perfidy

In a stunningly unprecedented display of laughtastic corporate involution, Fox News was all set to sue The Simpsons-- on the Fox TV network-- over an upcoming segment on the show that parodies Fox News.

*covers face with hands, shakes head*

The Fox News Network did back down on its threat, although it has told The Simpsons creators that in the future, cartoon series will not be allowed to include a "news crawl" along the bottom of the screen, which might "confuse the viewers".

So tell me: just how stupid does Fox News think its viewers are?

[wik] So I wonder what Justice Scalia thinks about fox-on-fox action. *ducks*

[alsø wik] One more time. A news crawl on a cartoon show might confuse viewers?

[alsø alsø wik] They really think that?

[starring] Really?

At the suggestion of Buckethead Sr., a respected and credentialed historian, the Ministry is changing the name of the horseshit category. While the Ministry appreciated the sophomoric potty humor tone of the previous category moniker, it was felt that the new name would give the category, and by extension the entire website, an air of erudition and sly humor. If it should not have this effect, the world will mourn the passing of an eminent historian.

Supreme Court Justice Scalia has gigantic stones. Wheelbarrow-necessitating gonads. Much as I am diametrically his opposite on most matters, I have to admit a grudging respect for his decisions, at least until he starts talking out his ass and using the Constitution to legitimize his own hang-ups.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ridiculed his court's recent ruling legalizing gay sex, telling an audience of conservative activists Thursday that the ruling ignores the Constitution in favor of a modern, liberal sensibility.

The ruling, Scalia said, "held to be a constitutional right what had been a criminal offense at the time of the founding and for nearly 200 years thereafter."

Scalia adopted a mocking tone to read from the court's June ruling that struck down state antisodomy laws in Texas and elsewhere.

Also a criminal offense at the time of the founding, and for nearly 100 years thereafter: helping slaves to escape.

Where Scalia loses me is when he uses his strict-constructionist credentials to take stands on issues he finds personally morally objectionable. More than just intellectually dishonest, it's a cheap trick by a person in a position of great reponsibility.

Or maybe I'm just a godless liberal anti-American communist. Whatever.

The Jerusalem post has an interesting interview with Richard Perle. Particularly interesting was the story the interviewer told about Bush's visit to the WTC. Read the whole thing.

Does anyone know or care who is winning the world series?

In a newly released bio of Canadian PM Jean Chretien, it is revealed that the Canadian gov't was prepared to take a much harder line than it ever admitted if Quebec sovereignists had achieved a referendum victory in 1995. In an interesting quote, we hear the opinions of the Canadian Defense Minister at the time, David Collanette:

Earlier in the chapter, Martin suggests Collenette was also prepared to come to the aid of federalists still in Quebec.

" 'My view,' Collenette would explain in a later interview, 'was that these guys aren't going to get away with this. This is my country. I don't care what the numbers are. It's one thing to say you want to separate. But now we start playing hardball. Because we're not going to abandon all those people who want to stay in Canada.' "

"...A negation of the verdict in front of tens of thousands of celebrating Quebecers would have risked a bloody backlash. But in fact that is what Chrétien planned to do,"

Considering how opinion in Quebec was running, a repudiation of the referendum would have caused some havoc. The government felt that the constitution had no provision for leaving, and that therefore the referendum was merely a "consultative exercise." In an interview for the book, Chrétien admitted he would not have recognized a close vote.

"You know, at 50 (per cent) plus one, I was not about to let go the country. You don't break your country because one guy forgets his glasses at home."

Jacques Parizeau, then the premier of Quebec, revealed in his book Pour un Québec Souverain that he was prepared to declare unilateral separation if Ottawa refused to accept the referendum result. Throw in Chrétien's stance and Collenette's willingness to call in the troops, Martin speculates, and you have the elements for a possible civil war.

It has always been my belief that we have let far too much time pass since the last invasion of Canada. Almost two centuries, in fact. The thought that Canada might spare us the trouble by conveniently dissolving itself is, well, delicious. We could easily absorb the good parts, and then seal the borders around Quebec, and give laser weapons to the Indians. Sorry, First Nations.

On a disturbing note, the article closed with this quote:

Frulla and other Italian Canadians in her riding were being warned they would "have to go back to your own country," when the sovereignist side won.

Q: Know the best way to tell you are no longer a cutting-edge musical renegade and threat to society (tm)?

A: Your lyrics are the subject of a long, appreciative article in the New York Review of Books.

Marshall Mathers may now be mentioned in the same breath as the Rolling Stones, Beatles, and Sonic Youth. *shudder*

No this isn't from some Buchananite wacko. It's from Italy's reform minister, Umberto Bossi.

Mr Bossi, leader of the Northern League, said Brussels was "transforming vices into virtues" and "advancing the cause of atheism every day". He denounced the European arrest warrant as a step towards "dictatorship, deportation, and terror, instilling fear in the people, a crime in itself". It would lead to a Stalinist regime "multiplied by 25".

One day Italian citizens would be locked up on the orders of Turkish judges, he told Il Giornale newspaper, which is owned by the family of the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. He added that the euro was a "total flop", its inflationary effects costing ordinary people "a fortune" in lost purchasing power.

I don't know if I agree completely, but I have my suspicions - on bad days, I agree with Rachel Lucas, and wish that the EU would just declare itself a fascist dictatorship so we could go over and kick their ass and get it over with.

The new draft EU constitution contains none of the protections for individual liberty that we enjoy here. The tendency of EU bureaucrats to take action without consulting the public - or even thinking about consulting the public, is worrisome as well. The unelected officials who form the nascent European federal government are completely removed from any kind of accountablility to the citizens of the several European nations.

It might be a good thing if some Europeans got together with a copy of the Federalist Papers, the Notes from the Constitutional Convention, and a lot of red pens.

It is surprising to me that the drafters of the new European constitution have paid so little attention to the lessons of our constitution - given that there are so many parallels. In both cases, there are a number of different soveriegn states, varying in size, population and wealth. There are issues of free trade and common currency. There are debates about the optimal miz of central and state power.

Of course, they may have paid attention, and decided that a representative democracy that devolved power to the masses and allowed maximal freedom for the individual; and enshrined notions of limited government inviolable rights is not what they wanted.

This, by way of her, by way of him. He also has a very funny picture. Click the more link, and don't look if you're an easily offended PETA freak.

*Bah-whooooosh!*

Woah. Did I make it flush twice? I didn't move. That's some flush. Like a jetski in a koi pond. Why make the flush so powerful? What the fuck do people here eat ? " Yes, I'll have the innards of six Baby Ruths, some olestra, two wheels of cheddar, and the small bag of hair, please."

*Hiss!*

It's angry. I think it's angry. Looks angry. I shouldn't have mocked it. Do they make telepathic toilets? Probably. Damn Japanese. I know this is a Japan thing. Japan has way too much free time.

What perplexed my wife was, did someone see the cat, then make the sign, or did this sicko take the time to make the sign and just kept it in the car until he found a suitable cat?

I'm not much of a gun guy, but I am a huge geek and a bowler. So, imagine my excitement when vodkapundit pointed me to this bowling-ball mortar!

Holy crap! This thing shoots a bowling ball SIX HUNDRED YARDS so fast they whistle, and it uses, get this... THREE OUNCES of black powder as a charge.

Gotta go... gonna drop by Home Depot on the way home... hmmm dum de dum dum....