Buzzzz!

Elena tagged me for this pollinating meme. Here's how it works:

What we're supposed to do in this exercise is act like journaling bees pollinating the literary flowers of the Internet. So remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place. Then add your blogs name in the #5 spot and link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross-pollination effect.

MOT -- http://motheroftwins.blogspot.com/
Indigo Girl -- http://indigogirl.typepad.com/linda/
Jamie -- http://selkie.typepad.com/selkie/
Elena -- http://mydomesticchurch.blogspot.com/
Susan B. -- http://lilacrose.nu/

New bees for the hive!
Tulip Girl
Such Small Hands
Princess Jami
Peppermint Patty
Miss O'Hara

"But I would not feel so all alone...everybody must get trolled..."

July must be "National Obnoxious Sanctimonious Troll Month". As you probably have noticed I've been getting hassled by a troll in my snake post, but this comment posted by some idiot woman named "Calli" on An American Housewife's blog is probably the lowest, nastiest thing I've ever seen. Pardon the language, but what a complete ass.

(Via Ilyka Damen, who says my troll is also a contender for the Troll Hall of Fame.)

Ewww...I actually went to InstaPundit...

And naturally I run right into a post that embodies everything I hate about the libertine libertoids. I read through some of the comments, but I had to stop, lest I lose every meal I've eaten over the past week or so. There are so many things wrong with the worldview of these people...I don't even know where to start.

No...come to think of it, actually I do know where to start. Andrea Harris quite effectively pours ice-cold water on overheated fantasies of consequence-free hedonism right here:

Now when I observe the tone of the culture that is presented to me from every media orifice, I can only wonder what its effect is on the more sensitive minds of teenagers, especially female teenagers. They are simultaneously told that their bodies are their own yet relentlessly mocked if they haven’t allowed another human to invade their most intimate spaces by the time they graduate high school. Women, the current crop of feminist high panjandrums say, were oppressed in the Bad Old Days because they were forced to be the sexual slaves of just one man. Now they get to be the sexual slaves of any man. I call this attitude “imagine a crotch being shoved into the human face, forever.” Perhaps the only way these girls feel they can escape the relentless press of the flesh is by shrinking themselves down to nothing.

I'm not going to open up comments on this entry because I'm in no mood to deal with trolls and other buttheads right now. My apologies to all my good commenters (and you know who you are).

A reminder about comments...

For your edification, you can read my comments policy here, here and here.

I bring this up because of the presence of a rude troll in this post. (Of all the posts that have open comments right now, this is the last post that I would have thought would attract even the most whacked-out, moonbattiest trolls. Go figure.)

I didn't remove his first comment, even though it was rude, because I thought it deserved a response because of some very unfair charges he made against me. Then he continued to be arrogant and rude in the second comment. I made one final response to him and banned both of the IPs he has used.

I will not tolerate people coming to my site and being rude and abusive to me. I also will not put up with people being rude and abusive to other commenters. (I may make an exception if the recipient of the rudeness is a troll.) If I decide to remove a comment, I will remove any responses to that comment as well to prevent confusion.

It's incidents like this that push me closer to having moderated comments (where the comments don't show up unless I approve them) or commenting by registration only.

I have no problem with people disagreeing with me. Disagree with me all you want -- just don't be a jerk about it and mind your manners. Disagreeing with me does not make you a troll. Being a rude butthead is what makes you a troll.

The Slime Campaign

I knew that the smearing and sliming of John Roberts (President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court) would be commencing soon. However, it's starting faster than even I suspected.

And faux-blogger Wonkette is such a shallow hack, she makes Maureen Dowd look like a woman of substance and depth in comparison.

(Via Relapsed Catholic.)

I Shot a Snake Today

My Mom woke me up about 8:45 this morning to tell me that my sister had a snake next to her patio and she wanted me to bring my pistol over so she could shoot it. (I asked my Mom why my sister didn't just call animal control. I'm sure you're wondering the same thing. She said her husband didn't want her to. Whatever.) I was pretty angry, not so much at being woke up, because I had plenty of sleep, but because I wanted to take a bath and get woke up. I spoke to my sister, we argued and I relented. I had already started drawing some bath water, so I just rinsed off with it a little, got dressed, got the pistol and its magazine containing seven bullets, and went over. My Mom went with me.

It was a water moccasin and it was coiled around one of my sister's tomato plants. She had almost picked a tomato, which was right next to the thing's head, when she saw it. God was looking after her, because if that thing would have bit her, she could have died -- they are very poisonous. It had been so long since I shot -- the closest shooting range closed down several years ago -- I asked if I could shoot it. Besides, I really hate snakes.

