So the United States Army shot up a Canadian diplomat's car. What next? Bomb Canadian soldiers? Oops, been there, done that.
Seems like the most danger a Canadian is ever in overseas comes from the U.S. military... I wonder if they're trying to tell the Canadians something? What next? Invade Canada? Not that it worked out so well the last time...
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
M...A...R...S.
Remember that? No?
Exactly.
Anybody who actually listened to the State of the Union address ought to be laughing their head off at all of Bush's "plans". And anybody who actually believes a single word the lying jerk says ought to be sent to remedial kindergarten class to learn the difference between truth and fiction.
MARS, bitches. MARS. Dig?
-- Badtux the Laughing Penguin
WingNut 1: "Cindy Sheehan!"
WingNut 2: "Bwhahahahah!"
Wingnut 3: "Left-wing hates America!"
Wingnut 1: "Hahahhahaha! ROFL!"
WIngnut 2: "Grief whore!"
Wingnut 3: "LOL!"
Man, the jizzum was just a'collectin' on the floor in the middle of these dudes. I left'em a bit of advice, but I doubt they'll listen to it. They're having too much fun standing in a circle yanking each other's knobs.
So here's basically what I told them: I don’t get it. Why mention Cindy Sheehan at all? She’s the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq. That’s all I know about her, and frankly, all I want to know about her. Having lost her son gives her a right to have an opinion about whether the loss was worthwhile or not, and whether I agree with her opinion or not is irrelevant. (For the record, I’ve never talked to her to find out her opinion, so I have no idea whether I’d agree with it or not… and no, I’m not going to take some 3rd party’s word about what her opinion is).
Every time these guys try to run down the mother of a deceased veteran, it makes right wingers look bad. But boy, these guys sure seem to have fun jerking off in a circle… “Cindy Sheehan!” “Hahahaha!” “Bwahahahah!” “Cindy Sheehan!” “ROFL!”. I let'em know that making fun of grieving mothers, no matter how laughable their opinion is, is not the way to win friends and influence people. It just makes people think you’re a bunch of jerks.
But what the hey, these guys never listen to Libertarians anyhow, except to confuse us with liberals… so keep on circle-jerking away, Wingnuts. “Cindy Sheehan!” “Hahahahah!”. Sheesh.
– Badtux the Libertarian Penguin
As I mentioned, my bifocals are not my preferred way of looking at a computer screen. I basically ended up taking the pedestal off of my flat-panel monitor and leaning it against my computer down low and near on an adjustable desk so that I can see it through the bottom of my bifocals without craning my head back too much. So I'm thinking of getting a pair of "computer glasses" -- a single-prescription set of eyeglasses to use solely when working on the computer. That way my neck can get a break.
A bit of research turned up 39 Dollar Glasses. They appear to be located physically within the United States and get your glasses to you in a timely manner, unlike the other two places I looked at, which were physically in Hong Kong or Pakistan.
Has anybody out there used this place? $39 for a pair of "computer glasses" sounds like a pretty good deal, if they actually work!
-- Badtux the Myopic Penguin
72 miners in Canada were trapped in a mine that was on fire. A few weeks back, that killed 13 miners in Sago, WV as they ran out of oxygen and suffocated. But these miners in Canada weren't ever in any danger. They simply retreated to safe-rooms that had 72 hours of oxygen, and chatted on the phone with their wives while waiting for rescue.
So why do Canadian mines have safe rooms and American mines do not? Well, in the end, it is because of a fundamental flaw in the American system of government: America is a semi-monarchial Republic, not a parlimentary democracy.
Canada is a parlimentary democracy. The United States is a semi-monarchial Republic, explicitly designed that way. The Presidency was designed to give George Washington semi-monarchial powers because George refused to be monarch. This inherently dictates that we will have a two-party system where any other party is powerless.
That explains a lot about why Canadian politics and U.S. politics have gone in such different directions since the Commonwealth was declared. Even their current “conservative” government doesn’t have a majority in Parliment and thus is forced to rule by consensus, rather than via fiat. When forced to rule by consensus, you can’t ignore the wishes of the minority parties, including the minority parties that represent workers. If you do that, the minority parties can band together and force a no-confidence vote and force new elections, something that no self-respecting party leader wants to see happen.
