Pious Agnostic

Religion of Peace's Famed Tolerance

Zamfara Government Orders Demolition of All Churches

Governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State, has ordered the demolition of all churches in the state, as he launched the second phase of his Sharia project yesterday.

Speaking at the launch in Gusau, the state capital, Governor Sani disclosed that time was ripe for full implementation of the programme as enshrined in the Holy Quran.

(Emphasis added)

posted at 6:11 PM Apr 30, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Sam Sneads, Metro West, Orlando

posted at 4:15 PM Apr 30, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

The War on Terror is working:

There were 190 acts of international terrorism in 2003, a slight decrease from the 198 attacks that occurred in 2002, and a drop of 45 percent from the level in 2001 of 346 attacks. The figure in 2003 represents the lowest annual total of international terrorist attacks since 1969.

Hat tip: SitD

posted at 12:28 PM Apr 30, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Remember this the next time you see one of those CAIR guys yappin' on TV about how Muslims are unfairly smeared with the terrorist shit-brush:

The fact that CAIR was toying with the emotions of persons wanting to give money to a fund that CAIR disguised as one related to the 9/11 attacks is despicable... The fact that CAIR was asking people to donate to an organization that was raising millions for a terrorist organization that regularly sends suicide squads to murder innocent people is outrageous, irreligious and sickening. Under the right circumstances, it would also be criminal... but that is a determination for the appropriate authorities to make, after their (much delayed, and much needed) investigation commences.

Hat tip: lgf

posted at 11:49 AM Apr 30, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

The more things change...

Lileks recounts his college days:

These things we knew: Soviet influence in Central America could be blunted by a complete withdrawl of American support; Ronald Reagan was indifferent to the possibility of nuclear war; Europeans were wise rational Vulcans to our crass carnivorous Earthlings, except for isolated throwback horrors like Margaret Thatcher. All new weapons systems were boondoggles that wouldn’t work and would never be needed, and served as penis substitutes for Jack D. Ripper-type generals who probably went home and poured lighter fluid on toy soldiers, lit them with a Zippo and cackled maniacally. A nuclear freeze was the first step to a safer world, because if everyone had 10,237 ICBMs instead of 10,238 we might be less inclined to use them. The Soviets were our enemy only because we thought they were, which forced them to act like our enemy. Soldiers were brainwashed killbots or gung-ho rapist killbots who signed up only because Reagan had personally shuttered the doors of the local steel mill, depriving them of jobs. Of all wars in human history, Vietnam was the most typical. Higher taxes on the rich resulted in fewer poor people. The inexplicable mulishness of big business was the only thing that held back widespread adoption of solar power.

Update: Tim Blair has similar thoughts, and asks people to 'FESS UP!

posted at 10:24 AM Apr 30, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

A couple at random

posted at 10:20 AM Apr 30, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

Support the Troops

Apparently, girls say yes to guys who say...yes.

Hat tip: Ray

posted at 6:49 PM Apr 29, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Happy Anniversary

Cause american news is too COOL to observe this anniversary.

Hat tip: M'liss

posted at 9:54 AM Apr 29, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

No Internet Access = No Blogging. Hopefully, access will be restored soon.

posted at 11:20 PM Apr 28, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Page 23

OK, I'll bite. The fifth sentence of page 23 is:

''Cause I ain't the foggiest what you were doin' under those fillets.'

From Death Rat by Mike Nelson.

---

Instructions for this game:

Grab the nearest book.

Open the book to page 23.

Find the fifth sentence.

Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

posted at 7:18 PM Apr 27, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Pearl 2001

Two amazing emails from 9/11.

Go, read, remember what was done to us, and how we responded.

posted at 12:55 PM Apr 27, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : We remember

Chompsky Unplugged

Chomsky: "Did I say that--?"

protein wisdom: "-- Language has nothing much to do with language. I'm afraid you did, yes."

