Tuesday, August 28, 2007

An AP's Backtalk Gets Promoted.

Despite the surprising amount of traffic here at Dirkworld®, comments are pretty scarce with the exception of one particularly rude jackhole whom I've dubbed the Anonymous Pussy because he refuses to e-mail me - the address is on the sidebar, Bub - when he wishes to ask a question, preferring to clutter unrelated topics' Backtalk sections with sneering posts trying to prop up some liberal agenda item or talking point.

Even as committed Surrendercrats like Dick "Turban" Durban and Hillary! say that the surge has shown signs of progress, the AP brays his mantra of failure, defeat and obsession that someone in Iraq may have a gun. It got to the point that I've had to post warnings and then just flat out deny comments for their inappropriateness and bad manners. This led to the predictable howls of censorship and claims that I'm afraid to debate him when the reality is that I flatten his lies so hard with facts that he should be calling for the UN to protect him.

He pulled the same old shenanigans on the prior post with the cute kitties, but since it was succinct and worthy of a quick response, I'm bringing it up as a post to cover anyone else's curiosity about current events that I've been unable to expound upon. The Anonymous Pussy burbled:

Are you bored Dirk? No comments on the Gonzalez mess or the fact that everyone on Earth thinks Hilary or Obama will be our next president?
Bored? No, more like busy as hell.

I was gonna post a couple of words about Gonzo being gone-zo (har-har), but why bother? He sucked at the job and had no business being there. (The wrist slap for Sandy Burglar was typical incompetence.) The only thing I feel sorry for him about is how he was so thoroughly smeared by the Dems and their lackeys in the Treason Media. A couple of weeks ago, Time said that the only reason he was there was to protect Team Dubya from investigations. HA!!! I guess they assumed that since Janet Reno served as the Protector General of the organized criminal enterprise known as the Clinton Regime, every other AG worked the same way. Hardly, but it shows how the Left projects their sins on everyone.

As for the idea that Hillary! and Obama being a slam dunk to win, doesn't that fly in the face of conventional liberal dogmas that America is so racist, sexist and bigoted that they'd never vote for a woman or a black, no matter how criminal they are in their land deals or vacuous in their credentials? I think it does. If these two were to win power, it would be because the Stupid Party was unable to find a principled candidate to run against them and/or the Treason Media ran an exemplary smear campaign against them.

While it would be a disaster for America (and Western Civilization in general) as they Obama gladly claimed the White House for his terrorist pals like Kim Jong Il and Aquavelvashad (sp?) or Hillary! blamed the nuking of Chicago on the VRWC, them would be the breaks of the voters were so unserious that they treated their Presidential vote with less care than their "American Idol" picks.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: A couple more strikes against the AP's panty-moistening Hillary!/Obama Nightmare Team are the word that Fidel Castro - the totalitarian dictator that Dems worship most - thinks they're the winning ticket and the "Driving Miss Hillary!" subtext the ticket would connote. Add in Chris Rock's thoughts on why Colin Powell would never be picked for Veep - because some brotha would shoot the President - and that's another strike against the feckless and clueless GQ cover boy.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Monday, August 20, 2007

BOOM!!! Goes The China Airlines Plane!

Yikes!



Miraculously, no one was killed. Read more about it here.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

If You Remember The Atari 2600, You'll Appreciate This

Relive the days when videogame controllers had one knob/stick and one button with whatever image you want with this handy label maker. Here's one I made:



Such fun on a Friday night.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Sweet Sweetwater.

With the rise of e-commerce and shopping on teh Intarwebs, the idea of customer service has gone the way of having people come out and pump your gas, check the oil and wash your windows. We click and shop impersonally, finding the best deals, tapping in our credit card info and waiting for the FedEx/UPS/DHL guy to drop it off at the ranch.

I wanted to pick up the new Tracktion 3 recording software and since it was about the same price all around, decided to by from Sweetwater.com, a big-name pro audio outfit that occasionally sent me catalogs. I signed up for some newsletter and catalogs and was surprised to get a personalized note from a HUMAN BEING asking if I was looking to buy anything. I had a couple of queries and they answered them.

Now, I could've just gone to the site and punched in the usual stuff, but decided to call the toll-free number and talk to this bloke. When I mentioned how I was surprised at the personal touch, he said that they wanted to have customers dealing with their own personal rep. He mentioned that he used to run a studio and that if I had any questions about using my purchase to give them a call.

