Moosehall

Extreme Weather Warning!

2005-09-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

I would like to warn all my readers in the New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi area that a large hurricane, Katrina, is on the way and may make landfall as a Category 4-5 storm with catastrophic results. Keep tuned to weather broadcasts to inform yourselves of any possible danger.

Katrina, Katrina, Where Ya Been so Long Tom!

2005-09-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

There's life among the wreckage! For the calm after the storm Go read Tom Friedmans blast of hot air! Written in his wonderful "Praising Bush With Faint Damns" style, it's Tom at his hilarious best. If you're not registered, here's some of the fun:

"On the day after 9/11, I was in Jerusalem and was interviewed by Israeli TV. The reporter asked me, "Do you think the Bush administration is up to responding to this attack?" As best I can recall, I answered: "Absolutely. One thing I can assure you about these guys is that they know how to pull the trigger."

It's just too bad they didn't look to see which way the gun was aiming! And of course, Tom's still proud of helping pull that trigger. Creative destruction and all.
I'll bet he never thought Islamic Zionism would be so easy!

But there's comfort for the victims of Katrina, too. So they know they didn't die in vain, that they, yes, died for a "noble cause":

"Well, the party is over. If Mr. Bush learns the lessons of Katrina, he has a chance to replace his 9/11 mandate with something new and relevant. If that happens, Katrina will have destroyed New Orleans, but helped to restore America."

Granma's carcase may be an "alligator MRE" as Steve Gilliard says but it's all good if Bush gets a bump in the polls! And Gee, Mr Friedman, what could that "something new and relevant" be? "Something" close to martial law in a third world country. Considering what the survivors of the hurricane have to wade through, we could just call it a "turd world country" At least we'll have Mr Friedman around to polish that turd, as long as it's Bush who's shitting on us.

Here's some of that "Praising with faint damns" I mentioned:

"Well, if 9/11 is one bookend of the Bush administration, Katrina may be the other. If 9/11 put the wind at President Bush's back, Katrina's put the wind in his face. If the Bush-Cheney team seemed to be the right guys to deal with Osama, they seem exactly the wrong guys to deal with Katrina

Uh, Tom, they didn't get Osama either, he's gone with the wind. But we can pretend they were the "right guys", can't we Tom?

Along the way he explains why your taxes should be raised cause of Katrina, but not his, and leaves us with one more of those P. W. F. Damns.'s he loves:

"If Mr. Bush goes back to his politics as usual, he'll be thwarted at every turn. Katrina will have destroyed a city and a presidency."

Damn. And he was doing so well before Katrina, pulling those triggers and being the right guys to deal with Osama and all.

Go read the whole thing, if your blood pressure is as low as Katrina's barometer, otherwise you might get a severe tropical depression. But I wish Tom would dry up and blow away!

Its Kool, Like schul, it's a Tool it's...

2005-08-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

Jewschool!

This is one of the funniest sites I have ever seen on the Web. It seems to be a site for Jews who think they're white. Oh Yeah, I'm gonna be spending a lot of time there. Can't get enough of that funky stuff, especially when it's Glat Kosher!

Something to Cheer You Up!

2005-08-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a look athttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10022.htm"> the future of the US

Hurricane CINDY!!!!!!!!

2005-08-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

In a stunning development which only proves how extensive is the terrorist plot to destroy America , the NOAA is refusing to name the Category 5 hurricane now bearing down on New Orleans by its appropriate appellation, that is, Hurricane Cindy!
Instead, in a spirit of petty retribution they are calling it "Katrina". Thus is a competent, if not Gold Medal, figure skater given her desserts. Give the guy with the bad breath desserts, but give this disaster the moniker it merits!
Let's not abstain from subjecting this abominable atmospheric aberration to the analysis it is so abundantly amenable to. With all the alacrity, yes the very celerity a celebrity among near-apocalyptic abrogations of something or other that begins with "A" should be allocated. Got that?
To begin with, the proximate cause of the storm is the disturbances to the ether due to the treacherous presence of "Camp Cindy" in Crawford, Texas. People in an advanced state of respiration, accompanied by frequent perspiration, results in precipitation and if food spoils in the heat, regurgitation. I mean, dang it, there's a regular Sturm und drang being dragged out, and with a little elision and some imprecision gives you a "danged storm". That much is obvious to the oblivious.
But what is the result? Apart from the slight damage to property and the coiffures of newscasters, it is an established fact a category 5 hurricane is powerful enough to remove the magnetic "support the troops" ribbons from SUVs!
Now we gaze into the abyss of aberrance which, without abeyance, affronts and afears us!
Without those yellow ribbons, the entire effort of our brave centurions may very well collapse! And when we are so close to a complete victory! I mean, can you believe it?
But by the grace of a loving and generous God, whose providence supplies a something for every something-or-other, there is a solution!
EPOXY!
Yup, go out to your Explorer, Excursion, Suburban, Durango, Escalade, what-have-you, you old have-mores, you, mix part A and part B in the proper ratio, and adhere those precious little ribbons to your bodywork in a way which is Cindy-proof! That'll show 'em!
And just think, years from now, when the Iraq war is recognized as the foundation of all our future greatness, you will have proud proof of your perennial prescience, a little piece of history, permanently affixed to the symbol of American can-do know-how you'll show them!
And as far as those phony evacuation orders, well, you know what they're worth! Nope, you'll be staying the course!

Nekkid Pitchers, and a Frank Confession.

2005-08-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Stop me before I...

I was ready to get all snickerty-snarky about "sex-addiction", but when one's domocile is built of sodium silicates...Oh well.

If You Haven't Done Anything Wrong...Part 2

2005-08-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Russ Baker, a famous columnist, has been pulled into interrogation rooms at airports twice.Or as he puts it , "Sheikh Ras al-Bakr"
And you know what? I'll bet he is commiting a crime by telling us about it!

Today's Household Hint

2005-08-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a helpful hint that may come in handy when you are redecorating:

To remove charts of terrorist connections glued to office walls, use a steam iron. But before you get the oron hot, take a picture of the chart incase it gets ruined. Now, very gently steam the chart, starting at one corner and working down from the top. As the glue softens, gently peel the chart away from the wall. With any luck, and some patience, you should be able to remove the entire chart from the wall in one piece. You'll probably find that the chart is glued at the corners, with a few drops of glue in the center. Good Luck!

If You Haven't Done Anything Wrong...

2005-08-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

You Have Nothing to Worry About?

Bullshit! http://http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050815/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/no_fly_babies_6

A Calm Colloquy in Kentucky

2005-08-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Is this a first ?
So two fellows at adjacent booths at a "flea market" (gun show?) get to arguing over the Iraq war. The pro-war guy gets a little worked up and shoots the anti-war guy down like a dog. And now everybody is making excuses for the pro-war guy, natch. Not even arrested.
Yup, I thin' this article tells egg-ackly what happened. Eggs-ackly !

"Iraqui Deutschmarks?"

2005-08-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

First of all, Juan Cole- Informed Comment is one of my favorite sites. Prof. Cole combines a vast knowledge of the Middle East with a committed humanist outlook to write commentary. I've always gotten the feeling from everything he writes that a warm concern for people, all people, is his fundemental tenet.

Some days, when I do my morning reading, or mourning reading if you prefer, I come upon something that seems to encapsulate in a few words the terrible senselessness and waste of the Iraq debacle. This entry at Informed Comment did it today.

Here's the bit that nearly got me to toss my Alpha Bits:

It is certainly true that the Coalition Provisional Authority based its reconstruction plans in Iraq on postwar Germany. They often just had old plans in Germany translated into Iraqi terms. One CPA document, hastily done, talked of the necessity to support the value of "Iraqi deutschmarks."

For this we pay taxes? Before the war started, the State Department assembled a plan for post-war reconstruction, drawing on their knowledge of the area and the conditions. The bush bunch went bananas and threw it out, and we got the CPA. And the present mess.

2005-08-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

The lesser of two evils. No, that's not Mr. Kneivel's eponymous male issue, and it's not the guy who rents a club called "The Two Evils". It is most certainly not Mr Abbott's partner in writing musical comedies. Nope. It's the current election in Ohio And I don't mean voting on the type of electricity they will use.

Coffee and stale puns. That's what we have for breakfast arouind Moosehall.

Anna Quindlen hates our Freedoms!

2005-08-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

It is always a sad occasion when an American is seduced by the doctrines of Godless Communism. When an American abandons the commitment to the heavenly dispenserated (if dispenserated is the word I want) freedoms of the free market, when an American refuses to lube the palm of the invisible hand of the marketplace, it makes the baby Jesus soil his swaddling sheets and get all colicky and stuff. I'm talking about this article by Anna Quindlen, which advocates a pratically complete government control of the hiring process. Does Ms. Quindlen seriously think that American industry and business can compete if employers are forced to employ employees which are so seriously limited in their capacity they can contribute very little to the bottom line in our top-drawer firms? Huh? Well does she? Worst of all Ms. Quindlen is suggesting that businesses should hire people whose disabilities are not congenital, visiting upon the sons and daughters for the sins of the father, but people whose disabilities are the result of their own decisions. I haven't been so disgusted and alarmed since I discovered the box of cornflakes I poured milk over to comprise my breakfast was stale.

Blue Angels Crash caused by anonymous Blogger?

2005-07-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

I'm trying very hard this morning not to think about Seafair, or even look east from my deck high atop the hills of Bummington. I mean, think of the consequences!
Look, I'll admit it, I don't like the Blue Angels. Oh not the individual pilots or crew involved in the airshow, of course; my station in life does not permit the knowing of any of them. I've never liked the whole idea of military airware as a source of entertainment. The first time I saw those jets streaking across the sky in close formation I thought the US was under attack from a foreign power, and for a moment felt the terror that literally millions around the globe must feel, and with much better reason, when they see fighter jets rushing towards them. And these jets were the wrong color, and without the markings I expect to see on Air Force planes. My only question was whether we were about to be bombed with conventional or nuclear bombs.

Okay, maybe I hold the Blue Angels responsible for supplying my Wife a bit of ammunition for her campaign to get me landscaping our small, hillside lot. "Well, you sure started digging fast enough when those Blue Angels jets frightened you into digging a bomb shelter under my vegetable garden. You sure as hell weren't complaining about your carpal tunnel then, were you, Mooser?" (Such is the gratitude I receive for generously rescuing that guttersnipe from her parents 14 room palazzo and her modeling career and installing her in a luxurious hut constructed of the finest refrigerator boxes available, not to mention allowing her to work double-shifts at the slaughterhouse to support me in a style to which I would like to become accustomed, without ever complaining, not once. But that's sauce for a different goose.)
Anyway, with the small-mindedness typical of liberals, I just can't take pleasure in the sights and sounds which all over the world are a precursor to death and destruction. I mean, you're out there tending the collard greens and carrots, and boom! You're collateral damage.
But since I bear the boys they send up in crates like that no ill-will, I've got to be very mindful of the extrodinary powers granted to liberals to bring down jets, cause casualties, in fact cause wholesale stratergeral and tactilical failure simply by thinking negative thoughts or, heaven forefend, trying to understand the tactics and motivations of those allied against the good'ol US of A. The shoulder fired missile of negativity is not gonna come from this nattering nabob, no sir, no!

Announcement !

2005-07-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Anonymous sources have informed me Mooser will resume blogging in short order. According to my source, a request from the mysterious "notway" in response to a comment by Mooser was the deciding factor. Other highly placed sources have informed me that "a polite request from "notway" is like a polite request from The Godfather; it is tantamount to an order. You can flaunt it, but you'd better not flout it, or you'll end up flattened, so it's best to be phlegmatic about it, if "phlegmatic" is the word I want. "Notway" would know".

Onward and Downward!

2005-01-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

There are two little conversations which have stayed in my mind for a good thirty years now, perfect little metaphors, little signs that pointed the way.

The first took place when Ronald Reagan was running for President. I was in a union, the Bookbinders (an AFL-CIO affiliate) and my local had endorsed Reagan. I asked the Vice-President of my Local why. She replied with a little synopsis of "trickle-down" economics: "You see, if rich people have more money, than they can give us more money"
The only thing that trickled down to that union was getting broken. Seems the "rich people" used their money to figure out ways of getting rid of the union. What a surprise!

