From the Office of the Spokesperson-Elect of the President-Elect.br /br /In the aftermath of a Somali attack on the US cruise ship Nautica in the Gulf of Yemen, the Office of the President-Elect announced it is taking bold and decisive action. Secretary of State-Elect Hillary Clinton will be sent to the troubled region to begin Mr. Obama's promised policy of sitting down "without precondition" with groups or governments injured, offended or just simply irritated by the United States.br /br /Mrs. Clinton is uniquely qualified to address the situation in Somalia. Her husband's administration established a precedent for a href= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu_(1993) bold and decisive action/a in Somalia, and it is believed that the a href= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7762310.stm injured, offended and/or irritated parties/a will respond favorably to a bold and decisive woman. The example Secretary Albright set in this region is bold and decisive proof of how enlightened diplomacy can make an a href= http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259761,00.html important contribution/a to international affairs and ameliorate seemingly intractable conflicts.br /br /As effective as the United Nations has been in dealing with disagreements a href= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide in Rwanda/a and in a href= http://www.darfurscores.org/darfur the Sudan/a, it cannot be expected to deal with every international controversy. The power of the Office of the President-Elect must be brought to bear boldly and decisively to bring a peaceful solution to this situation.br /br /The President-Elect is also sending Vice President-Elect Biden to India in hopes of applying bold and decisive action to diffuse the tensions following the Mumbai terror attacks. Senator Biden is a href= http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/07/politics/main1785303.shtml uniquely qualified/a to address the special concerns of the Indian people due to his a href= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIT3jUrNTX0 extensive knowledge/a of their culture and peoples.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

I decided to reduce the frequency of the HKW posts to one a month, for I do not believe my art knife posts have had as much appeal as the HCF judging by the lack of comments and sexual innuendo. So after a hiatus, I once again post a nice knife for your enjoyment. This is a fixed-blade hunting knife by Arkansas knifemaker Dennis Riley. Riley specializes in very functional hunting knives as a sole author. This means he forges his own Damascus steel for the blades and creates his own leather sheaths. His handles are typically Stag Horn, and come with a full tang and custom fitted butt plate in nickel steel.br /br /divdiv/divdivimg id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5275717101315160226" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 306px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JemURu7vdeE/STccwG9X-KI/AAAAAAAAAR4/sHPuUemrdYc/s400/knifeart_2031_84959818.jpg" border="0" //divbr /img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5275716824816078034" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 364px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JemURu7vdeE/STccgA62zNI/AAAAAAAAARw/CodACO8sfvI/s400/knifeart_2025_256134783.jpg" border="0" /br /divI own one of his knives and it is a beauty. Excellent craftsmanship and great balance. The one shown here is available from Knifeart.com for $575. Link is in the title above. Go there for finer resolution images if you are interested. Enjoy./div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

emU.S. governors will ask that any federal stimulus plan for the states include as much as $100 billion in aid to help cover the swelling costs of social services, Illinois Governor /ema href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Rod+Blagojevichamp;site=wnewsamp;client=wnewsamp;proxystylesheet=wnewsamp;output=xml_no_dtdamp;ie=UTF-8amp;oe=UTF-8amp;filter=pamp;getfields=wnnisamp;sort=date:D:S:d1" t_delay="50" t_width="110" t_bgcolor="#ddedd9" t_fontface="Verdana,sans-serif" t_fontcolor="#000000" t_static="true" t_above="true"emRod Blagojevich/em/aem said. /embr /em/embr /emMore than half of the states are suffering from declining revenue in the fiscal year that began five months ago. California accounts for nearly half of the $24 billion in budget deficits faced by a total of 31 states this year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities./embr /br /Jesus H Christ! These assholes waste billions of dollars on useless social programs and then when the economy tanks they ask for more money????br /br /strongspan style="color:#ff0000;"CUT SOME FUCKING PROGRAMS!!!!/span/strongbr /br /How about this stimulus package, we throw every able bodied adult off of welfare. We the cut the short term capital gains rate to 0% and increase it by 5% for the next 3 years. This means the sooner you get going on an project, the less taxes you'll have to pay.br /br /I could put 3 to 5 people to work in a month if I had the funding and had 0% short term capital gains.br /br /But NOOOOO! We need another $100 billion to pay more losers not to work. And they wonder how we got into this mess?div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