Sure, they'll try to sell me some stuff, but isn't that what sales people are there for? The difference is that they seem to know their stuff and were nice. I once had to cancel some service and the girl on the phone was so polite and friendly, I felt like I was drowning her pet kitten for dropping whatever it was. She didn't try to change my mind or have a 'tude - she was genuinely sweet. It stands out to this day because it's such a rarity.

The only problem with dealing with people is that there were a couple of points where errors in the shipping address almost slipped in. If I was typing it in, it would've been fine and that's a weak link that I'm not crazy about along with giving my CC # to a person and not a SSL-secured browser, so caveat emptor. I'll report an further dealings I have with them.

===========

UPDATE: [sigh] Just as I feared, no sooner do I post this item that I get the receipt e-mail for my order and see that they misspelled the destination street of "Executive" as "Exuctive". I sent back a correction, but I hope they can fix it. Nice people. Not so hot on the spelling.

===========

UPPITY-UPDATE: The package arrived without a hitch and I was surprised to find they'd put some loose CANDY in the shipping box! Atomic Fireballs, butterscotch discs and a Smarties. Wow. Good prices, no sales tax, free shipping, nice sales help and FREE CANDY!!!!

Feed Me, Dirk! FEED ME!!!

When I switched over the template for Dirkworld® to the new style Blogger was offering, a lot of the extras I had, like the hit counter and RSS feed link, got nuked in the move and I've finally gotten around to patching them back in.

Since updates can either be five items per day or once every couple of weeks, it's impractical to expect you kind readers to constantly check back in hopes of some new bon mot has been posted, so please avail yourselves of the 21st Century spiffiness of news feeds and hit the link to let the news come to you.

I had gotten so many new sites I wanted to follow, I had to add a 2nd tab to my customized Google home page and move the tech stuff off to that. Hope that y'all find some spare pixels on your page to park the Paul Review Signature Model™ feed from here. Thank you.

BTW, if the feed-adding thing doesn't work, drop a comment in the Backtalks section so that I can look into it. Thanks.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Hey, Kids! Cheaters ALWAYS Win!!! (Right, Barry?)

I've always wondered why parents tell their children patently untrue things in an effort to keep them on the straight and narrow; to make them better citizens or some such rot.

My favorite example of a truism at odds with reality has been "Cheaters never win." It's meant to impart the concept that a victory attained by dishonest means is not a true accomplishment and that they should strive to succeed honestly in order to be able to truly savor the accomplishment.

What a load of hooey.

Barry Bonds just hit his 756th home run a little while ago. Note that I phrased it that way instead of the way it'll be written up in tomorrow's papers: BONDS BREAKS AARON'S HR RECORD! That was a deliberate commentary via proper word selection.

Now, there is no one who doesn't think that Bonds didn't use life-threatening levels of steroids and other performance enhancing methods to hit this mark. (Babe Ruth was drunk, not juiced. If anything, he could've hit more runs if he was sober.) To celebrate this as anything other than another nail in the coffin for professional sports - since they're now little more than pro wrestling in matching uniforms - would be pathetic.

Whether it's crooked, Mobbed-up basketball refs; dogfighting QBs; or 'roided-up cheaters, sports are a multi-billion-dollar whorehouse that siphons fortunes in municipal monies to fund the stadiums for these millionaire mutants to wage their gladiatorial exhibitions within. Civic pride hinges on sports titles, not safe neighborhoods or quality schools. Detroit was just named the #1 Sports City by the Sporting News, even with the gawdawful Lions skewing the curve. Sure, everything else sucks about the town. At least the fans can wave their foam fingers with pride about something, right?

Kids aren't stupid; they pick up on the hypocrisies of their elders and as Bonds is feted as King Baseball, they'll learn what their parents were trying to disabuse them of taking to heart...

Cheaters. ALWAYS. Win.

What's the point of cheating if it didn't pay off somehow? Duh. Cheaters cheat to win and when they get away with it, it makes all the cheating worthwhile.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig should've gotten to the bottom of the BALCO business and either cleared or banned Bonds before it came to this moment. A nice big f*cking asterisk would be a start, but won't be enough to erase the stigma and shame Bonds will carry for eternity as many will refuse to pretend that he is worthy of honor.

Meanwhile, kids everywhere will put down their Wheaties spoons and load up their syringes with HGH. If it's good enough for Barry...

=============

UPDATE: Given her history of criminal enterprise, should it be a surprise that Nancy Pelosi said:

"Tonight, Barry Bonds etched his name into baseball's history books and took his rightful place among sport's immortals. It was a great night for baseball and a great night for San Francisco..."
Better living through chemistry, indeed.

