Having Long Since Hit Bottom

The left proceeds to dig a chunnel. The nation's self-proclaimed leading gay activist blogger launches an attack on Idaho Senator Larry Craig. Appearing on a nationally syndicated radio program, Mike Rogers made a claim - based completely on anonymous hearsay sources, that Craig engaged in gay sex.

Rogers says that digging into the private lives of politicians who support anti-gay legislation is legitimate. Because Craig supported and voted for the Defense of Marriage act, it is politically relevant to reveal these claims, Rogers said. In a letter to Craig, he wrote: "What these citizens are not being told is that some of the politicians who want their help are or have staff who are part of the so-called ‘homosexual lifestyle.’"

Rogers reported that he took "trips out west and met with folks in the Senator’s region and in the Pacific Northwest" as part of his research. Rogers said he and his advisors are solid on the sources, but they would remain anonymous. Rogers said he tried to contact the Senator, but never got a response from Craig or his staff.

Offhand, I'd say Mike Rogers better have a really freaking good lawyer. Beyond the pale, this one is. To make a charge like this you'd better be able to produce evidence in court. Frankly, the radio show is probably also got immense exposure on this one. Craig is handling it as well as anyone could given the personal nature of the attack. Quite frankly, what right does this self-appointed activist have to damage other people? This all ties back to Foley and the grotesque overplaying of hands. The tactics Rogers are using are repulsive. They will repulse the people that he thinks he can sway. Watch for the backlash. And the process servers.

WORST campaign season ever. Period.

UPDATE: Others: Patterico, Confederate Yankee, Riehl World View, Captain's Quarters,

A additional note: That we are even having to discuss this angers me to no end. This kind of slime-slinging is, sadly, par for the course coming from the left this year. I have no idea if Rogers is the "leading gay activist blogger" or not. But he is the leading slimer this year. That a "gay activist" thinks being gay is a political liability that should bring someone down politically should say something. It does, but I don't think it is what Rogers thinks it is.

How do you shave when you can't look at yourself in the mirror?

Dog Suicide Bridge

A bridge near the River Clyde in Scotland not far from the village of Milton and the town of Dumbarton has been the scene of unexplained dog suicides for a number of years. The Overtoun bridge has become something of a local legend - or local horror story if your particular pooch takes a plummet and pancakes on the rocky bank of Overtoun Burn far, far below. More than fifty dogs have done the deed and nobody knows why.

'I was out walking with my partner and children when suddenly the dog just jumped. My daughter screamed, and I ran down the bank to where the dog lay and carried her up to safety.

'As I did so, her hair started to fall out. It must have been shock because when we got her home, she shook all night.

'Next day, thank goodness, she was fine. We were lucky because she landed on a moss bed which broke her fall.'

50 dogs in the last 50 years
Other dogs have not been as fortunate. In the past half-century, some 50 dogs have leapt to their deaths from the same historic bridge.

During one six-month period last year, five dogs jumped to their deaths.

All of the deaths have occurred at virtually the same spot, between the final two parapets on the right-hand side of the bridge, and almost all have been on clear, sunny days.

Furthermore, the dogs which have perished have all-been long-nosed breeds: labradors, collies and retrievers.

Dorren Graham, of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals calls the phenomenon a 'heartbreaking mystery'.

'There are lots of owners whose dogs have died and who are trying to find out why they jumped.'

Could dogs be deliberately committing suicide?
Built in 1895 by Calvinist Lord Overtoun, the ornate Victorian structure arches 50ft over Overtoun Burn, the stream which runs below.

A mystery indeed. Now there are lots and lots of theories. These include ghosts and hauntings, doggie depression, doggie telepathy and weird terrain features - read the whole article for the full range of, um, explanations that are circulating. But a few doughty scientists with far too much time on their hands may have unraveled the mystery.

Sexton, on the other hand, who laid bait in the undergrowth beneath the bridge, soon discovered that mice and mink resided there, while evidence of squirrel nests was also found in cannons embedded in the bridge's structure.

In order to narrow down which smell might be attracting the dogs, he distributed odour from all three species in a field and unleashed ten dogs - of the varieties which have died at the bridge - to see which one most interested them.

His findings were remarkable. Of the ten dogs tested, only two showed no interest in any of the scents while the overwhelming majority - 70 per cent - made straight for the mink.

Could a mink be the cause?
The mink's powerful anal glands leave marks wherever they go and the strong musty smell they emit is obviously proving irresistible to dogs.

