Okay, who's been writing on the ordnance again?

Hamza Rabia meets his missile.

What's next? David Duke TV?

I mean if you've seen one racist, you've seen 'em all, so this looks rather foreboding - Al Sharpton wants his own sitcom:

He has led civil rights marches, scolded the nation's leaders and even run for president, but the Rev. Al Sharpton now wants to do something completely different -- star in his own television sitcom.

Sharpton, in an interview with Reuters on Friday, confirmed a report in Daily Variety that he would soon be filming a pilot for a family show called "Al in the Family" that would revolve around his larger-than-life personality.

"I don't know if I am a good actor or not but I will be playing myself and I have been practicing that for 51 years," the New York Democrat and civil rights leader said.

And he's been doing a really lucrative job of mau-mauing the limousine liberals in the Democrat party. Which reminds me - did you notice that the first paragraph is missing a few things from Al's resume. Just an oversight I'm sure.

A pilot episode for a series would be produced early next year by Paramount Network Television for CBS. Both are units of Viacom Inc.

Glad to see it's still the "Tiffany network." Maybe Dan Rather can stop by for a few laughs or Tawana Brawley can demonstrate the application of dog poop body wash.

Today's Hoot!

If an Air America show is cancelled, does anybody know it?

News you can use!

Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network wants you to know:

On Saturday, December 3, 2005 at 11 a.m. EST, Washington-area global warming advocates will hold the First Annual Hybrid Car Parade around the White House.

"Global warming advocates"? Sounds like they're in favor of it!

45 hybrid cars will circle 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as advocates demand real solutions to the problem of global warming.

Now you know what a Prius is good for. I hope the ecoweenies won't strain their vehicles by carrying more than 2 small people or going over 5 MPH.

(Hat tip: American Digest)

I can't wait!

New .eu domain 'as important as .com':

European Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said on Thursday that she expected “several hundreds of thousands” of companies to apply to use the new .eu domain name.

Reding spoke at a press conference in Brussels to announce the start of the “sunrise” period on Dec. 7, during which trademark holders and public bodies can apply to register .eu names.

The Commissioner said the .eu domain name would become “as important for European businesses as .com addresses.” It would give European businesses the tools to protect themselves under European Union law and help make them more visible, while giving a unique European dimension to their image, she said.

Actually, it's mostly an annoyance that businesses have to register all their domains with yet another extension (and pay a fee to a EU bureaucracy) in order to keep squatters from confusing the surfers. But I'm digressing from the really important stuff which is that I hope no one beats me to pee.eu!

To deter cybersquatting, the applications submitted before April 7 [2006] will be examined to ensure that those applying actually own the rights to the name, brand or trademark for which they are applying.

Hey, who would claim the rights to "pee"?

Non-E.U. companies will be able to apply for .eu addresses if they have a registered office in the E.U.

Darn! Another great idea bites the dust!

The domain name will be available only in its English version, as opposed to the French spelling ".ue" for Union européenne. Asked if this was an admission of the dominance of English in cyberspace, Reding said the E.U. was using the Latin name "europa." “It is nothing to do with France or England,” she said.

I'll bet the Eurocrats burned a lot of midnight oil coming up with that one!

The E.U.’s institutions will start using a .eu name for their Web sites from next week, and email addresses for E.U. civil servants will end in .eu from next year.

And if the citizens are lucky, the "institutions" and "civil servants" will be incommunicado for months.

At least they still have weather "girls"

A reader observes that when the French CNN is launched, we'll all be able to enjoy Gallic forecasts:

Both title AND line of the day!

Orrin Judd titles his post on chessboxing (where four minutes of chess alternate with two minutes of boxing): FISCHER'S ALREADY TAKEN TOO MANY BLOWS TO THE HEAD and the punchline is:

Get supermodels to play it in a tub of Jell-o and you've got an ESPN franchise.

I thought CNN was already French!

"French CNN" seen operational by end of 2006:

France's government gave the green light on Wednesday for an international TV news channel to start broadcasting in French by the end of next year, with the aim of spreading the country's vision to the world.

Be still my heart!

The brainchild of President Jacques Chirac, the 24-hour news channel is expected to beam into homes, hotels and newsrooms in much the same way as U.S.-owned CNN, Britain's BBC World and more recently Qatar's Arabic-language al-Jazeera.

Sounds like perfect company, but competition for "journalism" awards in the pond scum category will be fierce.

"France must ... be on the front line in the global battle of TV pictures," a spokesman quoted Chirac as telling the cabinet, which approved the establishment of a company to run the French International News Channel.

The acronym should be FINC which seems appropriate, but apparently in French it is CFII.

"The aim is to bring France's values and its vision of the world to everywhere in the world," he said.

Possible highlights:

"Throw another Renault on the barbie"
"We surrender"
"Time to discuss the amount of the bribe"

Today's Hoot!

Harry Reid may be running around telling everyone that Osama bin Laden is dead, but Osama's spirit lives on:

"Does it make my butt look big?"

(Hit tip: Freeper USAConstitution)

More New Orleans Hijinks!

The Democrats are coming to town!

The Democratic National Committee will bring about 400 people to New Orleans for its first meeting of 2006 to help rebuild the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina, chairman Howard Dean said Monday.

They're each going to hold a shovel for a photo op, I guess. Of course, Howie can bring his regular manure shovel.

