Memorial Day, 2012

It's Memorial Day.

And this tribute is one of the things that helps me remember why we have it. This image, too.

And then there's this AP photo by Danny Johnston, guaranteed to make your heart feel glad.

Enjoy your holiday.

Golden Gate Bridge

On this date 75 years ago, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened in California — for pedestrians only on the first day and for motorized traffic the next.

In honor of this anniversary, this is the picture you see today if you use the Bing search site.

Pakistan — Ally or Enemy?

Let's look at a little bit of logic:

1. If Pakistan is our ally, then Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are its enemies. In that case, a Pakistani that helped identify where bin Laden was hiding was behaving in a patriotic manner.
2. If Pakistan is our enemy, the Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda may be its allies. In that case, a Pakistani that helped identify where bin Laden was hiding was behaving in a treasonous manner.

Pakistan arrested the doctor they charged with helping identify where Osama bin Laden was hiding. He has now been convicted of treason, and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Since Pakistan is our enemy, as declared by its own actions, why are we still sending them so much aid?

All You Gotta Do ...

... just add eight more zeroes.

If it's nuts in one case, it's nuts in the other.

If a Catholic Tree Falls in the Forest

Offered without comment
(no comment needed)

The Chipmunk in the Small Chair

A year after the event, there still seem to be questions about the Situation Room picture the White House released shortly after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. That picture is apparently often referred to as the "Chipmunk in the Small Chair" photo.

And there's a reason for that. "Shortly after the release of the photo, a Swedish paper made the observation that the photo was manipulated and Obama looks like a midget in the chair despite his six-foot-plus stature."

Of course, the way Team Obama would really like everyone to remember the event is reflected in the picture looking like this. (It's something I got by e-mail.)

Terrorists Demand Special Accommodation

The Wall Street Journal has reported on some of what it described as the "chaos" in the arraignment of the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacksin a military courtroom at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One element was particularly striking — the terrorists' demand (through one of their lawyers) that the U.S. court system pander to their barbarian prejudices. Instapundit extracts and summarizes it this way:

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION? WOMEN LAWYERS AT GITMO TRIAL SHOULD WEAR THE HIJAB TO PROTECT THE SOULS OF THE 9/11 ACCUSED: Really? If it were me, I’d wear the highest heels and shortest skirt I could find. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Cheryl Bormann, a lawyer for Mr. bin Attash, was dressed in an abaya, a loosefitting garment worn by observant Muslim women, leaving only her face exposed, and suggested that women on the prosecution team follow her example. They should dress modestly “so that our clients are not forced to not look at the prosecution for fear of committing a sin under their faith,” Ms. Bormann said.

Personally, I think the military judge in this tribunal should have ordered Ms. Bormann to leave the courtroom, and return when she was properly attired for a U.S. court. There is no reason at all for any court to pander to terrorist mass murderers.

Further, if the terrorists insist on the kind of disruptive behavior they showed at the arraignment, the judge should leave them in separate solitary cells with video monitors and audio for the simultaneous Arabic translation — outside the cells so they cannot damage or destroy them, and proceed with the court process in the courtroom. That sort of process is used with ordinary criminal defendants. If it's good enough for ordinary criminals, it's more than good enough for these confessed terrorists.

Politics Explained ... PERFECTLY

I got this by e-mail, and it's right. This explains much of the U.S. political scene.

Right or left doesn't matter.
It is really up or down in politics.

When higher level people look down, they see only ****heads; when lower level people look up, they see only ***holes.

You will never see another flow chart that describes American (and probably everyone else's) politics so clearly.

A New Bumper Sticker

I just ran across a new bumper sticker. I think I have to get one. Actually, several.

A Multitude of Fools

This was translated to English from an article in the Prague newspaper Prager Zietungon, written on April 28, 2010. It was printed in the Valencia County News Bulletin on May 2, 2012.

The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency.

It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgement to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.

The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.

The Republic can survive Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.

As a commenter noted, "Someone over there (in the Czech Republic) has it figured out more so than we do in America."

Kerry: Romney Will 'Swiftboat' Obama -- Updated

Senator (and former presidential candidate) John Kerry (D-MA) warned in late March that former Massachusetts governor (and current presidential candidate) Mitt Romney (R-MA) will "swiftboat" President (and current presidential candidate) Barack Obama (D-IL) in the coming election campaign.

In doing so, Kerry relies on his political friends and supporters having talked (conned) enough people into believing his (and the Left's) definition of that term as, in effect, a smear campaign. (They've certainly spent a large propaganda effort on this.) The trouble with that is that there are too many of us around who remember the original instance of "swiftboating" as a rather accurate attack on a deceptive and unfit candidate. Kerry might have considered the attack unfair, but he could not truthfully believe it to be false as the main media claim.

Kerry has claimed his military and discharge records would demonstrate that the charges made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were untrue. It makes me wonder why Kerry hasn't released his records, as he promised he would. (Actually, no it doesn't.)

Update: Others have noticed, as well.

That's a reference to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that in 2004 deflated John Kerry's claims of Vietnam heroics.

Unlike Kerry's boasts, though, Obama's are drawing derision even from fellow left-liberals. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank writes that Obama's "nonstop campaigning is looking, well, sleazy — and his ad suggesting that Mitt Romney wouldn't have killed Osama bin Laden is just the beginning of it."