It would also explain why the deaths have all occurred on sunny, dry days - relatively rare on the notoriously wet west coast - when the mink smell has not been diluted by the damp weather. Furthermore, the theory fits with the timeline of the deaths - single minks were introduced to Scotland in the Twenties but only started to breed in large numbers in the Fifties - which is when the mysterious dog deaths began occurring. But there are 26,000 mink in Scotland. Why are dogs in pursuit of them only jumping to their death from this particular bridge?

So, those of us who understand the cunning nature of the animal uprising and the evil nature of the plotters now know, without a doubt, who is to blame for the luring of the dogs to their doom. Because, of course, there are various factions within the ranks of the uprising.

It's the squirrels. They have long been known to have a rivalry with the minks. It is obviously a frame up. It's either that or the British Animal Liberation Front has been practicing for their jihad against Spanish spaniels.

EU Trying To Seize English Channel

The European Union is trying to accomplish what nobody has been able to do since 1066. Take control of the English Channel from Britain. EU Bureaucrats are trying to take over by declaring any waters between Britain and the continent as 'common European maritime space' and impose EU rules over British territorial waters.

The EU has been accused of a 'sinister' plan to abolish the sovereignty of Britain's territorial waters.

In what critics said would mean Brussels, rather than Britannia, ruling the waves, it emerged the EU is proposing a new 'common maritime space'.

Extraordinarily, sailing by ferry between Britain and the Continent would no longer be considered a trip abroad but a 'national' journey between two sectors of the European Union.

The EU says the plan is designed only to help 'simplify' trade around Europe.

But the proposals, being drawn up by the European Commission's transport officials, sparked outrage among MPs and shipping bosses.

They said it smacked of creeping federalism and another step towards a United States of Europe.

The prestigious 'Lloyds List' newspaper - the house journal of world shipping - branded the move 'sinister' and said it should be resisted.

Britain's mastery of the seas helped build the British Empire and was key to resisting all invasions since 1066 - from the Spanish Armada and Napoleon to the Second World War, when most of Continental Europe surrendered to the Nazis.

The EU plan is the latest in a long line of challenges to the Britain's maritime sovereignty.

It has opened up Britain's fishing zones to Continental rivals and sought to replace the historic 'Red Ensign' from merchant ships and replace it with the Euro flag.

One EU map of the UK abolished England altogether - showing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - but reducing the rest to a series of English 'regions' without an country called England.

As part of the latest shake-up, plans have also been drawn up for an EU coastguard.

The shipping industry is concerned the commission will subsequently attempt to protect its maritime space by restricting journeys made by ships which do not fly the EU flag.

One wonders if the British Royal Navy had not been reduced so badly if the Eurocrats would be tempted to try this little stunt. Sir Francis Drake and Lord Horatio Nelson are reaching overload rpms right now. Jellico, Fisher and Churchill are close behind.

The Newest Thing To Panic About

Internet addicts! They're everywhere, they're everywhere!

The United States could be rife with Internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics, an unprecedented study released suggested.

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in Silicon Valley said their telephone survey indicated more than one of every eight US residents showed at least one sign of "problematic Internet use."

 The findings backed those of previous, less rigorous studies, according to Stanford.

Most disturbing was the discovery that some people hid their Internet surfing, or went online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored alcoholics using booze, according to the study's lead author, Elias Aboujaoude.

This is a revelation? Good Lord. Anyone with half a brain knows that there are internet addicts. They're known as bloggers.

UPDATE: Daily Pundit isn't laughing.

Yes, Virginia, There Is A….

Marlboro Man. And he tops the list of the 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived.

And topping a list of "The 101 most influential people who never lived" in a book released on Tuesday is the Marlboro Man — a macho American cowboy who emerged in the 1950s and helped boost sales of Marlboro cigarettes.

"The figments of our imaginations, the creatures we push out of our minds into the real world are fully capable of pushing back with surprising consequences," Jeremy Salter, one of the U.S. book's three authors, told Reuters.

Coming in at number two on the list is Big Brother of George Orwell's 1984, followed by King Arthur, who the authors say embodies for many the ideal monarch, and Santa Claus comes in at number four.

"Santa Claus governs our entire economy for the last quarter of the year and without him businesses would go broke," said co-author Allan Lazar.

Barbie "the bodacious plastic babe who became a role model for millions of little girls, setting an impossible standard for beauty and style" makes the list at number 43.

Coming in dead last is Paul Bunyan. The authors say he was made up by loggers trying to liven their dreary lives up.

Hey, wait a second! Does that mean Babe the Blue Ox isn't real?

UNSC Election Suspended For 24 Hours

Latin American and Caribbean countries have asked for a 24 hour suspension of voting after a second day of balloting did not resolve whether Guatemala of Venezuela would win the seat on the UN Security Council. The nations plan on consulting to determine a course. Neither of the two countries will withdraw.

