How to be a good Democrat:
Step 1: Open mouth
Step 2: Say something dumb
Step 3: Backtrack
Step 4: Deny you said it
Step 5: Blame the Republicans
Step 6: Go to Step 1

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Being A Man: Part One Of The 2009 Series

I just can’t help myself.

AskMen.com has an excellent article that should help the world get rid of the overwhelming pussification that is overtaking men. Here is a snippet:

Tough guys play hurt, take the pain and know that complaining is only for cafones who crave attention. The respect that comes from enduring pain is a lot better than the sympathy you get from moaning about it. President Roosevelt gave a speech despite the fact that he had just been shot in the chest. Now you have guys taking up hospital beds with a bad case of hangnail. I’m not saying you have to endure as much as Teddy, but remember that complaining is a sign of weakness, and it’s definitely not a sign that you can be a tough guy.

In other words, stop complaining and go out there and do something about it.

Editors Note: I would recommend reading my first post in the ongoing series of taking the weakness out of the modern man to get caught up with what I’m doing here.

Posted by Helo at 10:59 PM | (0) Comments |

Monday, January 05, 2009

Let’s not ignore the obvious

How many of you - show of hands, please - have ever even heard that Hamas has an official Charter?

They do. It spells out, in great detail, exactly why the organization was called into existence and what goals its members seek to achieve.

Just so you can read it for yourself, I will include a link.

Let’s start with what they claim as their “area of responsibility”:

Article Five: Dimensions of Time and Space of the Hamas
As the Movement adopts Islam as its way of life, its time dimension extends back as far as the birth of the Islamic Message and of the Righteous Ancestor. Its ultimate goal is Islam, the Prophet its model, the Qur’an its Constitution. Its special ("spatial" - Ed.) dimension extends wherever on earth there are Muslims, who adopt Islam as their way of life; thus, it penetrates to the deepest reaches of the land and to the highest spheres of Heavens.

That pretty much covers it. From the instant their prophet was born into the indefinite future, and covering every location where Muslims can be allowed. As the singer said, “Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough” to avoid being where Hamas claims ownership.

Yet they accuse the US of being an “imperialist nation”.

Moving on, we come to what they say they want:

Article Nine: Motives and Objectives
Hamas finds itself at a period of time when Islam has waned away from the reality of life. For this reason, the checks and balances have been upset, concepts have become confused, and values have been transformed; evil has prevailed, oppression and obscurity have reigned; cowards have turned tigers, homelands have been usurped, people have been uprooted and are wandering all over the globe. The state of truth has disappeared and was replaced by the state of evil. Nothing has remained in its right place, for when Islam is removed from the scene, everything changes. These are the motives. As to the objectives: discarding the evil, crushing it and defeating it, so that truth may prevail, homelands revert [to their owners], calls for prayer be heard from their mosques, announcing the reinstitution of the Muslim state. Thus, people and things will revert to their true place.

“...the reinstitution of the Muslim State.”

Now, remember where they claim ownership? Where do you suppose that Muslim State is going to be?

Let’s look at the “how”.

Article Eleven: The Strategy of Hamas: Palestine is an Islamic Waqf
The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. No Arab country nor the aggregate of all Arab countries, and no Arab King or President nor all of them in the aggregate, have that right, nor has that right any organization or the aggregate of all organizations, be they Palestinian or Arab, because Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection. Who can presume to speak for all Islamic Generations to the Day of Resurrection? This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. This [norm] has prevailed since the commanders of the Muslim armies completed the conquest of Syria and Iraq, and they asked the Caliph of Muslims, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, for his view of the conquered land, whether it should be partitioned between the troops or left in the possession of its population, or otherwise. Following discussions and consultations between the Caliph of Islam, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, and the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, be peace and prayer upon him, they decided that the land should remain in the hands of its owners to benefit from it and from its wealth; but the control of the land and the land itself ought to be endowed as a Waqf [in perpetuity] for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. The ownership of the land by its owners is only one of usufruct, and this Waqf will endure as long as Heaven and earth last. Any demarche in violation of this law of Islam, with regard to Palestine, is baseless and reflects on its perpetrators.

So if a Muslim EVER owned the land, or laid claim to it, it belongs to the Muslims until the end of days. Sounds pretty impressive, doesn’t it?