There is a reason why every strongman dictatorship-pretending-to-be-a-democracy has a "strong President" type of government, while virtually every functioning democracy on the planet has a parlimentary type of government -- parlimentary democracies are simply more effective at giving everybody, not just the majority, a voice in the governing of the nation.
This is a fundamental flaw in the American system, and one which will be fixed when cows fly. Australia and Britain, despite having no Bill of Rights, still have as much freedom as the United States because their form of government has built-in checks and balances to protect minority views that the U.S. "strong President" form doesn't have.
So what does that mean regarding the circus of the spineless that is the current Democratic Party? Well, amongst other things, it means we can't simply form a 3rd party. The tyranny of the majority is inherently built into the American system, a tyranny which insures that 3rd parties, unlike the Bloc Quebecois and NDP, have no voice in government. While Prime Minister Harper cannot govern without the support of the Bloc Qubecois and NDP in Canada, President Bush can govern quite well without the support of the Greens and Libertarians, thank you very much.
So for the moment, I suggest that the best thing to do is take over the Democratic Party and make it the majority party. A third party simply isn't going to work, because we live in a semi-monarchial republic, not in a democracy.
In the long term, it might be a nice thing to have democracy in America. And no, voting doesn't mean democracy. People voted in Saddam's Iraq, too. If you have no real choice regarding who you're going to vote for, that's no more democracy than Saddam's Iraq was democracy. People didn't have a real choice there, either.
As I said, I expect it to happen about the time that cows fly.
- Badtux the PoliSci Penguin
If this is successful, you should be transferred to my new domain, BadTux.net, shortly (if you're not already here!). Please do *NOT* re-adjust your bookmarks yet, this is an experiment to see if this server can support the blog. If the JavaScript failed to transfer you, you may wish to go over to BadTux.net to see if there's any new content over there yet...
Hmm, trying again...
-- Badtux the JavaScript Penguin
The Democrats, proving that the term "Democrat" is synonymous with "spineless pussy-wimp", failed to unite behind an attempt to filibuster Judge A-Lie-oh.
They don't get it. The Democrats just don't get it. They've got the Republicans about as desperate as the Iraqi insurgency, yet continue to deny reality.
Here's a hint, Democrats: These SOB's want to KILL you. That Republican neighbor I mentioned in my Kitten-off poll? The one who wants to kill you with a hammer? The one who thinks a kitten's life is more important and more valuable than a liberal's life? He's not alone. These bastards are just working up to the Final Solution to the problem of Democrats, liberals, and anybody else who doesn't support their moron Commander in Chief with full sycophantic tail-wagging slobbering adoration.
And you're letting them do it.
Morons. Spineless pussy-wimp morons.
Feh.
-- Badtux the Pissed Penguin
In the aftermath of Katrina, I resolved to lay in a supply of MRE's for dealing with the aftermath of any natural disaster that hit my own iceberg. I sort of shuddered at the thought, because the last time I ate MRE's it was a horrible experience -- the taste of lard was the predominant taste. They were referred to as "Meals Refused by Ethiopians" back then, with such choice entrees as Four Fingers of Death (really aweful weenies) and Alpo (supposedly "beef with spiced sauce"). And let's not forget Chicken a'La Death (supposedly "Chicken a'La King", but so redolent of lard as to invoke nausea).
So I headed out to eBay and got case B, which includes the "Louisiana Menu." Military retirees with PX priviliges buy MRE cases from base PX's and sell them on eBay, a practice which the Department of Defense discourages (since it encourages pilfering amongst the ranks if they can hawk pilfered MRE cases on eBay amongst the legit ones), but which they have thus far proven unable to stop. The case arrived today, nice and fresh (four months old is fresh in MRE terms, the stuff keeps for years). I popped out my camping gear and tried the jambalaya first... hmm, put this over a half cup of cooked instant rice (a large box of which is also in my disaster kit), add just a dab of hot sauce, and not bad at all! It's not "real" shrimp and ham jambalaya like you'd get in Louisiana, but it's definitely edible and close enough. I wouldn't mind eating this on a regular basis at all. There's the very faintest lard undertaste from the processing, but it's not obnoxious.
