Top of Cool

I saw this pick posted over at Ace of Spades HQ.

A lot of people criticized Bush’s Iraq plan because they claimed that Democracy would never work in the Arab world and that the Middle East did not want freedom.

To quote Halo 2: “There are those that said this day would never come. What are they to say now?”

I’m a conservative Republican, which in Sen. Robert Byrd’s (D-WV) book makes me analogous to being a member of Hitler’s Nazi party.

In case you haven’t seen Sen. Robert Byrd before, here’s a photograph:

Need I say more? I think not.

Jackson’s Junction has a GREAT post with video of Byrd’s comments, and also response from Bill Press.

I recently picked up State of Fear by Michael Crichton, that one guy who wrote Jurassic Park. I’m not very far into it yet, but it’s a pretty informative book. A small introduction reminds us that characters and organizations are used fictitiously, but anything marked with a footnote is real, and the book contains an appendix citing sources for all of the footnotes. I wish all authors would do this.

As a sidenote, I was browsing around on MichaelCrichton.com and noticed an interesting speech he gave establishing that extraterrestrial aliens are responsible for global warming.

Also, in light of today’s articles about “a new study comparing 7 million real world datapoints with several computer models of global warming,” I agree with Crichton’s take on this. I’ll take a computer climate model seriously when it accurately predicts future trends for the next ten years. Twenty would be preferable.

The Bush administration released the details of their budget today. Almost simultaneously, several Democrats died from severe trauma brought on by severe head explosion.

The MSM has begun its campaign against the budget. The big problems that the Dems are having seem to fall into these categories:

The President hates kids because education is getting cut.

The President hates poor people because health care for poor people is not included in the budget.

The President hates farmers because he’s cutting farm subsidies.

The President is spending more on defense because bombs are more important than people at home.

The President hates the environment because he’s cutting funds to the EPA.

Let’s take a few moments today to examine the FACTS.
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The UN released an ad campaign to get us to be more aware of the problem of land mines worldwide. I think the original UN commercial is in really really bad taste. Let me give you the version that the UN released.

And an alternate version that appeared on the internet some time later.

I swear, this must’ve been taken straight out of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

WARNING: These videos do depict a simulated land mine blowing up a teenage girl as she plays soccer. I guess the UN figures such grotesque depictions will make me want to give them a billion dollars or something.

This is stupid.

“I gave Dr. Rice many opportunities to address specific issues. Instead, she said I was impugning her integrity,” Mrs. Boxer said.

BECAUSE YOU WERE. This is what she said to Dr. Rice:

“I personally believe — this is my personal view — that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth,”

If you accuse someone of putting honesty and respect for truth behind ANYTHING else, that is what normal people would refer to as “impugning her integrity.”

Does California have a law that allows for the recall of a senator? Between this and being the ONLY senator to vote against certifying the 2004 electoral college returns, I don’t think I can take 6 more years of her shenanigans.

This is a transcript of a 60 Minutes II report on Waco. Good stuff. Of course, I suppose this is all made up…

CBS SIXTY MINUTES II WITH DAN RATHER
January 25, 2001
Producer: Christopher Martin

DAN RATHER (voice over video)
What really happened at Waco? Did federal agents fire shots into the Branch Davidian compound? For years, the government has said “no.” But this surveillance video may tell a different story. The FBI has repeatedly said no FBI person, at any time, fired into the compound.

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CBS (who never makes up anything) aired a report on 60 Minutes this past Sunday titled, “The Big Gun.” This report examined the impending DOOM that will fall upon us because of the .50 caliber Barret M82A1 rifle.

For those of you that don’t know. The M82A1 is a very large weapon.

It fires bullets like the big one on the bottom. The tiny one? That tiny 30-30 round is STILL bigger than the caliber used by the D.C. sniper. It doesn’t take a big bullet to kill people.:

Most of the 60 Minutes report showed interviews with Ronnie Barrett, inventor of the Barrett rifles, and Tom Diaz. Tom Diaz’s tagline was “Gun Control Advocate.” Anyone that defines their existence using the word “advocate” needs to go get a job. I hear McDonald’s is always hiring.

The 60 Minutes report was the usual anti-gun diatribe. In fact, it pretty much followed my Gun Control Mad-libs.

The [Popular Gun] is the most [Adjective] weapon ever created! It is a travesty that such a [Synonym of hellspawn] could be available to [Choose two: terrorists, civilians, mailmen, hunters, kids that play video games, Charlton Heston]. Congress needs to pass a law RIGHT NOW to help [Verb] citizens and thwart the [Adjective] NRA once and for all!

I can handle another news report about how evil guns are. Besides a few California law-makers, the rest of the country pretty much accepts the moral stand that the 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms. That means “own guns” for those of you in Rio Linda.

It drives me absolutely nuts when an Advocate like Mr. Diaz starts vomiting out made-up facts like a bulimic. For instance, a popular myth perpetuated by Diaz’s Violence Policy Center is that, to quote the 60 Minutes writeup:

It would be a weapon that could do a lot of damage ? no question about that.

This is exactly what the FBI learned in 1993 at Waco when Branch Davidians fired a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle at them.

In response, the FBI deployed Bradley fighting vehicles for protection. But even that wasn?t sufficient, and heavier armor was brought in.

No, no, NO!

Here is a statement directly from Diaz’s website, vpc.org:

David Koresh and his fellow Branch Davidians had several 50 caliber sniper rifles among the weapons in their substantial arsenal. During the 1993 siege at the Waco, Texas compound, FBI agents used armored vehicles to protect against the weapons. This decision was made after four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents were killed in the initial assault.

Let’s go through this one item at a time.

David Koresh and his fellow Branch Davidians had several 50 caliber sniper rifles

According to federal testimony, they had TWO. Now would also be a good time to note that owning a .50 Barrett rifle is LEGAL in 49 states. (Thanks, Ahnold for infinging the rights of Californians.)

During the 1993 siege at the Waco, Texas compound, FBI agents used armored vehicles to protect against the weapons.

The Barrett rifles were NOT fired during the siege. There is no evidence to support this claim. There is, however, significant evidence to support the allegations that the FBI fired .50 Barretts INTO the Branch Davidian compound.

FBI agents used armored vehicles to protect against the weapons. This decision was made after four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents were killed in the initial assault.

This is great. What we have here is a typical trick used by journalists. This statement implies that the FBI decided to use armored vehicles because of the threat posed by the Barrett rifles. This is not true. It is true that they rolled in armor after 4 agents died, but those agents were NOT shot by Barrett rifles. There is no evidence to support this except for a single report from the GAO claiming that an FBI agent testified that they were fired on by .50 Barrett rifles. Unfortuantely, none of the OFFICIAL Waco documents concerning the incident indicate any such thing.

I just get so sick of this garbage. This tripe on CBS is nothing but fear-mongering.

Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/06/60minutes/main665257.shtml
http://www.wmsa.net/news/CNSNews/cns-030609_barrett_boycott.htm
http://archive.gao.gov/f0502/162586.pdf
http://www.ravnwood.com/archives/004077.shtml
http://www.waco93.com/faq.htm