Peenie Wallie

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July 31, 2005

Scott Peterson prepares to reap the whirlwind

The sick, twisted monster known as Scott Peterson recently posted an online message on the internet, courtesy of the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. These tree-huggers that infect the sparsely populated territory north of us don't want us to fry him. Like it's any of their business what we do with our psychopaths.

This sick freak cheated on his wife, then murdered her while she was pregnant with his unborn child. He claims he was innocent, but when they finally grabbed him, he'd bleached his hair and was running for the Mexican border with $14,932 in cash.

I'm honestly surprised he's still alive, considering that his unborn child washed up in San Francisco bay. Technically, that makes him a child killer. Last time I checked, those people don't do too well in prison.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 31, 2005 at 11:38 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

The truth about the neighbors

I’ve been on the road for years, and, when I took a normal 9-5 job in March of this year, I was looking forward to coming home and spending the summer drinking around campfires with the neighbors. But they throw their parties and don’t invite me. It wouldn’t be so bad if I couldn’t hear them. But, it’s summer, and no one has air conditioners up here at 7,500 feet above sea level. So I have the windows open, and you hear them all laughing over there.

I like all of my neighbors. Never said a bad word about any of them. Love them all for who they are, and like spending time with them. But the feeling is apparently not reciprocal. They've done it before and I've told them before how I feel, but it doesn't seem to matter.

I guess I'm not sure I blame them. I used to run my ATV and my weasels all over everyone's property. I stopped that. No one said anything, but I think they were in fear for their lives or they hated me or something like that.

I was dating this complete psycho, and I finally cut her loose. I'm pretty well armed, but you know how women can put the fear in you if you've ever dumped a raving lunatic that goes from laugh to crying in a single sentence. So, I've been just kinda coming home and locking the doors at night.

It’s hard to know what to do when you’re not invited to a party. Maybe, they invited me and I forgot. Maybe they assumed I would just wander over. Maybe…who knows. Finally, I figure I can either sit here, listening to them laugh and having a great time, or I can just go over, assuming that they expected me to wander over, and make the best of it.

So, I don't have a whole lot going on and, eventually, I swallow my pride and walk over. But it’s weird. What do you say? “Hey. What’s up?� I feel awkward. I don’t know how they feel. But, you kind of figure that, on some level, they don’t want you there or they’d have invited you. Maybe I need to take them some disinvitation cards so they can mail them to me next time to remove any doubt about my status.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 31, 2005 at 9:23 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

PETA creates video equating Blacks with common farm animals

In June, PETA employees were arrested and charged with 31 counts of animal cruelty for killing puppies and throwing them in a dumpster. You won't believe what the morons at PETA have done now. Not content with routinely slaughtering animals by the thousands, now they've made a video that equates Blacks with common farm animals. I hope that Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson is aware of this video. It's an abomination, but, coming from PETA, not surprising.

Update: Apparently, some people out at Berkeley took offense to these comparisons. Who'd have thought?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 31, 2005 at 3:34 PM : Comments (5) | Permalink

Jeb Bush in 2008

I'm getting downright nauseated at the thought of Hillary Clinton running on the Socialist Party ticket in 2008. I've been following the Blogs Against Hillary website, which calms me down a little. It's good to know that not everyone on Earth has forgotten how she tried to turn the United States into a nation of serfs with her 'Eat The Rich' HillaryCare campaign for socialized medicine when she was riding high on Bill's coattails.

I got to wondering about who would run against her in 2008. Not that she'll be hard to beat, because us dolts in flyover country aren't about to allow that deeply stupid little spiv into the Oval Office.

But who will the Republicans put against her? Then it hits me. What about Jeb? He's the governor of Florida. By all accounts, he's smarter than G.W. And I'm thinking, 'this is the guy for the job'. So, where's Jeb? Come on now, son. It's time to step up to the plate. Someone's got to run against that welfare queen in 2008, and you're the perfect man for the job. What do we need to do, start a petition?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 31, 2005 at 1:48 PM : Comments (6) | Permalink

Adding a PayPal Tip Jar to your site

Several commenters suggested that I add a "Tip Jar" to my web site. Basically, my idea for it is that this is sort of a "can a brutha get a break all up in heagh" handout scheme to help offset the costs of my Internet Service Provider, Wispertel.

Normally, my monthly ISP fees are manageable, but that was before the avalanche of traffic that started yesterday at 7:51 a.m. MDT. Now, Wispertel representatives have surrounded my house and are threatening to raze my mouse and sow salt into my land. OK, so it's a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.

Tip Jar

Now, if there were just some way I could test the PayPal Tip Jar to see if it works... ;)

I found this web site useful. I've updated and pasted the modified instructions below.

Continue reading "Adding a PayPal Tip Jar to your site"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 31, 2005 at 11:33 AM : Comments (4) | Permalink

Jimmy Carter doesn't approve of war in Iraq

President Jimmy Carter doesn't think we should be in Iraq. This is classic. President Jimmy Carter pontificating on U.S. foreign policy reminds me of the space monkeys in 2001:A Space Odyssey. I have to think that most people that survived his administration are thinking "Shut up. Sit down. You had your chance, tree-hugger."

For those who are fortunate enough not to have suffered through the Carter administration, he made America a laughing stock. When the Iranians evicted the Shah in 1979, they made a pass through the U.S. embassy, took a bunch of U.S. citizens hostage, and held them for over a year. While they were burning U.S. flags in the desert and dancing across the scorching sands in white dish-towel wardrobes, Carter was attacking a bunny rabbit with a canoe paddle in the swamps of Georgia.

The whole world saw the United States as an emasculated, paper-tiger country, that couldn't even rescue 66 people from a bunch of desert rat terrorists. We were the laughing stock of the entire world. So Jimmy - Sit down. Shut up. No one cares what you think.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 31, 2005 at 9:40 AM : Comments (3) | Permalink

July 30, 2005

The Main Stream Media barons are eating their hands

America is a nation of torpid couch maggots, writhing lethargically in Lazy Boy recliners in the dim FCC-approved glow of a fear-peddling talking head on drive-in sized plasma screen televisions. I don’t own a television. OK, my friends gave me one when they quit for Amsterdam, but there’s only one and I’m not overly compelled to bask in front of the electron beams emanating from the cathode ray picture tube.

It used to be that a few people in news rooms across the country decided what message would be injected into the American pupae. The thought consolidation that occurred was embarrassing, but predictable. Our founding fathers had warned us about licensing the media (newspapers, at the time). But we didn’t listen. We licensed the channels and the papers and the frequencies, and then the corporations bought them up, and then the corporations consolidated, leaving a few people in control of the American media.

Continue reading "The Main Stream Media barons are eating their hands"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 30, 2005 at 11:53 AM : Comments (4) | Permalink

Is your printer spying on you?

I've heard about this before, but the Electronic Frontier is all over it. As it turns out, your printer is spying on you. It's printing unique secret codes on every document you print that can be used to identify the printer manufacturer, printer type, and serial number. Then, they can tie that particular serial number back to the you by working with the retail stores.

The printer manufacturers did this at the reqeust of the Secret Service to stop counterfeiters. But, the potential for abuse of this are very real. For instance, if you print up some anonymous flyers that the government doesn't approve of, they could tie the documents back to you. This is no joke. Check out the EFF's site for more details about how you can help combat this alarming technology.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 30, 2005 at 12:40 AM : Comments (3) | Permalink

July 29, 2005

Cool Optical Illusions

These optical illusions are unbelievable.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 29, 2005 at 11:11 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Marine has farewell dinner with family before shipping off to Iraq. Stranger picks up the tab.

On Tuesday night, July 26th, 2005, a proud father offered to take his son out for a special dinner. Mark Hickethier's son, Matt, had joined the Marines, and this would be one of their last meals together before he shipped out to Iraq, for a tour of duty expected to last one year.

They decided to go to The Fort in Morrison, Colorado, which is about two miles from my house, as the crow flies. It's one of the nicest, most expensive restaurants in the Denver area. It's where President Bill Clinton ate when he visited.

The son, Matt Hickethier, decided to wear his Dress Blues. His mother, sister, and father all dressed for the occasion. They spared no expense on their meal, ordering whatever they desired, regardless of the price, including champagne, appetizers, and dessert.

But when it came time to pay the bill, they had a surprise coming. The gentleman that had been sitting at the table next to them during their meal had picked up their tab. And left. The anonymous stranger had picked up on what was going on, and picked up their tab. He'd left his credit card tab open to cover anything they wanted, and then discreetly left the restaurant, stipulating that The Fort not reveal his identity.

