Titled:   Annan tours devastated south Lebanon

And to think some people blamed the Jews...

Hat-tip Opinion Journal

No, not from Iraq. John "I have the hat" Kerry's resolution to cut-and-run from Iraq was soundly defeated 86-13. He did however characterize it as a great victory:

Feingold and Kerry declared the vote a victory, since their bid last week to mandate a pullout by December 31 got six votes.

"It was terrific," Kerry said. "Several votes more than we anticipated."

Which is like Germany claiming it won the Second World War because it involved more people that their first attempt.

The withdrawal mentioned in the title is instead from Germany itself, the US having lost a pitched battle against superpower Ghana in the World Cup.

Yes - Ghana! Noted mainly for colorful cloth:

Perhaps the most visible (and most marketable) cultural contribution from modern Ghana is Kente cloth, which is widely recognized and valued for its colors and symbolism.

And now known for keeping #5 ranked USA out of the World Cup finals.

Titled:    Eurovision - Good Lordi!!

A while back I mentioned one of the strangest and most original entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi, from Finland.

They WON.

More at Day By Day

Titled: Fare comment!

The BBC apologised, saying the mistake occurred because the man was wearing Mr Kewney's name tag. Mr Kewney said: "Everyone seems to think he was a taxi driver waiting in reception to take me home. But no one knows for sure."

He added: "There were several surprising things about 'my' interview. Judging by my performance, English wasn't my first language and I didn't seem to know much about Apple, online music or The Beatles." He said the taxi driver "seemed as baffled as I felt".

Last night, the driver's identity remained a mystery. None of the taxi firms regularly used by the BBC would admit to employing him.

Titled: Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space

WASHINGTON (AP) - A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.

Titled:   Policy on Iran nukes seems to be off-target

Mark Steyn compares Iran's behaviour to a domestic airline passenger:

You know what's great fun to do if you're on, say, a flight from Chicago to New York and you're getting a little bored? Why not play being President Ahmadinejad? Stand up and yell in a loud voice, "I've got a bomb!" Next thing you know the air marshal will be telling people, "It's OK, folks. Nothing to worry about. He hasn't got a bomb." And then the second marshal would say, "And even if he did have a bomb it's highly unlikely he'd ever use it." And then you threaten to kill the two Jews in row 12 and the stewardess says, "Relax, everyone. That's just a harmless rhetorical flourish." And then a group of passengers in rows 4 to 7 point out, "Yes, but it's entirely reasonable of him to have a bomb given the threatening behavior of the marshals and the cabin crew."

...

All the doom-mongers want to know why we went into Iraq "without a plan." Well, one reason is surely that, for a year before the invasion, the energy of the U.S. government was primarily devoted to the pointless tap-dance through the United Nations, culminating in the absurd situation of Western foreign ministers chasing each other through Africa to bend the ear of the president of Guinea, who happened to be on the Security Council that week but whose witch doctor had advised against supporting Washington. Allowing the Guinean tail to wag the French rectum of the British hindquarters of the American dog was a huge waste of resources. To go through it all again in order to prevent whichever global colossus chances to be on the Security Council this time (Haiti? The South Sandwich Islands?) from siding with the Russo-Chinese obstructionists would show that the United States had learned nothing.

Read the rest here

Titled:    Finland Squirms as Its Latest Export Steps Into Spotlight

Has Dave thA decided to make up for a week or two of slow posting? Lost his job? 3 posts in one day? Well, I just couldn't resist reporting a story that digs deep at the European psyche.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Eurovision Song Contest, it is a yearly ritual of polite boredom, politics and occasionally music where the ever-expanding empire of Europe and guests pits its singers against each other.

It used to include a jury in each country that would award marks for all the other countries except themselves. This would lead to predictable voting, with the French always voting down the Brits and other nationalistic rivalries. (The UK scored zero overall in 2003, probably a reflection of the Iraq invasion as much as a poor song choice.)

This may explain why Ireland, famously neutral, has won seven contest, also a record.

Strange rules abounded thoughout the years - songs had to be sung in the local dialect - even the weird Maltese,  and with Lithuania singing in Samogitian which is a dialect of Lithuanian, making many songs totally incomprehensible to most viewers.

Norway holds the record for scoring zero point in three years ("nul points"), closely followed by Turkey and Austria.