There seems to be a major mental disconnect in Washington over just who is defauting on all of these mortgages. People like me who rent to the masses know exactly who these people are, they are mostly losers. br /br /In a normal year, there is a small group of good people that get fucked by life and can't make their payments. These people made up our normal default rate of about 1%. They aren't who I'm talking about. I'm talking about the new 4+% of losers who got in to houses by lying about their income and now have stopped making payments on mortgages that they should have never had in the first place. We're talking about people with mortgages that are 40% or more of their PRETAX income (They must pay way lower taxes than I do if they have a dime left after paying 50% to the mortgage.)br /br /But the morons in Washington DC want to pretend that by destroying the contracts that these losers signed, they will suddenly become responsible citizens. Sheila Blair is the lead moron.br /br /emStill, at a recent hearing of his Financial Services Committee, Mr. Frank received encouraging words from FDIC Chair Sheila Bair. She outlined her ballyhooed plan to prevent an estimated 1.5 million foreclosures by the end of 2009. She plans to accomplish this feat by modifying more than two million loans at what she estimates would be a taxpayer cost of $24 billion. This may be wonderful politics, but the real-world evidence suggests it will be far more difficult and expensive./embr /br /emThree months into the IndyMac experiment, the FDIC has modified all of 5,400 delinquent loans. It's too early to tell how many of these borrowers will default again, but since even the modified monthly payments consume 38% of borrowers' pretax income, expect a lot of failures. The FDIC uses a re-default rate of 40% in its models but believes the actual rate will be lower. strongLPS says more than 50% of loans typically go delinquent again after modification./strong/embr /strongem/em/strongbr /emTo roll out its plan nationwide, the FDIC wants to offer private loan servicers a new incentive to modify troubled loans. The private firms would do the same thing the feds have been doing at IndyMac, except they would move the monthly payment down to 31% of pretax income, instead of 38%. The FDIC would pay servicers $1,000 for every loan they modify, and taxpayers will share the losses if loans re-default./embr /em/embr /emUnder the FDIC plan, a borrower would have to stay current for at least six months under the modified terms to make sure that lenders aren't just dumping their losers on taxpayers. Well, not all of their losers anyway. The FDIC is still assuming a 33% re-default rate, even at the lower debt-to-income ratio. All of this is why the White House estimates Ms. Bair's plan could cost as much as strong$70 billion next year/strong -- not $24 billion./embr /em/embr /$70 billion and still have are going to default anyway? How about we save the $70 billion and let the market sort this out. The sooner we get the losers out and get responsible owners in, the sooner we can get past this mess.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

Homer Simpson edition.br /br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5RyqtrGnicchl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5RyqtrGnicchl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectdiv class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'pobject height='350' width='425'param value='http://youtube.com/v/7fqCS7Y_kME' name='movie'/embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/7fqCS7Y_kME'//object/ppWow, kind of sounds like nothing has changed./p/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/Moosesign/SKOhEayKNRI/AAAAAAAAFuQ/N3mz50zOOC8/s400/beardining2.jpg"img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/Moosesign/SKOhEayKNRI/AAAAAAAAFuQ/N3mz50zOOC8/s400/beardining2.jpg" border="0" //abr /div/divdiv/divdivAnimals that were formerly self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democratic Party... as they have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance. /divdiv /divdivThis photo is of a Democrat black bear in Montana nicknamed 'Bearack Obama'! /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

emFord's strongU.S. light vehicle/strong sales tumbled 31 percent in November,strong while Toyota's plunged 34 percent and Honda's dropped 32 percent, /strongdashing hopes that the industrywide drop in vehicle demand might be easing as Detroit's automakers prepare to state their second case for a federal bailout./embr /br /emToyota Motor Corp., Japan's No. 1 automaker, said truck sales plummeted 36 percent, while demand for passenger cars strongfell 32 percent/strong, despite the automaker's extension of zero-percent financing on a dozen vehicles through the end of the month./embr /br /emOctober's seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of strong10.6 million vehicles was worst in more than 25 years and far below the rate of 16 million a year earlier/strong, according to Autodata Corp./embr /br /Can we please stop saying stupid things about American car companies? Americans bought 16 million