Kill the messenger

"According to (one) report, 1,000 news media personnel have died while covering the news around the world in the past 10 years, but only a quarter of them died in wars and armed conflicts."

Quick quiz: What country do these journalists come from?

A) Afghanistan
B) Iraq
C) Russia

If you answered C), you are correct.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Remember that?

Fine. How about:

"Mr. Putin: Stop being a Tsarist, paranoid, Russian, dictatorial, bastard of a despot just like your predecessors son-of-a-bitch, and allow FREEDOM to have a REAL voice."

Just sayin'.

Bart Simpson sez it, so it's true

Bart's Voice shills for Scientology.

Poor, poor pitiful me

Via The Kraalspace, by way of Blazing Cat Fur:

Ooooh, it was SOOOO scary, having to land in the Hudson River in an emergency! I was reduced to a "tense mental state"! Therefore, Maybe I should sue!

"Joe Hart, a salesman from Charlotte who suffered a bloody nose and bruises, says he 'would like to be made whole for the incident.'

"It's too soon after the accident to determine what emotional distress he has suffered, he says."

****************************

Okay.

*rubbing hands, striding up and down*

Buddy. Pal. Emergency plane landings are, without doubt, scary.

Scary stuff happens. Especially when there are risks involved -- such as plane travel.

To quote Super Chicken: You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.



Dude -- I'm a woman, who has traveled all over the world, many times in military aircraft that has felt like it is going to fall apart at any moment. On one commercial flight, an entire tire assembly had blown out, necessitating all of us bending over and clutching our ankles in the "crash" position. SCARY STUFF HAPPENS.

You're a guy, having experienced the consequences of ordinary risk. Instead of congratulating yourself -- and boosting your testosterone thereby -- at having made it through a tough take, you're whingeing and moaning about your "mental state" and contemplating litigation.

There is a name for the likes of you -- man or woman. And I don't have to say it.

Le chien, le shame

(image credit: postchronicle.com)

So, lemme get this straight: The French president who had the, er, eggs, to stand up to the eeeee-vil George Bush over deposing Saddam Hussein, was savaged by his .... er, Maltese .... er, poodle ..... to the point that he had to go to the hospital.

Mmm-hmm.

Mmf. *koff* *snerk* *mmmmmm..........HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

(many thanks to the Big 3 at Covenant Zone)

Truth 2.0

Okay, I promised to give our new president a chance. Still will.

But this rather blistering insight into hypocrisy and truth-massaging by Andrew Bolt is hard to ignore:

"An astonishing line from Barack Obama in his first TV interview as president, that suggests he knows next to nothing about American history or the Middle East:

'...the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that.'"

Bolt goes on to point out that 20 or 30 years ago, America was under the leadership of "Cowboy" Ronald Reagan, and during that time:

American hostages were at last being freed by the Ayatollah Khomeini after 444 days in captivity:

Terrorists around the world were being financed by Moammar Qaddafi, whose “respect” for the US led him to bomb even a Berlin disco popular with US soldiers, forcing the US to launch (ineffectual) bombing raids on Tripoli:

Palestinian terrorist leader Mahmoud Abbas was accused of masterminding or planning attacks on American targets, including even one on Reagan’s secretary of state, with the backing of some “partnerships” of his own (including Saddam Hussein):

And so on. If that's "respect," what's disrespect?

Bolt: "Now even John Santor of the Huffington Post is forced to admit that Barack Obama, far from offering “change you can believe in”, is parroting the very kind of words that the despised Bush uttered, at least on the Middle East. But, in analysing Obama’s first interview, Santor bravely attempts to draw a distinction:

"Many of these proclamations were made in some way or another by President Bush. What is different this time, however, is a president who is already coupling them with meaningful action...

"Action? What? Where?"

Indeed. They're still blowing each other to smithereens in Gaza. Reports indicate Al-Qaida and Iranian factions intend to try and derail upcoming elections in Iraq. (Which we helped to make possible.)

So, what "action?"

NB: I attempted to create a user identity to answer some of these egregious allegations on huffingtonpost.com. Mysteriously, I'm not allowed to post.

Ulterior motives? Updates will follow.

We few, we happy few

Via Col. Robert Neville, quoting Gen. George Patton during a briefing in World War II:

"There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, 'Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.'

"No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, 'Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!'"

Cousin Bill Shakespeare:

"If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour. ..."

"(If) it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive. ..."

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,

"And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

Where is my beautiful wife?