This, below, from the bozos at CNN, “reporting” on the earthquake in Chile and the subsequent tsunami-warnings for the Pacific:

"They're going to sound the sirens to air on the side of caution and make sure there's enough time to get people out of the evacuation zones, which are the coastal areas that may be affected," Brian Shiro of the Pacific Tsuanmi Warning Center said.

Dear God in heaven save us all; these are the people who report and comment on the news around the world and they don’t know the difference between “to err on the side of caution” and “to air on the side of caution.” Note, also please, the misspelling of tsunami. Hide the women and children.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM’S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND

Music of the Day: Thin Lizzy, She Knows

“The search for aliens should start on Earth not outer space, says scientist.”

That’s the headline.

I concur.

We should begin the search for aliens immediately, right here in Earth. No question about it.

Let me proffer just four starting points for our search which may yield results:

Ohio’s Tenth Congressional District and/or Washington D.C.; in one of those two places our search for “aliens” should result in finding the Tenth’s own Dennis Kucinich, who not long ago was seeking the nomination of his party to run for President of the United States. As I think about this now, how much worse would things be if we had a space-alien in the White House?

Wherever Shirley MacLaine is living; her website says she will publish stories on any of the following subjects: Astrology, Numerology, Spiritual Life, Aging, Health, Sacred Sites, Dreams & Prophecy, UFOs & Phenomenon, Reincarnation, Environment, and Pets (Fur People). Surely Shirley (ha!) is an alien; please remember that the aforementioned Congressman Kucinich claimed to have seen at UFO while at Shriley’s residence. What further proof do we need to begin our search with Ms. MacLaine?

A cursory search in Oakland, California will yield another likely alien, Jerry Brown, who is now (again!) running for governor of the formerly-great state of California. Mr. Brown is a certified moonbat; search no further for aliens on Earth.

Virginia Beach, Virginia; our search will lead us to Pat Robertson, who seems to think that natural phenomena, such as earthquakes, are the result of misguided peoples making pacts “with the devil.” He is either an alien or a time-traveler from the ninth century.

By all means, let us search for aliens right here on earth; this will be far less expensive than sending astronauts into outer space; alas looking around at home will not yield results like Tang, for instance, but we may be able to finally explain Kucinich, MacLaine, Brown, Robertson, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, and Barbra Streisand, to name but a few of the more obvious aliens amongst us.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM’S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND.

Music of the Day: Joe Walsh, The Bomber

RATING: I don’t remember. . . .

Okay, the headline read, “Man Dies After Watching Avatar,” so I read the rest of the story just for the hell of it. Sure enough, the Taiwanese man saw the movie, experienced some sense of hyper-excitement, had a spike in blood pressure, and died.

Eleven days later.

The next big scary headline could read “Hundreds Die After Watching Avatar.” It could happen to me. I’ve seen the movie and even though I seriously wanted to die before it was over (the damned movie was at least 45 minutes too long), I survived—I didn’t even get the nausea so many were reporting after being bombarded by the 3D images and effects. However, there’s still time for me to be a victim of Avatar; I haven’t hit the eleven-day cutoff point yet. Many other people who have seen the movie could die eleven days (or more) later, too. . . . In my view, the movie was tendentious, preachy, predictable, trite, sappy, shopworn, a paean to “environmentalism,” and it was anything but the “best movie of the year.” For my money Hurt Locker was light-years better.

If I die in the next few days it probably won’t be because of the movie; other factors may be involved, to wit: The seventy-seven bags of Cheetos I’ve had since seeing the movie, or the multiple double-margaritas since then, or Donna’s Deadly Playoff Chili, or the nineteen beers a day I’ve been drinking to facilitate the writing process (my liver has swollen to the size of a beachball—but I’m getting a lot of non-blog writing done!), or my sky-high blood pressure from watching the local football team’s defense get shredded on successive weekends, or the multitudes of geezer drivers in this community who go ten miles under the speed limit in perfect weather but who drive like meth-crazed apes when there’s snow and ice on the roads, or from a general fear and loathing (mostly just loathing) of the current administration and its band of tax-cheats, loony-lefties, terrorism-deniers, dull-as-dishwater orators (think ORP) and bribe-takers.

Who writes these headlines?—Man Dies After Watching Avatar—I mean, one could easily write a headline like “Man Dies After Reading The Brothers Karamazov in 1975,” or “Woman Dies After Watching Oprah Last Summer,” or “Airline Pilot Falls Asleep in Cockpit After Obama Speech.” The last of these could be a real headline. . . .Obama’s speeches are almost always snoozers—how the hell did he get the reputation for being an American Churchill and a rhetorical wizard?

Anyway, the headline made me laugh—I mean, I’m sorry for the man’s family, but whatever the hell they’re teaching in “journalism” schools these days can sure provide some side-splitting humor.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM’S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND.

So much grist for the blog mill, so little time; other projects have taken precedence over this one, but I hope faithful readers are still linking to my favorite thinkers and writers (see column to the right of this space). The laughable lunacy of the current administration provides daily humor so long as you have a strong mind and an even stronger stomach. Read on, fellow conservatives: Mark Steyn, Charles Krauthammer, Victor Davis Hanson, et. al.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM'S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND.

From Commentary's blog, Contentions.

Incentives for Terrorists

Jennifer Rubin - 12.17.2009 - 9:14 AM

Reader Ben Orlanski weighed in yesterday with a key point on the treatment of Guantanamo detainees. His e-mail to Max Boot and me reads, in part:

“The principal danger is further undermining the Geneva Conventions. These were, as you two know better than anyone, conventions to protect innocents by incentivizing decent behavior in war. Hence, protections are granted to those who fight decently, and are denied to those who don’t. The great danger here is that, by treating the indecent with decency, we undermine the very distinction the Geneva Conventions were designed to uphold, which, therefore, makes indecency (i.e., terrorism) more attractive, because it has more benefits and fewer disadvantages. …

Obama’s plans to move terrorists to the US mainland is just another step in the same direction that has us trying KSM in civilian court.”

Ben notes that some of the blurring of distinctions has already occurred thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court but argues it would be a mistake to compound the error. He directs our attention to a recent column by Bill McGurn, who detailed this argument in connection with the KSM trial:

“We don’t often speak of incentives in war. That’s a loss, because the whole idea of, say, Geneva rights is based on the idea of providing combatants with incentives to do things that help limit the bloodiness of battle. These include wearing a uniform, carrying arms openly, not targeting civilians, and so on. Terrorists recognize none of these things. …

Why fight the Marines and risk getting killed yourself or locked up in Bagram forever when you can blow up American citizens on their own streets and gain the legal protections that give you a chance to go free? With this one step, Mr. Holder is giving al Qaeda a ghastly incentive: to focus more of their attacks on American civilians on American home soil.”

And the argument, as Ben points out, is equally applicable to the planned closing of Guantanamo and the relocation of its detainees to U.S. prisons. Indeed, it seems to be the Obama team’s motive to eradicate the distinction between common criminals and the terrorists/detainees, not to mention the distinction (now partially eradicated) between terrorists and those who historically have been afforded protection under the Geneva Convention. The Obami intend to give the terrorists civilian trials, place them within the geographic jurisdiction of federal courts, house them in American prisons, and, as we saw with Richard Reid, afford them all the rights and privileges of ordinary criminals should they complain about their treatment.

In doing so, the administration not only provides perverse incentives to terrorists. It also conveys to them that, while they see this as a war, we do not. And that is the worst message we can possibly send.

Be sure to check the Commentary link to the right of this page.

AJ

TO LIVE IN FREEDOM'S LIGHT IS THE RIGHT OF MANKIND.