Brazil's U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Sardenberg said Latin American and Caribbean nations had agreed to hold off voting until Thursday for a meeting to access the situation. Venezuela and Guatemala agreed but both countries said they were still in the race.

After 21 rounds of voting on Monday and Tuesday for an open Latin American seat next year, Guatemala, backed by the United States, ended the second day with 102 votes and Venezuela had 77. Other countries either abstained or did not vote.

Voting continues until a nation reaches the required two-thirds vote in the 192-nation General Assembly or another compromise candidate emerges, which several Latin American countries hope will happen soon.

Poor (T)Hugo. Bribery fails. There is no way he gets the seat he tried to buy.

Will It Still Be LA

Without any palm trees? It seems that many of the palm trees in Los Angeles are dying. The Canary Island Date Palms that were brought to the area a century or more ago are contracting a fungal disease. City planners are replacing them with native species as they succumb. That's right, the symbol of LA is not even native to the area at all.

Not all palms are infected, and there no danger of their vanishing altogether any time soon. But some parts of the city could look noticeably different in the years ahead. And that troubles some.

"I think the palm tree kind of fits with the whole Southern California vibe," says Jonathan Scott, who manages the fashionable downtown restaurant The Palm.

The palm tree may be better symbol of L.A. than many realize. Like the many young people who come to Los Angeles in search of Hollywood stardom, palm trees are not even from here; they were brought here 100 years ago or more from Latin America and other exotic locales.

The tropical trees that sway gently in the breeze and can grow as high as a 12-story building are everywhere — from postcards that fill Hollywood souvenir shops to the streets of wealthy oceanfront enclaves and the barrios east of downtown.

The palm tree has become so intertwined with the image of the city that its name is plastered all over liquor stores and cheap hotels. Neil Diamond once sang of Los Angeles as a place where "palm trees grow and rents are low."

It's been years, of course, since L.A. rents were low. And now the palm trees are starting to go.

The problem, says Steve Dunlap, a supervising tree surgeon with the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department, is that large numbers of the Canary Island Date Palm — trees with rough trunks and a topknot of fronds that look like green dreadlocks — are succumbing to a fungal disease.

I remember when Dutch Elm disease wiped out the trees that lined the city streets where I lived. Beautiful old trees that had made streets seem like green tunnels were gone in a flash, making the streets a barren wasteland for years while new trees grew. It sounds like the LA fungus is working a little more slowly. The palms aren't much good for shade, anyway.

They Have A Season For That?

Arkansas is just not like other places in the US. I know this for a fact. I once made a visit there. There were floods, tornadoes and forest fires. At the same time. (I'm not making that up). But who knew they have a crossbow season for cars?

LITTLE ROCK - A Little Rock man whose SUV was cut off in traffic was arrested after he allegedly shot at a motorist with a crossbow following a brief chase. "It was a drive-by crossbow shooting," said Steve Gilgenbach, a pitcher for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock baseball team who said he was the man's intended target. "I've never been shot at by a crossbow before."

(Anyone else notice that this implies he has been shot at with other things?)

Wayne Allen Dierks Jr., 26, posted bail after his arrest Sunday on charges of committing a terroristic act, possession of an instrument of crime, driving while intoxicated and driving on a suspended driver's license. Committing a terroristic act is a felony; the other charges are misdemeanors. An arraignment was set for Oct. 25.

Gilgenbach acknowledged cutting in front of Dierks on Interstate 630 in midtown Little Rock.

"I was merging on the highway and I had to get in, so I cut the guy off," Gilgenbach said. "He started following me, cursing at me and yelling for me to pull over."

A police report said Gilgenbach admitted to police that he made an obscene gesture toward Dierks, but he said Monday he didn't remember doing so.

Archery-crossbow hunting seasons for deer, bear and turkey began Oct. 1 so it's not extraordinary that someone might be carrying a crossbow in their vehicle this time of year.

Did he have a tag for a hunting a car? How about a human? I guess this gives the phrase "going medieval" a whole new meaning.

McMoby Burgers UPDATE!

Good news for McDonald's which is facing increased absurd lawyer-driven pressure about its menu. They can start thinking seriously about replacing high fat beef on the menu with nutritious McMoby burgers, now that Iceland has announced it is going to begin commercial whaling again.

Iceland will allow whalers to harpoon a small commercial quota of 39 whales — 30 minke whales and nine fin whales — in the year to the end of August 2007. Fin whales are on a Red List of endangered species.

"The Icelandic economy is overwhelmingly dependent on the utilization of living marine resources in the ocean around the country," the Fisheries Ministry of the North Atlantic island of about 300,000 people said in a statement.