The second was more significant, seems to encapsulate everything I see around me. In a conversation with a friend, he summed up his views thus: "You hippies (huh? Let it go...) always say 'do your own thing'. So you run around with long hair and beads, smoking pot, and saying love,love,love everybody. Well, I can do my own thing, too. And my thing is being a redneck, racist, cracker, who hates everybody."

Everybody is "doing their own thing" now. But it's good sometimes to think back to the first brave Americans who, in the late Seventies and early Eighties, made the first tentative moves towards liberating themselves from the strictures which so oppressed us back then. These were the brave souls, rejecting the intolerable burdens thrust on them by an uncaring, cold society, who first demonstrated that life could best be faced with a strict adherence to the principles and rules which govern junior-high-school social life. Most of all, we must thank them for releasing America from the elitist principles of critical thinking, and in a daring move which can only be compared to the moment when the Buddhist initiate attains Satori, or the bliss of the binge drinker who vomits before passing out, the pernicious principle of decency was cast aside.

Free to be, you and me.

Talking Points Memo: Joshua Micah Marshall scores a bullseye!

2005-01-03T08:50:00.001-08:00

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall goes right to the stinking heart of the Social Security scam in today's post. At the center of the post:

"...about $3 trillion of those dollars we needed to fund the 1980s and 1990s deficits we managed to borrow closer to home. We borrowed it from the Social Security (and a few other government) trust fund(s)."

"Almost the entirety of President Bush's Social Security phase-out plan comes down to a simple proposition: finding out how not to pay it back.

"Now, admittedly, this is an approach that the president is rather familiar with from his own business career at various failed energy companies. But it is, in so many words, a straight up con -- one of vast scale, and one which virtually no one in the media ever frames in just these terms."
"So why does the president figure he can get away without making good on the debt to the folks who pay Social Security taxes, who are overwhelmingly low and middle-income wage earners (since no one pays Social Security tax on investment income or wage and salary income over about $85,000 a year)?"

"Isn't it obvious? Because he thinks they're an easy mark."

There is more detail in the post, read it.

For Your Infotainment....

2004-12-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

So there I was, doing my morning perusal of at least one of the internets, and it jumped out and grabbed me. There it was as I read an article in The Daily Mail a few short paragraphs describibg the latest explosion in Iraq.

Down the page, and to the left, was the heading "Advertorials" ! Now, I try to stay as plused as the next fellow, but for a minute there, I definitely lost my plus, in fact it wouldn't be going to far to say I was non-plused. "Advertorials", indeed!

I got my plus back in a few minutes, only to marvel at the implications of that clever compound. "Advertorial", of course, is a aggregate of "advertisement" and "editorial"! And what a wealth of possibilities is thereby spread before us, like stout Cortez upon a hill in Darien, or something. Heretofore, in those darkened and dreary days now banished by this ingenious melding, the editor could only express his opinion and, if he was the daring sort, try to marshall a few facts to his side. Now, in addition to the opinions put before his public, he will have no trouble telling them exactly what to purchase in support of his position! And, given the pandemonious nature of the "facts" used to bolster "torial" half of this equasion, the same leeway can be admitted to the "advert" side without any problems. Here's a sample.

The title of our advertorial will be: "Our Duties in the Worldwide War on Terror"
In September of 2001 a group of terrorists proved that any time a group of terrorists desires to take over four airplanes and crash them into buildings, we must let them. It is obvious that if people employed to prevent such things had simply done their jobs, this tragedy would have been nipped in the bud. Your buds, on the other hand can be nipped quite easily with a pair of Clip-em budcutters, available at your local lawn and garden store. These are the bud-cutters so strong, they are guaranteed to cut through the blade or body of any box-knife extant. While the US was equipped with terroists watchlists, agents who reported on members of the terrorist group, fighter planes which should have been in the air, no Clip-em budcutters were supplied to airport security. Would you want your family to be similarly handicapped in such an event? The success of these (or those) terrorists must lead us to conclude that similar groups are active in every city, every town, and will strike at least on a weekly basis. By purchasing a complete set of Find-em maps, available at all local mapsellers, you will know the precise location of each of those towns and cities. Can you do less, or at least, not as much, or failing that, something, maybe? And having done so, and so done, would you deny your family, your country, the chance to tremble in craven fear while seated on comfortable lawn furniture? Any staunch defender of freedom will be sure to have a complete set of Sit-and-Set lawn furniture on his patio, purchasable at all major department and specialty goods emporiums, and made expressly for turning on side and use as a redoubt from which fire can be returned. No, fellow citizens, we must not allow chimeras such as facts, history, and the like to deflect us from our allotted stance of craven fear interspersed with blind aggression. And what better serves such a mixture than mixed drinks, served in beautiful Drink-em crystal glasses? The over-consumption of alcohol, topped off with a liberal helping of prescription drugs, will be the diet of heroes, and heroes are what we need...

I'm barely scratching the surface here. But the advertorial is, for sure, the wave of the future.

Jurist Prudence

2004-12-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

I blogged earlier (Nov. 16) that my wife, Patty (the Moosette) was selected for Jury Duty at the Kitsap County Court. First, she attended several sessions, during which jurors were selected from the pool of potential jurors. She was selected. Then came the trial. (Now that it's over, all can be told!)
The case was one of medical malpractice. A man and his wife were suing their psychiatrist, for negligence, and demanding repayment of medical bills and damages. Seems that... wait... it goes like this:
The plaintiff, an engineer in his thirties, had a mental breakdown and made a suicide attempt. He walked into Puget Sound and tried to drown. (He was dissuaded by a passing duck, who told him to get out of the water. Remember, he was having a psychotic episode) He ended up in the hospital, and after release, was advised to stay under psychiatric care, and medication. So he engaged the shrink, who was responsible for his medication, and was supposed to go to a therapist, too, and join a support group. So, life went on, and his medications were adjusted, or one was discontinued and another started, and so on.
But sadly, after about six months he had another episode, which seemed to be a combination of extreme depression, paranoiaand psychosis. The onset was rapid, a matter of days, and neither he, nor his wife (who called the Dr. when she noticed) nor the doctor really appreciated how bad the poor guy was getting.
He took himself out to the beach and using a stethoscope to locate his heart, fell on a dagger, three times. He didn't die, but he did himself lots of injury, puncturing a lung, stabbing a piece of his heart, puncturing his spleen (they took it out) and nearly bled to death. Again, he survived, but it was a near thing. Lots of surgery.
So that, more or less, is the story my wife heard, over the course of three days of testimony. (Again, I want to say she only told me this after her jurist duties were ended, as she was instructed. But that didn't keep her from coming home each night and saying "Oh, have I got a story I can't tell you!")
What it came down to, is: was the doctor negligent in his care? Did he reduce, increase, or stop medications correctly? Did he not act quickly enough(by immediately having the patient come in to see him or go to a hospital) when the wife called him to report her husbands troubling new symptoms?
Of course, there was big-time expert testimony, from plaintiff and defendant's witnesses. Distinguished scholar-doctor-author-teacher kind of guys. And there was factors, factors. Here's a few: The doctor seemed to take very inadequate, sketchy notes. The patient did not follow his treatment plan completely, and engage a therapist and attend a support group, in addition to taking medication, as his treatment plan ordered. The doctor may have compromised, to save the couple money, by treating them on a two-fer basis (The wife is bi-polar). The patients paranoia, which might have been connected to his depression, might have made him less than forthcoming about his psychosis.
All this, and much, much more, Patty listened to carefully each day, taking notes, considering the judge's instructions, really trying to do her job as a juror, not just pre-judging on the basis of prejudices (Lousy rip-off shrinks, frivolous lawsuits, sympathy for a mangled guy and his distraught wife, what her know-it-all husband said on the basis of the truncated summary of each day's testimony, stuff like that).
Finally, after 9 days, both plaintiff and defendant had presented their cases, examined and cross examined witnesses, and the jury had been instructed in the law by the judge.
Now it was time, time for deliberation, time for the jury to decide if there was negligence, and if so, how much moolah should be awarded. A jury foreman would be picked, and the jury would retire, not even leaving for lunch, to bring this magnificent drama of American jurisprudence to its conclusion. (Which would probably go right to an appeal)
She came home exhausted every night, with a headache from being trapped indoors, and concentrating intently. This was serious stuff, and she took it seriously.
And through it all, all 14 jurors... wha?, all 14? Yup, all 14. 12 jurors and 2 alternates. Since nothing had happened to knock any juror out of the box, they were still two jurors long. Time to draw straws!
And Patty drew short straw, right off, and was excused from the deliberation. Bye-bye Jurist Prudence!
She got $13.00 from the pool, (Gotta liven up the elimination of alternates somehow)and should receive a check for $10.00 a day from the county. She returned to work next day and was grumbled at for discharging her civic obligations. And if she doesn't go down to the courthouse and try to check the records, (it should be a public record, right?) she'll never know how the whole imbroglio came out.
I ask you, is that Justice? We oughta sue!

I Won't Dance, Don't Ask Me !

2004-11-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

Naomi Klein, who wrote a series of excellent articles on the Coalition Provisional Authourity and other subjects related to the invasion, had somthing sort of wierd in an article in the Guardian today. Maybe some among the fanatic hordes comprising the denizens of Moosehall could clear this up for me?
The subject of her article is the photo, rapidly gaining iconic status, (or as you might say, quickly acquiring the status of an icon. Or, conversely, you might not.)of a US soldier having an after-battle smoke. The photo could be an attempt to portray US soldiers as blood-stained, dirty, cigarette fiends. As part, don't you know, of a liberal plot to make war seem icky and thus uncool, if indeed things icky and uncool (implied italics here) are considered icky and uncool by those in the recruiter's demographics. I wouldn't know.
Be that as is may be, and for all I know it may indeed be, maybe, as it were, that is not what compelled my post. No indeed. Indeed, no. Instead what, or what instead caused the ineffable frisson (if indeed a frisson may be with any degree of accuracy or honesty called ineffable)which drives otherwise complacent men (or in this case, me)to the extremity of a new blog post is her use of an old anecdote which I have heard many times before:

"It reminds me of the joke about the Hassidic rabbi who says all sexual positions are acceptable except for one: standing up "because that could lead to dancing".

A joke "about the Hasidic rabbi"? I've only heard this as an anecdote (she calls it a "joke", but that particular obfuscation will remain undeconstructed, more out of a desire to avoid inflaming the sensitivities of the sensitive, than anything else) about a "Baptist minister". Never have I heard this, or any other bon mot or mot juste refering to a prohibition on dancing in reference to the Hasidim.

And so I appeal to you, dear reader, even unto the Antipodean auscultators of this eponymous epistle: What kind of shit is this; Hasidim don't dance? I thought Hasids (I prefer the spelling Chasid) were regular Dreidals. I thought Chasidim danced like crazy!

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Duty Calls

2004-11-16T17:47:00.000-08:00

My wife is claiming she has been selected for Jury Duty! More than that she is forbidden to divulge. The entire kugel is redolent of judicial mystery, legal hijinks and reformed torts. This, like so much else, is an outrage. I can barely stand it. No, it's more than any reasonable man can be expected to bear. I won't be still, I will be heard! I will follow her and find out what she is really doing each day.

The Membership Society

2004-10-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's time for Americans to step up to the plate and shoot a threepointer which leads to a touchdown! It's time to make America a Membership Society! Here's what I'm talking about. And fellow potential citizens, you will have to agree that what I AM talking about is in line with Biblical prophecy, basic economics, common sense and Wise Use. No longer can we tolerate the intolerable, the hey-nonny-nonny and a ha-cha-cha slipshod, ramshackle Jerry-built, Ruby Keeler Goldberg way things have been done in this sun-drenched, rain-washed, frost-bitten, snow-blind, sun-burned land of ours!
No doubt, you were taught the immortal words to an immoral song, written by that insidious outsider, a man who would turn things inside-out, a man who would have us wear our underwear ON THE OUTSIDE OF OUR CLOTHES(!), Woodie Guthrie. The words that go: This land is your land. But that is false, not true, wrong, not correct.
The words should be: This land is YORE land! See the difference? Of course you do! You didn't go to church every week, listen to the Pasteur line out the words to hymms, refrain from touching yourself, and save your precious virginity or virility and vitality for the one you married just to see every kind of blackamoor, halfcaste, pickaninny, quadroon, octaroon, minaret, martinet and clarinet playing sheeny take a shine to that wonderful little slut that Daddy's little girl put out for anyone to see? DID you? No, you didn't!
Let's make America a Membership Society! Every American should pay a fee to be placed on the rolls way up yonder. And those who can't afford, can't be on board! Oh, sure, we could have a sliding scale, pay less, get less. My only question, which you must answer is: What should the fee be? It can't be free. So let's hear it Moosehallians, How much should we pay to belong to America? Should it be a yearly or one-time fee? Let me know!
But one thing for sure: By making citizenship expensive, once again being an American will be worth something.