The meeting will be April 20-22, the weekend of the French Quarter Festival.

Looks some R&R, er, supporting the local economy, too!

Of course, there's really no shortage of Democrats in the vicinity. Check this out - Political moves quietly cleared way for controversial trailer deal:

When Bourget's of the South, the politically connected River Ridge custom motorcycle shop that's won almost $108 million in federal trailer contracts, started looking for trailers to sell after Hurricane Katrina, it encountered two problems, records show.

The first was Bourget's lack of a license to sell new trailers. The second was Bourget's lack of a franchise agreement -- an accord between manufacturers and dealers to sell specific brands of trailers.

I guess not too many custom chopper shoppers also want a travel trailer.

In Louisiana, state law requires recreational vehicle dealers to possess one state license to sell new trailers and a franchise agreement from the manufacturer to sell its products. But in a matter of weeks, after contracts between Bourget's, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and trailer manufacturers already had been signed, the state commission charged with regulating the market solved both obstacles for Bourget's.

Funny how that worked out.

First, the Recreational and Used Motor Vehicle Commission granted a state sales license in October to Bourget's, even though at least two established Louisiana recreational vehicle dealers already had filed complaints with the commission about the outfit's September contract with FEMA. Then, in an undated memorandum revealed to a surprised commission at its meeting last week and sent to most Louisiana dealers this week, the commission's executive director, Jack Torrance, suspended the franchise agreement law.

Real funny! But here's the punchline:

Torrance's unusual move is the latest twist in the tale of Bourget's of the South and its lucrative series of FEMA trailer contracts. Since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, the high-end bike shop, owned by the father and an uncle of state Rep. Gary Smith, D-Norco, has landed three separate contracts to provide more than 6,400 new travel trailers, a product with which Bourget's had no sales experience before the storm. A handful of other Louisiana RV dealers, all of whom said they have yet to ink a FEMA deal or have squeezed out only a small contract after weeks of wrangling, cried foul over Bourget's bonanza, which includes some $10 million in Louisiana business and another $98 million in Alabama, FEMA records show.

Glen Smith, one of Bourget's owners, the state representative's uncle and the appointed president of the Louisiana Airport Authority, insists there is nothing amiss in his dealings with FEMA, and asked why his competitors are so focused on his contracts when out-of-state dealers have deals with the feds that are two or three times as big as Bourget's.

"If we had a two-hour class we could show these guys how to sell some travel trailers to FEMA," Smith said.

It'd be like School for Scoundrels, I guess. More laughs by following the link including why the memo was undated and:

As the dealers began to absorb the memo, two aspects of it struck them as curious, several said. One was that it applies only to FEMA deals; the other is that it is applicable only to dealers with no stock. Both aspects seem tailor-made for Bourget's, because Bourget's has deals only with FEMA and -- with the exception of Steve's RV of Chalmette, whose dealership was wrecked by Katrina -- the only shop with no existing stock would have been Bourget's because previously it did not sell trailers, according to several dealers.

Howard Dean might be able to pick up a few tricks while he's in town!

I always wanted to be a researcher!

Boffins quantify beer goggles phenomenon:

Researchers at the University of Manchester have discovered that the legendary "beer goggles" effect, by which previously-monstrous members of the opposite sex become strangely attractive after a skinful of lager, is not just down to the sheer volume of booze consumed.

Light levels in the establishment in which the beer is being consumed, the beholder's eyesight, atmospheric smokiness and proximity to the object of desire all play a part, too.

Accordingly, the research team formulated a beer goggle scale (from 0 to 100+) to measure this sinister effect, as follows:

Less than one: No effect
1-50: Person you would normally find unattractive appears less "visually offensive"
51-100: Non-appealing person becomes suddenly attractive
More than 100: Someone not considered attractive looks like a super model

Nathan Efron, Professor of Clinical Optometry at the University of Manchester, told the BBC: "For example, someone with normal vision, who has consumed five pints of beer and views a person 1.5 metres away in a fairly smoky and poorly lit room, will score 55, which means they would suffer from a moderate beer goggle effect."

Warning: experiments like this are for trained researchers. Don't try this at the neighborhood watering hole!

For some research with less potentially disastrous effects, how about The Locks O' Truth?

My friend DVDTracker, sent me an IM on AR15.com and asked, "OP, I wonder how difficult it is to shoot a lock off? I've seen it done on TV and in movies, but wonder if it is as easy as they show it to be. How about if I send you some funds to buy some locks. Will you shoot them and report back?"

The only answer was, "Sure! Why not?"

Full results and photos of the experiments by following the link. Spoiler: Use a shotgun with slugs.

I missed the big book signing in Crawford!

But then so did everybody else:

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan waits for people to show up at her book signing
near President Bush's ranch on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005 in Crawford, Texas.

More:

Sheehan found herself addressing a crowd of only about 100 Saturday afternoon. The large tent where supporters had erected a stage hung with the banner "Speak Truth to Power" was only partially full. In the morning Sheehan signed copies of her new book, being published this week, for an even smaller crowd.

Sheesh, the Stalinists usually orchestrate things better for their pets like Cindy. I wonder why they didn't run a bunch of shills through the line ten times?

Ann Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in protest of the war and now organizes antiwar events in Crawford, said many of those who support the cause are in New Orleans, helping to lead efforts to clean up the city after Hurricane Katrina.

Sure, Ann. We believe ya!