The maximum duration of each song is three minutes, and although musicians of any genre can play, the musicians and songs selected for the Contest tend towards very commercial pop. Some viewers of the Contest view the event as a combination of camp entertainment and a musical train wreck (a fact played upon in the UK broadcast with the sardonic BBC commentary of Terry Wogan) and a subculture of Eurovision Song Contest drinking games has evolved in some countries.

It's worth noting that the voting system used for the Contest was originally designed to select a single compromise winner from a large field of candidates. A number of countries use this same system to select their entries, some of them going through several rounds of voting before selecting a winner. After repeated iterations of the system, variations from middle-of-the-road pop music tend to be eliminated.

So it is with great humor that I note the entry from Finland this year:

Don't forget this is a competition famous for the likes of Abba, and Céline Dion with most winners fading immediately into obscurity.

They have eight-foot retractable latex Satan wings, sing hits like "Chainsaw Buffet" and blow up slabs of smoking meat on stage.

"In Finland, we have no Eiffel Tower, few real famous artists, it is freezing cold and we suffer from low self-esteem," said Mr. Putaansuu, who, as Lordi, has horns protruding from his forehead and sports long black fingernails.

As he stuck out his tongue menacingly, his red demon eyes glaring, Lordi was surrounded by Kita, an alien-man-beast predator who plays flame-spitting drums inside a cage; Awa, a blood-splattered ghost who howls backup vocals; Ox, a zombie bull who plays bass; and Amen, a mummy in a rubber loincloth who plays guitar.

It is not the first time the contest, which began in 1956, has spawned discontent. Last year's Ukrainian entry song was rewritten after being deemed too political by government officials in Kiev because it celebrated the Orange Revolution. When Dana International, an Israeli transsexual, won in 1998 with her hit song "Diva," rabbis accused her of flouting the values of the Jewish state.

But not everyone in this Nordic country of five million views the monster squad as un-Finnish. Some Finns say that Lordi is right at home and that the band's use of flaming dragon-encrusted swords and exploding baby dolls expresses the warrior spirit of the Vikings.

Europe isn't what it used to be.

In 2006 the format of the Eurovision Song Contest was sold to an American Broadcaster in order to compete with American Idol in the ratings. The member countries of [Europe] will be replaced by the different States and territories of the United States.

Watch out USA.

Hat-tip to Nobody's Business again

See more like this at http://www.daybydaycartoon.com

Titled:     Greenpeace takes Kennedy to task

But Ted Kennedy? Sure enough, the activist group known for its flair for drama hammers the liberal Bay State senator - and Cape Wind opponent - in new ads being shown in states nationwide in the days leading up to a congressional vote that could doom the Nantucket Sound wind farm.

In the 30-second spot, a cartoon Kennedy looms over the water like a Japanese movie monster, pounding wind turbines as they sprout from the water, and barks, ''I might see them from my mansion on the Cape.''

Titled:   Cloned dog celebrates first birthday in S.Korea

The world's first and only cloned dog celebrated its first birthday on Monday, as the leader of the South Korean team that produced the Afghan hound faced a criminal investigation for possible fraud and ethics violations.

The team led by scientist Hwang Woo-suk unveiled the dog named Snuppy last August amid global fanfare. Time magazine named Snuppy one of the most amazing inventions for 2005.

The birthday celebrations at the university where Hwang once ran his lab were subdued. Snuppy, short for Seoul National University puppy, is in good health and weighs about 64 lbs, university officials said.

For his birthday, Snuppy enjoyed two of his favorite foods; ice cream and sausages.

How about that - a story from Korea of a dog actually being fed, not eaten.

Happy Birthday Snuppy.

Titled:     Supersoaker flamethrower

Supersoaker flamethrower

Titled:   St. Paul City Office Boots Easter Bunny

A small Easter display was removed from the City Hall lobby on Wednesday out of concern that it would offend non-Christians.

Tyrone Terrill, the city's human rights director, asked that the decorations be removed. Terrill said no citizen had complained to him.

Council Member Dave Thune called it a shame.

"This has just gone too far,'' he said. "We can't celebrate spring with bunnies and fake grass?''

The council president, Kathy Lantry, said the removal wasn't about political correctness.

