So Much For "It's Just a Movie!"

In the age of Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, and an avalanche of preachy left-wing movies, Warner Brothers has suddenly decided it doesn't want to try to influence the outcome of a presidential election. The studio has put the kibosh on promotion of the first DVD release of the 1987 movie The Hanoi Hilton, which features an interview with John McCain about his experiences as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"It's just us trying to be cautious and not affect the election one way or the other," Warner Brothers home entertainment division spokes-person Ronnee Sass claimed laughably. Noting the prevalence and heavy promotion of left-wing movies, conservative filmmaker Lionel Chetwynd, who recorded the McCain interview for the DVD release, comments: "Finding someone in Hollywood who says they don't want to affect the election is like finding a virgin in a brothel."

So Hollywood is afraid a DVD will sway a presidential election toward the Republican candidate. Remember this the next time the purveyors of smut and sleaze tell you movies don't affect people's behavior.

Making the World Safe for Aggression against Women

Isn't it interesting how politicians who claim to oppose war nevertheless frequently support throwing as many people as possible into harm's way -- regardless of their chances for survival? B. Hussein Obama, for example, thinks opposition to the war trumps the national interest, and that we should force our troops to cut and run without having completed their mission. But, although he claims to oppose reinstating the draft, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Obama nevertheless supports (a) making women register for selective service, and (b) sending women into combat.

To deal with the second point first: whereas John McCain supports the Department of Defense's current combat restrictions on women, Obama's campaign has stated that he would consult with military officials in reviewing these restrictions. Read: under Obama's gentle tutelage, women will be swept into combat units.

As for requiring women to register for the draft, Obama bases his reasons for favoring this move upon his colossal ignorance. "There was a time," he claims falsely, "when African-Americans weren't allowed to serve in combat." [Wikipedia, article on "Military History of African Americans": "There has been no war fought by or within the United States in which African Americans did not participate, including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the current wars Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other minor conflicts."] "And yet, when they did, not only did they perform brilliantly, but what also happened is they helped to change America, and they helped to underscore that we're equal. And I think that if women are registered for service -- not necessarily in combat roles [despite statements of his campaign to the contrary], and I don't agree with the draft -- I think it will help to send a message to my two daughters that they've got obligations to this great country as well as boys do."

Set aside the fact that at their parents' knees, the Obama girls have spent a lifetime being taught that it is the country that owes them, and not the other way around. Once again, genuine respect for women -- of the sort that protects women from mistreatment and harassment and being reduced to a mere statistic -- is to be sacrificed on the altar of "equality," as in numerical parity. Perhaps it would pay to think this thing out, and to ask ourselves some serious questions about the consequences of drafting women and sending them into combat:

-- Is the average woman as physically strong as the average man, and does she possess the same capacity for aggression as the average man?

-- What is to become of the minor children of female draftees?

-- Will it be possible, in combat, to suppress the average man's natural instinct to protect women? What consequences will flow from a man acting upon this instinct? What consequences will flow from the efforts to train this instinct out of men, particularly when they return to civilian life?

-- Will it be possible entirely to suppress sexual attraction between men and women in a confined and highly charged setting? What consequences will flow from introducing this element into combat? Is there a wide margin for error in combat?

-- In parts of the world where women are treated worse than cattle, what is likely to happen to female soldiers or pilots who fall into enemy hands?

All of which goes to show how necessary it is to look below the surface of high-sounding ideas, especially during an election year.

October 14, 1066: The Battle of Hastings

The Battle of Hastings

I'll tell of the Battle of Hastings,
As happened in days long gone by,
When Duke William became King of England,
And 'Arold got shot in the eye.

It were this way - one day in October
The Duke, who were always a toff
Having no battles on at the moment,
Had given his lads a day off.

They'd all taken boats to go fishing,
When some chap in t' Conqueror's ear
Said 'Let's go and put breeze up the Saxons;'
Said Bill - 'By gum, that's an idea.'

Then turning around to his soldiers,
He lifted his big Nonnan voice,
Shouting - 'Hands up who's coming to England.'
That was swank 'cos they hadn't no choice.

They started away about tea-time -
The sea was so calm and so still,
And at quarter to ten the next morning
They arrived at a place called Bexhill.

King 'Arold came up as they landed -
His face full of venom and 'ate -
He said 'lf you've come for Regatta
You've got here just six weeks too late.'

At this William rose, cool but 'aughty,
And said 'Give us none of your cheek;
You'd best have your throne re-upholstered,
I'll be wanting to use it next week.'

When 'Arold heard this 'ere defiance,
With rage he turned purple and blue,
And shouted some rude words in Saxon,
To which William answered - 'And you.'

'Twere a beautiful day for a battle;
The Normans set off with a will,
And when both sides was duly assembled,
They tossed for the top of the hill.

King 'Arold he won the advantage,
On the hill-top he took up his stand,
With his knaves and his cads all around him,
On his 'orse with his 'awk in his 'and.

The Normans had nowt in their favour,
Their chance of a victory seemed small,
For the slope of the field were against them,
And the wind in their faces an' all.

The kick-off were sharp at two-thirty,
And soon as the whistle had went
Both sides started banging each other
'Til the swineherds could hear them in Kent.

The Saxons had best line of forwards,
Well armed both with buckler and sword -
But the Normans had best combination,
And when half-time came neither had scored.

So the Duke called his cohorts together
And said - 'Let's pretend that we're beat,
Once we get Saxons down on the level
We'll cut off their means of retreat.'

So they ran - and the Saxons ran after,
Just exactly as William had planned,
Leaving 'Arold alone on the hill-top
On his 'orse with his 'awk in his 'and.

When the Conqueror saw what had happened,
A bow and an arrow he drew;
He went right up to 'Arold and shot him.
He were off-side, but what could they do?

The Normans turned round in a fury,
And gave back both parry and thrust,
Till the fight were all over bar shouting,
And you couldn't see Saxons for dust.

And after the battle were over
They found 'Arold so stately and grand,
Sitting there with an eye-full of arrow
On his 'orse with his 'awk in his 'and.

Marriott Edgar (1880 - 1951)

No Fool Like an Old Fool

The Media Research Center, Brent Bozell III's media watchdog group, has picked up on a particularly disgraceful story that CBS is touting: a Catholic nun in Rome, age 106, is going to vote for Barack Obama.

In CBS's puff piece video of the interview with Sr. Cecilia Gaudette, the good sister stresses the importance of exercising one's right to vote, notwithstanding that the last ballot she cast was in 1952, when she voted for Dwight Eisenhower. A native of New Hampshire, Sr. Cecilia is voting for B. Hussein Obama on the grounds that he is "a good straight man; good private life, honest and politically able to govern, of course." Sr. Cecilia is said to keep up with events in the States via newspapers and television; perhaps that is how she has managed to overlook Obama's ardent support for infanticide, condemned by the Catholic Church to which she has dedicated her whole life.

So I guess this means that Catholics are now free to disregard the Democrat candidate's support for laws that clear the way for the unrestricted practice of abortion and the killing of babies who survive abortion procedures. After all, Sr. Cecilia, age 106, has done it.

In fact, this development is so convenient as to appear contrived. How well would this story withstand scrutiny, do you think?

H/T Norm De Plume, who brought the story to my attention.

Columbus -- Whoops, I Mean "Indigenous Peoples" -- Day

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus[, dead white Christian male,] sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain [with a mandate to exploit non-Caucasians];
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day[, in violation of OSHA regulations regarding working hours];
He used the stars to find his way.

A compass [an invention of the Sun People, stolen by the Ice People] also helped him know
How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked [the oppressed proletariat] while others [the rich capitalists] snored.

Then the workers went to sleep [in unsanitary and exploitative living conditions];
And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand [and gold and jewels and spices and slaves and sacking and looting and pillaging].

October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew[, flushed with greed and avarice]!

"Indians! Indians!" Columbus cried [in his white male ignorance];
His heart was filled with joyful pride.

But "India" the land was not;
It was the Bahamas[, even though white people have persisted arrogantly in marginalizing the indigenous peoples by calling them "Indians"], and it was hot.

The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice. [And in return, they subjugated the indigenous peoples to the tyranny of Catholicism and infected them with Old World diseases.]

Columbus sailed on to find some gold [that he could steal from the natives]
To bring back home, as he'd been told.

He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain[, exploiting the indigenous peoples and making obscene profits on their backs].

The first American? No, not quite[, being an invader and a usurper].
But Columbus was brave [with all his guns and his ships against the poor defenseless natives], and he was bright [for a bitter Christian who clings to his guns and religion].

Another One in Obama's Camp

The Maximum Leader -- or whichever actor they have playing him these days -- obviously has no confidence in the drive-by media's ability to sway the election in favor of Obama. But he has, for their benefit, diagnosed America's ailment: in his words: "profound racism." A charter member of the Julianne Malveaux Fan Club, Castro -- or his Doppelgänger -- declares that millions of whites "cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that a black person ... could occupy the White House, which is called just that: white."

A distinguished expert in race relations in a country he has seldom visited -- except for purposes of denouncing and insulting her at the United Nations -- Castro solemnly pronounces: it is "a miracle that the Democratic candidate hasn't suffered the same luck as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who harbored dreams of equality and justice." This from the founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Paradise, where it is a miracle when anyone having the temerity to disagree with El Supremo hasn't suffered the same (or worse) luck as the aforementioned assassinated leaders.

In the same story, AP reports that Castro describes John McCain as "bellicose." Based on this and on the description of Obama as being among those who "harbored dreams of equality and justice," we have the Communist regime of Cuba on record as opposing McCain and supporting Obama in the upcoming election. Shouldn't that tell us everything we need to know about whom to vote for this November?

October 12: Feast of Our Lady of Aparecida

In October of 1717, three Brazilian fishermen were out fishing, in order to supply a banquet the townspeople of Guaratinguetá were giving in honor of a visiting nobleman. Since it was outside the season for finding fish, they prayed to the Immaculate Conception for help.

After many hours of coming up empty, the fishermen were about to give up. They cast in their net one last time and brought up the body of a terra cotta statue. Casting their net again, they brought up the head. They cleaned the statue, which turned out to be an image of the Immaculate Conception. Naming the statue "Our Lady Aparecida" (Our Lady who appeared), the fisherman wrapped it in cloth and cast their nets again. This time, they caught so many fish their boat was in danger of sinking.

The statue came to be associated with many miracles brought about by the intercession of the Blessed Mother, and was an object of veneration. A prayer chapel was built; when that became too small, a church was built on the hill of the Coqueiros, around which a village sprang up. When the crowds outgrew that church, a new and bigger one was built; it was given the title of minor basilica in 1908. An even bigger basilica was begun in the 1950s; today, it is the second largest place of Catholic worship in the world, after St. Peter's, and the largest Marian shrine. Our Lady of Aparecida is the patroness of Brazil.

Pope John Paul II's Prayer to Our Lady of Aparecida

Lady Aparecida, a son of yours who belongs to you unreservedly "totus tuus" called by the mysterious plan of Providence to be the Vicar of your Son on earth, wishes to address you at this moment. He recalls with emotion, because of the brown color of this image of yours, another image of yours, the Black Virgin of Jasna Gora. Mother of God and our Mother, protect the Church, the Pope, the bishops, the priests and all the faithful people; welcome under your protecting mantle men and women religious, families, children, young people, and their educations. Health of the sick and Consoler of the afflicted, comfort those who are suffering in body and soul; be the light of those who are seeking Christ, the Redeemer of all; show all people that you are the Mother of our confidence. Queen of Peace and Mirror of Justice, obtain peace for the world, ensure that Brazil and all countries may have lasting peace, that we will always live together as brothers and sisters and as children of God. Our Lady Aparecida, bless all your sons and daughters who pray and sing to you here and elsewhere. Amen.

No Business Like Snow Business

Yes, it looked like rain yesterday afternoon, but to my surprise, it was snowing when I left the office in the evening. I ran into somebody who was wearing sandals -- not the happiest footwear in freezing temperatures. At first the snow melted immediately it hit the ground; but after a while, it started to stick and -- as documented by The Redoubtable One -- weigh down tree limbs and other sorts of unprepared flora.

And it seems this is the earliest snowfall in Boise since they started keeping records in 1898. After 40 years, we've broken by two days the former earliest snowfall on record, which was October 12, 1969.

So winter first begins to bite early in the City of Trees.

When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marion’s nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

William Shakespeare, from Love's Labors Lost

I believe Al Gore was just saying something funny about global warming...

Oncoming Election, Part II

Ha-haaaaaaaah, just cancelled out somebody's Obama vote!

Yes, although I love the civic ritual of traveling out to the polling place and punching the card (we have that, and not the lever-pull system in Idaho), this time I voted absentee, lest the pressures of work conspire against me on Election Day.

And hopefully, all you conservatives out there will also vote in this critical election. Just because we didn't get the pick of the litter as our nominee is no excuse for sitting this one out. We found out eight years ago the liberals are prepared to propel the country into a constitutional crisis just to get back into the White House; just because they didn't make it then, doesn't mean they won't try it again. We can expect to see convicted felons, non-citizens, dogs, children and dead people turning up at the polling places this November. That means every conservative vote counts. Staying home on Election Day is the same as voting for Obama.

The party that places its own interests above those of the nation must not be allowed to win. So go out there and vote!

(Unless you're a liberal, in which case, by all means, stay at home.)

UPDATE: Houston, Texas: 4,000 dead people are discovered on the voter rolls. Kansas City, Missouri: election officials receive a huge wodge of voter registration forms from ACORN, many of which are turning out to be fraudulent. Cleveland, Ohio: ACORN bribes 19-year-old Freddie Johnson into registering to vote 72 times.

Jabberwocky

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Lewis Carroll (1871)