POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Disagreeing with Ace on Body Scanners, Pat Downs

Ace wonders whether we're making too big a deal about this, and whether it's kind of duplicitous of "conservatives" to want security and at the same time react so strongly against these means and procedures. He says, in closing, yeah, he'd go for El Al-style security measures (i.e., screw the anti-profiling cant), but that's not realistic.

Personally, I don't care much about some gloved ninny touching my junk through my trousers, but I understand that some people do. I don't fly enough for the backscatter machines to put my cancer into remission, either, but I respect the probably much better judgment of people who want to see FDA data about this shit before they do. How do the Roentgens compare, for example, to acceptable levels of basement radon?

I haven't looked at the comments, but I imagine he's getting an earful. In my opinion, it's a terrible idea to roll over to the TSA and their governmental backers, because it's a slippery slope.

We already know how invasive Obama and company want to be with respect to our personal finances and electronic communications. We know that they believe government agencies have a right to a variety of kinds of medical information that up until this point have been confidential---that despite Barry's refusal to share his own medical records with his employers, offering a paragraph of air in their place---in exchange for "free" medical care. We also know that despite all of this hunger for control, it's a crime to ask anyone to carry identification to the polls or prove citizenship to a police officer in Arizona.

We know they want to prevent us from acquiring ammunition, using oil, using regular light bulbs, eating salt, or drinking alcoholic beverages with caffeine in them. They'd like your cell phone to shut down your car, or vice-versa, whether it's being used by the driver or passenger.

It's too much. They've gone WAY too far. They've made things swell for everyone else at the continued cost of those who respect the law. Fuck 'em. They want to show us that we are subjects of a sovereign government that makes its own law (for our good). This is as good a place as any, and timely, too, to push back.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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DWTS Mania [UPDATED by Dan]

I'm only watching the show as background noise while Mrs. Snaqwells watches intently, but the high I get from the schadenfreude is strong enough that I'll be voting for Bristol Palin next Monday evening.  I'll call in on my phone.  I'll call in on my wife's phone.  I'll text on both phones.  And I'll get online and vote until my fingers bleed.

Whatever it takes to make Schultz's head explode, I'm all in.

UPDATE: Larry O'Donnell accuses Sarah Palin of destroying the English language. What's more American than that?

Adam Wells

Living life at 84 mph and 7000 feet. All I ask is that you don't block traffic, act like a professional, and don't act all surprised when your actions have consequences. Oh, and don't complain about the refs; trust me, they don't care if your team wins or not.

Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Eric Holder Has To Go

Ed Morrissey lays it out:

The failure of Holder’s DoJ to win anything more than a single conspiracy count against Ghailani as a result of using a process designed for domestic criminals than wartime enemies shows that the critics had it right all along. It also shows that both Obama and Holder have been proven spectacularly wrong, since a man who confessed to the murder of over two hundred people will now face no more than 20 years, with a big chunk of whatever sentence Foopie receives being reduced by time already served.

The administration is left with three choices in regards to Ghailani: announce that they will release him at the appointed date whenever his sentence ends, announce that they will hold him indefinitely without regard to the court’s ruling on the matter while referring the case back to a military commission despite his acquittals, or refuse to state which they will do and hope the issue falls to the next administration. The first will mean that the US will knowingly release a master al-Qaeda terrorist with more than two hundred murders under his belt; the second will mean that the trial they staged was nothing but a sham. And the third will be a cowardly dodge.

Such is the state in which Holder as Attorney General has left the US. Either the US is so inept that it will eventually release a man who attacked two of its embassies abroad (which was an act of war by al-Qaeda) or that the DoJ may commit an impeachable act by knowingly submitting a defendant to double jeopardy, whether in this administration or a future administration. By committing to the civilian criminal system and assigning judicial jurisdiction where it never belonged, those are the only options left.

I don't know what else I can add to Ed's analysis, except for what I wrote at RightNetwork in response to a ridiculous GQ piece about Holder.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Tony Parker’s-Eye View of Erin Barry [UPDATE]

I knew you all were desperate to see this photo, so I tracked it down here.

Poor Erring. All she did was want to be wanted more than Eva Longoria. By Eva Longoria's husband. Is that so bad?

And, dude: In this context there just has to be a better expression than "red handed."

UPDATE: Lots more views of Erin Barry, here.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Reservation Booked for Presidential Suite in Hell Hotel

This terrible story out of Milton, Massachusetts is upsetting.

The victim was black, in his mid teens to early 20’s, wearing only jeans and gray boxer shorts. His body was found about 9:30 p.m. Monday, Wells said.

The young man was about 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighed no more than 120 pounds and had an athletic build and close-cropped hair, the chief said.

The man had no wallet or tattoos, the chief said, but his left ear was pierced.

The man’s cause of death remains under investigation. He was so badly mauled that police were unsure whether he had been killed elsewhere and dumped, or if he was dragged. Gruesome remains were scattered at the scene.

This one, though, is beyond comprehension:

Fifteen-month-old Charlie Hunt died of severe head injuries after Darren Newton allegedly carried out a series of sadistic attacks for his "wicked pleasure".

A court heard Newton, 32, recorded his cruelty on a mobile phone while alone with the lad when his unsuspecting mother was out. He even gave the clips gloating titles.