"As government, we have a different responsibility about advancing the cause of religion, which we are not going to do,'' she said.

Maybe they should take a few minutes to learn about the Easter Bunny:

The original Easter Bunny myth comes from a pagan holiday which was celebrated on the Vernal Equinox. According to Pagan legend, Ostara, the goddess of spring, turned a bird into a rabbit. The rabbit was supposedly able to fly as fast as the bird could fly, but it was still dissapointed that it was a rabbit and not a bird. Ostara had pity on the creature, and one day out of every year, on the Vernal Equinox, she allowed the rabbit to lay eggs like a bird. Due to the proximity of Easter and the Vernal Equinox, converted pagans continued to associate the myth with their new holiday, and the idea has been passed down ever since.

As a Christian, I find it at least mildly offensive to use an Easter Bunny in the first place. Certainly not enough to go banning a popular symbol that children enjoy. I hardly see how the display of a pagan symbol of fertility is going to offend non-Christians.

In the same manner, it always bemuses me that they often ban Christmas Trees from government sites - again a pagan tradition - to protest against establishment of Christianity.

Don't even start me on Santa, Candy Canes and all the other traditions.

Happy early Easter!

Titled:   Democratic Underground Quote Of The Day: Christians Shouldn't Be Allowed To Have So Many Children

From RightWingNews:

Odin2005 : It's things like this that make me support population control. Theocons have no respect to the enviroment, Gawd told them to multiply like rabbits and that protecting the enviroment isn't needed because they think Jebus is gonna come down a rapture them. These people are dangerous and should not be allowed to have more kids then secular people do.

Probably not representative, but an insight into how some people would welcome a Chinese-type population control policy.

Titled:   Faith Hill, Tim McGraw Blast 'Humiliating' Katrina Cleanup

If it wasn't for Hollywood, where would we get our entertainment from? I'm not talking about movies and other social-engineering-disguised-as-entertainment. But about the very people of Tinsel-town who don't realise that trying to speak for themselves without a script-team is a big mistake.

Take, for example, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who recently opined on George Bush and Katrina:

"There's no reason why someone can't go down there who's supposed to be the leader of the free world … and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable, and you're held accountable, and you're held accountable."

"This is what I've given you to do, and if it's not done by the time I get back on my plane, then you're fired and someone else will be in your place."

It is my understanding that POTUS has a few other tasks that need a little attention right now and is unlikely to spare the next few years sitting on the tarmac at some airstrip in the South.

Then there is Barbara Streisand, who in an attempt to mock the President's ability to spell, made almost another dozen errors of her own, including four in the same sentence:

In the 1970’s, during the Nixon Adminstration, serious political curruption arose and the Republican leadership stepped up and took responsibilty by holding hearings and subpoening administration officials.

And don't even get me started about Natalie Portman discussing terrorism at Columbia.

Titled:   Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast

No - It isn't a joke. If it was, it would surely win an award:

The Public is invited to a memorial pancake breakfast at Denny's Restaurant on Douglas Street near Finlayson, 10 am, Sunday March 12, 2006 to celebrate the life and untimely death of Rachel Corrie, Peace Activist with the International Solidarity Movement.

There will be a reading of selections from Ms. Corrie's letters and diary, followed by a ceremony at Topaz Park, where a stone cairn will be erected in her honour.

Attendees are encouraged to wear their keffiahs, and to dress in black.

No weapons, drugs, or alcohol please.

Hat-Tip to SayUncle

Titled:   OK, So I cheated:

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

First time round, I passed, but only with 80%.

8th Grade is about age 13.

Oh, the shame.

Hat Tip to Castle Argghhh!!!?

Titled:   Muslim terrorist sentenced to life in Indonesia

Ismail Fahmi Yamsehu was found guilty of violating the country's anti-terror law during a trial at the District Court in the Maluku provincial capital of Ambon.

The three judges ruled that prosecutors had proven that Yamsehu took part in the attack on a Christian village on Buru Island in May 2004 in which three people died, and in an assault last February on a karaoke bar near Ambon in which two people were killed.

Titled:   Bush urges end to cartoon violence

Titled:   After 150 yrs, Western Union ends telegram service

"Effective January 27, 2006," the company said in a note posted without ceremony on its Web site, "Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage."