Chomsky: "Oh. Well, skip that, then. It was just bullshit. "

From a terrific parody of everyone's favorite linguest / idiot.

posted at 6:33 PM Apr 26, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Where'd I go?

I went away for a few days to a lovely little town called High Springs, Florida.

posted at 3:55 PM Apr 26, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

Jared Keller writes about The 'Kerry in Vietnam'-thing

This all makes me very uneasy. Perhaps because I've never served in the military, and unfortunately, probably never will (see this post for an explanation), I'm extremely reluctant to engage in the disparaging of anyone's service in the military - especially in duties that are widely acknowledged to be quite hazardous (as is the case with the swift boats). I'd much prefer that our criticism of John Kerry be limited to his deplorable record on national security issues, and his bizarre ability to perform 180-degree turns on policy issues when the polls suggest he should. From all appearances, John Kerry is a man utterly devoid of a moral compass or guiding principles, and a ridiculously self-important stuffed-shirt with arrogance stamped on his entire being. That having been said, he is a veteran of a difficult war who served his country by volunteering for a dangerous duty. I have nothing but disdain for his political beliefs (such as they are), and will gleefully vote against the man. That having been said, I don't like the way the Republicans have begun to stoop to Terry McCauliffe's level on this one...

posted at 6:33 PM Apr 22, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : My feelings exactly

Where can you see White Rhinos?

Apparently, in the West Midland Safari Park (UK):

The 12-year-old rhino tried to mount the Renault Laguna from the side, denting the doors and ripping off the wing mirrors before Dave drove away with a puffing Sharka in pursuit.

"He was a big boy and obviously aroused," Alsop told the Sun newspaper. "He sidled up against us. The next thing I know he's banging away at the car and it's rocking like hell."

posted at 2:17 PM Apr 22, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Here's a terrific article by Orson Scott Card called
How Bush Caused 9/11 .

Right now, though, the Left is doing everything it can to blame him for everything he did and everything he didn't do. He's being blamed for not taking preemptive action in Afghanistan, and for taking preemptive action in Iraq.

In other words, Bush's critics are simply taking hold of every tool they can find to try to block his reelection.

It's the lowest form of politics, to throw rocks at the guy who's leading us with amazing success in a war that was forced upon us by our enemies.

I wish I'd read it before I started arguing with my liberal friend.

Hat tip: lgf

posted at 11:56 AM Apr 21, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Pottery Barn is upset about all the free press it's getting.

Pottery Barn of San Francisco says there is no such rule in its stores that if "you break it, you own it," as cited in Bob Woodward's book, "Plan of Attack."

Woodward attributed the remark to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was warning President Bush of the consequences of invading Iraq.

posted at 11:22 AM Apr 21, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Bad News for Air America

Hat tip: Asymmetrical Information

posted at 4:34 PM Apr 20, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

All right!

Hey! GWBush has an official blog. How cool is that?

And yes, I know that other candidates had them first; I'm just glad to see that Bush has one as well.

posted at 12:38 PM Apr 20, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Say a prayer for this guy...

Once this story gets around, he may not survive the night.

posted at 9:16 PM Apr 19, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Today is the ninth anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing (which the Bush Adinistration did NOTHING to prevent, as my liberal friends might say.)

Anyway, Lynn has some nice thoughts.

posted at 6:05 PM Apr 19, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

"Nine Reasons Not To Drink"

Hat tip: Vodka Pundit

posted at 4:30 PM Apr 19, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

I have been having a dispiriting email exchange with a liberal friend, which has consumed much of my intellectual energy. I am quickly coming to the conclusion that, regardless of his seeming intelligence and rationality, he really does live in a different world from me. It’s quite enervating.

posted at 4:16 PM Apr 19, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Is this in our future?

Stay tuned and find out.

posted at 6:17 PM Apr 17, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Lunchblogging

posted at 6:16 PM Apr 17, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

I really despise Michael Moore...

...and so does this guy:

Actually, I just had a thought. In addition to your sheer cowardice, I just realized why you would never go to Iraq. Most of the military despises you, a fact you know all too well but will never admit. I bet your camera crew pretends to be a standard news outfit, and doesn't inform the soldiers that they're being filmed for Michael Moore's latest anti-American propaganda piece. If you were running around the desert with a camera and a microphone you would most likely get a rifle butt in your face and you damn well know it.

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

posted at 1:02 PM Apr 17, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Iowahawk has a few questions for President Bush: Answer the Questions, Mr. President!

A sample:

Mr. President! I was just thinking, do you ever sit in the Oval Office in introspection, saying to yourself, "perhaps I was wrong, wrong on Iraq, wrong on WMDs, I didn't do everything possible to prevent 9-11, it might as well have been me flying those jets into the buildings," or would you say you're more like, "screw that introspection shit, I'm never wrong," and wander off to the Blue Room to play the Xbox?

posted at 6:35 PM Apr 16, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Victor Davis Hanson

Do you get tired of these? Well, I don't.

What a weird war we are in. The president of the United States gives a press conference to steel our will and endures mostly inane cross examination — at the very time the New York Times best-seller list has five of its top ten books alleging that he is a near criminal. Various disgruntled, passed-over or fired employees (Clarke and O'Neill), buffoonish provocateurs (Franken), and conspiracists (Phillips and Unger) all assure us in their pulp of everything from Bush family ties with Nazis to a First Family perennially plotting to get Americans killed for nothing other than cheap oil.

If that was not enough, a U.S. senator, with a reprehensible record of personal excess and abject immorality, now in his dotage damns the war in Iraq on moral grounds — even as young Marines seek to protect a nascent and tottering consensual government from thugs and killers. An ex-president who calibrated his campaign for a Nobel Prize by criticizing his successor in a time of war to the applause of foreign powers now steps forward to call for a more principled nation. Such are the moralists of our age.

posted at 5:52 PM Apr 16, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Must Read of the Day

Spring in Orlando - 50 degrees

I took the wife to work today, and went on my way through surface streets downtown. I'm sure glad I have my camera back.

posted at 11:07 AM Apr 16, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

OK, here's a quick one

Go read the leggy firebrand.

Last week, 9-11 commissioner John Lehman revealed that "it was the policy (before 9-11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory." Hmmm ... Is 19 more than two? Why, yes, I believe it is. So if two Jordanian cab drivers are searched before boarding a flight out of Newark, Osama bin Laden could then board that plane without being questioned. I'm no security expert, but I'm pretty sure this gives terrorists an opening for an attack.

posted at 5:25 PM Apr 15, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Girls, girls, girls!

Not too much time for posting today. In the meantime, enjoy this:

Earle K. Bergey "Startling Stories" Cover Galerie

posted at 5:17 PM Apr 15, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

The Song, Not the Singer

Eric Olsen on last night's press conference:

These were the things I needed to hear last night and I heard them. The war on terror is the most important issue of our time - Bush reconvinced me he knows that, he has even staked his reelection campaign upon it, the message came through and the message counts infinitely more than the messenger.

Hat tip: Instapundit

posted at 2:47 PM Apr 14, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Wish he'd said it

I watched the President's press conference last night, and thought that he did a wonderful job, in the face of a bunch of media weenies that are trying to "define" him for the upcoming election.

The final question was "Have you failed in any way to really make the case to the American public?"

BUSH: You know, that's — I guess if you put it into a political context, that's the kind of thing the voters will decide next November. That's what elections are about. They'll take a look at me and my opponent and say, let's see, which one of them can better win the war on terror? Who best can see to it that Iraq emerges as a free society?

And, Don, you know, if I tried to fine tune my messages based upon polls, I think I'd be pretty ineffective. I know I'd — I would be disappointed in myself. I hope today you've got a sense of my conviction about what we're doing.

