Quote du jour

"...blogging is a little like shouting from the rooftops, only you can do it at odd hours without disturbing the neighbors!"

-Proof

Stan Freberg: "Cotton Picking Snare Drum"

"Cotton picking" is a mild expletive that can be uttered in mixed company. If often takes the place of harsher uglier curses, and as such is favored by the genteel Sons of the South.

Plus, it gives me an excuse to play some Stan Freberg!

"God's Flyover"

Usually they just have jets flyover patriotic rallies!

Via Left Coast Rebel

"He's the Cotton Pickin' President"

Now wait just a cotton pickin' minute! I heard that some cotton pickin' pinhead might fire this guy just for using a cotton pickin' idiom???

If this is true, this is political correctness on steroids! As a native Son of the South, I can't tell you how many times I've used the phrase "cotton pickin'", and to my knowledge, none of them were even remotely racial. There have been a lot of us Persons of Pallor picking cotton. This is a tempest in a teapot. A cotton pickin' teapot, I tell ya! Sheesh!

H/T "Beautiful Loser"

Twitvid

Update: He issued a cotton pickin' apology! Didn't have the bolls for it, I guess!

Rick Sanchez Apologizes After Labeling Obama the 'Cotton-Picking President'

Note: If you cotton picking liberals are so cotton picking thin skinned as to let something as trivial as this bother you, then you can cotton picking well guess what my new old favorite phrase is. And you may quote me!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Update II:Rick Sanchez speaks! : "I just said cotton picking because it was a term that I've used because I grew up in the South. It's a point that is often used to illustrate frustration."

Cotton picking Yankees bitterly clinging to their racial stereotypes! Heh.

Quote du jour

To a North Country Yankee it’s self-evident that, when a burglar breaks into your home, you should have the right to shoot him - indeed, not just the right, but the responsibility, as a free-born citizen, to uphold the integrity of your property.

-Mark Steyn

Glenn Beck's Bullet Proof Vest Story

I'm not a big fan of Glenn Beck (so shoot me!) I have one of his books, but I think watching this clip was the longest I've ever heard him speak. But, since we are a big fan of bullet proof vests* at Proof Positive (free plug with every mention!) I thought I'd run with it.

* Bullet proof bra
* Stab proof vests

More at Say Anything

Headline du jour

“I Can’t Spend All Of My Time With My Birth Certificate Plastered On My Forehead”

or my version: “I Can’t Spend All Of My Time...Plastered..."

Heh.

Julianne Moore "Naked" ad Banned in Venice, Italy

by the Left Coast Rebel

We know that Europe is turning away from government policies that have resoundly failed them over the past century even as America attempts a disastrous experiment in the same. Could perhaps Europe be turning the corner on a moral Awakening of sorts as well (or at least moralistic or morally authoritarian governance)?

This story out of Venice Italy seems to point to just that:

REPORTS that a naked image of American actress Julianne Moore was banned from the famous St Mark's Square in Venice is gaining widespread attention.

The Mayor of Venice ruled out the giant advertisement, which featured the naked actress with her modesty preserved by a large black bag and two lion cubs, saying it was inappropriate.

The poster, for luxury goods manufacturer Bulgari, was to have featured Moore reclining in a classical pose on red brocade cushions and was to have covered part of the pink and white Gothic facade of the Doge's Palace while restoration work was under way.

The giant adverts are a valuable source of income for Venice - the Bulgari poster bringing in around £30,000 (US$46,500) per month - and the Mayor, Giorgio Orsoni, has agreed that it can be replaced by a more chaste image of the actress.

When I saw the "naked" Bulgari ad image of actress Julianne Moore I thought that it didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary that one would see at Times Square in New York. The powers that be in Italy (Venice) think the same - and that's the problem:

“I take account of the fact that Venice is part of the real word ... but we cannot accept these Hollywood-style images,” said Marino Folin, president of the Venice Foundation.

“There are intelligent sponsors, and we need to come up with advertising that suits Venice, not Times Square.”

For the life of me, I can't see what the big deal is about:


Banned in Venice - Julianne Moore 'naked' ad that isn't

Cross posted to Left Coast Rebel

The New York Times And Me - The 9/11 Attacks And "Rhetoric"

by guest blogger Andrew Roman

I am a news junkie.

I am, too, a collector of newspapers and original news broadcasts (both radio and television).

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were the news events of the decade, and, arguably, of my lifetime. Much like the Kennedy assassination during my father’s generation, and the attack on Pearl Harbor during my grandfather’s generation, the hijacking of four airplanes, the subsequent use of those airplanes as missiles against targets in the United States, and the ultimate collapse of the two tallest buildings in New York into the streets of Manhattan on live television – all before 10:30AM – will forever be that “moment in time” branded in the minds of anyone and everyone who was around to experience it.

It was a colossal act of evil.

It was an unmistakable act of war.

The horror and terror of that day almost nine years ago - culminating in the deaths of almost three thousand innocent human beings - cannot be overstated.

And while I was fortunate enough not to experience any personal loss on that terrible Tuesday morning, as an American, I was deeply and profoundly affected by the attack on my country and the staggering loss of life.

In the months and years following 9/11, many outstanding documentaries on the events of that day were produced – from technical presentations explaining exactly how and why the towers collapsed to personal stories of the people who escaped the towers before they fell.

I own many of these exceptional programs.

However, as a bona fide news junkie, the one documentary I was hoping to see created never came to fruition. The one presentation I had hoped would come out depicting the events of September 11, 2001 “as they unfolded” on live television was never made. I found it puzzling - and disappointing - that coverage of the most photographed and videotaped event in American television news history simply had not been preserved in any real way for the public at large to review and study. Not at the time anyway.

Back in early 2003, I decided I would endeavor to actualize, on my own, the kind of “documentary” I was wanting to see - a timeline of the events of September 11, 2001, employing mostly “as it happened” television newscasts. My task was to gather as many of the original telecasts from as many networks as possible – including the initial “breaking news” bulletins which began airing at 8:48 AM – and compile them into a montage that presented exactly how each outlet reported the unfolding story. It would, quite literally, be a succession of segments, edited together in such a way that would enable one to get a representative sampling of how the television networks covered each development that morning (e.g., the second plane crashing into the South Tower, the first reports of an “explosion” at the Pentagon, the collapse of the South Tower, etc).

