Our citizens should not live in fear

Tony Blair’s government is moving on a number of crack-down type measures designed to make life difficult for the neo-barbarians and the criminal classes.

Predictably, some are upset at this as being an attack on civil liberties.

In this case Blair has reason on his side.

Military’s Information War Is Vast and Often Secretive

This is supposed to be NEWS? If nothing like this was happening, the NYT would no doubt be writing about military incompetence for ceding the information war to the enemy.

While not overtly negative, this coverage gives good ammunition to the Islamofascist enemy on what they need to do to counter us more effectively.

In this case, more is less: more coverage = less security.

Can the N.Y.T. understand “aid and comfort…”?

Cameron’s election gives Tories lead over Labour

The Sunday telegraph reports a virtually immediate turn-about in polling in the UK after the UK Conservative Party selected 39-year old David Cameron as party leader last week.

This is the first time that the Tories have grabbed a poll lead since 1992. If they are able to keep it up, get ready for Blair’s Labour Party to be kicked out of Downing Street at some point in the foreseeable future.

Sami’s Guardian Angel

You may or may not have noticed that Florida professor Sami al-Arian was acquited last week of charges relating actively aiding Paleswine-ian Palestinian terr groups.

The Chief figured it was just another case of a flaky jury – but apparently the government’s case was emasculated by a treasonous and apparently Islamofascistic FBI agent named Gamal Abdel-Hafiz who had been promoted and groomed withing the organization in spite of obvious association and links with hard-line Islamists.

Why was he promoted? PC uber alles!?

Check out the article for whole sickening story.

F.E.T.E.

The Party of Defeat

This response to the recent spate of Donk defeatism from the likes of Kennedy, Kerry, Mutha-fMurtha, and their ilk totally nails it! GO READ THIS POST!

The article concludes thusly:

Not only does the Democratic leadership deny the transparent fact that Iraq is indeed the front line in the War on Terror, but it feels the need to apologize for our nation’s ability to deliver unrelenting, but prudent lethality onto our deserving enemies. Thus, their warped template for fighting a war: pull out when the blood starts to flow.

Against this strategy of defeat, the president has called for staying the course. Staying the course isn’t a campaign slogan; it is a life support message for those of us in the midst of battle. Congressman Murtha above all others should know the perils inherent in dictating military policy from across the Potomac. I imagine he can still taste the spittle of anti-war protestors from 30 years ago. As was the case in Vietnam, the American soldier cannot be defeated on the field of battle. It is only the failure of the political class to stomach the hardships of combat that stands in the way of our victory.

There’s much worth reading that leads to this conclusion, so go to it!

The writer’s background and experience gives him unquestioned qualification to respond to the Donk spokesmen of treason, defeatism, and sedition, which he does with a vengeance – not of vitriol, but of cold reason and analysis, devastatingly applied:

David Bellavia is a former Army Staff Sergeant who served in the First Infantry Division for six years. He has been recommended for the Medal of Honor by his leadership, and has been nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross. He has received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York states highest combat valor award) and was recently inducted into the New York State Veteran’s Hall of Fame. His Task Force 2-2 Infantry has fought on such battlefields as Al Muqdadiyah, An Najaf, Al Fallujah, Mosul, and Baqubah. His actions in Fallujah, Iraq were documented in the November 22, 2004 cover story “Into the Hot Zone” by award winning journalist Michael Ware. He is 30 years old.

Murtha et al aren’t worthy of shining this man’s boots.

H/T to Emperor Misha on this one.

Former KGB Chief Reveals Supernatural Truth

Former KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov spent 20 years in the Soviet intelligence agencies. In an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily he reveals what the KGB knows about UFOs and other supernatural phenomena, life in space and secret agents’ secret methods.

At last! The hot scoop! Direct from the KGB! This is even better than Weekly World News! Read on:

Komsomolskaya Pravda:

The media keep telling us about UFOs and a variety of other supernatural phenomena. Researchers and cosmonauts may have different opinions on the matter, but all of them are sure of one thing: that exact information can be obtained from the intelligence agencies. You headed the Soviet secret service for the longest period of time, 17 years, that is, from 1971 to 1988. You also chaired the KGB from 1988 to 1991. You must be able to give us the ultimate truth — are there any UFOs out there?

Kryuchkov:

We have never received any proof whatsoever that UFOs or other supernatural phenomena actually exist.

