In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

Code Pink is unspeakably vile

From Big Government.com

Dressed as ‘zombie soldiers’ killed in combat, ‘ghosts of war victims,’ witches and healthcare fairies, members of Code Pink menacingly paraded in front of a captive audience of children one block from the White House, who waited along the sidewalk in front of Decatur House just off Lafayette Park for a Halloween party hosted by President Obama.

The fruits of Kelo

Pfizer abandons site of infamous Kelo eminent domain taking

The private homes that New London, Conn., took away from Suzette Kelo and her neighbors have been torn down. Their former site is a wasteland of fields of weeds, a monument to the power of eminent domain.

But now Pfizer, the drug company whose neighboring research facility had been the original cause of the homes' seizure, has just announced that it is closing up shop in New London.

Related:

Bruce Ratner Finally Admits It: "This isn't a public project"
Last month, New York’s highest court heard oral arguments in Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation, which centered on the state’s controversial use of eminent domain on behalf of real estate tycoon Bruce Ratner, who wants to build a basketball stadium, a hotel, and some office and apartment towers in central Brooklyn. As I’ve previously argued, it’s a blatant case of eminent domain abuse .

And as it turns out, Bruce Ratner himself agrees with that judgement. In a startling interview with Crain’s New York Business , Ratner finally admitted what his critics have maintained all along: “This isn’t a public project.”

Matt Welch on Obama

Wow, Dude, it's Really Not About You

Today's must read

PTSD

I’m more than a little angry right now. Yes, I’m irate that some shitbag Major (“shitbag” is often used as a technical term in the Army) opened fire on a group of his fellow Soldiers killing 12 and wounding 30. But that’s not even what is under my skin right now. What is bothering me is the general reaction of our media and those stupid enough to think this was not an act of terrorism, but was caused by supposed PTSD caused at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

It gets even better so RTWT.

Barney Frank

Like Ace says "He Likes Bad Boys"


Atlas Shrugs reviews the history

Barney Frank's Pot Bust


Barney Frank's lover, Stephen L. Gobie, ran a gay prostitution ring out of Frank's home.

Barney Frank's lover, Herb Moses, was a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions. Frank became the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2007 after the Democratic Party won a majority in the House. The committee oversees the entire financial services industry, which includes the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries.

And now Barney is pushing weed legislation while he dallies with his pothead lover.

This track record would doom the career of most politicians. But Frank seems to skate away from every scandal.

He is a member of the club, you see. That select club of the Washington elite that includes Larry Summers and Jamie Gorelick. Membership has its privileges. The most valuable of which is the presumption of righteousness anytime a member is caught up in something unseemly.

Fort Hood

R. S. McCain on the self-styled elite's willful blindness:

Fort Hood Massacre:Jeffrey Goldberg on the See-No-Evil elite

Michelle Malkin notes the similarities with the coverage of the Beltway snipers:

The Beltway snipers and the Fort Hood killer: Peas in a jihad-inspired pod

The Telegraph does reporting work that American reporters just won't do:

Fort Hood shooting: Texas army killer linked to September 11 terrorists

Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.

(HT: Able Danger Blog)

Gateway pundit notes that the imam supports Nidal's murderous actions:

Nidal Hasan’s Imam Praises Fort Hood Massacre

What did CIA know and when did they know it?

Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda

Army Major in Fort Hood Massacre Used 'Electronic Means' to Connect with Terrorists

Cold Fury picks up on one of the most disgusting elements of MSM coverage of these attacks

We’re brushing right past the bleeding bodies of real victims to worry about the danger…to diversity! We lose sleep at night over hypothetically-possible reprisals by "right-wingers" or "white guys" or "Christianists", forgetting the actual victims while we bemoan the potential fate of non-existent future victims.

It’s sick and it’s got to stop.

That’s the Monkey Meat Media; forget the Hate Crime that’s bleeding all over your shoes and worry instead about the Mosque-Burnings that Never Seem to Materialize. Then it blows over until next time, and it’s Lather, Rinse and Repeat.

Instead of going to visit the wounded at Ft. Hood, the president went to Camp David;

Baldilocks:

Why would he not go to be with those whom he is charged to send into battle and who were so horrifyingly betrayed by one of their own?