Next, the cookie. And peanut butter. I remember the cookies as being hard as a rock and tasting of lard. I remember the peanut butter as being a substance that was more akin to tasteless grease than butter. Well, the cookie is still hard as a rock. Guess it has to be, to survive a parachute drop. But it tastes like an actual oatmeal cookie, and the peanut butter is creamy and tasty. Spread the peanut butter on top of the cookie, and ... yum!
Next, something a bit harder to get right: Spaghetti. Freeze-dried pasta dishes generally are pretty good (about the only thing freeze-dried that *is* any good... everything else freeze dried that I've tried tastes horrible), but canned ones are typically horrible, whether canned in a can or in a retort pouch. So I heat it up and... okay. So it definitely tastes like canned spaghetti. But it doesn't taste any worse than Spaghetti-O's or any other canned spaghetti you'll find in the supermarket. Just a tiny bit of the lard aftertaste, not the "OMG I just ate a mouthfull of Crisco!" that I remembered.
My congratulations to the folks at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, MA, who have managed to do what I thought was impossible: Make army rations that taste good. This penguin gives them two flippers up!
- Badtux the Impressed Penguin
PS: Natick is continually on Rummy's base closure list, though thus far it has been spared. The very fact that Natick was on the 2005 base closure list to begin with just goes to show how much the Bush administration really hates our men and women in uniform, as if we needed any more proof of that, what with the Bushies sending soldiers into battle with inadequate armor, feeding soldiers rotten foods cooked in disease-ridden waters out of filthy rat-and-roach-infested kitchens, etc...
Look at the face. This face is the face of evil. Pam's House Blend fills us in on the horrid vegan threat to homeland security. Why, if we don't spy on anti-meat activists protesting outside of Honeybaked Hams, these non-violent vegetarian anti-meat activists will KILL US ALL with their evil Carrots of Mass Destruction, Tomatoes of Terror, and Horseradish of Horror! Well, maybe not, but I'm sure they'll do something bad, really! Like, hurt someone's feelings, or somethin' y'know?!
Meanwhile, Osama still hasn't been caught. But that's okay, we know who the REAL threat to America is: radical vegetarians. These people are obviously anti-God and thus anti-American. Why, if God had intended for man to be vegetarian, He wouldn't have created meat counters at supermarkets!
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
This is just demented. Devo. 1980's prog-rock nerd group famed for flower-pot hats, yellow jumpsuits and, err, "suggestive" songs. Reincarnated as telegenic pre-teen Disney Mouseketeers singing an album full of Devo classics plus a couple of new Devo originals in a new album for children on the Disney label. With not only the permission of the original members of Devo, but with their full support -- the original members played the actual instruments on the album while the kids of "Devo 2.0" sang.
If it is a gag, it is a wonderfully delicious one. Devo managed to get Disney to bankroll the gag, even to the point of making videos (directed by Devo's bassist, Gerry Casale) where twelve-year-old kids who obviously have no idea what they're singing about dance around and pretend to play instruments while singing "whip it, whip it good!". Heck, these kiddies aren't even old enough where whipping it would be fun (ehheheheheheheh!). And DISNEY bankrolled this. DISNEY! BWAHAHAHAHAH!
Duty Now For The Future! Devolve Or Die!
- Badtux the Amused Penguin
The Investigator of Open Drawers performs his duties.
- Badtux the Appreciative Penguin
Operation Yellow Elephant continues to berate our brave men and (and token women) of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders for not signing up to go fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of those nasty liberals even berate conservative "media personalities" for not urging their listeners or watchers to enlist.
Oh dear me. These nasty liberals ought to stop insulting our brave patriotic yellow elephants. Why, you know they provide such a great national service, blogging with cheeto-stained fingers from their Momma's basements protecting American from those evil Liberals of Mass Destruction. Why, if they weren't there to educate all us right-thinking people about why liberals were evil and should all be exterminated, those nasty liberals could EXPLODE in massive peace marches and KILL US ALL with kindness! The horror, oh the horror!