vehicles last year, yet everyone seems to think that suddenly no one wants American cars? No one wants any car this year.br /br /The $4 gas didn't help any company, not even Toyota. Ford actually had the lowest drop, of 31% and that's just in light cars. I wonder how F-150 sales are holding up?br /br /Face it, American companies build trucks and cars that can compete head to head with the imports. I shopped around before I bought my third Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited and I couldn't find one vehicle that was superior to the Jeep for the same price. Sure the Range Rover, Lexus, BMW and even Porche SUV's were cool, but they cost at least twice what I paid for the Jeep.br /br /strongUpdate:/strong GM's numbers just came in and their sales are off by 41%. GM was heavily vested into SUV's and trucks. Construction dropping off has added a extra bite to their problems.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

I found this foul piece of trash in USA today yesterday. This wasn't an opinion article, it was on the front page of the business section.br /br /emBy /ema class="linkedBylineName" href="http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/reporter.aspx?id=4"emAdam Shell/em/aem, USA TODAY/embr /br /emNEW YORK — President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even moved into the White House yet. But Wall Street is already showering him with praise for injecting confidence into the battered psyche of investors and working quickly to hatch a plan meant to jolt the economy out of its worst funk in decades./embr /br /emA market that two weeks ago was desperate for political leadership and a clear strategy to repair the economy appears to have found it in Obama, who is fast emerging as a decisive economic commander in chief. /embr /br /emStocks soared last week after Obama moved aggressively to fill the power vacuum until he's sworn in and demonstrated his commitment to dig the USA out of its economic rut./embr /br /emThe Dow has rallied 17% during its current five-session win streak — its best five-session run since 1932. The rallies coincided with Obama-related news and public appearances where he introduced his economic dream team and sent a clear message that he'll do whatever it takes to repair the economy./embr /em/embr /Wow, the world is saved by the genius of the Obama Messiah!....a href="http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/12/01/ap5762919.html"or not./abr /br /emThe stock market suffered one of its worst days since the financial meltdown Monday, slicing 680 points off the Dow Jones industrial average as Wall Street snapped out of its daydream of a rally and once again faced the harsh reality of a recession./embr /br /emNot only did stocks end their five-day winning streak, they erased more than half the gains. The Standard amp; Poor's 500 stock index, one of the broadest market gauges, lost nearly 9 percent./embr /br /strongAdam Shell, Obama Worshipping Douche Bag/strong of the day. Please take off the rose colored glasses and try to get some perspective. br /br /The truly sad part is that we have 4 years of Obama worship to endure. This is gonna suck ass!div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

OK, for those new to the Anti-Strib, I don't have kids and I didn't grow up poor or in a single parent home. Now, maybe I'm off base here, but isn't there a few things wrong with this message?br /br /emOur team will once again sponsor a family for the holidays. /embr /br /Cool, when I attended the Mount Olivet United Brethren Methodist Church as a child I used to help pack and distribute bags of food for the poor at Christmas. I have no problem with Christmas charity. It is a great Christian tradition.br /br /emThe family is a strongsingle mom with 2 kids./strong If you wish to contribute monies towards the purchase of items, please have your donations to me by no later than Monday, December 8. /embr /br /emThe items listed below are a few of the things they need. They also need gift cards to Cub Foods, Rainbow Foods, Target, and Wal-Mart. Also, if you have any gift bags or gift wrap that you would like to donate that would be great. We ask that you please not wrap any gifts. strongThe parents prefer to do this./strong/embr /br /Opps! I see some road bumps here. I assume that there is actually only one parent, but why worry about the wrapping? Is this some sort of method to confer dignity or ownership to the parents?br /br /emFamily #18 Mom with twin 8 year old boys. Last year they received a strongPlaystation 3/strong and would like to share a NBA game or a Madden Football game to play on it. They could also use some boys sweat pants in size 8-10 and some warm winter gloves to wear for recess./embr /em/embr /Gloves, Check. Sweat pants, sure. Gift cards for food, definitely. strongMadden's Football????/strongbr /br /OK, I maybe a scrooge here but if the family is in such financial straights, why the Playstation? Wouldn't it be a valuable lesson for the boys to be thankful for the necessities? Aren't we sending the wrong message by giving away luxuries?br /br /My fraternal grandmother, the senior Mrs. Eberly, was born in 1927. She remembers a good Christmas as one where you got an orange. (A luxury of sorts, but then again, it also wasn't charity). That was it, an orange. As she got older she would sometimes get a dress for Christmas. Ask her if they grew up poor and she'll tell you no, everyone was that way in the 30's.br /br /If the economy is changing, shouldn't we also change? While this is an excellent time to share the wealth (and I donated) shouldn't we try to send the right messages? I hope everyone has a wonderful dinner on Christmas Day. But as for Madden's Football, uh I'm not so sure.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