The snake was probably less than ten feet from my sister's back door. I positioned myself by the doorway so I could bolt if the snake came after me. My sister was positioned to bolt into the yard. My Mom was watching from the doorway. I could see part of its body coiled around where the tomato bush was, but I could not see its head.

I crouched down and took the first shot at the part of the snake I could see. He writhed around a bit and then was still. I found out why they make you wear those ear protectors at the range. The best way I can describe what a gun going off does to your hearing is that it's very much like when you've been at a loud rock concert for a couple of hours.

I shot him two or three more times. Each time he would writhe around and then be still. The gun got jammed at one point, since it needs cleaning. My sister told me to aim for his head. She said it was right next to some tomatoes, one of which was ripe. I aimed for the tomatoes and down a bit and shot. He sort of jolted and was still again. We thought he might be dead. I had two more bullets and we decided to shoot him a couple more times to make sure he was dead. I could only shoot him one more time because the last bullet kept jamming. He didn't writhe after I shot him that last time, so we figured he was dead.

My sister got a broom handle and carefully lifted the tomato bush and the net around it and then lifted out the snake's body. He wasn't dead, but he was in bad shape. I felt bad about this, because I wished I could have killed him quicker and more mercifully. My sister said that it looked like I hit him at least four times, including his head area (around where his neck is -- if you could say that snakes have necks). The tip of his head (his fangs, perhaps) was caught up in the net my sister had around the tomato bush. I would say the snake was between three and four feet long. My sister took an axe and finished him off by chopping off his head. (I couldn't watch this.)

After this little adventure was over, we were all dripping with sweat -- I was glad I hadn't had my bath yet, because I would have needed another one anyway. I was glad to be able to shoot again, because it had been so long. And because I've been so stressed lately about a variety of things, I felt a sense of release after shooting. (That's one reason I used to love to go to the range -- it's a great way to work off stress.) And I have to say I did pretty good considering I hadn't shot in years and I hadn't even had any caffeine yet.

The problem with so many journalists...

...is demonstrated by the exchange Hugh Hewitt recently had with sportswriter Dayne Perry. This post on Lex Communis has the good part and some great commentary to go with it. (Thanks to Kathy Shaidle.)

I found this exchange particularly interesting because I recently finished listening to the audiobook of Witness by Whittaker Chambers. When I was younger, I was led to believe that there were no communist spies in high places -- that it was all a bunch of silly cold-war paranoia. I was led to believe that there were only kindly, wise, peace-loving liberals who were accused of being communists by the evil, warmongering right-wingers.

I fell for this fairy tale and didn't question it all that much. When I wrote a research paper about McCarthyism in high school for my AP American History class, I remember my sources pretty much agreeing that Alger Hiss got a raw deal. I dutifully parroted this line of thinking and got an A- on the paper.

Long before I read (or rather, listened to) Witness, I started to question the "received wisdom" on this matter. It seems I vaguely remember hearing a few years ago about documents that confirm that Alger Hiss was indeed a spy for the Soviet Union. These documents are the Venona files that Hugh Hewitt brings up in the transcript linked above. As Kathy Shaidle points out here, the Venona files were made public ten years ago.

When I listened to Witness, I remember feeling so angry with these people. Here they were, living in freedom in this country, living in their nice houses, driving their nice cars and doing all their nice upper-middle-class things. And at the very same time, they were trying to destroy this country and destroy all those nice things and the freedom that makes them possible. If Alger Hiss (and Whittaker Chambers, before he rejected communism) had his way, the same miserable, squalid existence forced on the Russian people would have been forced on us.

Yes, this makes me angry. I'm glad these people were exposed. The media's and Hollywood's successful whitewashing of Hiss and others like him makes me angry, too. While McCarthy was wrong in the way he went about things, he was not wrong about the problem. And say what you want about the sleazy things Nixon did later when he was President -- when it came to the Hiss trial, he did the right thing.

Great Rant/Observations from a Military Blogger

I was doing a bit of blog-surfing before going to church this morning. One post I ran across was some lefty Christian blogger dumping on the military. Typical and not surprising, but it still makes me angry.

Then, this afternoon, Dean's World directs me to a great post by a military blogger who is currently serving in Iraq. I agree with Dean...it is required reading. Especially for those who buy into the media's BS and for lefty Christian bloggers who like to dump on the military. Some excerpts:

I laugh when I hear idiots rant about the weapons America allegedly sold Saddam.... Where are all the American planes, tanks, bombs, missiles, rockets, munitions, rifles, mines, etc.??? How come they look so - Russian? Is that also some kind of sinister Bush/Halliburton/Israeli scheme? Oh I get it - Dow Chemicals sold Saddam some fertilizer 25 years ago that was used for non-fertilizing purposes. Riiiiight.... [...]

