoughtful discussion of the issues. The other uses talking points (provided by someone other than the person actually engaged in the debate), diversion into areas not even part of the original discussion and a rapid descent into ad homonym attacks with special attention paid to using the verbiage of class warfare.

So, in today’s political discussion of, say hot dogs, the debate might go something like this:

A: I think hot dogs today don’t taste as good as they did when I was a child.

B: No. Today’s hot dogs are even better tasting than they were even a few years ago. This poll from Ipsos proves beyond any doubt that hot dogs are better than ever. Fully 51% of Americans believe hot dogs are better than ever.

A: Well, I have found that the hot dogs that are being made today contain a higher percentage of scrap parts swept from the floor of the processing plant and this study (exhibit A) shows that definitively. I believe this leads to an inferior tasting hot dog.

B: Well, that study was obviously produced by someone who doesn’t understand the intricacies of the meat packing industry. There is a move to streamline the production of meat packing and use the slaughtered animals to their fullest potential. The workers use every means available to salvage every usable piece of the animal. This  necessitates the use of sweepings so as to minimize the number of animals that need to be slaughtered.

A: But the percentage of sweepings affects the flavor. Exhibit A shows that there are bits of refuse swept into the stuff salvaged off the floor.

B: Only someone who doesn’t understand the need to minimize the suffering of the poor slaughtered animals could say such a thing. It is obvious that you are being willfully heartless in this matter. Most Americans are satisfied with the taste of their hot dogs. This is simply being willfully obtuse on your part. Your ideology and blind allegiance to your politics is causing you to disregard the Truth.

A: Look, I just want my hot dogs made out of the same things they used to be made out of. I don’t want the dirt and refuse from the floor mixed in.

B: Listen, you fascist. The majority of the workers in that plant are little brown people. It’s obvious you are threatened by the thought of little brown people taking over your precious hot dog production. BUSH LIED! HOTDOGS DIED!

Sounds stupid? I just got off a comment thread where that exact tactic was used. Not one person commenting on that thread mentioned "little brown people" until someone came on and implied that every commenter was a racist pig because they were threatened by "little brown people" (his exact words). 

So where’s this all going? John Hawkins has a tour de force logical argument in a FAQ format on the issue of illegal immigration. I suspect the racist card will be played almost instantly because his logic is unassailable.

H/T to the incredibly hard-working Gateway Pundit for the link

Hey Mr. Taliban

Ilya Somin over at the Volokh Conspiracy weighs in on the Taliban at Yale. While I have been guilty of several instances of attempted humor on the issue, he makes a solid, reasonable argument for why Yale is so very, very wrong on this issue.

Is anyone at Yale listening?

By the way, is attempted humor against the law - yet?

Europe Is SO Screwed

I found this item over on the Chequerboard.

A priest in Belgium is being persecuted prosecuted by the government for having the apparently heinous crime of daring to speak his mind about the menace of unassimilated Islamists in Europe. The exact words that resulted in him being dragged off to court by the PC Police:

“Every thoroughly islamized Muslim child that is born in Europe is a time bomb for Western children in the future. The latter will be persecuted when they have become a minority.”

Man - Eugene Volokh is right. We are all Danes now. Free speech is under siege by not only the Islamists, but by the bookstores, the colleges and our own governments. If we fail to stand against this tyranny, our civilization will fall.

Also read the commentary here from Lydia McGrew.

Charity Auction Nets $45,000

From the sale of George Clooney’s Oscar ceremony "goody bag". The actor donated the bag full of gifts to the charity. The bags are handed out to all nominees and presenters at the annual Oscar awards. This year’s bag contained an iPod, a Blackberry and assorted clothing and jewelry. The bag’s contents were reported to be worth about $100,000.

No report on how Clooney felt when he found out the bag sold for $44,999.99 more than his talent is worth.

A Letter From Kuwait

A letter from Blue Crab Boulevard’s one and only foreign correspondent. This is directly responding to a recent AP article.

A Letter to Miriam Fam

As I was flipping through the Stars and Stripes today, I came upon your article from the AP "Suicide bomber kills 40 at recruiting center"), and after reading it fairly casually, I thought to myself, "wow, that’s some scary stuff."

You see, I’m a sergeant serving with a unit that’s about to go to Iraq, and the idea of Sunnis and Shiites facing off with US troops in the middle definitely isn’t a palatable one. You also mentioned that the US may have been involved with a shooting incident in a mosque, which also registered as bad news. After reading your article, though, I flipped the page to find two other stories, both written by Stars and Stripes reporters, people who are actually in the field with the soldiers on the ground. After reading these two articles, combined with what I already know about the areas in question, I came to a simple conclusion: ma’am, you do not have the slightest clue what you’re talking about.

You see, this isn’t my first time in this particular combat zone, and some of the areas you mention I’ve actually seen in person. First, addressing the issue of the tribal violence that’s being reported, I believe your political bias has clouded your journalistic integrity. You see, if you’d done any actual research, talked to any of the grunts who patrol those areas on a daily basis, you’d know that the execution-style killings and rampant bombing isn’t being done by "Shiite militias or death squads" as you so directly put it. Many, if not most of these acts are being committed by the same people we’ve been trying to hunt down from day one of the insurgency, i.e., the foreign extremists who’ve been using Iraq as a personal playground of death and destruction. Now they’re attempting to snare the US military into a civil war whose flames they are stoking ever higher.