This was not an agenda driven project.

Rather, it was to be a modest, yet poignant, historical record of how the media covered the biggest news story of a generation. As one who does this sort of thing for a living, I was certainly up to the task.

But there were obvious problems.

To begin with, this project was ultimately intended to be for private use only, although I did approach several colleges about the possibility of using the final presentation for educational purposes. (I would have donated the video, of course). No one at the time, however, was interested - and because not a single television or radio network agreed to help me with such an undertaking, I had to do all the digging on my own, contacting other collectors and news junkies for possible footage.

To say that trying to track down original 9/11 news footage was not easy would be the understatement of a lifetime.

Indeed, it is true that some people did, in fact, have the presence of mind to turn their VCRs on after the fact, but as one can imagine, finding complete network news coverage of the events of that morning, including the first “breaking news” bulletins, was a major challenge. After all, how many people actually had their VCRs rolling prior to those initial bulletins?

Who knew what was about to happen?

However, by the end of that year, I had painstakingly managed to hunt down the first two hours of broadcasts of that morning’s events from just about every national news outlet, as well as from all of New York City’s local channels.

I spent a couple of months putting it all together.

The entire presentation – beginning with a roundup of that morning’s headlines before the first plane hit (Michael Jordan’s return to basketball was a big story that day), and concluding with a few very powerful words from President Bush before a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 – runs about an hour and a half.

As I alluded to earlier, I never sold my efforts for profit, never officially “released” it anywhere, and only ever shared it with friends and associates who were interested. I called the video “September 11, 2001 – As It Happened – A Composite.”

Approximately 95% of the program is comprised of original television newscasts from that day, exactly as they aired. The remaining 5% feature original news radio broadcasts from that morning as well as some additional footage from that day not broadcast on live television. (I included these extra "non-broadcast" video elements for the sake of completeness).

I finished the project about two-and-a-half years after the attacks, in April, 2004.

Six and half years after that - just yesterday, in fact - my "As It Happened" video made the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

Exciting as it was the find out that my little video has been mentioned in the New York Times Magazine, I quickly got a hold of my senses and remembered that this was the New York Times. It quickly became obvious that the video was about to be picked apart and misinterpreted by a pensmith from the left.

According the article's author, Virginia Heffernan, the way the program was assembled - interesting as it may have been to watch - led her to the conclusion that it was ultimately nothing more than a "piece of rhetoric." To Heffernan, my "heavily edited" program - a mashup, as they say - was created in such a way as to manipulate the narrative of the events of that day. To her, it was the fruit of an obvious agenda, engineered to further a position, whatever it was. Heffernan even went on to expose an audio-video "mismatch" she came across in the program, which, she said, "suggests the extent of the editing."

Silly me, I had no idea this is what I was doing.

She is, after all, a professional columnist, and I'm only a regular guy from the outer boroughs who doesn't get paid to write. She would know.

So why exactly did Ms. Heffernan take time to comment on my video, a portion of which was posted on YouTube three years ago?

As it turns out, an excerpt of my video assemblage is being included in a presentation on “rhetoric.”

Writes Heffernan:

The video is now included in “Rhetoric of 9/11,” a special exhibition of the online speech archive American Rhetoric, an immersive site produced by Michael Eidenmuller, a rhetoric connoisseur and professor at the University of Texas at Tyler. The montage is billed as an excerpt from a hard-to-find DVD called “September 11, 2001 — As It Happened — A Composite”; it shows heavily edited clips mainly from telecasts that appeared in New York City from 9:02 to 9:03 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.

Witnesses on location and in studios can be heard interpreting images of an explosion in Manhattan. The fact that the video represents an online excerpt of a film montage of digitally edited clips of television broadcasts of audio and video feeds means it’s almost pure art, editing and framing — a piece of rhetoric itself.

In her piece, Heffernan is not only commenting on the "rhetoric" of the newscasters and eyewitnesses of September 11, 2001 as depicted in the program, but is labeling the video itself - the way it was constructed and the clips chosen to tell the story – as “rhetoric."

Her wording here is most interesting.

It is the unfortunate, but predictable, product of both her ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.

She uses the phrase "heavily edited" to suggest egregious manipulation on my part. Why else would she use that specific term if not to imply agenda-motivated heavy-handedness? Words, after all, have meaning and, quite often, power. Why not call it a "compilation," a "sequence" or a "composite," which would be far more accurate?

Indeed, in the literal sense of the word, the entire presentation is edited, but only in that the “editing” was a necessary action in order to string together a succession of clips to tell the story.

But even that description is misleading.

The “story” did not need to be crafted or shaped for this video. The attacks of September 11, 2001 were an exceptionally straight-forward act of terrorism perpetrated by those who wished to inflict maximum damage on American civilians. My video was, quite literally, a progression of snapshots in time.

Nothing more.

The particular section of the program referenced by Heffernan begins with ABC's national feed at 9:02 AM, sixteen minutes after the first plane slammed into the North Tower. Don Dahler, a correspondent speaking to Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer, is describing what he is seeing as the North Tower burns. Suddenly, as the clock turns to 9:03 AM, the second plane crashes into the other tower on live television. Dahler gasps, "Oh My God!" Both Gibson and Sawyer, maintaining composure - to their great credit - comment on what they've just seen, including Gibson’s assertion that what we’ve all just witnessed is most likely a “concerted effort” to attack the Twin Towers.

It is powerful television, presented just as it was broadcast nine years ago.

The video stays with ABC's coverage for about 40 seconds before going directly to the next "clip," which is CBS's network coverage of the same event.

According to Heffernan, this transition counts as one of my "heavy edits" - a simple cut from ABC's coverage to CBS's coverage.

In other words, all I did was simply "switch" to another network's broadcast, turning back the clock one minute to 9:02 AM, just before the second plane hit, to show the viewer how CBS covered the same event.

That's it.

This pattern of simple cuts for this particular portion of the program continues with WNYW (Fox News New York), WNBC (NBC New York), NY1 (New York One), WPIX (Channel 11, New York), WCBS (CBS New York), and Fox News Channel.

