Month: April 2009

Assassination attempt in Holland.

(via HolyCoast) A premeditated act, but judging from the reports (and a couple of distressing on-scene photos, including one of the attacker), probably not an Islamist*-inspired one.

5 Dead After Car Strikes Crowd at Dutch Royal Parade

Five people were killed and several others hurt in the Netherlands after a car rammed into a crowd of spectators in what police are calling a premeditated attack on the royal family.

The car appeared to be deliberately driving at high speed toward an open bus carrying the popular Queen Beatrix and her family in the western Dutch city of Apeldoorn.

[snip]

Prosecutors said the driver, badly injured and still in his crumpled car, acknowledged targeting the queen and her family.

My prayers for the victims and their families.

Moe Lane

*Note: “ist,” not “ic.”

Crossposted to RedState.

Good news/bad news on the [insert name here] Flu.

Good news: this strain of the flu apparently isn’t as bad as people were thinking.

Bad news: we’re probably going to have some hysteria over this anyway, given the recent White House advisory (and the fact that masks are the top three sellers on Amazon) (both via Drudge).

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE] Heh.  See here for more good news/bad news.

Consider the Majorette Twirling Baton.

This is a Sharp Baton Model #10 Twirling Baton:

baton

Size ranges from 17 to 19 inches. It is constructed out of tempered steel, of a thickness of 3/8 of an inch – which means that it is light enough to be moved quickly, yet strong enough not to bend on impact against flesh. Note the white bulbs at the end, which will increase accuracy of blows without sacrificing too much in the way of impact trauma (less of a consideration on a purely crushing weapon than on one with a cutting edge). And, of course, it is center-balanced, which means that the momentum of the backswing after a strike will not be too ungainly. In short, while I’d rather have a Louisville Slugger M9 Series Maple Wood Baseball Bats – C271 – Natural in a sticky situation, this is not actually a bad club to have.

Which is my intro to saying, Don’t mug girls in marching band. Continue reading Consider the Majorette Twirling Baton.

Take pity on the Tea Party-hating Left?

(Via Glenn Reynolds) Matt Kibbe at Reason is too full of the milk of human kindness when it comes to the Online Left’s reaction to the Tea Party phenomenon.

The remarkable ends to which lefty bloggers, Nobel Laureates, bit-part actresses, and even a senior White House official all went to discredit the massive grassroots revolt perfectly matches Elizabeth Kübler-Ross‘ famous work on how to deal with grief, death, and loss.

Take Janeane Garofalo. Many tea party attendees were understandably offended when she compared them to members of the Ku Klux Klan. “It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all,” she told Keith Olbermann. “This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks.”

I know what you’re probably thinking about Ms. Garofalo, and it’s not kind. I thought it too. But look beneath the surface, and at least try to imagine her pain. As Kübler-Ross explains, first comes denial, then comes anger. Hope and Change, for Janeane, was dying. And she couldn’t believe it.

So we must pity them for their hysterical and panicked reaction to an actual, real populist movement? Pity them for their reflexive, unthinking retreat to emotional immaturity and crude sexual attacks? Pity them for their looming fear that their Great Lie – that they speak for the People – is well on its way to being exploded once and for all?

To quote Eric Flint (on an unrelated matter): Better still, let us not pity them at all.

Moe Lane

PS: I say this not to criticize Matt Kibbe, whose Freedomworks has been at the forefront of this issue. But it is a sad truth that the Online Left hates and fears us, and everything that we do; and until they abandon those ways themselves, there will be no peace.

PPS:

timthumbphp

Hope to see you there.

Crossposted to RedState.

Today’s obligatory “Duelling Zombies” post.

First off, we have Zombie Jamboree:


Rockapella

…via Tommy Christopher. Odd fact #1: I banned him from RedState once. Odd fact #2: I follow him on Twitter, and vice versa. Odd fact #3: this is, yes, kind of contradictory; but as they say, business is business. Besides, this isn’t a political post.

Anyway, in answer to that I have this.


Jonathan Coulton

Because, well, any excuse to play that one is a good one.

Moe Lane

PS: Watching people conga to Zombie Jamboree may not be the most surreal experience out there, but it’s definitely weird.