Awwwwwwwwww! He goes on:

With full responsibility I have to state — never ever during the long period of my work with the intelligence service was anything really supernatural spotted, either in Russia or in any other country. When I say “other country”, I rely on the information from the highest officials, military, research and of course the intelligence agencies of foreign states.

Well, there it is. Unless of course his answer is just dezinformatzia – that MUST be it! Phew! It was starting to look like the Coast to Coast AM radio show was going to have to take a dive!

US, UN condemn Iranian leader’s Holocaust comments

Comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressing doubt about the Holocaust and suggesting Israel be moved to Europe are appalling and reprehensible, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday. “These latest remarks … are clearly appalling and reprehensible. They certainly don’t inspire hope among any of us in the international community that the government of Iran is prepared to engage as a responsible member of that community,” deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.

It’s one thing for the US State Department of make such a comment, but it’s an event of another magnitude when it comes from the UN (dis)Organization. With the cold weather that most of the country has been having this week, apparently some of the thermal deficit has reached down to hell, given that the recent remarks of Irans Ismlamofascist president have proven to be so over the top that even Kofi-cup Annan at the UN has spoken up on the side of rationality for a change.

At the United Nations in New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed shock at the comments attributed to Ahmadinejad, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Annan noted the U.N. General Assembly last month passed a resolution rejecting “any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or in part.” He said all nations should educate their populations about the Holocaust in which “one third of the Jewish people were murdered, along with countless members of other minorities.”

Amazing, at first glance, but then again – as noted previously, a good chunk of the UN slush-fund budget is on the edge of being held up in the US Congress.

House votes to continue Economic Growth

South Dakota Politics has this great post commenting on the House extension of the Bush tax cuts,and goes on to document the extraordinary economic growth that has resulted – in detail.

Good grist for the mill to grind up the libDonks trying to bad-mouth the economy.

Check it out!

from Drudge Report:
EXCLUSIVE: GOP TO LAUNCH ‘WHITE FLAG’ DEM ATTACK
Thu Dec 08 2005 18:02:44 ET

The DRUDGE REPORT has learned from a top GOP operative that the Republican National Committee will provide state parties with a web video prior to release tomorrow afternoon that shows a white flag waving over images of Democrat leaders making anti-war remarks.

It’s apparently getting so rank that even the Donks themselves can’t abide the stench of some of their leaders:

A Democratic strategist who had the web ad described to her said, “This is way over the top but we have no one to blame but Dean, Kerry and others who continue to pander to the anti-war activists within our party.”

One Republican strategist familiar with the ad said, “The Democrats, especially Howard Dean have a way of trying to turn the tables and say ‘that’s not what I meant’ – its just those ‘evil Republicans’ This video will make them crazy – it reinforces what they really believe with what they actually said – and that is devastating for the Democratic Party.”

Just gotta love this one! There’s still life in the Grand Old Party!

Blue Angels to perform in Sioux Falls

This is just cool! The Chief has seen the Blue Angels perform before – it’s well worth noting this if you have any interest in aerospace stuff, or if you want to just see some really neat aerobatics performed with high-performance aircraft. This one is going on the calendar for sure!

Here’s some items both going in the direction of the dream of the Islamofascists – elimination of the state of Israel, and an unbridled anti-Jewish enmity.

Iran’s president questions Holocaust

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday expressed doubt that the Holocaust occurred and suggested Israel be moved to Europe.

There it is in plain, unmistakable language. This, along with the rest of what he had to say proves to anyone capable of historical thought that the Iranian President Ahmadinejad Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad has well and truly assumed the mantle that dropped from the shoulders of the late, unlamented Reichs-Fuhrer Adolph Hitler.

Islamofascism indeed! And there’s more:

UN Ceremony Includes Map of ´Palestine´ in Place of Israel

Here is an official UNOcratic event, with a prominent map of “Palestine” on display – minus Israel, in ANY form! How official is it? Only at the UN HQ itself, with Kofi-cup Annan himself in attendance:

The United Nations held a “Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” last week. A large map of “Palestine,” with Israel literally wiped off the map, featured prominently in the festivities.The ceremony was held at the UN headquarters in New York and was attended by Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Presidents of the UN Security Council and the General Assembly.

And the moonbat Libs expect us to PAY these people to be able to continue to do this?

The US REALLY needs to ditch the UN, once and for all.