No no, it's much better that they stay in their basements protecting us from those nasty liberals, rather than signing up to fight the terrorists who've killed thousands of Americans. Remember, terrorists aren't the real enemy of America. Liberals with their horrific Weapons of Mass Frenchification are. Why, every time a liberal speaks, one of our brave fighting men or women in Iraq clutches his chest, and cries "Medic! Medic! I've been hit! I've been hit! Some liberal didn't speak loudly enough in support of our Dear Leader's war and my feelings are hurt!" and expires. It is clear that those nasty liberals are far, far more dangerous than terrorists, and thus our brave yellow elephants are far more important here on the home front than fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
For true!. Yes, wingnuts continue to insist that, despite all the evidence, there were WMD in Iraq!
Let me get this straight. Two straight groups of arms inspectors—one under Hans Blix before the war, and one hand-picked by George W. Bush (the Duelfer group) after the war—independently reported that Saddam Hussein neither had weapons of mass destruction nor any credible program to produce such, yet right-wing tools still insist, despite the fact that experts actually on the ground found no such thing, that such weapons must exist?
Astounding. Simply astounding.
As for those who insist that we had no way of knowing in March 2003 whether Saddam had WMD or not, two words: Hans Blix. We had CIA assets embedded with Blix (and if you don’t believe that, you’re stupider than you look). These CIA assets were reporting the same thing that Blix was reporting—that Saddam had no WMD, and that they could find no credible program on Saddam’s part for producing such. Yet the CIA, Blix, and Duelfer, all of whom were actually on the ground in Iraq, all of whom inspected every square inch that could reasonably be used to hide weapons of mass destruction, all of whom inspected every facility that could possibly be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, are all wrong, and some right-wing publisher who’s never set foot in either Syria or Iraq is right. Astounding. Simply astounding. Some people’s ability to engage in self-delusion is simply beyond belief.
But what the hey, they're Republicans. Doesn't that say it all?! That they can be members of a purported "Party of Small Government" while their Congress and President are expanding government by more than any President since FDR... well, if that hasn't caused their head to explode yet, what will?!
– BadTux the Snarky Penguin
The Bush Administration is stonewalling attempts by Congress to find out what went wrong with the Katrina response. After various failed attempts to blame the mayor of a bankrupt city for not finding billions of dollars to fix the levees before they broke and various failed attempts to blame the governor of the poorest state in the nation for not having enough National Guard troops or resources to help the city after the levees broke, apparently the Bush Administration's response to requests for info about the federal response is "Nyuh uh, we don't have to!" Like a petulant 3 year old refusing to go to bed, I expect at any moment that the Bushies will be caught on camera throwing a full-bore toddler tantrum while crying on the carpet, "wah! Congress bein' MEAN!"
In the meantime, Louisiana has 160,000 uninhabitable or destroyed homes, while Mississippi has 65,000 uninhabitable or destroyed homes, yet Louisiana is going to get $6.2 billion dollars to repair those homes, while Mississippi is going to get $5.1 billion dollars to repair far fewer homes. Even Louisiana Republicans are astounded at the sheer mean-spiritedness of the way Louisiana is being treated. And worse yet, most of New Orleans is excluded from receiving assistance. Nevermind that it was federal levees that were defectively designed by the Corps of Engineers that failed and flooded these homes. The federal government isn't going to rebuild the homes they destroyed. Those people are just darkies anyways, so it isn't as if they matter, right? They don't even vote Republican (GASP!). How *dare* they not vote for our Lord and Savior, George W. Bush, and His holy administration?! No, no, they obviously are not deserving of any assistance rebuilding, for they are heretics and sinners against His holy white order!
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
In the past, I've commented on JFK's endless attempts to be "relevant" to the Democratic party with comments along the lines of, "he should just quit trying to be the front-runner for the 2008 election and unite behind a real leader."
