Arrrrrg!

Today is “Talk Like a Pirate Day.”

You can also find out what your pirate name is.

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Rackham

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
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Sheehan – morally confused

Yesterday Cindy Sheehan announced that she is quitting the (so-called) peace movement and moving back to California to “try and be normal.”

In her resignation, she said:

“…you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.”

So what kind of country does she love? Well, in one interview she said she would rather live in a country like Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. That’s right. The same Hugo Chavez who yesterday shut down the only nationally broadcast television station that was critical of his administration. That’s correct. Cindy Sheehan supports a communist dictator who opposes freedom of speech.

Notice that Sheehan is freely using her rights of free speech in the U.S. to condemn President Bush as a terrorist and murder while the people in Venezuela (where she would rather live) do not have those same rights. Sheehan lives in Bizzaro world.

Ms. Sheehan, you said we can’t be that country unless we want it. Watch what is happening in Venezuela. I can assure you we don’t want it.

Stupid names

From the “I don’t think it means what you think it means” file:

CNN says that Israelis are puzzled over the name Tom Cruise has given his newborn daughter, Suri. He says it is an ancient Hebrew variation of Sarah. Israelis say it sounds more like a blunt term that means “get out of here” (like scram).

And why is a scientologist using old Jewish names anyway? Let this be a lesson in naming children from languages you don’t understand.

(hat tip: Betsy’s Page)

Florida isn’t the “show me” state

A Florida teenager who flew to Iraq without his parents knowledge is headed back to the U.S. He apparently wanted to see the Iraqi elections firsthand.

According to the AP, the teenager recently studied immersion journalism and wanted to see what the Iraqi’s are living through. If you haven’t heard of “immersion journalism”, that is where you learn about journalism by having all of your common sense removed. Apparently he was an excellent student.

Then again, he is a teenager. Common sense is removed from kids at about age 12 before being returned randomly sometime after 20.

At least they weren’t criminals

Susanne Ostraff was taken hostage in Iraq by terrorists. The German government paid a ransom to free her. Her take on her captors? “I was so happy to know that I had not fallen into the hands of criminals,”

So let’s get this right. She thinks the goons who kidnapped her aren’t criminals. Okaaayyy.

OU suicide bomber

This past Saturday a student at University of Oklahoma died when a bomb he was carrying on his body blew up about 100 yards away from the crowded OU football stadium.

Michelle Malkin has been following the story. The national media is strangely silent on this. The student carrying the bomb was known to frequent a mosque. He wore a muslim style beard. He had tried to purchase a large amount of ammonium nitrate (the same compound used in the bombing of Okalahoma City federal building). Being unable to purchase that, the bomber used another explosive – but very unstable chemical – TATP that can be created out of household cleaners.

OK. So a muslim decides to commit suicide by detonating a bomb near a crowded stadium but has no terroristic motive? Or is it more likely that a wannabe martyr was waiting for a crowded stadium to begin emptying where he could get access to a crowd of people but his homemade unstable bomb exploded prematurely.

Yes, I’m speculating but the story that a depressed muslim decides to commit suicide by blowing himself up in public where no one else gets hurt is not a convincing story. That may be because of all the other muslims who have blown themselves up in the world, most recently in Bali, where they were seeking out crowded places. Muslim bombers don’t have a history of seeking out isolated public places. They want crowds and a stadium of tens of thousands of people were just a few hundred feet away?

Thank God he didn’t get to buy a ticket to the football game that day.

Idiot protesters

Wackos from both the extreme left and right are competing to demonstrate who are the bigger idiots.

This past week Code Pink has been criticized for harrassing war wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Now the Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church is protesting at soldiers’ funerals in Tennessee. They claim that God punished the soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays.

I’m curious where this story about the Baptist Church will go. The news article so far is short on background. The Westboro group is the same people that protested at the Matthew Shepard funeral. They do not represent a mainstream Christian view and are frequently criticized for their tactics. Their lack of influence is apparent as well. They only had 10 people at this latest “protest”. That isn’t a movement. It is a group of morons with nothing better to do.

Code Pink and Westboro Baptists. Who knew opposites could have so much stupidity in common?

How to marginalize yourself – 101

On Monday, Pat Robertson suggested the U.S. should assasinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Of course his remarks have started a controversy.

Pat Robertson was right about one thing. Chavez is not a good man. Chavez is showing all the signs of being a totalitarian.

Robertson’s suggestion of assasination is just foolish. He has done the opposite of his intention. Instead of drawing attention to the problems of Venezuela, he has given Chavez a diverision. Even worse, Robertson is now denying he suggested assasination. Don’t try to cover yourself with such an obvious lie.

If there weren’t enough misconceptions of the so-called religious right, now we have to deal with this. Thanks Pat. As Shrek once said, “That is the opposite of help.”

Exploiting a mother’s grief

The sad story of Cindy Sheehan continues to get headlines. For those who don’t know, Ms. Sheehan’s son Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed while serving in Iraq. Ms. Sheehan has decided to stage a protest in front of President Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas to demand an audience with him in order to berate him with her anti-war talking points.

You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that, you don’t tell me my son died for freedom and democracy.

Bored reporters at the ranch are giving her air time since they have nothing else to report on. Even Fox News is asking if the President should grant her an audience.

Here’s what you haven’t heard. Cindy Sheehan did get an audience with the President in June of 2004 (hat tip James Taranto).

After that meeting she told a reporter:

“I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,” Cindy said after their meeting. “I know he’s sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith.”

Quite different from what she is saying a year later while acting as if the meeting never occured.

So President Bush isn’t ducking grieving parents. Let’s acknowledge the real story. An anti-war activist is using her son’s memory for her political agenda. She had her meeting with President Bush and now wants another chance to say what she choose not to say before.

Hey! You don’t sell Amway!

The couple wanted for killing a prison guard during a jail break was arrested early this moring. Jennifer Hyatte ambushed two guards as they were leading her husband out of a court hearing in Kingston, Tennessee. One of the guards died during the escape.

The couple was arrested after cab driver Mike Wagers told police where they were staying. He had driven them from Kentucky to a hotel in Ohio not realizing they were wanted. But something about their story made him suspicious.

As they were driving, the fugitves told him they were going to an Amway convention. That was the give away. When asked about what raised his suspicion Wagers said, “they didn’t strike me as the Amway type because to be honest they weren’t very pushy about their product and I’ve dealt with them before so — that was my only real suspicion.”

What gave them away is that they weren’t obnoxious enough about selling Amway. The lesson here is that if you are trying to blend in, don’t pose as an Amway salesman.