Moosehall Can Help the Cheneys

2004-10-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

Why should you suffer the embarrasment and chagrin of having a child devoted to the illicit pleasures and selfish hedonism of the love that dare not speak its name? Huh? Why should you? Now, just because you wrote a book which features Lebanese love scenes, does that mean your kids, the fruit of you loom, should loom up in front of you, warp and woof, warped and woofing? Remember, Nogaydon, the new vaccine from Moosehall Pharmaceuticals (Derived from the pure, natural, Lead and Mercury your body needs) can prevent Gayness in children. Our Motto: One little shot, and Gay is not!

I had a dream

2004-10-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

I had a dream last night. A bad dream, in fact, a nightmare. And, as nightmares will do, it terrified me. I awoke, terrified. A victim of terror. A terror victim. I had been terrorised.
Oh, it went away in a few minutes. But it changed my life. Because after the terror subsided, I got angry. "What right does that dream have to frighten me?" I thought. "None at all" I answered myself.
Continueing to think, but without quotation marks, I thought this: I will not be terrorised. I will not! And then I understood; the understanding flooded my soul with light as if, well, as if the light had just been turned on, which, in fact it had. I was now a soldier in the war on terror! I had been frightened, terrorised by a dream, and by waking up I had destroyed that dream and I won a battle against terror!
But only one battle in a war. That's not enough.
Tomorrow, I will gain a decisive victory over terror. Here's how:
Tomorrow night, I will take my shotgun, (which is one of those short barrelled, pump loading affairs with a prosiac resin stock and a pistol grip, holds 7 cartridges) to bed with me, and I will sit up all night and when that dream comes to scare me again I will be ready and fill that son-of-a-bitch nightmare with buckshot! I'll be ready. I'll drink black coffee and take uppers and when that dream comes I'll blast it!
And after I win my war on terror, I won't be satisfied with any half-assed truce or stalemate. I will wage war on fright. And then I will wage war on uncertainty, anxiety, and indecision.

Lies! Lies! Lies!

2004-10-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

"Questions of responsibility" is an article. What is an article? An article is an A, an R, a T,an I, a C, an L and an E. No one can deny that. But contained within this "article", this article of an "article", are the letters"L" and "I" and "E", and that spell LIE. In addition, by subtracting, one also finds the letters "T", "R", "I", "A", and finally "L". And that spells "trial". No matter what anyone says, the letters spell the same thing whether they are capital or lower-case. So it is obvious: when one puts this "article" on "trial", it is a "lie"! And when I say this, I am adamant! And when I say "adamant" I mean, well,... you know: adamant!

It does no good to say that the facts (and in an act of almost unbecoming mercy, I won't put quotation marks around the word "facts") are all correct, and these facts have been the same facts I have read in so many other "articles" (my patience is not infinite) and in fact, most of the events have taken place during my lifetime, and even if hidden or obscured to some degree have been exposed, and all of these facts (I'm so nice) form a narrative which is consistent. No, it does no good! None! When the great Jewish scholar Mooses Miamombomommades said: "Az di bobe volt gehat beytsim volt zi geven mayn zeyde!" (If my grandmother had testicles, she would be my grandfather!) his brightest stundent, Michel-Micham-Pim-Shemya (who was destined for both future greatness and a sad end rouging and polishing the backs of beetles in a traveling crafts carnival on the outskirts of Crakow) Immediately responded: "Az mir vill schlugen a hunt, gifintmin a schtecken" (If one wants to beat a dog, one finds a stick!) So let us now turn to the "real" "facts". Read the "article", and read these "facts", and the answer will be obvious, if you are not a damned anti-semite who bayonets Jewish babies and kicks Jewish grandmothers in the kishkas before burning down thier houses and stealing everything they posses!

At the time of the Roman conquest of Judea, when the Jewish people were groaning under the Roman sandal, an extrodinary person appeared. Known to some as the "Son of Man" and others as the "Manly Son", he was an extrodinary man, but he was crucified by the palestinians. Later on, the Dark Ages in Europe was a result of the terrroristic actions of Hamas, Hizbollah, and the Palestinian militants. moving right along, the palestinians brought slavery to the New World, causing the Civil War. After their machinations ("machinations) caused World War I, in a final spate of badness bidness the Palestinians caused the death of 6 million Jews in a terriblr episode called the Hamacaust, or the Hizbollahcaust. Finally, recognising the injustice done to the Jews, and swayed by the cloying sweetness of "Fiddler on the Roof", International Institutions gave an inexplicably deserted piece of land to the Jews, who had lived there from time immemorial. Of course as soon as the Jews got it, the Palestinians (now watch this, this is the coup de grace the denoument the proof) the "palestinians" (Hah!) wanted it, and made a deal with Hitler to kill 6 million Jews. And this proves the ineluctable, ineffable, insubstantial, hypothesis: What good is a religion if it doesn't get you something? So ipso facto Judaism's whole raison d'etre is the "Zionist impulse" Listen to the heartrendering strains of the old Jewish folk song:

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You put your right foot in,
And you shake it all about!
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself about!
And that's what it's all about.

No ! I don't believe it!

2004-10-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

An article from the Guardian which you may read by clicking here posits that perhaps Al Queada, and the legions of Islamic terrorists plotting even as I write to take over the world, destroy our way of life, cancel the Olympics, the Miss America Paegent, the World Series, the Superbowl, the major AKC dog and cat shows, Little League, the World Soccer Cup, Wimbledon, the Masters golf tournament, abolish the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Brownies, 4H, the Future Farmers of America (among many other things), destroy SUV's with IED's, make the Baby Jesus cry, forbid the production of almost all movies, TV shows, and stage plays, and restrict Americans to a diet of Hoummus and humility, and Gosh I can't even think of all the evil, nasty, mean, sadistic, wrong, dastardly, villianous, they wanna do, may not be as omnipotent, well organised, omnipresent, powerful and and and,,,,, and Reset, Reset, Restset Tilt tillittlitsertrs.

Sorry, I just get all worked up when I think about them awful tarrists a'comin' t kill pillage rape and modify ar wimmins with their "teeth like little rounded pillows" as Lynne Cheney said in her Novel "Sisters". Yuss, I jes get all riled up !

A Horrible Injustice!

2004-10-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

An injustice of historic proportions has come to my attention, and has affected me deeply. Once exposed to the startling cruelties and crimes herein to be described, I can no longer go on my way, complacent and contented, but am compelled (compelled, I tell you) to spend the remaining strands of my mortal coil (a sort of an existential Slinky) in a campaign, neigh neighbors, a battle, to bring relief to my suffering co-religionists.

Here are the facts:

Since the days of the old testament, Jews have lived in the State of Israel. Throughout the centuries the small but enterprising state has occupied an area stretching from the the Tigris to the Euphrates. While these simple religious people have engaged in mostly pastoral pursuits starting in the 16th century manufacturing has become an important component of their economy. I will not bore you with the story of the constant progress, the benefits and the general excellence of this Jewish Homeland, all those things are well known However, in about 1947 all this changed.

Starting with small incursions and the demand for tribute which soon expanded into outright extortion the kingdoms and despotic fiefdoms which make up the bulk of Israels neighbors began a campaign of extermanation against these wonderful people. By the year 2003, Israel had been reduced to a tiny sliver of land, denied access to natural resources and in danger of being wiped off the surface of the earth!

It is up to us to stop this tragedy!

The Anguish While They Languish, Which We can Help Vanquish

2004-10-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

"The Six Million Dollar Man" a TV Serial show about the adventures of a policeman who has had his limbs and part of his brain replaced by vastly improved components, so as to fight der crimey type stuff in a half hour or less, is available on DVD. Don't you know someone for who this would be like a really cool gift and their spirits would be lifted and hope would become their plan, if they had the complete set? I bet you do.
But do you order this person, who he has been cruelly overtaken by a tragical fate, which wasn't their fault, a nice box set and maybe you could pack in a Keilbasa or maybe a little chocalate and a couple bags of dope and send it off to them which you could do with one click of the rat? No, in the plain language which made this country the famous country which it is, being plainspoken and all, you sit on your tuffet, enjoying a buffet, your mouth you will stuff it and abandon the Kurds? No whey! That's what's wrong with this country! First you say you will, and than you won't. Then you say why not, but then you don't. You're undecided now, so what are you gonna do?
Now is the hour of our disk content. Whip inflation now! Elastic elation and broken concentration. And you can't wait to get back to your unit!.

Essential Nutrients

2004-10-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Blogger ate my post!

Gratifying Progress. (A Progress Retort)

2004-10-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

Nothing is so gratifying as noting the progression of my degeneration. First, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my nervous breakdown coupled with a general deterioration of my mind. My vocabulary is becoming more and more limited, I am less able to concentrate, and my thought process has become progressively more infantile. My writing skills, while never exceptional, were at one time pretty good. At this time, I have trouble completeing a sentence, and the ability to sustain literary composition over, say, the length of a short essay is only a distant memory. And my memory is shot. I can't hold on to anything for more than a couple hours.
My physical disintergration is what I'm really proud of ! My teeth are rotting, I have several loose, and I can be pretty sure all my choppers will be gone in less than a year. My muscles, all over my body have atrophied to the point that my arms and legs look like sticks. Related to that, I'm sure, are the spasms and cramps I experience with any extension of my arms, hands, or legs. My heart and circulatory system have degenerated to a point which puts me right on the edge of a heart attack or stroke with any exertion. My lungs, of course, are a black joke. A one block walk will leave me soaked with persperation, winded, and unable to continue. Jogging, let alone running, is out of the question! My eyesight and hearing both have become less, especially my eyesight. I can no longer read normal size (12 pt.) type, and I am just about blind in dim light.
There is a lump, with some pain, in the area of my prostate, which is the beginning of cancer.
I am unalterably opposed to any medical treatments. If a doctor comes within my grasp, I will strike or stab at them. I will gladly, gladly go to my grave before I give a quacker, a croaker one penny.
I'm pretty sure the way I am going I will be done with this entire degradin process within 2 years.

A Guide to the Perplexed

2004-10-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

Some confusion has arisen concerning the material presented on Moosehall. To avoid contusion, here is an explanation which should help those to obtuse to see the obvious:

All the material in the posts on the front page is plagiarised from one or two sources. None of it is original. From a legal, or for that matter an ethical or moral standpoint the material is stolen.
All of the comments are written by me, and are original. All of the colors in this Blog are the opposite of the colors that appear.

All of the photos used in this Blog are designed for easy viewing and corrosive effect.

Spoiling the Child

2004-10-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

There is nothing so sad as families who waste a good chance to "train their children up in the way they should go". If a child is not shown the right things to do, if a child doesn't learn the right things to say, much damage, damage which may be impossible to correct later in life, can be done. While there are many families teaching their children the right things, I am disheartened when I see a child without the guidance and examples they need to make a difference in the world.
It's never too early to begin! The first, essential and basic lesson every American child needs is one concerning the proper ways to interact with others, and the best way to teach this is by example. The relations between a child's parents will set the pattern for his relations to others. When a boy watches his father, he should see the pattern for his future behavior. A man who is never pleased, who glares ferociously at his wife, and most important of all, is capable of sudden violent outbursts, provides an example for a boy to emulate. While the refinements of sadism and visciousness can be inculcated later, a child, especially a boy, should learn early that any restraint of temper, any forbearance of the violent impulse, is a sin with grave consequences. When a boy sees his mother trembling, with fresh bruises each morning, he learns the basic, the essential principles of opression which will serve him throughout his life. Do not neglect your chances to ingrain this important principle in your sons, my fellow Americans!
As for our precious daughters, the future homemakers, wives, mothers, and divorcees who will do so much to make the future what it will be, the mixture of craven obsequiousness, and minipulative cruelty so necessary to a sucessful marriage is a subtle and difficult role to acquire, and little girls need every help in mastering this complicated part. Since I am not a woman, I can only pray that God will help today's Mothers impart to their little girls the important skills they must have. I do know that an early reliance on perscription drugs and alcohol will help a girl through adolescence, and ease her into a pure and unsullied womanhood. And it is up to the Mothers of our generation to help their little girls in this respect. The father has a role to play here, too. It is up to him to plant the seeds of self-worthlessness which will mean so much in the future.
Parents need a way to measure their childrens growth towards adulthood. A good measure of a childs progress can be seen in their enthusiasm for killing or maiming animals. By the time a child is three to four years old, it is not to much to expect that beyond simply killing insects or small animals, the more precocious will be exploring ways to inflict pain on the little creatures before dispatching them. Once a child learns to regard the lives of animals as worthless, and to enjoy killing them, they are well on their way to growing into a true lack of empathy, and disregard for the lives of their fellow human beings. Raising children is a challenge, it's "hard work" as the greatest of American Presidents has said, but the inward satisfaction to be gained from knowing that by your efforts, another bully, sadist, or even full fledged sociopath has been added to God's shining city should encourage us to do our best, to give forth with our utmost. God Bless You, and please, let me hear from you parents so we can encourage each other in our quest to raise a generation of human beings fully devoid of felling for anybody weaker than themselves. I will close in the words of the Old Testament writer, who said (Latherchamos 3:42) And we shall raise them with blows and curses, and verily our seed will say: It is every man for himself, and God against all.

