The 50 Greatest Female Characters in Video Game History

TwitchGuru.com has collected a list of video game heroines and takes a shot at casting live-action versions of the games.

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider Series

Is there any doubt that Lara Croft is the perennial video game heroine? Croft is a female Indiana Jones with Daisy Duke shorts, a tight tank top shirt and two pistols instead of a ragged hat and bullwhip. The buxom adventurer has become a cultural icon, appearing in more than 10 games, two feature films and several comic books and original novels.

Pros: Completely eye-popping and disproportionate features, a zest for adventure and great aim with the firearms.

Cons: She has some Daddy issues and has become increasingly violent as the Tomb Raider series has progressed.

Is Played By: Angelina Jolie, the absolute perfect choice.

Video games are always characterized as being patriarchal and overwhelmingly man-oriented, but the fact they could pull 50 women and leave plenty out shows that the girls are alright.

It's Boys Against Girls With The Religion of Peace!

According to fascist-liberal dogma, the most repressive religion in the world is Catholicism because it doesn't ordain women priests. Never mind all the other Christian churches that have female clergy, the atheist Left seeks to destroy the Catholic Church because it's the biggest symbol of God on the planet and since they can't kill God, they'll settle for His followers' Church.

So, what to make of these stories about the Muslim man in Britain who killed his wife and four daughters for being too modern...

After an arranged marriage, [his wife] developed a career as a community leader in Accrington while he, handicapped by a lack of English, took on a series of low-paid jobs.

After Mrs Riaz's father died she "suddenly felt less beholden to Mohammed", a friend said. "She started to develop her own circle of friends and allowed the girls to express themselves in a more western way."

She began to work with women who felt suppressed by Asian culture and many saw her as a role model for young Asian women.

...and the Pakistani provincial government minister killed on Tuesday because a Muslim man believed women should not be in politics?

The gunman, Mohammad Sarwar, was overpowered by the minister’s driver and arrested by police. A stone mason in his mid 40s, he is not thought to belong to any radical group but is known for his fanaticism. He was previously held in 2002 in connection with the killing and mutilation of four prostitutes, but was never convicted due to lack of evidence.

Mr Sarwar appeared relaxed and calm when he told a television channel that he had carried out God’s order to kill women who sinned. “I have no regrets. I just obeyed Allah’s commandment,” he said, adding that Islam did not allow women to hold positions of leadership. “I will kill all those women who do not follow the right path, if I am freed again,” he said.

“He is basically a fanatic,” Raja Basharat, the Punjab Law Minister, said. “He is against the involvement of women in politics and government affairs.” A police statement added: “He considers it contrary to the teachings of Allah for a woman to become a minister or a ruler. That’s why he committed this action.”

“He killed her because she was not observing the Islamic code of dress. She was also campaigning for emancipation of women,” said Nazir Ahmad, a local officer. (emphasis added)

Toss in Amnesty International's report on "honor killings" of women in Pakistan and the blather we're deluged with about Islam being a benign religion of peace that is only being recently provoked to violence by the War in Iraq at the behest of America's Zionist puppet masters collapses as the bunkum it is.

Islam is incompatible with modernity. As long as it kept to itself, we didn't realize the depths of its oppression and barbarity, but now that it's seeking to spread its darkness across the globe, enslaving previously free people, reducing women to chattel and slaughtering homosexuals, it's depressing to see that the self-loathing Left offers all sorts of excuses for these excesses as if their wishful thinking will spare them the sword or a subservient life paying the jizya as a dhimmi.

Christians are constantly being punished for the actions of a few - as in "countable on one hand" - nutcases who go loony and shoot abortionists; not to mention that whole Crusades thing and the Inquisition that must be atoned for in perpetuity. But as Islam actively racks up a dreadful death toll, the Left falls silent. Is it fear of getting their throats cut or just an "enemy of my enemy (i.e. Christians) is my friend" pragmatism? Why does the latter seem more logical?

The Most Annoying Things About Windows Vista

Waaaaaaaay back in 1998, while still a neophyte computer user, I eagerly bought the Windows 98 upgrade on the day it was released because my computer had been cursed with the craptastic version of Windows 95 that didn't have the FAT32 file system and thus lost a ton of space to overhead.

The snazzy new Windows Vista came out three weeks ago and I couldn't be less enthused if it came with a taxpayer-funded Democratic Party mouse pad. There are too many issues with drivers for nVidia cards and the total kneecapping of accelerated audio and EAX by Vista's rewritten audio subsystem which brings stability at the cost of backwards-compatibility.

Now, PC World has a list of things that pet their peeve about Micro$oft's new bug house. I've got an extra copy of WinXP Pro on hand and until there are so many DirectX 10 games that I can't avoid moving on up, I'm going to hold off until the view on Vista clears up some.

Happy Paczki Day!

While many people may think of today as Mardi Gras - aka "Fat Tuesday", the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent - here in tha D it's "Paczki Day". What is a paczki?

A paczki (pronounced “Poonch-key”) is a Polish donut. It uses a richer batter than traditional donuts. These donuts are traditionally filled with raspberry or prune filling although a huge variety of other fillings are now available. Hamtramck, a small Polish city within Detroit, is where the authentic Polish bakeries are located and thousands of metro Detroiters travel to Hamtramck every year on Fat Tuesday to indulge. In Detroit, Fat Tuesday is so named for the oil and shortening found in paczkis that Christian Poles so often give up for Lent.

Paczki Day is a Polish Holiday and was essentially unknown to the greater Detroit area until the 80’s when the media first started covering this day and, more aptly, the yummy Polish treats. Now it seems like everyone is Polish on Paczki Day! It’s become a Detroit tradition, regardless of ethnic origin.

