State of the Galaxy Quest

Not even the Thermian's of the Klaatu Nebula would be fooled by President B+'s "Historical documents" of the Union address.

The Mirror of Men's Eyes

Narcissus was so handsome that many women and men fell in love with him. He rejected all of them. One of his admirers was the nymph Echo, who had been cursed by Hera* to repeat only the last words spoken to her. Ameinias, another admirer, was so devastated by Narcissus's indifference toward him that he killed himself. Before doing so, however, Ameinias called on the gods to punish Narcissus. They caused the beautiful youth to gaze into a pond at his reflection. He fell in love with his own image and drowned trying to touch it. In other accounts of the story, Narcissus killed himself out of sorrow and frustration. The gods then changed him into the flower that bears his name

Blinded by Snakes

Commentary says : " Maureen Dowd is a woman scorned, it seems. Candidate Dreamy has become Captain Obvious. She hisses: “We must do better,” Captain Obvious said Thursday at the White House, “in keeping dangerous people off airplanes while still facilitating air travel.”..“Rather than a failure to collect or share intelligence,” President Obama said, “this was a failure to connect and understand the intelligence that we already had.” Wow. That makes me feel that all those billions spent on upgrading the intelligence system were well spent.

And this, (also from Commentary), " Not even the grande dame of the Gray Lady can avoid the conclusion that Obama hasn’t panned out. The fellow whom she and the entire liberal media swooned over during the campaign and those very qualities the Left punditocracy touted as praiseworthy (e.g., intellecutalism, emotional reserve) have proven ill-suited to the job. Obama is neither leading nor seeming to understand state craft.

How could they have gotten it so wrong? Well, they were plainly in love with the “historic” opportunity to elect an African American. And they saw in Obama one of them — elite educated, scornful of gun clinging and Bible thumping Americans, contemptuous of American exceptionalism, skeptical of “hard power,” and infatuated with the public sector. It turns out that this was a recipe for disaster when it comes the the presidency", may explain why the Sacred Grove of the Press is so slow to say, "Uh Oh."

If he is "one of them", then they are incompetent and snow blind as well.

Citizen 'Jury Nillifications'

Frontpage talks with Ralph Peters:

FP: Your perspective on how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going? What strategies that are in effect are wrong? What strategies would be more effective?

Peters: Strategy? We still don’t have a strategy for Afghanistan-Pakistan. We just have a collection of disjointed techniques we’re desperately trying to apply, hoping something, anything, will work. A troop surge is a tool, not a strategy. And you can’t nation-build where there’s no nation to build. I’m disheartened. American soldiers and Marines are dying and being maimed for fairy-tale counterinsurgency strategies that insist that digging wells for illiterate Afghans will deter al Qaeda’s Arab fanatics from killing Americans. The only wise and effective thing we’re doing is applying UAVs (drones) and our special operations forces to the indispensable task of killing terrorists.

I’ve never been threatened by a dead terrorist. And when a terrorist believes he’s on a mission from his god to kill you, killing him is the only plausible response.

As I’ve written recently, what little analysis of the Afghan problem we do obsesses on our continuing failures. But the real question, which we refuse to ask, is “Why are the Taliban successful?” And, of course, we go on pretending that Islam has nothing to do with anything. Political correctness is killing our troops, defeating us, and facilitating terror around the world.

FP: Potential threats in 2010? Where have we taken our eye off the ball?

Peters: Good Lord, where do you start? The usual suspects will still be with us: Iran, al Qaeda, Chinese subversion of our economy (brought to you by WalMart, among others, thanks), piracy, Hugo Chavez’s apparent determination to precipitate a border war with Colombia, the Kirchner regime’s attempt to hobble democracy in Argentina, Islamist aggression in Nigeria (which is intensifying again), and, above all, Mexico–where the narco-insurgency constitutes the real number-one threat to the welfare of our citizen. It bewilders me that we’re obsessed with “saving” Afghanistan, a worthless piece of dirt in the middle of nowhere, when the crucial struggle is right on (and crossing) our southern border. Mexico is the most important country in the world to us–for better and worse–and we treat it as problem number 47.