None of these individual clips were edited in any way. They were included "as they happened," each segment being anywhere from thirty to forty seconds long.

No one - repeat no one - with any idea of what they are talking about would ever call that "heavy editing."

Heffernan is entirely misleading her readers. Her stunning cluelessness is exceeded only by her liberalism, and, sadly, seems to be the direct result of it.

Note that in her piece she makes sure to emphasize (i.e., italicize) the words "excerpt," "montage," "clips," "broadcasts" and "feeds" in an attempt to illustrate my master manipulation of the material. But she sounds remarkably naive. It's like accusing someone of distributing drugs to minors, only to found out that person is actually a pediatrician.

Indeed, there are "segments" in the program.

Indeed, the program is, by definition, a "montage."

Indeed, it is a succession of "clips."

So, therefore what?

In Heffernan's world, the video I created cannot possibly be taken as anything other than "pure art, editing and framing" because of these realities.

Ironically, what she has projected onto the video is not unlike what she has done with her careful and deliberate choice of words in the article. Of course, it's unclear in reading Heffernan's piece exactly what I would have had to include in that section of the program to transform it from mere "rhetoric" and "art" to something less agenda-driven.

She goes on:

The witnesses’ off-the-cuff inferences about the day’s second plane crash are fascinating. So much new information — logistical, emotional, political — dawns on these off-guard brains at once. But they rise to meet the challenge. Watching “September 11, 2001 — As It Happened — The South Tower Attack,” which was uploaded in 2007, you can almost feel minds absorbing injury, cognitive immune systems springing into action and one of modern civilization’s master narratives being created.

“Cognitive immune systems springing into action?”

Oh, help me Rhonda.

Only college educated leftists use such hyper-syllabic vapidity when trying to discuss evil (save for all the evil perpetrated by the United States) - as if the poor, fragile American mind can only make sense of the true nature of 9/11 by reflexively - instinctively - blaming other "bad guys." Thus, according to Heffernan and her ilk, the way we see and comprehend what happened on that day nine years ago is the result of our collective "cognitive immune systems" protecting us, sorting things out for us, making things understandable, keeping us from having to dig any deeper than we have to.

This is honestly how libs think.

Indeed, many on the left view the attacks as a profoundly complicated, socio-economic, political and emotional event - not an act of pure evil. That would be far too simplistic. Without considering the nuances and penumbras of the larger picture, we are, thus, left with having to make due with popular "rhetoric." Ultimately, the master narrative is created - and reinforced - by folks like me.

The video on American Rhetoric also includes frightening close-range images of the second crash that weren’t broadcast at the time, notably a shot looking north at the south tower right above tree level. A stray piece of video plays over unconnected audio from NPR. The video-audio mismatch suggests the extent of the editing. This is a brief designed to remind us of what struck observers at the time as self-evident: that there is someone to blame and punish for the attacks of Sept. 11. After nine years of trying to figure out how to assign that blame, the eyewitness idea of “on purpose” now seems more complicated than ever.

Wow.

Just wow.

Who, on God's green earth, save for overly-intellectualizing leftists and Islamic fundamentalist sympathizers, believes that placing blame for the 9/11 attacks is "more complicated than ever"? In the conscious world, what does that even mean? What could possibly be complicated about it? What other subtleties and dimensions are the rest of us missing that somehow take the edge off the evil perpetrated that day?

How can the left ever be taken seriously when "thinkers" like Heffernan are the ones who articulate the positions of their side?

That someone was to blame for these murderous acts was not a conclusion haphazardly drawn in the emotion of the moment nine years ago.

Someone did hijack those planes.

Someone did murder those innocents.

Someone did bring down the Twin Towers.

Facts are pesky things.

Heffernan also believes she has the video's creator - me - in a "gotcha," hand-in-the-cookie-jar moment because of what she calls a "stray video" playing over "unconnected" audio. The "mismatch," as Heffernan describes it, can only lead one to speculate just how extensive the manipulation of the rest of the video must be.

Even Heffernan cannot be this petty ... or dumb.

Obviously, broadcasts on NPR (National Public Radio) and WCBS-AM (News Radio 880 in New York) do not come with accompanying pictures.

These are radio broadcasts.

I included these audio-only feeds in the presentation for the sake of thoroughness. I thought it would be interesting to hear, albeit briefly, how selected radio stations covered some of the events of that morning. But rather than present a blank screen during those audio passages, I simply placed additional video footage of the second plane hitting the South Tower not broadcast live on television that morning, along with some street scenes of stunned New Yorkers staring at the burning towers. I even included one tremendously frightening shot – a “raw” video - of the second plane crashing into the South Tower from Battery Park, south of where the towers stood, a clip mentioned by Heffernan in her piece.

That's it.

Such is the "heavy editing” that defines my 9/11 “rhetoric” video.

Anyone who watches the presentation can see that these "mismatched" vido and audio tracks are not original television newscasts, nor are they meant to draw that inference from the viewer. They were not presented that way, and there is nothing about them that suggests a "narrative" being constructed. The fact is, some of the angles of the second plane were so dramatic - so compelling - that I decided to include them in the program after the sequence of original newscasts.

Heffernan is trying desperately hard to sound smart.

And even if, for the sake of argument, one did subscribe to the idea that the video I created – manipulated, Heffernan might say - was built with the intent of proffering a specific narrative, what exactly would that narrative be? What agenda am I supposedly fostering here?

That the United States was attacked by terrorists?

That thousands of innocents were murdered in New York, Northern Virgina and Pennsylvania?

That the attacks were a bad thing?

Honestly, what on earth is this woman talking about?

YouTube-style montages and mash-ups have been an excellent tool for seeing and showing how rhetoric takes shape. Of course, these videos can themselves be polemical, and people use them to advance all kinds of tendentious theories. But even as the 9/11 conspiracy blogs seem to have moved on, the narrative of 9/11 — and especially the question of who is ultimately blameworthy and what retribution and prevention would or should look like — is still contested, as the recent debates over a proposed Islamic center near the site of the attacks in Manhattan make clear.

Is it possible that after nine years we still can’t do much better than describe that 2001 tragedy as having “proportions that we cannot begin to imagine”?