Because he doesn't give a rat's backside, that's why not.

Uncle Jimbo concurs:

When faced with this heinous act, Barack Obama had a solemn duty to serve in his role as Commander in Chief and speak to the American people and the soldiers he commands. Instead he chose to spend his time pandering to a political faction and giving shout outs to members of this accepted victim group. To say this was tone deaf is not accurate, tone dead is more appropriate.That he was unaware of how improper and disrespectful this was is a perfect example of his unfitness. But he does himself one better and then decides that rather than travel to Ft. Hood and comfort the families of the dead or the wounded it is more important to stay in DC and comfort his liberal fellow travelers as they attempt to nationalize our health care system. Former president Bush and his wife found the time to visit, was Michelle too busy to serve as his proxy even? Then while comforting the afflicted politicians who were suffering the tremendous challenge of voting against the wishes of their constituents, he saw fit to disgracefully use the dead and wounded soldiers as a political prop.

Cassandra:

Obama Doesn't "Get" the Military He Commands

For the past 8 years, we've heard a lot about how George Bush was too "cowardly" to face the consequences of war. Such bald faced lies are only possible if one is willing to ignore the eyewitness accounts of hundreds of Americans who saw him do just that - with no media fanfare and even less thanks. With every word he speaks and every act he performs, Barack Obama only strengthens the impression that he neither understands nor cares to know the military he must lead as Commander in Chief. Military families are only useful to him as hapless victims of the Bush administration because Obama's entire vision of government rests on the notion that Americans are powerless to rise above misfortune. It's not surprising he spends so little time at Walter Reed, Bethesda, or any of the military medical centers. You see, he wouldn't recognize the spirit of sturdy self reliance that is commonplace there.

Two incidents, different agendas

Generally, i think cable news does a lousy job covering crime stories. They have to fill airtime even when the facts are scarce which means they supply a heavy dose of speculation and misinformation. But as the coverage of the massacre at Fort Hood unfolds, we see how political correctness also shapes the coverage.

CNN and MSNBC have found their narrative-- PTSD by proxy combined with bullying. The Army made the killer do it. No terrorism. None, FBI said so.

No one asks how the FBI could know that three hours after the shooting when no investigation had taken place.

Funny how the MSM had no problem finding a ideological motive for murder in Kentucky. They jumped on that before law enforcement determined the death was a murder.

Cool story

Dolphin markets in everything, Gresham's Law edition

Best take on CNN's post-election "analysis"

From Ace of course:

CNN: Seriously, We're Begging You, This Election Was Not About Our Boyfriend At All

He's still awesome!1!!!1!

Stop saying mean stuff about him or he'll kick your azz!! bc he is tuff and he is a football hero and u shut up!!! kthxbai.

Vietnam

Neo-neocon:

Vietnam: they lost the war, but won the battle

Who are “they?” The Left.

What war? Vietnam.

What battle? The one that determines who gets to write history.

It’s said that history is written by the winners, and that’s true. But Vietnam just may have been the first war in which those who opposed the conflict “won” in the forum of public opinion by convincing their fellow citizens and government to abandon the war itself, and then got to write most of its chronicles.

I think this is a classic example of journalism and the battle for "explanation space". "Everybody knows" means "what journalists agree on."

I've also argued that professional ambition played a role in the writing of the first draft of the history:

What is not often discussed is how professional ambitions make journalists defeatists. When wars go well, the uniformed military receives the praise. It is they who enter into history. We remember Nimitz and Patton, not the correspondents who wrote dispatches about the victories at Midway and Bastogne.

In contrast, Vietnam made the careers of David Halberstam, Seymour Hersch, and Neil Sheehan. Exposing military failure and atrocities makes the journalist the hero not the chronicler. It is a powerful temptation, one which could cause a reporter to lose proportion and distort the meaning of events. Yet this is not something that seems to get discussed much.

and that guild loyalty helps explain why journalists are unwilling to revise that draft. Vietnam and Watergate are the "heroic myths" that reporters use to justify their high opinion of themselves and their work.

