Sunday, April 29, 2007

Spiderman Videos

The movie opens this week. So in light of that here are various videos celebrating Spiderman. I never saw the Jack Black one. Pretty funny. 

The Worst In Show

In their endless quest to prove how stupid they are, the EU is now threatening to shut down dog breeders.

DOG breeders have warned that some of Britain’s best-loved breeds including dachshunds, bulldogs and basset hounds could disappear because of new and potentially far-reaching government animal-welfare measures.

The Scotsman has learned that ministers in Edinburgh and London are preparing to ratify a controversial Europe-wide treaty that could set strict limits on the breeding and handling of animals.

The European Convention on the Protection of Pet Animals is enthusiastically supported by animal-welfare groups, and rejected by dog breeders, who say it would impose a “sweeping” curb on their activities.

The convention states that animal breeders must be held accountable for any “anatomical, physiological and behavioural characteristics which are likely to put at risk the health and welfare of either the offspring or the female parent”.

Annexes to the document set down precise limits on physical characteristics like the length of a dog’s back relative to its legs, the length of its ears and the dimensions of its head and nose.

“Animal welfare groups” has become a euphemism for crazed anti-humanists. In some European countries that have accorded animals the same rights as humans, or are trying to. The bureaucrats in Brussels seem determind to regulate everything to the point where nothing can be done without their approval. They mke teh old Soviet Union look enlightened by comparison. 

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Jimmy Carter Redux

If you crossed Jimmy Carter with Ross Perot you would get this dufus. Talk about clueless.

He talks a good talk. I love watching him rip into the others. He’s right about how corrupt some of the others are, but his understanding of the way the world works is why lefties never win in the US. He calls the efforts and lives lost in Iraq and Vietnam a complete waste. But really, the only waste comes from mismanagement of our troops and resources in those wars, which is undeniable. It will be a waste if we pull out before we finish the job.

For this guy to be proud to sell out the Vietnamese is disgraceful. Millions of people died or were imprisoned and tortured by the communists in South East Asia when we pulled out of the region. Millions were displaced. Many came here or Canada and Europe. The same thing will happen if we pull out of Iraq too soon. But did the Democrats learn anything from Vietnam? Of course not. They are just trying to end the war to score political points. By making Iraq a failure they damage the credibility of Republicans. This is why they, and their enablers in the press, have tried to discredit the war from day one. Only 4 years earlier they were calling Saddam a threat that must be dealt with and warning us of his WMDs. Now they act like they never said those things and Bush is a liar. Every so called lie Bush has told was uttered by the Democrats first.

This guy doesn’t have a chance, but I would love to see him become a spoiler like Perot for the Dems. He’s entertaining.

UPDATE: Examples of Dems talking like Bush

It’s Lonely in the Desert

I knew they were sexually frustrated, but really, dude...

UPDATE: Wow, they really are repressed.

They are Insane

The GW Promoting bureaucrats of the EU have made another stupid declaration.

BARMY Euro MPs are demanding new laws to stop cows and sheep PARPING (farting).

Their call came after the UN said livestock emissions were a bigger threat to the planet than transport.

The MEPs have asked the European Commission to “look again at the livestock question in direct connection with global warming”.

The official EU declaration demands changes to animals’ diets, to capture gas emissions and recycle manure.

They warned: “The livestock sector presents the greatest threat to the planet.” The proposal will be looked at by the 27 member states.

If, as they say, that animals produce more greenhouse gasses than cars, that should tell you how benign these gasses are. After all, they are a product of nature and if the planet was going to be affected by such things it would have been a long time ago.

But the truth is, this kind of stupidity is no where near the worst of what they will come out with. Soon they’ll be telling humans what they can eat. This is why we really need to stop this blobal warming madness before it really gets out of hand. 

Friday, April 27, 2007

Hello, Lefties

Oops. Another bad Iraq myth brutally shot down. Al Qaeda and Saddam did have a connection.

The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans.

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former major in Saddam Hussein’s army, was apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this week to the “high-value detainee programme” at Guantanamo Bay.

A lot of myths being told by the left will inevitably be shot down. Hopefully before they manage to turn Iraq into another Vietnam style withdrawal. 

Russian Saucer

Did the Soviets have their own saucer in 1953? Photo evidence.

Peter Parker and his Fans

Outrage DuJour

Two police officers in the Kathryn Johnston case have pled guilty of manslaughter. They face 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively. They pled in exchange for testimony about the “culture of corruption” among narcotics officers in the Atlanta Police Department.

As I’ve written before, I’m not particularly fond of felony murder in principle, so I think this is an appropriate charge. And if the plea helps to uncover more fundamental problems with the way Atlanta police its drug crimes, all the better. And it looks like it’s doing exactly that.

We now know that Kathryn Johnston fired only a single bullet, through the door as police were trying to break in. They responded with a storm of bullets, which apparently both wounded Johnston and the officers themselves. When they realized their fatal error, they planted cocaine and marijuana in the woman’s home. They then pressured an uninvolved informant to testify to having made controlled buys at Johnston’s home to cover their tracks.

The New York Times is now reporting that the officers have told federal investigators that their behavior was not out of the ordinary. That corruption, planting evidence, and giving false testimony are routine at APD. That’s not surprising. The only way these officers could think they’d get away with all of this is if they were operating within a system that routinely allows for—or even encourages—such behavior. APD’s focus on arrest numbers and professional rewards for the big bust apparently incentivized such short cuts.

You have to wonder how common this is across the country. The planting of drugs has to be the oldest trick in the book. When the woman in question is 92 years old, theyblew their credibility out the window. But it’s not as simple for younger people. The cops proably get away with it all the time. Our prisons are full of people arrested on drug charges and the cost to tax payers is astronomical.

A good film that explores framing suspects is “A Thin Blue Line” by Errol Morris. It does happen. How common it is probably depends on the city, but whatever the number is, it’s too much.

Forget the war on terror, the war on Drugs has been a colossal waste of money and resources. Instead of sending users away we should be looking for solutions to the problem. Instead of busting people for things like marijuana, the police could be going after gangs instead.

Prohibition only made the mob rich and powerful. Drug prohibition has done the same and the war on drugs is not solving the problem. It’s time for some new tactics.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

D’Oh!