First of all, the attacks of September 11, 2001 were not - repeat not - a "tragedy." They were not an act of nature or an unfortunate accident. They were a deliberate act of murder and destruction. The very fact that Heffernan uses the word "tragedy" to classify an act of war says all you need to know about where she is coming from.

Second, one could have bet the deed of their home on the fact that Heffernan would somehow figure out a way to insert the current debate on the Ground Zero mosque and Islamic cultural center into her article.

And no, the old Burlington Coat Factory, where the proposed mosque would be built, isn't near Ground Zero - it is Ground Zero. When the landing gear of the second plane smashed through the roof of that building, it earned the right to be classified as such.

The so-called narrative of 9/11, as she puts it, is contested only by Muslims who, at the very least, blame the United States in part for bringing on the attacks themselves, and moral equivalency derelicts who populate the cultural and political left (e.g., New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who says discussion of the topic is closed). Thus, in Heffernan’s world, my video is to be readily lumped in with conspiracy-theory mashups and YouTube-style montages, dismissed as nothing more than the spawn of a given agenda, a piece of art, and one man's interpretation of the events.

She is certainly entitled to her opinion – ill-informed as she is - but there is a larger point to be made here.

How dare she diminish the horror of that Tuesday morning nine years ago by repudiating the outrage and indignation we all felt - and still feel - as mere “rhetoric.”

This country was ruthlessly and brutally attacked on that day.

Innocent human beings were murdered by human vermin whose supporters and sympathizers openly celebrated on that day.

People jumped to their deaths from the upper floors of the World Trade Center to avoid dying by fire on that day.

The two largest buildings in New York crumbled into the streets on that day.

Nearly two hundred people were slain at the Pentagon on that day.

A hijacked airplane doubling as a missile on its way to Washington crashed into a field in Pennsylvania on that day.

Where exactly is the "rhetoric"?

Incidentally, other portions of my six-year old video are also up on YouTube, including a montage of the pre-attack headlines of that morning and the collapse of both towers.

Perhaps Heffernan can pick apart those "mashups" as well, and at the same time, illuminate the world on my devious and obvious use of "rhetoric."

Or maybe she could actually try and watch the entire program before knee-jerking.

I didn't think it was possible, given the simple nature of the program I created, but Heffernan brilliantly managed to take what I did out of context.

That takes real talent.

-

Quote du jour

If you can grasp how inexpensive cell phones in a rainbow of colors and wonders like the iPhone could never have been created under a National Cell Phone Reform Act, you can understand what a disaster ObamaCare is going to be for health care in America.

-Ann Coulter

NBC News Estimates 8/28 Rally Attendance at 300,000

Via Weasel Zippers:



A far cry from those trying to lowball the rally at 87K!

Cross posted at Lady Cincinnatus, Say Anything

Mystery Object du jour -Revealed

Enough suspense! Drum roll please! The object in the picture, next to the apothecary's mortar and pestle and the bottle of steam distilled pine oil (from a company whose name begins with "Coffin") is used for molding...suppositories!

I spotted this baby deep in the bowels of Stanford Hospital's pharmacy department.
I'm not sure who manufactured it, but obviously, they had business "up the wazoo"!
Heh.

Thanks for playing!

"Poverty or Plastic?"

I tend to agree with the maker of the ad, we have many more important problems in California than a proliferation of plastic bags. Plastic bags can be and are recycled. Cloth bags, on the other hand, can make people sick if not properly cleaned for reuse.

I would be much happier with the California legislature if they spent more of their time trying to figure out how to move California from the brink of bankruptcy and spent less time catering to the environmentalist wacko fringe.

Aerial Photos of Glenn Beck's "Restoring America" Rally

by the Left Coast Rebel

I wanted to carry additional aerial photos of the August 28, 2010 Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally so I put on my Google cap and started searching. First off is this aerial shot that has been circling the intertubes (h/t Newsbusters) and is one of the most awesome:

This photo will be famous: Crowd at the Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally

Here's another awesome aerial shot of the Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally per Right Scoop:

Again, here are the aerial shots taken by AirPhotosLIVE.com whereby CBS News estimated the Glenn Beck rally crowd at "87,000":

The area around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington during a rally organized by conservative commentator Glenn Beck is seen in this aerial picture taken Aug. 28, 2010.(Credit: AirPhotosLIVE.com)

The area around the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington during a rally organized by conservative commentator Glenn Beck is seen in this aerial picture taken Aug. 28, 2010.

(Credit: AirPhotosLIVE.com)

New Ten Buck Friday Poll Up

This week's Ten Buck Friday poll is up. Blogger Right Klik is running point on this, so if you have any nominees for Ten Buck Friday, wander over here.

When your taxes go up in January and your freedom continues to erode, think of how much money you would have been glad to have contributed, how much time you wish you'd spent to prevent it.

Or you could just get involved now?

Quote du jour

Stephen Harper, prime minister of Canada, took U.S. criticisms in his stride. “Whether it comes to our role in Afghanistan, our sovereignty over our Arctic, or ultimately our foreign aid priorities, it is Canada and Canadians who will make Canadian decisions,” he said. Judging from the chill in the room at his and the secretary of state’s joint photo-op, the Canadian Arctic now extends pretty much to the U.S. border.

-Mark Steyn

Tiger Cub Smuggled in Luggage

Remember those questions the TSA types used to ask you at the airport as to whether you packed your own bags, did someone give you something to carry?

As I recall, there was one question they used to ask which was tantamount to asking you if you'd seen anyone tampering with your luggage while you weren't looking!

This story has a little of that element in it. From the UK Daily Mail:

At first glance it looked to airport officials like just another stuffed toy in a suitcase. But on closer inspection, the tiny tiger cub was found to be real and alive but unconscious after it was drugged.

Shocked police then arrested the woman owner of the luggage at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand where she was allegedly planning to smuggle the three-month-old animal to Iran.

It must have crawled into my suitcase! Honest!!!

The woman, identified as Thai national Piyawan Palasarn, 31, faces up to four years in prison and a 40,000 baht (£824) fine for two wildlife smuggling-related charges, police said.

She denied the luggage with the cub belonged to her and said another passenger had asked her to carry it for them, said Adisorn Noochdumrong, head of an international wildlife division at the conservation center.

The cub could have fetched about 100,000 baht (£2,060) on the black market in Iran, where it is popular to have exotic pets, Adisorn said. ($3195 USD)

Gee. There's a luggage check tag and lots of clothing and personal property associated along with that suitcase.

"If the jeans fit, you cannot acquit!" Heh.

Update: This story could give new meaning to the phrase "snarled" in airport traffic!

More at Left Coast Rebel

A Tale of Two Rallies

Glenn Beck rally



Honest Chicago Politician Rally


Upper photograph via Big Hollywood.

Mystery Object du jour

Can anyone tell me what this is?



(I know, I just think it might be fun to have people guessing.)

It appears to be cast iron. The photographs show it open and closed. I left a few objects in the frame that might give you a clue.

Happy guessing!

Saturday Linkaround

Project 2996

No Sheeples Here- Project 2996 -2010


Blog Prof: Deficits with and without Iraq War spending


"I Didn't Buy A Clunker, But I'm Paying Anyway"


Used car prices skyrocket a year after Cash for Clunkers


20% of states seek waivers to disenfranchise military voters

Ron Paul Blames “Neocons” For Ground Zero Mosque Controversy & “Unconstitutional Wars” & Blames US for 9-11 (Video)

Fake Tea Party exposed? Oakland County Dems force resignation after alleged fraud



Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics.

Cross posted at Say Anything

The Women of PETA XXI

To the delight of some and the chagrin of others, we continue with our tribute to those lovely lasses who would bare their assets to further the cause of PETA. Because the world needs naked, nearly naked and vegetable clad vegetarians!
Again, any pixelation (or faux pasties) is designed to keep the blog PG-13 and the folks at Tiny Pic happy!











Women of PETA Archives

A Little Saturday Night Music

Mel Carter- "Hold me, thrill me, kiss me"

Lap Dancers Smarter on Average Than Obama Administration

Okay! I just made that one up to make the Obama administration feel better about the source of their failures! But, the Independent UK has a study that one in four lap dancers has a college degree.

The first academic research project into lap dancing has found that, rather than being uneducated young women who have been coerced into the industry, one in four dancers has a degree and has been attracted by the money.

Dancers took home an average of £232 a shift after paying commission and fees to the club, with most working between two and four shifts a week – giving them annual incomes of between £24,000 and £48,000 a year.

That's $37,000 to $74,450 USD. Not surprisingly, three out of four surveyed said they were "happy" or "Very happy" at work. One such lady is Amber:

Amber gave up a career as a financial journalist seven years ago, and now earns around £40,000 a year ($62K USD) working as a stripper in pubs in London's East End.

The 32-year-old, who has three A-levels and a journalism degree, said: "I had always been fascinated by the idea of being a stripper. I was disillusioned about the work I was doing. I think many people who have worked hard at school and university get out into the real world and find it's not what they expected. Someone I knew had a partner who worked as a stripper, so I went to see her perform at a pub in the East End.

"I think it's everyone's dream to be self-employed, to not have a boss and to work as much or as little as you want. In journalism, it didn't matter how many hours of overtime I put in, I still got paid the same. Now I can work really hard one week and earn good money, and then I can have a week when I don't work so hard and don't earn so much.

One might even begin to wonder who's being exploited here? The obviously smart women or the poor saps who pay them?

H/T Memeorandum

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

Amazing Turnout at Lincoln Memorial for Glenn Beck Rally

According to a McClatchy reporter (no conservative bastion there!),

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of people (despite efforts from Google Maps*) streamed onto the National Mall for a rally featuring Fox News personality Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.

*Parenthetical mine

By contrast, a counter rally held by the Rev. Al Sharpton drew about two to three thousand. To channel Ann Richards: "Poor Al! He can't hep it! He was born with a silver foot in his mouth!"

Whenever possible, Al, people vote with their feet.

Google Maps Can't Find Lincoln Memorial With Both Hands

In an unusual circumstance for a company that purports accuracy down to street numbers, Google Maps, for inquiries on the Lincoln Memorial have been directing people to a map to the FDR Memorial, about a half a mile away. This has reportedly been happening for the last two days. From PC World:

According to the Geographic Travels blog, this "misplacement" has been happening for about two days now. Typing "Lincoln Memorial" into the regular Google search bar brings up a number of listings related to the Lincoln Memorial, yet shows a map of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.

Worse yet, when I Google Mapped "Lincoln Memorial Washington DC", I got two hits...in Kansas!



Larger image here.

Hmm. Wonder if the fact that Glenn Beck is holding a rally at the Lincoln Memorial soon might have anything to do with that? It is reminiscent of the Searchlight Tea Party Express rally, where mind numbed Democrat drones (but I repeat myself) tried to direct people away from the event. Think that Google might be trying to mislead any out-of-towners away from the event? Nah. That would be disgusting!

H/T Weasel Zippers

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Lady Cincinnatus, Say Anything

From Waiter to Ground Zero Mosque Developer in Virtually Nothing Flat

I heard the audio from this video on the radio today. It appears to be mind boggling.



Video via Nice Deb

Waiter turned real estate developer? Paying millions in cash?? This doesn't exactly pass the smell test. And does this guy dodging the reporter look like a smart and successful business man able to persuade people to invest millions in real estate?
Or does he look more like somebody's bag man?

Maybe Nancy Pelosi's curiosity about how this mosque is funded will rise to the level of her curiosity about the funding of those citizens who oppose it?

"She Lets Me Watch Her Mom and Pop Fight"

I'm not quite sure why, but I started thinking of this song just a couple days ago. Not sure exactly what triggered the memory. Once I had remembered the song, I remembered that this song had actually been offered on a cereal box. A plastic sheet with a groove was laminated to the side of a cereal box. It was about four inches square, as I recall. You cut it out with a pair of scissors and played it on your record player*.

And again, as always, why should I be the only to have to suffer with this kind of stuff?

*Ask your Mom or Dad or Grandparents what that was.

Update: Apparently cardboard records were more numerous than I thought!

Quote du jour

The cult's leader/father is Fred Phelps, who calls America a "sodomite nation of flag-worshipping idolaters." Since you won't read it anyplace else, Phelps has run for public office five times -- as a Democrat.