James Lileks, as usual, has gathered some long lost art from the bygone days:

Happy Caucasian Patriarch Day! Here you see the variety of boilerplate available to the tongue-tied son. Note the art in the corner – either Dad has ascended in the Rapture, or was the victim of spontaneous human combustion. Note also that one could send a telegram from home and have it charged on your phone bill – something that must have seemed quite modern. Which, I suppose, it was.

Apparently, a crazy woman in the crowd was dragged away by security just before President Bush began his speech.

More photos at Wizbang. I think that about covers it.

Titled:     Shift on the Bench Has Already Begun

The failure of Democrats to appease their base and fillibuster Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court has resulted in a shift to the bench, but not in the way you may expect.

Alito is now on the extreme far right - of the bench, that is:

As the junior associate justice, Alito will occupy the end of the bench farthest to the courtroom audience's right during oral arguments. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who has sat there since October 1994, will move across to the audience's extreme left.

Alito also now gets to answer the door during the court's closed conferences, and report the justices' votes to the clerk of the court.

Breyer was the court's junior member for 11 years, 181 days, about a month shy of the record set by Joseph Story, who served during the 19th century.

That's a long time to be a noob.

Titled:   Police say man thought gun wasn't loaded

Police say a man who fatally shot himself in the head with a .45-caliber handgun did not think the gun was loaded.

This stunning piece of insight comes to you from the New Hampshire police. How they arrived at this conclusion is at this time unknown, although it may have something to do with the fact that this was clearly not a suicide but another stupid accident.

Rules of safe firearm handling might need a new rule:

Do NOT point a gun at your head (or anyone elses) and pull the trigger even if you KNOW the firearm is not loaded. Failure to follow this rule will probably result in a loud bang, a very brief headache and the even briefer, stunning realization that something is not quite right. Often, local police will make obvious statements about you in the press later.

As a public service to folks out there who have trouble with the obvious, here are a few laws to follow:

1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.

2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.

3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

Keep any ONE of these three and you are likely to be safe. Ideally, follow ALL three. And kids - just keep away and let an adult know.

Titled:     Just for fun

Titled:      Study finds fire retardant in Great Lakes

Yup - that would be that water stuff - absolutely full of it, they are...

Titled:   Ted K's secret love child a secret no more

Entertainmentwise.com carries a story on 50 Cent's new movie ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’.

50 Cent has defended his film ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ saying that it condones gun crime and violence. The flick has received a lot of criticism for its apparent violent themes and the advertising poster which featured Fiddy holding two guns. But speaking to BBC six o’clock news, the rapper said: “No way was it in my head to capture a film that glorifies violence."

Meanwhile Ireland Online and most other media reports carry a different slant:

50 Cent says his film 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' does not condone violence and gun crime. Speaking at the UK premiere of the film he said: "No way was it in my head to capture a film that glorifies violence."

Either Entertainmentwise.com senior editor Scott Colothan doesn't know what "condone" means or else 50 Cent accidently revealed his true feelings about gun crime and violence.

Sometimes an article comes along that is so blatant in its left-wing bias that they just have to be called on it:

Alito to Senate: Good judge has no agenda

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito told senators Monday that good judges don't have an agenda, don't look for partisan outcomes and always "do what the law requires" as the Senate opened hearings on President Bush's choice for the high court. "A judge can't have any agenda. A judge can't have a preferred outcome in any particular case," Alito told the Judiciary Committee in a brief statement in which he made a distinction between judges and attorneys working for clients. His motive for shooting John Paul in the abdomen on May 13, 1981, remains unclear.

I always find these amusing - the terms people visiting the site used in search engines to find us. Over the last couple of weeks, the following search terms have appeared in the logs:

• iranian girlfriend
• 3d picture porn
• funny blog red*
• bait and switch ccw dodge city
• the tactics of public relations
• Rep. Tom Casperson shoot to kill
• Fire Tune
• Promote general welfare
• "how can I get a gun silencer in England UK"

• define frivolous

Titled:    Stem cell experts seek rabbit-human embryo

British scientists are seeking permission to create hybrid embryos in the lab by fusing human cells with rabbit eggs. If granted consent, the team will use the embryos to produce stem cells that carry genetic defects, in the hope that studying them will help understand the complex mechanisms behind incurable human diseases.