Everyone needs a hobby
But a satirical religious newsletter web site? Check out Man hospitalized for Dylan-related exhaustion:

CARSON CITY - Terry Landau, 53, was taken to Fillmore Hospital in this Nevada city after he hyperventilated and lapsed into exhaustion. His wife says he was over-speculating about Bob Dylan's religious views.

"He does this all the time," Lisa Landau said. "He sits there on the couch surrounded by albums, reading liner notes and lyrics. He's got a closet full of charts and graphs. If he hasn't figured it out by now, maybe this will be a wake-up call. It's starting to affect his health."

After nurses administered oxygen and an IV, Terry perked up.

"His first request was for a copy of 'Slow Train Coming,'" the nurse attending him told reporters. "But we felt it wise to not re-introduce any aggravants."

Landau oversees a web site and chat group called All Things Dylan, where many messages of support were posted. He and Linda have two sons, Zimmy and Jokerman.

And then there's Casino-church lights up Vegas Strip and Woman upset by persistence of local Mormons.

Ravages of time
N.H. Old Man of the Mountain Collapses:

New Hampshire awoke Saturday to find its stern granite symbol of independence and stubbornness, the Old Man of the Mountain, had collapsed into indistinguishable rubble.

The fall ended nearly a century of efforts to protect the giant mountainside landmark from the same natural forces that created it. Only stabilizing cables and epoxy remained Saturday where the famous ledges had clung.

Joseph W. McQuaid in the Union Leader has an epitaph - The Old Man is gone: New Hampshire has lost its profile.

No news is good snooze!
I tried, I really tried. But there isn't much of anything else worth blogging in the news. The NY Post rehashed the UN HQ looting (see below), there was more on Jesse Jackson's NASCAR protection racket, the two-faced Democrat party rejoiced over the campaign funding law court ruling, and another teachers' union local HQ has been raided by cops investigating financial fraud.

Ho-hum!

But there was some uplifting news:

But medical evidence is mounting that moderate beer consumption - one to two beers daily - does a body good.

Yee-haw! And amongst the evidence is bad news for spammers:

Forget about Viagra. Have a beer instead. "Moderate amounts of beer lessens arterial sclerosis, one of the causes of erectile dysfunction," Dr. Pavel Zemek said last year after announcing results of clinical studies on beer’s healthful properties at the Czech Center of Gerontology in Prague.

Actually, there is never any bad news for spammers - now they'll be hawking beer.

I must have missed it
Charles Hurt in the Washington Times on yesterday's Democrat party presidential candidate debate - No Democrat bolts from pack:

The nine Democratic candidates for president debated last night for the first time in a post-war environment, but no surprising differences emerged.

The event, which was moderated by George Stephanopoulos, at times appeared amateurish because of microphone problems and a stage that looked thrown together by a high school drama class.

It was sponsored by ABC, but the television network decided against airing it live. The Washington affiliate opted to air "Gladiator," the movie about great battles in the Roman Coliseum.

But in Columbia, there were no such great battles.

Well, that's certainly a snoozer. But there were some lighter moments:

Mr. Kucinich, who is widely regarded as a long shot, argued for raising taxes, ending free trade and, later in the debate, said that bankrupting the city of Cleveland as its mayor was a "badge of honor."

Way to go Dennis - that'll get the voters lined up!

And then:

Several candidates waded into the controversy of the flying of the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds by agreeing to honor the NAACP's economic boycott of the state during the debate trip. They slept and ate at the homes of supporters instead of patronizing restaurants and hotels.

Unless these candidates brought all their food and supplies with them, it isn't clear to me how merely staying at a supporter's home qualifies as a boycott. But hey, it's Democrat Wonderland.

Meanwhile, protesters outside the party convention waved Confederate flags and signs that read, "Yankee go home."

Bwahaha!

Auf Wiedersehen
Christopher Johnson at Midwest Conservative Journal:

We'd like to help you, really we would, but let's be honest, Germany. You've been distant lately. Like when you said all those mean things about our president. You don't have to spell it out for us; we know you want to break it off. And we're cool with it.

We've had some great times in the past but there comes a point when a country's just got to move on. We're sure you can find another superpower to move into those bases. You're a great catch.

Today's Hoot - Looting breaks out at the United Nations!
(Via Drudge) Stuart Stogel at Time amazes:

Food Fight
When the Food Workers Union stages an impromptu walkout at the U.N., the diplomats start looting for lunch and booze

Hunger pains can apparently turn even the most upstanding diplomat into a looter. At noon on Friday, food workers at the U.N. headquarters walked off their jobs, calling a wildcat strike. The result: none of the U.N.'s five restaurants and bars was staffed. The walkout left thousands of U.N. employees scrounging for lunch - eventually, the masses stripped the cafeterias of everything, including the silverware.

Hmmm, not much different than their usual activities. Here's the dirty details:

Kofi Annan, who had a private lunch previously scheduled with the members of the Security Council in the Delegates Dining Room, found they were only served the main course. After that, they were on their own - no desserts, no cleanup, no coffee for Kofi. And the service was no better for anyone else at the U.N. But as tensions grew and stomachs growled, a high-ranking U.N. official boldly ordered that all the cafeterias open their doors for business even without staff. The restaurants had been locked shut by security until about 1:00 pm when the doors flung open.

The decision to make the cafeterias into "no pay zones" spread through the 40-acre complex like wildfire. Soon, the hungry patrons came running. "It was chaos, wild, something out of a war scene," said one Aramark executive who was present. "They took everything, even the silverware," she said. Another witness from U.N. security said the cafeteria was "stripped bare." And another told TIME that the cafeteria raid was "unbelievable, crowds of people just taking everything in sight; they stripped the place bare." And yet another astonished witness said that "chickens, turkeys, souffles, casseroles all went out the door (unpaid)."