-Ann Coulter

New Ten Buck Friday Winner!

This week's Ten Buck Friday winner is Renne Ellmers!
Congratulations! And good luck in November.

More at Right Klik

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB* is April Bowlby!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

Quote du jour

In other words, the White House spent $3 billion to make used cars more expensive for working-class families. Nice work.

-Ed Morrissey, on "Cash for Clunkers"

"Does Islam Suck?"

David Swindle over at News Real Blog posted this video of Andrew "Klavan on the culture". I might not have published it myself, but I came across an individual on a discussion forum who was either not too bright or not too honest. After reading the last post I* put up with a question mark in the headline (That's that little squiggly thingy at the end of the sentence!), he concluded:

"I stumbled on a blog that is fanning the flames of this Muslim rumor"

Stumbled could be apropos! He was referring to my post on the Pew poll about Obama's religion:
Is Obama a Muslim?

Is it "fanning the flames" to merely repeat the question? The reason I might question this person's aptitude or honesty, is that while he obviously took exception to what was said in the article, he linked to the site rather than specifically to the post in question. If you care to, you can decide for yourself whether or not I was "fanning the flames" of this rumor by reporting the existence of the poll and exploring why people might believe what they do. Though I will admit the line about the dog was meant to be tongue in cheek, I concluded the article by saying:

Obama's faith or lack thereof, is his own business. There's nothing wrong with being a Muslim, if he is one. The only problem would be if he had lied about it or mislead anyone about it for political expediency.

I think more people have a problem with his character and his economics than worry about his religion.

Cletus: You talked about "their idiotic conclusion that because Obama has a Muslim name, he must be one". Only, I didn't mention anything about his name other than to call him by it. Is this not customary on your planet as well? And I never said he was a Muslim, I don't know. Which part of "I think more people have a problem with his character and his economics than worry about his religion" didn't you understand?

So, Clete, in honor of your straw man argument, this post's for you!

*A couple of other writers on the blog have used the little squiggly, er, question mark in their headlines since!

Vintage Babe of the Week

Tonight's Vintage Babe* is Janet Leigh!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Thursday)










Like fine wines, the ladies improve with age!

A Republic?

Quote du jour

I don't know if anyone has ever said it before, but "Media Matters, doesn't."

-Proof

"Cash For Clunkers" Still Screwing the Working Man

Barack's chickens are coming home...to roost!

Ed Morrissey points to a story that, quite frankly, should surprise no one:

Car buyers on average paid $1,800 more for a used vehicle in July than they paid a year ago at this time, according to Edmunds.com data. That’s a 10.3 percent increase, bringing the average cost of a 3-year-old vehicle to $19,248. The price of a Cadillac Escalade spiked nearly 36 percent. “A lack of confidence in the economy is driving more people to used cars, putting upward pricing pressure on a limited supply of vehicles,” said Joe Spina, a senior analyst for Edmunds.

Let me see...the basic law of supply and demand says that if the demand remains the same or higher, and the supply diminishes, and more dollars chase fewer goods, the price will go up. Let's see a show of hands... how many of you didn't already know that? Anyone? Anyone?? Beuller? Beuller??

If the average man or woman on the street can figure this out, why couldn't the Smartest Men on the Planet™ (according to them) figure it out?

New car sales weren't really increased because of the program. Any increases were just sales that would have been deferred for a few months. It was a subsidy for the wealthy or upper middle class who could afford to purchase new vehicles in spite of looming poor economic times. And any pretense of "saving the environment" was negated by the popularity of vehicles like the Ford F-150.

And now, the poorer among us are going to pay the price for Barack's Folly. They either will be priced out of the market and be forced to drive older, less fuel efficient cars and trucks (Kiss Mother Gaia goodbye!)or pay a higher percentage of their limited incomes on transportation.

Gosh! If only someone could have seen it coming! Barack Obama and the Hummingbird Feeder of Doom
(Okay. Virtually anyone with a brain capable of balancing a checkbook saw it coming!)

More at Hot Air

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Lady Cincinnatus, Say Anything

Medal of Honor

Sergeant Francis S. Currey

Citation:

He was an automatic rifleman with the 3d Platoon defending a strong point near Malmedy, Belgium, on 21 December 1944, when the enemy launched a powerful attack. Overrunning tank destroyers and antitank guns located near the strong point, German tanks advanced to the 3d Platoon's position, and, after prolonged fighting, forced the withdrawal of this group to a nearby factory. Sgt. Currey found a bazooka in the building and crossed the street to secure rockets meanwhile enduring intense fire from enemy tanks and hostile infantrymen who had taken up a position at a house a short distance away. In the face of small-arms, machinegun, and artillery fire, he, with a companion, knocked out a tank with 1 shot. Moving to another position, he observed 3 Germans in the doorway of an enemy-held house. He killed or wounded all 3 with his automatic rifle. He emerged from cover and advanced alone to within 50 yards of the house, intent on wrecking it with rockets. Covered by friendly fire, he stood erect, and fired a shot which knocked down half of 1 wall. While in this forward position, he observed 5 Americans who had been pinned down for hours by fire from the house and 3 tanks. Realizing that they could not escape until the enemy tank and infantry guns had been silenced, Sgt. Currey crossed the street to a vehicle, where he procured an armful of antitank grenades. These he launched while under heavy enemy fire, driving the tankmen from the vehicles into the house. He then climbed onto a half-track in full view of the Germans and fired a machinegun at the house. Once again changing his position, he manned another machinegun whose crew had been killed; under his covering fire the 5 soldiers were able to retire to safety. Deprived of tanks and with heavy infantry casualties, the enemy was forced to withdraw. Through his extensive knowledge of weapons and by his heroic and repeated braving of murderous enemy fire, Sgt. Currey was greatly responsible for inflicting heavy losses in men and material on the enemy, for rescuing 5 comrades, 2 of whom were wounded, and for stemming an attack which threatened to flank his battalion's position.

Sgt. Currey: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.



Hat tip Home of Heroes

There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”

Cross posted at Say Anything

Rx for November Democrats: Tylenol

by the Left Coast Rebel

A reader just sent me a tip on a miracle compound for Democrats, post November 11.

