WAR IN IRAQ IS OVER: WE WIN

According to the handy charts & graphs that Gateway Pundit posted, the killings, attacks, and woundings are now down to pre-war levels.

So, yeah, I think it's time to declare victory.

Thank you President Bush

Thank you participating and supporting members of the American Armed Forces

And a special thanks to the members of the Coalition of the Willing for not letting the nattering nay-sayers dissuade you from doing the right thing.

COURTESY LINK

John Hawkins of Right Wing News has a new survey up: Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite People On The Right (2008 Edition)

My answers with explanations:

Bill Whittle (Eject! Eject! Eject!) - He's like a blast furnace of Pro-Americanism. He understand why this country is the best thing that ever happened to this planet, and he declares this in no uncertain terms. The modern master of the long-form essay. Glad he's on our side.

Gerard Van der Leun (American Digest) - Above all else, I delight in this man's ability to coin aptly descriptive metaphors, but it's how he uses this talent that makes me worship the ground above which he walks. No one can better explain why Islam is a deadly threat, and why progressive liberalism is a degenerative mental disease. He is both artful and convincing, while giving no quarter to those undeserving of it.

Rush Limbaugh - Optimism. Day after day, he explains what is right and good and noble about this country. He informs about the perfidy of the left, but also offers alternative solutions to their insidious schemes.

Sarah Palin - She understand why we're fighting this war. She understands that while taxes and government are necessary evils, they are still evil, and should be minimized. She understands that man-made global warming is a hoax designed to allow leftists to accrete power to themselves. In short, she's the only politician on the national stage today who "gets it".

Dennis Miller - Partly my personal preference for humor that contains obscure historical references, but mostly for my appreciation of a man who recognizes reality when it jumps up and bites him in the ass, i.e. getting fully on board the war train after 9/11.

Frank J. Fleming - Yeah, the guy from IMAO. Honestly, no one is better at using wild exaggeration to make blunt political points. One of the few people besides P.J. O'Rourke who can make me laugh out loud while reading.

John Hawkins (Right Wing News) - Partly ass-kissery for the guy doing the survey, but he's also special among right-wing bloggers, in that he does not merely pontificate, he does a lot of grunt work amongst the blogging community, trying to make blogging itself a better medium. Sort of like a community organizer, without the corruption, embezzlement & bribery.

VETERANS DAY - WELL DONE

User Friendly is a daily comic strip generally revolving around things computer, and when it slips into social commentary, it slants a little to the left, but not egregiously so. Also, its author is, as far as I can tell, Canadian.

So I was surprised, and VERY pleasantly so, by last week's comics, because it covers the concept of gratitude toward veterans in a more sincere and uplifting manner than I've ever seen done elsewhere.

Don't miss these:

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081110

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081111

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081112

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081113

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081114

Or just go to the first link and keep clicking on "next cartoon".

NO, SERIOUSLY, IT'S OVER

Susie Snowflake asks in the comments to this post:

"So you think that [the election of Obama] means there's no more racism? At all? And you are now free to act like jerks? Not hire people because of race?"

Legalized, institutional, government-sponsored racism - yeah. Died several decades ago. Brown vs. Board of Education or something.

Whatever's left over is merely preference, bias & prejudice. Which is perfectly fine in a free country. You like what you like, and no one can force you to change your mind.

Am I free to act like a jerk? Oh HELL yeah! Have been since 1966. Again, one of the benefits of a free country.

Not hire people because of race? Happens to white people all the time, especially for government jobs. It's not fair, but fairness isn't a Constitutional obligation, so I'm not gonna bitch. If those making the hiring decisions are so utterly unconcerned with quality and reliability that I have my talents passed over because of my whiteness, I wouldn't want to work there anyway. I'll go find a job working at a place where I'll fit in better.

Just like John McCain.

UNINTENTIONAL BEST VETERANS DAY QUOTE EVER

I don't know about you, but I have totally stopped worrying about terrorist attacks. Now I'm only afraid of bankers with new ideas. I'm not joking about either point.

~Scott Adams

WHO made it possible in 7 short years for this country to have such a "Threat Level Blue" feeling?

I think we know the answer.

To those who served before before, with, and after me - thank you. To those who were civilians from 1985 to 1991 - thank you for being the kind of Americans worth serving.

NEW DEAL

I hereby declare that the Black President card trumps any race card from now until the thermodynamic heat death of the universe.

Anyone attempting to prod my sense of White Guilt can kiss my exonerated ass.

I'm a free man now.

STEVEN DEN BESTE PREDICTS: 2008-2012

I'm posting a copy of the predictions Steven posted at Chizumatic, because I want to look back in 2012 and see how many came true, and I don't want to take the chance that he'll delete his blog between now and then.

I suspect (and dread) that he may run the table:

1. Obama's "hold out your hand to everyone" foreign policy is going to be a catastrophe. They'll love it in Europe. They're probably laughing their heads off about it in the middle east already.

2. The US hasn't suffered a terrorist attack by al Qaeda since 9/11, but we'll get at least one during Obama's term.

3. We're going to lose in Afghanistan.

4. Iran will get nuclear weapons. There will be nuclear war between Iran and Israel. (This is the only irreversibly terrible thing I see upcoming, and it's very bad indeed.)

5. There will eventually be a press backlash against Obama which will make their treatment of Bush look mild. Partly that's going to be because Obama is going to disappoint them just as much as all his other supporters. Partly it will be the MSM desperately trying to regain its own credibility, by trying to show that they're not in his tank any longer. And because of that they are eventually going to do the reporting they should have done during this campaign, about Obama's less-than-savory friends, and about voter fraud, and about illegal fund-raising, and about a lot of other things.

and 6. Obama will not be re-elected in 2012. He may even end up doing an LBJ and not even running again.

HALLOWEEN

My costume this year:

Jeans
T-shirt
Pocket full of quarters

People ask me what I'm supposed to be.

"Barack Obama"

[pause for 5 seconds of puzzled staring]

Reach into pocket, remove contents, hold it out, and say:

"Change".

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Via IMAO:

Put Democrats in charge of the Sahara Desert, and in 5 years we’ll have a sand shortage.

SOUVENIR

From a recent trip to Mexico:

Now, it's been a while since I've had Frosted Flakes. Decades, in fact. But I ate them anyway so that I could show you the box.

I thought "Tigre Tono" looked... off... a bit... from his American cousin, and after comparing this picture:

I think I notice two differences.

Tono has a squarer jaw.

Tono has one eyebrow higher than the other, giving him a bit of a leer. Plus the eyebrows are more angular than Tony's.

What does it mean? I speculate wildly as follows: although the kids ask for the cereal, it's moms who plunk down the money, so both tigers have to be a compromise between cartoony and masculine. So I'd say that Mexican women prefer men with thick eyebrows and angular jawlines, while American women only care about the muscles (although Tony DOES still have a big, strong, manly chin, albeit rounder).

Maybe I'm way off on that, but the fact is, Kellogg's DID decide to make the Tigers different for the different countries, so they must have some sort of market research to justify the cost and bother of tweaking their mascot, since messing with a brand they've spent years and millions to develop is not something they'd do lightly.

Comments welcome.