Halloween Hangman

Link sent by The Grandad.

John Bolton Is, Like, Soooo Rude!

The Toronto Star has an article on U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton which barely alludes to any of the scandals which have recently plagued the no-longer-so-august institution.

In August 2005, before a historic summit aimed at eradicating dire poverty, a diminutive, mop-haired figure strode into the corridors of UN headquarters in New York and dropped a bombshell that blasted apart a year of diplomatic bridge-building.

John Bolton, Washington's newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations, had arrived on the scene, carrying a list of 750 amendments to the painstakingly negotiated summit document and changing its focus from poverty to administrative reform.

With less than a month to go until world leaders gathered for a widely anticipated endorsement of the paper, it was the diplomatic equivalent of "shock and awe."

"Bolton's views were well known, and there were expectations that he'd push hard on UN reform," says veteran Canadian diplomat Louise Fréchette, former deputy secretary general of the world body.

"But when he made such a huge case of it, people were taken by surprise."

Bolton's insistence on pushing Washington's reform agenda ahead of helping millions of poor people outraged developing countries, which had seen the summit as a boost for the UN Millennium Development Goals for wiping out the most extreme poverty by 2015. Some charged that the United States had "hijacked" the summit.

This sounds unreasonable unless you take Bolton's actions in light of the Oil For Food scandal. But, perhaps it's rude to mention that. So, the article didn't. It didn't mention the Congo sex scandal or the recent arrest of the head of the U.N.'s budget oversight committee on money-laundering charges, either. But fear not, they were very even-handed on the matter of Bolton's sartorial style.

So, our ettiquette lesson for the day, courtesy of the Toronto Star: One should never mention unpleasant things about major international institutions, but soliciting opinions on the personal grooming habits of one's ally's ambassador to said institution is perfectly acceptable. I mean, how else is he supposed to learn?

Now that I've made that perfectly clear, I'm off to watch some NASCAR.

You Can't Do This

Nope. Nope. Nope. You can't.

I'd mock your ineptitude, but posting something to my blog at this time on a Saturday night pretty much disqualifies me from mocking anyone. At least until Sunday morning.

Another hat tip to Jonah Goldberg at The Corner, who wastes more time than most people have and still writes like an angel, albeit an angel in Spock ears.

How Many Pixels Deep Is Beauty?

Dove's Evolution of Beauty video gives a pretty good idea of just how fake beauty ads are.

Four Days Is A Long Time in Memphis

On the 23rd, the Commercial Appeal ran an article describing Mayor Herenton's idea for an income tax to pay for badly needed new police officers. Today, they ran an article detailing accusations of mismanagement at the local Homeland Security office. How come no one's suggesting we use the HS grant money to pay for the police? Is it just assumed that money is slated to be misappropriated, or is it because the CA hasn't been properly incentivized?

To be a little bit fair, the Tri-State Defender isn't the Commercial Appeal, but the CA's website did run a nice ad for Mark White right above his comments accusing his opponent of buying favorable coverage from the TSD. So, how big of an ad would Memphians have to buy?

Noooooooooo.....

Collierville to lose Parisian.

The DoD Fights Back

The DoD now has a web page where they print the history of corrections they are seeking to major news stories and editorials. Particularly shocking to me was the section on a Newsweek article they were seeking to have corrected. They show pictures of the various covers which ran internationally, as well as the domestic one. Let's just say they are different. I knew they did this sort of thing, but until I saw it laid out like that, I didn't really know. Those cowardly, warmongering, scurrilous sons of bitches are never getting another dime from me.

And yes, I mean warmongering. What else, precisely, can they think would be the result of running those covers overseas.

Christmas List

The Grandad sends this picture of John Travolta's Ocala house. There's no garage, and the neighbors are noisy as h-e-double-hockey-sticks, but I want one. The jets, too. I find I have a serious case of jumbo-jet envy. If I were a man, it would be positively Freudian. And Santa, if you're reading this, a little boat like Jeff Gordon's would also be nice.