He read it and thought that it was a simply perfect solution for Democrat-pain - it's a study on Tylenol recently performed by the University of Florida:

Over-the-counter painkiller may help ease emotional slights, UF study finds

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Maybe that disgruntled JetBlue flight attendant should have popped a couple of Tylenols.

A University of Florida researcher says acetaminophen, an ingredient in the popular over-the-counter pain reliever, may relieve social pain from hurt feelings. The findings suggest for the first time that emotional and physical pain are interrelated, said Gregory Webster, a UF psychologist who co-authored the study with a team of researchers.

“We think that social pain piggybacks onto physical pain and the two systems sort of bleed into each other, so that just as you feel emotional distress from physical pain, the social pain of having a romance breakup or getting a horrible grade can translate into feeling sick to your stomach or getting a bad headache,” he said.

I love the idea and it sounds like it might just do the trick for Democrats. Think about it - the bases are covered. Tylenol may actually relieve social pain from hurt feelings and the corresponding, piggy-backing physical pain...

This is simply an incurable condition with statist-socialist Democrats, though:

Acetaminophen may also show promise in curtailing antisocial behavior, Webster said.

PS - Please keep the Tylenol secret just that. Or better yet, if you prescribe Tylenol for post-traumatic Democrat stress, make sure you advise copious alcohol consumption as well.

Then that way, they won't know the magic bullet.

You can't fix stupid but you can vote it out of office and make the pain go away.

Cross posted to Left Coast Rebel.

Kristallnacht for Dummies®

Gateway Pundit has a couple of stories about the Russ Carnahan (D-Loserville) staffer who firebombed Carnahan's office.

Powers was reportedly a disgruntled progressive activist according to an unnamed source familiar with the case. Suspect Chris Powers was upset because he did not get paid so he firebombed the Carnahan finance offices at 2 AM in the morning.

After speculation that the was committed by Tea Party members, it turns out to be an inside job, by a violent leftist, and yet, like those counterfeit protesters sent to Tea Party rallies to discredit the movement as racist, perhaps he was hoping that the Tea Party would be blamed for it?

Kristallnacht for Morons.


Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Lady Cincinnatus

Quote du jour

Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

-Robert Frost

Rubio Wins Senate Primary in FL

Senate candidate Marco Rubio "collected 924,608 or 84.2 percent of 1,097,718 votes cast as of 10 p.m." (Eastern Time) according to the Miami Herald

Congratulations Mr. Rubio! Good luck in November!

Adieu, Beltway Blips!

As some of you know, I have had a Beltway Blips rating button on my site for several months. There was also a feature of "Top Stories" that folks around the web gave a "thumbs up" to, featured on the side bar. I noticed a day or two ago that the button was missing, but I've been on the road and just wasn't sure whether it was some vaguery of the Internet or something peculiar to my computer, so I didn't think much about it. Then, this morning, in search of my lost button, I went to the beltway blips site and found this:

Thank you for your interest, but the website you are trying to visit is no longer being supported.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our bloggers, visitors, and advertisers who have supported our sites.

A'Googling I went to see what else I could find. Seems I wasn't the only one taken by surprise. Today's Politics by FreedomLover noted their abrupt passing.

I also enjoyed seeing my rankings among all the blogs they tracked. I had my own personal goal of surpassing LGF, which was not all that hard considering my ascendancy and Charles' descent into madness. FYI, I beat him twice this year, ascending as high as the low 220's while Charles hovered around the mid 230's.
For the most part, I had clawed my way up to around 250. (Our own fair Lady C. broke three hundred and stayed there consistently.) Given time I think those numbers would have continued to improve. And I always appreciated the traffic that the Daily Radar sent my way.

But, nothing lasts forever. I will miss Beltway Blips, and hope that those behind the site have moved on to bigger and better things. It was fun while it lasted.

New LCR Daily Caller Piece: Of smurf and swine: James Cameron....

Image: James Cameron


by the Left Coast Rebel

This morning I wrapped up a Daily Caller piece that I had been working on since last night. It parallels my previous Daily Caller piece on effective global warming rebuttal and works in various angles on leftist James Cameron as well.

Here's an excerpt:

“Avatar” is returning to theaters — this time in an even lengthier form — but the movie’s creator seems intent on once again mocking the very people that have made his success possible.

“Titanic” film director James Cameron quickly went for the oft-traversed intellectual low road of ad hominem attacks, recently attacking skeptics of global warming as those of piggish DNA.

“I think they’re swine,” said Cameron to the American Renewable Energy Day Summit in Aspen Sunday night. Laughingly, Cameron piggishly proclaimed “swine” just moments after receiving eco-ovations from the environmental Aspen crowd.

Why? He had praised a documentary that extolled the evils of a proposed hydropower project in Brazil that would ostensibly “displace a large tribal community,” therefore violating even more sacred limousine liberal codes: group identity and the hatred of capitalism.

Hydropower is “clean” by most mainstream standards, so go figure....

What do you think? Read the article here at the Daily Caller and please pass it along to various social media outlets.

New York City's Gone Mad . . . Again

New York's King Michael Bloomberg

By guest blogger Andrew Roman

Not that I should necessarily expect any different, but I admit to being somewhat astounded at the persistent descent into head-scratching inanity that has shaped and defined post-Giuliani New York City in recent years.

Indeed, New York City's tried and true liberalism is a given. To say the Big Apple leans left is to say that water has a certain dampness to it. Those glorious days of the 2004 Republican Convention, when the streets were teeming with throngs of folks from the right-of-center, are but a smile on my face that liberals who pass me on the street don't understand.

But run-of-the-mill, everyday, big-city liberal buffoonery is not quite the same as full-fledged, red-light, big government, multicultural leftist absurdity.

This city has, in a couple of words, gone mad.

Or, perhaps better stated, its leadership has.

It wasn’t enough that its billionaire Mayor (with his own Obama-light messiah-complex) decided to usurp the will of the people by thumbing his nose at term limits. Only he could save and run the city the right way ... and he told us so.

It wasn’t enough that privately owned establishments, like bars and restaurants, were banned from allowing smoking on their premises. After all, matters of health are now moral issues ... and health trumps liberty. (Am I the only one who still finds it astonishing that one cannot smoke in a bar in New York City?)