I hope to see a free, secure Iraq someday soon. I am working hard for that. I am working hard to stop terrorists from stealing that hope and vision from the majority of Iraqis. I hope politicians quit striving to portray this effort as a failure in order to gain political ground. I hope the MSM quits LYING and starts reporting the other side of Iraq - the 98% that is positive.... I'm not holding my breath.

Blogger Fights a Fascist Regime

Jane at Armies of Liberation has been taking on the Yemeni government. Things like this are downright inspiring.

(Via Dean's World.)

One last entry on "Plamegate"...

Again, one more post for my sister (when she gets a chance to visit my blog) on the media hype known as the Plame controversy:

• As the Anchoress points out here, it turns out that Rove was only repeating what the media told him:

  Still…I gotta say, one of the reasons I didn’t spend a lot of time writing about this “story” was because I knew - I just knew - that in the end, the thing would blow up in the press’ face. This is what Bush does all the time - plays his hand close to the vest, lets the other side get crazed, waits until they have a big press-gushing moment, when they are sure they have won - (and allowing them to expose their own vindictiveness)…then he lays down his cards.

  If he and Rove knew from the start that the baby was Novak - as it appears they did - they had no reason to play things any way but as they did. I must say, it takes a man with a strong stomach and a pair of big brass ones to put up with all the churning whirlwinds, when they know the truth…but I guess you can do it if you know that all the crap will eventually blowback onto those working against you, and will ultimately hurt them.

• The Anchoress then links to a very comprehensive roundup of this whole "scandal" by Fat Steve.
• This post by Baldilocks reveals why Ms. Plame's identity was not such a well-guarded secret after all.
• And finally (and I do mean finally), Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities addresses Plamegate in his inimitable way.

And that is my third and final post on this subject. Hopefully, I can now return to ignoring politics again for a while.

Update: **sigh** Okay, I have to break my word here. There is one more thing I must link:

Via LGF: Andrew C. McCarthy -- Did the CIA “Out” Valerie Plame?

Have you heard that the CIA is actually the source responsible for exposing Plame's covert status? Not Karl Rove, not Bob Novak, not the sinister administration cabal du jour of Fourth Estate fantasy, but the CIA itself? Had you heard that Plame's cover has actually been blown for a decade — i.e., since about seven years before Novak ever wrote a syllable about her? Had you heard not only that no crime was committed in the communication of information between Bush administration officials and Novak, but that no crime could have been committed because the governing law gives a person a complete defense if an agent's status has already been compromised by the government? [...]

You see, if you really want to know what the media think of the Plame case — if you want to discover what a comparative trifle they actually believe it to be — you need to close the paper and turn off the TV. You need, instead, to have a peek at what they write when they're talking to a court. It's a mind-bendingly different tale.

Update on Lee Anne

She's doing much better.

Thank God.

Update (7/16/05): Lee Anne is home from the hospital!

This Plame stuff still makes me yawn...

My sister may find her way to my blog pretty soon. She's really into this Plame story, so this post is for her. I've previously posted on this subject exactly once. I'm just going to link to a few posts on this subject that elucidate why I think this whole issue is a yawner.

The Anchoress (who is always a must-read) has a post wherein she sums up the points brought up in this post (and the comments) on PoliPundit.

Also, I finally found the amusing photo I told my sister about of Plame schmoozing with celebrities. Yes, it was after this whole controversy started, but still, it doesn't look like she's exactly hiding from the limelight.

And this post by Bunnie Diehl shows that not all conservatives are fans of Karl Rove. Personally, all I have to say about him is that he's very good at what he does. You can say the exact same thing about James Carville. They are both political operatives and their job is to help their candidates get votes and push their respective political agendas by any means necessary.

Now, I hope my sister doesn't automatically discount my opinions or the opinions of the above linked bloggers because they are right-leaning. Believe it or not, conservatives are not all a bunch of lying, biased, unthinking rubes. And liberals are not all upright, objective, deep-thinking intellectuals.

Update: Dean Esmay also thinks this Plame/Rove brouhaha is a yawner (and he's not even a conservative). bRight & Early says all that needs saying. ;-) And finally, there's this Day by Day cartoon.

I love this website!

