Nothing is more authentically Japanese than figuring out how to eat something no human being should ever eat — you know, like seaweed, or jellyfish, or live octopus (the best part is the way those tentacles wriggle as they go down). So I guess edible paper sushi is about as Japanese as it gets. If this moron worked in my restaurant and came out with this trash, I’d can him.

And check out the idiots here.

I’ll have the ribeye. Very rare.

You’d think liberals would be happy Buffet is giving his fortune away to loonie leftist causes — and you’d be wrong. See, Warren violates fish rights, and for wackjobs, that’s a serious problem:

BILLIONAIRE BUFFET GIVES TO CHARITY WHILE HIS DAMS KILL SALMON AND COMPROMISE TRIBAL CULTURES
Karuk Tribe appeals to Buffet: Remove your dams, save our salmon

Orleans, CA – According to an Associated Press report, Billionaire investor Warren Buffet intends to work with the Gates Foundation to donate billons of dollars to charity. Meanwhile, on the Klamath River, dams that are owned by a subsidiary of Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. continues to kill salmon, host toxic algae blooms, and put Tribal and non-native fishermen out of work.

Of course, it’s okay to “compromise tribal cultures” when it comes to whaling or hunting bans. But since when were liberals consistent about anything, other than their insanity? And speaking of, how about this gem of “progressive values” in action?

Count me Out of the July 19th Protests Against Iran for their Death Penalty!
by Vincent Fischer
( TheConstitutionrules [at] hotmail.com )
Tuesday Jun 27th, 2006 1:02 AM

(London – 26 June 2006) To mark the first anniversary of Iran’s hanging of two gay teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, gay campaign groups OutRage! and IDAHO, International Day Against Homophobia, have declared 19 July 2006 an International Day of Action Against Homophobic Persecution in Iran (IDAAHOPI).
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2006/06/iran-stop-killing-gays-apparently.html

I’m sorry for what happened to those boys. However, I will not protest in the current political environment lest my actions be mistaken or misinterpreted as support for regime change in Iran. I will not add any kindling, no matter how small, to the mad fires of U.S., Israeli and Western imperialism and the quest for world domination

Or how about this?

US military has been targeting the Iraqi people and their leadership with secret electronic mind control technology

The headline says it all, doesn’t it?

Hat tip to Indy Media Watch, here and here.

Monday was my first interferon injection. Monday was rough. I haven’t been so sick in years. Tuesday, the chills had gone and I had sweats all day, plus the muscle cramps. Wednesday was a little better, though I was really sick. Yesterday, I felt halfway human until mid afternoon. Today, I feel human.

I’m hoping every week won’t be a repeat performance.

This is why we have the death penalty — and the school board should all be locked up, not just the rapist:

Lawyer sees school hush-up
Girl’s parents sue over alleged assault by young caretaker

By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News
June 13, 2006

A Colorado Springs school district wants to silence the parents of a severely disabled girl who was sexually assaulted at school by a boy assigned to watch her, an attorney said Monday.

Kalie McArthur, now 20 and with an IQ of about 50, was assaulted in September 2004 at Rampart High School by the 15-year-old boy, said Jeff Weeks, an attorney for Kalie and her parents.

The Rocky Mountain News doesn’t usually publish the names of sexual assault victims. Cindy Starr and James McArthur, her parents, said the school district wronged their daughter and they want her story told publicly.

The boy, who had been suspended 20 times the previous year and had a 0.0 grade point average, was assigned by the school to be her peer trainer, Weeks said.

When Kalie was enrolled at Rampart the previous year, the district agreed that her multiple disabilities, including a seizure disorder, required adult supervision at all times, Weeks said.

However, the boy was neither screened nor trained and spent an unknown amount of time with Kalie without adult supervision, her parents said.

On Sept. 14, 2004, a school coach found the boy and Kalie, both partially unclothed, in a closet, Weeks said.

The boy pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact with a helpless victim in 2005, Weeks said.

On June 2, 2006, the family filed a federal suit against the school district and spoke with reporters about the case.

Weeks said he later received a letter from the district that read:

“We are aware that your clients have made some statements to the press. Please be advised that if your client does not wish to enter into a confidentiality agreement, we will be petitioning the court for injunctive relief.”