If you don't, maybe I need to learn to communicate better. I feel strongly about what we're doing. I feel strongly that the course this administration has taken will make America more secure and the world more free, and therefore, the world more peaceful. It's a conviction that's deep in my soul. And, you know, I will say it as best as I possibly can to the American people.

I look forward to the debate in the campaign. I look forward to helping — for the American people to hear, you know, what is the proper use of American power? Do we have an obligation to lead or should we shirk responsibility? That's how I — that's how I view this debate, and I look forward to making it, Don. I'll do it the best I possibly can. I'll give it the best shot. I'll speak as plainly as I can. One thing is for certain, though, about me — and the world has learned this — when I say something, I mean it. And the credibility of the United States is incredibly important for keeping world peace and freedom.

A great answer! I wish he'd said, in addition, "Since I'm speaking consistently and clearly on these subjects, perhaps if the American people aren't getting the message it has something to do with how the messengers are doing their job?"

Update: Glenn Reynods, from last night's liveblogging the press conferences, characterized it thus:

I think the White House planned it to end this way: weedy NPR guy in tweeds prods plain-talking man of action.

posted at 2:33 PM Apr 14, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Both amusing and enraging at the same time

Documenting the Moonbat Swarm

A photo-journal of the International Answer Protests in DC

I wasn't sure what to think; I was torn between anger and laughter the whole time. It's difficult to get that angry with them; these people are ill, seriously ill. They are channeling their severe emotional pain into a political struggle, and no amount of reasoning with them would have any effect. Luckily, they marginalize themselves with their overt displays of insanity, and fortunately, no more than a couple of hundred people showed up for this event. I'm certainly glad that the Iraqis showed up; they likely won a media victory.

posted at 6:27 PM Apr 13, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Where can you see White Zebras?

Only in Kenya!

posted at 6:13 PM Apr 13, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Stephen Green responds to John Kerry's WaPo OpEd.

posted at 2:27 PM Apr 13, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Andy Rooney's ugly monologue from 60 minutes is viciously fisked:
Fire Andy Rooney

posted at 1:32 PM Apr 13, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Larry Miller: It's the War, Stupid

I mean, please, anyone who ever reads past page two has known since President Bush landed on that aircraft carrier that Fallujah was the headquarters, the homeland, the core of everyone who ever worked and killed for Saddam Hussein. It's not just a place, a city, a neighborhood, with terrific down-home folks going to choir practice and trying to get by in tough times. It's the place--the bull's eye, it's got them all, and it might as well be called Tortureville, or Saddamfield, or Baathburg, and the best of them could most charitably be called "loyalists." What in the world did anyone imagine was going to sprout up there in the last 12 months? A chamber of commerce? A garden club? A band shell for Sunday programs of Sousa?

Hat tip: lgf

posted at 11:31 AM Apr 13, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : My feelings exactly

Glenn Reynolds visited Cincinnati for health reasons over Easter.

posted at 11:15 AM Apr 13, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

My gosh, this is a good article! The Fruits of Appeasement by VDH

Instead, the primary cause for our surprising indifference to the events leading up to September 11 lies within ourselves. Westerners always have had a propensity for complacency because of our wealth and freedom; and Americans in particular have enjoyed a comfortable isolation in being separated from the rest of the world by two oceans. Yet during the last four presidential administrations, laxity about danger on the horizon seems to have become more ingrained than in the days when a more robust United States sought to thwart communist intrusion into Arabia, Asia, and Africa.

Hat tip: lgf

posted at 4:34 PM Apr 12, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Must Read of the Day

PDB

Captain Ed has a cogent analysis of the infamous August 6th President's Daily Brief. Read it (and the PDB) and then tell me whether or not YOU could have predicted 9/11.

For that matter, could anyone? Could Clinton?

Of course not.

posted at 11:47 AM Apr 12, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Root for her!

posted at 11:09 AM Apr 12, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Girls, girls, girls!