Next let’s discuss your report of the "mosque" shooting incident. First of all, the compound that was attacked by the joint Iraqi-US Special Forces team WAS NOT marked as a mosque. Second, the raid was aimed at breaking up a kidnapping/execution squad, you know, those wonderful people that get their jollies snatching westerners and lopping their heads off in front of cameras; it wasn’t just some door-to-door shakedown.

Lastly, the person who’s screaming the loudest about the "innocence" of the people in this so-called mosque is Muqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi cleric and admitted murderer whose personal army engaged US forces in and around Najaf back in 2004. Needless to say, this man does not like us. Overall, the impression I got from your article was that the US has installed a puppet government in Iraq. You off-handedly remark that the "Shiite death squads" are likely tolerated by the local police as well as the government, which has a Shiite majority. Ma’am, if we’d had a hand in the election of Iraqi officials, do you really think we’d have allowed three dozen or so al-Sadr supporters to take office in the Iraqi parliament?

I think from now on I’ll draw my conclusions from the reports of my fellow soldiers, written by the reporters who actually live with and around them. It beats the conjured conclusions of someone sitting in a pressroom with an agenda any day.

Sincerely yours,

A US soldier

UPDATE: Thank you to Hugh Hewitt for linking here. Please do take a look around.

You Want Cuffs With That?

Today’s criminal mastermind is a carjacker in Texas. While trying to escape from pursuing police cruisers, the suspect made a wrong turn and became stuck in a Burger King drive-through.

"Colton Raysor, 39, and April Perea, 26, were arrested and jailed on multiple charges, including felony theft of a motor vehicle. They will face aggravated robbery carjacking charges in Dallas, and Raysor also is wanted in Florida on suspicion of bank fraud, Garcia said".

He must have been really hungry….

Standing In The Way Of Progress

The Philadelphia plumber’s union is actively trying to stop the installation of waterless urinals in a new building.

"Developer Liberty Property Trust says the urinals would save 1.6 million gallons of water a year at the 57-story Comcast Center, expected to open next year.But the union put out the word it doesn’t like the idea of waterless urinals — fewer pipes mean less work".

The article goes on to describe several more incidents where the locally powerful unions have caused problems in Philadelphia. It includes the unions being so difficult to work with that conventions canceled bookings and went elsewhere. How many millions has behavior like this cost the local community?

Whoo Hoo - Gotta LOVE The Midwest In Spring

We are under a tornado watch where I live. It’s been raining off and on all day, but things just turned kind of ugly. Radar shows a (really, really, really) bright red line of storms coming in two waves.

I hope they miss. The basement here has one of the world’s largest indoor collections of spiders. I’m not afraid of spiders, but I detest getting completely covered in cobwebs!

Exporting The Poor

Mexico is demanding that the US allow more and more of their citizens to enter the country. They are trying to stop any attempts to expand fences, decrying the "walls" that keep their poor from enjoying the bounty in the US. There is a concerted effort to make guest worker programs and more visas available to poor Mexican immigrants.

As this blog noted yesterday, leading Mexican academics say the US must increase aid to Mexico to help equalize the economies. But what are the Mexican authorities doing for their own people?

The answer is very, very little. George Grayson, who teaches government at the College of William and Mary has an opinion piece in the Christian Science Monitor that spells out the ineptitude, venality and outright stupidity that controls the government of Mexico. He’s less complimentary than this blog is.

Tell me again why it’s good policy to support the failed policies that constitute a government in Mexico.

Breaking: Ship Accident Off Bahrain

Very little info right now. Some sort of accident, speculation that it may have been a ferry. American naval units are responding.

 UPDATE: It is a local ferry, it may have had 150 people on board.

A Memo

Memorandum

From: President Richard Levin

To: All students and faculty

Re: Yale Mascot

For many years now the mascot for this proud institution has been the bulldog. The likeness has adorned pennants and flags and even provided a convenient nickname for our various sport teams.

However, since the recent uproar caused by nefarious outside agitators over our admission of the esteemed Mr. Hashemi has caused a decline in our annual alumni donations, Yale finds itself needing to attract additional revenue. Fortunately, supporters of Mr. Hashemi have graciously agreed to provide the necessary funds.

There is, however, one small problem. It seems that certain donors have a set of beliefs that find dogs and even depictions of dogs offensive. Dogs are considered to be unclean and therefore unworthy of being the visible symbol of the great institution that is Yale.

In keeping with our goal of increasing understanding and cooperation with all cultures, I have decided that Yale will no longer allow the use of the bulldog as our mascot. Since there are already a large number of pennants and flags already in circulation with the offending pcture, the University will provide free, stick-on symbols to cover the offending graphic until a suitable, geometric symbol can be adopted. I am including a photograph showing the proper use of the new symbol.

Regards,

Dick

Vegas Has A BIG Problem

It would appear that there is a - well - growing problem in Las Vegas. An ambulance company there has had to add a special ambulance to accommodate very large clients. There have been an increased number of calls for assistance when crews respond to transport morbidly obese clients. Clients who can weigh in excess of 500 pounds. The new ambulance can handle up to 1600 pounds of client.

Who knew Las Vegas of all places could have a problem like that? It’s like a million degrees there in the summer. You’d think these folks would sauna it off. But I digress.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard are always trying (the wife says we’re very trying - we’re not sure what she’s getting at) to bring you extra information on any subject. In that spirit we have obtained a photograph of a test run of the new ambulance. Please note, we cannot tell where we obtained this photo from as it is top secret. Don’t tell anyone. Remember, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

UPDATE: Riddle solved - now we know why the rash of very large people occurred: World’s largest buffet!

Read more »