U.S. reporter denied entry to Syria because he’s a Jew

Technically you can’t really say anti-semitic, since the Arabs are ALSO Semites (remember the bit in Genesis about Abraham and Ishmael, the son of Hagar?), but they certainly ARE anti-Jewish, and this is about as clear-cut an example of that as one could possibly find.

Sunnis eager to vie for votes

The Sunnis of Iraq are one th the three major factional groups, along with the Shiites, and the northern Kurds. It was predicted by many Iraq war nay-sayers that they would not buy in to participation in the new Iraqi political processes, since they are a numerical minority.

Guess again! They apparently looked around the station, realized the train was starting to pull out with or without them. Their conclusion was that they had better jump on board to avoid being left standing on the platform.

Air marshals kill passenger

This one is refreshingly clear and simple – at least if one applies reason. A guy declares he has a bomb, and refuses orders of a Sky Marshal, and then reaches into his bag – it’s a no-brainer call!

In this world of suicide bombers around the world, it’s definitely time to apply some 9 mm behavioral control. As far as the wife trying to say that he was bipolar and off his meds – maybe so, but with a plane full of people the Marshall had no option to stop and run an investigation.

Claiming a bomb and reaching into a bag is tantamount to drawing a gun and pointing it at the officer. Bang! Problem resolved, everyone except the perp safe.

The Sky Marshal did his job. That’s what he was there for.

GOP supports Bolton threat

Interesting set of circumstances surrounding this issue. In short, the US is threatening to withdraw funding from the patently corrupt UNO if it doesn’t make some significant and transparent reforms.

The usual assortment of moonbat Donks are whining that there is no need for the US to be so “confrontational” with the UN, and that the usual sort of (previously failed) diplomatic efforts should be sufficient.

Fat chance of THAT!

Nothing focuses the attention of the parasitic UNOcrats quite like the prospect of going on a severe financial diet, which would constrict their usual free-wheeling style. Why, that would he even worse that having to implement some…shudder…reforms!

In this case, indubitably, Ambassador Bolton and the GOP is on the right track for a pleasant change. (Hmmmm. It sort of looks like the President swinging back at the libDonks over the last couple weeks is also performing a spinal implant to some of the Congressional GOPers. It’s about time!

Democrats hit speech on Iraq war as ‘vague’

Senate Democratic leaders labeled President Bush’s latest Iraq speech yesterday as filled with “vague generalities,” but distanced themselves from their party chairman’s declaration that thinking of victory is “just plain wrong.”

Sheesh! After Harry Ried (DOnk-NV) last week refused to propose an alternative policy to what the administration is doing in Iraq, now they go crying around that the President isn’t publishing detailed war plans, which of course would tell al-Qaida what to do to counter us.

As far as distancing themselves from their Deaniac chairman, they had bette do considerably more than that if they arn’t going to be tarred with the brush of the moonbat anti-American left-activist wing of their own party, which is well on the way to riding them down to glorious defeat in ’06, and possibly ’08, Hillary notwithstanding.

It couldn’t happen to a more deserving crew of fuzzy-brained libs!

House, Senate Agree to Extend Patriot Act

In spite of the usual crying and moaning from the Deaniac-D.U.mmie-MoveOn (dominant) wing of the Donks The Patriot Act has cleared both houses, and the differences have been resolved in conference. Even most of the Donks realize they had best NOT engage in unilateral legal disarmament in the face of the Islamofascist terror threat.

Sanity prevailed, as always, with a notably cheesy exception:

House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, the government’s premier anti-terrorism law, before it expires at the end of the month. But a Democratic senator threatened a filibuster to block the compromise.

The exception? Sen. Sen. Russ Feingold, (Donk-WI), who wants to push for a filibuster. Good luck Russ. You’ll need it!

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced that the negotiating committee had reached an agreement that would extend for four years two of the Patriot Act’s most controversial provisions _ authorizing roving wiretaps and permitting secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. Those provisions would expire in four years unless Congress acted on them again. “All factors considered it’s reasonably good, not perfect, but it’s acceptable,” Specter said of the agreement.

Just like the old saw: “Politics is the art of the possible.”

Also to be extended for four years are standards for monitoring “lone wolf” terrorists who may be operating independent of a foreign agent or power. While not part of the Patriot Act, officials considered that along with the Patriot Act provisions. The Republican-controlled House had been pushing for those provisions to stay in effect as long as a decade, but negotiators decided to go with the GOP-controlled Senate’s suggestion. Most of the Patriot Act would become permanent under the reauthorization.