Organ Harvest Caused Death

2004-10-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Finally,( http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=ap/organ_harvest_death ) they caught them at it. It happens all the time. I wear chain mail pajamas and lock myself to a steel post set in a huge chunk of concrete, so I don't wake up without a kidney or lung. Of, course, it's nice to know that when I get low on funds, I'll still have some Bodily Assets. Are we no more than the sum of our parts? E-bay here we come!

Americans who are properly educated know how to avoid degenerative diseases. Why end up in the hospital, hoping for a bargain price organ that you need, when degeneration and illness can be prevented by simply drinking a quart of fresh blood each day? By fresh, of course, I mean the blood must come directly from the arteries (don't accept any of that low-grade veinous stuff) of a live youth. And the health benefits of eating the heart or brains from a live baby are fantastic. Why, it's almost a fountain of youth.
As for me, I find the whole idea disgusting, I almost can't stand the fact that animals are killed to feed me, I'll die gladly before I harm another person. But I am perfectly cognisant that my ideas would be considered "quaint" by the leading thinkers of the day. I am ashamed to admit it, but I can't consider my own life more precious than any other persons. Don't worry, I keep such ideas to myself. Slicing open a persons chest and eating the organs before they are dead is a diffucult skill to aquire, and I wouldn't want to do anything which might interfere with your childrens training, so I keep my mouth shut.

Once again, all at once.

2004-10-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Nothing seems to dissaude some people. As the bearded guy in the Charles White sketch said: You can dissuade some of the people some of the time but Kum ich nisht heint, kum ich morgen. Well, it seems that no matter what I say (Feh, like anybody listens to me ) people have been coming to Moosehall and absconding with little things, things of no value to anyone but me, but valuable nonetheless. First it was an old girlfriend, from 30 years ago, dressed in a beautiful silk dress, gold-silver sort of a color, with light green designs. She had a net over her hair, which was piled on top of her head, with paper parasols (well, one paper parasol) fetchingly, coquettishly, perched on top. She was kind, almost seductive, but aloof. And there have been others. Never get up early, you can't trust the morning fog we have here. A more efficient medium for ectoplasm there ain't.
But they come, if not today, then tomorrow. Deriding me (and others, my friend) from their De Loreans, sneeringly snide, but with gentle minions and many onions. Yes, they come, and little things disappear. Oh, they took the money long ago, there's no use in talking about it. But now a pen, or a bag (a small bag) of finish nails, and then the cuts on my arms and belly. Small wounds, but what is the powder they sprinkle around the incisions? And the replication and replacement of substances, what of that? You don't know, and I wouldn't try to explain it to you. Twine, mucilage, horsehair, wool, (if only...) jute, pulp, tar, many bits of this and that. Will it melt or burn? If it burns, is it advisable to breath deeply of the smoke? Would you know? Would you know anyone who knows?
So at long last, this is what it's come to! A rubbery, sticky bit of something, giving rise to tumors where ever it touches, but would any less be wanted? No, it is enough that I speak to no one, a curious state of affairs indeed.
But I'm warning you- don't do it again.

Why Are We Waiting?

2004-10-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Whilst we sit in a fog, we are betrayed from afar! Why Are We Waiting? Look at any map or Globe. There be Canada, sitting oppressively and smugly atop the US! Can we tolerate this? No, No, a thousand million times No! And Mexico! Need I say more? No, I needn't. Can we sit snug like a bug in a rug whilst these thugs trickle down and bubble up to starve and carve these here United States into second prize statice. Canada must be destroyed! Mexico must be destroyed! Europe is the abcess from whence all that is corrupt oozes and schmoozes, home of lingering odors and fancy boozes. Europe must be destroyed!
On the back lots of California TV studios an irreplaceable, implacable, impracticable heritage goes to wrack and ruin, bruins screaming at the scrim, vim and vigor, piss and vinegar. All is contained all encapsulated all there. Leave it to Lucy, Ozzie and Beaver, Harriet the Troll, Harpers and Card Sharpers and Fins. How thin can molded plastic be? It's the odor, the odor, like an electric motor. No, it's the lead. Get the lead out! There is a holy template, a smooth dream of Jeanie, smoothies and pasties and groovething.
But the answer is: attack! After all, do we really need color? Didn't black'nwhite do the job? Well didn't it?
You know what I'm talkin about: a smooth suburban slightly upper middle class scene

An Equitable Draft

2004-10-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

A draft must be implemented as soon as possible. That is, of course, clear to all. But the mechanics of the draft must be changed to keep up with changing times, and the new threats we face. My proposal will be much more equitable, and make for a more effective fighting force, than the current hodge-podge of unfair conscription regulations. These are my proposals:

The age of conscription should be lowered to between 16 and 13, depending on the economic status of the conscriptee. Factors such as family income, number of children, and marital status of parents will determine age of conscription. In this way single parent families and low income families can be relieved of child care burdens. Inductees will become the property of the officers in command of their units.
Term of service should be at least 15 years, preferably 25. This will aid retention. To simplify record-keeping, and improve security, no communication between draftees and civilians will be permitted.
In keeping with American values of fairness, a yearly buy-out provision will be in effect. The buy-out fee will begin at $15,000 per child. The buy-out fee will be submitted with federal taxes.
Males and females will be drafted in equal numbers. After completion of basic training, each male soldier will be assigned a female recruit for purposes of military procreation. In this way, the draft will yield double or triple benefits.
All pensions, benefits, awards, and promotions will be abolished. Equality must prevail.
When necessary conscription will be augmented by curfew sweeps.

It is time for an equitable conscription to be established. However, it can not be stressed enough that conscription can only be justified by a commitment to constant warfare. The Holy United States will finally have the military manpower to attack the enemy at our borders, the Communist Consortium of Canada and Mexico. The depredations of these this evil empires will not be tolerated any longer! I suggest that Conscription begin as soon a a Holy Presidential Decree can be issued. This will be a stitch in time, save nine, make us healthy, wealthy and wise, and in sooth speak truth to power. We must not cower, thicken sauces with flour, don't be so dour, this is our hour! The salvation of this Glorious Union lies in Dictitorial and Arbitrary Decrees, Doe Rei Mei! My Mama done tol' me, she done me wrong, lost in the milling throng, wrapped in a sarong, terror in a bhong, Jose can you see? Let's call the whole thing off.

Doctors

2004-09-30T17:48:00.000-07:00

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I went to a doctor once. That was more than enough for me. First of all, I waited in the outer office for three and a half hours. I got up to leave several times, and each time the receptionist, or nurse or whoever it was at the front desk popped her head out the window of the cubicle and said: "I wouldn't do that, you might die". I said "What do you mean?"
"You don't know what's wrong with you, do you" she said.
"No", I admitted, "but it hurts."
"See", she said "This is your only hope. You walk out that door and boom, your heart could stop, or a blood vessel burst, or maybe you have a brain tumor. You better stay put and wait for the doctor, if you don't want to drop down dead!"
"Jeez" I moaned, "do you think so?"
"I wouldn't take any chances" she said "That'll be $250, and come back tomorrow"
So I came back the next day, and waited for 6 hours until the doctor was ready to see me. Finally, I was admitted to a small room, and told to remove my clothes. I did so, all the while listening to the moans, and occasional screams, through the walls. After another two hours, the Doctor came in. He looked at me like a gardener looks at a slug on her prize tomatoes.
"First of all", he said "I want you to know that you're not the kind of person I normally take as a patient. I would just as soon kick you in the stomach as look at you. I hope you brought plenty of cash"
Trembling now, I replied meekly, "What ever you want, Doctor"
This seemed to annoy him, and in a quick, skillful motion, he jabbed me with a long pin he carried.
"Look, you stupid son-of-a-bitch" he screamed, "how much do you want to live?"
"Wh-h-a-ttt" I replied, backing into a corner of the room, franticly trying to cover myself with the tiny gown provided, and keep my hands out in front of me, in a sort of defensive posture.
"You heard me, scumbag" he screamed, "How much do you want to live? Five hundred bucks worth? Fifteen hundred? Ten thousand? Cause if you can't pony up some serious dough, I'm gonna throw your ass outta here, and laugh while you die in the street!"
He was really incensed now, flailing away, slapping my face, punching me in the stomach, and kicking me when I turned away to protect myself. Although I would not have thought it possible, he became even more enraged, his eyes popping out of his head, spittle flying from his lips, the veins in his neck throbbing.
"You know what, shithead" he screamed, "you remind me of those Goddam drunks I used to have to treat at the hospital. Well, I sent a few of those bastards off to the morgue, and I'll damn well send you there, too, if you don't fork over some dough, pronto!"
By this point, my only concern was getting out of there in one piece. I was so frightened, I could feel myself losing control of my bladder.
"Okay, Okay," I blubbered, "How much do you want?"
"I'm gonna let you off easy" he said, "cause it's obvious you haven't got a penny or a pot to piss in. Gimme a thousand bucks."
"S-s-s-ure" I stammered, by this time crying hysterically. Like magic, the nurse appeared with my wallet and checkbook. I grabbed it, and quickly wrote out a check, I was able to grab my clothes while the nurse and doctor were distracted for a moment. He was fondling her breasts, while she busied herself with drawing up something from a bottle into a hypodermic needle. When she inserted the needle into the doctors arm, and hunted for a vein, I made a break for the door.
"And don't ever come back, you little slimy bastard" I heard him yell, although by that time I was down the hall, sprinting for the door.
And perhaps I was taking an inordinate chance with my health, but I never did go back, even though I discovered on the way home that my wallet, with all my ID and credit cards was missing.
That was my one experience with Doctors. I still have nightmares.

A Warning

2004-09-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

To tell the truth, the unvarnished, though somewhat stained truth, I have never been a close follower of politics. And in addition I have been just about Luddite about computers. (And I'm no Likudnik either, but that's another story) Frankly, I'd rather look at a tree in a breeze, a wave on the ocean, a campfire, than a computer screen. I can't seem to get any more interested in computers than I can in a toaster-oven. Well, last year I broke with my longstanding (and as it turns out, wise) attitudes and began doing two very foolish things. I began to read extensively on the internet, and followed the progress of the election, starting with the primaries.
Okay, wait let me recollect- no,the reading and internet perusing started with the run-up to the Iraq war, so it has been about 18 months. I learned an awful lot during this time, most of it very disheartening or outright terrifying.
About a month ago I began noticing the signs, and last week the diagnosis was unmistakable- I've had a nervous breakdown. It's not fun. And it's not going away. So there it is- make of it what you will. I have a bad feeling things will get worse, ending with suicide. I curse, I rue, rue la la, Rue Lalenska (shit, there I go- don't hate me because I'm beautiful) I curse the day I first looked at this thing, it'll be the depth of me. Maybe I'm just too shallow. Or maybe Syosset is the next town down the L.I.R.R from Huntington's Korea, nope, this gland is your gland.
Roll on, Columbian! I would take up pot-smoking again, but I'm much too paranoid, and I tend to over-eat badly. (like I even knew where to get any pot)
What a drag it is getting old !

Note: Important Note, Please Note!

2004-09-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that a certain confusion has arisen concerning this Website. To clear this up, I would like to make clear that the owners and operators of Moosehall.com are in no way affiliated with Mousehall.com or Moussehall.com. Nor are we in any way connected with the Loyal Order of the Moose or any of its websites. Please send your comments, donations, suggestions, and food packages to the correct address.
We would like to note also that this website is not for public access, and viewing, downloading, and commenting are forbidden by law. All illegal viewing, access, downloading, and commenting will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Illegal viewing, downloading, and commenting fall under the terrorism provisions of the Patriot Act, and may be punishable by sanctions and penalties up to and including 25 years imprisonment, and for repeated offenses, death.

Don't Say You Weren't Warned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Osama Ben Ladden is Still Out There !

2004-09-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

"Osama’s still out there somewhere plotting God only knows what" a poster writes.
I wonder if you are aware of the facts about Osama Ben Ladden? Let me inform you:Age: OBL is at least 104 years old, he has the amazing power of only aging 1 year for every three he lives.Physical: Over 9 feet tall, but able to shrink to under 3 feet when he wants to.Mental: OBL has the power to look into your thoughts and bend anyone to his will just by force of will. He will, won't he?Other powers: Able to teleport, he can be in two places at once, when he's not anyplace at all. He only came to say he must be going, going, gone. Has an IQ of 386, speaks 14 languages, can assume any race or gender, fix a fender, go on a bender, make gourmet meals in a blender, he's a big spender, the original dead ender, returns to sender, he's neither borrower nor lender, he's legal tender. He put the Benzidrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine.He's the cream in your coffee, he's the salt in your stew. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, ABLE TO LEAP TALL BUILDINGS IN A SINGLE BOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Osama Ben Ladden is more powerful, more evil, more determined to bury us, has more weapons, a larger Army, Navy and Air Force, and commands a larger land mass than the USSR at the height of its powers. He has only one weakness: he has NO stain-fighting power, nor freshening power. Not springtime fresh. Not mountain fresh. Not minty fresh. Not summer fresh. And most definitely not lemon fresh. On that basis, he may be defeated.
200 years from now, our great,great,grandchildren will still be fighting Osama Ben Ladden. And he will still be plotting, plotting... He begs, borrows, and steals, always stiching in time. Riding a horse of a different color, he knows all, seea all, saws all.
Is there any atrocity which cannot be laid at his doorstep, like a flaming bag of dog-poop? And the children, in all their innocence, walking or riding their little bikes past his house, watching atrocities getting laid at his doorstep- what will we tell them? Oh, he has a black heart, a simple green, lemon yellow, orange orange.He got the blues mos' every night. Hurray for the red, white and blue! (for the duck may be somebody's Mother)

Some day, we'll all be very embarrassed we let one man with a bad kidney terrify us.

A Tip

2004-09-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

In winter, use saliva as a substitute for petroleum based lubricants in your automobile engine crankcase.
In summer, semen must be used- it won't break down at the higher temperatures.
These aare just two of the helpful tips in our new book, "Bodily Fluids can be Substituted for Many Common Household Chemicals" available from Moose Hall Publishers (for only $5.95) Also you'll find many other cleaning, laundry, and home maintenance tips in this invaluable volume. Order Now! Don't miss the special chapter on obtaining and storing Bodily Fluids- it will save you the price of the book, first time you use it!
Coming Soon, the latest in the Moose Hall Bodily Series- "Building with Bodily Parts and Fluids"

Buy Our New Cookbook!!!

2004-09-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

Available soon from Moosehall Press Our new cookbook

Cooking with Body Fluids

Our New 225 Page Cookbook, filled with Recipes using Blood, Lymph, Semen, Mucous and other Body Fluids.

Blood- It's what's for Lunch!

Nogaydone is Here !

2004-09-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

Moosehall Pharmaceuticals, a leader in Mercury and Lead based vaccines proudly introduces the first successful vaccination against homosexuality! Nogaydone is a calomel derived vaccination which prevents the development of homosexuality in adolescent males and females. Nogaydone when administered at the first appearance of pubic hair will completely eliminate any tendency towards homosexual or lesbian life-style choices and behavior. Clinical trials of Nogaydone prove it provides complete protection against homosexual or lesbian behavior in 99.7% of test subjects, with only minimal side effects. (A small percentage of subjects developed criminal Psychosis) Nogaydone will soon be approved and available. Register Now with Moosehall Pharmaceuticals to be included in the first distribution of Nogaydone ! You owe it to your kids!

Caution- Please Read !

2004-09-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

This is a Restricted Blog

Please be advised that any reading, perusal or opthamological perambulation of the contents of this publication is forbidden by law. Severe penalties, up to and including incarceration, inceneration, fines, and sanctions will be incurred by persons, places or thingies attempting or trying to attempt a decipherasation of the contents hereinafter contained. This means you, budya!

This publication is permitted only by permit, to those properly credentialed and approved,

with approved credit.

If you are not in posession, or possesion of proper preparatory pre-approved approvals, you will be subject to a wrist, wrested from you grasp, while you rest your wrist, grasping and gasping. Don't gape so, Tom.

An Important Announcement !

2004-09-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

An Important Change in Policy is Going Into Effect!

Please Note!

From now until the Election, there will be a change in the content of the Moosehall Blog! Moosehall is the Official Blog of Moose Hall, the Orifice through which the pronouncements of Derbig Mooser, the Moosette, Shirley Poupadoupalous, and Phet Philibuster Phellowcreature are propagated. Until the Election, there will be no postings about politics, foreign policy, the Middle East, or any Current Events. Instead, all postings will concern the latest developements in Medical research, recherche reaproachment, and developing denouments here at Moose Hall. In this way, Mr. Moose will Challenge the World!!

We have made an important advances in vaccines and innoculations, among other innovations.

The Return of Mooser

2004-09-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

Or-

How Come You're Back Here When You Haven't Gone Anyplace?

After a decent interval, which is called by the cognescetti (?) a hiatus I have returned to try again. I shall blog, I shall, and woe to the person, place, or thing which would impede me. I would consider such impediments an imposition, impelled and imperilled as I am. But I've gotta go, and be gone, I'm a goner.

Los Angeles Times: N. Korea Is Immune to 'Star Wars'

2004-09-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Times: N. Korea Is Immune to 'Star Wars'

The distressing alternative, which Bush, Rumsfeld and company seem intent on following, is to toss $40 billion or so more over the next five years at an antimissile system that would have a 1-in-1,000 chance of knocking out a Taepo Dong missile that has a 1-in-1,000 chance of ever being fired.

49.3 % !

2004-08-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

Zogby News!
On the eve of a Republican National Convention invoking 9/11 symbols, sound bytes and imagery, half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International. The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5.

I wonder if this will make any difference to anything.

Madonna's mystics target British kids

2004-08-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Observer | UK News | Madonna's mystics target British kids

Listen to the Rabbi:

London rabbi Yitzchak Schochet said: 'The fact that they are now peddling their gibberish to children only compounds the tragedy of how the good name of Judaism is being brought into ill repute.

You got that right, Reb!

: Profiteering On America's Grunts

2004-08-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

AlterNet: Profiteering On America's Grunts

Haaretz - Israel News - Applying the Geneva Convention

2004-08-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

Haaretz - Israel News - Applying the Geneva Convention

A wonderful quote from the article, maybe the beginning of Israels redemption:

"We used to think that the Western world, obsessed with guilt over the Holocaust, would never dare treat Israel like the whites of South Africa. We believed that Israel, as the classic victim, could always demand special treatment and its own set of norms and moral behavior. It turns out that this immunity has evaporated. The international community is tired of being preached to, of the outcry of the victim, and charges of anti-Semitism."

Too bad they couldn't come to this conclusion on their own, not have been forced by the threat of sanctions.

Bush admits "miscalculations" in Iraq

2004-08-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

Top News Article | Reuters.com

Here we go- by election day Bush will be for ending the occupation, and Kerry will be for continueing into the quagmire. Byebye White House for Kerry.
John, don't say I didn't warn you this is what he would do.

Another interesting point in the article was when Bush was asked about North Korea.
"I don't think you give timelines to dictators." he said!
Was that a flip or a flop? And really, who cares as long as we avoid war with North Korea.
I bet Kerry does. Well, he threw away his "ace-in-the-hole" as Helen Thomas has it, so now he's not playing with a full deck. What's he gonna do if Bush pulls the boys out of Iraq? Tell us he wants to send them back, to finish the job right? Yeah, that'll fly.

Israeli Spies at Pentagon?

2004-08-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

CBS News | FBI Probes Pentagon Spy Case | August 27, 2004�19:23:23
Oh my, oh my, oh my or should I say Oy gevalt !
I always said, if the neo-con dream goes wrong, they will go out with a "blame the Jews" schtick. Could this be the beginning of the whole megillah? Mayhaps.

Just another Item

2004-08-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News - Chaotic prison always on the brink

Life at the Abu Ghraib prison meant lurching from crisis to crisis.

DiNenna says he reported daily food shortages to his commanders in Baghdad. The food either ran short or was tainted with dirt and bugs, he told them. He feared that 4,500 restless prisoners would riot and overwhelm the American guards. In early November, his e-mails became exasperated and angry: "Who in the hell can fix this?" DiNenna demanded.

Days later, a riot erupted that took more than 70 U.S. soldiers to quell. Inmates rioted again two weeks later. That time, soldiers shot and killed four prisoners.

Weapons of Minimum Destruction

2004-08-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

Weapons of Minimum Destruction
A few FACTS about those horrible WMDs.
What it all comes down to, as I noticed long ago, is the old short-circuit to movie plots when anything military comes up. After all, how many people do you know who have any experience with chemical or biological weapons?
So when the subject comes up, we short circuit to the old movie standby, the nasty looking device with all the wires and tubes and the timer on the front which is counting down the seconds until it blows up and everybody loses their hair, and womens bubbas deflate and no one ever gets a hard on again. Don't worry, the hero will de-fuse it JUST IN TIME! And the female lead's breasts will visibly enlarge just after he does so.

Here's a fact:

'When you think that fewer than 15 people have been killed by known terrorist use of chemical and biological weapons, and contrast that to the thousands who were killed on 9/11 and in conventional bombings in Madrid or Bali or Istanbul, it's quite remarkable that we are so obsessed with WMD', says Rapoport

Bagging it

2004-08-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/opinion/18bovard.html

Click on the link to see how the TSA has been doing at protecting air passengers, and ripping off their luggage with impunity.
And you expected, what? That all those hurriedly hired schmucks wouldn't be gonifs ? Give me a break. Which is, by the way, what the screeners get when they're caught.

This is Rich !

2004-08-17T15:47:00.000-07:00

I'm reading this article by Richard Reeves when I notice the ad for the Herald Tribune at the bottom of the page. It says:

It's how the CIA learns about the CEO and vice versa.
!!!!!

And that is supposed to make you want to subscribe? All the snitch that fits?
Jeez.

The Reeves article is a hoot, though. Another screed recommending restraint, decency, some consideration for the men who do the fighting, an attempt to avoid military action, etc. What's he trying to do- turn us into a bunch of wimps?

57-year-old veteran called for duty

2004-08-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

Read this, contrast and compare with the article below.
For God's sake, why to we endure those neo-con sons-of-bitches? What has happened to us that anyone who calls themselves an American citizen, an adult, a decent human being, or a religious person can regard the present crop of neo-cons as anything but a skein of excrement in a suit?
Well, as Bush once said of himself "I'm a media creation"

Jeffrey St. Clair- How Bush Got and Lost His Wings

2004-08-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey St. Clair%3A How Bush Got %28and Lost%29 His Wings Read this and weep. Even Hitler, as far as I know, served honorably in the German Army in WW1. This article should, unless you're a confirmed kool-aid guzzler, put the Kerry-Swift Boat "controversy" in perspective.

And the Hits (and Misses) Keep Coming !

2004-08-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Crying Wolf in the War Against Terror
The feds face a stunning blow to credibility by releasing a long-jailed U.S. citizen.
By Andrew Cohen
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/latimes258.htm
"Never mind," the feds now say to Yaser Esam Hamdi, the alleged enemy combatant whose case was decided in June by the U.S. Supreme Court. Never mind that we threw you into the brig and then fought like wildcats to deprive you of fundamental constitutional rights. Never mind that we told federal judges that you were a dangerous enemy of the United States.
Now, it seems, the government is negotiating with Hamdi's attorneys for his release from confinement."