To World Series Broadcasters: Please---Less Talk About “Short Rest”!

by The Last Hollywood Star



I can’t turn on ESPN without hearing its baseball analysts talk about which World Series pitcher will be going on “short rest,” “long rest,” or “regular rest”

Boring!

Turn back the pages to 1957 when the Milwaukee Braves’ Lew Burdette pitched three complete game victories over the New York Yankees. After Burdette’s first start in the second game, he pitched on three and two days rest. Burdette’s last two wins were shut outs.



Then in 1968, Detroit Tiger Mickey Lolich repeated Burdette’s feat by winning three games against the St. Louis Cardinals, also on short rest.

Starting the second, fifth and seventh game, with three and two days off between games five and seven, Lolich too pitched three complete games. In the seventh game, Lolich defeated Hall of Famer Bob Gibson.


So announcers, please, stop talking about how many days off the starters have had. This is the World Series! Let the pitchers suck it up and do their job no matter how much or little time they’ve had to rest.

Sometimes you get the bear....

Sometimes the bear gets the terrorist

My New Hero: Chase Utley

by The Last Hollywood Star


Sports Illustrated on Chase Utley, last night's Philadelphia Phillie hitting star:

If some Phillies do lack big league industriousness... Utley is beyond reproach, conspicuous in his effort. The 27-year-old second baseman dives for all grounders in his zip code. He grinds out at bats and bursts out of the box as if someone had fired a starter's pistol, even when he's not trying to extend a hitting streak.

Former Phillies' manager Larry Bowa says, 'He plays every game like it's the seventh game of the World Series.'"

["Grime Pays", by Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated, August 14, 2009]

I'm rooting for the Phillies and for all around good guy Utley even though it puts me in the awkward position of also have to pull for Pedro Martinez who I incorrectly predicted---not once but twice---would be a total bust.

I think Smitty should fisk more

He does it so well as we see here:

Rick Moran and the Comatose Nuthouse

Bill Quick is good as well:

Waaaahhhhhhh!

Follow the fun at Memeorandum.

Why the crisis of journalism will continue

Wild guesses won’t solve journalism crisis

The Harvard conference tasked with finding new business models for journalism had the impossible mission yesterday of trying to solve a problem no one had the language to describe, the tools to measure or the skills to fix.

In other words, the conference resembled the primitive study of physics before Isaac Newton invented modern calculus at the tender age of 23.

Odd doings in Vienna

British nuclear expert's 17th floor UN death plunge 'was not suicide'

A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination.

Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna.

One suicide is a tragedy. But this makes you wonder.

Under a year ago, an American died at the IAEA in strikingly similar circumstances, his body being found at the bottom of a stairwell.

A UN spokeswoman said an investigation into that case continues, though Austrian police have concluded it was suicide.

David Treen, RIP

Quin Hillyer in the American Spectator:

Dave Treen, Political Builder

David Connor Treen was a one-term governor (and four-term congressman) of a troubled southern state. He lost or withdrew from far more elections than he won. His nomination for a federal appeals court judgeship fell apart. And he was the butt of two of the most famous put-downs in American political history. Yet, although almost no history books will say so, he was one of the more consequential figures in late 20th century politics, not just in Louisiana, but nationally.

Honoring a hero

Major Garrett of Fox News blogs about Leslie Coffelt, the man who lost his life protecting Harry Truman fifty-nine years ago.

(HT: Ace of Spades)

Garrett states that

Truman was never endangered by the assassination attempt. Collazo and Griselio never made it inside Blair House, thanks to Coffelt and the other White House Police Force officers.

Stephen Hunter, who wrote the book on this assassination attempt, is less certain that HST was never in danger. He believes it likely that Truman was at a window and exposed to Torresola right when Coffelt ended the fight. Had the officer missed, Truman might have been shot. In addition, Hunter doubts that the agent with the Tommy gun was certain to stop the assassins had they made it into the residence.

That is all the more reason to honor Leslie Coffelt: a man who did his duty as his life slipped away.

I discussed Hunter's book here.

In a nutshell

Bill Quick:

I’ve said previously that openly biased journalism is preferable to the hidden bias of the MSM we endure today, but I think henceforth we should always read Allah with the notion in the back of our minds that he’s pretty much in the tank for the Anybody But Palin/Conservatives gang. He’s a lot more understandable from that perspective.

