So, who will this tick off more?

I’m thinking that they may need to get the camera out for this one.

Obama Reaches Out for McCain’s Counsel

WASHINGTON — Not long after Senator John McCain returned last month from an official trip to Iraq and Pakistan, he received a phone call from President-elect Barack Obama.

As contenders for the presidency, the two had hammered each other for much of 2008 over their conflicting approaches to foreign policy, especially in Iraq. (He’d lose a war! He’d stay a hundred years!) Now, however, Mr. Obama said he wanted Mr. McCain’s advice, people in each camp briefed on the conversation said. What did he see on the trip? What did he learn?

[snip]

Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain about many of the new administration’s potential nominees to top national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying back a contender’s answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested.

Mr. McCain, meanwhile, has told colleagues “that many of these appointments he would have made himself,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and a close McCain friend.

Continue reading So, who will this tick off more?

Support your local Morris dancer.

Seriously, they’re worried about keeping the practice going.

Morris dancers urge young to strap on the bells

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s morris dancers, renowned for bells on knees, colored rags and flower-bedecked hats, are launching a recruitment drive to convince young people that their stick-slapping art form is not a thing of the past.

The folk revival of the 1960s and 1970s, spearheaded by artists like Bob Dylan, led to a surge in interest in morris dancing in Britain.

But dancers who started out then are now in their 60s and often unable or unwilling to try and keep up with the accordion music.

Continue reading Support your local Morris dancer.

What republics *really* can’t survive happening: proscription lists.

I cannot believe that the Democrats would elect a House Speaker that doesn’t know this in her bones.

Which is why I’m nonplussed on why Nancy Pelosi’s playing with fire, here. Via Ace of Spades HQ:

Pelosi Open to Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is receptive to the idea of prosecuting some Bush administration officials, while letting others who are accused of misdeeds leave office without prosecution, she told Chris Wallace in an interview on “FOX News Sunday.”

“I think you look at each item and see what is a violation of the law and do we even have a right to ignore it,” the California Democrat said. “And other things that are maybe time that is spent better looking to the future rather than to the past.”

Continue reading What republics *really* can’t survive happening: proscription lists.

If you’re looking for a handy resource on “dinosaur/prehistoric gaming”…

…and really, who among us is not? – Anyway, I suggest that you check out this post by Yours in a White Wine Sauce!, which appears to be a site that’s all about the Vernian–Wellsian–Castle Falkenstein flavor of steampunk.

No, there’s more than one flavor to the genre.  For example, compare the above to, say, The Difference Engine…

This worked suprisingly well.

The Obama Inauguration Speech Generator. I didn’t know the final version before I tried it out, I swear:

My fellow Americans, today is a actinic day. You have shown the world that “hope” is not just another word for “aliens”, and that “change” is not only something we can believe in again, but something we can actually invade.

Today we celebrate, but let there be no mistake – America faces radiological and stark challenges like never before. Our economy is slimy. Americans can barely afford their mortgages, let alone have enough money left over for invasion fleets. Our healthcare system is tentacular. If your brain is sick and you don’t have insurance, you might as well call a scientist. And America’s image overseas is tarnished like a invasion fleet uranium mine. But mutating together we can right this ship, and set a course for The Washington Monument.

Finally, I must thank my squamous family, my mind-destroying campaign volunteers, but most of all, I want to thank our women for making this historic occasion possible. Of course, I must also thank you, President Bush, for years of leering the American people. Without your mutated efforts, none of this would have been possible.

A very interesting briefing on counter-piracy operations.

Found here, by Vice Admiral William Gortney. Blackfive sums up the whole thing nicely, I think:

The entire point, of course is to “disincentivize” piracy. That’s a nice way of saying they want to make piracy more painful than fishing. Right now there is no disincentive, or what little there is remains vastly outweighed by the potential rewards. So Somali fishermen have become pirates. The average payoff today is $1.5 million to 2 million a ship. CTF-151’s mission, in reality, is prevent successful hijackings, capture the pirates and help the rest rediscover their love for fishing. When enough head out to hijack a ship and don’t come home, but end up dead or in prison for a long, long time, Gortney figures fishing will start looking a lot better again.

Continue reading A very interesting briefing on counter-piracy operations.

Paper Tiger Watch?

I have to disagree with Debra Saunders slightly, here. After discussing Bush’s administration – both the good and the bad – she concludes that history will favorably judge the outgoing President on what did not happen:

Osama bin Laden once told Time magazine that the U.S. withdrawal from Somalia after the murder of 18 U.S. troops on a humanitarian mission made him realize “more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat.” Members of al-Qaida have told intelligence officials they never thought Washington would respond to the 9/11 attacks as ferociously as Bush responded. They expected a few bombs to be dropped, no boots on the ground, a swift withdrawal if casualties mounted — the usual short-attention span foreign policy that warped Lebanon, the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, the African embassy bombings and the attack on the destroyer Cole.

Bush showed America’s enemies a country that does not retreat in fear, does not bomb with impunity, and most important, does not desert civilians or foreign governments that trust us. If you think that doesn’t matter, look at Libya, which disarmed its weapons program. And see how much easier Obama’s presidency will be because Bush kept the faith.

Osama bin Laden may live, most likely quivering in a cave. And no one thinks America is a paper tiger anymore.

The problem is the word “anymore.” Continue reading Paper Tiger Watch?

Earworm excision watch.

Given that pretty much nobody’s heard “The Wild Pair” since this video:

(From the album Forever Your Girl)

…and, honestly: Paula Abdul’s career hasn’t really been a top discussion topic lately either; I think that it’s probably fair to say that opposites do not really attract.

Now maybe I’ll get this song out of my head. Curse you, oldies station. Curse you forever.

TRUE CAUSE OF THE HUDSON RIVER CRASH!

I might have known:

NEW YORK, NY – US Airways flight 1549 made an emergency water landing in the Hudson River just after 3:30pm yesterday afternoon. Initial reports suggesting the plane struck a flock of geese have been dismissed with the discovery of new evidence confirming that the plane struck and killed the religious icon Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Two observations (aside from the usual, which is that I love the Weekly World News)
Continue reading TRUE CAUSE OF THE HUDSON RIVER CRASH!