One MIGHT hope that this will squelch some of the more strident left typos, but based on past history, this will probably not be something to hold your breath waiting for, since anoxia is supposed to be a very unpleasant way to die.

Senate Democrats request more Alito information

Senate Democrats on Thursday called for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito to provide them with more information about his time as a federal judge and a government lawyer, citing “questions that seem to have incomplete answers.”

What’s to say hee, Donks will act like…Donks! Incomplete answers? They would still think it incomplete if they performed a deep colonoscopy, as long as there was a whiff of conservatism in him to set off their politically allergic reactions.

The White House said Democrats came up with a strategy in July to block any nominee that Bush sent to the Senate. “One of the tactics they outlined was to make repeated requests for documents and more information for the specific purpose of erecting a straw man that they could then knock down for the purpose of delaying the hearings,” spokesman Stephen Schmidt said. “It is somewhat worrying that they may be implementing that strategy to obstruct and delay, as opposed to keeping commitments to make sure that the hearings are fair and dignified.”

You just KNOW that a lot of the Donks want to push for a filibuster if they can get away with it. The Chief hopes that they’ll give it a shot – it would be worth it to ram the so-called “nuclear”, or more accurately labeled constitutional option down their throats.

The more they squak about this appointment, the more the Chief thinks that Alito needs to be on the court, which WILL happen!

Earth’s magnetic pole shifting; Alaska may lose northern lights

Earth’s north magnetic pole is drifting from North America at such a clip that it could end up in Siberia in the next 50 years, scientists said Thursday.

The Chief had been somewhat aware of ongoing drift of the geomagnetic pole, but not that it was moving quite so rapidly. Alaska losing the northern lights? Bummer.

We occasionally are blessed with the aurora here in the Dakotas – and thery are truly a phenomena of awesome natural beauty. If the pole continues it’s current path, I guess they would be much rarer here as well.

Despite accelerated movement over the past century, the possibility that Earth’s fading magnetic field will collapse or that the magnetic poles will flip is remote. But the shift could mean that Alaska may no longer be able to see the high-altitude shimmering displays of colorful lights called the aurora borealis, or northern lights. Scientists have long known that magnetic poles migrate and in rare cases, swap places. But exactly why this happens is a mystery.

Some interesting qualifiers present in this:

“This may be part of a normal oscillation and it will eventually migrate back toward Canada,” said Joseph Stoner, a paleomagnetist at Oregon State University.

Pole reversals are uncommon, happening at intervals of several hundred thousands years. The last time the poles flip-flopped was about 780,000 years ago.

Note that IT MAY BE part of a normal oscillation. Yes, pole reversals ARE uncommon, but we frankly don’t know why they occur, or for that matter have any basis to predict the next time it will occur.

The Chief finds this all interesting – a major set of phenomena that we don’t really have a handle on yet! One thing is for certain: the geomagnetic field is strongly influenced by solar activity – and in this way the sun also significantly affects a range of technologies including satellite and short-wave telecommunications, electric power grids, long-distance telephonic land-line communications.

As abstract as this area of science may seem at first glance, it has the immediate potential to significantly affect our technological infrastructure, and therefor is well worth being aware of.

States waking up to e-voting machines

When they started talking about and implementing computer voting systems the Chief had (and still has) a lot of question about the security of the system. I have read some on the clever and esoteric lengths that hackers are able to go through in order to crack into a data system that has something wanted.

THis ubiquitous ability would INEVITABLY be employed to tilt the results of elections if the only record of what happened in the voting booth in in the form of a bunch of 1’s and 0’s.

Apparently some of the states that were eager to adopt this are coming to a realization that additional protection needs to be used to protect the results, but the equipment providers don’t all seem to like that idea.

In North Carolina and California, officials are pressing Diebold to prove their machines are really tamper-proof. And Diebold doesn’t much like this game. In North Carolina, they’re threatening to withdraw from the state entirely if strict “escrow” provisions are enacted. Isn’t it amazing that the entire election system was ready and willing to trust but not verify (to paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s favorite Russian proverb) private vendors with our most treasured rights?

Diebold sought to be exempted, asking a judge to protect it from criminal prosecution if it didn’t disclose the code. The judge, Wake County’s Narley Cashwell, declined to issue such a blanket protection.

How about another Russian phrase for Diebold: “Toughski shitski!”