Camille Paglia

Drudge links to her latest Salon interview. Well worth the time to read. She eviscerates the Democrats and decimates the elitist intellectuals who so often speak for them, but it's a labor of love for her. She is both a Democrat and an intellectual. And her opinions on the media and the Foley scandal are spot-on. I don't see much chance of the Democrats becoming a serious party anytime soon, but I sure wish they'd listen to Ms. Paglia's criticisms. It could only help both parties.

She's wrong about Iraq, of course, but isn't everyone?

The Manatee Most Likely to be Named Elvis...

Has left the building. Did anyone check Burger King?

Update: the rescuers have gone home empty-handed. Don't you just hate it when the damsel-in-distress is too impatient to wait for the knight-in-shining-armor?

"We have looked everywhere," said Nicole Adimey, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The weird thing is, it's not acting like a normal manatee in the wild."

I guess a normal manatee would have waited.

I Hate When...

The bar's all full but the file's not done. Blogger's having server issues. I couldn't get on at all yesterday. Looks like my Christmas list will have to wait 'til tomorrow.

The Seduction Community

Instapundit links to this entry at wikipedia, which is why I'm now reading Neil Strauss's The Game. So far, it's very good, and something every young woman should read.

Good For You, Harold Ford, Jr.

I've razzed on him some here, so it's only fair that I point out this video. He's received a lot of flack for having attended a Playboy party, and his campaign has been somewhat less than clear about whether he was really there. His response here is the best he could do, under the circumstances.

'Course, it would have been better not to have filmed that commercial in a church, but at least he didn't blame alcohol, or out himself as a heterosexual-single-male-American, or something equally craven.

Come to think of it, outting himself as an HSMA might have been a good idea after all. Corker's ads are funny. Jr. demonstrating a sense of humor about the whole thing would have been genius. Remember, you saw it here first.

Not That They Want to Influence the Race...

According to a Commercial Appeal article about Harold Ford, Jr's press conference crashing stunt, the congressman will appear, alone, on the cover of next week's Newsweek. It couldn't be that they want to give him a little free publicity, or influence the outcome of a tight race. No. It's not that. Not a chance in Hades it'll be a puff piece.

I anxiously await their hard-hitting story about Ford, particularly his disgustingly corrupt political machine family and the effect they've had on Memphis, which is first in the nation for infant mortality, second for crime, and somewhere around dead last for schools. Yeah, that'll be what they write about.

Worth Remembering

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Beirut barracks bombing. Whenever I'm tempted to blame all of this terrorism stuff on Jimmy Carter, this stops me. We should have responded much more strongly, and nobody should have known that better than Reagan.

I'd still back Reagan over Carter any day, any where, on any thing. But, there's plenty of blame to go around.

Absolutely Do Not Try

This. Hat tip to The Corner.

Mighty Dolphin Defense

Check out Douglas' beautiful tackle for a loss of the Tigers' running back. Douglas is in the #22 untucked teal jersey. See his hand going for the ball. Thrill to the manly round of congratulations afterward!

"Everybody Wants Corker to Win"

So says Douglas. Of course, his circle of friends is hardly representative of the local voting population, but I'm just about positive that this is first time they have demonstrated an awareness of an off-year election. It's telling that they offered no opinion on any of the other races, not even the gubernatorial contest. I don't know how it's going in the rest of the state, but I think the idea of electing a member of the Ford family to the U.S. Senate brings out the broken-glass proclivities of the area's Republicans. That can't be good for Ford, Jr. who is running as a centrist. I'm thinking "everybody" may get their wish.

Fifth Column Alert

Found this via Instapundit. Anderson Cooper's response was the usual, pathetically self-serving crud which so epitomizes the current state of MSM ethics:

We also understood that some might conclude there is a public relations benefit for the insurgents if we aired the material, especially on CNN International.

Just some might conclude airing the tape is beneficial to the insurgents? And would any of the some be, like, the insurgents who submitted the tape?

We also understood that this kind of footage is upsetting and disturbing for many viewers.

Gee, I wonder why... Is it because many of your viewers are fragile, easily disturbed wusses who just don't know what's good for them, or could it be that airing that video was in really bad taste?

But after getting beyond the emotional debate, we concluded the tape meets our criteria for newsworthiness.

Well, sure. How else are people supposed to know that soldiers get shot at by the enemy?