I've already had one, seen others leftover in the kitchen area here at work, and have a bunch of custard paczkis waiting at home. Ooof.

If updates here suddenly stop, it'll probably be due to a coronary induced by these lard bombs. Yummy!

Dirk's Dish Du Jour: Ellen DeGeneres?!?

I first saw Ellen when she used to be on a mediocre sitcom called "Open House" back in 1989. According to the IMDB, that was her first acting gig and I thought she was kinda cute. Flash forward some years and she has her own sitcom and then the whole "Yep, I'm gay." thing happens and I have to cross her off the list. Drat. (Ironically, she banged Larry Sanders on Gary Shandling's show which threw people for a meta loop at the same time.)

While the bogus "Queen of Nice", Rosie O'Donnell, has revealed herself to be a bitter angry troll beast, Ellen has settled in nicely to a successful chat show and a series of funny American Express commercials and will be hosting the Oscars this weekend. She's always gone with a more masculine form of attire - all the better to score the hot babes like Portia de Rossi - so it was a bit of a surprise to see her on the cover of W this week.



(Calm down, you liberal knee-jerkers. It has nothing to do with Dubya.)

Whoa! What's up with the cleavage, E?!? Haven't seen that sort of action since her love scene with Sharon Stone in "If These Wall Could Talk 2". Inside, the pics are less provacative, but still neat to see her all glammed up for a change. (And looking good at age 49. I didn't know she was that old.)



What the unhinged, rage-fueled morons like Rosie O'Dumbass fail to see is that if the War Against Islamofascism is lost, then women and gays will be the greatest victims of the plunge into darkness that will follow. That goes for the nice, cute lesbians as well as the angry, psycho hose-beasts like Rosie. Her hatred of Dubya and desire to see the war lost will mean enslavement for women and death to lesbians. Liberals just don't get it.

While Ellen isn't the traditional cheesecake type I usually use to illustrate why we must fight Islamofascism and prevail, she's still a symbol of what will be lost if the Defeatocrats have their way. I can always ignore Rosie's noise hole, but I like Ellen and the world wouldn't be as fun without her and her gentle humor.

Forget Al Queda!!! We Gotta Stop Those Video Games!!!

Not content to let fascist Democratic nannies like Hillary! Clinton and Joe Lieberman hog all the game-banning fun, Stupid Party Presidential Not-A-Chancer Sen. Sam Brownback is bringing back a game ratings bill with the laughable title of "The Truth in Video Game Rating Act" because...

"Video game reviewers should be required to review the entire content of a game to ensure the accuracy of the rating. The current video game ratings system is not as accurate as it could be because reviewers do not see the full content of games and do not even play the games they rate. Game reviewers must have access to the entire game for their ratings to accurately reflect a game’s content."

The bill also would require the Government Accountability Office to evaluate whether or not the ESRB is effective, and if there should be a seperate rating system not controlled by the video game industry.

With some games having at least 50-100 hours of gameplay, to require a delay of at least a couple of weeks to allow for complete playthroughs would be damaging.

I've written elsewhere that developers like Rockstar only brought the heat down on themselves by leaving crap like Hot Coffee on their game discs, but that doesn't excuse the double-standards and government intrusion that Brownback, Clinton and Joementum are proposing for video games that they wouldn't dream of inflicting upon the movie and music industries.

Of course, watch for commentators to blame this on "conservative politicians" now that Brownnose, er, back, has thrown in with the nanny fascists.

Why Cats Want To Annihilate The Human Race

I've never bought into the bullsh*t excuse that American Imperialism is the reason for the Islamofascists' jihad against Western civilization and modernity, but in the case of these cats, I'm totally understanding why they hate us.







BTW, the instructions on the page for washing a cat are a joke. If you actually try to do this, your family will find your body looking as if you'd been pushed thru a wood chipper. Kitties will only put up with so much of our BS before striking back with furious vengence.

Tag! I'm It!

One of the new features of the new Blogger setup is that posts can be tagged with categories. This will allow readers to find related posts under those categories. These are a work-in-progress, but mostly they should be self-explanatory; if you can't figure out what "babes" or "games" posts, then you may be better entertained by Daily Kos.

However, one category that may be opaque is "stuff and nonsense". I've said all along that most blogs are the intersection between narcissism and voyeurism and unlike most blogs, I've never been too big on the "personal sharing" thing. If you want to read about personal relationship drivel, there are at least 40 million people on MySpace pouring out intimate details about their lives that will more than fill your train wreck needs. (e.g. I know more about my drummer's step-daughter's life than I really should.)

Occasionally, though, I will have something of an occasionally me-oriented nature to post that falls into the more traditional "bloggy stuff" - what I almost called this tag - category and that's where "stuff and nonsense" comes in. Before I started this blog, I used to gather little news items to send to my girlfriend, Hermione, and the subject line would be "Stuff & Nonsense", so it makes sense that all the miscellaneous debris get filed under that title.

Jeez, this was a pointless post. How bloggy. (See how it got tagged.)

F%@# Comcast In Their Stupid Ears!!!

I've been getting fed up with my Comcast service for about six months beginning when they unceremoniously jacked up my rate $15 after discovering AFTER 7-1/2 YEARS that I didn't have their crappy cable television service. When I called about the rate hike, the nasty CSR didn't have anything useful to offer and even lied about DSL service being high-speed.

Two weeks ago, I started experiencing sporadic outages and after a few days of this junk, I called support and they said no one would be available for a WEEK. WTF?!? While I waited, I had two evenings of planned participation in the closed BF2142 Northern Strike beta trashed because of outages and lag. By the time they fixed things a week later, the beta was closed. Thanks for nothing, losers.