This sounds like one of those chain emails and rumors that you read on the internet, but it isn't. It happened right here at The Fort in Morrison, Colorado. The Local Channel 9 News (NBC) aired the story last night. I called The Fort tonight and verified the story with the manager. He said it happened Tuesday night.
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Update: Welcome Michelle Malkin visitors. (My server is smoking right now.) While you're here, check out some of my original short stories about the Bahamas, Hawaii, the Continental Divide, and the pain of being alive. I'm also selling my 1945 "Duck"(DUKW). Thanks for visiting!
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Update 2: I'm really getting hammered here. Not sure what to do. Probably need to get someone to host my site for me, but I'm short of funds, and will need to do some research before I make a decision on whom to go with. Post comments if you have any suggestions on a good company. For what it's worth, I run my site on an XP box running IIS with MySQL, Perl, and Movable Type. So, would want to find a provider that would work with my configuration.
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Update 3. I added this commentary about why the MSM ignores this story even though it has legs.

America is a nation of torpid couch maggots, writhing lethargically in Lazy Boy recliners in the dim FCC-approved glow of a fear-peddling talking head on drive-in-sized plasma screen TV. I don’t own a television. OK, my friends gave me one when the quit for Amsterdam, but there’s only one and I’m not overly compelled to bask in front of the electron beams emanating from the cathode ray picture tube.

The Main Stream Media Barons are eating their hands
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Update 4. Welcome Hugh Hewitt visitors. Sorry the web site is so slow, but I'm getting hammered. (Errr....scratch that...my server is getting hammered.) I fled my swamped PC today and took my daughter fishing. She caught a rainbow trout, but, to her, a big part of fishing is splashing around and getting muddy, and if it makes her happy, it makes me happy. :)

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Update 5. I've added a Pay Pal Tip Jar, per the feedback I received. It was actually pretty simple. I've posted directions on How to add a Pay Pal Tip Jar to your website.

Tip Jar

Now, if there were just some way I could test the PayPal Tip Jar to see if it works... ;)

Continue reading "Marine has farewell dinner with family before shipping off to Iraq. Stranger picks up the tab."

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 29, 2005 at 9:57 PM | Permalink

July 28, 2005

London Police lied about the man they murdered in an underground station.

Remember when the London plain-clothes police chased the guy into the underground station and shot him seven times in the head and once in the shoulder? In the frenzied aftermath of their kill, Scotland Yard claimed that he "wore a bulky jacket" and "jumped the barrier when police identified themselves and ordered him to stop." The same day the Met commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, said the shooting was "directly linked" to the unprecedented anti-terror operation on London's streets.

Well, it was all lies. Surprise, surprise. As it turns out, he was an "electrician, on his way to a job in north-west London". Instead of jumping the turnstyle, he "used a travel card". Instead of a "bulky jacket", he was wearning a "jean jacket".

One armed officer involved has been given leave, and two have been moved to non-firearm duties. Of course, that won't bring the innocent victim back to life. Spin Dry says It's Okay, He was brown.

Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes, indeed. RIP Jean Charles de Menezes.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 28, 2005 at 1:54 PM : Comments (10) | Permalink

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest - San Jose State's Bad Writing Contest

As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.

Dan McKay
Fargo, ND

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, also known as the Bad Writing or Dark and Stormy Night Contest, is an international literary parody. The competition honors the memory of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). Entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words "It was a dark and stormy night."

The contest began in 1982 as a quiet campus affair, attracting only three submissions. This response being a thunderous success by academic standards, the contest went public the following year and ever since has attracted thousands of annual entries from all over the world. This year category winners came not just from the United States but from Brazil, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 28, 2005 at 1:34 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

IRA Stands Down - Too late for Robert McCartney

The IRA has decided to officially halt their military campaign to end British rule of Northern Ireland. They plan to continue to end British rule of Northern Ireland, but through non-violent means.

The IRA was recently cast in an embarrassing light after killing Robert McCartney in a barroom brawl. Initially, they claimed that the killing was an IRA matter, but later, admitted that he had been killed because his friend made "an insulting gesture or comment to a woman in their company".

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 28, 2005 at 11:41 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Woman in bathing suit falling through bubbles

I have no idea what this is, but it's pretty funny.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 28, 2005 at 10:52 AM : Comments (2) | Permalink

July 27, 2005

Man dies after anal sex with horse

"Well, officer, you're not going to believe this, but I was walking across the pasture and I saw a quarter on the ground, and I bent over to pick it up and..."

A Seattle man died after engaging in anal sex with a horse at a farm suspected of being a gathering place for people seeking to have sex with livestock, police said Friday.

The horse involved in the incident was not harmed, and an autopsy of the unnamed man concluded that “the manner of death was accidental ... due to perforation of the colon,� a police spokesman said.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 27, 2005 at 1:02 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Pit Bull vs. Porcupine photos

It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog. This is a photo of a Terrier that got into an altercation with a porcupine. A Pit Bull Terrier, to be exact. Here's the other photo.

I think it says a lot about a Pit Bull. A Pit Bull knows that you can never walk away from a fight. Never back down. Never surrender. Never say die. You may look at this photo and think the dog got the worst of the fight, but we haven't seen the photo of the porucpine. I seriously doubt he survived the encounter. The Pit Bull believes in victory at all costs. If you look closely, you can see his eye peeking through the quills. I bet anything he's thinking "What are you looking at? You see something funny? You wanna make something of it?"

Update: According to Snopes, the original post of these photos is here. Apparently, the porcupine lived. Go figure.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 27, 2005 at 9:54 AM : Comments (17) | Permalink

July 26, 2005

The Tragedy of the Commons

In 1968, Garrett Hardin postulates some theories for explaining how people act in their own self interest, but to the detriment of mankind as a whole, when dealing with a resource that is shared in common. The Tragedy of the Commons indicates that, in many of these situations, no technical solution exists. His thesis is, in many ways, fundamentally flawed. For instance, he states:

Population, as Malthus said, naturally tends to grow "geometrically," or, as we would now say, exponentially. In a finite world this means that the per-capita share of the world's goods must decrease. Is ours a finite world?

Well, no. Ours is not a finite world. It's not a Zero Sum Society, where, for every economic winner, there has to be an equal and opposite loser. Consider a program like Microsoft Windows. Writing one copy is labor intensive, but producing a second copy is free. So, in theory, wealth can be created out of thin air by creating more copies of the same software. Who is the loser in this? No one.

But, if you can get negotiate around his erroneous assumptions, Hardin does posit a few intruiging ideas.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 26, 2005 at 3:51 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Woman molested by TSA agent fights back

The TSA apparatchiks routinely perform illegal, Orwellian searches at our airports, in clear violation of the 4th Amendment. When one TSA apparatchik fondled Phyllis Dintenfass's breasts, Phyllis decided she'd had enough and she fought back.

Dintenfass testified that she reacted out of instinct.

“I said, ‘I don’t like you feeling me up.’� Dintenfass testified. “She said, ‘I’m not feeling you up.’ I told her, ‘My husband’s been feeling me up for 40 years. I know what that feels like when someone’s feeling me up.’

“I felt violated. … She wouldn’t stop.�

Dintenfass denied that she shoved Gostisha, but admitted to putting her hands on the agent’s breasts.

“I was mortified that I had done that,� she said. “I was reacting to what felt like an absolute invasion of my body.

“I knew nothing had buzzed, so I had no idea why she was touching my breasts.�

Of course, now she's facing federal charges, so no doubt she'll be put away for a long time. Hopefully, the jury understands their right of jury nullification, but it's doubful.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 26, 2005 at 12:29 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

July 25, 2005

Saturn's Kilometric Radiation Radio Emissions

I played this audio track recorded by the Cassini spacecraft of some radio emissions from Saturn, similar to the Earth's radio emissions associated with the Northern lights. Now, granted, the geeks at NASA have speed up the audio, and shifted the frequencies, etc., but it does sound spacey. Sounds a lot like Pink Floyd - "Saucerful of Secrets" or "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". Check out the audio if you get a second...it's only about a minute long.

Saturn is a source of intense radio emissions, which have been monitored by the Cassini spacecraft. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet. These auroras are similar to Earth's northern and southern lights. This is an audio file of radio emissions from Saturn.

The Cassini spacecraft began detecting these radio emissions in April 2002, when Cassini was 374 million kilometers (234 million miles) from the planet, using the Cassini radio and plasma wave science instrument. The radio and plasma wave instrument has now provided the first high resolution observations of these emissions, showing an amazing array of variations in frequency and time. The complex radio spectrum with rising and falling tones, is very similar to Earth's auroral radio emissions. These structures indicate that there are numerous small radio sources moving along magnetic field lines threading the auroral region.

Time on this recording has been compressed, so that 73 seconds corresponds to 27 minutes. Since the frequencies of these emissions are well above the audio frequency range, we have shifted them downward by a factor of 44.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio and plasma wave science team is based at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/cassini/.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Iowa

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 25, 2005 at 10:47 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Only terrorists target innocent citizens?

What would you call a group of combatants that didn't belong to a single country, but instead was cobbled together from fighters from various countries? That dressed themselves in their enemies uniforms? That deliberated attacked civilians...non-combatant women and children? What would you call a country that deliberated sent hundreds of thousands of noncombatants to their untimely deaths in a series of horrific firestorms? If you guessed the Allies in WWII, you're right!