Francine Guesnier, the attorney representing the district who wrote the letter, declined comment.

“Bring it on,” said James McArthur. “These people have permanently harmed my daughter and tried to brush it aside.”

McArthur and Starr are divorced, but share custody of Kalie. They are both special education teachers.

“This case will be in the textbooks on how not to run a special education program,” said McArthur, who specializes in severely handicapped students.

Nanette Anderson, spokeswoman for the district, said she could not comment because of the court case.

Starr and McArthur said Kalie’s behavior toward men has changed since the assault.

“She was loving and trusting. She went everywhere with us,” said Starr. “Now, it takes 100 percent of one person to manage her aggression.”

Starr said Kalie is still sweet and friendly, but will grab men and pinch them.

“She used to be passive and affectionate, now she’s aggressive, especially toward males,” said McArthur. “She could end up hurting someone, maybe a little boy.”

Her parents weren’t told that she had been paired with another student, Starr said.

“About 10 days before the assault, we noticed bruises on her thighs,” said Starr. “After the assault, she said there was groping and grabbing going on before the assault involving other boys as well.”

Starr and McArthur wanted to resolve the case through mediation, but the district refused, Weeks said.

“A professional hired by the district said the assault was pleasurable, not traumatic,” said Starr. “He said it ignited her female desires.”

McArthur and Starr said Kalie would have been able to function in a group home in a few years, but now will require one-on-one supervision.

“I trusted that she would be safe,” said Starr. “There was a big bad mistake made and they need to be responsible.”

What the story doesn’t tell you is that this rapist got two weeks for his assault. Hat tip to the Glenn Beck Show.

Since several people have asked, I’m undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C. I inject myself with interferon every Monday, and take ribavirin every day. In 12 weeks, I’ll have another viral load test done. If there’s been no substantial reduction in the number of virus particles in my system, we’ll cease the treatment. Otherwise, the treatment will last for a year.

I’m hoping that over time, the side-effects lessen. It’s like having an incredibly bad case of the flu. Fever, chills, sweats, muscle cramps, weakness, dizziness, chest pain, nausea.

I started the treatments yesterday, and folks, it’s rough. I’m sick as hell. Maybe more later. I have to pay a bill, then take my meds and lie down.

Sign up now!

Comes from Ace:

The Religion of Peace

The one religion where you can cut off your daughter’s clit, murder your sister for shaming the family by being raped by your uncle, kill homosexuals by pushing stone walls over them, enforce totalitarian stone-age sexual mores, and kill thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians, and liberals will actually applaud you for it.

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Our company from Indiana missed the turnpike and got lost somewhere around Pittsburgh, so while I wait for her, I’ll rant. About WordPress themes. Rather, about WordPress theme designers. And since Jakob Nielsen is the king of making proclamations based on nothing whatsoever but his personal opinion and everybody sucks it up, I figure you can suck this up too.

I’m no graphic designer. I hate Photoshop, and nine-tenths of what it does is meaningless to me (WTF is an alpha channel, anyway, or a path? Why is all that nonsense there?) I realize that lots of these people who put out themes are designers, but seriously, are they blind?

First, most of them are ugly. Either the designers are color blind, and don’t realize that orange text on a black background not only looks stupid but is nearly impossible to read, or they just like ugly. Ugly as in You-gly.

Then, they seem to think everybody wants graphic intensive themes, with little flowery backgrounds all over the page, or a too artistique tulip arching over the top of the page, or something equally nonsensical.

And never mind that they seem to love wasting at least half of the screen with their fixed-width designs. I mean, what’s wrong with these people? It’s a webpage, not a painting. Does “content” even occur to them? What good is a design that’s unreadable? And speaking of unreadable, why is it these designers seem to just love the tiniest little font they can find?

Okay, I’m done ranting. Jakob Nielsen be damned.

Widgets are a new WordPress feature. They allow you to drop and drag elements from your admin panel, and that inserts code. Now that I’ve used them on my other blog, I have to say, they are neat (except that wordpress.com won’t let you insert any javascript code). If I ever move my other blog from wordpress.com to, say, here (with another domain name), I will definitely use widgets.

However, if you’re like me, you were inserting code into your site long before widgets came out, and sure, it seems like a pain to start using them. I have an alternative, but first, you should know that changing themes does not affect your widgets. That alone is good enough reason to switch to widgets. You can’t insert any code into a loop with a widget as far as I can tell, though, so the primary advantage is in blogrolls and so forth you want in your sidebar.

Here’s the alternative.

Cut any code you add to your sidebar, and paste it into a new file.Do not include any div tags that assign classes or ids in your new file; instead, leave them in the sidebar.php file, or you’ll create more work for yourself when you change themes and have to change div tags in your own files! Name the file something that makes sense, like my_sidebar_crap.php. In your sidebar.php file where the code was, insert the following:

If you have a number of elements you add to your sidebar, you may want to cut and paste each one into its own file, then use an include statement for each one. That way, if you want to drop one, you just delete its include statement.

The thing, of course, is that when you change themes, you have to open up your sidebar.php file and add the include statements (and you don’t if you use widgets — they move along with your theme). However, this is the best alternative for code you have to add in order to make plugins work (like subscribe to comments, etc.)

Company coming from Indiana today, so blogging will most likely be light over the weekend.

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I’ve commented on the recent madness from the ECUSA and the Presbyterians from an ecclesiastical perspective on American Orthodox. But even if you take the trumpeting elephant out of the room, it’s still madness.

As I said in a comment on Orthodixie, this is insane even if you take “church” entirely out of the equation. So let’s do that, forget that we’re talking about an ecclesiastical body, and look at it from a purely organizational perspective.

For the last twenty years or more, the ECUSA has been pushing the envelope, and in so doing, has strained the Anglican Communion almost to the breaking point. Gay priests. Women priests. Women bishops. Gay bishops. All this along with an affection for heretical clergy has pushed the Anglicans almost to the point of schism.

So at the convention, they decided to first elect a female bishop as the primate, and refused to put even a temporary moratorium on consecrating gay bishops. This was their response to the other Anglican bodies.

What was the purpose of this insane behavior? Are they trying really hard to force a schism? What other explanation is there for this organizationally self-destructive behavior? What are they trying to accomplish?

And it isn’t only the effect on the Anglican Communion, either. The ECUSA has been obsessed with ecumenism, possibly more than any other church I can think of, for twenty years. So why would they essentially cut their own throats with respect to any possible intercommunion with the Roman Catholic or Orthodox churches? Again, what are they doing?

I really don’t get it. It’s surely the most irrational behavior I’ve seen in a long time (and yes, that includes the Kos Kidz and liberals in general).

Do you hate neocons?

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A reasonable pair of articles on immigration: Here, and here.

You can add this to Bush Was Right:

More than two years ago, when President Bush announced his aim to cut the federal budget deficit in half by 2009, many critics guffawed. They called the goal an impossibility, a naïve and futile effort that would be undermined by the fat-cat Republican tax cuts. A Boston Globe headline declared, “Bush’s plan to halve federal deficit seen as unlikely; Higher spending, lower taxes don’t mix, analysts say.” An Associated Press story went out on the wire with the headline, “Bush goal of halving federal deficits draws skepticism, derision.”

In that AP article, Sen. Kent Conrad, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, was quoted deriding Bush’s plan: “It’s like so much with this administration in respect to fiscal matters, it’s all spin, all the time.” Former Congressional Budget Office director Robert Reischauer called the proposal “fanciful.” To Democrats, the AP reported, Bush’s goal was simply “laughable.”

But the critics are no longer laughing. Driven by a surging national economy, tax revenues are increasing and the deficit is rapidly shrinking. The president’s deficit-reduction plan looks like it will not only succeed, but will do so years ahead of schedule.

There are all kinds of things I used to hear from my parents — and used to be clichés, they were so commonly heard from parents — that these days, I wonder if parents are saying. You know, like “If all your friends jumped out of the window, would you jump too?” or “Don’t play in the street! You’ll get killed!”

Let me add one to the list. “Oh, the tangled webs we weave, when we practice to deceive!”

For all the yowling the leftists do about lying, the only lying I see is coming continuously from them. Check out this thorough critique of the latest high profile leftist liar, Jason Leopold.

No comment would do this justice. Just read the latest from the Kos Kidz.

I guess that’s your idea of supporting the troops, eh liberals?

This blog was getting too diffuse, so I have a new blog for all religious topics (though not necessarily religion and politics topics) at American Orthodox.

It couldn’t have been said any better:

“Not once, but twice in the past century, American citizens have risen to the challenge and quite literally saved the world,” Gottlieb recalled. “From our heartland have come heroes like Alvin York, Audie Murphy, Joe Foss and others who grew up in a land of freedom and knew what it took to defend that birthright.

“Yet, as we celebrate our 230th anniversary, global anti- gunners, under the guise of reviewing a U.N. program of action on small arms and light weapons, want to create a binding international agreement that could supersede our laws and constitution,” Gottlieb said. “We have done much for the U.N. and in return, the organization has hosted despots, tyrants and dictators whose record of human rights abuses, aggression and genocide speaks for itself. And now comes an attack on our constitution, on our national holiday.

“America has always answered the call to help our international friends and neighbors,” Gottlieb observed, “but when our very way of life is attacked, maybe it is time to find more worthy endeavors for our material and financial support.”

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin

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The Right Brothers: Bush Was Right (music video).

From Peta Sucks:

The latest idiocy from the ACLU:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating complaints from more than a dozen black employees at a Six Flags theme park who were told their hairstyles were inappropriate.

Jonathan DeLeon, 17, was hired at Six Flags America in Largo, Md., in March to wear the costumes of Sylvester and Daffy Duck. A few weeks later, he said he was told to cut his braids, which were at least 3 feet long.

Though his mother cut more than 2 feet of his hair, park officials were dissatisfied, he said.

“They told me I had to cut them even shorter or go home,” DeLeon told The Washington Post. “They said they wanted an all-American thing. That’s what they said to all the black people. I had already cut it a lot, so I just left.”

The 2006 Six Flags America handbook states that employees are not allowed to have “any hairstyle that detracts or takes away from Six Flags theming.”

Tell me, who is holding a gun to these peoples’ heads and forcing them to work at Six Flags? Where in the Constitution does it grant the government the power to dictate how private businesses may and may not discriminate? Where in the Bill of Rights is there recognized a “right” to wear your hair any way you want, and to hell with your employer?

What a load of horse manure.

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This is one of the funniest rants I’ve read in a long time (not kid-safe). Acidman puts on his Haz-Mat suit to visit some leftist blogs, and reports back.

The Fathers Day Carnival of the Recipes is here.

You’re. Not. Even. Going. To. Believe. This.

Eventually, Lockwood acknowledged that Grimm buried the fetus in the back yard after discovering it wouldn’t flush. Burying it in the bucket was better than “just digging a shallow grave and throwing it in,” she said.

This is the best argument for mandatory sterilization I’ve ever seen.

Since the abortion crew and the ACLU lost their lawsuit to block pro-life plates, they might as well join the fun, eh? Here are a few pro-abortion plates they might want to market.

Warning: The plates are tasteless. Click below at your own risk!

From the Big Dog:

A lot of bloggers are talking about the Dhimmicrat vote against the House Resolution yesterday (see here, here, here, here, and here — and make sure you check out Hugh Hewitt’s response here). But let’s look a bit closer at that resolution, and see exactly what those Dhimmicrats found objectionable, shall we?

The Dhmmicrats objected to this:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) honors all those Americans who have taken an active part in the Global War on Terror, whether as first responders protecting the homeland, as servicemembers overseas, as diplomats and intelligence officers, or in other roles;

The Dhmmicrats objected to this:

(2) honors the sacrifices of the United States Armed Forces and of partners in the Coalition, and of the Iraqis and Afghans who fight alongside them, especially those who have fallen or been wounded in the struggle, and honors as well the sacrifices of their families and of others who risk their lives to help defend freedom;

The Dhmmicrats objected to this:

(3) declares that it is not in the national security interest of the United States to set an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq;

The Dhmmicrats objected to this:

(4) declares that the United States is committed to the completion of the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq;

The Dhmmicrats objected to this:

(5) congratulates Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and the Iraqi people on the courage they have shown by participating, in increasing millions, in the elections of 2005 and on the formation of the first government under Iraq’s new constitution;

The Dhmmicrats objected to this:

(6) calls upon the nations of the world to promote global peace and security by standing with the United States and other Coalition partners to support the efforts of the Iraqi and Afghan people to live in freedom; and

And the Dhimmicrats objected to this:

(7) declares that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the noble struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.

Can we question their patriotism yet, or do we have to wait until they start burning flags on Capitol Hill?

Linked to Basil’s Blog

Swallow whatever you may have in your mouth at the moment, put all food and drink far out of reach, then read this:

You’re an enlightened world citizen. Your T-shirt says “9/11 was an inside job.” You’re pretty sure we’re living in a fascist state, that President Bush taps the Dixie Chicks’ phones, Christian abortion clinic bombers outnumber jihadis, and the war on “terror” is a distraction from the real threats: carbon emissions and Pat Robertson. Then you learn that 17 people were arrested in a terrorist bomb plot. How do you process the information? Let’s take it step by step.

Gosh, that’s horrible, you think. But no — that’s what they WANT you to feel. Recall the prime directive: Question Authority (unless he’s a college professor). The plotters must have been impoverished olive farmers radicalized by the removal of Saddam Hussein. Why, if someone came in and toppled your president, you’d go to their country and … well, you’d thank them. Unless they did it for the wrong reasons! Then you’d blow something up. Like an SUV dealership. At night. Anyway, you understand; you care a lot about Iraqis these days. You think about Iraq more than China, to be honest, but it’s not as if you’ll scrape off your “Free Tibet” bumper sticker — unless it’s to make room for “Free Darfur.” Or “Hands Off Darfur,” depending.

[ . . . ]

But wait. You read that the suspects were not connected to al-Qaida, and you’re confused for a moment. Maybe it won’t be over if they get Osama bin Laden (provided he isn’t really in an supersecret Idaho prison). What if the “terrorists” hate you for their own reasons? The evildoer-in-chief said “they hate our freedoms” — as if we have freedoms, really, just try and get a bike-messenger job that has full health benefits. But what if rights and mixed-sex education and an economy based on sustainable hemp-based art installations mean nothing to them?

Seriously. Read the whole thing.

This is why I love the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The U.N.’s problems: Stop blaming the U.S.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

The No. 2 man at the United Nations whacks the United States for being critical where criticism is due and Big Media responds with, “Please, sir, may we have another?”

It’s argued that the U.N.’s critics, i.e., the rambunctious right, are determined to disgrace Turtle Bay when, in fact, the U.N. has managed that all on its own.

Last week, Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown went on a tear against the U.S., followed by similar claptrap by Kofi Annan in the June 12 Financial Times.

Opines the Los Angeles Times: “U.S. administrations (especially the current one) are reluctant to defend the U.N. even as they rely on it to police the world and legitimize their foreign policy moves.”

Oh, please. If the U.N. had done its job in Iraq, instead of lending its so-called authenticity to one of the biggest frauds in history — the oil-for-food mess — war might have been avoided.

Instead, the U.N. through incompetence — if not complicity — aided and abetted a lunatic who bolstered his wealth and position.

At The Washington Post, Sebastian Mallaby insists that it is U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, not Mr. Brown, who should be sent to the woodshed. Why? Because Mr. Bolton hasn’t rolled over on every half-baked U.N. appeal to transfer wealth to nations ruled by despots and steeped in corruption.

Brown’s brazen barrage, now backed up by Kofi Annan, should wake up even the most catatonic apologist.

We clearly need a new word for hand wringing, PC, self-described “conservatives” who whine incessantly about Ann Coulter. (For examples, see the comments at Hot Air.)

Shut up, already. Don’t like her? Fine. Shut up. We don’t care.

As to the word, I’m open to suggestions.

Blame Bush! Because Bush is to blame for everything!

Hilarious!

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Nope, Sullivan is still lying through his teeth.

I’m getting really sick of this Robo-Sapien commercial. God forgive me for being insensitive and intolerant and hate mongering, but as far as I’m concerned, these dorks that want chips implanted in the toes are in the same category as the morons that want horns put on their heads or their canines filed so they look like vampires.