blockquote style="font-style: italic;"a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081130/murder_charges_081130/20081130?hub=Canada"VANCOUVER/a!-- /dateline -- -- A B.C. man who prison staff say warned them he would kill again after stabbing an acquaintance to death will be in court Monday, accused of killing his girlfriend.br //blockquoteTrue enough, it didn't happen in Minnesota, but here in Minnesota, we do have more than our share of Jamie Michael Cliff's, the man who repeat offended, and killed again. Just think, an innocent life would have been saved, if there were Capital Punishment in Canada.br /pHow many times have similar incidents happened here in Minnesota? Lots. I can't count them all. A lot of innocent people would not be dead now, if we had capital punishment.br //pblockquote style="font-style: italic;"pThe case highlights a longstanding concern among police and corrections officials about what to do with offenders who they believe pose a high risk to re-offend.br //p pParole Board officials were so worried about Cliff's "longstanding propensity for violence and anger management problems" that they refused to release him until he had served his entire manslaughter sentence for the stabbing death eight years ago.br //p/blockquotepIf there were a death penalty, you wouldn't need to be worrying about this. No chance of re offending once you've been lit up with electricity./ppAs I've made quite clear. You don't want to be executed, you don't do the crime. Totally your choice. Time for the excuses to end, and the executions to begin./ppThere are some people out there that are under the false notion that the death penalty does not have a deterrent effect. That's just blatantly wrong, and it really has nothing to do with the debate about capital punishment. Even if it were true, it's a moot point because the consequence of one's chosen action is capital punishment, not capital deterrence.br //pblockquote style="font-style: italic;"According to deterrence theory, criminals are no different from law-abiding people. Criminals "rationally maximize their own self-interest (utility) subject to constraints (prices, incomes) that they face in the marketplace and elsewhere."a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/Crime/tst082807a.cfm#_edn11"[11]/a Individuals make their decisions based on the net costs and benefits of each alternative. Thus, deterrence theory provides a basis for analyzing how capital punishment should influence murder rates. Over the years, several studies have demonstrated a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/Crime/tst082807a.cfm"a link between executions and decreases in murder rates/a. In fact, studies done in recent years, using sophisticated panel data methods, consistently demonstrate a strong link between executions and reduced murder incidents./blockquotepDavid Muhlhausen, Senior Policy Analyst in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation sums it best with the following: span style="font-style: italic;"Americans support capital punishment for two good reasons. First, there is little evidence to suggest that minorities are treated unfairly. Second, capital punishment produces a strong deterrent effect that saves lives./span/ppa href="http://econ.cudenver.edu/mocan/papers/GettingOffDeathRow.pdf"That deterrent effect is 3 to 18 lives are saved for every one execution/a. That certainly makes bringing capital punishment back to Minnesota a very attractive measure. Get on board and a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/789865/petition.html"sign the petition to have capital punishment on a ballot referendum in 2010/a. If we can get it there, it will pass./ppbr //pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

The recent terrorist attack in Mumbai was shocking. The main question being asked in the aftermath is "How could 10 men attack and hold a city of millions at bay for so long a time?" The answer may lie in the fact that much of Mumbai's police force is armed a href= http://hotair.com/archives/2008/12/01/caught-on-tape-stick-time-for-captured-mumbai-jihadist/ with sticks/a.br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"B.S. Sidhu, head of the Railway Protection Force for the Mumbai region, says that while some officers tried to fight back, there was little his force could do. Most police officers at the station — as they are throughout India — were unarmed or carried only bamboo sticks known as lathis. More than 40 people, including three police officers, were killed in just a few minutes, authorities said. The wounded survivors screamed for help amid acrid smoke, piles of slumped, bloodied bodies and spilling suitcases…/spanbr /br /India follows the "enlightened" model of Europe. They wouldn't want any "cowboys" out there, with guns, able to actually, well, defend themselves. How uncivilized.br /br /We have talked at length about the feminization of America. Sick and dying Europe is way ahead of us: br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HkX59FkGCZk/STR-plt2tvI/AAAAAAAAAEs/bSD_6QVZbgc/s1600-h/Stehpinkeln.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HkX59FkGCZk/STR-plt2tvI/AAAAAAAAAEs/bSD_6QVZbgc/s400/Stehpinkeln.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274980316521871090" //abr /br /span style="font-style:italic;"German men are being shamed into urinating while sitting down by a gadget which is saving millions of women from cleaning up in the bathroom after them.br /br /The WC ghost, a £6 voice-alarm, reprimands men for standing at the lavatory pan. It is triggered when the seat is lifted. The battery-operated devices are attached to the seats and deliver stern warnings to those who attempt to stand and urinate (known as "Stehpinkeln").br /br /"Hey, stand-peeing is not allowed here and will be punished with fines, so if you don't want any trouble, you'd best sit down," one of the devices orders in a voice impersonating the German leader, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. Another has a voice similar to that of his predecessor, Helmut Kohl./spanbr /(The new model may have Angela Merkel. The American version could use Barack Obama: "Sitzpinkler? Yes We Can!" -ed)br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"The manufacturers of the WC ghost, Patentwert, say they are ready to direct their gadgets at the British market.br /br /Their prototype English-speaking WC ghost says in an American drawl: "Don't you go wetting this floor cowboy, you never know who's behind you. So sit down, get your water pistol in the bowl where it belongs. Ha, ha, ha."br /br /They also plan to copy the voices of Tony Blair and the Queen.br /br /So far 1.8 million WC ghosts have been sold in German supermarkets.br /br /But Klaus Schwerma, author of Standing Urinators: The Last Bastion of Masculinity? doubts whether it will ever be possible to convert all men.br /br /"Many insist on standing, even though it leads to much marital strife," he said.br /br /In German, the phrase for someone who sits and urinates, a "Sitzpinkler", is equivalent to "wimp"./spanbr /br /So how did Germany go from the Waffen SS to Sitzpinklers in a generation? Perhaps for the same reason that the marriage rate per 1000 population 15-64 is 7.1 and the fertility rate is 1.35. German men have lost touch with their pinklers. While the billion people on the sub-continent would suggest that Indian men don't share this sad fate, the fact that 10 men were able to hold the most advanced of Indian cities hostage for so long and cause so much mayhem is a bad indicator. br /br /So the question America will be forced to ask (very soon) is, are we Stehpinkeln or are we Sitzpinkler? George S. Patton Stehpinkeln in the Rhine. He didn't hang his butt over the rail.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

The recent terrorist attack in Mumbai was shocking. The main question being asked in the aftermath is "How could 10 men attack and hold a city of millions at bay for so long a time?" The answer may lie in the fact that much of Mumbai's police force is armed a href= http://hotair.com/archives/2008/12/01/caught-on-tape-stick-time-for-captured-mumbai-jihadist/ with sticks/a.br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"B.S. Sidhu, head of the Railway Protection Force for the Mumbai region, says that while some officers tried to fight back, there was little his force could do. Most police officers at the station — as they are throughout India — were unarmed or carried only bamboo sticks known as lathis. More than 40 people, including three police officers, were killed in just a few minutes, authorities said. The wounded survivors screamed for help amid acrid smoke, piles of slumped, bloodied bodies and spilling suitcases…/spanbr /br /India follows the "enlightened" model of Europe. They wouldn't want any "cowboys" out there, with guns, able to actually, well, defend themselves. How uncivilized.br /br /We have talked at length about the feminization of America. Sick and dying Europe is way ahead of us: br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HkX59FkGCZk/STR-plt2tvI/AAAAAAAAAEs/bSD_6QVZbgc/s1600-h/Stehpinkeln.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HkX59FkGCZk/STR-plt2tvI/AAAAAAAAAEs/bSD_6QVZbgc/s400/Stehpinkeln.