There have been a few "alternative histories" floating around the web, postulating what might have happened if the 9/11 hijacker's plot had been spotted and foiled before it started.

But this book review is, I think, the best of them all. Simply amazing.

posted at 11:05 AM Apr 12, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Where's the prez?

Andrew Sullivan has some good quotes by Tony Blair on what the battles in Iraq mean for the future of the war, and what it means about our dedication to democracy, not just there, but anywhere.

Where's the president on this? You know, I really wish we could get solid and consistant reassurance from the White House that they know what they are doing and can handle these issues when they blow up.

Is George Bush so afraid of a pre-election gaff that he simply can't chance it?

posted at 10:49 AM Apr 12, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

As usual, Den Beste provides the needed analysis. Don't dispair, it's just the Fog of War:

If you peer through the fog and deliberate obfuscation, and put all the pieces together, it turns out that what really happened in Falluja was that the Marine commander halted offensive operations there for 24 hours, in part to let certain panicked members of the Governing Council try to talk sense into the militants, in part to let a third battalion of Marines come up in support, but mostly in order to let a lot of civilians leave the city. The offer that got delivered to the insurgents was a surrender demand: All insurgents, and especially all foreign jihadis, would have to peacefully yield themselves to the Marines and go into custody.

America wasn't begging for mercy from the insurgents; it was offering them mercy. They were given a chance to surrender. If they don't take it, the Marines will kill most of them and take the rest prisoner.

posted at 9:31 PM Apr 11, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Contribute to the Kerry campaign

No, really!

Update: The Kerry Campaign has allowed me (and thousands of others) to express our love for their candidate on-line. Seemed like a good idea at the time. More fun here.

Another Update: Because I fully expect this hare-brained site to be pulled soon, I made a screen capture.

Final Update: As expected, I was found out and kicked out of the system. You can still find my screen capture, though. It was great fun while it lasted.

posted at 11:19 PM Apr 10, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

I've added a bunch of new blogs to my blogroll (to the right), so give them a look if you are so interested. I've also been arranging them, and categorizing them is no mean task. I don't want to hurt anyone's feeling (in the unlikely event of one of these folks wandering into my simplisme blog), so please, if I didn't categorize you as 'Essential' it doesn't mean I don't like you.

And, just because I categorize you as, say, 'Humor' doesn't mean that you don't frequently have biting and insightful political commentary. Heck, I don't even know why I put anybody into categories, I just wanted something beside a long list of names.

posted at 6:40 PM Apr 10, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Charles Johnson's right: The Hatchets are Out

The 9/11 hearings sound good on paper. Investigate the intelligence and leadership problems that led to 9/11, with the aim of improving our battle against the Islamic fascists. Who could argue against that?

The trouble is, it’s turned into a disgraceful partisan circus, with Bush administration officials being disrespectfully shouted at as if they were Watergate criminals by grandstanding Democrat hatchet men, and regular eruptions of applause from the peanut gallery at the worst attacks. And meanwhile, Al Gore and Bill Clinton are questioned behind closed doors, away from the cameras and microphones.

posted at 5:35 PM Apr 10, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

VDH from Yesterday

Western Cannibalism

posted at 12:31 PM Apr 10, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Must Read of the Day

Is Hugh Hewitt a god?

Today, he might be:

"I don't see any shadows of Vietnam here in Iraq," Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez told the Boston Globe today. This doesn't surprise anyone but Ted Kennedy and a column of media alarmists, because the differences between the conflict thirty years ago --with hundreds of combat deaths weekly, an enemy conventional army operating in tandem with sophisticated guerilla forces supplied by one-and-a-half super-powers from a base off-limits to attack by U.S. troops, and an American home front riven by massive protests sparked by an unpopular draft-- are obvious to anyone without an agenda of beating George Bush in November.

From an earlier post:

How often does the American military have to demonstrate its awesome power and technique before the left will cease its shrill and debilitating declarations of either imminent or actual defeat?

posted at 6:20 PM Apr 9, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

If you're like me, you look at all the TV news coming out of Iraq as presented and can't make head nor tail of it. What to do?

Why, consult a reputable blog, of course.

THE UPSURGE IN VIOLENCE in Iraq over the past week has left many people asking questions about the nature of our enemies, what their objectives are, and how we can best defeat them.

Here are some answers:

Read and understand.

posted at 5:39 PM Apr 9, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Like a good neighbor....

...you know the rest. On Tuesday, State Farm settled with us concerning our recent unpleasantness.

On Thursday, the first stuff showed up at the door: a big box of DVDs and the camera.

Can't beat that.

Update: From Lileks (where else) I find this delightful discussion of the morality of burglers. A short quote:

Acquisitive crime has no grand motive or justification in the minds of those who commit it: burglary is not a conscious revenge on abstract economic injustice, but an attempt to acquire what it would otherwise take time and diligence to acquire.

Give it a read.

posted at 10:02 AM Apr 9, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Crime

"United States Senator John Kerry, a candidate for president of the United States, announced today that the criminal Bush's plan to hand power in Iraq over to a hand-picked group of his oil-thieving cronies is a ruse, and a thinly disguised one at that. Calling Imam Sadr "legitimate," Kerry denounced the closing of Imam Sadr's newspaper, and predicted it necessarily would drive the Imam into closer coordination with our brothers in Hamas and Hezbollah. Kerry demanded that the criminal Bremer, for whom no Iraqi patriot wishes to work, cease his manipulations and seek the intervention of the Arab League or some other legitimate international authority to oversee the exit of the invaders from Iraqi soil and the transition to Sharia law."

Or something like that

posted at 12:27 PM Apr 8, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

No surprises here

"The fact is, President Clinton approved every snatch that he was ever asked to review."
-- Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke (Page 145)

Hat tip: Lucianne.com

posted at 6:47 PM Apr 7, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Just a few thoughts:

• If you are standing inside a Mosque shooting at people, you are not a worshiper.

• If you are urging your flock to kill people, you aren't a cleric.

• If you agree to stockpile weapons in your mosque, and use it as a military headquarters and a firing platform, it's no longer a place of worship.

• If you are part of a military unit, and you hide yourselves within groups of women and children, you are gutless pussies.

Another: This is a war; did you think there wouldn't be fighting? When the Republican Guard shucked their uniforms last year and holed up in Faluja, did you think they became farmers?

posted at 6:05 PM Apr 7, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Current Events

Interesting story about what some leftists fear, and the nature of Evangelicalism.

AS THE PRESIDENTIAL election draws closer, some people are asking, in ominous tones, a question: What impact does President Bush's evangelical Christianity have on his administration's policies? As an evangelical, an interpreter of literary and cultural texts, and a long-time observer of the evangelical world, I have both a personal and a professional interest in this question. And I'm here to offer an answer: Probably not much.

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

posted at 10:48 AM Apr 7, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

One Internet Sensation As Ordered

posted at 10:37 AM Apr 7, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Lileks is a god

Seinfeld and Superman

Who could ask for more? Go and see.

posted at 10:58 PM Apr 6, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Dating Advice

How to use a hand puppet to meet, attract, and date tons of single women...

This sounds just as likely to work as any other way to meet women. Now I know what to get Bill for his birthday...

Update: Ok, a little cracker-jack Internet research (that is, I followed the link provided) shows that the author Don Diebel is associated with getgirls.com, a site that publishes such useful books as "Get Girls With Hypnotism" and "Pick Up Topless Dancers."

Maybe we shouldn't take his advice too seriously.

posted at 5:16 PM Apr 6, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

This is the cover of a book that I bought a few weekends ago at the Antiquarian Book Fair. It was part of a collection of pocket books from the 50s, all in excellent condition, which the man told me had been owned by a guy who kept them pristine for 50 years.

I recall that, in the comic book world, there was a similar treasure trove found a number of years ago, which contained Golden Age comics, lovingly preserved in a similar state.

Anyway, I bought the book because 1) it's an Earl Stanley Gardner book not about Perry Mason; 2) the blonde in bondage is iconic of a type of book of this era; and 3) "Musical Cow!"

Oh, plus it's a "new kind of mystery about DOPE and MURDER."

I'm not the only one interested in this book, it seems..

posted at 10:46 AM Apr 6, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Fun with the scanner

posted at 8:40 PM Apr 5, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Via Instapundit, I see that Mark Kleiman has a Kerry speech he'd like to see.

If I am inaugurated President next January 20, by next January 27 one of two things will have happened: either the Saudi Ambassador will have provided to the Government of the United States a detailed, auditable accounting of where that money went (whether it was nominally his, his wife's or the embassy's) and what it went for, or the United States will inform the Saudi Government, that Prince Bandar, having apparently engaged in conduct incompatible with his diplomatic status, is persona non grata and must leave the United States forthwith. If he paid, or helped to pay, directly or indirectly, with whatever winks and nods, for the murders of 3000 of our countrymen, PRINCE BANDAR MUST GO.

Frankly, I'd like rather this speach was given by President Bush; but it ought to be spoken by someone....

posted at 11:40 AM Apr 5, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Good news on the Job Front.

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

posted at 7:14 PM Apr 3, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

Kerry Menaces a Child With 'Got Your Nose'

posted at 6:41 PM Apr 3, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Pictures of a Dork

posted at 10:20 PM Apr 2, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

There's nothing really new here, but Ann Coulter provides a little perspective.

posted at 5:32 PM Apr 2, 2004 by Rob Ritchie

It's early, but I think I already found the "Must Read of the Day." It's by Steven Den Beste, and it's about the attrocity in Falluja.

Go read it.

posted at 10:45 AM Apr 2, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Must Read of the Day

Waiting, waiting

Since I'm waiting for some calls from cleaners, I figure I'll pass the time doing this.

posted at 11:18 AM Apr 1, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Crime

Hey! I stole a Kerry statue! Oh, wait...

posted at 11:09 AM Apr 1, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Pictures of a Dork

Robbed

Donna called me at work yesterday at 4:35, telling me that she'd just got home and that our home had been broken into. I rushed right home.

Someone took the kitchen door off its hinges with the tools readily available in my garage. They got into the garage by removing a screen from a narrow window and wriggling in.

We're still discovering what's missing, but so far, we estimate that it's about 50 DVD's, 40 CD's, $50 in cash, the digital camera and a few other small items. Plus, a large red nylon duffle bag, I suppose to carry the loot.

They didn't touch any of the larger electronics, for example, the TVs, VCRs, DVD players, computer, Donna's video editing equipment, etc.

Oh, they made sandwiches, and took the vodka we keep in the freezer.

I guess we should count ourselves lucky that they didn't trash the place, or vandalize anything; we've heard horror stories.

The police officer who investigated dusted for prints, found none, left an enormous mess all over the house. My advice to you: if you are the victim of a crime that isn't a murder, ask them not to dust for prints: it's a real aggrivation, as it doesn't clean up very easily.

I suppose, considering the items stolen, that the burgler was a kid skipping school. Perhaps the kid's parent will discover him with all this stuff and turn it into the police and we'll get it all back. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Little bastard.

Update: This is not and April Fool's Joke; it is, unfortunately, all too real. I keep finding more things missing. A preliminary pricing estimate (via. Amazon) is $1500.00 worth of stuff. I know, it's just stuff: but it was my stuff. Most of these things I got for birthdays or for Christmas.

Little bastard!

posted at 9:42 AM Apr 1, 2004 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Crime