So their claim is pretty much “everywhere and at every moment in time, if a Muslim so much as coveted a piece of land, it belongs to them”. But remember that WE are the imperialist ones…

So what about their efforts for peace?

Article Thirteen: Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad: “Allah is the all-powerful, but most people are not aware.” From time to time a clamoring is voiced, to hold an International Conference in search for a solution to the problem. Some accept the idea, others reject it, for one reason or another, demanding the implementation of this or that condition, as a prerequisite for agreeing to convene the Conference or for participating in it. But the Islamic Resistance Movement, which is aware of the [prospective] parties to this conference, and of their past and present positions towards the problems of the Muslims, does not believe that those conferences are capable of responding to demands, or of restoring rights or doing justice to the oppressed. Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the nonbelievers as arbitrators in the lands of Islam. Since when did the Unbelievers do justice to the Believers? “And the Jews will not be pleased with thee, nor will the Christians, till thou follow their creed. Say: Lo! the guidance of Allah [himself] is the Guidance. And if you should follow their desires after the knowledge which has come unto thee, then you would have from Allah no protecting friend nor helper.” Sura 2 (the Cow), verse 120 There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility. The Palestinian people are too noble to have their future, their right and their destiny submitted to a vain game. As the hadith has it: “The people of Syria are Allah’s whip on this land; He takes revenge by their intermediary from whoever he wished among his worshipers. The Hypocrites among them are forbidden from vanquishing the true believers, and they will die in anxiety and sorrow.” (Told by Tabarani, who is traceable in ascending order of traditionaries to Muhammad, and by Ahmed whose chain of transmission is incomplete. But it is bound to be a true hadith, for both story tellers are reliable. Allah knows best.)

And so who do they see as “the bad guys”, the ones against whom they are striving to meet this goal?

Article Twenty-Two: The Powers which Support the Enemy
The enemies have been scheming for a long time, and they have consolidated their schemes, in order to achieve what they have achieved. They took advantage of key elements in unfolding events, and accumulated a huge and influential material wealth which they put to the service of implementing their dream. This wealth [permitted them to] take over control of the world media such as news agencies, the press, publication houses, broadcasting and the like. [They also used this] wealth to stir revolutions in various parts of the globe in order to fulfill their interests and pick the fruits. They stood behind the French and the Communist Revolutions and behind most of the revolutions we hear about here and there. They also used the money to establish clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests. Such organizations are: the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B’nai B’rith and the like. All of them are destructive spying organizations. They also used the money to take over control of the Imperialist states and made them colonize many countries in order to exploit the wealth of those countries and spread their corruption therein. As regards local and world wars, it has come to pass and no one objects, that they stood behind World War I, so as to wipe out the Islamic Caliphate. They collected material gains and took control of many sources of wealth. They obtained the Balfour Declaration and established the League of Nations in order to rule the world by means of that organization. They also stood behind World War II, where they collected immense benefits from trading with war materials and prepared for the establishment of their state. They inspired the establishment of the United Nations and the Security Council to replace the League of Nations, in order to rule the world by their intermediary. There was no war that broke out anywhere without their fingerprints on it: “…As often as they light a fire for war, Allah extinguishes it. Their efforts are for corruption in the land and Allah loves not corrupters.” Sura V (Al-Ma’ida—the Tablespread), verse 64 The forces of Imperialism in both the Capitalist West and the Communist East support the enemy with all their might, in material and human terms, taking turns between themselves. When Islam appears, all the forces of Unbelief unite to confront it, because the Community of Unbelief is one. “Oh ye who believe! Take not for intimates others than your own folk, who would spare no pain to ruin you. Hatred is revealed by [the utterance of] their mouth, but that which their breasts hide is greater. We have made plain for you the revelations if you will understand.” Sura III, (Al-Imran), verse 118 It is not in vain that the verse ends with God’s saying: “If you will understand.”

So non-governmental organizations are “spies”, and the UN (and its predecessor, the League of Nations) are behind every attempt to steal Muslim land.

These are the people who think that a “cease-fire” means cutting down the number of rocket attacks into civilian territory to only 3,000 per year. This is the group that the so-called “Palestineans” have elected to run what governmental functions exist. This is the group that compares unfavorably to Nazi Germany.