The mob then moved on to the Viennese Café, a popular snack bar in the U.N.'s conference room facility. It was also stripped bare. The takers included some well-known diplomats who finished off the raid with free drinks at the lounge for delegates. When asked how much liquor was lifted from the U.N. bar, one U.S. diplomat responded: "I stopped counting the bottles." He then excused himself and headed towards the men's room.

Too bad there wasn't a camera crew on hand!

And Stuart, while "no coffee for Kofi" is a good try, the big cheese himself says his name rhymes with "Sophie Cannon".

We're polite and refined - let's have a literary tea!
Today we are going to discuss Evita's Hillary Rodham Clinton's new book:



Well, dang! While she whipped the ghost writers into getting it out for an early June launch, we don't actually have a copy of the amnesiac's memoirs to discuss. But there's still fun to be had. Drop by Amazon's customer advice page for this weighty tome and you'll see that the internet wags have been at work:

Top customer recommendations in addition to Living History
1. Getting in Touch With Your Inner Bitch
2. The Case Against Hillary Clinton
3. Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security
4. Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton
5. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

See the full top ten lists of customer recommended complements and subsitutions by following the link.

Hey, my favorite, Everyone Poops, didn't make the list! But The Great Puke-Off (Pollari, Pat. Barf-O-Rama, No. 1.) and Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch : Tales from a Bad Neighborhood do open up new horizons.

The Flight
Mark Steyn in the Telegraph - What counts is what a guy does when he's not talking:

Speaking as a third-rate hack, I'd say articulacy is greatly overrated. Watching the President fly in, I envied a guy who can control an S-3B Viking. I've been in enough Piper Cubs to figure I'd have a sporting chance if the bad guy shot the pilot and I had to pull the plane out of a tailspin and save me and Pussy Galore.

But if it was an F102 Delta Dagger, like Bush flew in the 1960s, me and Pussy would be in big trouble. If Bush, who got a National Guard deferment for Vietnam, is a draft dodger like Clinton (as the Lefties charge), he's a dodger of a different order.

I shall say no more because I sense a touch of the Rageh Omaars coming on. Like the BBC's squealing schoolgirl giving the full Monica to a Saddamite bureaucrat ("Once you have tasted the waters of the Tigris, you can never forget Baghdad!!!"), I feel the urge to lapse into orgasmic multiple exclamations: Man, you are way cool!!!! That flight was, like, totally awesome!!!!!

The chaps who dismiss Bush as a moron forget that what counts is what a guy does when he's not talking. It's true that he didn't know the name of the leader of Wackistan before he became president. But one advantage of that is that he isn't the prisoner of his past the way, say, Chirac, Schröder and Putin are. Chirac the sleazy deal-maker, Schröder the 1960s anti-American peacenik and Putin the KGB hardman seem incapable of rising above their CVs.

While a truly "strong, silent type" wouldn't last a minute in politics, extraordinary times have allowed the President to rise above the perpetual blathering. And that drives the chattering classes barking mad.

Down with imperialism!
The NY Daily News reports Riot at Vieques navy base:

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico - Hundreds of protesters broke through a fence at the Vieques bombing range, destroying Navy vehicles and burning the American flag as they marked the end to nearly 60 years of U.S. bombing exercises.

The militants stole Navy vehicles and smashed the lights and windows with sledgehammers. They turned over a Humvee towing a boat and set them ablaze, and burned two American flags.

"Get out, Navy!" they shouted.

Vieques Mayor Damaso Serrano blasted the vandalism and pointed out that the damaged vehicles had been donated to the municipality by the Navy.

Bwahaha!

But the more I think about it, why not make a really clean break of it - grant Puerto Rico its independence and tell its citizens they have 30 days to get out of the US? Nah, it'll never work - the NY Democrat party needs the votes.

Today's Hoot!
From Anita Vogel at Fox News:

Snowman? No more. Melt that image and replace with Snowperson. Want to sail away on a yacht? No, again. It’s too elitist.

And if you think grandpa is a senior citizen, guess what? You’re wrong. That’s demeaning, according to the new standards. He is now simply an "older person."

The laundry list of words and images banned or considered offensive is not a short one. The word "jungle" has been replaced with "rain forest." The word "devil" has disappeared entirely, with no replacement.

Many of the changes seem to represent a direct assault on historical accuracy. For example, the new guidelines dictate American Indians should not be depicted with long braids, in rural settings or on reservations. There are no suggestions on how they should be depicted, however.

Er, wait a minute ... it looks like the laugh is on us!

A textbook review process taking place in states across the country has changed or eliminated references to everything from the Founding Fathers to hot dogs, leaving many to charge educators with distorting history in the name of political correctness.

The review process, which is routinely done in many states, is meant to eliminate or replace outdated words or phrases. But what’s happening has a lot of people wondering - quite literally - "Where’s the beef?"

That’s because many textbooks will no longer feature pictures of hot dogs, sodas, cakes, butter and other kinds of food that are not considered nutritious. Nor will the books contain any phrases judged to be sexist or politically insensitive.

The Founding Fathers, for instance, are now referred to as "The Framers," in an apparent effort to make them sound less male-dominant. And there will be no more reading about Mount Rushmore, where the faces of four U.S. presidents are carved into stone, because it appears to offend some American-Indian groups.
...
"I think our textbooks should, to our greatest capacity, be free of any type of stereotyping," said Sue Stickel, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the California Department of Education.

Content too, eh Sue?