I'm terribly behind in my blog reading, among other things, but I have seen this site linked by both Dean and Andrea:

We're Not Afraid!

I may slap together my own contribution...

Update (7/13/05): LGF posts about how one Sarah Boxer at the New York Times thinks the website is "brutish" and is "turning into a place where the haves of the world can show that they're not afraid of the have-nots."

Yes, it's just so mean to let terrorists who blow up innocent people know that they are not going to intimidate you. We must be more compassionate to the poor, oppressed terrorists and not do anything that "humiliates" them or makes them feel inferior, otherwise they may hurt us again! [/sarcasm]

Now I'm definitely going to have to contribute an entry! I wouldn't want to miss out on any "brutish flaunting of wealth and leisure."

I'm back!

I'm back online again! My power came back on about an hour after my last update on the previous post (about 6:00pm). However, my cable had gone out and I just got it back a few minutes ago. Like I said in my post below, my house has no damage and we are all fine. The power was only out for three hours. We only had a few small branches that fell in our yard. I didn't go back to work today, but I figure we should go back in the next day or two.

They keep saying that Pensacola "dodged a bullet" and that is absolutely true. This could have been much worse. But the storm weakened some (although it was still a category 3) and went to the east of us, which really spared us the worse. It also went through very quickly, which also helped tremendously. However, the counties to the east of us were hit pretty hard, so I'm sure they are in much worse shape than we are here.

I really appreciate everyone's prayers...they really worked and God was very merciful. I thank God for sparing us the worst.

Hurricane Dennis (Here We Go Again!)

So Dennis is on his way and he will be either a very strong category 3 or a category 4 when he makes landfall. (Ivan was a category 4 until just before landfall -- the winds dropped about 5 miles/hour, making it a very strong 3.) The computer models show a landfall somewhere between the Mississippi/Alabama border and Pensacola, FL (which is where I'm at). I've done all the preparing I can do, so now we just have to wait. Right now, we are getting some heavy rain from one of the feeder bands.

I will try to check in with updates to this post periodically. This thing is supposed to hit tomorrow afternoon. (At least it will be during daylight and not during the night like Ivan.) Once the power goes out, I can't promise that I'll be able to check in. I have my iBook, and if the cable stays up, I will try to check in. (I will be able to get a limited amount of power to the modem with my UPS.) But don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for a while.

Anyway, say a little prayer for those of us here on the Gulf Coast as we face yet another major hurricane in less than a year.

Here is a satellite picture of Dennis:

(Click for larger view.)

Update (7/10 - 1:00am): I'm about to hit the hay and I just wanted to check in here. There's not much going on right now except for some light rain. Also, as an off-topic aside, I have some (mostly) new songs in the radio blog on the sidebar (under "Site Extras"). A couple of the songs are ones I uploaded a few months ago. I uploaded a few more songs a couple of weeks ago and I uploaded three more tonight. One of the songs is appropriate for the subject of this post. ;-)

Update (8:30am): The storm is now a category 4. It's been raining here all morning with a few gusts of wind. It's not too bad yet. I noticed in the latest tracking that it is going due north rather than northwest. I don't know if this is a trend or a little wobble.

Update (8:45am): My cable Internet connection is acting up, so if the updates stop, that means I lost Internet access.

Update (9:45am): The wind is picking up some, but it's still not too bad yet. The power flashed a couple of times earlier and I heard a transformer somewhere blow. It seems to be moving more northward -- it may make landfall at someplace like Destin or Fort Walton Beach. Or it could make landfall here. We'll see...

Update (10:30am): It's about the same as earlier except we got a few good gusts of wind a few minutes ago.

Update (11:10am): The power just flashed off and on and the winds are getting worse now.

Update (11:30am): It's getting pretty bad here now. Once again, my house sounds (and looks, since it's daylight this time) like it's in a dishwasher.

Update (12:00pm): Things are still about the same and I still have power.

Update (12:15pm): Here's a radar shot of Dennis looming offshore:

(Click for larger view.)

Update (12:40pm): Really heavy rain, lots of strong wind. The power has flashed a couple of times, but we haven't lost it yet.

Update (1:30pm): The wind is starting to get kind of scary. It looks like the storm may make landfall a little to the east of us (the Navarre Beach area). This is good for us, because that means we will get the western side of the storm rather than the eastern side. The western side isn't as intense. Ivan went slightly to the west of us, which means we got the worst part of that storm. Also, Dennis is moving much faster than Ivan did. That means it will get out of here faster rather than sitting on top of us and pounding us for hours like Ivan did.