At least it was fixed, right? Wrong! Last Friday, I was looking forward to taking advantage of a special weekend where all the unlocks in BF2142 would be available and you already know what happened. Comcast says that they'll have someone out on Monday and I'll likely be getting a new modem. Gee, thanks. All I've done is lose three nights of gameplay and those are hard enough to come by.

UPDATE: The tech just called from home and said that things look right spiffy to him. After quietly yelling that it was always fine when it wasn't failing, he said that Comcrap is upgrading the lines from analog to digital and that outages are frequent and that he's been doing nothing but trouble calls (and not installs) for the past few weeks. Well, boo-hoo for you, Dude.

The Red Ring of Death Claims Another Victim

If you've been diligently following my Xbox Gamertag at right - which would indicate you desperately need to get some hobbies - you may've noticed that my Achievement points haven't been increasing despite getting several new games last week. Well, that's because my stupid Xbox 360, which is less than a year old, started freezing and then flashing the deadly three red LEDs which indicate console death. Drat.

It's on its way to Texas for repair/replacement - praise Allah that M$ extended the warranty period to one year - but what's baffling is that if you average my play time it works out to perhaps a couple hours per week. I have a buddy at work who has pounded his launch 360 mercilessly 6-8 hours per day and it is still going strong. Go figure. Hopefully they'll send back one with the new quieter DVD drives.

Macrovision's Reply Translated Into English

A couple of weeks ago, Apple cult leader Steve Jobs issued an open letter to the music Industry saying that digital rights management should go away; an ironic posture for someone who's used DRM (FairPlay) to lock iPod owners into using his iToonz Muzac Store and vice versa.

Macrovision CEO Fred Amoroso dished up a crack-induced reply to Jobs' letter and Daring Fireball has a translation:

We have been involved with and have supported both prevention technologies and DRM that are on literally billions of copies of music, movies, games, software and other content forms, as well as hundreds of millions of devices across the world.

Remember those squiggly lines when you tried copying a commercial VHS tape? You can thank us for that.

DRM increases not decreases consumer value

Up is down. Black is white.

Sounds about right.

Oops! - Weirdest Accidents

For a lazy Sunday, check out these crazy accident photos, like:





Some of these situations really make you wonder "How the heck did that happen?!?"

Friday Fiver

Yeesh! I haven't done these in soooooooooooooooo long. I was going to try and do a catchup post of the past few months worth, but I just don't have the time and even I wouldn't want to read 10-20 of these in a row and I find myself downright fascinating! :-\

1. What's the longest time you've spent standing?

I dunno. 8-10 hours? Who keeps track of this stuff?

2. How many people on LJ (or your blog) know your real name?

I have no idea.

3. What makes you afraid?

That people don't realize how dangerous the world is because the Treason Media tells them it's all Dubya's fault and they're stupid enough to believe them. A suicide bomber kills 100 in Iraq - it's Dubya's fault. Iran is sending IEDs and sniper rifles to Iraq to kill our soldiers (and provide CNN propaganda footage) and it's Dubya's fault!

4. What's the worst physical injury you've had?

I had a paper cut that hurt pretty badly. Seriously, a fractured knuckle.

5. What line won't you cross?"

I'll tell you after I've passed it.

My Big Fat BF2142 Stats Graphic

While I have a portion of a Battlefield 2142 sig image over to the right (where else?), it doesn't show the depth of stats as this big honkin' thing does:



BF2142 vets may notice the Northern Strike badges at the bottom and wonder how I got those when the booster pack hasn't been released yet. I was in the closed beta test group and scored those during the limited time I got to play, no thanks to chronic Comcast modem outages and the absence of the beta keymaster the first night I tried to get going.

I'm not at liberty to discuss the pack at the moment (under NDA), but suffice to say that if you enjoy BF2142, you'll want to pick this one and at only $10, it's a decent deal. (No, EA isn't paying me to say nice things about the game. In fact, the cheap farging bastages may wipe the unlocks I picked up in the test.) Check out the official propaganda site here.

The Ever-'Present' Obama

I was looking at a friend's MySpace page last night and noticed that she had sworn her allegiance to hype magnet Barack Obama in a blog post:

I almost peed my pants when I heard Barak Obama is running for President! If I had any money I'd donate to his campaign. He thinks, speaks and acts intelligently. I've got more respect for him than anyone else running for the office. His voting against the war back in '02 only helps. I'm going to work for his campaign, too, and anything else I can do.

Barak Obama for President 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I posted a comment:

And when you're toiling at his campaign HQ, you'll probably learn how to spell his name properly, too!

She's a bright woman, but as is typical of many artistic types, she's drinking solely from the Kool-Aid jug of empty-headed liberalism. I was at dinner with her one night when she launched off on a familiar riff about the evils of Dubya, Republicans, corporations, etc. (she knows my political bent) and when I replied with a handful of questions to see if she actually had some knowledge or was merely parroting the shibboleths of "progressive thinking" (an oxymoron if there ever was one), she got huffy and shut up. As I suspected, she hadn't really investigated what's happening in the world, she had merely taken the easy way and blamed everything on the bogeyman du jour for the Left.

Since you can't use any complementary adjectives to describe Obama out of fear of being labeled a racist - as Plagarizing Joe Biden found out the hard way after calling him "articulate" - I'm not going to say anything about him other than he's a slick piece of work who popped up on my radar at the 2004 DNC and who manages to be an empty vessel into which people can pour their wishes and project their desires upon.

While it's been assumed that Hillary! will destroy him like all her foes, there are some chinks in his glossy patina already developing. Maureen Dowd made a comment in a column about his barndoor ears which led to his being caught on tape, whining like a little girl about how he was teased as a child for what Will Smith has somehow managed to cope with and that he was sensitive to comments about them.

Uh, is it me, or does the idea of a Commander-in-Chief who will break into gales of weepy emo tears after a comment about his ears by Kim Jong Il, as a prelude to nuking Seoul and Japan, a little worrisome? Even a San Franciso Chronicle columnist is wondering "Is the Honeymoon for Obama Already Ending?"

The-Barack-is-testy stories are starting to dribble in. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, who can be a bit of a kingmaker, was not wowed apparently. After Obama declared his candidacy on a sub-freezing day in the Land of Lincoln, Dowd asked him if he had a heater in the podium to keep down the chill.

Perfectly reasonable question from our standpoint in the media -- offbeat, but something people would probably be interested in knowing. Dowd says Obama "shot a look that said, "Are you from People Magazine?''' but then conceded that, yes, he'd had a heater.

First, let's congratulate Dowd on her mind-reading. Not only did she extrapolate what Obama was thinking, she knew which magazine he was thinking it about.

But here's the sad reality. Expect more of that, Barack. You want audacity? We haven't even begun to give you audacity.

"You've been reporting on how I look in a swimsuit,'' Obama complained this week.

While it'd be amusing enough to mock Barack for his sensitive hide, the real reason why he's unfit for office at this time (if ever) has nothing to do with the shallow coverage he's received in these serious times populated by unserious people. No, the real issues about Obama's sneaky tabula rasa act can be gleaned by the OpinionJournal piece, "The Ever-'Present' Obama - Barack has a long track record of not taking a stand."

"What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics--the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions," Obama said in his announcement speech. But a closer look at the presidential candidate's record in the Illinois Legislature reveals something seemingly contradictory: a number of occasions when Obama avoided making hard choices.

While some conservatives and Republicans surely will harp on what they call his "liberal record," highlighting applicable votes to support their case, it's Obama's history of voting "present" in Springfield--even on some of the most controversial and politically explosive issues of the day--that raises questions that he will need to answer. Voting "present" is one of three options in the Illinois Legislature (along with "yes" and "no"), but it's almost never an option for the occupant of the Oval Office.

We aren't talking about a "present" vote on whether to name a state office building after a deceased state official, but rather about votes that reflect an officeholder's core values.

[snipped the laundry list - go read it at the link]

Obama's "present" record could hurt him in two very different ways in his bid to win the Democratic presidential nomination and, ultimately, the White House. On one hand, those votes could anger some Democrats, even liberals, because he did not take a strong enough stand on their issues. On the other hand, his votes could simply be portrayed by adversaries as a failure of leadership for not being willing to make a tough decision and stick by it.

Obama is one of the most dynamic and captivating figures in American politics at this time, and he has put together an excellent campaign team. He clearly is a factor in the race for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

But as Democrats--and Americans--are searching for their next leader, the Illinois senator's record, and not just his rhetoric, will be examined under a microscope. As president, Obama will be faced with countless difficult decisions on numerous gray issues, and voting "present" will not be an option. He will need to explain those "present" votes as a member of the Illinois Legislature if he hopes to become America's commander-in-chief.

Perhaps he was just emulating Bill Clinton's "triangulation" maneuvers (which is not code for having a three-way), he could slide on his non-record by spinning it however he wants to and if that fails, playing the race card if convenient via a pliant, in-the-tank media.

My Box In A Box

While it started with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's funny "Dick In A Box" music video (semi-NSFW, it's uncensored) on "SNL", the truly egalitarian nature of the Internet (and cheap music and video tech) is on display with this nearly instant response song and video, "My Box In A Box":

Boy, she's a cutey, isn't she? (I'll be in my bunk....)

OK, I'm back. While not as much an obsession as the identity of YouTube phenom LonelyGirl15, curiousity about this comely lass existed and I tripped over a clip explaining who she was and who the real voice behind the song is.

Apparently, unhinged moonbat Keith Olberman was able to take a few moments' break from his screeching tirades against "Mr. Bush" - hey, Sporto, that's "PRESIDENT Mr. Bush" to you - to handle something more attuned to his abilities.

You heard right: Melissa has a boyfriend. Drat.

Too Many Calendars!!!

I waited until they were clearing the desk calendars out for a buck at Border's and stocked up. Now I'm looking at my desk and realizing I've only got room for 5 of the 7 I've got. Whoops. I've got:

* Dilbert
* Get Fuzzy
* Non Sequitur
* The Far Side
* Fox Trot
* George Carlin
* Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Babes

Last year I had Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, SI Swimbos, and a Star Trek desk jobber and that was manageable because I only needed to read two of them, but now I'm looking at six to read every day (not to mention the six weeks I've got to plow through) and that's a bit much. I stopped buying The Onion calendar because they printed stories over several days which defeats the purpose of a laugh-a-day calendar.

And tying into the previous post, here's a shot of Josie Maran from a SI shoot:



Why we fight, indeed!

Dirk's Dish Du Jour: Josie Maran

While the Dixie Chicks racked up five Grammys last night for their unhinged hatred of Dubya - what, you thought it was for their MUSIC? Puh-leeze! - all I could wonder was how they were going to like living wearing a tent under Sharia law, stripped of all their rights (to speech, abortion, etc.) and their career. Of coruse, idiots like them don't see beyond their immediate infantile wants.

Anyhoo, here's Josie Maran, a MAW (Model/Actress/Whatever) who stars in the racing game "Need For Speed: Most Wanted", which I got the other day. There are these goofy cutscenes which advance the games plot and she's a hottie who helps you out. After one scene, my girlfriend said, "Wow. That's some good line reading there."



Sometimes, you're not looking for a decent conversation, ya know?

Maybe the Dixie Chicks wouldn't mind Josie here being covered in a Muslim tent out of some catty girl hate thing, but for the rest of us who enjoy the occasional half-naked infidel whore picture, the road of blind hate that the Dixie Chicks follow will make the world a much less pleasant place to live, due to the loss of things we enjoy.

