'Til the Fat Lady Sings

Seeking entree into the exalted ranks of those who are famous for being famous, Michaela and Tareq Salahi crashed a White House dinner in their quest for a spot on Bravo's [completely awesome] Real Housewives series. "Crashed" is, of course, a colloquialism; there was no breaking and entering involved, they simply sidled up to the line, and somehow got past Secret Service without the benefit of an invitation.

Without the benefit of an invitation, and without any sense of the distinction between showing respect and playing dress-up. The sari was ridiculous. Western women who dress up in another culture's traditional garb may be grasping for multiculturalist cred, but get stuck squarely at Halloween, especially when the absence of flesh on their bones makes them look like they've been photographed post-suttee.

How they got into the White House is now the focus of investigation. The White House is endeavoring to throw the Secret Service under the bus, but the Secret Service does not make mistakes like that. The phrase "it ain't over until the fat lady sings" springs to mind, but immediately withers given Michaela Salahi's fashionable emaciation.

The Secret Service does not make mistakes like that. Who makes mistakes like that? The Obama Administration. Rookie mistakes like blaming the heavily-armed people who protect you for a screw-up in your own Social Office. It is Amateur Hour at 1600, and before this is done the Secret Service will emerge unscathed from the bus under which their boss has thrown them. And they are such professionals, I'm sure they will not hesitate to protect that vain empty suit of a President from harm.

Fortunately for the brave men and women in the Secret Service, I don't think anyone takes Obama seriously enough to ever take a shot at him. The Russians and the Iranians probably provide him with a shadow bodyguard service, the thugs and tyrants of the world are much better off with a weak American president in power.

Next Blog Link

Today, the Next Blog link took me through a series of wedding planner blogs and photography blogs.

Is that photo of an open grave a little too dark? Is Google trying to lighten things up?

Blogger Buzz is proud of the new feature, but it's demonstrably broken.

Don't be Afraid; Die Instead!

The United States Preventive Services Task Force has rescinded long-standing guidelines and now recommends that women begin having mammograms at 50, not 40, and then only every other year rather than annually. The federal task force cites the risks of false positives and over-diagnoses (e.g., the woman has breast cancer but would have died from something else anyway) as justifications for its about-face. Among the false positive risks mentioned are anxiety, and unnecessary and disfiguring biopsies.

Anxiety? They don't want women in their 40s to have mammograms because they are concerned the women will become anxious? And they are worried that we'll look a little lumpy in our swimsuits?

There is absolutely no argument that, when it comes to cancer, early detection saves lives. Stop a random woman on the street, and I'll bet you $5 that she knows a woman in her 40s (or younger!) who was diagnosed with breast cancer after a baseline or annual mammogram.

Federal guidelines discouraging regular mammograms for women in their 40s will cost many women in their 40s their lives.

If anxiety is going to be a motivating factor in health care decisions, then these new federal guidelines should be reversed immediately for all the anxiety they have caused among oncologists and anyone touched by breast cancer.

Middle-aged broads everywhere, it's time to get angry.

I ask you again: where do you fall on Obama's Reaper Curve?

Next Blog Link

I enjoy the "Next Blog" link at the top of a Blogger page, it adds a desperately-needed element of browsing to the internet experience. We're all so accustomed to typing in search terms, we've lost the art of browsing. As happy as I was to have found a copy of a dearly-loved book from childhood on Ebay with a few keystrokes, I still miss the adventure of the unknown in a used bookstore. (Avenue Victor Hugo, RIP.)

So anyway, the Next Blog link. I thought the journey through the Blogger universe was entirely random, until tonight, when clicking Next Blog sent me on an interesting journey through a series of conservative blogs, then one liberal blog, then a series of Indian blogs, then a series of death and funerary blogs. (UPDATE: On November 17, was taken through a series of Christian blogs.)

Is Next Blog like Tivo, where the system sifts your viewing habits through a proprietary algorithm and suggests other things it thinks you might like? Ideological blogs, OK, I get that. And maybe Blogger's algorithm interpreted my comment about the Fort Hood shooter encountering 72 virgin dogs in Hell as indicative of an interest in the funerary sciences.

Or perhaps the prospect of the Google Hive Mind forming an opinion of me is not something I should be contemplating at bedtime.