The NY Post puts it in a more proper perspective:

Monday, August 06, 2007

Monday Morning Coffee

Yikes!!! Two days in a row?!? Yeep!!!!

A GATHERING OF WHITE MEN: That's how the WaPo characterizes the Yearly Kos convention where pandering Dem candidates go to pander to unhinged moonbats. Sez da Post:

"It's mostly white. More male than female," says the former high school math and science teacher turned activist. "It's not very diverse."

Walking around McCormick Place during the weekend, it became clear that only a handful of the 1,500 conventioneers -- bloggers, policy experts, party activists -- are African American, Latino or Asian. Of about 100 scheduled panels and workshops, less than a half-dozen dealt directly with women or minority issues.
You mean that liberals - who are all about paying lip service to the oppressed and downtrodden - are mostly the very oppressors they accuse on-liberals of being?

Duh.

CASINO ROYALE W/CHEESE: Finally got around to watching this last night and while the action scenes were crazy, the story itself was both dull and confusing. You never really get involved in what's happening and the twists are pretty obvious. Daniel Craig doesn't work for me, either; he should be remaking Steve McQueen's oeuvre.

SUNDAY MORNING BLAH-BLAH-WOOF-WOOF: For a party that's routinely smeared as theocrats, how the Stupid Party decided holding a debate on a Sunday - the Lord's day, i.e. a day of rest - morning when people would be either sleeping or at church shows they obviously aren't that rigorous in their fervor.

OBAMA STILL NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME: This empty suit really doesn't have a clue, does he? He was against the Iraq War but has been trying to act tough by threatening to invade Pakistan. The locals aren't too happy about this. Dude isn't even elected and he's already getting the world to hate us. Isn't this the reason they say Dubya should be crucified?

DIRK'S DISH DU JOUR: I don't think she's THAT hot, but she was in "Casino Royale", not too brutal on the eyes, and I haven't done one of these in ages; so Eva Green catches a break. She's welcome.

Ever Hear of "Alms For Jihad"? (You Probably Won't.)

I've been noticing some items about some book called "Alms For Jihad" that details how Muslim humanitarian agencies are actually front groups for funding of terrorism by Islamofascists. I regularly drive by the office building one of these "charity" outfits operated and another joint was busted a few miles from my work in Dearbornistan. Of course, the usual suspects make the usual cries of racism and persecution, but what else is new?

Anyway, this book is apparently being recalled by the publisher under threat of legal action by an extremely wealthy and connected Saudi oligarch who has the resources to sue anyone he wishes out of existence. Or the books they publish. Super mack daddy Mark Steyn writes of this in his colum "The vanishing jihad exposés" and it opens with:

How will we lose the war against "radical Islam"?

Well, it won't be in a tank battle. Or in the Sunni Triangle or the caves of Bora Bora. It won't be because terrorists fly three jets into the Oval Office, Buckingham Palace and the Basilica of St Peter's on the same Tuesday morning.

The war will be lost incrementally because we are unable to reverse the ongoing radicalization of Muslim populations in South Asia, Indonesia, the Balkans, Western Europe and, yes, North America. And who's behind that radicalization? Who funds the mosques and Islamic centers that in the past 30 years have set up shop on just about every Main Street around the planet?

For the answer, let us turn to a fascinating book called "Alms for Jihad: Charity And Terrorism in the Islamic World," by J. Millard Burr, a former USAID relief coordinator, and the scholar Robert O Collins. Can't find it in your local Barnes & Noble? Never mind, let's go to Amazon. Everything's available there...Unfortunately, if you then try to buy "Alms for Jihad," you discover that the book is "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." Hang on, it was only published last year....not many books from 2006 are entirely unavailable with no restock in sight.
Steyn fills in some more blanks before closing with a sobering assessment that will be no surprise to anyone who read "America Alone":
We've gotten used to one-way multiculturalism: The world accepts that you can't open an Episcopal or Congregational church in Jeddah or Riyadh, but every week the Saudis can open radical mosques and madrassahs and pro-Saudi think-tanks in London and Toronto and Dearborn, Mich., and Falls Church, Va. And their global reach extends a little further day by day, inch by inch, in the lengthening shadows, as the lights go out one by one around the world.

Suppose you've got a manuscript about the Saudis. Where are you going to shop it? Think Cambridge University Press will be publishing anything anytime soon?
Where are the liberals who would be shrieking and filling their diapers if this was a book bashing Christian charities that was pulled under pressure from a rich Christian? (As if such a thing would happen. Sometimes the weirdness of the Left is such that you can't even find an antonym that doesn't sound ridiculous on its face.)

