Probably not many more posts today.

It being Saturday; plus, thanks to the Kindness of Strangers (or at least Readers) I was able to finally pick up an on-sale version of World in Conflict. So I’ll probably end up playing that a bit tonight.

What? The American side, of course. Aside from everything else, I’ve heard that Russian heavy stuff of the time was kind of not all that*.

Moe Lane

*Feel free to contest that, using as much military minutiae as you please. It’s all good.

Male Navy officer lodges sexual harrassment complaint against female reporter.

Via Ryan Witt of the St Louis Political Buzz Examiner, who ruefully notes that “if conservatives grab a hold of this story Carol Rosenberg may become their poster child for abuse by the “liberal media.”” Sounds like a plan:

In a letter to the paper’s editor, Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon accused Carol Rosenberg of “multiple incidents of abusive and degrading comments of an explicitly sexual nature.” Gordon, who deals primarily with the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, said in the letter that this was a “formal sexual harassment complaint” and asked the Herald for a “thorough investigation.”

[snip]

Gordon, 41, detailed a number of “vile and repulsive comments” he attributed to Rosenberg, stretching back to last summer. In the July 22 letter, Gordon alleges that:

— While watching Sept. 11, 2001, co-defendant Mustafa al-Hawsawi seated on a pillow in court last year, Rosenberg told Gordon: “Have you ever had a red hot poker shoved up your [butt]? Have you ever had a broomstick shoved up your [butt]? . . . How would you know how it feels if it never happened to you? Admit it, you liked it.”

It goes on. It’s the usual stuff from antiwar enthusiasts: attacks on sexual orientation, causal profanity, verbal attacks on appearance and habits, accusations of various fetishist behaviors, calling soldiers Nazis, nothing really out of the ordinary for that sort. On the off chance that the Miami Herald does something meaningful about this, she’s going to be a shoo-in for MSNBC’s nightly lineup.

What makes it interesting is that first, this is actually being brought up (Cmdr. Gordon’s retiring next year); and that second, he’s run this past the Department of Defense. That last bit may suggest that, even if nothing is formally done to Ms. Rosenberg, she’s probably going to be ending up not covering that particular area for much longer. Which is almost a shame; there’s something to be said for somebody who doesn’t hide the hate.

Moe Lane

PS: See also Instapundit and Media Bistro.

Crossposted to RedState.

Inspector General situation updates.

Pride of place probably goes to this interview of SIGTARP (and Obama ’08 supporter) Neil Barofsky by Jake Tapper (via Hot Air). Barofsky engaged in a strong pushback to the White House / Treasury Department’s attempt to contradict his release of numbers indicating that the administration was planning to spend 23.7 trillion dollars to repair our financial system; the best quote from that was probably “Perhaps their criticism is that we dare to do math.” Barofsky was also very firm about the fact that he has no intention of going back on the administration’s own stated ideals of transparency. Listen to the whole thing, and contemplate that this all started with a 700 billion dollar bailout, with a review period in the middle. Funny how this balloons, huh? – And Barofsky doesn’t even think that there’s particular amounts of skullduggery going on.

Meanwhile, there’s the Walpin thing. It turns out (via the Sundries Shack) that Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA), whose district includes Sacramento, called up the administration to get stimulus money for the city. This was done at the end of March; and the reason that she intervened was because Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson was at the time under a dispute with IG Gerald Walpin about Johnson’s misappropriation of AmeriCorps funds for personal services. A timeline is necessary at this point: Continue reading Inspector General situation updates.

Non-hate crime in Austin, TX.

(Via Instapundit) I was going to be tedious and heavy-handed about this story, but I’ve decided not to be. Somebody apparently threw this:


(Text: “Keep Eastside Black. Keep Eastside Strong.”)

…through a four-year-old’s window in East Austin, TX: and the cops have decided that it was not in fact a hate crime.

Which is of course nonsense.

UPDATE: Erick Erickson over at RS had some more comments on this.

Crossposted to RedState.

British city council occult disaster, T-minus N days and counting.

Hi, Exeter city council! When the inhuman revenants come boiling out of the sewers to feast upon the defenseless souls of the living, and the countryside is bubbling and withering under the relentless onslaught of Hell on Earth – and if one of your number is actually cruising the Internet at that moment instead of doing something useful, like looking for an actual working gun* – well.  Let me warn you:  this idea?

Catacombs could house flu victims

Old underground burial chambers in a Devon city could be used to store the bodies of swine flu victims if the outbreak worsens, a council has said.

Yeah. Bad idea. That’s not just asking for it; that was jumping up and down and begging to be picked for the opening act of the Apocalypse. I’m surprised that you didn’t publicly mock [insert standard, trendy polytheistic deity here] and shut down a meaningless ritual that’s been performed yearly since the Middle Ages.

*Admittedly, the lack of guns made Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later somewhat more riveting.

Hey, guess who Obama’s as popular/unpopular as?

Yup. Her.

Glenn Reynolds can’t for the life of him figure out why this hasn’t been seized on by the media: personally, I think that it’s because they can’t handle the sanity-erasing implications of it all. No, really, the entire point of cosmic terror is in the sudden awareness of – and inability to handle – something that should not be

“Matty Groves”

Christopher Stasheff once said of this ballad that it was the one a wise minstrel performed when he was called in to distract his patrons from an unfortunate dispute, on the principle that whatever had happened, it was unlikely to have been worse than the plot.


Matty Groves, Joan Baez

Yes, I know that there’s half a dozen reasons why Chris Stasheff was spouting off nonsense there. And?

Moe Lane

PS: It’s a murder ballad. They all incorporate poor lifestyle decisions on the part of their participants. And this isn’t even the version with the typical ending.

“Did you read the health care bill?” – with handy primer.

(Via Politico & Hot Air Headlines) That’s the question that Patients United Now would like asked of every Representative over the August break:

I heartily endorse the notion, with a couple of suggestions:

  • Bring a video camera. If you don’t have one, this one looks cheap enough.
  • Bring a friend to hold the video camera while you talk.
  • Walk right up to your representative, identify yourself clearly, loudly, and politely, make sure that you say the magic words “…and I live in your district…,” and ask him or her whether they read the ‘health care bill’ in full before they voted on it.
  • Remember: this question has a yes or no answer.
  • You are not required to accept anything else than yes or no.
  • You are not required to participate in an argument on the merits of health care.
  • You are not required to tolerate their attempts to change the subject.
  • You are not required to not make this politely, yet firmly clear to your legislator.
  • This is why you need the second person, so that you can concentrate on the matter at hand and let him or her worry about camera angles and whatnot.

And, lastly:

  • If they actually wimp out and recess before voting on the bill, change the question to “Will you read the ‘health care’ bill in full before you vote on it, etc, etc?”  Again, it’s a yes or no question – and for this one, if they give you an attitude you may smile sweetly and remind your legislator of the nortorious fact that nobody in the Democratic Party read the stimulus and/or cap and trade before they voted for it.

Hope this helps.  Have fun!

Moe Lane

PS: Do this all politely.  Let the Left scream and rant; you’re there to get your legislator on the record.  And if they refuse to do that, well, that’s worth uploading to a video sharing site right there.

Crossposted to RedState.