So I say that Israel has the right guaranteed under the UN Charter, Article 51: “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations....”.

The concept of “proportionality” requires that only enough force to stop the aggression be used. How much force does it take to root out a group that hides behind women and children, and in mosques and hospitals?

The defense officials said it was likely that a number of senior Hamas operatives and terror chiefs were hiding and conducting their operations from within Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

“Hamas operatives are in the hospital and have disguised themselves as nurses and doctors,” one official said.

OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the cabinet that Hamas was using mosques, public institutions and private homes as ammunition stores.

So let’s let Israel deal with the mortal threat to their own existence. And send a pizza to their troops while you’re at it.

Less...

Posted by Drumwaster at 10:33 AM | (2) Comments |

Saturday, January 03, 2009

The Power of the Kennedy Name

I could rule the world if I had that name.

Outside of having the same last name and blood lineage of a popular, yet less-than-stellar family, exactly what would qualify Caroline Kennedy to become senator for the great State of New York? I fail to see anything worthwhile in her.

Posted by Helo at 10:48 PM | (1) Comments |

Looking at my annual stats

Just for nothing, I wanted to let all of you know how much I appreciate you stopping by, either to read and lurk, or to share and actively participate.

Last year, I had 86,963 unique visitors, and a total of 252,528 visits, utilizing 3,537,973 “pages” of data in 16.59GB of bandwidth. That works out to roughly 2.9 visits per unique visitor on average, but I know a shitload of those had to be once-and-gone-forever hits (maybe from search engines links or a random mention from Michelle Malkin or Dr. Pournelle - my two biggest sources for new visitors this last year), because about a dozen of you are here at least once every few days. Those visitors come from 59 distinct countries, including the US.

I can’t imagine what it would be if the system didn’t automatically exclude my IP address as a “hit” when I refresh…

Posted by Drumwaster at 07:04 PM | (0) Comments |

Ya gotta love her

I may have mentioned my 86-year-old mother-in-law who lives with us. Everybody calls her “Nana”, because she’s like a grandma to everybody, including some people her own age.

Anyhoo....

We were just trying to decide what we wanted for supper and were tossing around some choices - fast food pick up (burgers, fried chicken, mexican), fast food delivery (pizza or Chinese), Hamburger Helper (TM), what have you - and Nana comes into the room.

So we ask her.

“Nana, what do you want for supper?”
“I don’t know.”
“You want a burger?”
“No.”
“You want fried chicken?”
“No.”
“You want something delivered?”
“No.”
“Well, Nana, what do you want?”
“Oh, anything...”

Posted by Drumwaster at 04:44 PM | (0) Comments |

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Kicking in the door of 2009

Busting through in a tactical triangle, we catch freeze-frame glimpses of the horrified faces of the political belly-laughs du jour - Barry Soertoro, Hillary Diane Rodham, admitted felon Billy Jeff, Harry “Real Estate” Reid and Nancy “I want to fly in Air Force Two dammit!” Pelosi.

The scandals sheets are tabula rasa, just waiting to be filled in with the names of the senior members of the new administration, and I am starting a pool on how many times they blame Dubya in the next two years.

I’m guessing an average of two per week until the 2010 elections. Any takers?

Speaking of which, we will be starting a new contest soon, so watch this space…

Posted by Drumwaster at 06:27 PM | (1) Comments |

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

I hate annual events

Well, perhaps “hate” is a bit strong. How about “don’t really understand the fuss about”?

Annual holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and especially New Years’ Eve. I mean, the only actual change is a purely subjective one, with two numbers and a word being the only changes (themselves based solely on a millennial-old observational process, giving us the days of the week and the months of the year, the origins and names of which are based on two different cultural belief systems - Norse and Roman).

Sun’s Day, Moon’s Day, Tiw’s Day, Wodin’s (Odin’s) Day, Thor’s Day, Freya’s Day, and Saturn’s Day, plus the months of the year. I especially like how the Caesars called Julius and Augustus shoved the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th months back two whole months, confusing Latin students for the rest of time. See, the Latin words for ‘seven’, ‘eight’, ‘nine’ and ‘ten’ are ’septem‘, ’octo‘, ’novem‘ and ’decem‘.