We know about Paris and Lindsey and Nicole and a whole lot of other meaningless stuff, but when it comes time to follow the money on the financing of our way of life and our civilization....PFFFTTT! Who cares? People spent $12 million on effing "Underdog" this weekend, but wouldn't have a chance to spend $12 (or whatever) on "Alms For Jihad" if they wanted.

If this book is destined to be tossed down the Memory Hole, then it MUST be set free on the Internet for people to read. Don't give me the argument that it's copyright infringement and robs the authors and publishers - there isn't going to be any money made; the sheik has seen to that - so let's cut the crap and get it out there. I've seen that there are concerns about the accuracy of some parts but the Blogosphere can fisk and flag what's not true instead of letting the errors moot the greater whole.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

A Guide To Politically-Correct Bathroom Etiquette.

Michelle Malkin had this video by Mary Katherine Ham posted and it's cute and funny. Speaking of cute, isn't Mary just so? Yep, she is.



As I commented at Malkin's place:

No wonder conservatives are happier: Our bloggers are cuter with sunny dispositions and the ability to make political points in a humorous manner.

Liberals are shrill, bitter, angry, UGLY, noise machines of rage and bile and they wonder why no one wants to listen to their shows or read their blogs.

Reagan smiled. We can win with mocking humor. :)
Indeed.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Question For The Left: Must EVERYTHING Be About Your BDS?

Liberals are consumed by Bush Derangement Syndrome. They can't stop mentioning how much they hate him and those who voted for him. You know how comedians always drop a mention of how they're Jewish, even if it's apropos of nothing - Why do I always get stuck behind the dumb guy at airport screening? I'm Jewish, but I don't feel the need to bring my silverware along. What's up with Lindsey Lohan? My Jewish mother would scold her." - that's how liberals are about their BDS and need to share with the class.

I was reading a computer gaming magazine last week and one guy mentioned a few times that when he had to deal with red and blue teams, he made sure to screw over the red ones and how stupid he thought the President was. It was his way of pronouncing the BDS shibboleth to all who read him. "I hate Bush, too. I'm one of you."

What brings this up is Stephanie Zacharek's review of "The Bourne Ultimatum" at Salon. The third in the Matt Damon - I'll wait while you "Team America" fans say it out loud - action series opens today and her review opens with this:

Jason Bourne, in theory, could be George W. Bush's dream historian, a loyal foot soldier who has been conditioned to obey and serve but whose mind has been broken and reconfigured to conveniently forget certain details and fixate on others. You couldn't find a better candidate to sit down and write a glowing record of the W. presidency. It would be a masterpiece of selective memory -- except for the fact that Jason Bourne insists on trying to use even the parts of his brain that don't work.
What the f*ck is that about? People looking for a movie review have to wade through this twit's yawp of partisan rage before discussion of the cinematic product can commence. It's bad enough that you've got to sit through commercials at the theater; now you have to sit through the reading of some critic's political grievances before you learn whether the movie is worth the time?

Later, she burps up this:
Maybe guys like Greengrass should be reserved only for serious pictures about serious subjects, movies like "Bloody Sunday" and "United 93" (the latter a picture whose mere existence I have problems with, as much as I respect Greengrass' technique and approach).
She doesn't explain as to WHY she has a problem with the movie. Does she believe that showing America's first response to jihadi terror is not useful because it gives others the idea that fighting back is better than bowing to the sword of Islamofascism? Does she disagree with what's shown, since her fellow travelers believe the plane was shot down by Dick Cheney himself in his Sith TIE fighter? Who cares as long as she gets her BDS rocks off, right?

Friday Morning Coffee...Wha? Wait! Friday Morning Coffee?!?!?

Yep. I've got a huge stack of stuff I'd love to expound upon at length, but I'm too busy to do anything but this. You're welcome.

MINNEAPOLIS BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN, FALLING DOWN...: In the wake of this tragedy, I was not sure if it would be scarier that Al Queda may have been involved or that they weren't and this is more shoddy governmentally-contracted infrastructure work. The Left is trying to blame the War to Save Western Civilization From Islamofascism - ugh, that's wordy, albeit accurate - for diverting money away from providing union jobs building crappy bridges. Nevermind that our roads and bridges have been crumbling forever, including during the Clinton Regime when we were pretending we weren't under attack, this is all Dubya's fault!! And global warming!!!! Yeah!!! Pffft.