Where have we taken our eye off the ball? Please, tell me where the Obama administration has an eye on any foreign-policy or security balls. This ultra-left administration isn’t concerned with security (except to the extent that it impacts on politics), but with a hard-left, destructive and divisive vision of “social justice.” Which means, of course, punish productive citizens to reward the Lumpenproletariat. We’re a greater threat to ourselves, in the long run, than al-Qaeda is to us.

Some questions- if the Detroit bomber is just a criminal, what did he expect to gain from his crime, free airline miles? Better food?

Presently, ordinary citizens are constrained from shooting, torching, tarring & feathering, spray painting etc. at the enemies within because the police rightly must pursue such acts as crimes. When, how or what will create the equivalent conditions where they behave lie the jury who refuses to convict? When the police say, "Well, as far as we're concerned, he just slipped on a bar of soap"?

Janus with 10000 Teleprompters

The Buck Stops buckshot target: “I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately, the buck stops with me. … When the system fails, it is my responsibility.”

He is, of course, just reading what's there. It has no inscription on his heart, and cannot be believed. He does these sorts of things as theater and nothing else.

He is Janus with 10000 teleprompters.

Islam, The Religion of Showgirls

At the Strategy Page we read :

"As Pakistani security forces take over more Taliban facilities in South Waziristan, they are horrified to find religious schools that specialize in convincing poor, rural teenagers to be suicide bombers. It only works on a few percent of the students, which is why there were so many of these schools. Captured suicide bombers in Afghanistan had freely discussed these schools, but this is the first time Pakistani officials have been able to examine them closely. The Taliban have developed a curriculum that combines religion and Islamic radical preaching, and the promise of sex and luxury living, to produce suicide bombers. Lurid details of all this are being widely reported in the media, fueling even more enthusiasm for continued efforts against the Taliban. In the last three months, Taliban terror attacks have killed over 600 people, most of them ordinary civilians."

This phony paradise should be ridiculed from the highest rooftops and mastheads. And it should further be pointed out that there are entire cities in America where sex and luxury living can be had among the living, and one doesn't need to self immolate to get it. Las Vegas comes to mind. On the one hand, the Taliban want to destroy the immoralities of the west, and on the other are promising Las Vegas and Mardi Gras if you'll just put on this colored vest and push this button. "And 66 more, just like these!",

'The Religion of Showgirls'

Ridicule, scorn, and more scorn and ridicule.

Gibbs: sputum exsplendia abotliar Obamicus

Via Byron York and the Washington Examiner this exchange of 'brilligs' and 'slithery tove' between Gibbs and Questioner:

Later in that same briefing, a reporter raised the C-Span issue again:

QUESTION: Okay, just lastly, why can't you answer the C-Span question --

GIBBS: I did.

QUESTION: You didn't, because you said --

GIBBS: I said I hadn't seen the letter, which I haven't --

QUESTION: do you need to see a letter? I mean, this is something the President said during the campaign and he talked about he wants everything open on C-SPAN --

GIBBS: Dan asked me about the letter and I haven't read the letter.

QUESTION: Well, I'll just ask you about having it on C-Span --

GIBBS: I answered Dan's question and I answered this before we left for the break, Keith. The President's number-one priority is getting the differences worked out, getting a bill to the House and the Senate…

QUESTION: There are a lot of reasons not to do it on C-Span -- people could showboat. Does he regret making that statement during the campaign?

GIBBS: No.

Fast forward to Wednesday's briefing. Another question from another reporter:

NO. Let's fast forward backwards to what should have happened:

INQUISITIONER: Gibby, the Pres. promised eight times to put everrything on CSPAN. He hasn't done it yet. (And stop right there. No more question. And wait)

GIBBS: Mrplxs. biffgs pfoe fflopa zs.e !

INQUISITIONER: He hasn't done it yet.

D.C. al perpetua. It is pointless to use this forum as if it were a question and answer show and tell. It is not. If someone would just stand there and repeat, "He hasn't yet, he hasn't yet, he hasn't yet", the intransigence of the exchange would be the 'news', as it should be. And then the facts would become visible, like a drug side effect.