Update (2:20pm): Dennis has weakened to a category 3 and is making landfall now around Navarre. Navarre is about 45 minutes away from here. It's still raining with lots of wind. Sometimes we get some scary gusts. But I have to say, so far, this isn't nearly as bad as Ivan was. Not even close.

Update (2:50pm): Right now, we are getting the heaviest rains and highest winds yet. This is because the eye is passing just east of us in the Gulf Breeze/Navarre area. We still have power so far, although it has flashed a few times.

Update (3:10pm): Power is out. I'll try to check in when I can.

Update (5:05pm): My power is out and my cable modem is running on an UPS. We are okay and my home was not damaged. The water and telephone are still working. We lost power when the storm was at its very worst. However, the storm moved out very quickly. According to the radio, Pensacola came through this pretty well.

Prayers Needed for Lee Anne

Lee Anne Millinger, who has had ongoing health problems and is in need of a kidney transplant, is very ill and has been hospitalized. Please pray for her.

Pre-Hurricane Craziness

Still traumatized by Ivan, everyone is taking Hurricane Dennis very seriously. I went to the grocery store yesterday to stock up on a few things and it was a madhouse. I had a bunch of bottled water already, but I thought I would buy some more. The shelves were almost wiped clean, but I managed to get a few bottles. I also bought lots of soda and juice. I didn't need lamp oil or candles because I still had plenty from last year. (I had bought a whole bunch the very day our power finally came back on.) I bought a whole bunch of non-perishable food. And I got some more batteries as well. And ice, of course.

Both my car and the jeep are mostly full (both have 3/4 of a tank). I thought I might top off the jeep while I was out but I quickly nixed that idea. The gas stations were either out of gas or had huge, long lines. I may try again this afternoon (they are closing the base early), because I've heard they are bringing more gas in.

This town is still trying to recover from Ivan, and it just doesn't seem fair for this to be happening again 10 months later. But life isn't fair, is it?

In Solidarity with the British

Dawn Eden links to this excellent post by Robert N. Going which reminds us of how the British stood with us after 9/11. We owe it to them to stand with them now. My prayers are with the British people.

Flag image is from Are You Conservative?, found via Andrea Harris.

Very American!

Like Jen, I think I'm actually 100% American:

You Are 85% American

You're as American as red meat and shooting ranges. Tough and independent, you think big. You love everything about the US, wrong or right. And anyone who criticizes your home better not do it in front of you!

London Terrorist Attack

Dean's World has a comprehensive post with lots of links on this developing story. One observation by Dean:

They're saying on the news now that the explosions have been going off over a period of two hours and that there have been multiple cases of these delayed double-bombs. They're saying that's an old IRA trick but something in my gut says this isn't the IRA this time.

Same here. I'm sure we'll know soon enough.

Update: Found via Dean's trackbacks: Mark in Mexico links to a post by Art Chrenkoff reporting that Al-Qaida has claimed responsibility.

A message for Cindy and Dennis...

Go away!

Git! Stay away!

Update (7/6/05): Cindy's gone and didn't affect us that much -- just some wind and rain early this morning. Hurricane Dennis is another matter. It's definitely going to head into the Gulf in a couple of days.

Independence Day

This day is not a day to celebrate for me, since it is the day my brother passed away. He died of a brain tumor eight years ago.

Via Ilyka Damen, I recently learned of a blogger who has suffered a devastating loss this past week. An American Housewife has lost her husband.

I want to wish everyone a happy Independence Day. In addition to being grateful for our country and the freedoms we enjoy, be grateful for your family and loved ones. You never know when you will no longer have them.

Birthday

Yes, today is my birthday. Here's what happened the year I was born:

I've been thinking this, but someone else said it...

Via Relapsed Catholic comes this post at Some Have Hats:

To me, the very basic argument about the "holiness" of the Koran is this: either the angel Gabriel has MPD, or the Koran is, at best, a work of fiction. It is so elementary, I am always amazed that I never hear anyone (except me and a few evangelicals who, God bless them, are not too hip to believe in the devil) say it. The Angel Gabriel who dictated the Koran and the Angel Gabriel who told Mary that she was about to be impregnated by the Holy Spirit and give birth to Jesus, cannot be the same Angel Gabriel. Because Angel Gabriel #2 does not believe in the divinity of Jesus.

Since I'm one of those archaic idiots who still believes in the devil, I believe the second Angel Gabriel was an imposter. The fact that the intent of Islam is to covert the world and thereby wipe out Judaism and Christianity would seem, to my simple mind, to be proof enough of its origin.

Ugly Dog

Here is Sam, the world's ugliest dog: