Iran and IEDs, now with evidence!

Under the catagory of "comfirming beliefs" comes this story from ABC news:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2006 — U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006.

This suggests, say the sources, that the material is going directly from Iranian factories to Shia militias, rather than taking a roundabout path through the black market. "There is no way this could be done without (Iranian) government approval," says a senior official.
Iranian-made munitions found in Iraq include advanced IEDs designed to pierce armor and anti-tank weapons. U.S. intelligence believes the weapons have been supplied to Iraq's growing Shia militias from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is also believed to be training Iraqi militia fighters in Iran.

Evidence is mounting, too, that the most powerful militia in Iraq, Moktada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, is receiving training support from the Iranian-backed terrorists of Hezbollah.

So state sponsered Iranian nuts are killing Americans, Iraqis and democratically elected Iraqui officials it is confirmed. Iran is provoking tensions in Iraq trying to create a civil war, rejoices and encourages withdrawal, and so "realist" James Baker recommends - withdrawal. Riiigghhttt.

Snow

The snow and Ice are finally melting here, which is good. The temperature has shot from mid twenties back to the forties - which is better. I do not live in the snowy reaches of Minnesota for a reason.

Any way here is the Verbalist and the Muralist:

Happy Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving:

We set the last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas, and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn [i.e., wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after have a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week, at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

Sounds about right.

May the (U.N.) Force Be With You

Forget worries about the Notre Dame becoming a mosque, worry about the Archbishop of Canturbury turning into Obi-Wan Kenobi:

Jedi Knights demand Britain's fourth largest 'religion' receives recognition

Yeah, it's not an Onion article, it's legit.

But self-proclaimed Jedis Umada and Yunyun, better known as John Wilkinson and Charlotte Law, have adopted a more conventional approach in their pursuit of recognition – delivering a protest letter.

The unconventional pair are calling for the UN to acknowlegde what has become Britain's fourth largest ‘religion’ with 390,000 followers.
‘Like the UN, the Jedi Knights are peacekeepers and we feel we have the basic right to express our religion through wearing our robes, and to be recognised by the national and international community.

‘We therefore are calling upon the United Nations Association to change November 16 to the UN Interstellar Day of Tolerance, to reflect the religious make-up of our twenty-first century civilisation.

‘Tolerance is about respecting difference where ever it lies, including other galaxies. Please don't exclude us from your important work. May the Force be with you.’

Have a good day (ht Hot Air)

Wind Storm

Early Wednesday morning the windstorms finally knocked out the power here. School was cancelled so I packed up the kids and headed to my sister's house - she still had power (and does not count on a pump from a well to bring her water). Of course the power did not last long up there either, but she had taken the opportunity of temporary childlessness to run to town and grab some deli chicken and coloring books for the kids. We were glad she went early, as it was there was a run on deli chicken and most of the shops shut down not to long after.

When you wait out power outages with small children the convienece of modernity is enhanced in direct proportion to it's usage. I was jonesin' for a computer pretty badly.

A most telling incident occured right after the baby came up from a nap. She stumped out of the room and down the hall with sleepy eyes and touseled hair. After observing the activities of the Verbalist (legos, batman) and the Muralist (coloring, fairy dolls) and the Cousinator (also coloring, fairy dolls) she walked over to my sister's tv and pushed the power button. Nothing.

She stood there a minute then psuhed the power button again. Still nothing. Then using the bit curious body language peculiar to toddlers, she, hands at side, craned her neck around the side looking for another button. Standing on tippy toes she tried to run her fingers along the top then she checked the other side. At last she fell back to default and pushed the power button again.

The look on her face was priceless. She looked at me and the expresion on her face translated a look of disbelief it was if gravity reversed itself.

Kid Funny

Time for another lame cop out post! Hurrah! Life in a Shoe host's the Carnival of Kid Funny.

NaNoWriMo Day 13

The book project that ate my life and I am still 6000 words down. Pure EEEEEEVIL!

