I hate it when that happens

Yeah... I'm always finding other people's stuff in my pockets.

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I suppose that I should be paying attention to the YouTube debate...

...but I'm already fighting off a migraine. I can tolerate only so much idiocy on a good day. I did, though, catch Osbama's "Sure, I'll talk to thugs and murderers" answer. Hillary gave the young pup a good bitchslapping with her answer.

I never thought that I'd ever say anything nice about her.

...My head's getting worse now.

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Bloviating Buffoon

"The Swimmer" reacts to a "Mitchslapping" he and the Dems received the other day...

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The economics of prohibition

Over at The Corner, Jonah Goldberg shares this letter from a reader regarding the Dems' plan to jack up the tax on cigars from 5¢ to $10 stick...

The supposed reason for the tax is to raise money. But naturally when the tax goes from $.05 to $10.00 per cigar, they won't even get the $.05 because people like me will quit. I support my family of six on not alot of money in rural Oklahoma and I smoke usually one a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It's one of life's simple pleasures and I resent that I will have to give it up. I'm an Anglican priest and the only way I would quit would be if the doctor told me to or if I became a Baptist pastor. :) Or of course if my $37 bundle of 25 cigars goes up to $287 a bundle, I will also quit. I know it's such a minor thing compared to the ills of the world, but it truly bothers me.

The minister certainly represents one possible reaction to such a tax. Unfortunately, his reaction will not be the rule. It may not even be typical. This tax, should it become law, will encourage people to get the product they want by whatever means necessary. This would include, our history shows, buying on the black market.

The purpose of the tax, as the minister hints, is not to raise money; it's to stop people from smoking cigars. As such, it is a type of prohibition, just like this nation's flirtation with the prohibition of alcohol. All that was accomplished by alcohol prohibition was the rise of organized crime. This new prohibition will repeat that history. Those who choose to continue smoking, will be willing to pay less than $10 a cigar for their pleasure. All a bootlegger needs to do to sell his product is undercut the tax. He could sell that $2 cigar for $5 and call it "half priced". The old 5¢ tax goes uncollected, as does the new $10 tax, and the extra $3 goes into a smuggler's pocket.

Your tax dollars at work?

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Apropos of nothing...

I just love the "Preparing to background save" BS from MS Word. Background save... Kinda sounds like it's going to do that in the background, huh? Like it means that the program won't come to a screeching halt during the process? Like it won't sit there for a few moments like a 15-year old geek with taped glasses staring at a girl in a bikini? Like it will let you continue to work while this task happens in the background?

I wonder if it's done yet.

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More on that nifty little add-on

ScribeFire is a blogging add-on for Firefox. This makes blogging very convenient. The account wizard makes adding multiple accounts easy. If you blog under more than one account, this could save you the trouble of logging on and off of accounts. See the little "Powered by..." link below for more details.

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A test post

...using a nifty little blogging extension for Firefox.

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CYA in the WOD

Capt. Ed has a pretty good summary of yet another drug raid gone bad.This time, our gallant Drug Warriors gunned down a 92 year old woman in Atlanta. Kathryn Johnson was the unfortunate homeowner who got to see her tax dollars at work. Police kicked in the woman's door after dark last night. She, however, didn't go without a fight. Apparently, Mrs. Johnson believed that she was being robbed. She cleared leather first and hit three officers before they killed her. Now the Atlanta PD sounds like Jon Lovitz as they search for a believable story. And as of yet, no drugs have been found in the house.

The story keeps changing on where and how the officers were hit. One story has them approaching the house, while another has them inside after their "dynamic entry". (That's what they call it when they kick you door in looking for drugs that you don't have.) Capt. Ed points out that blood spatter evidence should tell us which story is correct. (Betcha those Atlanta PD boys are hating the CSI franchise right about now!)

This incident is a little different than the usual War On Drugs nightmare. This time, the cops didn't stumble into the wrong house after misreading the warrant. They had the right address; but they were a bit too trusting of their informant.

So what does this have to do with you? Have you got anyone who's mad at you; nursing a grudge? Imagine the fun that would be had by giving your name to the local Drug Warriors! If all they need to get the ball rolling is an anonymous tip, then what's to stop someone from having a little fun at your expense?

...Especially when that "fun" might end in gunfire.

Vacation's over and the poke's run out

Well... I'm back on the mainland. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last long enough. We miss the poke already. The Big Save in Koloa has a great selection of different styles of poke. They were all ~$5.50 per pound. You can't get the ahi alone for that around here! I saw ahi for $16.00 per pound the other day. And we usually get sticker shock going the other way around; people complain about Hawaiian prices.

More on Kaua'i

Most people think of this island as having three sides: North, South, and East. But what happened to West?! The West side of the island is mostly the Na Pali. Na Pali means "the cliffs" in Hawaiian. This is a vast roadless area dominated by cliffs that drop into the sea. This is a park now, but at one time hundreds, if not thousands, of Kauaiians lived in the area's hanging valleys. These were accessible only by sea and made for good hidey-holes in times of trouble. And since the vertical surfaces of the cliffs continue underwater, the fishing's probably pretty good. (Fish like vertical surfaces.)

We're staying on the South side of the island at Po'ipu. Princeville, on the North side, has a more hoitytoity selection of resorts, and it's much closer to the popular Hanalei Valley; but, we prefer the Po'ipu area as it's more centrally located. It's close to Lihue and pretty much equidistant from Waimea canyon and Hanalei. Also, the State beach in Po'ipu is one of the best snorkeling spots on the island, if not the best. Another attraction here later is in the year is return of the Humpback Whales to these waters. We saw quite a few last year, and a few scouts have already been spotted this week.

Hey Red! Didn't you describe the island as having three sides? What about inside and out; or inland and along the shore, to be more precise. Technically speaking, this would be another way to view the island, but the interior of the island is dominated by Mt. Wai'ale'ale. The mountain is the wettest spot on earth, receiving over 600 inches of rain each year. The interior is solid, roadless rain forest, so most people live along the shoreline.

More to follow later. Now we're off to find the black sand beach near the mouth of Waimea Canyon.

Aloha, baby!

Coming at you from Hawai'i this week! (I'm brashly assuming that "you" are actually reading this and that I'm not just talking to myself.) The Redcloak family is on the "Garden Isle" of Kaua'i. This is our third trip to this island in the last three years. More to come later; we're off to a lu'au.

Shower on!

And for all these years, I thought that this gem had been deleted. I'm wiping away the tears as I write this!

Shouts to da Mods for bringing this one back from the dead!!

More Pelosi fallout

The Varmint over at Attack Cartoons.com faces an interesting problem: How does one caricature a caricature?

"A banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors..."

Ronald Reagan's 1975 speech to CPAC:As valid today as ever.

Fun with Firefox

I'm trying out a new extension for blogging. I was using Blog This!, but there isn't a version for Firefox 2.0 just yet. This was posted using Deepest Sender. Thus far, it looks like it has all of the features I like to see.

We'll see what happens when I hit the "Post" button!

...OK, that wasn't so smooth, but it's not the developer's fault. The nice people at Blogger are doing their part to fight spam blogs. No one wants spam blogs, so this is okey-dokey by me!

About last night...

I wrote this late last night (or early this morning!) on FR...

I said on several threads before Tuesday that poll numbers suggested that the Dems were screwed. Their margin in the generic polls wasn't great enough, I thought, to give them control of either house. However, I'm standing by my assessment: They're screwed.

Early polls (August/September) hinted at a bloodbath this year. That didn't happen. The Dems control Congress by the skin of their teeth. (And as I write this, the Senate is iffy.) This is actually worse for them than falling short. Their far-left, base supporters are going to be claiming responsibility for the Dems' win and they are going to expect results for their effort. This trap of high expectations is going to be their undoing.

The first, second, and third items on the Moonbat agenda are impeachment, impeachment, and impeachment. This is something that Reid and Pelosi cannot deliver and cannot afford not to deliver. They face the same dilemma with the next agenda item: halting the War on Islamofascism.

The Democrat majority in both houses is not monolithic. There are a number of Blue Dogs in both houses and there's no guarantee that they'll go along with a Moonbat temper tantrum. A drive for articles of impeachment will look to the American People like a childish outburst. The Blue Dogs know this and won't want to get caught up in the backlash that's sure to follow. It cost us in the '90s and it will cost them now.

Pelosi's problem is how to find a way to persuade her most extreme supporters that impeachment is a bad idea. They are utterly convinced that the entire country thinks and feels just like they do. Any attempt to avoid impeachment will be seen as treasonous by them. I don't think that Pelosi can dodge this one. Either she pisses off her base, and this is a deal breaker with them, or she chases the Blue Dogs into George Bush's waiting arms.

The Blue Dogs also support the war effort. One member of the Democrat caucus in particular, while he may not qualify as a Blue Dog, certainly has an azure tinge and bruising around his throat: Joe Lieberman. Joe will probably view is re-election as a referendum on the war; and rightly so since his Democrat opponent made this the centerpiece of his campaign. The Moonbats also saw Joe's defeat in the primary as a sign of their own greatness. Seeing him in the Senate will piss them off; seeing him nixing any effort to halt the war will really piss them off! But what can Reid do? The knife wounds in Joe's back haven't healed yet. If there's a one seat margin in the Senate, then Reid needs to plant some wet one's on Joe's backside; especially on this issue.

And therein lies Reid's problem: It's a real pain the arse trying to hold together a fractious coalition. This is something that we understand. (And on a side note, loosing DeWine and Chaffee will be a blessing in the long run.) Any one Senator can become a king maker when the majority leader doesn't have the votes to spare. If halting the war comes up early, and it will, and if Reid caves in to Lieberman, and he will, then Reid will spend the next two years kissing blue butts. (Welcome to our world Harry!)

The Democrats are between a rock and a hard place. They will either split their caucus and lose their razor thin majority or they will have to cross their base. The Moonbat base has spent the last six years fuming over 2000. They want revenge and they want it now. "Go along to get along" is something that simply will not make sense to them. They will explode with rage if they don't get what they see as their rightful due. Nothing short of heads on pikes will satisfy them; talk and rhetoric won't do the job. But what satiates the Moonbats will horrify the Blue Dogs. What to do, what to do...

The Dems are screwed.

...and today, it sounds like Pelosi isn't backing away from the rabid Moonbats. Will she pick Moonbats over Blue Dogs?

Poor little neglected blog...

Where have I been? Everywhere but here, it would seem. You'd think that I'd have been venting my spleen here more often. I've been off offending sensibilities over at FreeRepublic, although I damn near got banned one night. (I thought that it was a funny remark. Jim didn't.)

Resistance is futile...

I was going to post this to a FreeRepublic thread on illegal immigration and assimilation; but, it got pulled while I was composing my brilliant thoughts. Who knows... Perhaps my insights could have saved the thread from the Mod's axe...

---

Things are not as bad as some people think. I've long noticed that no matter how unassimilated some Mexican immigrants are, their children and grandchildren are being assimilated into our culture. (Insert your favorite Borg warning here!) I just had an example of that not 20 minutes ago.

I work in a mostly Latino neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and get my hair cut at a local shop. The owner is originally from Mexico. The girl who cuts my hair is Latina, but she was born and raised here. The shop usually has the TV on one of the Spanish language stations. This should set the scene for you.

A customer walked in with her little boy. She asked a question in Spanish of the girl cutting my hair, who answered in Spanish. Her little boy noticed something on the wall and asked his mother about it, in English. She responded to her son in English. A few minutes later, as I was paying my bill, the little boy walked up to me and asked ¿Como estás?. (I have dark hair and an olive complexion, so I assume that he mistook me for a Latino.) How is this a good sign, you ask? The little boy, while fluent in Spanish, obviously speaks English at home. English is his primary language.

Culture is something one learns and it's determined by language, not ethnicity. The culture that child is learning is ours; not Mexico's. His mother may be trying to cling to the culture of the "Old Country", but he is turning into an American. Resistance Is Futile.

All we are saying....

...is give Peeps a chance.

Shotgungate

Re: The hunting accident involving Dick Cheney

WHO CARES?!?

It was a minor hunting accident. To hear these inside-the-beltway, metrosexual bedwetters in the media carry on, you'd think that Cheney was hunting GOP donors rather than quail.

The next time I get peppered with shot during the dove season, should I alert the DC media? Or should I piss 'em off by letting someone call the local broadsheet?