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274980316521871090" //abr /br /span style="font-style:italic;"German men are being shamed into urinating while sitting down by a gadget which is saving millions of women from cleaning up in the bathroom after them.br /br /The WC ghost, a £6 voice-alarm, reprimands men for standing at the lavatory pan. It is triggered when the seat is lifted. The battery-operated devices are attached to the seats and deliver stern warnings to those who attempt to stand and urinate (known as "Stehpinkeln").br /br /"Hey, stand-peeing is not allowed here and will be punished with fines, so if you don't want any trouble, you'd best sit down," one of the devices orders in a voice impersonating the German leader, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. Another has a voice similar to that of his predecessor, Helmut Kohl./spanbr /(The new model may have Angela Merkel. The American version could use Barack Obama: "Sitzpinkler? Yes We Can!" -ed)br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"The manufacturers of the WC ghost, Patentwert, say they are ready to direct their gadgets at the British market.br /br /Their prototype English-speaking WC ghost says in an American drawl: "Don't you go wetting this floor cowboy, you never know who's behind you. So sit down, get your water pistol in the bowl where it belongs. Ha, ha, ha."br /br /They also plan to copy the voices of Tony Blair and the Queen.br /br /So far 1.8 million WC ghosts have been sold in German supermarkets.br /br /But Klaus Schwerma, author of Standing Urinators: The Last Bastion of Masculinity? doubts whether it will ever be possible to convert all men.br /br /"Many insist on standing, even though it leads to much marital strife," he said.br /br /In German, the phrase for someone who sits and urinates, a "Sitzpinkler", is equivalent to "wimp"./spanbr /br /So how did Germany go from the Waffen SS to Sitzpinklers in a generation? Perhaps for the same reason that the marriage rate per 1000 population 15-64 is 7.1 and the fertility rate is 1.35. German men have lost touch with their pinklers. While the billion people on the sub-continent would suggest that Indian men don't share this sad fate, the fact that 10 men were able to hold the most advanced of Indian cities hostage for so long and cause so much mayhem is a bad indicator. br /br /So the question America will be forced to ask (very soon) is, are we Stehpinkein or are we Sitzpinkler? George S. Patton Stehpinkein in the Rhine. He didn't hang his butt over the rail.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JemURu7vdeE/STRpkHLUPgI/AAAAAAAAARY/IE2YtDCWEIA/s1600-h/christmas_present_1.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274957132680412674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 225px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JemURu7vdeE/STRpkHLUPgI/AAAAAAAAARY/IE2YtDCWEIA/s320/christmas_present_1.jpg" border="0" //abr /divNow thay we got that turkey business out of the way, it is time to start thinking about the Big Christianist Holiday. Given that the Islamists gave us that nasty business in Mumbai, I have a special gift I want Santa to bring me in case they try that over here./divbr /diva href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQo4M1gnZu4amp;feature=related"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQo4M1gnZu4amp;feature=related/a/divbr /divWhat do you all want for Christmas?/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

Liberals love the word "sustainable". They get wood any time someone talks about sustainability. They like sustainability in food, coffee, transit, housing, etc. Their is only one area where liberals never mention sustainability, taxes and spending. Liberals raise taxes in slow times and increase government spending in good times (In MN they increase spending in good and bad times.)br /br /emLast February, Stinson's group projected a $935 million budget deficit for the current biennium, which ends June 30, 2009. The Star Tribune agreed to keep the figures from the latest reading confidential, but budget forecasters anticipate public reaction to this week's forecast in one word: strong"Shock."/strong/embr /emstrongspan style="color:#ff0000;"/span/strong/embr /Estimates say that MN will have a $4.5 billion deficit this year.br /br /emAdding to the complexity of the forecast is the fact that the Minnesota job market was growing more slowly than the national pace before the current slump began.br //embr /emIn the vernacular of budget watchers, Minnesota' economy appears to be starting from a lower base -- that is, underperforming the nation -- and it's likely to grow more slowly from that lower level once growth returns./embr /br /em"So it's the worst of all worlds," Stinson said./embr /em/embr /Take any part of the current liberal agenda and you will see that it is fiscally unsustainable. The Hiawatha line cost $715 million to build and costs taxpayers $20 million a year to operate. The liberals want to add 2 more lines that will also cost about $1 billion each to build and another $20 million a year to operate. That's $60 million a year in additional government spending on top of the interest on the bonds sold to fund the lines.br /br /I know that liberals just think that they can raise taxes forever, but the theoretical limit is 100% of all the income produced. The point of diminishing returns is a tax level lower than our current tax rate. The reason MN is lagging the country is that MN is a shitty place to start and run a business.br /br /I have no delusions that that MN liberals will suddenly understand that fiscal sustainability is way more important that "Free Trade Coffee". We're set to see calls for massive tax increases this year, followed by more businesses and high income individuals leaving the state.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