It wasn’t enough that an all out government offensive against salt – wonderful, flavor-bringing, taste-enhancing, complementary, lip-smacking, i-love-liberty salt – became a major crusade for Big Apple big government. After all, only government regulation can save us from our greedy, taste-bud indulging selves.

It wasn’t enough that privately owned restaurants were told what oils they could and could not cook with. Thanks to the warm, nurturing hand of government, it's only a matter of time before our government-defined quality of life is enhanced exponentially because of the expunging of evil trans fatty oils.

It wasn’t enough that Mayor Bloomberg actually renamed a street in Queens after a career criminal (Sean Bell). (Yes, that was the Reverend Al Sharpton casting his overseer's shadow on the whole affair).

It wasn’t enough that New York’s illustrious mayor actually invited illegal aliens to come to the sanctuary city of New York to forget their troubles. Said the Mayor: "People who are undocumented do not have to worry about city government going to the federal government."

Dandy.

He literally said that tourists and businesses should avoid Arizona and come to New York instead: "People from around the world may think twice before visiting Arizona and subjecting themselves to potential run-ins with the police ... We’re happy to have those businesses and tourists come here."

It wasn’t enough that immediately after the attempted terrorist attack on Times Square, Bloomy reflexively said the perpetrator was probably an opponent to ObamaCare. After all, knee-jerking toward a conservative scapegoat is less hazardous to one's health than, say, suggesting that it might have been a Muslim.

It isn’t enough that Wal Mart is still not allowed to open a store in this city, despite New York being part of the liberty-loving, free-market-based nation called the United States of America. There literally were rallies in front of City Hall in Manhattan against Wal Mart setting up shop anywhere in the five boroughs.

It isn’t enough that this state inexplicably forbids mail ordering cigarettes from other states despite New York being part of the liberty-loving, free-market-based nation called the United States of America. I'd love someone to explain that one to me.

It isn’t enough that the Mayor of New York supports the construction of the Ground Zero mosque in the name of tolerance and religious freedom, even though the matter has nothing - absolutely nothing - to do with rights. It has to do with doing what's right. There is simply no moral justification for constructing a mosque and Islmaic cultural center in the vicinity of Ground Zero when there are a plethora of other locations on which to do so.

It isn’t enough that one of our Senators is Chuck Schumer.

But it only gets better.

Late last month, after a series of violent acts were perpetrated against Mexicans in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island, the Consulate General of Mexico in New York City, said that he will be assigning his own people to patrol the streets of the borough.

His own people.

That’s right … A foreign diplomat will be posting security personnel on the streets of an American city to protect Mexican “immigrants" against Americans.

If ever there was anything that could be extracted from the "You Cant Make This Stuff Up" file, this would be one.

John M. Annese of SI Live writes:

“We will act decisively in order to protect our citizens and will actively promote that those guilty of these vicious attacks are brought to justice expeditiously. We are working hand-in-hand with local authorities on all levels,” said the Consul General of Mexico in New York, Rubén Beltrán in a statement emailed to an Advance reporter.

“In response to the escalating violence against Mexicans in Port Richmond, Staten Island, the Consulate General of Mexico in New York is posting personnel that will remain in the borough until further notice. This, in order to safeguard their rights and effectively assist and provide information to the Mexican residents of this area,” Beltrán wrote.

Beltran, the counsel general of Mexico, condemned the latest spate of alleged Staten Island bias crimes. Back in April, Beltran appeared with Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Borough President James P. Molinaro in the aftermath of several other incidents that occurred at the time.

The Mexican diplomat also called upon local authorities to “conduct a thorough investigation” of the alleged hate-crime cases. He also offered “extensive cooperation and all the necessary support to ensure that justice is served.”

"Decisively?" What exactly is that supposed to mean? He spoke with almost as much authority as the Mexican President did earlier this year when he came to America to tell us how horrible this country's immigration policy is.

To begin with ... violence against innocents is never acceptable, no matter the victim. It goes without saying.

But the irony here is that when one of our own state governments finally elected to take "decisive action" to protect its citizenry - specifically, Arizona's passage of its controversial illegal aliens law - cries of racism and racial profiling immediately echoed across the map. Such a law could only be born of racism and intolerance, so we were told by the compassionate masses.

Thus, based on the lamestream media's absolute lack of coverage or commentary on this particular Staten Island matter, it is apparently no problem for foreigners to come here and protect foreigners, but it is unacceptable for Americans to protect Americans from foreigners.

Nice.

Of course, to be fair, the people who were attacked on Staten Island could very well be legal.

The real question is: How do these Mexican patrollers know whom to protect? Wouldn't they, by definition, have to "profile?"

-

Quote du jour

"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it."

—Patrick Henry

A Kochtopus Alternative to George Soros?

Image from left to right, Charles Koch and David Koch


by the Left Coast Rebel

Jane Mayer writing at The New Yorker authored an incredibly jaded and leftist-slanted piece on the billionaire Koch brothers of the privately owned Koch Industries. The upside to the article, beside the unsurprising liberal tone, is that I now know more about David H. Koch and Charles Koch - they are libertarians that give generously (read millions) to what Jane Mayer calls 'right wing' causes.

Yes, right wing such as Americans for Prosperity - started by David Koch in 2004.

Could have fooled me but I thought that APP fought the good fight against the current fiscal pillaging taking place in Washington (and very effective with over a million activists). It's too bad that leftists like Jane Mayer at The New Yorker turn a blind eye to communist George Soros' Democrat-socialist operation but that is just how the ruling class press works.

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry....

Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

Viva la Kochtopus! At least now I can point to at least two business magnates that are standing up for what is right in this nation. I look forward to reading more about the Koch brothers.

If you really want to get a sense of the heroes that the Koch brothers are, read this piece of filth at Soros-troll propagandist site, Think Progress, "The Billionaires Behind the Hate."

Of course, "hate" is opposition to the progressive-collectivist agenda. Greenpeace also considers the Koch brothers one of their most ardent enemies, hence this kind of moonbattery:


Image: some greenpeace idiot in a polar bear suit, protesting Koch industries