"Perhaps the next time round the way to do it will be to kill women, children and the civilian population." - Winston Churchill

Continue reading "Only terrorists target innocent citizens?"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 25, 2005 at 6:43 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

1945 GMC DUKW for sale

**************** THE DUKW HAS BEEN SOLD. IT WAS SOLD IN 2017. ****************
For Sale: 1945 GMC DUKW. This is the only running-swimming DUKW for sale in North America. 100% bone-stock original DUKW, delivery date July 1945. Hull is in good condition. Original engine and drive train. Starts easily. Doesn't burn any oil. Excellent brakes. Specifications. 32 feet long. 8 1/2 feet wide. 10 feet tall. 6 wheel drive. .50 caliber machine gun. 20,000 pound winch. And a propeller.

**************** THE DUKW HAS BEEN SOLD. IT WAS SOLD IN 2017. ****************

Included with the DUKW are the following:

• Original Tire inflation system
  
• Original DUKW anchor
  
• Original DUKW steering wheel
  
• Original Top bows (rear)
  
• Original cockpit top bow
  
• Original surf shield
  
• Original set of swim skirts
  
• .50 caliber machine gun ring, legs, cradle, and trolley
  
• .50 caliber machine gun(non-firing replica)
  
• Cockpit Canvas
  
• Hand woven hemp rope bumpers
  

**************** THE DUKW HAS BEEN SOLD. IT WAS SOLD IN 2017. ****************

Included spare parts:

• Spare transfer case
  
• Spare engine (GMC 302 military factory rebuilt)
  
• Six blade radiator fan
  
• Spare driveline boots
  
• Six spare rims/tires
  
• Spare set of tire inflation hubs
  

**************** THE DUKW HAS BEEN SOLD. IT WAS SOLD IN 2017. ****************

DUKW is titled, registered, and located in Morrison, Colorado, USA. Sea trials can be arranged for serious buyers. Price: $50,000.00. See a video of the DUKW for sale. For more information, email PeenieWallie at wispertel.net.

**************** THE DUKW HAS BEEN SOLD. IT WAS SOLD IN 2017. ****************

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 25, 2005 at 1:41 PM : Comments (69) | Permalink

John Roberts - Come on down!

Supreme Court Justice nominee John Roberts faces some tough questions from the Democrats, but probably none of them will be as tough as these.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 25, 2005 at 12:44 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Inmate accidentally kept in prison for half a century

An inmate in the Indian judicial system was lost in the red tape, and ended up being incarcerated for over 50 years, without ever being charged with a crime. Eventually, he was released after paying a fine of 2 cents.

Strangely, even his relatives and family members forgot about Machang Lalung.

Last year, local human rights activists brought Machang's case to the attention of the National Human Rights Commission, which took up the case immediately and sought his release.

He was finally freed last week after paying a token personal bond of one rupee (two cents).

Supreme Court Justice nominee John Roberts was unavailable for comment.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 25, 2005 at 10:17 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 24, 2005

Boy attacked by bear in Colorado campsite

A fifteen year old boy was attacked by a black bear while camping just 15 miles southwest of Denver on July 20th, 2005. Keelan Patton, the bear attack victim, didn't even have any food in his tent. Yikes.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 24, 2005 at 8:11 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

July 23, 2005

How to make TATP

If you want to know how to make TATP, here's the directions. But be careful. TATP is extremely unstable, and DADP, which is often produced as a byproduct, is horrendously unstable. The Muslim terrorists call this stuff "Mother of Satan" for a reason. Michelle Malkin quotes Jason Smith as incorrectly claiming that TATP is "the most unstable explosive known". If they think TATP is unstable, then they should look into DADP.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 23, 2005 at 9:08 PM : Comments (5) | Permalink

TATP, PETN, and Semtex - Terrorist Playdough

The London Muslim Bombings of 7/7 and failed bombing attempts 7/21 used the extremely unstable plastic explosive TATP("triacetone triperoxide"). TATP is less powerful than plastic explosives, and less stable. But it's a favorite among the terrorists because you can mix up a batch in the bathtub from commonly available ingredients: sulphuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and acetone. The problem is that it's EXTEREMELY volatile, and can detonate from sparks or sudden movement. It's a favorite among Hamas, and a reason they've lost so many suicide bombers prematurely over the years.

Egyptian chemistry student Magdy Elnashar, 33, wanted by police in connection with the 7/7 London bombings was arrested in Cairo. So, this is probably the guy that figured out how to mix the TATP ingredients in a bath tub.

Richard Reid, the failed shoe-bomber, had TATP and PETN in his shoes. PETN, or "pentarythritoltetranitrate", is a high-grade military plastic explosive.

The "sniffers" at the airport only detect certain types of explosives.

Vapor detectors and particle detectors, generally known as sniffers, identify explosives by their particulate or gaseous elements. When properly used, sniffers can assist in the limited detection of a narrow range of explosive compositions, but negative results always require other methods of screening.

A vapor detector can identify volatile explosive compounds that have a high vapor pressure, such as nitroglycerin found in older dynamite made with a formula that has since changed. [snip] However, vapor detectors will miss explosives with a low vapor pressure, such as plastic explosives, PETN, or black powder. In one test I conducted, for example, a vapor detector failed to register a hit for a bottle that was filled with SEMTEC.

[snip]

The second type of sniffer is a particle detector, which looks for trace amounts of chemical compounds that may be found in some explosive devices. These devices analyze the chemical signatures of the substances present on a package. The technology works on the premise that if a person has been handling explosives, their hands will be contaminated with residue, which will then be transferred to the package. Samples are collected either through a vacuum hose or with swipe pads, gloves, and cards. The sample is placed into the particle detector, which heats up the substance and displays the results on the system's small monitor.

These instruments ... are ideally suited for detection of postblast explosive residues, and have been helpful in investigations like the World Trade Center and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombings. Particle detectors have also been used with marginal success to sample rooms where suspected terrorists have developed an explosive device.

[snip]

These instruments are best at identifying rarely used explosive compounds such as RDX, PETN, HMX, NG, TNT, DNT, and some bulk nitrate explosives. Most bombings in the United States consist of pipe bombs filled with smokeless or black powder, which particle detectors are currently incapable of identifying. In rare circumstances, however, the particle detector may detect nitrates present in high quantities.

Well-sealed explosives may not be identified by the particle detector. Also, because the device requires operators to vacuum or swipe packages, the suspect items are subject to handling forces that may cause them to explode. For example, to collect valid samples with the vacuum model, the nozzle must have good contact with the surface of the package. Vacuum systems that do not make contact with the surface are ineffective.

Although unlikely, the vacuum hoses may cause a sufficient amount of static electricity discharge to initiate a bomb's firing components or explosive compounds.

So, apparently, the sniffers at the airport might be able to detect PETN, RDX, and Semtex(Semtex is made of PETN and another plastic explosive known as RDX). But TATP and black powder can't be detected by the "sniffers" in the airports. So, keep that in mind next time you go to the airport.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 23, 2005 at 8:17 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

The Patriot Act violates the constitution

The Patriot Act is anything but patriotic. Get the facts here.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 23, 2005 at 6:41 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

London police murder innocent citizen

Ooops. Sorry. In the nervous aftermath of the London Muslim bombings of 7/7 and 7/21, London police shot an innocent man to death as he ran down into the subway.

A lot of what we're faced with here is a problem of numbers. No one would disagree that, if a terrorist is standing there with an armload of plastic explosives, then he deserves to die. But, the reality is, that when you bring in police to search people, and give them the shoot-to-kill powers, they're going to seach millions of innocent people, and kill many innocent people, and probably never come into contact with a single terrorist. Remember, when the subways were completely unguarded, they went a hundred years without being attacked.

The same problem holds for the disaster of 9/11. Although lots of people said we should have shot the planes out of the sky on 9/11, the reality is, that if you start shooting commercial aircraft out of the sky because you can't communicate with them and they're off course, you're going to kill way more people than the terrorists ever would.

Having police in the subway stations is about as effective as when we had the National Guard guarding the Golden Gate bridge. More often than not, they were asleep in their trucks. Not that you could blame them though, because the odds of any one place getting attacked at any point in time are so absurdly low, that you'd fall asleep if you were guarding it, too. It's boring.

As for my own personal proection, I really don't see the terrorists as a threat to my safety, with or without the police. The number of people that the terrorists have killed(in a world of six billion people) is statistically insignificant. Logically, I focus my attention on the true threats to my safety. And I don't live my life in fear. I do not change my life based on the actions of a few insane muslims.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 23, 2005 at 4:04 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

The TSA lied and violated the Privacy Act

The Government Accountability Office(GAO) has reported that the TSA lied to the American citizens and illegally used sensitive private information about travelers, in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, which prohibits the government from compiling information on people without their knowledge.

The TSA collected the information for their brainchild called "Secure Flight", a draconian, massively intrusive, Orwellian screening operation to check people against a "Terrorist Watchlist". The Terroist Watchlist, is as flawed as it is reviled. Even the murderous Senator Ted Kennedy ended up on the Terrorist Watchlist. Although I'm reasonably sure that Mary Jo Kopechne was laughing in her tomb, he wasn't intentionally put on the list.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 23, 2005 at 3:09 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Drag and Drop European geography quiz

How well do you know your European geography? This drag-and-drop map of Europe isn't easy.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 23, 2005 at 12:45 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 22, 2005

Mulsim terrorists wanted for London bombings of 7/21

Here's the photos of the Muslim terrorists wanted in connection with the London subway and bus bombings of 7/21/05.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 22, 2005 at 2:25 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 21, 2005

New York City Police begin illegal searches in subways

The police in New York City started illegally searching people in the subways in clear violation of the 4th amendment. There's a surprise, right? They were already illegally searching people in the airports. It was only a matter of time.

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik said on Fox News "we need more security, we need more surveillance, we need technology, we need dogs" on the U.S. rail system. He wants to "check out" people carrying "a large backpack or package".

In a related story, Bush said of terrorists today "...they don't understand our country though. They don't understand that when it comes to the defense of universal freedoms, this country won't be frightened."

Does anyone else see the irony in this? What "universal freedoms" is he referring to? The freedom to be searched against our will? Thanks a lot. Where are the Cecilia Beaman's of the world now? Where's the eternal vigilance?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 21, 2005 at 7:16 PM : Comments (4) | Permalink

Australian Prime Minister John Howard comments on terrorism

Trey Jackson has a video of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's comments when a reported had the audacity to suggest that London was attacked because England was in Iraq. Here's the text of his comments.

Can I just say very directly, Paul, on the issue of the policies of my government and indeed the policies of the British and American governments on Iraq, that the first point of reference is that once a country allows its foreign policy to be determined by terrorism, it's given the game away, to use the vernacular. And no Australian government that I lead will ever have policies determined by terrorism or terrorist threats, and no self-respecting government of any political stripe in Australia would allow that to happen.

Can I remind you that the murder of 88 Australians in Bali took place before the operation in Iraq.

And I remind you that the 11th of September occurred before the operation in Iraq.

Can I also remind you that the very first occasion that bin Laden specifically referred to Australia was in the context of Australia's involvement in liberating the people of East Timor. Are people by implication suggesting we shouldn't have done that?

When a group claimed responsibility on the website for the attacks on the 7th of July, they talked about British policy not just in Iraq, but in Afghanistan. Are people suggesting we shouldn't be in Afghanistan?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 21, 2005 at 7:03 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Los Angeles Times liberal editor resigns!

John S. Carroll, the bleeding heart, translucent, liberal editor of the Los Angeles Times resigned today. Thousands rejoiced. These urban dead-tree newspaper vermin are getting their hats handed to them by the internet blogs, and, as a result, readership is falling. Advertising is falling. They're reeling from the juggernaut of alternative news on the radio, Fox news, and now the blogs on the internet. Yahoo! Reap it you lousy b@st@rds. No one wants to read your liberal drivel any more. Reap it!

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 21, 2005 at 6:49 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Millions flock to World of Warcraft MMORPG

Millions of people have fled the anonymity of meat-space reality for the excitement of a virtual life inside a new video game by Blizzard Entertainment called World of Warcraft. Released on June 7th, 2005, just six weeks later, Blizzard has announced that they have 3.5 million people playing the game across the globe. If that isn't sad, then I don't know what is.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 21, 2005 at 11:45 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

1,196 pound Tiger Shark caught off Martha's Vineyard

Some guys caught a 1,196 pound tiger shark off of the coast of Martha's Vineyard in the local annual shark fishing rodeo. Unfortunately, they were six minutes late getting it back to the dock at Oak Bluffs.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 21, 2005 at 10:19 AM : Comments (2) | Permalink

The 7/21 Muslim London Bombings

Two weeks to the day after the Muslim London Bombings of 7/7, the lunatics are at it again. The Counterterrorism blog has the story.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 21, 2005 at 10:00 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 20, 2005

Debugging Trackback problems with MovableType and MySQL

I'm having a problem with MovableType where a trackback does not appear. It passed through the MT-Blacklist and SpamLookup filters, and was approved, but has no text, and dose not appear in the html under the "trackback" anchor. So, I'd like to add some text to the trackback, but Movable Type doesn't allow me to do this. So, I'm going to look into MySQL database to see if I can find where the trackback entries are stored and update the text there.

Continue reading "Debugging Trackback problems with MovableType and MySQL"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 20, 2005 at 10:53 AM | Permalink

July 19, 2005

John Roberts to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

OK. OK. So, it looks like Bush has chosen John Roberts to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Why can't I find a word about where he stands on the following to issues:
1) Does he understand that the 2nd Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms?
2) Does he understand that the consititution was not meant to be a "Living Document"?
3) Does he understand that the 9th ammendment has to give individuals certain "unenumerated rights" or they wouldn't have written it?
4) Does he understand that the Constitution is "in Exile", because the Supreme Court Justices have eviscerated our Bill of Rights and stained the jurisprudence by treating the Constitution as a "Living Document" and legislating from the bench?

Anyone with information on John Robert's views on these three issues please post comments ASAP!

Update. Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has lots of links on John Robert's nomination. Michelle Malkin has a roundup of links on the nomination as well.

Roberts also displayed what some viewed as insouciance toward arroyo toads in a 2003 case, Rancho Viejo v. Norton. Roberts wanted the full D.C. Circuit to reconsider a panel's decision that upheld a Fish and Wildlife Service regulation protecting the toads under the Endangered Species Act. Roberts said there could be no interstate commerce rationale for protecting the toad, which, he said, "for reasons of its own lives its entire life in California."

The Truth Laid Bear is also all over it.

SCOTUS Nomination Blog has a post about Robert's position on the 4th Amendment. I take it to mean Robert's doesn't give a flip about the 4th Amendment.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 19, 2005 at 7:40 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Iraqi Bill of Rights creates a socialist dystopia in the desert

A draft copy of the Iraqi Bill of Rights has been leaked and translated into English. Unfortunately, after reviewing it in its entirety, I can safely say that this regime will fail, and fail miserably, for a variety of reasons. This "Bill of Rights" is a blueprint for a "cradle-to-grave" socialist regime that would make Hillary Rodham salivate with envy. Under this charter, the government is responsible for economic growth, education, and providing security to a disarmed, emasculated population.

In place of our 2nd amendment, they get this watered-down mumbo-jumbo:

"Article 23, Clause 3 - Citizens may not own, bear, buy, or sell weapons, except by a permit issued in accordance with law."

It's basically what our constitution would look like if you handed a blank sheet of paper to a bunch of weak-kneed Democrats like Hillary Rodham, Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, Diane Feinstein, and Robert Byrd, and asked them to draw up a new Constitution and Bill of Rights. It's a recipe for a socialist regime. A dystopian society doomed to fail.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 19, 2005 at 5:05 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Speed cameras cause increase in road fatalities

England has suspended the installation of additional speed cameras, due to an increase in fatalities where they were installed. The reason? Because people are focused on their speedometers instead of on the road. Go figure.

According to the MCN figures...Hertfordshire saw a 24 per cent rise in speed camera numbers between 2003 and 2004. In the same period, road fatalities rose by 34 per cent.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 19, 2005 at 3:59 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Apple's Video iPod courting Disney

Apple is coming out with a new unit called the 'Video iPod', and it looks like they want it to do more than just play music videos. They're apparently in negotiations with the criminals at Brave New Disney World to provide content. Although Apple will be quick to cower before their masters at WIPO, the MPAA, and the RIAA, the hackers are never far behind. ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 19, 2005 at 11:33 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Bicyclists die en masse like preternatural Lemmings

What's alarming is not that these cyclists in Germany were killed, but that people were surprised they were killed. It's an absurd travesty that they're allowed to use the roads at all. The poor girl that killed them should sue the state for allowing cyclists on the roads.

Bicyclists all over the world betray an alarming propensity to ride their bikes on roads that were designed for automobiles. This suicidal behavior is difficult to comprehend. On roads where automobiles can travel at speeds of 50, 60, or even 70 miles per hour, for some reason, people feel compelled to pedal bicycles uphill at speeds of 2-3 miles per hour.

Continue reading "Bicyclists die en masse like preternatural Lemmings"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 19, 2005 at 10:35 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Ebonics - The linguistic shackles of San Bernardino

The mental dwarfs of Oakland laid an egg in 1996 when they unleashed the specter of Ebonics on the world. Now, nearly a decade later, the nimrods at San Bernardino City Unified School District, ever anxious to placate the masses, have decided to incorporate Ebonics into a new school policy that targets black students.

"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe," Texeira said. "For many of these students Ebonics is their language, and it should be considered a foreign language. These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language."

Uhlowin blaks ta speek Ebonics do not be the bess solusun. It be's only serve ta ferther isholate dem from the private sektur. Wud u wana hIr sumon dat kaint rede or rite kurectly? Den u kin see whi dis bees a bad id.

However well-intended their actions, the school board has made a critical mistake in formalizing Ebonics into a curriculum. Ebonics is/are/be the linguistic shackles of a new generation of slaves, shunting anguished pupils into the servitude of minimum wage careers.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 19, 2005 at 9:44 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 18, 2005

ACLU Sues FBI over surveilance of Bush critics

The ACLU has sued the FBI alleging that "the FBI has engaged in a pattern of political surveillance against critics of the Bush administration".

The FBI has in its files 1,173 pages of internal documents on the American Civil Liberties Union, the leading critic of the Bush administration's anti-terror policies, and 2,383 pages on Greenpeace, an environmental group that has led acts of civil disobedience in protest over the administration's policies, the Justice Department disclosed in a court filing earlier this month in federal court in Washington.

Unleashing the the FBI tyrants to monitor innocent american citizens is a bad idea. It's such a bad idea, that it was made illegal, due to their outrageously, flagrant, illegal atrocities against the civil rights groups back in the 1960's. The FBI's COINTELPRO - Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panthers should serve as a warning to the dangers of abuse of this notorious federal cancre. J. Edgar Hoover, the Black Panther party "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country". The FBI's wrath was expressly directed against such leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokley Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Maxwell Stanford, and Elijah Muhammad.

Continue reading "ACLU Sues FBI over surveilance of Bush critics"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 18, 2005 at 3:11 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

iPod Flea - The world's smallest MP3 player

First, Apple made the "iPod" mp3 player. Then, they produced a smaller verision called the "iPod mini". In January of 2005, they produced the pocket-sized "iPod Shuffle". Now, Apple has produced the world's smallest mp3 player, the "iPod flea". You'll be itching to use it.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 18, 2005 at 2:23 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 16, 2005

Colorado Mosquito Range photographs

I stumbled across some cool photos of the Mosquito Mountain Range of Summit County, Colorado. These aren't your prototypical dullard public-service images. They're pretty slick. They also have cool images from all over the world.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 16, 2005 at 8:40 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 15, 2005

PETA asks Fishkill to change name

PETA has renewed their call for Fishkill, New York to change their name to something more animal friendly. They attempted this same stunt ten years ago. This, in spite of the fact that Fishkill was not originally intended to mean "kill fish". The Dutch originally settled the area, and "kill" is Dutch for "stream". So, it translates literally as "fish-stream".

Resident Willa Skinner, the town historian, said the area has been known as Fishkill since it was first settled.

"I don't know what's the matter with these people," Skinner said. "I think they don't mind a lot of ridicule.

"What about the other kills, like Otterkill, Beaverkill, Catskill?" she wondered.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 15, 2005 at 10:41 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Brave New Disney World fingerprints visitors

Welcome to the Brave New Disney World where even children entering theme parks must be fingerprinted. They had already been searching people that entered the park after 9/11. So, we won't be going back to Disney World, because that's not the way I want Jennifer to grow up. They don't have the right to search us when we enter, nor do I believe that we're any safer due to the illegal searches any way.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 15, 2005 at 10:22 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Karl Roved Fired by President Bush for leak to Robert Novak

Karl Rove, the petulant White House strategist, was fired by President Bush for leaking information to Robert Novak. That's right. Peenie Wallie breaks another story wide open. Only, this happened 13 years ago. And it was President George Bush the First. So, it's sort of interesting that Rove and Novak have this history.

I don't really care about parsing all of the statements made over the Plame affair. Don't really care about whether Rove technically violated the law in outing Valerie Plame. I'm just glad that he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, after repeated denials by Scott McLellan, the White House spokesman.

Bush should fire him, just like his daddy did. Then Rove can come back in a few years and breathe life into Jeb's campaign, and, who knows? Maybe Jeb will get a chance to fire him too. Love him or hate him, Karl Rove is a political genius, and Jeb would be a fool to run for office without him.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 15, 2005 at 5:43 PM : Comments (8) | Permalink

July 14, 2005

Osama Bin Landen's 'Letter To America'

I personally hope that Task Force 121 catches this vermin, drives bamboo shoots under his fingernails, hangs him upside down like Mussolini, and pours pig fat over his putrified carcass. However, I always want to hear the opposing viewpoint's side, now matter how vehemently I may disagree with them.

Having said that, here is the full text of Osama bin Laden's "letter to the American people". The letter first appeared on the internet in Arabic and has since been translated and circulated by Islamists in Britain.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, "Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory" [Quran 22:39]

Continue reading "Osama Bin Landen's 'Letter To America'"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 14, 2005 at 4:50 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Hillary assails children's video games

Not to be outdone by her socialist comrade Tipper Gore and the house-slaves in the PMRC, Hillary Rodham as announced that the federal government needs to step in and regulate children's video games. Now, none of this comes as a susprise to me, as she's widely known to be an elitist cradle-to-grave Democrat. My question to her is, consitituion aside, (she's shown no deference to it up to this point), what does she think people should be able to do? As in, in her world, what is there that the federal government should NOT regulate? Anything?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 14, 2005 at 3:57 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Howard Fineman: The Plame Game

This 2003 web article by Howard Fineman is as unbiased as it is illuminating. It splays the sordid Plame Affair in lucid detail, going all the way back to Bush I's regime and Iraq's rape of Kuwait. He lays out the genesis of the rift between the CIA and the White House, and the real reason that Valerie Plame was exposed as a CIA mole.

On the outing of Joe Wilson's wife Valerie Plame:

I am told by what I regard as a very reliable source inside the White House that aides there did, in fact, try to peddle the identity of Joe Wilson’s wife to several reporters. But the motive wasn’t revenge or intimidation so much as a desire to explain why, in their view, Wilson wasn’t a neutral investigator, but, a member of the CIA’s leave-Saddam-in-place team.

On Karl Rove:

There are those who clearly want to finger Rove as the mastermind of the leaks, even though, through spokesmen, he flatly denies that he was involved. But while he is universally admired for his brilliance, he has generated much jealously by essentially gathering all the reins of political power in his own hands. Democrats loathe him, which is to be expected. But many Republicans, especially on the Hill, don’t like him much, either. He’s just too powerful. If they can rat him out, they will—never mind that Bush would be lost without him.

On the White House arrogance:

Bush preaches humility, and believes it is a cardinal virtue. But some of the people around him honor it in the breach. If it can be proved that they did, in fact, leak Mrs. Wilson’s name and job, they committed an act of arrogance—and political stupidity. You’d think that the Bush White House would know an essential lesson of presidential survival in Washington: You don’t pick a fight with the CIA. Nixon learned the consequences of doing so; Bush One, a former director of the CIA, could have explained it to his son.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 14, 2005 at 3:24 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

UN attempts hostile takover of the internet

The United Nations continues their alarming attempt to wrest control of the internet from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Their formal proposal will be released from their illegal world headquarters in New York on July 18th, but it's clear that they want to control the internet. We need to get out of the United Nations, and get the United Nations out of the United States.

Link to previous article about the UN attempts to commandeer the internet and their world gun ban agenda.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 14, 2005 at 1:05 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes

Why are we so quick to allow the construction of massive networks of cameras (and now microphones) in our cities? I'd argue that they're fairly well useless. They certainly didn't save the lives 50+ people that died in the horrific Muslim terrorist bombings of 7/7 in London. Secure beneath the Watchful Eyes? Well, only if you equate security with death.

Continue reading "Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 14, 2005 at 11:29 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 13, 2005

Plugin error: Can't locate Blacklist/Plugin.pm

I was browsing through my MovableType Activity Log and noticed multiple occurences of the following error message:

"Plugin error: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mt\plugins\Blacklist\Blacklist.pl Can't locate Blacklist/Plugin.pm in @INC at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\"

I beleive that this was caused by installing the SpamLookup plugin, and editing the MT.cfg file. In any event, I found this link which seems to indicate a potential solution.

So, I modified line 20 of my Blacklist.pl as follows:

Before:
use lib 'plugins/Blacklist/lib';

After:
use lib 'C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\mt\plugins\Blacklist\lib';

Note that I'm running XP, so this is the fully-qualified path format for Windows. If you're running Linux, the format would obviously be different. I'm hoping this solves the problem. Here's a link to my earlier notes on installing MT-Blacklist and SpamLookup.

Update: This appears to have solved the problem. :)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 13, 2005 at 11:27 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

The Virtues of Rednecks

When the self-appointed defenders of minority rights called for open season on the non-urban white american male, they didn't count on Fred Reed. The media elite lambaste the flyover country rednecks with derisive epithets they wouldn't dare apply to blacks or jews or women. Fred Reed's screed on rednecks vs. the psudeo-intellectual ivy-league urban filth that infect our cities is right on the money:

Now, if an asteroid hit Boston, which would be a good idea, and all the International Safeways and designer-cheese stores went tits-up, and the repair shops and gas stations that do things for all that human okra up there that needs someone else to water it, and if people had to take care of themselves like grownups…how long do you think the English department at Cornell would last?

Too long, yes. Maybe minutes. Think of it: Five hundred BMWs descending on the drug stores, people squealing and clawing and snatching out eyeballs to steal the last Prozac. Why, they couldn’t live without sour white wine not nearly as good as Ripple and those cheeses with names like Chartreuse. A week later they’d be eating their lawns. (I don’t oppose this, understand. I’d sell tickets.)

Read Fred's defense of the last safe ethic group that the media has deemed the whole thing at Fred Reed's blog.

Update: Corrected links.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 13, 2005 at 10:42 AM : Comments (3) | Permalink

July 12, 2005

Task Force 121: Hunting Bin Laden

Led by former Seal William McRaven, Task Force 121 is the ultimate special forces group. They're the group that was tasked with capturing Sadam Hussein. Now that they captured Hussein, they're currently on the hunt for Bin Laden.

Rotten.com describes Task Force 121 as:

Task Force 121 may end up being the Bush Administration's major contribution to posterity. A division of the Army Special Forces, the force is made up of Delta Force commandos, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, a bunch of shady, well-armed guys from the CIA and miscellaneous action heroes from various countries.

No one knows what Task Forces 1 through 120 are up to these days, but Task Force 121 was created out of Task Force 5 (an special forces unit working in Afghanistan) and Task Force 20 (an Iraq-based special forces unit).

The mission of Task Force 121 is making the world safe for... well, let's call it democracy. The force is assigned to capture or kill "high-value targets" in the War on Terrorism and in the Iraq occupation.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 12, 2005 at 9:22 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Ping failed: HTTP error: 400 URL must be absolute

After modifying the URL's that my blog pings to promote my blog, I kept getting this "ping failed: HTTP error: 400 URL must be absolute" error in my Activity Log in Movable Type 3.17. I ignored for a fairly long time, but it finally bothered me enough that I figured it out. I needed to append "http://" to the front of the URL's that I was pinging. In MovableType 3.17, go to Manage - WEBLOG CONFIG - Preferences - Publicity / Remote Interfaces / TrackBack. For instance, I changed "http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php" to "http://http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php". This corrected the problem. The URL's that I'm pinging now are:

http://ping.blo.gs/
http://www.weblogs.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

Now, I'm not getting the "absolute" errors, but now I'm getting some 404 errors from my pings:

Ping 'http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php' failed: HTTP error: 404 Not Found
Ping 'http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php' failed: HTTP error: 404 Not Found

So, I'm deleting these two for now, as they don't seem to work anyway.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 12, 2005 at 8:30 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Scientists create freak monkey-human chimeras

News.com.au is reporting the following:

Scientists have been warned that their latest experiments may accidently produce monkeys with brains more human than animal.
In cutting-edge experiments, scientists have injected human brain cells into monkey fetuses to study the effects.

Critics argue that if these fetuses are allowed to develop into self-aware subjects, science will be thrown into an ethical nightmare.

Does anyone else notice the striking resemblance to Hillary Rodham, or is it just me?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 12, 2005 at 7:15 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Understanding and creating Technorati tags

I saw this web site had some technorati tags in his blog entry, and it bothered me enough that I decided to look into it.

I'ved tried before to figure out how to crack the Technorati nut. I tried pinging their site with my blog entries, but I always get error messages for my effort. Searching their website for a clue is useless, as their web site bites the big one. (Evenutally, I did find this on their site.) I decided to see if I could figure out how to do it using alternate resources.

I googled the web and found these, which seem promising:
http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/2005/02/technorati-tags-introduction.html

http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2005/02/27/381400.aspx

So, I'm including the following Technorati tag in this post:

<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/peenie+wallie" rel="tag">Peenie Wallie</a>

Peenie Wallie

I'll check back at Technorati later and see if it worked.

Update: I checked at Technorati, and it said it didn't have any "Peenie Wallie" technorati tags, but generated the code I should use to submit a "Peenie Wallie" technorati tag. It differed slightly from my tag, so I modified my tag as follows:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/peenie wallie" rel="tag">Peenie Wallie</a>

Peenie Wallie

Update: OK. Still no dice. It hasn't found my "Peenie Wallie" tag. (Surprise. Surprise.) But, I did find a page on their site that explains how to ping them. It indicates that I should put "http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping" into my MovableType setup of sites to ping. But, I checked under Manage - WEBLOG CONFIG - Preferences, and I'm already configured to ping "technorati.com". So, I'm not clear what the deal is.

So, I sent an email to support@technorati.com asking them what the deal is.

Update: It's working now. It took them a few hours to figure it out, but it's working now. I have a technorati tag. So, the theory is that you should put them in all of your blogs, but I had to figure out how to get them to work at all, first. ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 12, 2005 at 1:13 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Agitated olive-skinned man rummaging in a rucksack

Note to self: If you ever see an "agitated olive-skinned man rummaging repeatedly in a rucksack", it's time to get off the bus.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 12, 2005 at 12:37 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

July 11, 2005

Scott McLellan starts crawfishing on Rove's role in Plame affair

The AP is reporting that Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, has started crawfishing on claims that Karl Rove was not the person that outed Joe Wilson's wife Valerie Plame as a CIA mole. Although McClellan had previously repeatedly denied Rove's involvement, Rove's lawyer's admission that Rove spoke to Matthew Cooper at Time magazine, apparently caused McClellan to start crawfishing(backing up). The Guardian details some of McClellan's public vacillations on the Rove's involvement.

Sept. 29, 2003:
Q: You said this morning, quote, ``The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved.'' How does he know that?
A: Well, I've made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. ... I've said that it's not true. ... And I have spoken with Karl Rove.

July 11, 2005:
Q: Do you want to retract your statement that Rove, Karl Rove, was not involved in the Valerie Plame expose?
A: I appreciate the question. This is an ongoing investigation at this point. The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, that means we're not going to be commenting on it while it is ongoing.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 11, 2005 at 9:34 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

World's ugliest dog

According to Snopes:

Sam, the above-pictured canine, is a 14-year-old pedigreed Chinese crested owned by Susie Lockheed of Santa Barbara, California. In June 2005, Sam won the "World's Ugliest Dog" title at the Sonoma-Marin Fair contest for the third consecutive year.

The Associated Press described Sam thusly:
The tiny dog has no hair, if you don't count the yellowish-white tuft erupting from his head. His wrinkled brown skin is covered with splotches, a line of warts marches down his snout, his blind eyes are an alien, milky white, and a fleshy flap of skin hangs from his withered neck. And then there are the Austin Powers teeth that jut at odd angles.

He's so ugly that even the judges recoiled when he was placed on the judging table . . .

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 11, 2005 at 8:12 PM : Comments (6) | Permalink

ATV Trail Riding in Summit County, Colorado

Went ATV trail riding with Brian and Les in Summit County on July 9th - 10th. They were gracious enough to put me up for the weekend. (Many thanks)

All images are original, 3:2 aspect ratio images shot with a Canon EOS-20D, 17-85mm telescopic zoom lens, with a circular polarizing filter. All images were shot in natural light and have not been retouched or edited in any manner.

This slideshow is a 10 Meg self-playing executable named atv.exe created using Imagematics StillMotion PE Plus. The soundtrack is Chocolate by Snow Patrol. Click here to download the presentation. If you have an Apple, an iMac, or some other type of computer with training wheels, click here to download the Macromedia Flash version. Click here if you need help.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 11, 2005 at 7:16 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 10, 2005

Webster Pass

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 10, 2005 at 4:19 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Hurricane Dennis bears down on coast

Hurricane Dennis was promoted to Category 4 hurrincane, and is threatening Pensacola, Florida, which was devastated by Hurricane Ivan 10 months ago.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 10, 2005 at 9:23 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

250 gold bars stamped U.S. Cavalry discovered in Utah desert?

A man named Scott Taylor is claiming that he stumbled across 250 gold bars stamped "U.S. Cavalry" in Utah's West Desert. The gold bullion would be worth an estimated $100 million dollars. But the gold is reportedly on BLM land, and the BLM isn't making any promises about what he would get from the find, so he isn't telling the BLM where it is.

But his story seems a little far-fetched for Bob Lonsberry.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 10, 2005 at 8:49 AM : Comments (3) | Permalink

July 9, 2005

Mosquito Pass - 13,125 ft

Mosquito Pass crosses the continental divide between Leadville and Fairplay. Going up from Leadville (South) is fairly easy. It's a little more difficult coming up from Fairplay (North). Definitely need 4wd, but not terribly difficult. Medium level of difficulty.

Continue reading "Mosquito Pass - 13,125 ft"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 9, 2005 at 3:45 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

July 8, 2005

Robbers terrorize English serfs

Crime is rampant in the country of England. Street robberies are soaring, and police have been told not to even bother investigating crimes such as burglary, vandalism and assaults unless evidence pointing to the culprits is easily available.

Police blame the dramatic increase in muggings on increased cell phone use.