emMUMBAI, India — A Muslim graveyard has refused to bury nine gunmen who terrorized Mumbai over three days last week, leaving at least 172 people dead and wreaking havoc at some of its most famous landmarks.br /br /The men are not true followers of the Islamic faith, according to the influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai.br /br /"People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said strongHanif Nalkhande,/strong a trustee. "Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime."br //embr /This is how terrorism is stopped. When the Muslim community ex-communicates scumbags like these swine we'll see a drop in terrorism.br /br /Of course there is always some ass-munch sypathizer that uses the ROPMA to justify anything.br /br /emWhile Nalkhande said several Islamic scholars had backed the trust's decision, some also criticized the move./embr /br /emEven militants must be given a proper burial, said scholar Maulauna Zubair Ahmed./embr /br /em"As per the Shariah, the trust cannot say no," he said, referring to Islamic law. "The Shariah says whether a Muslim is a drunkard, rapist, criminal, you must offer him a place for burial."/embr /br /How about you tell Muslims that killing in the name of Allah gets you disqualified from a decent burial. If India has any stones, they'll wrap these corpses in bacon and then drop them in sealed chambers to the bottom of the ocean.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

Mr. Obama is a skillful politician. So skillful he actually managed to package two lies into one statement and repeat it over and over and over again during his campaign. "We're only going to raise taxes on the top earners, those making $250,000. 95% of Americans will get a tax cut." Every time he said this, I expected canned laughter, while the candidate turned to the side and mugged for the camera. It was such obvious bullshit. One third of that 95% don't even pay income taxes to the feds.br /br /So now that He is President-Elect Obama, with his own self-styled office and everything, the next Prez has (wonder of wonders) changed his position on that tax plan. Much like public campaign financing, it sounded good until reality forced Him to "reassess" His position. Now the word out of Obama Land is a tax increase would be bad for a faltering economy. Duh. The quickly mumbled, almost obscured message following is that He wants to allow the hated Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthy expire. And that will be a kick in the nuts for every middle class American. Especially if you have children.br /br /Unlike Democrats, who like to target specific groups, the Bush tax cuts applied to everyone. You know, that whole "equality" thing Democrats like to lie about. Those a href= http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/reports/taxplan.html "tax cuts for the rich"/a were tax cuts for everyone. And if Obama, Nancy and Harry have their way, you are going to be paying more. Much more.br /br /For example, the Bush tax cuts replaced exisisting tax rates of 15, 28, 31, 36, and 39.6 percent with a simplified rate structure of 10, 15, 25, and 33 percent.br /They Doubled the child tax credit to $1,000 per child and applied the credit to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).br /They Reduced the marriage penalty by reinstating the 10 percent deduction for two-earner couples.br /That all goes away if the cuts are allowed to "expire", and these creeps will look you in the eye and claim that they didn't raise your taxes. Golly gee, it just happened!br /br /But the Bush tax cuts unfairly favor the rich! That's the class warfare mantra preached endlessly and dishonestly by the left. a href= http://www.slate.com/id/2108201Steven Landsburg of Slate Magazine/a would beg to differ. And he uses those nasty little things called "facts".br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"The Bush tax cuts (which Congress just voted to extend) are an affront to the most fundamental principles of fairness. They are skewed in favor of those who already pay less than their rightful share of taxes and shift the burden even farther onto the shoulders of the most overtaxed. In other words, the Bush tax cuts are unfair to the rich. br /br /I know there's a lot of hype to the contrary, but look at the numbers. If you and your spouse have a taxable income of $60,000 a year, you've had almost a 24 percent income tax cut since President Bush took office. (And ditto if your income was just $20,000.) Meanwhile, the folks who make $350,000 a year got a cut of only about 12.5 percent; those who make $1 million a year got an even smaller cut. br /br /Pre-Bush, the $1 million a year couple paid 33 times as much as the $60,000 couple; today they pay more than 38 times as much. Here's the big picture: br /br /Overall, the biggest percentage cuts went to the poorest of the poor (those with incomes in the $10,000 range) and the next biggest to those making about $60,000. After that, with some minor dips up and down, the relative size of your tax cut falls off as your income rises. /spanbr /br /All of this applies only to span style="font-style:italic;"income taxes/span. We haven't even begun discussing Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, gas tax, or the ultimate screw you to the Middle Class: Cap and Trade. That sucker will touch every single aspect of your life in a very costly way.br /br /"95% of Americans will get a tax cut."br /br /Bullshit.