And that includes the Dixie Chicks music. Their spite will destroy them as well as us all.

Who Says That Osama and Saddam Were In Cahoots?

One of the biggest of the Big Lies fostered by the Treason Media is the meme that Team Dubya has made up the connections between bin Laden and Hussein in order to "mislead us into war". Whenever another terrorist is killed or captured, the Left dismisses it with a haughty, "There weren't any terrorists until we invaded. We made it into a terror haven when it was as peaceful as a sleeping kitten before Bushitler screwed up the world."

I posted a link to a shorter version of this video a couple years ago, but I think that link went dead. Thanks to Power Line, though, this fascinating clip was rescued from the Treason Media's Memory Hole. I'm trying to get the air date and context that it was culled from, but it ran in 2000. Got that? The year 2000! Who was President then? What major event blamed on Osama bin Laden hadn't occured yet? It appears that this report ran after the USS Cole bombing Oct. 12, 2000, so it's likely that Al Gore was still trying to sue his way into power when this ran, thus meaning the Big Lie campaign against Team Dubya hadn't begun in earnest.



While the Treason Media's pretending that this doesn't exist isn't a surprise, I'm more curious as to why Team Dubya hasn't trotted this out for every press briefing they've conducted since the war began. Whenever David Gregory pops off with one of his specious questions, Tony Snow should say, "Have you seen this clip from your colleagues at ABC News?", and run it to shame the jackal into silence. (As if he had any shame.)

==========

UPDATE: I forgot to post the link to the Power Line story and they had an update answering the questions I had.

The original ABC News report you linked to was from January 1999, I believe, and not 2000. The report was similar to numerous accounts in the worldwide press following Operation Desert Fox. That Clinton-ordered air campaign lasted from December 16 to December 19, 1998. Its purpose was to degrade Saddam's WMD and intelligence capabilities. Reports from more recent years indicate that the campaign nearly plunged Saddam's regime into chaos.

In any event, Saddam's response was telling. Just two days after Operation Desert Fox ended he dispatched one of his top intelligence operatives, Faruq Hijazi, to Afghanistan to meet with bin Laden. As I and others have written, Hijazi was no low-level flunky. He was one of Saddam's most trusted goons and was responsible for overseeing a good deal of the regime's terrorist and other covert activities. It was this meeting that led to widespread reporting on the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. I collected a bunch of these reports, including the ABC News report, in "The Four-Day War." Another, earlier piece also discusses Saddam's conspicuous response to Operation Desert Fox.

The consensus in the media then was that there was a relationship between the two and that Saddam's regime was very willing to work with al Qaeda against their common foe: America. And vice versa. Indeed, the reporting indicated that they had been working together even long before Operation Desert Fox.

The reports from late 1998 and early 1999 are tough for naysayers to explain away for a variety of reasons, but that hasn't stopped them from trying.

Go read the rest of it to see what else the Treason Media has flip-flopped on reporting to us because they've decided that the enemy that needs defeating the most at this moment is Team Dubya.

If it wasn't for the Blogosphere watching the so-called watchdogs, who knows what other lies would be promulgated instead of the Truth. Remember when a WWII exhibit at the Smithsonian tried to paint the Japanese sneak attack as an effort to protect their way of life from American imperialism? The outcry from the public rapidly brought this naked revisionist move to a halt, but I wondered at the time how long after the last veterans from the Greatest Generation passed on would it take for the jackals to return and rewrite the history books to portray WWII as the time when Evil America struck out against a peaceful world.

Forget waiting 60 years to burn the Truth - the Treason Media is tossing eight-year-old history down the Memory Hole and then acting as if anyone who remembers what happened differently is a liar or puppet of neocon fascism. Uh-huh. That's why Reuters says that Dubya pulled us out of the Kyoto scam that we were never in. The Truth is out of style and the Treason Media's war on America via the proxy of Dubya continues unabated.

The Thing The Pro-Life Side Never Addresses

While driving in this morning, I was listening to Laura Ingraham taking Rudy Giuliani to task for his mealy-mouthed "I'm against abortion, however, I support a woman's right to choose" comments on "Hannity & Colmes" the other night. Her beef was that if a fetus is life, then shouldn't it be protected?

What the pro-life conveniently forgets to mention in a bit of intellectual dishonest worthy of liberals is how exactly is that life protected without infringing upon the rights of the mother if she doesn't wish to carry it to term? In order to protect the baby, the woman will have to be conscripted into "incubator service" for nine months and how is that fair?

Yes, it's a terrible bind: Who controls who? Does the woman get to kill off an unwanted life? Does the baby get to enslave the vessel which it is contained within?

To the death-worshipping Left, it's a no-brainer: Kill the "unviable tissue mass"! Convenience uber alles!!! Swimsuit season's coming up and we don't want to be shopping at Costco, do we? Besides, every live birth is a symbol of the repression of women by a patriarchal society and thus must be prevented.

But the Right does itself no credit by ignoring the flipside of this situation: To save the baby requires the forced service of a woman's body against her will. It's no different than conscripting people into the military - we cannot lay claim to others' lives to do our bidding.

If we could have some sort of sci-fi method of removing unwanted fetuses from unwilling mothers and bringing them to term in some sort of Easy-Baby Oven device, then the issue would be moot. But until the 24th Century brings this along, we'll have to try and square these conflicting interests under the circumstances we have now.

I just wish the militantly pro-life side - rigid people like talk show host Mike Gallagher - would address this issue instead of issuing blanket fatwas demanding the baby take all precedence as if it existed in a vacuum.

Nanny Government To The Rescue!

