E-mail Change!

Please take note of my new e-mail address...

Political Predictions

- Hillary will not run for Prez in 2004. She will run for re-election to the Senate in 2006. If she wins, she will run for Prez in 2008. But she will face Rudy in 2006, and it will be a close race...

- Gore will run in 2008.

- Dean will win in Iowa, with Gephardt coming in a distant second.

- Dean will win in New Hampshire, with Clark coming in a surprisingly close second.

- South Carolina will give Clark a victory. Edwards will be humiliated and will drop out. Dean will come in second.

- Bill Clinton will endorse Clark sometime after New Hampshire.

- Hillary will not endorse anyone until the nominee is certain.

- NASDAQ at 2500 is possible before the 2004 election.

- Dow at 11,000 is possible before the 2004 election.

Final Grades

Three "A"s and one "B".

The "B" was in POLI SCI, of all subjects. Damn leftist professor screwed me on my final paper. I get straight "A"s in the entire course, then a 70% on my final paper.

Perhaps I should have painted my topic (leftist quasi-dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez) in a more positive light in order to get a better grade? Maybe. But my conscience is clear. I wonder of my professor's is?

If I'm ever reincarnated...

...bring me back as an ostracod:

"The penis of an ostracod can be as much as a third of the size of its entire body, scientists said."

Long Dong Ostracod? Naw, it just doesn't have a good ring to it...

Hmm

Unusual...

This is friggin' weird...

Read it.

HAHAHA!

Funny!

The Mayor of London

Is a madman.

Interesting List

True US allies.

Note who's missing: Canada and Mexico, our neighbors...

Zorba the Greek

A horrific bigot.

I suggest all decent Americans launch an immediate boycott of gyros and inedible salads.

This is big

IDS, booted.

Today's News

THE END OF THE CONCORDE: A step backward for human civilization.

GO FISH!

Go Google! (The Best search engine on the Web.)

Bush banks in Hawaii.

TOTAL RECALL

Davis, Bustamante completely humiliated at the polls.

BIG NEWS

"Kuwait foils smuggling of chemicals, bio warheads from Iraq"

This may wind up being bogus, but if it's not...

I suspect Belarus was the country due to accept these weapons. Their government is monsterous. What other European nation could possibly be willing to take in such horrors on behalf of Saddam-ite terror-masters?

Today's Random Updates

I'll be going to Orlando tomorrow to go clubbing with Joe and Mike. This is to celebrate my upcoming 26th birthday. Rebekah got fired at work today. I (so far) have "A"s in all my classes this semester. I don't work tomorrow, but I do next Friday.

And then there were ten

Clark officially enters race. Edwards just lost his main advantage (being the "Southern candidate"). [No, Graham doesn't count, because Florida is no more "Southern" than New York...]

"Man nabbed for 'killing, cooking' woman"

Only in Africa.

Johnny Depp

Hates America.

Leftists Attack Arnold

Accuse him of having hang-ups about gays and participating in a "rape".

CA UPDATE

Simon drops out of the recall election.

I would like to amend my previous hopes regarding the events in California. Mr. Ueberroth is not as conservative as I thought. He even opposed Prop 187! Hopefully Ueberroth follows Simon in dropping out, and then they both endorse McClintock.

A three-way race between Arnold, McClintock, and Bustamante would be interesting. You'd have a conservative, a liberal, and a moderate. Arnold (the moderate) would be well-positioned in such a race, but either of the other two candidates could pull off an upset.

Right now, I'm just hoping for anyone but Bustamante. Heck, it would be better for the GOP if Davis survived the recall than if Davis was ousted in favor of his Lt. Gov.

Davis is hugely unpopular. Republicans can use that to their advantage in 2004. It would be harder to demonize a relatively fresh-faced pol like Bustamante.

(As an aside, what's up with the last names of these guys? Ueberroth? Bustamante?? Schwarzenegger??? I'm normally a good speller, but Jesus...)

I Am The King Of All Media

I recently scored an interview with a Republican candidate for Governor in the California Recall Election.

Just call me Dan Rather. On second thought, don't.

California Thoughts

In 2002, Republican voters made a huge mistake in nominating conservative Bill Simon over moderate Dick Riordan. California is a very liberal state, and a right-wing political novice like Simon had little hope of victory in a general election, even against the hugely unpopular Gray Davis. Riordan, with his moderate social views and his experience as mayor of California's largest city (that's LA, folks), could have easily bested the Democrat incumbent.