Ours isn’t even the only calendar system currently being used on this tired old oblate spheroid, third out from Sol. There are large portions of the planet that use a Lunar calendar, there is the Chinese calendar, the Hebrew calendar (which varies in length from 353 to 385 days), and even our own Gregorian and Julian calendars, and it is all subjectively based on ... well, let’s face it, it’s based on nothing at all. Not astronomical phenomena, not on apogee or perigee (either solar or lunar), not on eclipses (solar or lunar), not on either solstice or equinox, and not even on the progression of zodiacal signs, since even that date can bounce back and forth across the “midnight line”. There are the nonsensical women-only kind of anniversaries, too, such as the “three month anniversary of our first date date”. (Much different than a regular “date”, dontchaknow?)

Which makes celebrations based on that calendar particularly and peculiarly empty. Especially one based on pure guesswork, such as Christmas being on December 25th.

When I was in the Navy, my work schedule kept shifting back and forth based on the holiday schedule, which was odd, because the jobs that needed to be done were identical whether that work occurred on December 25 or December 26th, or between Memorial Day or the Friday (Freya’s Day) before. Because of - or, perhaps, in spite of - that shift in schedule, I was “on duty” for 10 out of 10 Christmas Days, 9 out of 10 Thanksgivings, and 9 out of 10 birthdays.

So all of the nonstop coverage of “end of year” stories baffles me, because from my point of view, the planet rotates, the Sun comes up, the Sun goes down, metabolic processes within our bodies keep metabolizing, babies are born, old people die, and shit still happens. What’s all the hubbub, bub? Celebrations should be things like family reunions, concert tours of really good bands, the birth of children (the actual birth, not the annual echo), solar eclipses, etc.

What am I missing?

Posted by Drumwaster at 04:41 PM | (20) Comments |

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Hamas Attacks Israel, Part 1,675,461,235,353,456,454,574,296

Blow them to smithereens.

Maybe now that Obama is president and his choices are nothing other than perfect, our ability to back Israel and send every member of Hamas to meet their 72 unshaven virgins will happen a little faster. Especially since they’re taking potshots at Israel.

Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip from the air on Sunday and prepared for a possible invasion after killing at least 296 Palestinians in two days of attacks.

Israel said the campaign that began on Saturday was a response to almost daily rocket and mortar fire that intensified after Hamas, the Islamist group in charge of the enclave that Israel quit in 2005, ended a six-month ceasefire a week ago.

During the first two days of the assault, militants fired some 80 rockets at Israel, emergency services said, less than some analysts had expected. Two rockets struck near the port of Ashdod, 30 km (18 miles) from Gaza, causing no casualties.

Israeli tanks deployed on the edge of the Gaza Strip, poised to enter the densely populated enclave of 1.5 million Palestinians. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reservists, a government official said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who hopes to become prime minister after a February 10 election, appeared to rule out a large-scale invasion to restore Israeli control of the blockaded territory, once dotted with Jewish settlements.

“Our goal is not to reoccupy Gaza Strip,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. Asked on Fox News if Israel was out to topple Gaza’s Hamas rulers, Livni replied: “Not now.”

Note to Israel: put some earplugs in and ignore the left wings and liberal weenies. Hamas needs to be destroyed and the entire Arab middle east needs to be turned into a parking lot.

Posted by Helo at 01:40 PM | (6) Comments |

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Ya know what? Fuckit!

Look, it is now a very real possibility that there will not BE a decision in the Minnesota Senate race before Congress officially convenes on January 3rd. I’m going to send off the prizes for the other two contests first thing Monday, so watch your mail, John.

Second thing, I need to know which way you remaining contestants (John and oneisnotprime) want me to go with this. I see two options:

1. We wait until we see who eventually gets the seat, no matter how long it takes.
2. We quit waiting and split the prize money ($25 each).

What say the two of you (assuming you’re both still paying attention)?

UPDATE: The final contest is still up in the air. The two options are on the table. John has spoken, and I require the contestant ‘oneisnotprime’ to respond with his choice before Congress convenes, or forfeit. That is 8 days away, on Tuesday, January 6th, and we’ll call it 8am Pacific. If I do not hear from him before that date, John will win by default whatever the decision happens to be.

HOWEVER, if the Minnesota system manages to come to a decision before then and produces a Senator (with no appeals or court arguments - by which I mean we have a winner and the other guy openly concedes), then that is a kettle of fish of a different color.

Posted by Drumwaster at 07:50 PM | (12) Comments |

Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry (belated) Christmas

Ugh… I need coffee...

Allow me to drop a little bit of knowledge for all of the rookie cops out there: never piss off your scheduling unit. Somehow along the way in my career, I pissed off the scheduling guys at my unit. Then again, it’s not hard for me to piss people off. But that’s besides the point. I can’t get a day off to save my life. Literally. I’ve been working double shifts and filling behind people that got the holiday’s off for close to a month straight due to my big mouth.

Sometimes it’s easier to just play the game and go with the flow. Especially if you want to get a day off.

So how was your Christmas?

Posted by Helo at 06:42 AM | (0) Comments |

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Tell us what you got for Christmas

I got a bunch of cool T-shirts (concert tour shirts from Lynyrd Skynyrd and AC-DC) some stuff for my computer, a couple of pairs of cargo shorts (I love all the pockets), and a complete cooking set (pots, pans, baking dishes, etc.).

What did YOU get?

Posted by Drumwaster at 05:59 PM | (9) Comments |

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Been busting my ass all day today

Meeting with customers (part of the downside of owning a business is working on holidays and weekends), standing in line at the grocery store, baking cookies and cakes (the cakes are busy cooling on the rack even as I type this), wrapping presents, and so much more.

Please have the happiest Christmas you can manage, and I’ll be back on Friday, unless something interesting crops up.

Posted by Drumwaster at 06:26 PM | (0) Comments |

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

When in the course of Human Events

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Of the unalienable rights, Jefferson only mentions three - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness - but he clearly implied several others. At the very least, one of those would be the right to own property, to worship the Almighty - or not - in whatever fashion seems appropriate to one’s conscience, to express an opinion without fearing arrest by authorities (although others have a countervailing right to point and laugh), and the right to be left alone.

We have the government limiting our speech in time, place and topic. We have the government taking our property and giving it to someone else, as long as that new someone promises to pay more in taxes than the original owner did. We have the government taking away our hard-earned sustenance and giving it to people who failed to properly utilize the assets they had, and even to those who have done nothing to be remotely productive themselves. We have the government acting on the order of certain loudmouth special interest groups rather than the best interests of their country and constituents. We have the government strictly limiting any reference to a belief system shared by better than 90% of the population, because a small percentage of those who do not share in that belief are “offended” by the very mention of that system or any of its special occasions.

What will be the new “Shot Heard ‘Round The World”?

I will be mentioning this theme from time to time as contemporaneous events call them to mind. With the Federal Government specifically and systematically violating our rights, it is no longer a matter of “whether”, but “what, when and where”.

In the meantime, we have the Intertubes going absolutely crazy about a picture of a shirtless Messiah, completely ignoring the problems developing in his home turf of sunny Crime Town, oops, sorry “CHI-Town”.

Posted by Drumwaster at 03:39 PM | (4) Comments |

Monday, December 22, 2008

Found on the web, Part the Second

I found this humorous little quiz over at Four Right Wing Wackos. It’s a shame they are still on BlogSpot.

My Conservative Identity:

You are an Anti-government Gunslinger, also known as a libertarian conservative. You believe in smaller government, states’ rights, gun rights, and that, as Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Take the quiz at www.FightLiberals.com

Quoth the Puppy-Blender: Heh.

Posted by Drumwaster at 10:06 PM | (4) Comments |

Not looking good for Coleman

Especially when the Canvassing Board is making such obvious mistakes.

Such as this ballot, counted for Franken. (The only way I would be able to come to such a conclusion is to presuppose that the voter wanted to vote the straight party ticket and was so stupid to not know better.)

Isn’t this a bit like a cop saying, “But you wanted to run that stop light, didn’t you?” before writing you a ticket for coming to that full and complete stop?

Fat Lady not yet on stage, but you can hear her warming up backstage, and it’s still too close to call.

Posted by Drumwaster at 06:04 PM | (0) Comments |

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