Mimus Pauly reminds us of JFK's past accomplishments. But in the end, the only past accomplishment that counts today is in the recent past, when Kerry let a weak President win a second term of office, thereby condemning America to a generation of being ruled by vile, evil men with no morals and no shame.
I can admire Kerry's past accomplishments, while still feeling dismayed and betrayed by his more recent actions. As I noted back when the Shrub was re-selected, Kerry did not even appear to try -- it was a campaign of going through the motions, punctuated by a final surrender. I don't know what happened to his gonads between his bravery in Vietnam and his Presidential run, but I believe that today, Kerry is irrelevant -- he has proven (in the only crucible that matters) that he doesn't have the "right stuff" to take on the Bushevik machine. Not that many people *would* have the right stuff to take on that cesspool of evil... but it's time to find someone who does have that "right stuff" and unite behind him.
So as much as I appreciate what young Kerry did for our nation, the fact of the matter is that he's washed up and irrelevant, and none of this PR posturing is going to change that fact. Today John F. Kerry is like a 40 year old baseball player who has lost his best stuff yet continues to insist he's still got major league talent, even as he struggles in the minors. Kerry's best use, at the moment, is as an example -- an example of what happens if you take a Democratic knife into a Republican gunfight. That's it. That's all.
- Badtux the "Let's be real" Penguin
Now let's look at that thing called "The Constitution of the United States of America" that Abu is wiping his ass with as if it were toilet paper:
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
'Nuff said.
-- Badtux the Appreciative Penguin
Scottie the Inept Lying Mouthpiece dances around the question of why Dear Leader doesn't simply get search warrants through the FISA secret court for the folks he wants to spy on.
Since Scottie won't answer the question, I'll answer the question for him. Bushie baby and His holy appointed snoops don't seek a warrant because they're spying on Halliburton protesters, Quakers, grannies, and journalists , where they knows they couldn't get a FISA warrant. I mean, doh. What do you think this is, a democracy or somethin?! Dear Preznit must be allowed to spy on the Grannies, Reporters, and Pacifists of Mass Destruction at will or we'll ALL DIE!
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
I've been receiving bizarre phone calls from a robot on my cell phone. They start out with, "This is Michelle Thomas. I am contacting you about an important business matter. This is NOT a sales call ..." at which point I hang up because any time someone says it is NOT a sales call, it's a sales call (heh heh heh!).
A reverse phone book lookup turns this up for their caller ID:
Truelogic Financial Corporation
7100 E Belleview Ave
Greenwood Village, CO 80111-1632
(720) 974-0386
A Google lookup turns this up for Trulogic Financial Corporation: "TrueLogic Financial Corporation (TFC) provides enhanced receivables management services for post charge-off collections, and for purchasing client accounts receivables." I.e., they're debt collectors.
Since I don't have any overdue debts (indeed, have a significant sum of money in the bank), it appears that they're calling some deadbeat who *used* to have my phone number. I've had this phone number for two years, but (shrug) some of the debts these guys are buying are a decade old. And of course my phone number is unlisted, so it's not as if they looked up "Bad Tux" in the phone directory and picked my number from amongst all the other "Bad Tux"es in the area (something that happened to me when I lived in another city on the opposite coast from where I live now).
The next question is this: How the heck to get these folks to stop calling me, without giving them information they can use to further harass me for Joe Blow's debt?
- Badtux the Collectable Penguin
Note: Comments are now closed on this post. Please see the latest update, where they change tactics in their efforts to trick people into paying debts they don't owe.
Well, it finally happened. This aging penguin's eyes got to the point where they couldn't focus on stuff near to the face, like books and newspapers.
The answer: Bifocals. Sort of. Oh my poor aching neck! Either I have to look up to see the entire computer screen through the bifocal part (and have to move the screen closer to me too), or I have to look down to see the entire screen through the top part of the bifocals (and move the screen further from me). I was better off with plain glass lenses for everything but reading... agh!
I guess it's time to look into that laser eye stuff... at least if that works, I'll just need reading glasses.
Sigh, getting old sucks. The alternative, of course, sucks worse, but...
-- Badtux the Middle-aged Penguin
- Badtux the Appreciative Penguin