The situation is different this time, however. A recall election does not require a majority, as it is not essentially a two-way race between two major-party candidates. It's a 135-way race. Presumably, 15% or so of the vote could well be enough to garner the needed plurality. And certainly more than 15% of the registered voters in California are true conservatives.

That's why the GOP leadership could be making a huge mistake by semi-endorsing Arnold for governor. Arnold, though nominally a Republican, is far more liberal than conservative. He may have a huge advantage on election day due to his universal name recognition, but victory is hardly guaranteed. Shouldn't Republican voters cast their ballots for someone who actually sounds like a Republican, instead of someone who just says he is?

I believe the best outcome would be for Simon to drop out and endorse (and campaign for) Peter V. Ueberroth. Ueberroth is an actual conservative with a track record of financial success in executive positions. With the conservative base rallying around a single major candidate, I could see PVU racking up more total votes than either Arnold or Democrat Lt. Governor Cruz M. Bustamante.

Will it happen this way? Of course not. But what's the point of California, if you can't dream?

Saddam's Sons

Both dead.

Instapundit

Here.

Bush Blog

Here.

Blogcritics

Here.

India

Screws us.

Another new gadget!

I bought a Playstation. The original one.

Hey, it was on sale!

KOBE

Arrested.

Good news! Could Shaq be next?

I enter the 21st century...

Finally got a DVD player. And I joined Netflix!

I'm sick

Picked up a bug from Jen the other night. Felt like I was dying yesterday. About 75% right now. Hope to be 90% or better tomorrow, because I have four sales calls to make with some of our biggest accounts. WONDERFUL timing...

Howard Dean

Who needs the Greens when you've got him?

SCHOOL UPDATE

Got 100% on my last Statistics exam. ;-]

Google

Seems to be working a bit better now, but still screwy...

Punch Drunk Love

Funny movie! Worth seeing more than once.

Strom

Dead at 100.

Gray Davis

Toast.

The new Blogger format...

...really sucks. Just to let you know.

BASKETBALL

Nets win, tie series 2-2.

VDH

I love this guy.

Lame

Spike Lee: A victim of "the man"...

Double Shot

Of Mitch Albom.

0-2

Ugh...

Mitch Albom

On the Pistons.

Big Win

Pistons win, will now face the Nets.

PISTONS

Lead the series 3-2. Game six is tomorrow night.

My latest column

Here.

"We need everything. The looters took everything."

The Baghdad Zoo.

STUPID

Wal-Mart stops selling 3 of the best mags around. But they still sell the just-as-racy Cosmo.

Pistons Win!

Face the 76ers in the next round.

Whew!

A little scary at first, but safe at last.

The Pistons

Force Game Seven tomorrow by winning last night.

Progress

In the Middle East.

Pistons

Down 3-1 in the series, but winning Game Five by a 81-57 margin in the 4th Quarter.

Politics

In South America.

Good Deeds

Sometimes they do get rewarded.

Funny!

DWS.

Geez...

This story on the NRA is so slanted, it's almost unreadable. Of course, it comes from the Palm Beach Post, so I shouldn't be surprised.

The Onion

Hilarious.

Ashleigh Banfield

Anti-American Canuck bitch. And kind of a skank, too.

The Shuttle

Grounded until March. At least.

Canada

Funny!

The Enemy

The Red Menace.

PISTONS

Down 1-0.

Blogcritics

My new (brief) column is up. Enjoy.

Stardumb

Great column on the war and celebrities.

The Dead Things

Humiliated in the first round...

Heh...

Check it out.

Injustice

Kill a right-leaning politician in the Netherlands, and you'll be out on the streets again in 11 years.

Funny!

The Wacky Iraqi.

Bush vs. Clinton

Scroll down a bit. 2008 is shaping up to be yet another quasi-rematch of 1992...

GOLDBERG

Here.

A Story That Can Now Be Told

Crimes against humanity in Iraq.

California

Who would make a better Governor: Condi or Arnold?

Phil Hendrie

Blacklisted?

Fidel

As bad as Saddam? Maybe not. But still very, very bad.

Dan Rather

Doesn't like Bush too much...

"Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush!"

LIBERATION!

Target: Saddam

The only question: Did we get him?

Good News!

Another one bites the sand.

Remind me...

...never to get arrested in Honduras.

And I thought Turkish prisons were rough!

Dueling Blogs

Saddam vs. Bush.

Some Canadians Aren't Scum

No, really!

FUN WITH ECONOMICS!

FROM OOKEE:

DEMOCRAT:
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
You vote people into office that put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax.
The people you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbor.
You feel righteous.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.

