Here I am

For another day or two I’ll be here instead of my regular home. More later.

First Cup 02.03.07

The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks. ~ Sir James Mackintosh

It must be tough trying to portray yourself as a moderate to the country while at the same time making sure your base is convinced of your far left bona fides. It was the later Hillary was kowtowing to the other day.

“Believe me, I understand the frustration and the outrage,” Clinton said in a speech to the Democratic National Committee meeting that brought the party’s nine White House hopefuls together for the first time. “You have to have 60 votes to cap troops, to limit funding to do anything. If we in Congress don’t end this war before January 2009, as president, I will.”

I heard a sound bite of that last sentence on a radio news broadcast yesterday afternoon. She was definitely using her Shrill Hill™ voice; the same one she was using when she made this statement:

“And let me add one other thing, and I want to be very clear about this,” she said. “If I had been president in October of 2002, I would not have started this war.”

Dan Conley had this take:

Anyone who believes her, please raise your hand. Or maybe there’s some literal truth here that I’m missing … such as, like Bush, she’d wait until March 2003 to start it.

Or perhaps, given the extraordinary set of circumstances it would have taken for her to be President in 2002, she had somehow acquired a superpower, let’s say omniscience, in the late 90s and knew for a fact that Saddam had no WMDs. Of course, if Hillary knew everything that Bill was doing all these years … oh, never mind. (h/t James Joyner)

Her nutroots base may be happy to hear those sentiments,but I’m willing to bet she hopes the rest of the country wasn’t listening closely.

Still a Terrorist

The day after last year’s London subway bombings I wrote the following post. I am re-posting it here as it has some relevance to the current outrage over the Pope’s quotation regarding Islam. It also ties in with an email correspondence I’ve been having with Chad at In the Bullpen. Chad’s post looks at the recent history of the conflict between Islam and Christianity and quotes part of an email he sent to me:

Previous popes have tried to have a dialog between the two religions, but you cannot have a dialog when one side refuses to actually hear what is said. If you get your source of news through an Imam who repeatedly tells you the West as a whole wants to exterminate your kind, what other choice do you have than to react violently? The problem, or at least as I see it, is more that the religious leaders within Islam fail to tell their parishioners the truth and prefer them to walk blindly.

My reply:

Islamonazis (to use a phrase I heard somewhere) are not so much insulted as they are looking for a hook — something they can use to call for more violence. The bigger the insulter (and it doesn’t get any bigger than Christianity) the bigger and more useful the hook.

During our exchange I was reminded of this post. A few minor changes have been made due to outdated links and the like.

My Dog Is A Terrorist

Don’t get me wrong, I love my dog. He’s great with kids, even the youngest who can just walk and who’s idea of petting is hitting Joker on the head. He let’s us know if someone is in the yard, but typically doesn’t bark without reason. Still, he’s a terrorist. You see, Joker has one all consuming hatred. Cats. Not the cartoonish, stereotypical hatred of cats that dogs are reported to have, but an all consuming desire that cats should not exist in the world. We’ve tried to acclimate him to a few cats. Nothing doing. He actually broke a window in front of the house because of cats in the yard ($100 vet bill, $100 to replace the window).

Take a look at the Day by Day strip at the top of the page (here or here if you linked directly to this article). Chris Muir nails it. The terrorist perform their actions not because of Bush/Blair/Iraq/et. al. but because infidels exist. That’s you an me my friend. Getting along with these extremists is a one way proposition. They have no desire to get along with us, no matter how hard we try to get along with them. Their goal isn’t accommodation, but elimination. Period.

The left still doesn’t get it. Their primary (and not unexpected) response to yesterday’s bombings is along the lines of, “We’re very sad for the British people who were attacked. It was Bush’s/Blair’s fault.” Steve Verdon, posting on Outside the Beltway, does a great job fisking the left’s contention that Bush is responsible for increased terrorism. Michelle Malkin exposes several Reactions from the American Left as does Brian at Iowa Voice. Many others (follow the links in either of those posts) are pointing out the liberal lies as well. I invite you to look at the comments posted on any of the blogs who are actually saying that terrorists are the ones responsible for this attack. Inevitably there will be a comment or comments similar to the one I received (even with my relatively small readership) saying, “BUSH AND BLAIR BROUGHT THIS ON”. (I guess if you can’t make a real argument SAYING IT IN ALL CAPS will make people believe it.)

I’m sure that we will be seeing more reports today as the British investigate those who are responsible for the cowardly attacks. It doesn’t require a crystal ball to predict:

• Those who are actually responsible hate us infidels, but,
• The left will continue to blame Bush
• The left will continue to blame Blair
• Crybaby libs will claim we just need to get along
• TOM will sieze any opportunity to highlight the lib/left view
• Terrorist will be looking for more ways to hurt us
• Joker will still hate cats

Power Problems

Well, I’m back over here for awhile. Here’s why:

July 28, 2006 – 4:00 PM PST
Due to a generator failure at one of our four data centers, the building operators were forced to shut down power to the entire building. Because of this failure, the data center is currently offline.

This will cause some of our customer’s web sites to be down. For current information, please check back to the Help Center.

Your continued patience is greatly appreciated.

On Again Off Again

Arrrghhh!!! Well, in the current on again, off again saga of my site it is currently off again.

Must. Think. Happy. Thoughts.

Saturday Blogging Plans

I have already added a good part of my personal blogroll to the links section here. Blogging may be light today for several reasons. Mostly because I’m a little bit leery of posting anything at bRight & Early. I just don’t know how permanent the current fix is going to be. I also need to go get a haircut this morning. This is imperative.

I also plan on working on this site a bit more. I’ve been convinced of the necessity of having a backup site. Also, I’ll be looking at getting a new permanent site. I’ve received one suggestion for a host, and I welcome others.

I hope you enjoy your Saturday.

Musically Tagged.

The MaryHunter (We’re close. I just call him The) tagged me with a musical meme.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

I don’t get to listen to a lot of music. I can only pick up one station on my radio at work. Fortunately it’s the one that has Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity to cover most of my working hours. But music has been a part of my life for years. So, here goes, in no particular order.

Who are you? Who, who, who, who? – Who Are you – The Who (Pete Townshend). Ok, so I watch a lot of CSI.

My soul belongs to God, I know / I made that bargain long ago / He gave me hope when hope was gone / He gave me strength to journey on / Who am I? Who am I? / I am Jean Valjean! – Who Am I? – Les Miserable (Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer) I have been involved in community theatre for over thirty years. I’ve never performed Les Mis, but I love the music.

Somethin’ tells me I’m into something good – I’m into something good – Herman’s Hermits (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) Cindy’s been singing this one to the littlest rug rat for the past few days. He loves it (along with the themes to Sponge Bob and That 70’s Show).

I love coffee, I love tea / I love the Java Jive and it loves me / Coffee and tea and the java and me / A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup (Boy!) – Java Jive – The Manhattan Transfer (Ben Oakland, Milton Drake) This CD is always close at hand in my car. And for someone who starts his day with, “A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup (Boy!),” it’s a natural pick.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder / Consider all the works Thy hands have made, / I see the stars, I hear the rolling/mighty thunder, / Thy pow’r thru-out the universe displayed! – How Great Thou Art (Stuart K. Hine) This has always been one of my favorite hymns. Looking at the night sky, or out the window after a storm, this song often pops into my head and I am reminded once again of my Creator.

Oh, what a beautiful mornin’, / Oh, what a beautiful day. / I got a beautiful feelin’ / Ev’rything’s goin’ my way. – Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ – Oklahoma (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) This song I performed in a revue and I always break it out for the kids. It makes them laugh, or yell, “STOP SINGING!”

Oh say, can you see / by the dawn’s early light / what so proudly we hailed/ at the twilight’s last gleaming? – The Star Spangled Banner (Francis Scott Key) You might think this one is just thrown in to make a political statement. It’s not. Watching the Olympics this week I am always moved by how listening to our National Anthem play brings out emotions in our athletes. It also reminds me that baseball season is just around the corner. When I was young I thought that the last line included the words, “Play Ball!”

Now, how to tag? How about,

Brian (I have a feeling I know the artist for quite a few of his)

Sister Toldjah

Five More? That might have to wait until morning.

Plan B

I set this account up here at WordPress.com a while ago. I am once again unable to access the database portion of my regular blog. I hope that I can get back on there soon. But, until then . . .

Hold My Place

This site is a backup for my regular blog brightandearly.1southernyankee.com