Have I mentioned lately...

2004-08-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Niall Ferguson is an idiot.

We Have a Winner!, or, It Grates On Our Minds Alike

2004-08-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

The Post below poses the Question, Why on Earth would Our Goverment Exaggerate the Terror Threat?
And today,(http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=3313) Ivan Elund gives the correct answer! Give the man a Cigar or Coconut, according to his choice!
"The answer is simple. Although the U.S. government repeatedly warns its citizens of imminent terrorist attacks and takes draconian measures-both at home and abroad-in the name of “national security,” it really does not have many incentives to actually make those citizens safer."
"Research by political scientists and public choice economists indicate that in the absence of adequate public scrutiny, highly organized and well-connected vested interests-both inside and outside of the government-drive government policies. Because such policies concentrate their benefits on those interests, the pressure groups care greatly about them and lobby the U.S. government for their implementation".
"The Bush administration rhetorically exaggerated the threat from Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction” and implied a false connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein to hide the real reasons for the invasion".

The Unsayable, The Unthinkable

2004-08-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

I think it- I'll say it! It's all a bunch of crap, a nasty fairy tale cooked up to frighten children and the childlike, that is to say, the American public. Yeah, that's right. I think it's a bunch of lies.
Of course, I'm talking about the "imminence" of the next terrorist attack.
In a few short weeks it will be three years from the 9-11 attacks. Three years! Thirty-six anxious months. 156 worried weeks. 1095 scary days. 26,280 fear filled hours.1,576,800 terrified minutes. And not a single terrorist act on American soil. Nothing- no more planes crashed into buildings, let alone hijacked. No bombs, dirty or otherwise.(And no dirty jokes, either, if Ashcroft can help it) Not even a stink-bomb or a smoke bomb. And stink-bombs and smoke-bombs have a lot to do with it, in ways I'll explain in a minute or so, depending on whether you finished that Evelyn Wood course you sent away for lo, these many years ago.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least 1,576,800 news reports, newspaper articles, television and radio news reports, magazine articles (many of which were cover features) and web pages devoted to telling us how inevitable, certain, "imminent", (I jus' loooves dat word, don't you?)how duck tape and plastic sheeting, dark and swarthy, look-up my-butt-but-keep-me-secure, what-are-you-afraid-of-if-you-haven't-done-anything-wrong, how freaking positively absolutely for-sure the next incident, attack, what-have-you was coming. Only it didn't. Man, I thought them Mooslims was on a-one of them Gee-hads or sumpfn ! Some Gee-had !
(For an analysis of the latest round of terror warnings seehttp://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000612547 )
Is there some provision of Koranic law which says that after a successful terrorist attack, no subsequent attack is permitted unless it will be bigger and more deadly than the last? I doubt it. On the other hand, imagine how, well how terrorizing any subsequent attacks would have been. Even a stink-bomb or a smoke-bomb would have sent the entire US into a panic! Although the 9-11 multiple-hijackings-cum-suicide crashes took long advance training and teamwork, combined with incredible luck (let's not even get into the negligence and incompetence on our part which was of immeasurable assistance to the hijackers) many's the bombing, shooting, hell, the good old fashioned arson which could be done by a single person, on a moments notice. And I haven't noticed any considerable hardening of targets.
And although the 9-11 attack was probably effective beyond the participants wildest expectations, even an unsuccessful attempt at a bombing or similar would have an effect multiplied many times over by the intense media coverage such an event would generate. But no, the vast network of "Al Qaida cells" or even the greatly increased number of Muslims disgruntled by the treatment of their co-religionists, and Arabs generally, can't even rouse themselves to put dish detergent in the fountain at Rockefeller Center, or leave a burning paper bag full of dog-poop on the front porch of a prominent neo-con or two and ring the doorbell and run away. (I hope the FBI doesn't come after me for mentioning this type of thing on the Web)
And the omnipotent, many-tentacled, cabal (ha! I wonder what they would think if they heard themselves called that?) which threatens our every moment, well, could it be that Juan Cole is somewhat closer to the truth than the amalgam of Mongol hordes and SMERSH presented to us in the media? He usually is, on most things ME. And he says:
"Although it may be true that al-Qaida is as determined to destroy the US as the Axis Powers were in World War II, this observation is a Himalayan exaggeration if it is meant to suggest a parallel. Al-Qaida is a few thousand fanatics mainly distributed in a handful of countries. If Zacharias Moussaoui and Richard Reid are any indication, a lot of them are one step away from from collecting old soda cans on the street in their grocery carts while mumbling about the radios the government implanted in their asses.So while their determination may be impressive (or just creepy), they are not comparable to the might of three industrialized dictatorships with populations in the tens of millions. Some 13 million men served in the German army (Heer) alone between 1935 and 1945. (And WW II killed 55 million persons, not 3 thousand).I repeat, al-Qaida proper only has a few hundred fighters, those who pledged allegiance personally to Bin Laden, and a few thousand if you count other Afghan Arabs and their ideological soul mates. Most of them are not wealthy or trained or competent, and a lot are just crackpots. (Read an account of the misadventures of Richard Reid again). September 11 was possible mainly because Ramzi Bin al-Shibh lucked out and managed to recruit some high-powered engineering Ph.D. students in Hamburg who knew something serious about kinetic energy. The organization does not have a lot of persons of that caliber" (See http://www.juancole.com/2004_07_01_juancole_archive.html for this quote, and much else. About the Iraq war and the ME you're not a mayven if you don't read Prof. Coles blog everyday)
And while I was searching out that quote I came upon another (Prof. Cole was on a role that day, peeved by Cheney's latest blither-blather):
"I think Bin Laden and his lieutenants wanted to provoke wars between the US and Muslim states. I think they knew that the 9/11 attacks would guarantee a US war on Afghanistan, and that they were confident they could draw the US into the country and defeat it, as they had the Soviets."
So from 9-11 Al Qaida got everything they wanted (the war in Afghanistan) plus a huge parting gift, a big draining war by the US on a secular Arab country, Iraq, to boot!
Now, if you think really hard, and turn off the goddamn TV for a minute, you might just be able to figure out why, even assuming Bin Laddan amuses himself during those long lonely hours of dialysis in the cave by running his special computer programs that allow him to virtually blow up a selection of prominent US buildings, why it might even be in Al Qaida's interest to not blow up anything else in the US. Here's a hint: it's got a lot to do with why Bush, Cheney, et al are so interested in convincing us that they are. But feh, you won't get it. You'll be to busy supporting the troops so we won't have to fight Al Qaida in the streets of Peoria IL., "the heartland of America".
Of course, if you think you know, or if you decide to report me to Homerland Security there's always Comments.(I'd like to have a heads-up before they get here) But as for me, I'm done with it. I'm through being afraid of terrorists like I'm afraid of Godzilla or Hannibal Lector or Dracula. On the other hand, those guys in Texas with the cyanide bomb...

New Names for Old Things

2004-08-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

We used to call it "The Spoils of Victory" We used to call it "War profiteering". Sometimes we called them "Camp Followers"

Now we call it "Reconstruction"

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2004/08/08_513.html

Our Very Own Barrel of Blood

2004-08-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

If I wasn't lazy, and if I dasn't dare to dive into the intracasies of Blogger posting, this post would be below the post below. (Got that?)

Anyway, this New York Obsever asticle is the first sane comment I have read about the 9-11 report. The sentence:
"They (The report's authors) would have us make ourselves into the world’s largest Israel, a nation surrounded by concertina wire, search lights, sensors, patrol boats, electric fences, and a thick magnetic field of suspicion and secret detentions."
sent chills down my spine.

The article points out that the 9-11 report accepts as fact all the bigotry, propaganda, misinformatoin, and lies which form the basis for the "War on Terror", and will condemn the US to an endless war.

http://observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=9388 is the link.

Now, if you're a glutton for punshment, go read this ridiculous editorial from the Seattle PI.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/185657_indict11.html

Notice how they swallowed the whole bucket of blood in one gulp. Is it possible for adult Americans to be this stupid? The problem, as they interpet the 9-11 report, is that we are not fighting the entire world, all at once!. If I didn't live here, I wouldn't believe the editorial was written by the PI staff. I would have thought it was written by a Bin Ladden agent.

But I guess you have to be careful, "something bad" may happen.

Idiots.

A Barrel of Blood

2004-08-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

Happened across this article in Haaretz, a major Israeli newspaper. I wish every American Jew, and John Kerry for that matter, would read it.

A paragraph from the article:

"The Palestinians sense that it is not their violent activity that makes them terrorists in Israelis' eyes, but any act they use to fight the occupation - from a speech to a summer school camp. All will be recorded and used as proof of their desire to "destroy the State of Israel." "(My italics and bolding)

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/463584.html is the link to the article.

"Perhaps the very argument is evidence that we have all reached the bottom of the barrel - and it is full of blood threatening to drown both sides"

The New Boss

2004-08-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Feeling good about anything? This article should help.
I've been wondering for a while now about the corruption of the old reliable political labelers "left" and "right". Mostly about "left". That is, anything that is designed to provide a little government help to individuals, even the teensiest, littlest bit, is labeled "left". I thought you got to the "left" (man, those quotation marks are a pain) when you started nationalising industry, but no more. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug04/Giroux0807.htm links to an article which explains.

The Japan Times Online

2004-07-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Japan Times Online

The idea that the reconstruction of Iraq is based on the reconstruction of Germany and Japan after the second World War is so stupid it is impossible to take it seriously. And the idea that the rest of the world won't notice how stupid it is just shows... Anyway a little article about it.

It is often said that those who don't remember history are fated to repeat it.
A corollary must be added. Those who misconstrue history can make an awful mess of things.

I knew it!

2004-07-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

This is the second or third mention I have seen of this subject. I am positive there is much more being hidden. Here is the quote from the article:
"Official statistics do not include casualties among non-U.S. nationals who sign up to serve in the American armed forces in order to get a U.S. `green card.' According to reliable information the share of non-Americans in the U.S. force in Iraq may be as high as 60 per cent," the source said. "The real number of U.S. losses may be as high as 2,000 casualties and up to 12,000 wounded," the military diplomat said.

Someday there may be a final accounting. Or, we will go on to the next pre-emption without ever knowing what truly happened, or what the true cost was.
The "news" is not concerned with the facts, or information that might allow us to know anything. Their concern is to shape the story according to a pre-determined narrative. And stuff like green-card cannon fodder doesn't fit in, so it just ain't there. Or maybe the report is wrong.
It's an ugly thought: soldiers in the Army in hopes of receiving American citizenship, whose deaths are not even worth reporting.

Cheap Hubris

2004-07-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

A nice little synopsis of "Imperial Hubris" the book by Anonymous, which gives some of the salient points. Find it here. The article is in the form of twenty paragraphs, each summarising the main points from a chapter, or part of a chapter. Here's an example:

Page "223-5: Scheuer scoffs at our love of coalition-building. Bringing other nations into Afghanistan ensured that the military would fight too cautiously to really destroy al-Qaida and the Taliban. Coalition-building also gave cover to murderous "terror wars" by the Chinese and Russians, who joined our cause with ulterior motives. Scheuer compares American presidents to "teenage girls who cannot possibly go to the restroom in a public venue without the accompaniment of their closest girlfriends.""

A loud 'no' to delaying the election - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - July 13, 2004

2004-07-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

A loud 'no' to delaying the election - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - July 13, 2004

"In the aftermath of September 11, we need to prepare for contingency plans for various situations," said Rep. Bob Ney, Ohio Republican and chairman of the Committee on House Administration, "but I have very serious concerns about giving one federal official or even a particular federal body the power to postpone or cancel a national election.

This is a perfect example. "In the aftermath of September 11,..." What the hell does that mean? Sure, it rolls smoothly off the tongue- but what is he talking about? He's not referring to the rebuilding of the WTC, or "Freedom Towers" is he? And I'm sure he is not referring to the victims, or the relatives and friends who are still grieving. They will vote or not, as they choose. Is he saying that since 9-11, there has been no change in security, and hijackers can waltz right on to, and take over airplanes again, while NORAD sits with the proverbial thumb-in-rectum? Even Pres Bush might be more decisive in the event of,- of what, exactly? Does he mean that the war on Afghanistan had no effect on terrorists ability to train and organise?
Well, better not go there, since as far as I have read, 9-11 was plotted in Hamburg, and training took place (for the pilots at least) in Arizona and Florida.