Iceland joins Norway in sanctioning commercial hunts of the giant marine mammals, often eaten as steaks. Japan, the other main whaling nation, says its hunts are for scientific research.

"We are ready to start hunts immediately," said Kristjan Loftsson, head of the Icelandic whaling company that received the hunt permit.

Whaling nations argue stocks have recovered since the International Whaling Commission (IWC) imposed a moratorium on hunts in 1985. Iceland said there were about 70,000 minke whales and 25,800 fin whales in the central North Atlantic region.

Environmental group Greenpeace denounced the decision and said the Icelandic commercial quotas were small, apparently to test international reaction. "I think this is just a test balloon," Greenpeace's Martin Norman said in Oslo.

Wouldn't that be "test harpoon"? Nevertheless, I commented about whale burgers here and linked an interesting counter-argument to the whaling ban people here.

British Berserker Bacon

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard continue to try to get people to pay attention to the oncoming juggernaut of the animal uprising. But do people listen to us? No. Not until it's just too late. We warned everyone in Britain about bacon going bad in the New Forest just a few days ago. Has that stopped people from going into the New Forest? Heck no. This time the badass British bacon berserkers went for a bobby! And his police dog! And it's been captured on video!

Pc Derek Darling and police dog Ash were out on routine foot patrol in the New Forest when they were confronted by a pack of a dozen angry porkers.

The 45-year-old officer was forced to run for nearly half a mile through the forest to the safety of his squad car as the pigs snapped at his heels.

Unfortunately for the officer, a student who was visiting Matley Wood near Lyndhurst, Hants, on a school trip captured the bizarre incident on his mobile phone video camera.

Now Pc Darling and Ash have become unlikely stars after the video was posted on YouTube.

Today the officer described his horror as he realised that he and his seven-year-old dog were vastly outnumbered by the pigs.

Pc Darling said: "I saw a bit of pink on the horizon so I thought it would be a good opportunity for Ash to familiarise himself with pigs as he hadn't encountered them before.

"As we got closer the one pig we first saw got a bit scared of Ash and he went off, but then he returned with about ten more.

"They circled around and then in a sort of military-style manoeuvre made an arrowhead formation and charged straight at us.

"Ash barked at them but then turned his head to look at me with a sort of expression on his face that said 'What do we do now?'.

That's easy, when confronted by a pack of pugnacious pork the correct answer is run like hell. Although if you look at the video, it would appear that the horrendous ham hocks harrying the policeman aren't all that heinous. The kid with the camera just stands there and the pigs wander around aimlessly not bothering him in the least.

Deadlock

The voting for the open seat on the UN Security Council appears deadlocked. Latin American nations are trying to arrange a meeting to work out a compromise candidate. Venezuela is balking at that, however, and says it will not give up their candidacy. Where have we heard that before?

Guatemala had 108 votes and Venezuela had 76 in a 14th round of secret balloting on Tuesday with seven nations abstaining and one ballot deemed invalid. The vote was similar to most of the previous rounds held on Monday and Tuesday.

The balloting continues until a nation reaches the required two-thirds vote in 192-nation General Assembly or a compromise candidate emerges.

Latin American nations were trying to convene a meeting later in the day in an effort to break the impasse but Venezuela was resisting a withdrawal of its nomination, diplomats said.

The vote has become a battle for influence between the United States and Venezuela, which under U.S. foe Chavez has tried to form an alliance in Asia, Africa and the Middle East to challenge Washington's interests.

Failure to get onto the U.N. Security Council would represent a set-back for Chavez's ambitions for a bigger international profile.

Chile's Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley told Radio Cooperativa in Santiago that Latin American countries had begun searching for a new candidate, probably from Central America.

"They'd better meet. Otherwise, we'll never get there," Denmark's U.N. Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Loj told Reuters.

"Neither side seems able to break this deadlock." said the Arab League U.N. observer, Yahya Mahmassani. "The way out of this is for the Caribbean and Latin American group to come together and find a solution, with the agreement of both candidates."

Why do I have this vision of a Mexican election style debacle in my head right now? Maybe because I suspect it is the same people involved in backing that mess at work here.

North Koreans Used Plutonium

Not that I doubted it, but US intelligence sources have confirmed that the North Koreans used plutonium in the device they detonated (or had fizzle - that's still an open question). I don't agree with the intelligence assessment that the New York Times is reporting, however.

The intelligence agencies’ finding that the weapon was based on plutonium strongly suggested that the country’s second path to a nuclear bomb — one using uranium — was not yet ready. The uranium program is based on enrichment equipment and know-how purchased from Pakistan’s former nuclear chief.

Nuclear experts said that the use of plutonium to make the bomb was important because it suggested that North Korea probably had only one nuclear program mature enough to produce weapons.

“This is good news because we have a reasonably good idea of how much plutonium they have made,” said Siegfried S. Hecker, the former chief of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and now a visiting professor at Stanford University. Mr. Hecker, who has visited North Korea and is one of the few foreigners to have seen parts of its nuclear infrastructure, said that it was his guess that “they tried to test a reasonably sophisticated device, and they had trouble imploding it properly.”

The supply of plutonium materials is known from the days when international inspectors kept tabs on the fuel rods in the North’s reactor, and intelligence analysts estimate that North Korea has enough material to make 6 to 10 plutonium bombs.

All this really suggests is that the North Koreans used plutonium. It does not actually have any bearing at all on whether they have weapons grade uranium. I would agree with Hecker that there is a reasonable chance the device was a fizzle due to improper implosion. Plutonium bombs are much harder to construct and detonate than uranium bombs. But none of this is conclusive, either.

Why Counting Chickens ≠ Good Strategy

Real Clear Politics has done some updates to their poll tracking. It does not paint quite the same picture of The Greatest Republican Disaster Of All Time™ that the cheerleading media and the gloating partisans would have you believe. It's not rosy, but it isn't the Titanic, either. I won't excerpt it; you really kind of have to read the whole thing to see where they are getting their data and conclusions.

Survey Says: Germans Cry A LOT

For whatever obscure reason, a German research firm has surveyed the people of Germany and discovered that they cry. A lot. 70% of German have had themselves a good cry in the past year.

Eighty-eight percent of women respondents said they have cried recently, according to the poll conducted by the GfK Marktforschung institute, the results of which were published Tuesday.

Almost half of their male counterparts answered in the affirmative.

Asked where and why, most said they have let tears roll at the movies or while watching television.

About a fifth said they have cried out of anger or frustration and eight percent admitted having been driven to tears by their lovers.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard think people were covering up, though. They didn't really give their true reasons for crying. We're pretty sure we would weep, too, if we had to use a German toilet.

What If You Had A Valuable Asset

That is essentially worthless? That is the question facing the Marquess of Northampton, the supposed owner of the "Sevso Treasure". Although the Marquess bought the astonishing collection of Roman silver in the 1980s as an investment, it cannot be sold because there is no provenance for it. Hungary has claimed it rightfully belongs to them (as have Lebanon and Yugoslavia), but a US court ruled the silver legally belonged to the marquess. Now the collection is being displayed at a British auction house, fueling speculation that the marquess is trying to sell it.

One of the most beautiful and infamous treasure hoards of the 20th century, 14 pieces of Roman-era silver of staggering quality, will resurface today on display in London, to the consternation of leading archaeologists who regard it as archaeological loot.

Although Bonhams auction house, which will display the Sevso Hoard, insists no sale is planned, the Marquess of Northampton who bought the silver for an undisclosed sum in the 1980s recently said he "hopes" the silver will be sold, and that it has "cursed" his family. It now belongs to a trust he founded.

But the Hungarian government has written to Bonhams to protest at the exhibition and reiterate its claim that the silver was found on Hungarian soil and illegally exported from the country.

Lord Renfrew, retired professor of archaeology at Cambridge, an expert on illicit antiquities, said: "It looks very much as if it is being touted about again. Whether anyone can actually prove it, it is pretty sure that it was looted, and as such it ranks as tainted goods. This is very distasteful."

The Sevso Treasure, with a notional value of more than £100m, had probably already passed through the hands of several dealers before it came to London in the early 1980s, and was bought by the marquess on the advice of the late Peter Wilson, a former deputy chairman of the auction firm Sotheby's.

It is believed by many archaeologists to have been illicitly excavated in Hungary and smuggled out of the country in the late 1970s, and to have cost the life of at least one man. It was last seen in public in 1990, when a planned Sotheby's auction was abandoned after Hungary, Yugoslavia and Lebanon all claimed but failed to prove ownership through the US courts, which found that the marquess was the legal owner.

There is speculation that a quarry worker in Hungary unearthed the treasure then sold it on the black market. That man died in what was originally thought a suicide. The Hungarian government is now convinced he was murdered to hide the origin of the silver. (Sounds like a movie plot, doesn't it?)

Anyway, here's a photograph of the treasure. It is an amazing collection. Here's an article in the Atlantic about the "curse" of the Sevso silver. They hint darkly at three murders. This reads suspiciously like a remake of a classic to me. Maltese Falcon, anyone? Perhaps they should get Sam Spade on the case instead of Scotland Yard.