They included "Crying, no toys in pen, ahhhh", "Squeezing toe in cot", "Two minutes of pain" and "Shivering, no water" - taken of Charlie naked in an empty bath.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a big advocate of innocent till proven guilty and an opponent of the death penalty, but sometimes . . . .

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Dancing with the Stars TV Shooter, Scooter Libby, Julian Assange

Steven Cowell, the guy who shot his TV on Monday night, turns out to be from Verona, Wisconsin, just west of Madison off of scenic Hwy. 151, rather than from Black Earth. His wife went to the cops in Black Earth after he allegedly pointed the shotgun used in the television murder at her, then demanded she retrieve the pistols their daughter confiscated for safekeeping, apparently because he had shown some earlier signs of being unhinged. According to her police statement, he's bi-polar and under a lot of financial stress. You can read the police report at The Smoking Gun.

Ed Schultz, who can be baited into stupidity on practically any pretext, devoted a portion of last night's program to bitching about the DWTS voting. I'm glad to see that the elections taught Proggies that they're focused on the important stuff.

Curtis Got Slapped by a White Teacher! is one of the most singularly wacked out documents that you will ever read, and soon, I suppose, to be a major motion picture. Stay with it. The Gravy Train starts kind of slowly, but then builds up momentum and careers off the rails spectacularly.

Muslim bridge builder who allegedly beheaded wife at TV studios claims brutality at hands of his jailers.

Quin Hillyer interviews Scooter Libby about his trumped up perjury conviction, makes pointless appeal to Obama. Not that it's a big deal, but I think that this interview should have gone to Clarice Feldman.

Julian Assange may soon be subject of an international warrant, so look for another inaccurate movie starring Sean Penn.

Teh Funny!

Suggestions for TSA theme song come from Snarky Basterd, and Iowahawk, whose remark that song parody is the lowest form of humor is clearly a thinly veiled jab at someone.

Progressive Douchebag Watch is promoting the new Obama movie, based on a true story.

Keen wankers are disappointed with backscatter airport scanner pics.

More, eftsoons.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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The Loss of a Friend

Mick was a moderator for an officiating board that I've participated in now for almost eight years.  You might be surprised to know the passions that can flare between referees when discussing the intricacies of a backcourt violation, a pick-off move to 2nd base, or the newest offensive formation.  In the middle of that, mick was an arbiter of arbiters; keeping a level head and reminding us when we crossed a line.  He was a good friend; always willing to offer his insights and knowledge.

One of the weird things about the way the internet has evolved is just how close we can get to people we've never met face to face.  It's an amazing phenomenon, and I have dozens of people whom I consider close friends that I've only seen in text and digital pictures.  There are a few more whom I've only met once or twice, yet their influence on me has been profoundly positive and positively profound.  Life in the 21st century is vastly different than even at the end of the 20th.

With this comes a fairly new experience; experiencing the loss of friends we've never actually seen face to face.  That such a loss could shake me this much is a testament to the power of the internet and, even more so, the nature of the man.  I've been involved in social interaction on the internet for 13 years now, and mick is the first such friend of mine who has died in all that time.

Rest in His Peace, Mick Chambers, the final horn has sounded.  Knock back a cold one for the rest of us.

Adam Wells

Living life at 84 mph and 7000 feet. All I ask is that you don't block traffic, act like a professional, and don't act all surprised when your actions have consequences. Oh, and don't complain about the refs; trust me, they don't care if your team wins or not.

Star Wackers: Are They Targeting Harrison Ford?

Judging by this video, I'm concerned.

Reports of liberals following the Quaids to Canada.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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The Black Earth Stand Off, Bristol Palin, Voting, Merit

Contessa Brewer is very, very disappointed with you, if you've been freeping Dancing with the Stars in order to boost Bristol Palin, because you're a bad person, and it's a kind of fraud.

Black Earth, Wisconsin, is a scenic little town at a crossroads in the Kettle Moraine, north of Madison, famous for a wonderful footwear store that got some UW athletes in trouble by giving them deals on shoes, if I recall correctly. Some 67-year-old dude there got so pissed off that singer Brandy was booted and Bristol retained, that he blasted his TV with a shotgun, then pointed the gun at his wife. Ten hours later he surrendered to police.

As John Nolte notes:

The very same people who want to give every kid a trophy, end score-keeping in sports, and graduate illiterates because self-esteem is more important than being employable, have suddenly discovered the importance of competition — which can only be good for America.

Furthermore, we now have actual bona fide Leftists enraged over the idea of voter fraud and calling for stronger verification measures to ensure one person, one vote. Yes, this counter-intuitive left-wing thinking might be directed at a reality show, but the road out of the darkside often begins with a single step.

Exactly right. Who can have been using violent rhetoric to whip people into a frenzy over this nontroversy? I blame Tammy Bruce.

It's going to be fun to see whether anyone at Kos weighs in, after Chris Bowers' ACTION ALERT!!! scheme to freep Google, prior to the election. Not that Google needs much freeping to support lefty causes, but there you have it.

Dancing with the Stars polls have consequences. On the other hand, House Dems elected Pelosi to their leadership again, so, it's going to take awhile for this to trickle up.

*******

And as Stacy points out in what promises to be a multi-part fisking of Sarah Palin's uterus' Dr. Livingstone, it's not just Bristol who's got them frothing at the mouth.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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