A man found ablaze in the street, was mortally injured by the flames. The police did not consider the incident suspicious enough to warrant an investigation.

In England, police adivise people who witness a crime to 'walk on by' and the professionals handle it.

The BBC has advised that you are not to yell "help" if you are mugged, but instead yell "call the police".

In a country populated with disarmed victims, a new fad has arisen called "Happy Slapping", where unsuspecting victims are slapped, punched, or assaulted, just for entertainment.

Fresh on the heels of their obviously successful gun ban, the British are now seriously proposing to ban toy guns and sharp knives.

Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer jailed for killing one burglar and wounding another during the seventh break-in at his home, was denied parole. By contrast, the wounded burglar, despite a long string of prior convictions, was paroled after eighteen months and granted public funds to sue Martin on grounds his injured leg kept him from working.

The vice-president of the Superintendents Association insists no change in the law is needed, only better locks. In case of a burglary, he urges families to retreat to a "secure room" there to await police help. On no account are they to arm themselves with anything, or approach the intruder. Someone might get hurt. If that someone is the intruder the resident can be sued by the burglar, and will certainly be prosecuted by the state.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 8, 2005 at 1:42 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Waltham, MA police attack citizen Eric Laverriere

On New Year's Eve, Waltham, MA police entered the home of a private citizen, alleging that someone had thrown bottles at a passing police cruiser. When one of the citizens at the party started videotaping the police, "Officer Jorge Orta ripped the camera from his hands and threw him to the floor".

Eric Laverriere, 25, of Portland, Maine, was taken into protective custody by Waltham police and locked in a cell for nine hours until the effects of the alcohol wore off.

Laverriere is suing the state of Massassachusetts, arguing he had a constitutional right to get drunk on private property as long as he didn't cause a public disturbance. In this assertion, he is certainly correct. This right is guaranteed by the 9th Amendment as an unenumerated right.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 8, 2005 at 10:55 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Montana police ignore U.S. constitution

Montana police have been told to stop "at least one vehicle an hour, whether the driver has done anything wrong or not." So much for the 4th amendment.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 8, 2005 at 5:09 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

London Muslim Bombings of 7/7

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for the Muslim bombings of London of July 7th, 2005.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 8, 2005 at 4:18 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

July 7, 2005

London Muslim Terrorist Bombings - The Second Tragedy

Tragically, innocent people were killed by Muslim Terrorists in London today in the bombings of July 7, 2005. Those responsible should be have their skin peeled from their bodies like a grape and be dragged though the Cargill Salt Flats. They should have bamboo shoots driven under their fingernails and ants pick their bones clean. Then we should pour pig fat over their sun-bleached bones in a public ceremony in the middle of the Piccadilly Circus. Though even this, I fear, wouldn't do justice to the perpetrators of this horrendous crime.

But another tragedy is set to unfold; Responding to the catastrophe in an emotional, knee-jerk, illogical manner that serves to amplify and exacerbate the problem, instead of ameliorating it. And that, unfortunately, is exactly what will happen.

What will happen is that the serfs of England, long ago disarmed and more heavily surveilled than any other nation on Earth, will succumb to even more searches and more surveillance. Unfortunately, all efforts will be in vain, because there will be no logical, honest public debate over the policy. No true cost-benefit of the efforts. As a result of the rush to action, people will be searched before boarding buses and the Tube, but they will be no safer.

People can not be made safer by more surveillance or by more rigorous searches. This is a demonstrable fact. But facts and logic don't prevail when the clarion call to action is "We have to do something!". This is the rallying cry of every half-baked ill-fated idea. What it implies is "We have to do something...even if it doesn't help at all...even if it makes it worse...even if it cripples our national transportation system and makes us no safer...we have to do something."

And that is the next tragedy in the pipeline. The travesty of peddling a false sense of security to the bleating masses in a campaign that will unfold over the upcoming weeks, months, and years.

Continue reading "London Muslim Terrorist Bombings - The Second Tragedy"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 7, 2005 at 4:39 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Tornado video

http://wm.gannett.speedera.net/wm.gannett/ksdk/63005_tornado_kare.wmv

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 7, 2005 at 4:31 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

London terrorist bombing photographs

Photographs from the Muslim extremist attacks of July 7, 2005, on the serfs of London.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 7, 2005 at 3:10 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Colorado cracks down on "road sodas"

Although not many people were aware of it, up until last Sunday, in the state of Colorado, it was legal for the passenger of a motor vehicle to have an open container of alcohol. Someone mentioned this to me earlier this year, and I looked it up, and lo-and-behold, it was accurate. Now, however, all that has changed. We became the last state in the union to enact an open container law on Sunday July 3rd, just in time for our great nation's birthday.

The crime is considered a traffic infraction punishable by a $50 fine and three points on the driver’s license, officials said. Before the enactment of the law, passengers could drink and possess alcohol, but the driver couldn’t. Colorado is the last state in the nation to have an open-container law.

Update: My etymological introduction to the term "road soda" was a direct result of my membership in Northern California Chapter of the Carol Kopko Fan Club. All hail the wise and benevolent Carol Kopko.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 7, 2005 at 1:45 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

How the terrorists win

Now that a few disgruntled radical nut cases have bombed the Tube, there will be a big push to start searching people getting on the subways.

In the midst of a big wave of emotional fear, logic takes a back seat. So, don't be surprised if they start searching people before letting them on the Tube. The sad thing is that this is how the terrorists win. Our society is shut down, our freedoms are restricted, and we are no safer in the end. When the rallying cry is "We have to do something!", then emotion carries the day, and an inchoate solution will be hastily codified into law.

Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail. Searching people when they get on buses and tubes will not make us safer. It will only slow us down and make us sitting ducks.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 7, 2005 at 6:23 AM : Comments (3) | Permalink

July 6, 2005

Virtual Reality Sweatshops

It occurs to me that this could possibly be the worst use of technology imaginable; people toiling away at games in third world virtual sweatshops. It's almost unfathomable that real people spend their days playing a role in some online game to earn a living. Like, nothing really says that we are slaves to the computers more than this does, IMHO. Here's a link to a previous post about this same misguided use of technology in our modern dystopia.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 6, 2005 at 11:21 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Installing Spamlookup plugin for Movable Type

So, now that I've got MT-Blacklist 2.04 beta working with Movable Type 3.17 using Windows, IIS, MySQL, and Perl, I figure that I'll also install the Spamlookup plugin, just for good measure.

So, the latest build can be downloaded here:
http://bradchoate.com/downloads/mtspamlookup-latest.tar.gz

Continue reading "Installing Spamlookup plugin for Movable Type"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 6, 2005 at 9:20 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Overlay GPS Tracks onto USGS Topographical maps

Last year, while ATV'ing in the mountains of Colorado, with Robert's help, I figured out how to upload the tracks from my Garmin eTrex Summit GPS into the computer and overlay them on top of the USGS topo maps. It's actually fairly easy, and it's nice to be able to see exactly where you went, without having any guesswork involved.

Continue reading "Overlay GPS Tracks onto USGS Topographical maps"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 6, 2005 at 7:37 PM | Permalink

July 5, 2005

Installing MT-Blacklist 2.04 beta under Windows XP SP2

MT-Blacklist is a Movable Type plugin to eradicate comment and trackback spam created by Jay Allen. I'm running Movable Type 3.17, so I downloaded the most current version of MT-Blacklist, the 2.04-beta version.

Although the MT-Blacklist_README.txt that is extracted indicates you need to be running "A Unix-based server", this post leads me to believe it will run under Windows XP, as I'm running MT 3.17.

Continue reading "Installing MT-Blacklist 2.04 beta under Windows XP SP2"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 5, 2005 at 9:21 PM | Permalink

July 4, 2005

ATV trip across Kenosha Pass

Lest I disappear for several days, and no one can find me, I'm going to trailer my ATV up to Kenosha Pass. From there, I'm going to attempt to summit North Twin Cone Peak (12,340 feet) in the Lost Creek Wilderness on the ATV. I intend to be back tonight. If I don't post that I survived the ordeal by 11:59 p.m. on Monday July 4th, please send a search party promptly.

Update: I made it back alive.

Continue reading "ATV trip across Kenosha Pass"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 4, 2005 at 3:09 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Bush launches "Preemptive Strike" on innocent comet

Driven by an insatiable appetite for conquest, the Bush regime attacked an innocent comet nearly 100 million miles from Earth in what was described as a "pre-emptive strike" by Bush loyalists.

Donald Rumsfeld pointed out that comets have struck the earth before, wiping out the dinosaurs and plunging the earth into a series of ice ages. Rumsfeld went on to claim that it was "only a matter of time" before this comet struck the earth, and, even it didn't strike the earth, attacking it would serve as a warning to other comets in the region.

Continue reading "Bush launches "Preemptive Strike" on innocent comet"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 4, 2005 at 8:13 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

July 3, 2005

No more Ammonium Nitrate?

A knuckle-dragging Neanderthal is reporting that it looks like Agrium has announced that they have ceased production of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer. Of course, we have Tim McVeigh to thank for all of this. He filled barrels with about 5,000 pounds of Ammonium Nitrate soaked in extremely volatile nitromethane and put them in the back of a yellow Ryder rental truck. Then, he ignited a timed fuse from the front of the truck and parked it in front of the Federal Building in Okalahoma City on April 19th, 1995 (the 2nd anniversary of Waco).

Update: This entry was corrected based on information posted in the comments. Thanks for pointing out the errors, Joe.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 3, 2005 at 11:23 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Happy Birthday...to my DUKW!

My DUKW turns 60 years old this month. The date of delivery was July 1945. So, Robert and I decided to take her down for a splash in the lake. The DUKW is a monstrous beast. If you're not sure what a DUKW is, you can check out a video of my DUKW in action here. (It's the big green 6 wheel drive amphibian.)

We swept out the back with a broom, pulled up all the plywood flooring, and then used the shop vac to clean the hull. Changed the gear oil in all 3 differentials. (The rudder and the propeller should both have a big sign that reads "Warning: Rudder and propeller hurt worse than one might initially suspect. Hurts even worse the second time.") Bled the brakes at the two points on the hydrovac, and bled all six wheel cylinders. Hit all of the zerks with a grease gun. Charged the battery. Filled up the radiator with water and antifreeze. Installed all of the hull drain plugs.

Only then did we realize that the coil had exploded. So, I went out on the web and found a NAPA part number for the 6V DUKW coil (NAPA 29730). Unfortunately, all of the auto parts stores will be closed on the 4th, I'm reasonably sure. Oh well. I figure that, if it was easy, everybody would have one. ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 3, 2005 at 7:50 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

July 2, 2005

The "History of Bud Light" video

This History of Bud Light video is hilarious.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 2, 2005 at 3:27 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Did Karl Rove author the Yellowcake Forgeries?

Now that Karl Rove has been fingered as the source of the leak that exposed Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA mole, one has to wonder why he did it.

ALthough it's true that her miscreant husband Joe Wilson wrote a scandalous column claiming that the U.S. had rushed to war with Iraq on questionable evidence, that's hardly anything new.

No one expects an uber-liberal rag like the New York Times to be objective. It isn't in their nature. Their goal is to tarnish the Bush presidency, by any means necessary.

So why would Rove reach into his bag of tricks and decide to out Valerie Plume as an undercover CIA mole? Why risk that over some limpid, pellucid article by a washed-up has-been former low-level bureaucrat like Joe Wilson?

My guess is that it comes back to the comments surrounding the "memorandum" that Joe Wilson said he never saw. This memorandum has subsequently been widely discredited, and has come to be known as the "Yellowcake Forgery". Could the Yellowcake Forgery turn out to be the work of political mastermind Karl Rove? Stay tuned. My guess is that the heat is about to get turned up on this one.

Rove, after all, is potentially facing some pretty serious charges. He might be chared under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 or, he may face perjury for his testimony before a federal grand jury in October of 2004.

They say that 'what goes around, comes around', and Karl may be in the sights of some pretty vicious Karma. After all, who says you can't have your Yellowcake and eat it too?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 2, 2005 at 1:28 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Karl Rove fingered for outing CIA mole Valerie Plame

In a story with more twists than a West Virginia highway, Karl Rove has been fingered as the leak that outed undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. This story really hasn't reverberated outside the Beltway for a variety of reasons. 1)Most Americans have never heard of Karl Rove 2)or Valerie Plame, 3) they have no and don't know why he outed her. So let's adress these questions briefly:

1) Who is Karl Rove?

Continue reading "Karl Rove fingered for outing CIA mole Valerie Plame"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 2, 2005 at 11:38 AM : Comments (5) | Permalink

July 1, 2005

4th of July Weekend

We got the DUKW running today, then Jennifer asked if we could go fishing, which I thought was an excellent idea. So, we went to Evergreen Lake where Jennifer played while I played with a couple of fishing rods. She wandered along the Summer of the Colorado shoreline, retrieving trash and oddities from the lake, collecting them into a small conspicuous pile. She scaled a stone wall and walked down it and back several times, perched about four feet above the dirt path around the lake. I wanted to tell her "Stop. Get down from there. You'll fall and break your arm." But I didn't say anything. At some point, a child has to grow up. Has to make their own decisions. If you harp on them their whole life, when will they ever find themselves? When will they ever learn to test themselves? So I didn't say anything to her, and she never fell.

She walked down to the water's edge, and then walked into the water wearing her running shoes. But I didn't tell her to get out of the lake. I didn't want to spoil her summer fun. The lake is solid for half the year. What harm could possibly come from getting wet and muddy? Isn't that what growing up is supposed to be like?

I remember my childhood, playing in the pouring rain, getting soaked to the bone. Playing in the mud until we were covered beyond recognition. We'd slink home and mom would make us take our clothes off outside we were so muddy.

So, I didn't bat an eye when she waded into the creek and got her shoes wet. Didn't challenge her when she walked up and down the stone wall, balanced precariously above the ground. These are her salad days, and I'm not going to paint the world as a noir place. The world is here for her to discover. I see it as my role to take her out into the world, not to molly-coddle her and place barbed wire parameters around her life.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 1, 2005 at 9:58 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Democrats bleating about zogby poll

The Democrats are emitting a shrill ear-piercing squeal over the latest Zogby poll. They claim that:

"...more than two-in-five voters (42%) say they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found the President misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq."

Which means that 3 in 5 don't favor impeachment. But, put that aside. The real point is this. The last time I checked, only congress has the power to declare war. This isn't some inadvertent oversight by our forefathers. They did it deliberately. That wanted it to be very hard to go to war. They wanted 2/3 of the senate to have to vote to go to war. What would that entail? Congressional hearings. Honest debate. And did the democrats call for any of that? Nope. Not a bit. They did something different. They basically punted and voted to let the president do whatever he felt was right. So, they blatantly abdicated their congressional responsibility. Granted, their actions probably technically satisfied the watered-down requirements of the still-born War Powers Resolution Act, but it flies in the face of the Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution.

Democrats just want to have it both ways. They want to avoid an intense, and possibly unpopular, political debate about going to war, and then cry foul when they find out they were duped. They slithered out from under a rock and said "Hey. You misled us." Well, Duh! Hussein tried to assassinate his father. What did you think he was going to do when he got into office. Did y'all just fall off the turnip truck?

This is not just disingenuous. This is pathetic. Really sad. You had your chance to stop him from going to war. You had your chance to take a bold and principled stand. To demand proof, and debate the evidence. And what did you do? You punted. So shut you fat mouths and lie in the bed you made you weasels. And, maybe next time a president wants to go to war, you'll follow your congressional mandate and a) demand proof and b)debate the proof and c) demand war. Then, and only then, will you not look like such inept idiots.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 1, 2005 at 3:42 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Pouring pig fat over the bleached bones of the media barons

If we poured pigfat over the sun-bleached skeletons of all the Hollywood media middlemen in a shallow trench down the middle of Hollywood Boulevard, no one would miss them. Movies would still be made. Songs would still be recorded. Artists would earn more money, and a broader diversity of media would be produced. This is intuitively obvious to the casual observer. Somehow, Craig at Bayosphere doesn't get this.

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Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 1, 2005 at 10:34 AM | Permalink

TSA field strips Cecilia Beaman of her rights

Innocent Victim or Unwitting Co-conspirator?

Reason is covering a KOMOTV4 news story about the mental dwarfs at the TSA. Apparently, the TSA recently confiscated a bread knife from a 57 year old woman named Cecilia Beaman. The TSA claimed she was in violation of a "felony", would be placed on the terrorist watch list, and fined $500.00. When she asked for a copy of the charges against her, and a copy of the photo of the bread knife, the TSA refused.

"I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said 'not at this point ... you don't have any'."

Sadly, the TSA right. She has no constitutional rights. Where I diverge from the masses, however, is that I don't believe she deserves any constitutional rights. She is, in fact, a part and parcel of the problem. IMHO, the ignorant huddled masses, uncertain of their constitutional protections, are equally as culpalble as the malevolent agncies to which they're surrendered their rights, like a child returning a book to a library.

Continue reading "TSA field strips Cecilia Beaman of her rights"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 1, 2005 at 8:59 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Truth About Hillary

Blogs Against Hillary is covering , former Congressman John LeBoutillier's observation that Ed Klein's book "The Truth About Hillary" has ascended to 2nd Place on the New York Times Bestseller List, vindicating Ed Klein. This, in spite of the fact that Ed Klein was stonewalled by the MSM. He was not allowed on any TV show except for Hannity and Combes. The Truth About Hillary shows a new path for independent thinkers to get the truth out, bypassing the Liberal media filters of the major newspapers and media outlets. A chink in the liberal's armor, as it were.

(Don't expect it to last, though. Look for the FEC to crack down on political speech on the internet, to button up this "free speech loophole" in the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Law.)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 1, 2005 at 8:14 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink