So openminded her brains fell out

I was talking to a young college girl who challenged me: I've heard you say that only Catholics go to heaven.

Oh, I was tempted to roll my eyes. These kids. But I hope I didn't sound sarcastic when I said, "Sure! That's what I think."

She explained to me that I wasn't openminded. In her mind, the way religions should be religious is by not believing anything. So Catholics can't believe they are the only ones in heaven. Neither can Lutherans. Neither can Muslims.

But, I hope I told her, that isn't openminded and that isn't tolerance.

Tolerance is respecting others even though they think they are the only ones in heaven. Tolerance is something you do when confronted with a different belief, not something the believer does.

You can see how this concept is distorted in the neo-liberal mind by just watching Chris Matthews interview Jerry Falwell. It's actually Falwell who absolutely shines with tolerance and acceptance, while Matthews bristles every moment because Falwell believes something he (Matthews) does not!

Emmy plane crash

I'm actually glad the Emmys didn't cancel the plane crash skit. Imagine how revoltingly sanctimonious they would have been in taking it off. A dour voice over: Because of the recent plane crash in timbuktu, The Emmy producers have opted to cancel our opening skit, which involved a mock crash scene. Instead, we are sending corps of grief counselors into the heartland, where people can never manage to endure any tragedy alone. We think this will show you just how much we care. We fervently hope we lost no liberals in the crash, but it WAS in Kentucky, so we're actually a little relieved."

Biden's insult

On Fox News Sunday today, Mark Wayne and I were stunned to hear Sen. Joe "How's my hair?" Biden explain that southern voters would not reject his candidacy because Delaware was a slave state!

(Was it?)

In any case, this was pure Joe Biden, playing to the left. He doesn't think he can carry southern Democrats. He doesn't care to. What he wants to do is insult them to please the rabid left.

The left loves this sort of thing. They treat it as a private joke.

But Biden is unwittingly revealing something about himself. He is indeed the heir of 'slave owner' thinking. He and his ilk want blacks on welfare, the new plantation, and out of the game.

SAT Question

A dwarf planet is to a planet as a dwarf person is to a person.

Wait, that's not right, is it?

But REALLY, what kind of bullshit is a dwarf planet? Is it just a little bitty planet? And wasn't that what it ALWAYS was?

You know because of this the Little People of America are going to have a field day. Were going to have to install little bitty tables in restaurants right by the handicapped ramps and stuff like that.

A miracle!

Re: Tom Cruise firing. It seems we finally know what behavior movie studios think is unacceptable.

Rod Dreher and the charm police

Rod Dreher thinks you are just not charming enough. You just don't have enough style! You don't know what's important in life! And, he does! His book, Crunchy Cons, leaves absolutely no doubt that. Dreher, an utter elitist, is also on his way to being a liberal, if he hasn't already arrived.

Rod Dreher doesn't know any ordinary Americans and, like liberals, he neither wants to know them nor needs to because, hell, he's special. Because he has been blessed with this special sense of style and love of life (I bet Dreher knows that French phrase .... don't I wish I were him!), Dreher knows that Americans don't know how to eat, where to live, how to entertain themselves, or, most especially, how to raise their families. Fortunately, he does know! And he's willing to tell us! Oh joy!

And he does just that in a book that is certainly the all-time greatest exposition of an insufferable idiot.

Like liberals, Dreher imagines himself deep but, in fact, he is so shallow that he can only focus on his narrow little life. Talking about food (oh, yes, Dreher knows you don't know how to eat), Dreher tells us: Wow! Organic food is really really tasty. And, hey, CONSERVATIVES DON'T KNOW THIS! Well, uh, bulletin, pal... we conservatives grow our veggies ourselves. Don't use anything but dirt and a hoe. Guess that makes them ORGANIC, eh? If you weren't so busy playing with your city pals, you could be growing ORGANIC veggies yourself instead of paying three times as much as they are worth.

Architecture, is big with Dreher. Now, remember, Dreher is a member of a church (Roman Catholic) that has been busy destroying every gothic structure in the United States of America for the last 30 years and replacing them with double wide trailers. Dreher seems utterly insensible to this and, instead, waxes rapturous over the glories of church architecture. He wants everyone to have a church just like the one that his church is tearing down. Second, he thinks everyone will feel WAAAAAY more holy there. Cough. No you aren't materialistic, bud. Say, pal, I'm going to believe in God and I'm gonna feel God without a freaking gothic church and millions of people do just that. Maybe you need the building, but our God doesn't.

But the line that got me -- finally got me -- was this piece of work about people's homes in the U.S.: "...the utilitarian sameness of row after row speaks a language of monotony."