If blogging has been a bit sparse lately, it’s all a matter of priorities. Work, church, and the SD deer season have all had their claims, as has Mrs. Chief, also!

At least the deer season is completed, with my “double doe” tags filled successfully – earlier I spent the evening doing some butchering, and Bambi’s mom and aunt are now appropriately esconced in the freezer.

In the Chief’s household the only acceptable PETA is People Eating Tasty Animals – and the local deer are just like they came off of a finishing feedlot – fat and full of corn (pirated from the surrounding farmers).

“WHY THEN DOTH TREASON NEVER PROSPER?
wHEN IT DOES, NONE DARE CALL IT TREASON.”
– Sir John Harrington

Dean: US Won’t Win in Iraq

The Constitutional phrase “giving them Aid and Comfort.” definitely comes to mind here. During the Civil War there were some who similarly advocated the Union giving up on its effort to preserve itself.

They were called “Copperheads” after the common toxic snake, and many of them were forced to flee to Canada to avoid being confined by the Federal government as many others were – without charges, and without recourse to appeals. This was done by Abraham Lincoln, arguably considered one of the American Republic’s truly great Presidents.

As far the Deaniac, his own words testify against him:

Saying the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,” Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

If the Donks truly do what he says here, I guess Joe Lieberman will have to become a Republican.

He apparently expects that he can freely engage in a type of Orwellian newspeak, and that no one would notice what he’s really saying.

“I think we need a strategic redeployment retreat over a period of two years,” Dean said.

Dean didn’t couldn’t specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democrat proposal is not a ‘withdrawal,’ but rather a ‘strategic redeployment’ of U.S. forces.

Oh, right – strategic redeployment in the face of the enemy, leaving them in command of the field of battle does not represent a retreat. Maybe not, in Dean’s language.

And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We’ve got to get the target off the backs of American troops.

Does this blloming idiot actually claim that ANYONE in the middle east would be friendly to the US after we cut and run from Iraq, and threw the budding Iraqi democracy to the Islamofascist sharks? Not bloody likely.

Also, the only way to get the target off the backs of American troops is to have them take off their uniforms assume the turban, and line up to get their “personal tool” clipped thus demonstrating that they have indeed submitted to dar al Islam.

The Chief follows the rule “If it looks like a duck, walks line a duck, quacks like a duck, then it IS a duck.” In Deans case, his defeatism, sedition, and yes, “aid and comfort” to our enemy, is grounds for much more severe consequenced to him and his ilk than they will probably be subjected to in this decadant age of political correctness.

Tree. Rope. Donk Chairman. Some assembly required.

Going, going … staying: Zip proves reluctant crasher

The toppling of the Zip Feed tower failed Saturday, turning what was supposed to be a spectacle watched by thousands into a source of amusement for an entire city. The 202-foot tower, the tallest building in Sioux Falls and possibly the state, was scheduled to topple at 12:55 p.m. But after a loud blast it tilted east, slumped into the ground and stuck.

For non-South Dakota readers, the building in question is a concrete construction that was opened in the 1950’s as a mill for the Zip Feed Company, hence it’s commen appelation as the “Zip Feed Mill”. The 202′ building was scheduled for explosive demolition to make way for a new commercial development.

After weeks of preparatory work, Saturday was the big day, with thousands of spectators gathered to watch the festivities. When the appointed moment came, the charges blew, the building dropped – sort of, but mostly remained standing, as shown in the video clips located here, and here.

Hmmmmmm. Can this mean it isn’t too easy to blow up a building? Even after weeks of preparation and planning by demo experts? This must be the case – for sure the contractor isn’t happy about having to bring wrecking balls in to deal with the still standing remnant of the Zip Feed Mill.

In the context of the conspiracy wonks that claim a devious plot to blow the WTC buildings in NY on 9-11 to presumably pump up a war, their claims become even more specious. A physics prof. argues that in fact this is what happened, and gives his interpretation of the events.

Of course his area of real expertise is what’s known as high-energy physics, stuff like lasers, fusion reactions, and the like. Not much there on materials and architectural engineering. Popular Mechanics Online published an article that hammered his concepts really hard.

In addition, there is one very large and overwhelmingly significant item that the Chief thinks undermines the premise of demo used to bring the towers down.

Rick Rescorla, the head of security for Morgan-Stanley, who had a totally unimpeachable record in the UK Royal Army, and then the US Army in Viet-nam, followed by years of security work, was all over his building like fleas on a dog, constantly on alert for any possible security threat. Read about him here, if you’re not familiar with his life – it’s an edifying example of excellence, and well worth remembering.