What is Important in Governement

John Hawkins has a post up entitled What Should Republican Principles Be? and it is illustrative of how far the party has screwed up that we even need to talk about these basics:

A political party should have a set of abiding principles that will help guide its representatives towards where they should stand on the issues. If members of that party lose sight of those principles, it becomes all too easy for them to simply make bad decisions based on the shifting political winds of the moment. So, with that in mind, here are some the Republican Party principles that GOPers in Congress should keep in mind when they're trying to decide which what to do in Washington.

Among other things, the Republican Party should be:

The "America First" party.
The capitalist party.
The daddy party
The law and order party.
The party of free trade.
The party of honest government and reform.
The party of low taxes.
The party of moral values.
The party of optimism.
The party of personal responsibility.
The party of small government.
The party of strong national Defense.
The party that believes in defending America.
The party that believes in sticking to the Constitution as closely as possble.
The party that's friendly to Christians.
The party that believes the business of America is business.
The party of fiscal responsibility.
The patriotic party.

I have highlighted the ones I find most important because I feel that if you have those as your guiding principals everything else will fall in place. What do you think?

What Next?

These is alot of talky-talk about the election results going on and I think Mike Pence best sums it up:

Some will argue that we lost our majority because of scandals at home and challenges abroad. I say, we did not just lose our majority, we lost our way.

While the scandals of the 109th Congress harmed our cause, the greatest scandal in Washington, D.C. is runaway federal spending.

After 1994, we were a majority committed to balanced federal budgets, entitlement reform and advancing the principles of limited government. In recent years, our majority voted to expand the federal government's role in education, entitlements and pursued spending policies that created record deficits and national debt.

This was not in the Contract with America and Republican voters said, 'enough is enough.

Our opponents will say that the American people rejected our Republican vision. I say the American people didn't quit on the Contract with America, we did. And in so doing, we severed the bonds of trust between our party and millions of our most ardent supporters.

As the 110th Congress convenes next year, Republicans must cordially accept defeat and dedicate ourselves to advancing our cause as the loyal opposition knowing that the only way to retake our natural, governing majority, is to renew our commitment to limited government, national defense, traditional values and reform.

Or to quote Speaker of the House Pelosi:

"The gavel of the speaker of the House...now it will be in the hands of America’s children."

Man, my whole life is monitoring children to take dangerous objects away from them, thanks alot Nancy.

GOTV

I just realized I lost a day. Instead of only being 2000 words down I am at 4000 words down. Darn! Somehow Monday and Sunday blended together. It's Tuesday - Go Vote!

There that's my contribution to representational democracy today. I voted last week.

Good Readin'

Bill Whittle has a new essay up.

We live in a sea of information, an Information Age: and yet, it has been almost half a millennia since mankind has been so unwilling or unable to use critical thinking to separate the intellectual wheat from so…much…chaff! Critical Thinking -- the ability to analyze data, determine it’s usefulness and fidelity, to learn how to asses reliability, question methodology, weigh expertise and all the rest – is in shockingly short supply these days. It’s not just a shame; it’s an epidemic, it is a fatal metastasizing disease in a democracy where information is used by the public to make the decisions that steer the ship of state. For the ability to think critically allows us to see the unseen; to find the truth behind the falsehood, as well as the falsehood behind the truth.

Read. Enjoy.

Day Five

Struggling back from my devestating blow on Saturday:

Weekend Goal: 1900-2100 words
Weekend total: 5033 words

Accumulative Goal: 7600-8400 words
Accumulative Total: 5680 words

Actually it is a bit more, and by a bit I mean less than a hundred words, of the first part of the 4000+ words I lost. It's the introduction of the first two of the three major characters and the set up to the first major plot vehicle but I couldn't summon the will to go back and rewrite it. I have decided to push forward into the plot and make up the word count by moving forward not retrieving what was lost. I feel as if I go back I will lose momentum and the project will fizzle and I will fail to finish the 50,000 word goal.

So I need to make up a little under 2000 words to be back on track with my cumulative goal. Plus I want to get a nice cushion of words in place of the three or so days I am going to sacrifice to the holiday. Two driving and one day of revelry is what i am looking at. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Disaster

I have lost the first 4274 words of my NaNoWriMo novel. Curses.

We're Number One

Don Surber has a great economy post up. I will excerpt a bit and then send you over to read the rest.

The greatest economic experiment in history continues to succeed well into its 230th year since those merchants and farmers meeting in Philadelphia gave the real King George the finger.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez: "We're Growing Faster Than Any Other G7 Country . . . This Is A Phenomenal Performance." "Well, I think the important thing is that what got us here and the fact that we have such a strong economy. What we've been through as a nation – we've got to go back and remember: we had a recession; we had a stock market crash; we had 9/11; last year, we had the most devastating year in our history for hurricanes; and we have an economy that is truly the envy of the industrialized world. We're growing faster than any other G7 country; our unemployment now – at 4.4 percent – is below the average of the last five decades. We've created 1.5 million jobs this year, 6.8 million jobs since August of 2003, . . . we're now seeing wages increasing, and we're able to keep inflation in check."

Day Three

I saw a hearse broken down on the side of the road, The driver was a friendly guy and seemed to have everything well in hand when I paused and inquired. Still, you hope that there wasn't a body inside. Not that a body would care, but it is a weird ugh! factor to the thought.

Disasterous day for the novel. Too amny chores and very limited access to a computer.

A miserable Daily total of 647 words.
daily goal: 1900-2100 words
cumulative goal: 5700-6300 words
cumulative total: 4921 words.

America Alone

A quote from Mark Steyn's new book:

What would happen if America were to follow Mr. Hutton's advice and "join the world"? Well, those "40 million Americans without health insurance" would enjoy the benefit of a new government health care system and, like their 250 million neighbors, would discover the charms of the health care "waiting list" -- the one year, two years, or more Britons and others wait in pain for even routine operations; the six, twelve, eighteen months Canadians wait for an MRI scans, there being more scanners in the city of Philadelphia than in the entire Great White North. They're now pioneering the ultimate expression of government health care: the ten month waiting list for the maternity ward. -- P.51

Day Two

Fueled by kettle corn and pomegranate seeds, the counter stands thus:
Daily Goal: 1900-2100 words
Cumulative Goal: 3800-4200 words
Achievement: 4274 words


Quote of the day: "You baby sister is not Count Dooku. The Dog is not Yoda."

NaNoWriMo The Beginning

Fueled by discarded and distained halloween candy, I have completed my first day of NaNoWriMo. Daily Goal: 1900-2100 words. Daily progress: 2115 words. Kid interruptions? Thousands. The mountain is steeper than I thought.

Sky is Blue

John Kerry puts foot in mouth:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

His defense? I was slamming the President, your right wing nutjobs! Sure because you have been such a staunch supporter of the troops in the past you pathetic dimwit.

John Kerry sure does love the troops:

1971:
...they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war...

2005:
And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not--Iraqis should be doing that.

October 30, 2006:
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

October 31, 2006:
"If any one thinks that a veteran, someone like me who's been fighting my entire career, to provide for veterans, to fight for their benefits, to help honor what their service is, if anybody thinks that a veteran would somehow criticize more than 140,000 troops serving in Iraq, and not the President and his people who put them there, they're crazy."

Says Military Historian extraordinaire Victor Davis Hanson in his magnificent slap down:

The mea culpa that Democrats are blaming the war and not the warriors is laughable after Sens. Durbin, Kennedy, and Kerry have collectively compared American soldiers to Nazis, Pol Pot's killers, Stalinists, terrorists, and Baathists.

Darn tooting! I've family serving in Iraq. It's personal.
I leave you with the pitch perfect Scott Ott: