One of Ace's funnier commenters, VerukaSalt, has finally set up a blog of her own.

Today she completely nails the media's [non-]coverage of our recent push in Iraq. Money quote(s):

Update: From Fox News - Dude, we are kicking their asses, the enemy is running away like a red headed kid that just pissed off his step mom. . . .

Update: From The Washington Post - Innocent Iraqi militia men are being slaughtered in the street by US and Iraqi military forces, We have the audaucity to return fire on these innocent freedom fighters that are puting up a game but futill attempt to overthrow the American's currently occouping Iraq. A relief fund for the families of these Militia freedom fighters is currently being set up by our good friends at moveon.org with almost 2 quarters of a percent going to the freedom fighting militia.

VerukaSalt doesn't hold back on the four-letter words, so you have been forewarned. But I have laughed more reading her blog tonight than any time recently, so she goes on the blogroll.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:48 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Thanks for the recommendation! Also, do you have a link to where we can send contributions to those poor, misunderstand, brave underdog "militia" (that and militant are the new synonyms for terrorist)?

Posted by: RP at August 13, 2004 09:49 AM (LlPKh)

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Truth in Advertising

Found at Spiced Sass. I love this one, especially since I'm a lawyer (I cannot stand those cheesy phonebook ads).

I know it makes my own Kerry p-shop look pretty amateurish, but in case you missed it, check out "Kerry Poppins" here.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Kerry almost lost me tonight with his "reporting for duty" salute. So I blew off the tedious family tributes to go walk the dog. I would rather watch my dog produce sh_t than listen to John Kerry's sh_t.

A short while after tuning back in, I picked up the vibe that we are in dire straits. We need help. Forget W and his corporate puppet-masters, we need help: "America can do better, and help is on the way."

Heh. Don't worry. We're from the government and we're here to help you.

Inspiration struck. What we need is a nanny. A nanny with a funny-talking sidekick:

Update: On a similar wavelength:

"Ok, so if we elect Kerry-Edwards, people will never have any bills to pay, we won't have to work long hours ever again, and there will be no more dangerous wars? And I suppose everyone gets a pony, too?" - The Poliblogger, via Wizbang.

Posted by: JohnL at 11:09 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Do you like waffles? I like waffles. Mmmm. Good.

Wafflers? Nope.

Here is an extensive video showing the gradual deterioration of John Kerry from being a legitimate war hero candidate to just another pacifist has-been tool ready to surrender to the jihadists.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, the voice of Reagan in his prime appears to be propagating into cyberspace nicely, thanks to the efforts of Timothy Sandefur (who I think was the first to link to it), Virginia Postrel, Stephen Macklin, both Llama Butchers, Southern Appeal, and Chris Berg.

I appreciate the traffic, but I love the thought of Reagan's message spreading to a wider audience than the AMA originally intended even more.

While turning back socialism may seem a Sisyphean task, Reagan and Thatcher both showed it could be done. This 40-year old recording is still relevant today. Medicare persists, and President Bush recently expanded it in an astonishing abandonment of "conservative" principles. As Stephen Macklin points out in his comments linked above, Kerry offers an even worse alternative with his health care plan. People who believe that the national government should not interfere with the doctor-patient relationship need to write their Senators and Representative, following the advice spelled out by Reagan here.

Thanks again!

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I know it's about a month late, but this is my tribute to Ronald Wilson Reagan, may he rest in peace. He was not a "libertarian" in all aspects, but he truly loved liberty and believed in the American experiment.

I offer for your consideration a wonderfully-preserved example of pre-Internet, multimedia political opinion, produced and distributed by the American Medical Association and deployed via the "Women's Auxiliary" (not the Spouse's Auxiliary): Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine:

Enclosed in this record, I found a letter addressed to my grandmother (actually, to "Dear Auxiliary member"):

woman's auxiliary
TO THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION INC.
AUXILIARY HEADQUARTERS -- 535 NORTH DEARBORN STREET
CHICAGO 10, ILLINOIS

April 15, 1961

Dear Auxiliary member:

The Woman's Auxiliary has been charged with the most important assignment in its history.

Physicians have asked doctors' wives to assume full responsibility for OPERATION COFFEECUP, an all-out effort to stimulate as many letters as possible to Congress opposing socialized medicine and its menace as proposed in the King bill (HR 4222).

OPERATION COFFEECUP hinges upon use of the enclosed record, "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine" in informal groups in individual Auxiliary members' homes to stimulate friends and neighbors to write their congressmen.

Instructions for OPERATION COFFEECUP are printed on this record jacket. Informational literature is also enclosed. When you receive this package, don't waste a minute. Follow through with your part in OPERATION COFFEECUP at once. To be most successful, this record must be kept moving.

When you have finished with it, please complete as many of the enclosed report forms as you need and mail them to the Woman's Auxiliary headquarters, 535 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago 10, Ill.

American Medicine has given the Woman's Auxiliary this opportunity to prove its value as helpmates in this vital campaign. Let's demonstrate we can accept this challenge and meet it successfully.

Sincerely,

/s/
Mrs. William Mackersie, President
/s/
Mrs. Leo Smith, Legislative Chairman
/s/
Mrs. James Morrison, Vice Chairman

Much more in the extended entry:

more...

Posted by: JohnL at 12:01 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I've seen links to this brilliant play on Woodie Guthrie's "This Land" several places, but most recently at Catallarchy.

Finally watched it tonight.

Hilarious throughout, but the jokes on the Donks seemed funniest -- especially the John Kerry as a "UN pu--y," the Howard Dean "yeeargggh," and the brief cameo by William Jefferson Clinton ("To the New York I---" [slap!] -- "Hey wha'd I do?").

The jokes on Bush were predictable and fell flat (he's dumb, can't pronounce nuclear, he's a crusader), but they were well-executed.

As they say, the no-hot-beverages-rule is in effect.

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OK, OK. Just what is Operation Coffeecup?

A brief foray by me into Lileks territory. About a year ago, I found an old vinyl record that my parents had recovered from my grandmother's house. Here's the cover:

I'm converting it to digital. Soon you can hear the mellifluous strains of the Great Communicator speaking out against the evils of socialized medicine. Too bad our current President doesn't share Reagan's principles on this issue.

I'll soon include more cover art and transcriptions of the "liner notes," which are charmingly anachronistic.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:55 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Grabbed this off Drudge:

And got this via a Google images search:

Posted by: JohnL at 07:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Well, actually, not on the radio, but in the Atlantic, covering current conservative commentary.

I really need to get a P.J. O'Rourke book to take on vacation this Summer. Any suggestions?

(Yet another hat tip to one of my favorite Australians).

Posted by: JohnL at 08:54 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Via Tim Blair, I found Florida Cracker's entertaining sequence of pictures and captions from the G-8 summit in Georgia.

Favorite pic: the "Dubya and Tony are pals" one.

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Ace-of-Spades summarizes the factors that make Lara Flynn Boyle "dirty kinky right-wing hot."

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One reason I don't blog much about politics and the war is that other bloggers have already covered the news in greater detail and in a more timely manner than I could. I don't blog from work, and therefore my surfing and posting are at the end of the day.

If I can't think of anything more than "me too," then I don't write about it, even though I may be in complete agreement. I'll be damned if I'm going to become an online "dittohead." I got into this blogging thing to force myself to write regularly, not to create some grand unified theory of politics. I hope someday to retire from the law racket; I would love to supplement my retirement income as an author.

So I write.

As frequently seems to be the case, James Lileks has already stated this thought for me:

"I’ll tell you why I haven’t written more about [the war, Abu Ghraib, Nick Berg] lately – it’s because there are others who do it so much better, have more to say, and have first-hand experience. I suppose I should be linking to them, but I assume that anyone who’s interested in these matters hits the other spots on the web that provide more authoritative content than I can offer. What’s more, I haven’t wanted to address The Gloom because that would simply add to it, and I think The Gloom is a mistake, a caul we’ve draped over our own heads. It will pass.

"IÂ’m not interested in hand-wringing. Obsession about the details of the current news cycle is the best way to ensure that the future smacks you on the back of the head hard some day. Live micro, but think macro. Inhabit the day, but apprehend the week, the month, the year, and beyond."

Go and read the whole Bleat.

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Well I'm a few days late to observe May Day. We don't attach any great meaning to the holiday around here, and in any case, I would not commemorate a socialist holiday.

In fact, I think it appropriate that the international distress call for a grave and imminent danger is phonetically the same as the international socialist holiday. (Yeah, I know the word "mayday" comes from the French word m'aider, or help me, and has nothing to do with "May Day").

