Reader Links

Every now and then we get letters. And sometimes I actually read them. From the mail bag:
Les Jones sends this link on The Barkley Marathons. Wow. I thought my half marathon was bad.
Robin e-mails on Watching America. Want to know what people in Istanbul think about the runaway bride? Me neither. But you might be able to find out here. The site purports to link to “news about the U.S. written outside the U.S.”
jeff-perado points out the enlightenment going on at Janicek Online. An example:

The unintended side-effect of this mass illegal immigration is the fact that so many of them refuse to assimilate to our culture, i.e., refusing to learn and speak our language.
Of course this is also a bigoted statement. I have no right to expect that if someone wants to illegally invade my country, they should at least have the courtesy to learn my language. Though, it would be nice to be able to order a Big Mac without having to bring an interpreter.
I also have no right to expect English to be spoken in an English speaking country. Think about that for a minute: we can no longer expect immigrants to speak English in America without being branded a racist. That�s what “progressivism” has given us.

Michael Savage couldn’t have said it better himself!
If we want to create an incentive for immigrants to learn English, I’ve got a simple solution; no constitutional amendments needed. Just force them to listen to me attempt to speak Spanish; that should prompt them to want to figure out English real fast.

No Training Wheels Needed

This is a neat concept for a child’s first bike; don’t know how well it actually performs.
When I was little I don’t think I had the best experience with training wheels. They may not have been properly configured. It seemed to take me longer than usual to get the hang of riding and lose the trainers. Either that or I had a bad sense of balance and want to blame it on the training wheels. Ha. Anyway, I seem to have overcome the slow start.

Wimp Check

Meet the Press funny:

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe your Republican colleagues will support 40-percent reduction for retirees who make $90,000?
SEN. ALLEN: I haven’t done a wimp check. I don’t know. All I can do is speak for myself. And if we could work…

Heh. I have run a quick check, and turned up with one from the Tennessee delegation. Should be whip; a Freudian slip in the transcript.
But here’s some intentional humor:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to federal judges. Court of Appeals: Bill Clinton nominated 51 people to the Court of Appeals. Thirty-five were confirmed. Sixteen were blocked by the Republicans by not giving hearings or not allowed out of committee. George Bush nominated 52. Thirty-five were confirmed because the Democrats threatened filibuster. They don’t run the committees, so they can’t block it in committee. What’s the difference?
SEN. ALLEN: I think you’ll find on the Circuit Court judges that President Bush has the lowest percentage of Circuit Court judges…
MR. RUSSERT: I just gave you the numbers. Clinton nominated 51; 35 were confirmed. Bush nominated 52; 35 were confirmed. Those are the numbers.
SEN. ALLEN: Well, I have different numbers than that. The reality is that some of President Clinton’s nominees were blocked in committee. They did not–and a lot of them were also brought up at the very end of his term.

End of his term? That justifies it?
It was pretty comical watching Allen squirm in the face of his own hypocrisy.

Runaway Stupidity

Not having watched the news today, I thought this post must be exaggerated for humor. That is, until I tuned into CNN myself a few minutes ago.
At the top of the hour, they had an exclusive report from some reporter who flown on the plane with the would-be bride. He actually described the scene as she went to use the bathroom during the flight. And almost breathlessly, he relayed that the flight attendant had told him that the wedding is “still on.”
Twenty-one minutes after the hour and they were still talking about their top story. Alas.
Remember when CNN used to have the reputation as a news source?
CNN’s question of the hour, where viewers are encourage to call in and opine, is whether or not this woman’s fiance should give her a second chance. I think a more appropriate question is whether or not I should give CNN a second chance. Perhaps Fox News isn’t that bad after all.

Appreciative

I was out last night and didn’t catch all of the “tough” questions. Only caught part of the show on re-run. But I noticed that one thing kept popping up during the hour [note these are all separate instances]:

–I told him I appreciated his courage
–We didn’t appreciate that
–I appreciate that gesture
–And I appreciate that gesture
–No, I appreciate that question
–I appreciate the strong bipartisan support
–I think the American people appreciate somebody bringing up tough issues
–No, I appreciate that question.
–I appreciate that, John.
–they appreciate the fact that the system now shows deficiencies early so they can correct those problems.
–Yes, I appreciate that.

I bet I can guess what one of the buzz words is that the presidential handlers have been working on behind the scenes.