FILE UNDER "SELF-DISCREDITING MEMES": I've written before about the specious whining of the Left over about Team Dubya has chilled speech and turned America into a totalitarian state. Ignoring the rank projection of their wishes for unchecked power upon others, the fact that all we ever hear about in the press is how they can't say their American-hating, BDS piece, yet never seem to get "disappeared" in the night, provides enough irony to allow one to eliminate spinach from their diet.

Hugh Hewitt notices this disconnect in an E.J. Dionne encomium to Head Moonbat Kos and flagged it as such:

Moulitsas, 35, created his Daily Kos Web site on May 26, 2002 -- "in those dark days," as his site puts it, "when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous." Daily Kos took off because so many Democrats shared Moulitsas's view of the second President Bush.
Got that? DailyKos has thrived because all dissent has been suppressed. Of course, you have to remember that they make up their own meanings for words that are unrelated to what standard dictionaries say. They're kind of like Norm Crosby if he wanted to be a dictator.

THE SILKY PONY'S ENDLESS HYPOCRISY: John Edwards pees sitting down, much like John Mayer. First he has to send his terminally-ill wife, Elizabeth, out to attack Ann Coulter and others who are mean to him. Then he tries to copy RFK's rich-dude-visits-po'-folk tour and even the Treason Media says he's ridiculous. (If he were to write his autobiography, "Profiles in Lack of Testicular Fortitude" is a leading title candidate.)

Lately, he's been the leading surrender monkey pandering to the Kos Kidz to force his fellow Dems from debating on the Fox News Channel because, well, because they're terrified of being asked a question that will reveal their dishonesty and lack of intellectual rigor. Malkin had a story about Edwards bashing Hillary! for taking $20,000 in bribes, er, contributions from News Corp. officials. Now comes word that he was paid at least $800,000 by Harper-Collins - which is owned by dum-dum-DUM!!! NEWS CORP!!! Aiieeeee!!!! - for some book. (Funny how the Murdoch-owned NY Post busts him on it.)
Edwards claimed $333,334 in royalties from last year's release of the book, according to media accounts. The campaign said last night that those funds were part of the advance.

He says he gave that amount to charity, which would also provide tax benefits for Edwards. "We're more than happy to give even more of Murdoch's money to Habitat for Humanity and other good causes," spokesman Eric Schultz told The Post yesterday.

He declined to show proof, however, that Edwards had donated the $500,000 advance or $300,000 expense checks to charity.
Hypocrisy and greed. Or what Johnny boy calls "Friday."

Why am I thinking of "Werewolves of London" when I see this picture?

OBAMA'S MISSTEPS SHOW HE'S NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME: Barack Obama - or Barack HUSSEIN Obama as Coulter calls him - has said a couple of really stupid things in the past week. First he said at the silly YouTube/CNN debate he'd tour the world to kiss the rings of every thug dictator who'd receive him in his first year of office. Now he's promising not to use nukes, which kind of reduces their threatening cachet with our enemies. How naive and callow are these gaffes? Hillary! is pounding him over them and sounding like Patton compared to the rest of the Surrendercrats she's allied with.

Obama and Edwards need to drop out of the race. They could open a business together that would trade on their innate traits: EMPTY SUIT WAREHOUSE!!!

SHE'S JUST A DHIMMI: Gwen Stefani - who really needs to get back with No Doubt and send the Harajuku girls over to my place - is touring Asia and her date at Kuala Lumpur is being protested by the local members of the Religion of Perptual Outrage, er, PEACE (yeah, that's the ticket) because she's not tented enough for their tastes. Not wanting to forego money or, I dunno, STAND UP FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS, Gwen has decided to bow before the sword of Islam and comport herself like a good dhimmi.

To recap, this is Gwen Stefani under what we're told by the Left is an intolerant, repressive, sex-fearing, misogynist, theocratic, fascist regime here in America:



And this is Gwen under the kind auspices of Condi and Dubya's Religion of Peace and Love:



Any questions? Still want to surrender the war against Islamofascism? Call your Congressman now!

FRIDAY FIVER: 1. What is your local lake/river/sea?

Detroit River/Lake St. Clair

2. Do you believe in dragons and unicorns?

Who are you? Stevie Nicks?

3. What is your favorite fruit?

Elton J...oh...um, apples, I guess. Grapes are nice, too.

4. Do you smoke?

No, but I am SSSSSSSSSSMOKIN'!!!! Har har!

5. Friday fill-in: Together they would _____ .

Not be apart?

Boy, this was a lame quiz this week. :-\