Why should one see socialism as a grave and imminent danger? Catallarchy explains much better than I could. Read the whole thing, including the linked articles.

Posted by: JohnL at 11:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Australian Alan Brain, sometime author for the Command Post, has a long and thoughtful piece on the revolution in International Affairs currently underway in the world.

He briefly lays out the historical development of and reasons for the western fetishization of "national sovereignty" as a reaction to the suicidial wars Europe committed against itself from the 17th through the 20th centuries.

He traces the development of the "religion" of transnationalism from WWI on and explains that the United Nations' failure to live up to its obligation, its promise to enforce collective self-defense, has given rise to a new doctrine of "righteous retribution" by a world power -- the United States. He has some misgivings that the vigilante USA is doing what the lawful authorities should be handling, but in all seems supportive of America's efforts in doing what must be done.

As they say, read the whole thing.

Posted by: JohnL at 12:19 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Pixy and I both invited Alan to join Munuvia and haven't gotten any response.

Posted by: Ted at April 11, 2004 09:52 AM (ZjSa7)

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For some reason, we libertarians are often mistaken for right-wingers.

While I think the whole "[Whatever] Eye for the [Whatever] Guy" is getting pretty tired, the personalities spoofed in this funny little flash animation are anything but libertarian, and are the reason I refuse to identify myself as a conservative.

(Hat tip: Crooked Timber).

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Timothy Sandefur doesn't like them very much, even though he prefers them to zoning laws. In my previous law firm life, I represented several condominium associations, so I have some familiarity with the enforcement side of things.

As a matter of principle only, I prefer HOAs to zoning laws, but just barely. And for practical purposes, unless you can prove laches or inconsistent enforcement, it is likely easier to modify bad zoning regulations (simple majorities at the ballot box) than restrictive covenants that run with the land (usually requiring a supermajority or
unanimity to modify).

Posted by: JohnL at 08:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Another Photoshop, funnier than anything he did with Dean.

(Favorite caption: "Hello Clarice").

Posted by: JohnL at 10:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Go to jail for a crime you didn't commit.

Spend 16 years behind bars.

Get released.

Get a bill.

Via Reason's Hit and Run.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Every now and then, I run across some really clunky contract language. I keep a running list of the worst. Today I found a truly awful one:

"Services. Supplier warrants that all Services and/or work performed under this Agreement shall be performed in a diligent, work-person like and professional manner, in compliance with industry standards, and in accordance with all specifications, drawings, instructions and or documentation as agreed upon by the Parties in this Agreement or a statement of work ("SOW") that will be attached to this Agreement or an SPA or Service Order and incorporated by reference hereof or as otherwise documented in a writing signed by both Parties."

First off, ignore the use of shall, the use of the passive voice, and the double use of and/or (a crutch for the lazy-minded lawyer who can't understand a Venn diagram). Ignore, too, that this is one run-on sentence. Focus instead on that gem of political correctness: work-person like. Compare the previous section:

"Product. Supplier warrants to Company and End User Customers that Products furnished will be new, merchantable, free from defects in material and workmanship and will conform to and perform in accordance with the specifications. These warranties extend to the future performance of the Products and shall continue for the longer of (a) [x] years after the Product is accepted by Company; or (b) such greater period as may be specified elsewhere in this Agreement including a specific project agreement ("SPA ")."

Why isn't that "free from defects in material and work-person ship?" Don't get me wrong. I strongly prefer to use gender-neutral language wherever possible, by recasting or substituting neutral words for masculine ones. (And I abhor the largely academic tendency to apply the goose/gander justice that makes all indefinite subjects feminine instead of masculine). I sometimes use the singular they, which although still not widely accepted, has a long and distinguished pedigree.

I'll even use humanity or humans in place of mankind (though I'm sure Jay Nordlinger would disapprove). But work-person like? There is no such thing.

While I would welcome comments on gender-neutral versions of workmanlike or workmanship, I think it's possible to redraft just as effective a clause without using the offending terms:

"Services. Supplier warrants that it will provide Services diligently and professionally and that they will comply with all applicable industry standards, specifications, drawings, and documentation under this Agreement." [Omit the rest; in a well-drafted agreement with tight definitions, a good amendment clause will take care of the remainder here].

That's all for the writing lesson today.

P.S. Until I get a link to my own terms of use here, I incorporate these by reference. Go read them.

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