party at lion's arch

everyone is invited

--update--
the pumpkin helm:

that's what i said

only it sounds more official and impressive coming from teddy:

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation of all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities." --Teddy Roosevelt

h/t say anything

some potentially good news

harriet miers withdraws her nomination. i'm excited to see what real nominee bush will bring out now.

well, that sucks

houston just got swept in the world series. i'm not really upset that the white sox won--it's been 88 years since the last time they pulled that off--i'm just upset that the series didn't go on longer. that's 2 years in a row now that it's been over in 4 games, which is just not cool. oh well. there's always next year. maybe the mariners will finally pull things together, and, after making it to the post season, not suck. or maybe the marlins will be able to pull off another good year. because when you get right down to it, other than those two teams, i really don't care.

another comparison

democrats = sunnis. only with less beheadings and suicide bombers.

wtf mate?

so this morning when i turned on my computer, my chipfan decided to start working again after about 2 weeks on strike. i threatened to shoot it if it ever even thought about joining a union, and i've got a strike breaker on the way just in case, so it probably felt like it had no other choice.

something to think about

Militia Act of 1792

Sec. 1. Be it enacted . . .  That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective states, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia . . . . That every citizen so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch with a box therein to contain not less than twenty-four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball: or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder. . . .

Sec. 2. [Exempting the Vice President, federal judicial and executive officers, congressmen and congressional officers, custom-house officers and clerks, post-officers and postal stage drivers, ferrymen on post roads, export inspectors, pilots, merchant mariners, and people exempted under the laws of their states.]

The currently effective Militia Act

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and . . . under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are —

(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and

(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

found here; h/t in a rather roundabout way to say anything

historical quote of the week

"Now I've got Ho Chi Minh's pecker in my pocket." -- Lyndon B. Johnson

funny stuff

i like bush, and i still find this funny:

President Bush’s morning security briefing is wrapping up. Donald Rumsfeld is concluding his part and says, “Finally, three Brazilian soldiers were killed yesterday near Baghdad.”

“OH MY GOD!” shrieks Bush, and he buries his head in his hands for a seemingly interminable 30 seconds. Stunned at the unexpected display of emotion, the
president’s staff sit speechless, not sure how to react.

Finally, Bush looks up and asks Rumsfeld, “How many is a brazillion?”

h/t say anything

pissing off the feme-nazis, part 2: a comparison

a renaissance man, according to wikipedia:

A polymath (also known as a polyhistor) is a person who excels in multiple fields, particularly in both arts and sciences. The most common other term for this phenomenon is Renaissance man, but also in use are Homo universalis and Uomo Universale, which in Latin and Italian, respectively, translate as "Universal Man".

a woman of the renaissance, from book 3, chapter 6 of machiavelli's discourses:

... and to show that she did not care for her children, she showed them her genital member, saying that she had the means of making more.

because pissing off femenists is fun

"There was a woman who got lost in the desert. She stumbled across a lamp, rubbed it, and out came a genie. The genie offered her the traditional three wishes.

Her first wish was to be powerful, intelligent, and loved by all.

The genie thought a moment, snapped his fingers and turned her into a man. "

thanks dave.

my take on the miers nomination

it's probably not worth a whole lot, but now it's out there. from what i've read about her so far, it seems to me that the miers nomination is a perfect picture of the entire bush presidency: more good than bad, but it could have been so much better.

h2g2

watching the movie right now. and as different from the book as it is, it definitely came from the mind of douglas adams. they're on vogsphere right now, and the robot that played marvin on the original bbc series just had a cameo appearance.

yarrrgh...

damn you asus! your mobo is hot stuff, but the chip fan is teh suXXor. and apparently i'm not the only one with the problem (see here). less than two months after i got it, the chip fan died. so i'm trying to contact asus for a replacement, only i can't connect to their website. of course. murphy seems to be working against me as well. that bastard.

more bad "news" from the times

go figure. only this time it doesn't involve the war on terror, or even racism--though i expect that race will come up shortly. no, this time, it appears that we're all going to die of the flu or the riots that a shortage of flu vaccine causes. from the NYT:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 - A plan developed by the Bush administration to deal with any possible outbreak of pandemic flu shows that the United States is woefully unprepared for what could become the worst disaster in the nation's history.

A draft of the final plan, which has been years in the making and is expected to be released later this month, says a large outbreak that began in Asia would be likely, because of modern travel patterns, to reach the United States within "a few months or even weeks."

If such an outbreak occurred, hospitals would become overwhelmed, riots would engulf vaccination clinics, and even power and food would be in short supply, according to the plan, which was obtained by The New York Times.

sounds fairly gloomy, eh? and of course, if the flu "pandemic" ever does make it here, we'll soon have liberals complaining that not enough of the vaccinations are going to minorities, or old people, or children, or whoever their new group of the day is. and if president bush and vp cheney end up with shots, you can be damn sure that they stole that vaccine from some poor minority. in fact, it's probably all some evil scheme masterminded by karl rove to kill off as many potential democratic voters as possible.

were i more talented, i would photoshop a picture of beer looter guy with a supply of flu vaccine. any takers?

my new hero

i seem to be going through them rather quickly, don't i? oh well. my new hero is columbus, of sort-of-discovering-america fame. because he gets me a paid day off of work on monday. what a great guy.

prayer requests

if i have any clue what i'm doing here, this one will stay on top for a few days.

i realize that this will only reach an audience of about two or three, but more is better in this case. a friend of mine was in a car wreck yesterday, and is currently in ICU at harborview. she's had her spleen removed, her pelvis is fractured, and i think one of her arms is broken. if you think about it, please include her in your prayers.

--update--
things are looking pretty good. they operated on her arm, leg, and spleen (or where her spleen was... still not sure on that), and all the operations were successful. tomorrow comes the pelvic operation.