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January 10, 2006

Birds Of A Moonbat Feather

On the John Birch Society webpage, 69% of respondants (self-selecting, natch) agree that Bush should be impeached.

Thanks to Taranto. He also calls Cindy Sheehan a "fascist fishwife."

posted by Ace at 04:34 PM

Comments

The JBS still exists?
Whodda thunk it?

Posted by: Mikey on January 10, 2006 04:42 PM

Very little differenence between the far right and left these days.

Posted by: pablo honey on January 10, 2006 04:43 PM

Pablo honey, go back to Florida.

Posted by: See-Dubya on January 10, 2006 04:45 PM

Didn't Max make this point yesterday?

Posted by: geoff on January 10, 2006 04:48 PM

Oops - my bad. Max pulled it from Taranto this morning.

Posted by: geoff on January 10, 2006 04:52 PM

"Fascist fishwife"?

Can't you just leave her alone? Go after the pundits and politicians.

Posted by: tubino on January 10, 2006 04:59 PM

Can't you just leave her alone? Go after the pundits and politicians.

Really? Didn't you see how jealous she was of Katrina? She's begging for it. She deserves it with both barrels.

Posted by: Moonbat Patrol on January 10, 2006 05:04 PM

Anyone who believes in upholding the US Constitution believes Bush should be impeached.

He has asserted repeatedly, formally, officially, that he is above Congressional law and the Constitution. And he has violated both. And admitted it publicly. And says he will continue to do so.

Good God, what more do you need?

Posted by: tubino on January 10, 2006 05:09 PM

Pablo honey, go back to Florida.

I am too busy washing my ass and keeping myself clean.

Posted by: on January 10, 2006 05:10 PM

Good God, what more do you need?

Diamond earrings. And a new retro T-Bird.

Posted by: Sue Dohnim on January 10, 2006 05:12 PM

Good God, what more do you need?

dammit, I just don't know. what do you think would help?

Posted by: Dave in Texas on January 10, 2006 05:13 PM

Only a real patriot would want to impeach Bush.

Why do you hate America?

Posted by: tubino on January 10, 2006 05:17 PM

Can't you just leave her alone? Go after the pundits and politicians.

I'm with Tubino on this, actually, but in Taranto's defense it should be pointed out that Cindy Sheehan has basically turned herself into an activist, which is a kind of politician.

Posted by: SJKevin on January 10, 2006 05:21 PM

Goodness I don't hate America. I love America. I love poetry, and a glass of scotch, and, of course, my friend Baxter here.

Posted by: Dave in Texas on January 10, 2006 05:23 PM

My 58 million voters think you should suck it, Tubino.

Posted by: George W. Bush on January 10, 2006 05:23 PM

President Bush - 62,040,606
Sen. Windsurfer -59,028,109

Posted by: tubino's conscience on January 10, 2006 05:33 PM

"Didn't Max make this point yesterday?

Posted by geoff at January 10, 2006 04:48 PM
Oops - my bad. Max pulled it from Taranto this morning.

Posted by geoff at January 10, 2006 04:52 PM"

Yes, but Ace could still have given me an h/t - cheap bastard.

Unsurprising how comfortable Tubino feels being aligned with the John Birch Society. Lunatic paranoid intolerant of dissent birds of a feather flocking together.

Posted by: max on January 10, 2006 05:35 PM

Not even trollbino is so stupid/crazy as to make the post he just did. Who is posting as him?

He is above the law in the sense that, by virtue of separation of powers, Congress doesn't have the power to constrain him in that way. So, he is within the constitution and separate from Congress.

But since troll is in stupid mode, it must be pointed out that he also believed that Clinton should be impeached since he did and believed the same thing.

Oh, and fuck Mother Sheehan. If she doesn't want to be criticized, she can shut the fuck up. Or at least not do photo shoots where she is lying on her son's grave.

Posted by: joeindc44 on January 10, 2006 05:45 PM

Can't you just leave her alone? Go after the pundits and politicians.

Good God,

That media whore has done everything humanly possible to get attention. Camping outside Bush's ranch, sucking up to Al Sharpton, getting herself arrested by chaining herself to the WhiteHouse fence, going to Europe and gladly bashing the U.S. to any lefty rag which will print her liberal talking points.

Now, we are supposed to "leave her alone"? F*** OFF you stupid pissant. If she doesn't want to be mentioned...perhaps she should shut her pie hole.

I am really getting tired of the nonsense coming from the left these days.

Posted by: TheShadow on January 10, 2006 05:46 PM

"Anyone who believes in upholding the US Constitution believes Bush should be impeached blah blah blah" - tubino

The Republicans will not lose control of either house of Congress in November as long as the left keeps talking like this, no matter how bad Abramhoff gets. It (i) serves to rally Republicans behind their current Congressman becasuse they don't want to take a chance on impeachment and (ii) really doesn't fit the mood of the country vis-a-vis the NSA activities which only the rabid left and the John Birch Society (I repeat myself) care about.

If the Dems had any sense (which they don't) they'd shut up with this talk, but they apparently (i) can't help themselves and (ii) are trying to distract attention from the fact that they have nothing constructive to offer, only hatred of President Bush.

Posted by: max on January 10, 2006 06:35 PM

When did this become a political site? Shit! Well, at least I know I'm safe from Dick Cheney jokes.

And has anyone noticed that since Allah has taken over this blog, the number of posts about anything homo has plummeted?

Posted by: compos mentis on January 10, 2006 06:50 PM

Kinduv the same way when a blogger gets married, he stops writing so many posts about dating?

Posted by: sandy burger on January 10, 2006 07:42 PM

P.S. I just wrote that to shore up my alpha heterosexual creds for Bart.

Posted by: sandy burger on January 10, 2006 07:43 PM

Duly noted.

Posted by: Bart on January 10, 2006 07:45 PM

Lets just impeach all the politicians that have broken their vows that would mean 95% of them would have to go

Posted by: spurwing plover on January 10, 2006 09:11 PM

Great work mate. Check out this awesome blog here.

Posted by: ernest on January 11, 2006 05:31 AM

Birchers are funny but the real laughs come from the LaRouche kooks. They absolutely hate Dick Cheney and you can find them on street corners barking away on the perfidy of our VP. I sure did!

Needless to say, they were not surprised to hear that Cheney had cock-punched numerous morons into orbit and had spiked a kitten and so forth. I nearly peed myself laughing! Strongly recommended.

Posted by: spongeworthy on January 11, 2006 11:10 AM

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In more marketing for Project Hail Mary, scientists say they've found the biosigns indicating life growing on an alien planet. It's not proof, just signatures of chemicals that are produced by biological metabolism, and it could be nothing, but scientists think it's a strong sign that this planet is inhabited by something.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists announced the detection of dimethyl sulfide (along with a similar detection of dimethyl disulfide) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18b. This is actually the second detection of dimethyl sulfide made on this planet, following a tentative detection in 2023.
Tons of chemicals are detected in the atmospheres of celestial objects every day. But dimethyl sulfide is different, because on Earth, it's only produced by living organisms.
"It is a shock to the system," Nikku Madhusudhan, first author on the paper, told the New York Times. "We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal."

He means they tried to prove the signal was caused by things other than dimethyl sulfide but they could not.

Artemis moon shot a go, scheduled for 6:24 Eastern time tonight
Great marketing arranged by Amazon to promote Project Hail Mary. Okay not really but it does work out that way.

TJM talks John Boorman, director of Excalibur

Good rickroll

What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]

TJM acts like he knows anything about John Wick and screenwriting. It's embarrassing, really.

Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!

Oh, I forgot to mention this quote from Pete Hegseth, reported by Roger Kimball: "We are sharing the ocean with the Iranian Navy. We're giving them the bottom half."

Batman fires The Batman
Batman is disgusted by the Joachim Phoenix version of Joker
Batman tries to fire Superman
Batman is still workshopping his Bat-Voice

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Red Leather Suit and Sweatband Edition
And I was here to please
I'm even on knees
Makin' love to whoever I please
I gotta do it my way
Or no way at all

Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

Sec. Army recognizes ODU Army ROTC cadets for their bravery and sacrifice in private ceremony
[Hat Tip: Diogenes] [CBD]

TJM gives you a brief tour of his movie collection.

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click
One day I'm gonna write a poem in a letter
One day I'm gonna get that faculty together
Remember that everybody has to wait in line
Oh, [Song Title], look out world, oh, you know I've got mine

US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
AI is doing a lot of the work in analyzing images to find the exact hiding place of the launchers. Counter-strikes are now coming in four hours after a launch, whereas previously it might have taken days for humans to go over the imagery and data.

Robert Mueller, Former Special Counsel Who Probed Trump, Dies

“robert mueller just died,” trump wrote in a truth social post on march 21. “good, i’m glad he’s dead. he can no longer hurt innocent people! president donald j. trump.”

TJM has thoughts on Superheros and Iconography