To tie some things together here, if weeks of preparation by demo experts, working openly, failed to bring down an old 1950’s building with carefully planned and placed explosives, what could lead one to conclude that a secret covert op did precisely this to the World Trade Center?

The emphasis here is on a covert, secretly prepped demo of several major structures. This had to involve teams of demo experts working over an extended period of time, in settings literally crawling with people on a daily basis, including those like the formidable Mr. Rescorla and others specifically watching to prevent such things.

These teams didn’t just have to get into the buildings, they had to set their charges precisely to do the job, right up close and in contact with the supporting structure, and have some sort of electronic infrastructure to carry out the controlled demo to accomplish the job. All this without attracting ANY attention from anyone in the environment. The building and corporate security people, building maintenance people, etc., would have had to go about their business for some period of time without noticing anything out of the ordinary or suspicious going on. NWB! (No Way, Baby!)

Frankly, the Chief thinks it more likely that the 9-11 attack was collateral damage in a war between the Reptilians from Sirius, and the little grey guys with the big black eyes from Sirius. I mean, EVERYONE who has access to the Weekly World News KNOWS that the greys regularly meet with the President(s), and other world leaders. Right?

“You pays your money, and you makes your choices.” Either of those alternatives saves you the trouble of facing the real problem at hand: there are a lot of fanatical, religio-ideologically driven jihadis who have set themselves a mission to not just crash the World Trade Center, but to annihilate western civilization and supplant it with a universal global Islamofascist Caliphate. Now THERE’s something we really need to worry about – like it or not!

PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER!

Dean: GOP Will Use Immigration to Divide

Republicans plan to use the vast problems caused by illegal immigration to try and divide Americans voting in next year’s midterm election, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Saturday.

Chairman Dean, your point is…what?

As far as this issue is concerned, the Chief would say yes indeed, the GOP is planning to use this issue to divide! This is what political parties do – they actively seek to divide the electorate every two years, hopefully to get enough of a divide to convince a majority of the voters to vote for their candidates.

This goes right along with the report last week that the Donks were upset that the GOP is casting plans to continue to win elections! Like, hello, again, that’s what political parties do – even yours, Chairman Dean. Your only problem is trying to pull that off – once people figure out what your REAL agenda is.

Methinks the real problem Chairman Dean has is that the issues that define, and therefore divide, haven’t been working in his favor very well, therefore it MUST be a bad thing by his definition.

Pilot Reports ‘Missile’ Fired at Jetliner Near LAX

Strange report, stranger response.

FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport. Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed. The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.

If I was on that plane, and had seen that – phew! What an adrenaline rush!

FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that’s what it actually was.

As far as the Chief is concerned, these FBI agents must have been having some sort of pharmaceuatical experience to expect that their explaination would have any credibility. I would REALLY like to get hold of some of those “bottle rockets” that could pass an airliner in flight. The only bottle rockets the Chief has seen can, at best go all of 100′ or so. Ditto on flares – bypassing an airliner? Yeah, right.

Now, there’s proof: Men, women different

Here’s a shocker! In spite of the above mentioned DUH! factor, there are some interesting points here, and some great grist for the conversational mill:

Attention, Dr. Frankenstein, and maybe Gloria Steinem: There are girl brains, then there are boy brains. But there’s not one generic human brain, no matter what hand-wringing feminists may insist in their quest for sexual equality. Some stark new clinical evidence shows that men and women are just not the same upstairs. “The comedians are right. The science proves it. A man’s brain and a woman’s brain really do work differently,” a research team from the University of Alberta in Canada announced yesterday.

As a biology major I remember getting feminazi fellow students torqued off by telling them that there absolutely HAD to be underlying differences, based on the differing biochemical environment caused by hormonal differences. They didn’t appreciate that bit of scientific knowledge one little bit, which of course only increased the Chief’s enjoyment of the experience. (It was ALMOST as good as telling them that they were self-selecting as being biologically unfit if they decided not to have children, since biological fitness is defined as being able to successfully pass genes on to succeeding generations…but I digress.)

“The larger implications of this work is that we may increasingly find out that there are differences in the ‘hard wiring’ of male and female brains,” said study author Dr. Peter Silverstone, a psychiatrist. Though Dr. Silverstone hopes that these revelations will lead to more innovative ways to treat depression and other mental illnesses, these findings might one day explain certain persistent behaviors that make for a more lively existence.

Here’s where the differences come up. Not a huge surprise at these:

Why do men, for example, refuse to ask for directions while women are busy peering at maps and landmarks during the same automobile journey? Why do women cry and men sleep through a sappy movie? Could it be that old hard-wiring? During the Canadian study, volunteers were given memory, language, spatial and coordination tests while their brains were monitored through the MRIs. The patterns revealed that men and women clearly met the challenges differently.

Similar research also reinforces differences in the brains of men and women. Psychiatrists at the Stanford University School of Medicine announced Nov. 7 that the sexes have different senses of humor as well. Using MRIs to monitor the brains of 10 men and 10 women as they scanned the newspaper cartoons, researchers found “sex-specific differences in the brain’s response to humor.”

So THAT’S why Mrs. Chief doesn’t always like the Chief’s forays into humor!

The sexes also differ in the intelligence department. “Human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior,” said psychologist Richard Haier of the University of California at Irvine upon releasing his study of male and female brains in January. Again using MRIs, he found that men have more than six times the amount of gray matter — which controls information processing — in their brains as women do. But females have 10 times the amount of white matter, which controls networking abilities. The findings “may help explain why men excel in tasks requiring more local processing (like mathematics) while women tend to excel at integrating and assimilating information … such as required for language,” the study found.

Remember folks! Just because they’re different, doesn’t (necessarily) mean they’re wrong, which is particulary nice to lead in to one further set of conclusions (other than the one that not all behavior scientists have skulls full of marshmallow):

There’s some reassuring common ground, though. A study of almost 700 adults released yesterday by Cornell University found that men and women are happier with each other, rather than alone. And the stronger the relationship’s commitment, the greater the happiness and sense of well-being of the partners, the analysis found. “Being married is associated with higher self-esteem, greater life satisfaction, greater happiness and less distress, whereas people who are not in stable romantic relationships tend to report lower self-esteem, less life satisfaction, less happiness and more distress,” sociologist Claire Kamp Dushsaid yesterday.

Awwwwwwwwww! The tradional way, IS the best way. You heard it here, first!

FBI, IRS search Geoffrey Fieger’s Southfield office

When the Cheif stumbled across this, the name rang a bell. Feiger. Feiger? Oh yeah, one of the perennial deulling lawyers on Greta van Susteren’s show on Fox News, which features more concentrated pointless talk and useless speculation about legal cases than any other place on the planet. This has been a continuing slow-motion train wreck what with Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, Natalie Holloway, etc., etc., etc., and so on, for days and days of days and days of legalistic hair-splitting often based on skimpy or missing knowledge.

The Chief has had the misfortune to see this from time to time, as Mrs. Chief occasionally follows this – possibly as a form of televised muzak – just some background noise.

Feiger always seemed to have a smarmy smart-assed sort of attitude, and something about him always set my teeth on edge and give an urge to slap him upside the head, except for the fear that sh-t would splatter.

NOW, I know where that instinctive reactin came from – he was suicide peddler Jack Kevorkian’s legal mouthpiece. Now he’s under investigation for campaign finance violations.

A federal investigation surrounding prominent trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger is being led by a section of the U.S. Justice Department that focuses on public corruption and campaign finance violations, officials confirmed Thursday. The FBI and Internal Revenue service raided Fieger’s Southfield offices Wednesday night, seizing boxes of documents while spending about four hours inside the building.

Another case of the recently ballyhooed “atmosphere of political corruption in the President’s party”?

Fieger, a Democratic candidate for state attorney general best known for defending assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, said Thursday morning that the probe is politically motivated by Republicans who control the U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit and the attorneys general in Washington and Lansing.

Ooops. Guess not – he’s a DONK candidate!

Fieger is known for his flamboyant courtroom style and outspokenness, notably in his former role as attorney for Kevorkian. Kevorkian claimed to have attended more than 130 deaths before being convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 in the death of a Lou Gehrig’s disease patient. Fieger has said he was not asked to represent Kevorkian in that case.

So if he HAD reperesented him, he would have gotten him off on that one too?

Fieger unexpectedly won the 1998 Democratic gubernatorial primary largely based on his popularity in Detroit. But Gov. John Engler easily beat Fieger, 62 percent to 38 percent, on the Republican’s stroll to a third term.

Democracy is a bitch sometimes, right Geoff?