It's kinda' odd. Michelle Malkin is quick to attack Republicans who stray from the conservative straight and narrow. Yet, she hired AllahPundit for Hot Air. And AP is about as squishy as they come on the right.

Wow! Frank Rich is upset that Newt got "slimed"

I wonder what caused that change of heart? (/sarcasm)

Adirondack Doug Gets The Caribou Barbi Treatment

NYT columnist Frank Rich has the heebie-jeebies


Drowned in Blood: Frightening Tales of an Adirondack Halloween

Follow the reaction at Memorandum.

Today on the NFL Network: Rich Eisen wants to have Brett Favre's baby

I used to think that the constant soap opera that turned the NFL into the National Favre League, was just evidence of laziness on the part of the average sports yakker. It's easier to speculate about Favre's next move than it is to do real reporting or analysis.

After reading Steve Sailer, though, i wonder if it is part of a media strategy to reach out to other demographics:

Another chronic problem with shows that don’t reset is creeping soap operaization. Female fascination with relationships tends to crowd out every other subject over time. Even House, with the wonderful Hugh Laurie as a Sherlock Holmes-like genius/misanthrope solving one medical mystery per week, has become more of a soap opera over the years.

The obsession with Favre obscures the fact that Old Yeller is far from the best QB in the NFL and has not been an "elite" QB for many years. Favre is having the best year of his career based on passer rating, yet he is not in the top five in the league.

What if he goes on strike?

So the Other McCain is traipsing around the Adirondacks hunting for antiques or looking at fall foliage or something. Meanwhile. Smitty is once again forced to spend his Saturday putting together the latest FMJRA linkfest.

Please check it out so the poor guy feels appreciated.

Finally Making Journey to Rugged Adirondacks

"The case against Ivins just gets weaker."

This strikes me as important:

Anthrax investigation still yielding findings: Chemical composition of spores doesn't match suspect flask/Nature

Furthermore, the Bacillus subtilis contaminant present in the letters has not been matched to the strain found in [Bruce] Ivins' lab. The FBI speculates it might have come from another lab at Fort Detrick, but has not yet identified any lab that has it. The case against Ivins just gets weaker.

Maybe this is why they don't want us to read it

From BigGovernment.com:

The health care bill recently unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over 1,900 pages for a reason. It is much easier to dispense goodies to favored interest groups if they are surrounded by a lot of legislative legalese. For example, check out this juicy morsel to the trial lawyers (page 1431-1433 of the bill):

Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.

I guess war is not like a computer game after all

Some troops have a sixth sense for bombs

Those who hunted or grew up in tough urban areas excel at finding the roadside devices, a study shows.

Military researchers have found that two groups of personnel are particularly good at spotting anomalies: those with hunting backgrounds, who traipsed through the woods as youths looking to bag a deer or turkey; and those who grew up in tough urban neighborhoods, where it is often important to know what gang controls which block.

Personnel who fit neither category, often young men who grew up in the suburbs and developed a liking for video games, do not seem to have the depth perception and peripheral vision of the others, even if their eyesight is 20/20.

(HT: Steve Sailer)

All Hail Deacon Phillippe!

By The Last Hollywood Star

The Pittsburgh Pirates got a positive national television mention after Game One of the World Series. Usually, when the Pirates' name surfaces on a major network, it's to heap scorn on the team.

But after Cliff Lee pitched a complete opening game, striking out ten and walking none, researchers went into the archives to dig out Deacon Phillippe's 1903 performances.


Phillippe was the last pitcher to put up those numbers.

Back in 1903, the World Series was a best of nine affair. In the opener, Phillippe out dueled Cy Young in a complete game effort.

Get this---Phillippe pitched four other complete games, two on back-to-back days, and went 3-2 in the Pirates loss to the Boston Americans. For good measure, Phillippe pitched in relief in two other games.

Take that, pitch count crazy Joe Kerrigan!

Phillippe's five complete game decisions are a World Series record that will stand forever unless current format reverts to best of nine.

If that ever happens, the World Series could extend to Thanksgiving.