Thanksgiving

I have a wonderful life.

Some of that is attributable to my own decisions and work. More of it is attributable to the good decisions of my parents and their hard work. As it is also attributable to the decisions made by my grandparents and their hard work. And for these I am thankful.

But the one decision to which I most owe my incredible life, was the decision made by my great-grandparents to get on the boat. Because without the opportunity afforded by this great nation, all of the hard work and life decisions made by our subsequent generations would have come to naught.

I am so grateful to have been born an American.

I am so thankful to be a citizen of this incredible country which affords it's people opportunities for a magnificent life that are unknown in other corners of the globe, indeed, have been unimagined for the scope of human history. I give thanks for this amazing society, that has abandoned the comfort of barbaric tribalism for the opportunity made possible by individual freedom. I give thanks for this society, so improbable in its creation, so fragile, who's continued existence, let alone dominance, is far from assured.

On this day, and every day, I give thanks to America. And all who would protect her from the wolves prowling in the outer darkness.

Grendel Lives

Opening tonight. Beowulf???

That's kind of over-estimating the 13-21 year old male demographic's familiarity with Middle English.

Holy crap! It's written by Neil Gaiman??? What's up wit dat?

Oops!

Haven't we been shorting counter-insurgency just so we can prepare for the big row with the Chinese peer competitor?

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.

By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

...The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines.

And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it.

Out of Control

Tis the Season for inanery...

THERE'LL be no ho, ho, ho this Christmas. Aspiring Santas have been told not to use the term "ho" because it could be seen as derogatory to women.

Thirty trainees at a Santa course in Adelaide last month, held by recruitment company Westaff, were urged to replace the traditional festive greeting with "ha, ha, ha".

Man, we are out of control...

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Happy Birthday!

Semper fidelis, dudes...

Why Is That?

You know, you never see a serial killer claim that he was a victim of profiling.

They made a goddamn TV show about it fer chrissakes!

And This Just In... General Francisco Franco Is STILL Dead!

A little late for the round up but the NJ GOP held its own on Election Day - losing one seat in the Senate and picking up two in the Assembly. Considering the amount of money the Dems spent, the natural leftward listing of the state in general and unpopularity of the President, holding your own is very nearly a crushing victory.

Perhaps voters are finally coming to understand why people are leaving NJ in record numbers?

Congrats to Senators-elect Bill Baroni and Jennifer Beck, Assemblyman-elect Declan O'Scanlon and all the other GOP victors.

12 Myths

Ralph Peters, brilliant as always, debunks 12 myths of 21st Century warfare. It's succinct, and powerfully true.

Myth No. 1: War doesn't change anything.

...Certainly, not all of the changes warfare has wrought through the centuries have been positive. Even a just war may generate undesirable results, such as Soviet tyranny over half of Europe after 1945. But of one thing we may be certain: a U.S. defeat in any war is a defeat not only for freedom, but for civilization. Our enemies believe that war can change the world. And they won't be deterred by bumper stickers.

ZEPPELIN RULZ!

The Kid hates it, HATES IT, when people steal his ideas.

He had this idea 15 years ago! Where where the venture capitalists knocking down his door???

A luxury airship for cruises. Can you imagine a cruise overland to all the major European capitals? People will PAY for this goddammit!

Kid Various could have gotten in on the
ground floor. Oh the humanity!

VOTE OR DIE!!!

With apologies to P. Diddy...

Death of Culture

Steyn has a pretty good post in the New Criterion about the 20th anniversary of Alan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind" and Kid Various thinks he should dust off his copy and take a re-read.

Specifically pointed is the fact that, unleashed from the moorings of the western canon - contemporary popular culture has no means of reference. If you haven't read Corinthians, you can't possibly understand this:



And you certainly can't understand the brilliance of "What's Opera, Doc?" That thing is a six minute long Wagner joke.

This is why so many of our mad popular reference skillz go so underappreciated. It's OK though. We're not posting for you and the rest of the hoi polloi. We're solely amusing ourselves.

That's It. Society Has Officially Collapsed...

Kid Various hates MADD. Remember in 1995 when Congress, in an unspeakable act of rationality, allowed states to set their own speed limits? (The signal achievement of the Republican Revolution btw...) It was going to be "CARNAGE ON AMERICA'S HIGHWAYS!!!!"

What happened? Traffic deaths continued to decline and we all got a better shot at getting to GODDAMN WORK ON TIME!

Really, what do these people have against anyone enjoying themselves and how did we give these idiots so much power?^{via Instapundit}

On a May night in 2005, Debra Bolton, a lawyer and single mom from the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, was leaving the Café Milano in Georgetown after socializing with some friends. She had driven her SUV only a few hundred yards before she was pulled over by D.C. police for driving with the headlights off. She told the officer the parking attendant at Café Milano probably had turned off her vehicle's automatic light feature.

Not mollified, the officer asked Bolton to step out of the car, walk in a straight line, recite the alphabet, stand on one foot, and count to 30. He checked her eyes for suspicious jerkiness and insisted on a breath test for alcohol.

The breath test revealed that Bolton's blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.03 percent, a level a 120-pound woman could expect after drinking one glass of wine. It was well below the 0.08 percent limit that marks a driver as legally intoxicated in D.C. It was not low enough for the arresting officer, however. This middle-aged mother of two, who hadn't drunk to excess, who hadn't run a red light or run a stop, was arrested, handcuffed, and fingerprinted for an innocent mistake. She sat in a jail cell for hours and was finally released at 4:30 a.m. Bolton spent four court appearances and over $2,000 fighting a $400 ticket. She then spent a month fighting to get her license back after refusing to submit to the 12-week alcohol counseling program.

The arresting officer, inaptly named Dennis Fair, insists: "If you get behind the wheel of a car with any measurable amount of alcohol, you will be dealt with in D.C. We have zero tolerance....Anything above 0.01, we can arrest." Fair recognized that nearly everyone in D.C. was unaware of this zero tolerance policy. Still, he told The Washington Post, if "you don't know about it, then you're a victim of your own ignorance."

.03??? The Kid is a t .03 right now!!!

If Only You Knew The POWER Of The Dork Side!!

Reasons 1027 & 1028 why The Kid loves New York City:

# 1027 He can learn Ataru.

# 1028 Cute dork chicks!

Ish-Fal

Why does Kid Various find this strangely appealing?

Oh yeah. She's giving us a taste of the pon farr...

Although, really, The Kid has always maintained that, once you go blue - you'll always be true!

[PARIS] Antennae are hot...