Off to a flying start.

My friend Angela reminded me where I've seen the expression in Mike Piazza's eyes during last night's brawl before: Charles Manson. Dude's usually too laid back; last night, as one of my friendly enemies put it, he "looked like the energizer bunny with a 12 volt automobile battery attached." Watch the clip; it's hilarious (the way most baseball fights are) and sort of unnerving at the same time.

I'm running out of people I can stand to listen to.

Via Andrea Harris, now I find out the Dixie Chicks are just as dumb as Natalie Maines hair-don'ts might have led me to suspect:

"Just so you know," says singer Natalie Maines, "we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." It gets the audience cheering - at a time when country stars are rushing to release pro-war anthems, this is practically punk rock.

Please. All that does is expose them as marching in lockstep with the Hollywood left. They're faux rebels, banjoed Barbiedolls cynically playing to the crowd--note that the quote above does not come from a concert in Nashville or anywhere else in flyover country, where it might have taken some guts to risk having half the crowd walk out the door.

One more thing: Earl wouldn't have done it that way.

La Fallacci

[Via Sofia Sideshow.] Oriana Fallacci is tortured by doubts on the eve of war, brought on by the delay in its commencement.

Cheating.

Linking to my post from last night on the other blog isn't really blogging, is it? On the other hand, at least I'm not reproducing it here in toto. That just seems worse, somehow.

Ok, call me a bitch.

But this just doesn't fucking move me. Probably because I react really negatively to unsubtle emotional manipulation (E.T. made me want to kick Spielberg's ass, for example.) My problems with this particular anti-war stance, in no particular order (or Things I Hate About the Cult of the Child):

--The idea that children are naturally gifted with insight into world politics. They aren't.
--The idea that a terminal disease multiplies a child's natural insight into world politics by a factor of 10. It doesn't.
--The idea that children can write poetry worth a damn. They can't.
--The idea that all you need is love. That one's been pretty well disproven over time.
--The idea that I'm supposed to feel bad about disagreeing with a terminally ill 12-year old. Fuck you, GMA.

It's not that I don't like children, I do. But I do not go to children for art lessons, music lessons, or political insight. Because those are things that require some discipline to acquire, and children have none.

And I've always wanted to see the Prado.

Via Instapundit, the Spanish PM criticizes the "material interests" of France, China, and Russia in Iraq--and echoes Portugal's statements re American military protection quoted below:

"What is the alternative to security today that the United States offers to the world? ... Can you really think about fighting against terrorism without the participation of the United States?" Aznar asked.

Possibly, if you've got a military budget that allows you to project force into a region without resorting to the use of tourist ferries. Or if you're just completely divorced from reality.

Oh, HELL no.

This is offensive on so many levels: Antiwar protestors trash 9/11 memorial. [Link via Juan Gato.] Warning to anti-war activist types: if you approach my private property with intent to "express yourself" via some kind of vandalism, I will express myself in return, and we're going to be doing the three-legged race to the hospital to have my foot removed from your ass. Period.

Rooting against the US military.

Among several others, Glenn Reynolds links to a Seattle Weekly page of blurbs which includes the following by (writer) Tom Robbins:

Quite probably the worst thing about the inevitable and totally unjustifiable war with Iraq is that there’s no chance the U.S. might lose it. America is a young country, and intellectually, emotionally, and physically, it has been exhibiting all the characteristics of an adolescent bully, a pubescent punk who’s too big for his britches and too strong for his age. Someday, perhaps, we may grow out of our mindless, pimple-faced arrogance, but in the meantime, it might do us a ton of good to have our butts kicked. Unfortunately, like most of the targets we pick on, Iraq is much too weak to give us the thrashing our continuously overbearing behavior deserves, while Saddam is even less deserving of victory than Bush.

That's an incredibly bad metaphor for a professional writer, particularly when applied to an event as serious as the sacrifice of lives far nobler than your own.

Don’t get me wrong—I don’t want American soldiers killed. But I don’t want Iraqis killed, either. I’m just not one of those people who believes that American lives are more valuable than the lives of others.

Iraqis are already being killed by Hussein. Evidently you are one of those who believes their lives are less important than your right to spout stupid anti-war invective.

The article is accompanied by an appropriately smug photo of Robbins in full "tsk" mode, raised forefinger and all. I'd like to kick his ass, in the spirit of doing him a ton of good.

Trying to compose myself.

Still laughing at the image of grim French special forces troops, Gauloises clamped between their lips, berets cocked at a jaunty angle, standing proud and alert...on the decks of fucking ferry boats.

Man...when the Portuguese mock your military impotence, you are scraping bottom.

Portugal officially added to the list of European countries I'd still like to visit.

The Portuguese foreign minister cuts through the diplospeak and explains why Portugal is siding with the US:

"Let us suppose Portugal, proper or its archipelagos, faced a threat, who would come to our rescue? The European Commission, France, Germany?

"I think it would be NATO who would come to our rescue, in other words, it would be the U.S., no one else would defend us. For instance, during the 1996 mission in Bosnia, operations took place with the support of 20 satellites, of which only one was European," and the remainder belonged to the U.S.

"If we were attacked, is that what they would offer to defend us? How curious is this: in Bosnia, when we were called to send soldiers urgently to that region, the U.S. had C-17 and C-130 planes, and France leased ferry boats, which during the summer are employed in tourist services to Corsica.

"Is this how we are supposed to project our forces in Europe? Are they planning to defend us with ferry boats? I cannot envisage the European Commission protecting us from an attack in which highly developed weapons were employed."

I can only imagine how that went over in Paris. [Link via Tim Blair.]

One of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Via Happy Fun Pundit, an amazing duet of love.

Things I won't comment on at length.

Because they've all been covered at length elsewhere and I have little or nothing to add:

Jimmy Carter's op/ed. Carter's a tool. Fuck 'm. I give him about as much credibility as I gave the op/ed by Castro the other day.

The Clinton/Dole 60 Minutes gig. Didn't see it. Won't see any of them, God willing.

That silly bitch Helen Thomas getting snubbed at a White House press conference. Helen Thomas RETIRED. She's a syndicated columnist now. Nobody cares, move the fuck on. [Link via LGF.]

Surrendering Iraqis. Because I have a feeling all those guys are probably dead already, and that strikes me as a grievously sad thing. [Link via CoffeeMuse at Museblog.]

Idle observation.

Just noticed there are now two ad banners above. Does this mean I acquire another banner for every month I don't actually pay Blogspot for hosting this?