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JemURu7vdeE/STHlw6rTU-I/AAAAAAAAARQ/f5VfMRayJD4/s1600-h/Klaus.bmp"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274249267174921186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 235px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JemURu7vdeE/STHlw6rTU-I/AAAAAAAAARQ/f5VfMRayJD4/s320/Klaus.bmp" border="0" //abr /divVaclav Klaus is positioned to become the next President of the EU in the rotating non-elective tradition of Europeans. This has become troubling to European elites and their fellow travelers at the New York Times. After years of compliant EU group-thinking Socialists at the helm of their toy ship, a free spirit may finally ascend to lead the EU, albeit briefly. This is utterly unacceptable to them. The reasons are, that Klaus is an unapologetic defender of Free Market Capitalism, is also an implacable foe of irrational environmentalists, and most significantly, an outspoken critic of the delusional Global Warming movement. /divbr /div/divbr /divThe NYT dutifully, in the tradition of Stalin's earlier NYT useful idiot Walter Duranty, has mounted an assault on Klaus, using defamatory characterizations gleaned from Soviet-era KGB reports. Vaclav Klaus is almost alone as a head of state in speaking rationally about climate change. This is why they want to silence him. Just as the 1930s NY Times printed paeans to Communism in an attempt to usher in a collectivist future, today's NYT is trying to intellectually assassinate the contemporary critics of creeping Progressive totalitarianism just the same./divbr /div/divbr /div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_biLRaNYCUG8/STGvOvgCR6I/AAAAAAAAAvw/aaHj_mFiiWs/s1600-h/m13_17178323.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_biLRaNYCUG8/STGvOvgCR6I/AAAAAAAAAvw/aaHj_mFiiWs/s400/m13_17178323.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274189306431424418" //abr /br /a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.123"Sura (9:123)/a" O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness." br /br /br /br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_biLRaNYCUG8/STGu_eh2QJI/AAAAAAAAAvo/0MwUmsKfBm4/s1600-h/m02_17178397.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 239px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_biLRaNYCUG8/STGu_eh2QJI/AAAAAAAAAvo/0MwUmsKfBm4/s400/m02_17178397.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274189044177584274" //abr /br /a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/052.sbt.html#004.052.220"Buhkari(52:220)/a Allah's Apostle said... 'I have been made victorious with terror'div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div

It seems to happen almost every year in Mecca, during the Hajj. The ritual Stoning The Devil rite devolves into Trampling The Pilgrim, and the Saudis have several dozen of the faithful to consign to unmarked graves. br /br /I don't like crowds for this very reason. It was 1975 or 76, A Jefferson Starship/Commander Cody the Lost Planet Airmen concert in St. Paul at Roy Wilkins. General Admission. Waited around six hours. They fianlly opened up span style="font-style:italic;"one door/span.br /I was lifted off my feet and moved around life a piece of driftwood on the wave. Powerless. Concentrating on breathing as the force crushed me. Crowds have scared the shit out of me ever since.br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"A stampede of shoppers in a Valley Stream Wal-Mart on Friday morning left one worker dead and at least three patrons injured after an impatient crowd broke down the store doors and trampled the seasonal employee, Nassau police said.br /br /Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens, was pushed to the ground by the 2,000-plus crowd just before 5 a.m. as management was preparing to open the store, which is located across from the main Green Acres Mall building. Hundreds stepped over, around and on the 34-year-old worker as they rushed into the store.br /br /"This crowd was out of control," said Nassau Police Det. Lt. Michael Fleming, whose squad is investigating./spanbr /br /There's a video in the link, courtesy NY Post. This is just so sick. These frigging animals got mad when they were told the store was closing.br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."br /br /"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."/spanbr /br /I hope I'm not the only one sickened by this sub-human behavior. This attitude. Someone died? Oh tough. Where are the IPods? More to the point, where are the condemnations? Hello? Keith Olberdouche? Chris Matthews? Police are reviewing security footage, hoping to put names to the faces of those who would walk over a corpse for a Blue Light Special.br /br /There's not a snowball's chance that I would be in a line at 5:00 A.M. with this group of double-digit IQs. If for some reason I was magically transported into this special type of Hell and were in the from of the throng, what would I do? That's hard to say. I do know what I would do afterwards. It would not be shopping.div class="blogger-post-footer"More.../div