SOCIALIST:
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

REPUBLICAN:
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

COMMUNIST:
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE:
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE:
You have two cows.
The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE:
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the 2 cows to produce the milk of four cows.
You are surprised when one cow drops dead.
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blonde, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 12 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
You produce your 10th, 5-year plan in the last 3 months.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

TALIBAN CORPORATION:
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
At night when no one is looking, you have sex with both of them.
Then you kill them and claim a US bomb blew them up while they were in the hospital.

POLISH CORPORATION:
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.

FLORIDA CORPORATION:
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best-looking one.

NEW YORK CORPORATION:
You have fifteen million cows.
You have to choose which one will be the leader of the herd, so you pick some fat cow from Arkansas.

Worth Reading

From V. D. Hanson.

33

That's the number of Congresspeople who don't support the troops.

The Derb

On America vs. the World.

Anti-War Leftists Launch Attack On Capitalism!

In London.

Bad Idea #734

Spring Break...in Gaza.

Historic Stuff

A summit in the Azores.

Wanna bet Spain scores some Iraqi oil contracts?

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER

It ain't just the US and the UK that have shown some guts. Don't forget the Aussies.

Sanctuary

A fun place. I had some skank on a balcony toss her panties in my general direction. (No, I did not try to catch them.)

Turkey

From the "Discover the Republic of Turkey" Web site:

EVERYBODY KNOWS TURKEY IS ONE BIG SHITHOLE.
by ROSTAM (no login)
THE QUESTION IS WHAT YOU DO WITH A SHITHOLE. I'LL TELL YOU WHAT YOU DO WITH IT. YOU SHIT AND PISS, YOUR NEIGHBORS AND YOUR ANIMALS SHIT AND PISS. THEN YOU COLLECT ALL THE SHIT IN THE WORLD AND THROW THEM INTO SHITHOLE CALLED TURKEY. THEN YOU LET THE LITTLE GERMS IN THE SHITHOLE CALLED TURKS EAT ALL THE SHIT AND MAKE FERTILIZER. THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO USE TURKIYE[sic].

My thoughts exactly.

GOLDBERG

On Communists.

Chirac

A Saddam-ite from way back.

British Schools To Encourage Oral Sex Between Students

My only question: Will Bill Clinton be teaching the course?

The New York Times

I swear to Christ, this is one of the most disgusting pieces I've read in quite a while. Comparing the raving anti-American Leftists protesting in the streets last weekend to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 is just plain ignorant.

What a fucking joke

The Australian media, pretending Iraq is democratic.

Rummy

His response.

Powell

His response to the French and Germans.

France and Germany

Read this. Read all of it. I couldn't agree more.

Why We Fight, Reason #117

For poor bastards like him.

NASA memo

Report: Seven by thirty inches of damage to wing possible, but danger not considered likely.

BREAKING NEWS FROM ITALY!

Photo shows Columbia's wing with obvious damage!

Washington Monthy

In 1980...

Roger Pielke Jr.

No friend of the shuttle, even before Columbia broke into pieces.

The Washington Monthly

Jesus...

NON-COLUMBIA NEWS

Bush proposes 2.2 trillion dollar budget...

Folks, maybe I'm paranoid. But I'll bet this bit of "news" has something to do with Lieberman's strong polling numbers...

Bob Barr - Still thinks he's politically viable!

Factoid

Columbia's mission was the 113th shuttle mission since the program began in 1981.

Rand Simberg

Shreds Andrew Sullivan for a weak response to the shuttle disaster.

Did you know...

The last time a man set foot on the moon was over 30 years ago, on 12-14-1972?

You know...

The Hanson error I can deal with; this error by John J. Miller (in the very first sentence!) I cannot:

"It's way too soon to know what went wrong with the space shuttle Columbia on Saturday morning, when it disintegrated upon reentry, killing all seven passengers."

Uh, "passengers"? This wasn't a routine Delta flight to the Bahamas; this was a mission beyond the Earth's atmosphere, one that this elite crew trained for continuously for a number of years.

What's up with NRO this morning? Are their editors hung over from all the wild Groundhog's Day parties?

Victor Davis Hanson

From his most recent column:

"What brought down the Columbia over Texas was not, as our enemies in Iraq claim, an angry god, nor, as pessimists allege, nemesis for our imperial hubris — but physics itself and the fact we are quite puny humans after all. After over a decade and a half of nearly 100 routine flights, Americans had almost forgotten the near impossibility of missions that send men and women of mere flesh reentering through the sky 200,000 miles above earth's surface, in thin metal heated to 3,000 degrees, and at Mach-18 speeds."

Yep. Honestly, I still wonder why there aren't more plane crashes. We all need to get a sense of perspective on this.