Yes, all an official has to do is refer to "September 11th" and any vestige of critical thinking, heck, of common sense leaves the vicinity, and we are supposed to be reduced to a quivering mass of Chicken Littles, looking anxiously at the sky for runaway airliners. So all the reductions in freedom, all the inconveinience, all the bearucratic fol-de-rol imposed on us, all the suspicion, the roundups of Muslims, the totalatarianising of the borders is all for naught?

Look, I grew up during the 50's, 60's, and 70's (it took a long time) when an attack by the Soviet Union (remember them?) was used to the same effect. Only that was real. Really real. The USSR could, if it got up on the wrong side of the Volga, incinerate the US any old day, with an overkill factor of, I believe, ten. And the answering assured destruction from the US would more'n likely, have finished off life on earth, except, we were always told, for the roaches and earwigs. The 9-11 attacks coming off at all, let alone so (from the attackers point of view) so sucessfully was the result of an fantastic concombination of circumstances, if not some combination much more sinister. Remember the first WTC bombing, which was supposed to bring down the building? Killed 6 people, if memory serves.

The 9-11 hijackers did not discover some new principle of nature, or never-before-utilised technique, which leaves us frantically looking for a suitable defensive measure, and I'm tired of officials invoking it as an excuse for, well, anything. If they want to invoke 9-11 why don't they invoke it as an example of how ignoring the procedures already in place can lead, along with some bad breaks, to a terrible tragedy. But that would mean somebody would have to take responsibility for the lapses, and that ain't gonna happen.

Reason

2004-07-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

Reason
Ah yes, here it is,quoted from the article linked above, the thought that, inchoate, has been rattling around my head:

"True, Kerry doesn't owe anything to the religious right, and you can't blame him for the torture at Abu Ghraib. Other than that, he's not much of an improvement.

Yet I find myself hoping the guy wins. Not because I'm sure he'll be better than the current executive, but because the incumbent so richly deserves to be punished at the polls. Making me root for a sanctimonious statist blowhard like Kerry isn't the worst thing Bush has done to the country. But it's the offense that I take most personally."

The New Republic Online: July Surprise?

2004-07-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

The New Republic Online: July Surprise?

But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections." Introducing target dates for Al Qaeda captures is a new twist in U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism relations--according to a recently departed intelligence official, "no timetable[s]" were discussed in 2002 or 2003--but the November election is apparently bringing a new deadline pressure to the hunt. Another official, this one from the Pakistani Interior Ministry, which is responsible for internal security, explains, "The Musharraf government has a history of rescuing the Bush administration. They now want Musharraf to bail them out when they are facing hard times in the coming elections."

Read the article- they tell them what day the high value targets should be killed or captured. Of course, the days of the Dem. convention are ideal. And the payoff? Weapons for Pakistan. Our foreign policy is now hostage to the re-selection effort.
They live in a dream world. A world in which everyone dances to their tune. The Pope needs to get the Bishops "with them" on issues. American Protestant denominations should act as RNC outposts and organisers. Bin Ladden better turn up on time.
At least they don't have to worry about the US media. They do what they're told.
Now if only they could get those darn soldiers to stop dying, all 1,001 of them. Don't they know it's bad publicity?

Iraq is Now Another Palestine

2004-07-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

Iraq is Now Another Palestine This was like a punch in the gut:

"The world again seems powerless to influence the US in the face of the even more rapid growth of anti-western sentiment resulting from the current war. There is no graver challenge than stemming the growth of terrorism practiced by aggrieved Muslims. The rise of such militancy is driven by US policies and cannot be glossed over with self-serving assertions that "they" hate western freedoms and are inherently barbaric and uncivilized. Beheadings are indeed so, but so is the killing of over 600 innocent Fallujans in a week of aerial bombing, or the death of 500,000 children through UN sanctions."

"The depth of this anti-US animus is recent. Muslims and Arabs gravitated towards the US for decades, and worked closely with Washington to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But even the most moderate now see the US as bent on crushing Islam."

"Muslims and Arabs gravitated towards the US for decades, and worked closely with Washington to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan." So after the fall of the Soviet Union we had every chance to acheive good relations with the Muslim world. Remember the "Freedom Fighters"? The "moral equivalent of our founding fathers" was good enough for Pres. Reagan. Yes, some concessions would be required from Israel, but it was within our grasp. Bin Laden was the Muslim equivalent of our neo-cons, eager for conflict, not terms and 9-11 was a provocation, not an attempt at any kind of a military victory. Hell I'm just ranting here, but I have no doubt there was a conscious decision to make the muslims the new Soviet Union... And we bought it...

Haaretz - Israel News - The price of brainwashing

2004-07-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

Haaretz - Israel News - The price of brainwashing Gee, maybe I'm back in style. I always thought the settlers were a bunch of extremists at best, and thugs at worst. I always thought what they were doing was the worst thing possible for Israel. But then, I'm a 'bad Jew' or maybe 'self-hating' because I think that Jews are just like other people, human beings with shortcomings which leave us far from being able to claim that, for instance, we know Gods will.
Of course, this article mostly talks about French Jews, and in spite of being Jewish, they're still French.

Prof. Ze'ev Sternhell, who took part in the discussions, was shocked by the hostility directed at him. Whenever he spoke in favor of a peace agreement, he was interrupted and heckled. Whenever he spoke about how Israelis need peace, he was shut up by the audience. When he dared to say the Palestinians are also human beings, hecklers whistled to drown him out. "Have you gone mad?" he asked the hundreds of Jews who gathered in the luxurious community center. "Women and children are being killed in terror attacks, our young boys are being killed in the territories, and you make a farce of the entire thing, as if we are living in some stage production for your sake!"

Informed Comment

2004-07-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Informed Comment: Prof. Cole provides some intelligence. "US observers keep expressing puzzlement as to why the killing of hundreds or thousands of insurgents has not had an impact in repressing the guerrillas. They don't seem to get it that Iraqi clans still matter and that when they kill an Iraqi, they anger the man's brothers, uncles, and first and second cousins, some of whom step forward to take his place. In the US a lot of people don't even know their cousins and certainly would not sacrifice their lives to avenge one. Iraq is not like that. So, it isn't really even a matter of ideologies, necessarily. The US military has incurred enough clan feuds to keep the insurgencies going. And, of course, Iraqi and Arab nationalisms are powerful enough that people hate seeing Western troops in their country. The line between being angry about it and being angry enough to pick up a gun is a thin one."

And he figured that out without torturing anybody!
But by all means, go to Mr. Coles site. Read him every day, if you want to gain an understanding of the conflict through the eyes of an educated and knowledgeable man who cares deeply about both America and the people of the region. Or you could watch Fox News and curse the towelheads when things don't go like the Neo-cons say they're 'sposed to.

TomDispatch

2004-07-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

TomDispatchVery well done. Good readin', and the point: no matter who wins next election, there is no exit strategy, unless there is a total turnaround in the publics thinking. Think about it. There will be a draft, just to relieve our exhausted army, just to keep our present commitments. Can you imagine Kerry asking for a draft to get us out of Iraq? And if Kerry just says "that's enough, we're done, let's get out of here" the Repubs will make life miserable for him. Can't you hear them calling? "We were just about to win!" Scumbags.
And once again, George leaves a mess for others to clean up.

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Rape Nation

2004-07-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Rape Nation

"...The military could stop it if they want to, but they don't want to. They're socializing men into doing this."

Fellas, don't snicker. They rape men, too.

A male veteran who was sexually abused in the military said that "soldiers are trained to take whatever they want, whether from fellow servicemen or Iraqi detainees, and they know they will be protected."

But going back to man-on-woman rape, I can see some possible advantages to drafting women. If soldiers rape women in towns, say near the base, well, that could be trouble. If there is a plentiful supply of women on the base, the Army (or Air Force, or Navy) has control over the victim

In 1992, Mackey quit the service, mainly because of the repeated incidences of sexual assault and domestic violence and other wrong-doing that she had seen go unpunished on the base. In 1994 she filed a civil lawsuit in a district court in Dayton, Ohio against the specific men who had assaulted her, including the superiors who abused her when she tried to report the previous assaults. The Justice Department decided to represent the defendants, so the case was moved to federal court. The Department of Justice attorney said the case should not be brought to trial on the grounds that it constituted a threat to national security, representing a "disruption of good order, morale and discipline."

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen Abu Ghraib?
Look, I'm really sorry about this.

Pentagon Alerted to Trouble in Ranks

2004-07-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

Pentagon Alerted to Trouble in Ranks

In a 1986 case, the Navy gave a PRP clearance to a man known to be a suspect in an unsolved murder. Three years later, when the man was a fire control technician on a nuclear submarine, he was charged in the murder of an elderly couple while off duty. He was later convicted

They always meet their recruiting goals. Maybe this is how.

Informed Comment

2004-06-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

Informed Comment

Also captured, with his fate as yet unknown, is Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, a Lebanese-American Marine, His case underlines the service given to the United States by Arab Americans and Muslim Americans. In the wake of September 11, it is especially important that the US public constantly be reminded that Arab Americans are not aliens but a longstanding and essential thread in the great American tapestry. Lebanese began coming to the US in some numbers in the 1880s. That wave of immigration, which was greatly reduced from 1924, also brought the Italians and Eastern European Jews to this country. Although most Lebanese immigrants were Christian, it is estimated that about 10% were Muslim.

Many Arabs took up the peddling trade in the Midwest, trekking long hours to farm houses to supply basic supplies at a time before the Model T and the Sears and Roebuck catalogue made it easy to get them. When the automobile helped kill the peddling business, many Arab Americans flocked to Dearborn to work for Ford, so that ironically the very industry that ended their previous jobs provided them new ones. The "Syrians" were a key element all along in the Detroit automobile industry, and southeast Michigan came to have the largest concentration of Arabs outside the Arab world itself

Thank you, Prof Cole.

Brian Cloughley: US Military in Crisis

2004-06-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Brian Cloughley: US Military in CrisisLies upon lies upon lies. And what were you expecting?

Let's Junk the 20th Century, Shall We?

2004-06-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

Stephen Zunes bids farewell to the 20th Century. What a great idea; let's go back to the political and social morality of the 18th with the weapons and methods of the 21st. Everybody thinks it's just swell:
"Supporting the resolution were the fundamentalist Christian Coalition, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, and other right-wing groups.
In short, the Democrats, like the Republicans, now support the neoconservative doctrine that places the right of conquest over the rule of law.

"More fundamentally, Congress’ effective endorsement of an Israeli annexation of land it conquered in the 1967 war is a direct challenge to the United Nations Charter, which forbids any country from expanding its territory through military conquest. The vote, therefore, constitutes nothing less than an overwhelming bipartisan renunciation of the post-World War II international system, effectively recognizing the right of conquest."

Az mir vill schlugen a hunt, gifintmin a schtecken.

The More Things Change...

2004-06-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

The more they stay the same. Edmund Burke could be writing today.

"Let them but once get us into a war, and then their power is safe, and an act of oblivion passed for all their misconduct."

Or so they hope.

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

2004-06-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hate to break in to all the troll-feeding here, but my reaction on hearing this news is just that it stopped being even remotely satisfying to be right about Iraq a long time ago. This is just horrible.
longtime lurker | Email | Homepage | 06.24.04 - 9:32 am |

Above is a comment on the comments thread of the Blog "Eschaton" which put into words a nagging feeling that has been bouncing around my subconscious. As soon as I read that comment I thought: Mr Lurker, you hit it on the head. The way things were going to go was unclear right after 9-11, but soon devolved into the way it went, and when bush started pushing for, and was given, his chance to make a little war. Ooh, wait, here.. (with apologies to KC and the Sunshine Band)

I will sweep up,
All your fears.
Gather it up,
Large and small. (Boom-ba, boom-ba, boom-ba)

Even tho,
It wasn't him,
You know Saddam's,
Got to fall.

Tell a little lie,
Make a little war,
Get down tonite,
Get down tonite.