Sweet dreams.

Friday Morning Massacre

On Friday morning, just before jetting off the Asia for eight days, and while Congress is conveniently on hiatus, the Obama Administration lets it slip that they are bringing KSM and a few of his buddies to New York City to be tried in civilian court for their acts of terrorism against the United States.

This is a kowtow to the Far Left. By trying terrorists in American civilian courts, Obama will accomplish indirectly that which he can't bring himself to do directly: release sensitive national security information and put prior administrations on trial. Dear Leader will not sully his hands, he'll have a team of crusading ACLU-type lawyers do the dirty work for him.

Bastard. I'd happily welcome KSM to the Land of the Free if the Asians would agree to keep Obama. Trade, anyone?

United States Surrenders to Japan

Dear Leader, having apparently boned up on Japanese customs on Wikipedia before disembarking from Air Force One, bowed deeply and wildly inappropriately when greeting Japanese Emperor Akihito.

The Japanese media, unfailingly polite, are so embarrassed for him that they aren't even running the picture.

Maybe Obama hoped that another display of diplomatic ignorance would make people forget his highly questionable bow before the Saudi leader. Or maybe his swing through Asia is going to morph into another Apology Tour after all...

Political Correctness Kills 13 in Texas

If you didn't think "jihadi" when you heard about the shootings at Fort Hood, you are either lying to yourself or you are so open-minded that your brains have fallen out.

Why was the shooter allowed to remain in the Army despite his very public Islamist and unAmerican views? Why was he promoted in spite of poor performance reviews? Why do people continue to think that being nicey-nice to our enemies is going to keep us safe?

I will not post his picture or say his name. I hope he meets 72 virgin dogs in Hell.

CNN Calls New Jersey for Christie

CNN has just called the New Jersey Governor's race for the Republican candidate Chris Christie.

ACORN will discover car trunks and warehouses filled with absentee ballots with votes for Corzine 3, 2, 1...

Virginia is For Lovers

Virginia is for Lovers. Lovers of freedom, liberty, and all that is uniquely America.

Despite voting overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008, the state that gave us Patrick Henry and his echoing cry of "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" has given us the first step in the long march of reclaiming the country from Obama and his band of Marxists. Welcome, Governor-elect McDonnell, you are a sight for sore eyes.

Virginia, all is forgiven.

Searching for God in San Francisco

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle attempts to puzzle out why patrons at San Francisco's Ferry Building (motto: local, seasonal, sustainable) are still willing and able to pay $14 for a bottle of olive oil in the midst of a recession, when California's unemployment rate tops 12%.

Unsurprisingly for the Chronicle, the article misses the point. A clue can be found in the Ferry Building's motto: Local, Seasonal, Sustainable. Ferry Building patrons are not making mere dining choices, they are acting out a religious ritual: local, seasonable, and sustainable are the Trinity at the heart of the San Francisco Foodie Cult. Shopping for and consuming locally, seasonably, and sustainably is an act of devotion which must be performed publicly; if $14 olive oil had to purchased over the internet and shipped in a plain brown wrapper, the Foodie Cult would crumble.

Ever lovers of diversity, San Franciscans are not monotheists with respect to the Foodie Cult. Oh no. The Goddess of the $8 Sustainably Grown Nectarine is a mere handmaiden to the Green God. The Green Cult has a High Priest, Al Gore; and a sacred book, An Inconvenient Truth, which has proven as resistant to factual dispute as any revealed text. The Green Cult explains everything, makes the world comprehensible, and gives its adherents tools to assuage their sense of powerlessness. The bees are disappearing? Climate change. Unseasonably warm? Climate change. Unseasonably cool? Climate change. Husband left you for a stripper? Climate change, her implants will provide buoyancy when the sea levels rise.

To mark yourself as one of the Elect in a sinful world, you must engage in public displays of devotion. The Prius, with its distinctive lines, instantly marks you as one of the Elect. Same with solar panels, as long as they face the street so your neighbors can see them. And engage regularly in public, group worship at temples like the Ferry Building and Chez Panisse.

When people abandon God, they will pay $8 for a sustainably grown nectarine in a desperate attempt to find meaning in their lives. Welcome to San Francisco.