(By the way, Hanson meant 200,000 feet, not miles...)

UPDATE: This has been fixed. Miller's error, as of now, remains uncorrected...

NASA TO GET BUDGET INCREASE?

If Bush gets his way, yes.

Left in Space

The ISS astronauts: Far from home.

Morning Updates

Bush to attend memorial service.

Officials are still working to ID the remains.

John Glenn has an article in Newsweek.

The future of the manned space program to be debated.

The shuttle disaster, in pictures.

Columbia's computer fought "drag".

Space shuttle FAQ.

More bad news

Shuttle missions, this report suggests, "may be mothballed for years"...

Hmm

Bizarre photos of Columbia taken during re-entry.

More Updates

Remains from all seven found...

TIME

Attacks the space shuttle.

Charred Human Leg

Another gruesome find.

UPDATE FROM AUSTRALIA

Columbia might have been shedding tiles well before it was over Texas...

A grisly discovery

From the article:

"Both men met on the two-lane road about 9 a.m. and realized with horror that they apparently were looking at an astronaut's remains: a charred torso, thigh bone and skull with front teeth intact."

Here's a second link confirming the same finding. How awful.

Noonan

Wonderful, as always.

Columbia Updates

The British press is already blaming the Bush administration and talking about a moratorium.

Here is a brief timeline from MSNBC.

Here are some of the condolences that came from the international community. Oh, and the filth from Iraq.

These are profiles of the crew.

This link is worth a look for the "Fact File" near the middle of the page.

Bush's Statement

A transcript.

Early Speculation

From Instapundit -

"I'M WATCHING THE NEWS CONFERENCE, and it looks like a zipper effect followed by burnthrough and structural damage, leading to the loss of the left wing. They're reporting anomalous heat sensor readings, loss of tire pressure in the main gear on that side, and so on.

"The shuttle can tolerate the loss of a tile or two. But when the integrity of the tile cover is breached, tiles can be pulled off one after another -- hence the term "zipper effect." Then enough heat can penetrate through in sufficient quantity to destroy or weaken what's underneath. This is a well-understood possibility, so expect a quick resolution (by the standards of these kinds of things) if the evidence continues to point this way."

Sounds reasonable.

OOPS...

The WaPo has a pre-written piece still on the Web about a "successful" Columbia mission...

UPDATE: They've finally fixed it...

Russia offers condolences

Here.

What Reagan Said

After the Challenger disaster.

The Iraqi Street

Celebrates.

UPDATE

I am just learning from a NASA press conference that several things occurred just before the shuttle broke up:

-Temperature sensors were lost.

-Tire pressure was lost.

-Excessive structural heating occurred.

Nacogdoches, Texas

The site of the debris field.

No hint of terrorism

Say administration officials.

The Space Station Crew

Might be brought back to Earth via Russian vehicles.

The Space Shuttle

The Columbia is gone.

I had a bad feeling about this launch from the start. And ironically, I was talking about the Challenger incident with my friend last night. This is just horrible.

I wonder if the Palestinians are dancing in the streets.

Bush gave a very emotional address to the nation, and the world. I wonder if the secular radicals will condemn him for mentioning God in his speech.

The Drudge Report is reporting the final contact between NASA and the crew:

"Mission Control: 'Columbia, Houston we see your tire pressure messages and we did not copy your last.'

Columbia: 'Roger, uh, ...' (transmission breaks off after the crew member starts to stay a word beginning with the sound 'buh.')"

I'm watching C-SPAN right now. There is a sickening anti-Israel sentiment being expressed by a number of the callers. There is also a strain of paranoia about supposed terrorist plots. Face it, folks: There is about a 99% chance this was just a horrific accident.

Questions: What happens to the people in the Space Station? Will the scheduled March 1st flight go as planned? Will funding for NASA increase as a result of this?

May the seven all rest in peace.

Time for a new hobby...

This fellow should take up bowling instead.

YES!

Finally, some solid support from Europe!

(Note the two major countries conspicuously missing - France and Germany...)

Weird News

Two Madison, WI gals were arrested Saturday for engaging in sex acts in a store window. Their pictures are here. The one on the left looks nuts. The one on the right looks like she has nuts.

Here is the story of a "botched" penis operation. Read it and wince.

News from Russia - People there have no sense of humor!

The UN - To allow Iraq to chair Conference on Disarmament!

Ann

Smacks the Dems around a little.

Good News!

Bush will oppose the University of Michigan's racially discriminatory admissions policy. Good for him.

The Amish

Online.

BLOGCRITICS

A good site, well worth checking out!