A scurrilous fabrication
Yep, some lefties apparently think Republicans fight dirty in elections, in a tone suggesting that they never did such things. Now that's a whopper.

After ROTFLMAO, I thought it would serve the Dems right if their opponents behaved as claimed. Like me, for instance. What could I come up with? Hypothetically, of course - I'm above such conduct.

Let's start with the fact that John Kerry, who has been treated for cancer and whose true military record is subject to question doesn't want to release his medical records and his full military records. And IIRC Kerry's divorce records are sealed too. Could there be a common thread tying all of this together?

Aha! Kerry's Purple Heart wasn't really for a little bitty wound in his arm. In fact, John Kerry, a man known for his long face, must have accidentally blown off part of his genitalia.

He wouldn't want to flaunt this. At the time there was no Lance Armstrong to inspire him, so I'm guessing that about any red-blooded American male of his age in his time would have done his utmost to hide any such misfortune. "No, it's just this thing on my arm - honest!"

I'm assuming that he didn't lose both testicles, because he does have two daughters who I'm sorry to say do look like him. Then again perhaps he has a relative who helped him out. And it would help to explain some of his Senate votes.

Now perhaps it's time to note a couple of conditions that affect the sex of your children. One is that the further the sperm have to travel, the more likely it is that any resulting offspring will be girls (i.e. he's working with a stump). The other is that orgasms change the chemistry in the vagina in a way that favors male sperm (i.e. he's a lousy lay). Having only girl children is consistent with the above, and again points to a reason why he might want to keep his divorce records sealed. And isn't it interesting that we haven't had any "bimbo eruptions" from a guy whose hero was JFK?

Now I for one would never spread such a nasty rumor - I offer it only as an example of fighting dirty. But you have to admit it's consistent with the record. All John Kerry has to do to stop it in its tracks is to release the rest of his military and medical records and his divorce records.

Why wouldn't he release the records? Doesn't he have the....never mind.
posted by J Bowen at 7:14 PM ~

Cry of the moonbat
Yes, we must avoid treating dissent as a pathology to be treated by strong drugs. And then you read stuff like this. Believe it or not, there are those who think the Democrats don't fight dirty enough.

Via, of all places, The Corner.
posted by J Bowen at 6:45 PM ~

It takes all kinds...
There's a TV in a break area at work, and normally it's tuned to a partisan news network. If anyone else is there and I happen to be watching, they're in sever danger of hearing my opinions. Because believe it or not, not everyone reads blogs yet.

Today I was watching with another man briefly, and he piped up that he like Kerry's position on outsourcing and trying to stop it.

I started to go into my spiel about how anybody could possibly know what perennial flip-flopper Kerry's position was on anything, in addition to the specific drawbacks of opposing outsourcing, blah blah, when it dawned on me that I was talking to an IT guy from India.

I guess it makes sense - I guess if he had wanted to stay there he would have. It just struck me as amusing that at a time when some US IT jobs are heading to India, here's an Indian who isn't happy with it either.
posted by J Bowen at 8:34 PM ~

Alternate history
It's 1941 and the Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor. John Kerry is President, and he's holding a press conference.

"When will we go to war, Mr. President?"

"First we have to understand why they hate us. Meanwhile we must create a plan for winning the peace. I'll have Congress review and approve all rules of engagement. We have to hire counselors for all of our POW camps to make sure our prisoners aren't abused. We plan to schedule an exploratory meeting to discuss in principle our most appropriate reactions with our allies - I've already had some input from Petain of France. We'll issue warrants for the arrest of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Hirohito as soon as we have enough evidence. We mustn't rush into war."

"Are we well prepared with men and materiel?"

"It will take a while to build up. Past Congresses and people like Dick Cheney voted down many weapons systems I sure wish we had now in my wisdom as a veteran. Fortunately we do appear to have an adequate supply of spitballs"

"And didn't you lead the charge against those weapons programs when you were in Congress?"

"That's ancient history, and we must move on"
posted by J Bowen at 10:24 PM ~

One question IQ tests
...as proposed by Mike S. Adams.

I have a few myself:

1. Did George W. Bush win the 2000 election?

2. Did George W. Bush have anything to do with the attacks on 9/11?

3. Did you question whether WMD's had existed in Iraq prior to the most recent war?

4. Have the MSM been favoring John Kerry in this election?

5. Are Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell at least as dangerous as Islamic fundamentalist jihadis?

Suggestions?


posted by J Bowen at 9:24 PM ~

Not bad for a girl...
Mary Katharine Ham asks "If women really do offer equal work for 23 cents less on the dollar, why does anyone bother hiring men?"

She also blogs at The Insider. It's a product of the Heritage Foundation.
posted by J Bowen at 10:59 PM ~

The New Iraq
Right here, as ripped off from The Corner.
posted by J Bowen at 10:59 PM ~

Interview coup
He's done it again - John Hawkins got an interview with John O'Neill of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth right here.

Hat tip to Ed Driscoll.
posted by J Bowen at 10:48 PM ~

Subtle propaganda?
A few years ago I ran across a nuclear power plant simulator PC game. What a propaganda opportunity that could be - all they'd have to do is make it impossible to win the game and voila - an insidious message that reactors are unsafe.

Glenn Reynolds approves of his daughter's play with The Sims and The Sims 2. He says he got a column out of this - it'll be interesting to see what he says. For me, I've always meant to take a look at some of the Sims games, which have been out for around 15 years now in one form or another. But then it's not as if I don't spend enough time on the computer already.

GR says "It apparently conveys the message that if you marry a loser, he'll probably stay a loser, and your kids are likely to be losers, too." Sounds realistic to me. But....

Of course the game is just a model, and presumably we adults know that. We can play it as a diversion, and we're in a position to know when real life ain't that way. But for kids I have to wonder if it couldn't lead them in the wrong direction.

(My concerns are similar for kids and porn movies. No one will tell them that's an exceptional size, they looped the tape to make it last longer, things didn't happen in that sequence, a professional was paid a bonus for that, they're only in that position because of lighting and camera angles, they just spent 20 minutes cleaning, stretching and lubing off-camera before that happened, they get tested for diseases every week, they used a stand-in for that, most people don't groom like that, they're not even practicing "safe sex"... Do you want a kid who learned sex from porn going out with your kid?)

If kids run their own scenarios with the Sims and see how they turn out, in the absence of real world experience that *is* their experience. So what if the Sims don't accurately reflect reality, or consciously bias it toward a particular political POV?

The game has been out for some time - presumably some people out there are in a position to say whether it behaves consistent with human nature, or if it is somehow tuned with some "values" so that the good guys usually win, etc. Even so, it would have to be retested with each version.

I guess I'll have to check it out someday.
posted by J Bowen at 8:53 PM ~

Bainbridge on Volokh on Hastert on Soros
You might recall House Speaker Dennis Hastert's recent comment on George Soros. Specifically, about where the money he works with comes from. Eugene Volokh rightly notes that if Hastert has evidence that Soros is using drug money, he should present it.

Fair enough. But it's not as if the drug money charge is far-fetched - from Wikipedia we have:In short, anyone with a pile of money and interests contrary to the US can act through Soros to try to influence US policy. You don't have to be paranoid to see potential dangers in that. If Soros is offended, let him disclose the sources of his money.
posted by J Bowen at 1:44 AM ~

Please come to Boston...
Where are you from? That question sounds straightforward enough but really isn't for those of us who have lived in a lot of places. Nina Camic tries to answer.
posted by J Bowen at 3:53 PM ~

Eye exercises
Right here.

Snoop around the site a bit for other govt-approved ergonomic standards and exercises.
posted by J Bowen at 11:37 AM ~

True loyalties
Before college John Kerry opposed the war in Vietnam.

When John Kerry could not obtain a deferment to study in France, he enlisted in the Navy Reserves, from which he went to Vietnam.

When he got back he found that his carefully accumulated medals didn't do him much good politically in a place like Massachusetts. And it happens that for whatever reason, John Kerry went whole hog into the antiwar movement.

Now it's 3 decades later and he wants to present himself as a war hero. Will the real John Kerry please stand up? Can we determine which one is the real one?

Well, one metric is whether he ever broke the faith with his former comrades beyond switching sides.

He certainly broke faith with his Vietnam buddies, accusing them and even himself of outrageous atrocities. To my knowledge neither he nor any he accused ever suffered any personal consequences beyond bad PR for Vietnam veterans, but that was plenty IMO. (Branded as "baby-killers", I wonder how many of them redeemed themselves to the Left by becoming abortionists?)

What about his antiwar buddies? For instance, did he go running to the feds when people from his organization, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, proposed killing pro-war Senators? Why heavens, he wasn't at any such meeting! Until contradicted by FBI surveillance information, that is. Then, like cornered Democrats always do, he wanted to "move on".

So he told authorities about events that might not have happened to the detriment of the war buddies he's trying to get support from now. But when he had information that people were proposing assassination of pro-war Senators, he didn't go to authorities, and he tried to hide that fact until he was busted.

In short, he kept the faith with the antiwar people, but not with his fellow veterans. In the presence of innumerable flip-flops, that may be the closest thing to sincerity that we ever see from John Kerry.
posted by J Bowen at 10:33 AM ~

These guys too?
Alright, I've been slow on the uptake before. And I'll admit that I missed the live delivery of Zell Miller's speech at the RNC. I had read good reviews from the Republican side and bad from the rest, but that wasn't exactly a surprise.

Then I read Thomas Nephew and his cites of Ken Layne, Matt Welch and Matthew Yglesias and was astounded by the heat of the denunciations, such as 'The audience was so enthused by his frankly fascistic remarks that at any moment I thought the distinguished Senator might point up and say "see, there, right there is one of these unpatriotic liberal journalists busy abusing the freedoms our soldiers fight to protect -- he must be destroyed for the safety of the Republican" and that Matt Welch and I would need to fend for our lives against the onrushing hordes.'

Good grief, what kind of candyass do you have to be to fear a bunch of Republicans, anyway? And this after that human waste Michael Moore had escaped in one huge jiggling piece a couple nights before. What could Mr. Miller have said to deserve characterizations like "fascistic"?

I knew Yglesias had had too much Kool-Aid lately but until now I'd thought the others remained sane, so I read the speech myself.

Oh, that's it. He dared speak positively of the military, defending the flag, and fearing God. Horrors!

What happened to the left to send them so far off the deep end?
posted by J Bowen at 11:47 PM ~

Fake trees for cell phone towers
See them here.

Via Boing Boing, which continually offers proof that technical savvy and political sophistication don't always coincide.
posted by J Bowen at 11:44 PM ~

The ultimate weapon against terrorism?
I'm agnostic, but I admire faith and courage. And any man who'll build a Christian church in the heart of terrorist country has plenty of both:But that may be the weapon they fear most.
posted by J Bowen at 1:41 PM ~

Does he ever shut up?