Hey Moron... drive down one of those streets one time and even you will have to notice that each home is an explosion of an individual's own interests. Not YOUR interests, of course, so they won't be interesting to YOU, but be assured they are interesting to them. Every home can't be a architectural wonderment. If it were, only idiots like you would have homes. But fortunately, we can all afford something. We can all make it what we want, even if you think it is monotonous and not "charming" enough. And, in the backyard, we can grow "organic" veggies and sell them to morons like you for triple the grocery store price.

Rod Dreher is a perfect idiot. I don't care how he wants to live his life and, because I am a conservative, I want only one thing from him. I want him to ignore me. Don't try to change me, improve me, lecture me, or make me you. Just leave me the hell alone. That, my friend, is the essence of conservatism.

I wish this was typical Muslim thinking

Libyan Reformist Speaks Out
By MEMRI
Memri.org | August 17, 2006

In an article titled "The Lexicon of Resistance" posted on the reformist website Elaph.com, Libyan reformist writer Dr. Muhammad 'Abd Al-Muttalib Al-Huni criticizes the abuse of the term "resistance" by Islamic fundamentalists and other extremist groups. [1]
The following are excerpts from the article:


Resistance "Has Brought Nothing but Destruction Upon the Region"

"The word 'resistance' has come to be constantly used in the killing fields known as the Middle East. The old ways resist modernity; barbarity resists civilization; the ideology of suicide resists the desire to live; hatred resists tolerance; totalitarianism and dictatorship resist democracy; poverty and disease resist continuous development. All these [types of] resistance prevail in this paralyzed part of the world.

"However, the most noisy [type of] resistance is the suicidal resistance which wraps itself in the cloak of jihad, [but in fact] distorts the justness of the causes [it purports to promote], and corrupts their noble demands by adopting this barbaric style of struggle. This behavior has brought nothing but destruction upon the region. It has caused the whole world to unite against those who act in this manner, and consequently, to oppose the causes that [these people] aim to promote."


The Types of Resistance "Rampant in the Killing Fields [of the Middle East]"

"Let us now closely examine the [types of] resistance so rampant in the killing fields [of the Middle East].

"1. When Shi'ites kill Sunnis and Sunnis kill Shi'ites in Iraq merely for their [sectarian] identity, it is called 'resistance.'

"2. When Janjaweed gangs murder unarmed civilians in Darfour, it is called 'resistance.'

"3. When year after year, Hamas and Islamic Jihad extinguish any spark of peace which can end the suffering of the Palestinian people, it is called 'resistance.'

"4. When Hizbullah takes an entire people hostage and refuses to obey the elected [authorities], dragging Lebanon into destruction, it is called 'resistance.'

"5. The war which is being waged by the new global terrorism under the command of bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri and Al-Zarqawi is called 'resistance.'

"6. The alliance between the defeated remnants of the pan-Arab nationalist chauvinists and [the defeated remnants] of the Islamists - who are both [willing to] ally themselves with any murderer - is called 'resistance.'

"7. Establishing television channels like Al-Jazeera, which misleads the Arab public and causes [the Arabs] to wager repeatedly on the victory of the losing side - is called 'resistance.'

"8. When distinguished Arab lawyers rally by the thousands to the defense of Saddam Hussein while neglecting his victims and disregarding their cases, it is called 'resistance.'

"9. When people eulogize and mourn terrorists who have murdered thousands of Iraqis in the streets of [Iraqi] cities and villages, presenting them as heroes of the Arab nation, it is called 'resistance.'

"10. When Muslim religious scholars issue fatwas permitting murder, suicide, and slaughtering of brothers and compatriots, and when [these scholars] condemn every rationalist idea as 'stupid'... and show contempt for modernity, it is called 'resistance.'

"11. The murder of more than 130,000 innocent Algerian citizens, and the annihilation of a whole generation of journalists, writers and thinkers in Algeria, is called 'resistance.'

"12. Murdering tourists and bombing hotels in Egypt is called 'resistance.'

"13. Bombing hotels in Amman and killing the bride and groom, and anyone [else] who tries to celebrate in these sad killing fields, is called 'resistance.'"


"These Resistance [Groups]... Have No Future"

"What is common to [those who carry out] these types of resistance is that they all present themselves as 'Islamic,' and as the only force that still fights against imperialism in the Arab theater which has been destroyed by political autocracy. They all call for political programs that can be summed up in the slogan 'Islam is the Solution to All Problems.'

"The project of these resistance [groups] has had its day in the Arab world. It made the most noise and [caused] the most bloodshed, and therefore its dreadful collapse is highly imminent. [This program] betted on a wild horse, and has left not a single seed that can sprout, nor a single bud that can open. They are the murderers of the future, and therefore they have no future."
-- Posted by Mark

Goodbye Bud

I killed my dog, Bud, today. He has always had very serious seizures but they were coming 7hours apart now and this despite his medicine.

This is a photo of Bud on his last walk this afternoon.

Chica's rabbit

This is a picture of Snick and a living, although not by much, rabbit. But it was my old dog Chica who came strolling out of the woods with the enormous creature dangling out of her mouth. Hard to believe she is fast enough to catch one. Normally, the way she catches moles and mice is she waits patiently by a hole with her mouth open.

But as soon as Chica saw me, always alarmed by killed things, she dropped the rabbit and walked on as if she never saw it before. Snick just happened to be after her and he utterly ignored the rabbit, too.

So then we had a poor mangled, but living, rabbit. Mark, always my hero, went out later and killed it with a hammer. He can do that sort of thing when he has to, but I think he doesn't like it much.

Tiger on the prowl

My new cat, Tigermama, is quite a hunter. But I'm not sure I like her catching birds! I was hoping she would catch the many chipmunks around. I saw her stalking them, but the only catch I've seen was this sparrow. Tiger had quite a big time with it, throwing it around energetically.

Meanwhile, her mate, the all-gray and handsome Sugar Ray, doesn't hunt. He just lays around and looks good!

Tiger swallowtail on thistle

I've been stalking this Tiger Swallowtail in the woods for a month, but to no avail. Yesterday I found him busy on a thistle but had my camera on the wrong setting! arrrgh. This is the best shot I got and it is pretty washed out. But sort of interesting.

The Next Protest

I have this eerie feeling that the next liberal protest we are going to see: Free the British 14!

The left is so whacked out that I expect, at any minute, to see pickets protesting the right to conspire. They are so close to actually saying they AGREE with Muslim terrorists.

Can the UN "grant" anything?

According to the Daily Mail, the Bank of England was acting with powers "granted" by the United Nations when it froze terrorist assets:

Today the Bank of England named and froze the assets of 19 of the 24 air terror suspects arrested. The bank was acting under the instruction of Chancellor Gordon Brown and on the advice of the police and security services.

It acted under powers granted by the United Nations to tackle the financing of terrorism in the wake of the September 11 2001 attacks. Its action means it is a crime to make their money available without a licence from the Treasury.

Aid and comfort

You know when I think about the aid and comfort liberals give the Muslims, I am taken by the realization that liberals have more to lose with the takeover of our country than we conservatives do.

If liberals agree to let our civilization be taken over by Muslims, they will see much of what they fought for slip away. Muslims do not like abortion, libertine sexual practices, gay bars, gay parades, drugs, crime, or nude beaches, gay marriage -- all things liberals love and fight for -- and forget animal rights. They brutally kill animals every fall as a command of their religion.

Now me, I don't like a lot of the things Muslims don't like. I don't like abortion, forced murder of sick people, gay pride parades (gays are fine with me, but I don't want to see a lewd display in a public parade), or nude beaches. Like the Muslims (and unlike liberals) I do like capital punishment and aggressive policing (of course the Muslims take 'aggressive' to the kind of medieval heights even I do not like.)

Except... you know I hate the animal abuse that Muslims call religion. I'm not going to like seeing animals killed but you liberals are really going to hate what the Muslims do to homosexuals.

The only thing liberals have in common with Muslims is that they both hate Jews and Christians and want to see them exterminated.

But, all in all, you liberals really have more to lose by coddling Muslims. One thing is for sure since liberals believe in killing their children, you won't see liberals populating the earth. You'll see Muslims doing that. It's going to be their world if you let it be. You ought to think about that.

Tagged

Born Again Redneck tagged me. Never been tagged before but I can't answer the whole tag thing. I'll just write about the ones I like:

One book that changed your life:
Slouching towards Gomorrah, Modern Liberalism and the American Decline, by Robert H. Bork. After I watched the OJ Simpson trial, I became a conservative and this was one of my first textbooks.

One book that made you laugh:
The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, By Christopher Lamb. Draws heavily on the apochryphal gospels, such as the Gospel of James, to fill in the missing years between Christ's teaching in the Temple to the last days of his ministry. Very funny, fanciful tale that isn't as sacrilegious as it sounds.

One book that you've read more than once: Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
I still love the book, and it was once the subject of an unsettling encounter I had with a young liberal. I mentioned Jane Eyre in our conversation about favorite books and she enthusiastically said she loved it. I was deeply surprised because Jane Eyre is a book about devotion to truth and morality and the courage to live it at any cost. Liberalism is "end justifies the means" philosophy and so it values dishonesty as one tool in its arsenal and celebrates immorality. I was surprised and I told her so and she remarked -- without a trace of sarcasm -- that she thought it was the funniest book she ever read. I still find that troubling. She wasn't kidding. She thought the author wrote it cynically and you had to read it that way. Like science fiction.

I think of that book, now more than ever, and I know I wouldn't wonder if I would have the courage, lonely and alone, to leave my love for principle or honor, or truth, or right and morality. Can honor and truth and right triumph really over love? Was the book always thought funny by those who are not cynics, but realists?

I don't think most modern Americans ever once have had to muster the courage to lose their love for honor and right. I know the Patriots did.

One book that pissed me off: Crunchy Cons, by Rod Dreher. He's a liberal at heart who hates the average person.

One book you have been meaning to read: State of Fear. Mark loved it.

My favorite TV family

I just think Matt Roloff is a great businessman and his wife Amy is a fantastic mother.

This couple is the star of my favorite show "Little People; Big World" and it is on one of those cable channels. TLC or something like that. I started watching it because, being a nearly 6-foot tall woman, I have always been fascinated by short people and always wanted to be one. Plus, dwarves are interesting.

But now I catch the show whenever I can because, first of all, Matt is a self-made man and he has big ideas and I'm not trying to make a pun here. The guy thinks big. He has a big imagination and a big personality. One week he'll decide to build a chicken coop just because he thinks it is cool. One time he decided to make a trebuchet to hurl pumpkins! LOL The next week he decides to remodel their entire kitchen to make it Dwarf-friendly and he has some great ideas. While he's at it, he's having the roof repaired and he gets up on there and hammers shingles. The guy can hardly walk! But he wants to try everything.

And Amy is the best. She coaches her youngest kids' soccer team and she is a no nonsense mom. One week she is quoted as saying sometehing like this: "Yes there are people who think the world should change to accommodate us. But I say, just adapt and get on with it." Now that is philosophy for everyone.

I've been a particular fan of Matt's ever since, in one episode, he was out of work and was trying to make their fabulous farm support them. That's the only time I disagreed with Amy. Matt was right on about making the kids who were working for them do actual work for money, even if it was just $20. He said it was a business point. And he was right.

The Roloffs are one of two really interesting dwarf families on that show. If the show had been done in the 70s or the 80s, it would be an hour of crying about how the world is against them. And leave it to Slate to find a whiny prick who will give you a boo freaking hoo lecture about staring. Wah! Wah! My dwarf daughter won't be happy until the entire culture and everybody in it stops staring! Those liberals just love to feel guilty.

But the show and the families are so much better than that. If you've never seen it, try to and get your kids to watch it. They will learn so much about living big and living right.

He SHOULD be in jail

Newsosaur is all weepy about some leftist blogger who refuses to turn over a video that might show trustfunders trying to burn a police car. The kid should be in jail. I don't care whether he is a blogger or whether he works for a major metropolitan newspaper.

Sugar and the b*tch from hell

Sugar Ray is not living up to his name. He is a most even tempered fellow, altogether happy to leisurely eat and enjoy life, but I also thought he would have a little punch in him, after all.

Sugar reappeared a while ago but this time followed by a tiger cat who I'll have no trouble naming. Mom. I'll call her Mom. She is in very good shape so I am praying I am sharing this cat with someone who is used to cats, doesn't have three dogs, isn't allergic to cats, and who will really WANT her kittens. But if she has the kittens here, Sugar and Tigermom's next stop is for a little operation from the local vet.

In the meantime, Tigermom gives Sugar a way to go. She bats at him, and hisses at him every time he walks by. Typical pregnant female.

Sugar steps gingerly around her, I'll tell you. And every time he lays down to get a little rest, who do you think is right there making his life miserable? It must be love! Right Mark Wayne? Honey? Right? Right, honey? Will you take out the trash?

Morrie was a sweet old fool

But a fool just the same.

I rather dislike speaking ill of the dead, but someone should.

Mark Wayne and I last week read "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom from the vast Subtle Oak Flavor library during our car trip up north. Or, rather, I read to Mark Wayne while he drives. If you've never heard of it, "Tuesdays" is a book wherein the successful protege of a dying professor (fancy east coast variety) learns he really isn't successful 'cause he works too much and he makes too much money. Plus the protege learns he (the protege) is rude. (Information he could have discovered from his ex-wives.)

We haven't finished it, yet. It's possible that before the book is finished we'll have discovered something profound in Morrie. At the moment, it seems that Morrie's idiotic philosophy is just the stuff to keep you sad and imprisoned your whole life.

For example, from page 33, most people are unhappy because "the culture we have does not teach people to feel good about themselves." So, in other words, you can't be happy until the entire freaking culture changes. That's like saying that the entire culture must change and racism disappear before the crime rate can go down. Or, the entire culture must change, and every last racist must disappear, before black employment goes up. If you listen closely, you'll hear that during the next election.

Or, the reverse of Morrie's assertion, EVERYONE in the country would be happy as hell if the entire culture changed. If you believe that, you really have to get out more.

Whenever you hear someone talking about culture change, it is a sure sign that individuals are behaving badly and liberals are trying to excuse them.

In that one sentence we also have the hapless fool dredging up the "feel good" culture. Spare me. Most of the people in this culture have yet to learn what Christ taught 2,000 years ago. If you want to be happy, give of yourself. Note I didn't say "give back." Most of the time no one in the world has ever given anything to you. Give regardless of whether you get.

Or, just DO something. All the happy, slappy, dippy, dappy feel good crap in the world ain't gonna help you until you accomplish something worth feeling good about.

Comma

The common Comma on Elm. It's favorite.

Blogger sucks

As everyone who has ever used it knows full well. Just an observation

Holding on

This cicada was making a helluva racket while holding on to farm fence. So I took this photo. Kind of interesting how he holds on.

He also turned around and modeled for me, if I can get blogger to upload the photo.

Propaganda

Anyone who thinks the (so called) Palestinians just want "their" land back is delusional or has fallen for propaganda. THE ARABS WANT THE JEWS DEAD!
To start with there has never been a country called Palestine. The entire area was called Palestine by the Romans after they drove the Jews out around the second century A.D. and then again briefly by the British after WW1. If you look at a map pre 1948 the area that is now Israel and what is now commonly referred to as "the west bank" were part of "Trans Jordan" The people who lived there were mostly nomad Bedouin tribesman and citizens of Trans Jordan. The real power at that time all over the middle east was England, having taken it from the Ottoman Turks in WW1.
After WW2 and the holocaust it was decided by the United Nations to establish a Jewish homeland in the land that the Romans had driven them out of.
I do get so tired of constantly having to restate history that anyone would know for themselves if they cared to look, but no it's just too easy to believe the propaganda that it was the Jews that put the poor Palestinians in "concentration" camps when it is the "P.L.O." who keep their people in camps. Again for propaganda purposes.
On to the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah this is part and parcel of our so called war on terror. It's the same enemy whether it goes by Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaida or whatever. It is ludicrous to say Israelis "created their own enemy" any more that we created our own enemy on 9/11/2001. These people want us dead, both Israel (who they call the little Satan) and America (who they call the great Satan)
I believe it is time for the United States to restate what President Bush said shortly after 9/11 "we at war on terror, if you support terror you are a terrorist and we're at war with you". We must stop fretting about collateral damage and start acting like we are serious about winning this war.

Mark

Mel, Mel, Mel

I wondered why, after Passion, Mel Gibson didn't create the largest studio in Hollywood, and render most of the rich, liberal bastards homeless and powerless. Seems he decided to be nuts instead. Who knew?

This pisses me off. Really pisses me off because God and Capitalism gave Mel Gibson an incredible, breathtaking chance to take back the media culture and the fucker blew it. Sorry for the language. But he WASTED it. Good St. Anthony come around; something's lost that must be found.

Anyway, one thing I'll say for Mel is that he didn't offer some phoney, half-assed, half-wit apology. Usually Hollywood types say shit like: If this offended you, I'm sorry. Translation: If this offended you, fuck off.

And criminals offer apologies that sound like this: The murder of the four children was sad for all involved.

They NEVER say: I killed the kids and ruined your life.

But Mel said this:
"There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I have said..."

"The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life. Every human being is God's child, and if I wish to honor my God I have to honor his children. But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith."

Note that his statement condemned both the wrong of his words (not just how someone took them) AND he put the words in his own mouth.

I'll give this to Mel: He's a real man and he's a human being. But that's not going to be enough, unfortunately. The liberals are going to tar and feather him and they are going to paint the rest of us with the same brush.

The funny thing is there isn't one liberal in America who doesn't actually agree with MEL. They think the Jews are the cause of all the wars and by extension the current war, just as Mel said. LIBERALS are, in fact, the greatest anti-semitic force on the planet today.