Hokay, back on track. Yeah, it was almost fun to see how completely wrong, from every angle, the whole thing was. You know- the fascination of a slow-motion train-wreck (well, not all that slow),combined with that smarmy, 'I knew it all along' attitude. But there was another component, too. I was waiting, with my smarmy attitude, for the moment when they were going to, faced with the magnitude of the fiasco, (Attention- We have a Magnitude 4.5 Fiasco on our hands, people...) or the screams of protest from the American public, or the loss of life, or money, or something, the moment when somebody (who?) would say: Okay, that's enough, cease and desist, back away from the war, and keep your hands where I can see 'em.
And then, about last week I realized, fully internalized, that no-one is going to stop it, ever. The grown-ups aren't coming home. They've been in a car crash, and the kids are going to party on till...
I needn't detail all the ways the war and it's rationales and the occupation have been exposed. And on we go- this is it, perpetual war, with perpetual lies, from here to infirmity.

Sort of takes all the fun out of being right.

Iraq War Analysis Paints Grim Picture - by Jim Lobe

2004-06-23T23:29:00.000-07:00

Iraq War Analysis Paints Grim Picture - by Jim Lobe If you read nothing else about the Iraq war- read this. Keep in mind, while you read it, the figures for the dead and wounded are very conservative numbers, which is a polite way of saying they are bullshit. Here's an example of what I mean by BS:

"But despite precision bombing and other weapons and tactics designed to reduce "collateral damage," the toll among Iraqis has been far more dramatic,..."

"Precision bombing" means nothing. What does it matter if you hit your target precisely if it's the wrong damn target?
Tactics designed to reduce...for Christs sake, what about the total lack of fire control at checkpoints?
And just like the Pancake House; how many links would you like with that?

"Moreover, these figures do not take account of the long-run health impacts of the estimated 1,100 to 2,200 tons of ordnance made from depleted uranium ..."

And so it goes. Just because there are lots of neat pictures of Iraqis being tortured doesn't mean we are winning.
But try and tell that to the chickenhawks.
Those torture pictures will win bush a first term as President.

Sharon�s �Palestinian state�

2004-06-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

Sharon�s �Palestinian state� More Uri Avnery. There are, Thank God, a few people left who know what it means to be Jewish.

On a related note, I was reading the comments thread at the Washington Monthly Blog, ("Political Animal" by Kevin Drum) and thinking what a bit of genius it was to make "Arabs" or "Muslims" the new bogeyman, now the USSR is gone. They fit the bill, perfect like. Strange culture, hard to understand, strange appearance, and strange religion. About the only thing most anybody knows about them is that we fought them in the Crusades, a strange conflict, and that they hate them poor little Jews. Very few people in America have any day-to-day dealings with Arabs or Muslims, and they have been Orientalised by the media since, well, since the media began. The comments thread I was reading, about a new neo-con screed by, purportedly, an ex-CIA man posits a war-to-the-death between Moslemania and the West. The commenters were divided between killing 'em with nukes and killing them with kindness, but only one or two posters ever questioned the war-to-the-death, they-all-want-to-kill-us-all, basis of the discussion. The canard of the Moslem world consisting of a billion or so suicide bombers was never questioned. Yup, the Moslems were the right choice. Couldna' done it with the Chinese or even the Africans. And don't kvetch to me about 9-11 ! When they come up with some proof that 9-11 represented the ideas of anybody but the four guys who drove the planes (the rest of the 19 may have no notion of what was going on beyond a hijacking), and maybe a few more, I'll worry about it. Or maybe Tim McVeigh was representing all Montanians, or Christians, or Veterans or... I know- the Scots!

Could the Stick be Broken?

2004-06-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

Az mir vill schlugen a hunt, gifintmin a schtecken

"To beat a dog, you find a stick"
I read this article by the great Uri Avnery in the indispensable Antiwar.com and nearly passed out. If he is correct, the implications are heartbreaking.

This paragraph:

This means, in simple words: there was no intelligence material at all backing the assertion that Arafat is working for the destruction of the State of Israel, that Arafat had broken off the peace process in order to start a terror campaign, that Arafat is not ready for a reasonable compromise. All these assertions, uttered by diverse Israeli politicians and generals, were based on the "assessment" of one man who, while appearing to represent the intelligence department, was actually suppressing the considered professional reports of his own department, as well as of the General Security Service (Shabak).

brought me to tears.

Add Two Cups Chopped Verbiage...

2004-06-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

In the Bremerton School District newsletter, the Report Card, an aspiring chef states:
"The higher up the food chain in the evolution of cooking, the more it gets to be an art."
Make that minced verbiage.

Let Mooser Explain it You.

2004-06-21T10:51:00.001-07:00

Perhaps you've read that PresBush's poll numbers have gone up this, or rather last week. Perhaps you are confused by this. I know what you are thinking:" The whole demned Iraq war is going down the toilet, and the Administration is falling back on explanations and rationales which have been exposed as false long ago, and the responsibility for the Plame and Abu Ghraib scandals are creeping ever closer to the White House, and his numbers are going up? Sheesh!" Let me explain it you: Look, for about a year Bush & cohorts tried to put a successful face on the fiasco by using facts. So many schools opened, so many hours of electricity, so much oil pumped, so many cities under coalition control. And yes, these are facts, but with each fact comes another fact, which blows the administration fact up. The schools? There were more schools before the war. The electricity? The Iraqis had lots more before the war, and we can't keep the power on consistently. Oil? They're blowing the pipelines. Security? Don't ask. So when the insurgents, whoever they may be, kicked us out of Fallujah the administration did the only sensible thing; They forgot about facts and just advanced (for neo-conservatives it's not a retreat) into fantasy. The "handover" is less than 10 days away, and around the date June 30th an elaborate fantasy has been constructed. The Iraqis will "receive their Sovereignty" and "Be a Democracy" and "Most of Our Boys Will Come Home" In between the fantasy of "Shock and Awe" and the fantasy of "The Handover" there was no fantasy to well, fantasize about, and that's not good- just those pesky facts, and you don't raise your poll numbers with facts, not facts like they have in Iraq.
And the same thing applies to the reasons for going to war. Here also Bush and Cheney have simply stuck with their fantastic assertions, in spite of the findings of the 9-11 Commission, or any goddamn other thing for that matter. People like that- nothing makes us feel more secure than thinking our leaders have special knowledge, a special vision which is so special, well, if they told us they would have to kill us. What's so great about believing something because evidence and reason require it? Nuttin! Ah, but blindly believing in the teeth of the evidence, now that's special! And you gotta love 'em for it
But the polls biggest push up, like a Wonderbra, came from the torture photos. Finally Americans can see that we are winning in Iraq, the photos prove it. We can't be losing if we are beating those Iraqis up, making them stand around nekkid (Hah- hah- you don't have no clothes on) and raping their wommens. Man, we're using those terrorists as dog food! That'll teach 'em to knock over our buildings !
So it is possible that finally, the neo-cons have hit on the all American jackpot. When all else fails, the public always responds to fantasy and sadism. Bush could ride those two horses to a second term. You know- Don't change horsemen in the middle of an apocalypse!

Update : The amazing Karen Kwiatkowski writes a column just a day after I wrote this post. And in that column she says about the same thing as me. Of course she says it better and for some reason not entirely clear to me (Mooser views the world through a glass, dark and blurry, and his glasses are dirty, too) her words carry a lot more weight. Could it be the 23 years she spent in the Air Force and at the Pentagon, where she worked with the current crop of neo-cons? Now why would that give her any more insight than that possesed by a blubbery, half-blind Cervidae such as me?

The Globe and Mail-Entertainment

2004-06-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Globe and Mail put this article in the Entertainment section. That about says it all, don't it.

Forecast: Blustery, With Lots of Fallout

2004-06-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

More Bush Doctrine Fallout - by Gordon Prather:I hate to mention it, but people are beginning to notice: "The actual invasion of Iraq may have been a 'cakewalk,' but it is obvious to every interested observer � most especially the Chinese � that our armed forces are now effectively tied up in the Persian Gulf and will be for years to come. There is essentially nothing we can do about DPRK's nukes � except bluster."

Mebbe if the Armed Forces got about 40 or 50 thousand of those life sized cardboard figures like they have in the movie theater lobby, you know, a soldier in full gear charging mitbayonet and scowl. Set 'em up all the places it used to be so important to have troops.

One militaryish resource we do have an unlimited supply of is bluster, and I expect lots of it. It's the bluster, buster!

The Marine's tale:

2004-06-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

The Marine's tale: In case you missed it the first time around.

Damn You- You are Still Just as Wrong!

2004-06-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Forgive me, I was wrong on Iraq - Opinion - www.theage.com.au This is a perfect example of what I call "Praising With Faint Damns". If I was as politically and racially blindered, as divorced from human suffering, and just plain dull in my thinking, I would try not to put it on public display. The crap he spews is just flabberghasting:

The use of military force is very much subordinate to a larger political solution in places such as Iraq. This is because the root causes of disorder and violence are varied and profound. They include the availability of guns and drugs, and the prevalence of racism and sexism together with the dissipation of the family. These are factors that diminish respect for human life.

What the hell is he talking about? But this takes the cake:

If there is a pervasive cause, it would appear to be poverty. The UN has rightly engaged in a "war on poverty" where the protagonists are the poor who attempt to steal from the poorer

You tell 'em Bish ! It's the "poor who attempt to steal from the poorer" what's at the root of our problems!

And the big finish:

Looking back on the events of the past 18 months I continue to seek God's forgiveness for my complicity in creating a world in which this sort of action was ever considered by anyone to be necessary.

I'll tell you what, Bish: When you've beaten yourself up enough, you can change from the heavy woolen drawers to the light cashmere.

Oh well, as the good Bishop puts it: "it was just another war"

P-R-O-V-O-C-A-T-I-O-N ! Say it with me now- PROVOCATION !

2004-06-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

I caught some of the 9-11 hearings today on NPR. Whatta bunch of crap! Some stupid-ass general and the committe members (and a woman, too) were discussing the period of time just after the planes were determined to be hijacked. The discussion devolved into speculations on how fast we could or couldn't shoot down the hijacked planes. And of course the hijackings were referred to as "acts of war". Can people really be that myopic? Look, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, that was an act of war. They took out a large part of the Pacific Fleet, carriers, battleships and stuff. Stuff without which, the US was considerably weakened. Whether the attack had any symbolic significance or surprised us was irrelevant. Anotherwords even if we laughed about the Japanese attack, that many carriers, those battleships, these facilities, were destroyed and could not be used until replaced or repaired. 9-11, on the other hand, was a provocatory attack. Apart from the terrible loss of life and property, the attack had little effect on the US ability to wage war. No one is going to defeat the US militarily by hijacking jetliners and crashing them into buildings. The hijackings, and the crashes were designed to PROVOKE us, not defeat us. The response to 9-11 was exactly what the perpetrators hoped for. Heck, the Iraq invasion, with the prisoner abuse scandal and the standoff at Fallujah, it's more than Binny could have hoped for.
I think that if all of the planes had simply been crashed into the nearest ground, our response would have been about the same.

Help!

2004-06-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

By the way, Moose Hall is always open to other posters. The Big Mooser would like to hear from you! Hows about it?

Moosehall Redux

2004-06-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

Last week in a moment of paranoi and discouragement, I deleted my blog! I almost cut my hair today. See, the floor guy came in to put a new floor in the entryway, and he shared a big bowl with me before he went to work. (And did an excellent job, too!) Since I rarely smoke anymore, maybe a couple times a year, I got wrecked, toasted, trashed! And as Woody Allan said, I had a Bum Voyage. Soon paranoi ran deep, into my heart it did creep, and barely beating Ashcrofts Flying Monkeys to my door, I got rid of the evidence. A couple hours later I came to and re-upped my blog. I'm not scared of no flying monkeys!
Well, it just goes to show, something... Oh yeah, that's right. Now that I don't smoke regular, when I do smoke the symptoms are alarming, and unpleasant. "Leave no turn unstoned" was my motto, in the old times! But no more- like I said, alarming and unpleasant, so that's that. I won't do that again. But blogging- that's addictive!

Here's how it Works!

2004-06-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

In this column Christian Soldiers for Bush Robyn Blumner lays out for us the inevitable consummation of the Bush "faith-based" charade. Read the article, than ask yourself: How long before Bushco serves up a "Political Awareness" faith-based program, and these churches end up campaigning for Bush on the taxpayers dime? So there it is: campaign for Bush, and the Republicans, and get government grants. Go against them, and get what? Wouldn't surprise me at all if "dissenting" churches start finding themselves with "ties to terror" etc.