Children. Stupid children who need to have every aspect of our lives dictated to us. That's how government sees us, especially the fascist liberals. The latest example of their dictatorial impulses is the Ban Proposed On Cell Phones, iPods In Crosswalk" in the wake of a couple of pedestrian deaths in New York of folks listening to their iPods in traffic.

A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in either New York City or Buffalo.

NewsChannel 4 reported that Sen. Carl Kruger is proposing the ban in response to two recent pedestrian deaths in his district, including a 23-year-old man who was struck and killed last month while listening to his iPod on Avenue T and East 71st Street In Bergen Beach.

"While people are tuning into their iPods and cell phones, they're tuning out the world around them," Kruger said. The proposed law would make talking on cell phones while crossing the street a comparable offense to jaywalking.

In place of common sense - didn't our parents tell us not to listen to our Walkman while riding our bikes in the street? - the government is overreacting in typical fashion to a insignificant problem by proscribing behavior for all of us.

As if we're children and they're our nannies.

The infantilization of America contines full speed...

Charlize Theron: Beautiful, Talented, Dumb As A Sock

...well, the rising tide of Hollywierd insipidness and insularity has claimed another name off my Dump/To Do Lists as Charlize Theron succumbs to Rosie O'Donnell's Disease and answers comments about a genuinely tyrannical regime - in this case, Castro's Cuba - with a brain fart coupled with a verbal turd loaf saying that America is just as evil.

"I would argue that there is a lack of freedom in America."

Hoo boy. This coming from a women who's dated Stephen Jenkins (Third Eye Blind douche bag) and Stuart Townsend (the man who would've been Tolkien's returning king until Peter Jackson sobered up and hired Viggo).

Say hi to Scarlett and Janeanne in the Phantom Zone, babe.

UPDATE: Apparently one freedom Charlize isn't lacking is the freedom to breach her contract with a ritzy watch maker.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!!!

As the deep freeze grips Dirkworld - currently 4F - and hundreds of school districts announce that they'll be closed again tomorrow, I have a couple of thoughts:

1. All that Global Warning bullsh*t we keep hearing about? BULLSH*T!!!! I'll be posting about the total lie that is this latest Apocalyptic fantasy from the same morons that brought us the Silent Spring, the Population Bomb, the New Ice Age, Nuclear Winter and the unfunny years of "Friends", when I get a chance.

B. WTF is up with the pussified kids these days?!?!? Yeah, the temps are between 5-10F and we've got a wind chill, but we've had almost zero snowfall. When I was a kid, they didn't even contemplate closing schools unless there was at least 8 inches of fresh white on the ground AND that was usually decided the morning of classes. Now, if the weather forecast even threatens a half-inch of snow or cold, it's THE WHITE APOCALYPSE!!!! OMFG!!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeesh. No wonder we've got no stomach for a fight these days. We've got no stomach for anything much. Pitiful.

The Intellectual Superiority of the Pro-"Choice" Left On Display

AICN has a review for the abortion documentary "Lake of Fire" which is three hours long and, according to the reviewer, even-handed, though he also praises noted self-hating fascist Noam Chomsky for being the most eloquent about BOTH sides of the issue. Sorry, but a raving loon like Chomsky is incapable of being able to express the pro-life side on any issue while maintaining his pro-Culture of Death credentials. If I were to start trying to mimic the rhetoric of the anti-American fascist Left, it wouldn't fool anyone, so if Quint was fooled, that means he was buying what was being sold.

Anyhoo, in the Talkback area - which is a den of idiotic commentary that Kevin Smith righteously beat down in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" - was this comment which provides a nice window into the black soullessness of the elitist snob Lefty:

I am solidly pro-abortion... beyond pro-choice, I'm anti-breeding. I had a vasectomy in my twenties, so my money's where my mouth is. THE ONLY TWO REASONS FOR HAVING A BABY: IGNORANCE OR VANITY. Usually a combination of the two.

The world is full of needy kids. You want to raise one, adopt one. But nooooo, gotta make a special little pants-shitting mini-you, 'cause the world needs more of you and your special qualities so badly. Fucking pathetic, makes me ill. People who have no excuse not to know better and yet are slaves to their instincts, no better than farmyard animals.

Too bad his parents didn't understand in what low esteem he holds them, eh? Other replies encouraged him to remove himself from the planet - to put his money where his mouth is, so to speak - but we all know that the Left is all about doing as they say, not as they do.

The Left preaches panic about overpopulation and then has a large family, like Sting does; or preaches about "two Americas" before building a TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND SQUARE FOOT MANSION (28,000 sq ft) worth millions like the Breck Girl, er, John Edwards is doing.

But it's not hypocrisy if a liberal does it, is it?

Reach Out and Touch Me With Meebo!

If you'll look to your right, you'll see that a new widget has been added above my XBL gamercard which allows visitors to directly IM me if I'm logged into Meebo - www.meebo.com - which is a web-based way to log into your IM apps like AIM without needing to install anything.

If I'm sitting around and am not busy, why not send a shout-out? I was going to post up the first message I received, but I had a glitch and it got lost before I could copy it. A visitor was complaining that the posts have gotten lame as the usual liberal smackdowns have been scarce and replaced by lots of cute cat videos.

I apologize for the lack of the usual DIRK® commentary, but I've simply hadn't had the time. I started a rather substantial Morning Coffee post two Fridays ago and it's still in my Draft folder. :( There is plenty to comment on, but only so many hours in the day. I suggest that readers curious as to what's being filed for later reference to check out my Del.icio.us list to see what I've wanted to post about, but haven't yet. I also need to get the Feedburner links back in that were deleted when I switched to the new Blogger system.

Thank you for your patience, but remember, you're getting exactly what you're paying for! ;-)

What If Ferris Bueller Was Really Sick?

Yet another brilliant trailer recut:



Movie trailers are the purest form of false advertising and these recuts make them even bigger lies. Neat.

Saving Private Nemo

Who thinks up this stuff?

RoboCop, PhD

Wired reports what actor Peter Weller has been doing lately: Working toward a PhD in Italian Renaissance art history from UCLA!

Dirk® vs. Yahoo Sex Drone (1/25/07 Edition)

[10:39] lisalisaxa2: hi... anyone theree?

[10:39] DirkBelig: Allahu Akbar!!!

[10:41] lisalisaxa2: oh your therre :) hi...
[10:41] lisalisaxa2: a/s/l (ate sex location)?
[10:41] lisalisaxa2: imm 27/f/USA. was lookin at your profile. thought you might like to chat.
[10:41] lisalisaxa2: so what havr you been up to dirkbelig?

[10:41] DirkBelig: 69/M/Dirkworld - Up to no good.

[10:42] lisalisaxa2: cool. i was just hangin out watching tv. i was getting kinda horny :) (*bblushes)

[10:42] DirkBelig: Sex is the pathway to Hell. That's why I indulge as frequently (and freakily) as I can!

[10:42] lisalisaxa2: feel like a little cyber funn with me ? please please...

[10:43] DirkBelig: I've been trying to cut down on the cyborg sex, unlike you're like that hot Boomer Cylon on BSG.

[10:44] lisalisaxa2: i think ill just take that as a yes... being as that im starting to get real horny here.. lol ok?

[10:44] DirkBelig: Are you a Cylon?

[10:44] lisalisaxa2: alright :) how bout i get down on my knees in front of you and help you out of your pants?

[10:45] DirkBelig: I'm wearing a kilt.

[10:45] lisalisaxa2: just lounging around in my undies... u?

[10:48] DirkBelig: The kilt. And a Viking Helmet. Of course, swim fins.
[10:52] DirkBelig: Did that turn you on too much, baby?
[10:54] *** lisalisaxa2 has been ignored.

=============

No time for love, Dr. Jones!

When Cats Attack!!!

This is a great example of how music sets the mood.

Cute!

Foxes!

No, not the teen-trash classic that starred Jodie Foster or what those wild and crazy Festrunk brothers used to exclaim on "SNL", but a real red fox is what I just saw while approaching work. It crossed in front of my UAV and then doubled back to hang near the edge of a sunflower field. It's very built up with offices and malls, but there apparently is enough woody area for them to live.

As I came in, a co-worker passed me in the hall and asked if I saw the foxes (plural) and after telling him that it was a relief that I hadn't just hallucinated my sighting, he said that there were a pair in the parking lot and that he was able to approach one, almost able to pet it, it was so tame. I laughed that it would've served him right if the fox had bitten his arm off.

Hispanic! At The Disco!!!!

HA! FUNNY!

Dirk's Dish Du Jour: Grace Park

I've just started watching the first season of the revamped "Battlestar Galactica" and just adore Grace Park, who plays Boomer, the pilot who doesn't (yet) know she's a Cylon. Too bad she doesn't appear like this more on the show instead of in her space pilot duds:



Worst part? She's married! Drat!!! 5'9", 32 years old and MARRIED! FRAK!!!!

Why MLK Day Isn't A Real Holiday

Today is the 78th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and there's no mail delivery and I've got the day off. But for all the trappings of a national holiday, it really doesn't match up to other holidays for one glaring reason:

There aren't any sales for it.

Until the good Reverend has his visage splashed in television ads with a "Clutch Cargo"-style mouth superimposed, announcing that "Mattress delivery is FREE AT LAST!" at the Mattress Warehouse (like they do with Washington and Lincoln on President's Day sales), it's not going to be as significant a date as other holidays.

Now, the natural response is to say, "But Dr. King was a special person for whom cheesy sales would be disrespectful," but what were our Presidents? Oh, that's right, they were Evil White Men - and in the case of Washington and Jefferson, slave owners - and thus unworthy of any reverence. Dr. King deserves better. Uh-huh...and what of the birthday of our Lord and Savior, the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ?!? No one has a problem with commercializing his birth over the complaints of the faithful.

The lack of sales isn't a sign of respect; it's further discrimination. Until Dr. King is exploited to the same extent that Christmas and other holidays are, his birthday will remain in the back of the holiday bus.

Ex-Playmate Reveals Playboy Mansion Secrets

Stepping Out magazine had an interview with...

Jill Ann Spaulding, a stunning professional poker player with all the obvious attributes that one might find inside Hef's stable of potential Playmates, has written a tell-all book entitled, "Jill Ann: Upstairs."

Spaulding pulls no punches as she reveals what really goes on behind Hef's closed doors. Shocking and dangerous sexual practices, misguided and backstabbing young women echo through the infamous mansion's halls... and that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Read the gory details here.

It's interesting that after decades of feminism and girl power hype, there are still legions of women who are willing to whore themselves for money and fame. You've come a long way baby!

The Worst Model Pose!!! Stop This!!!

UPDATE 11/1/2013: I totally forgot I made this post until someone commented today. It's funny to see that nearly 7 years ago, this pose was bugging me and continued to bug me until I created in September 2012 Pooping In High Heels, a Tumblr dedicated to this dumb pose and for which I made the below image its 100th post. Cherkitert!
 -----------
I posted an item about this a couple of years ago, but the picture didn't show properly and I never went back to fix it, but seeing this made me realize this problem is still out of control. What does it look like Christina Applegate is saying? That's right: "Wheeeeee!!! I'm pooping!!!!"

Over and over, otherwise babalicious ladies are squatting in their stilletos and looking like they're joyously pinching off a loaf. With all the other depravity and decadence that is being mainstreamed by the degenerates who dare, DARE, anyone to speak against them, can't we all be in agreeance that this is something that we should do something about? Thank you.

Gollum Sings Barry White!!!

The creativity of the people who cook these things up never ceases to amaze me.



Play it for your special lady friend! You're welcome!

Revenge of the Mashed-Up Album Covers!

While not as utterly brilliant as "Album Cover Apocalypse", b3ta.com's forum image challenge has some bloody clever entries:

Take a classic album sleeve, alter the title of the record to give the disc a whole new spin, then 'shop the results.

It's "Not Another Teen Movie" - The Home Game!

See how many super-cheesy '80s clichès you can find in this four-minute homage to the decade of the montage.



Most impressive thing to me is how many extras this had.

Remember When Reporters Used To Just Report?

Time magazine has switched from coming out on Monday to a Friday street date. Why? Richard Stengel, managing editor says:

"I believe that getting the magazine on newsstands on Friday helps us set the news agenda."

Huh?!? WTF is a news magazine SETTING AN AGENDA?!? I thought the purpose of newspapers and news magazines was to tell us the who, what, where, when and occasionally why of stories, NOT to tell everyone else what we should be doing.

The real reason for this switch is to get the Left's talking points out and in the hands of the Sunday talking head interview shows so that Tim Russert et al will be able to ask (most likely) Stupid Partiers, "So, are you still beating your wife?"

Shiny or Daggy?

Well, the first round of tweakage is done. Any thoughts as to the look? Don't be shy in leaving some feedback. Thanks.

Pardon The Dust...

Blogger has upgraded their service and made it easier to modify things, but you kind of have to destroy the village to save the village and as a result, things are going to look a little goofy until I get done sorting things out. However, the all-important words will remain readable, so just cope with the aesthetics for the time being. Thank you.

Cat Massage!!!

Man, as lousy as things are in the world, I just am not in the mood to dwell upon it all at the moment, so here's another wacky video with a cat in it. Cheers!

Watch Out!!! Crazy Cat!!!!

I need to go to bed.

In Case You're Wondering....

...what's up with all the goofy posts? Where's the old familiar belligerent Dirk stuff? Well, I'm sleepy and more in the mood for goofy than depressing myself over the latest sellouts and failure of Team Dubya and the Stupid Party. Things will still suck after a decent night's rest, so stay tuned.

Aiiieeee!!! Talking Cats!!!!

The one at the end reminds me of "Twin Peaks". Freaky!

Top 10 Lamest Superheroes!

While new Fantastic Four and Spiderman movies are heading for the megaplexes this summer, The Pop Culture Addict looks at some unlamented doofs who won't be getting the celluloid treatment. With names like Matter Eater Lad, Arm Fall Off Boy (isn't that an emo band?) and The Legion of the Superpets, is there any doubt that DC isn't fit to wash Marvel's codpiece?

#6. Dogwelder - Dogwelder was a character from Garth Ennis' "Hitman" series. Dogwelder was part of a superhero team known as Section Eight which was a band of these crazy guys that fought crime in rather inane ways. Dogwelder is my favourite of the bunch. He's this madman in a silver welder's outfit that basically just goes around welding stray dogs to villains' faces. That's it. That's how he fought crime. Welding dogs to people. Mind you it would be a bitch of a thing to have happen to you. You try to rob a bank and you end up with a Lhasa Apso welded to your face, yapping for eternity. *shudder*

HTF do you WELD organic materials?!?

Miss? Please Stop Blowing Bubbles!

13 Photographs That Changed the World.

While the Treason Media has cheerfully perverted photography into "fauxtography", there was a time when images had an honest impact through their artistry or relevance. Neatorama has a bakers dozen to peruse, with some interesting info for each.

Philippe Halsman is quite possibly the only photographer to have made a career out of taking portraits of people jumping. But he claimed the act of leaping revealed his subjects’ true selves, and looking at his most famous jump, "Dalí Atomicus," it’s pretty hard to disagree.

The photograph is Halsman’s homage both to the new atomic age (prompted by physicist’ then-recent announcement that all matter hangs in a constant state of suspension) and to Dalí’s surrealist masterpiece "Leda Atomica" (seen on the right, behind the cats, and unfinished at the time). It took six hours, 28 jumps, and a roomful of assistants throwing angry cats and buckets of water into the air to get the perfect exposure.

Check 'em out, yo!

Some Crazy Things That At Least We Can Laugh About

The world may be going to Hell, but at least we can take a moment to give thanks that we aren't the people responsible for stuff like:





Check 'em all out.

"What we need in New Year is some resolution"

So says the reliably brilliant Mark Steyn. I'm currently reading "America Alone" - the feel-scared book of the winter - and it's stunning how much of the world is willfully ignorant of the threat Islamofascism is and how it's growing like cancer within the West, but many don't want to see it because they've bought into the post-modern insanity of self-loathing that blinds people to the threat of Islamism because to oppose it would put them on the side of America and freedom. Some choice snips:

Mustaf Jama, a Somali ''asylum seeker'' in Britain wanted for the murder of a policewoman, fled the country by taking his sister's passport, wearing a niqab (the full Islamic head-to-toe get-up that covers everything but the eyes) and passing unhindered through the checkpoints at Heathrow.

How about that? It turns out we are profiling after all, but we're profiling everybody except Muslims. Your wizened l'il ol' gran'ma on a Yuletide break to London is bent double and out of breath struggling to take off her coat and shoes. The officials sternly scrutinize her passport to check that the picture matches her flustered and bewildered face. All around her hundreds of women are doing the same, mutely shuffling through the scanner in their stocking feet. But Britain's most wanted man is breezing through because he took the precaution of dressing as a Muslim woman. And it would be culturally insensitive to expose them to the same scrutiny as your gran'ma.

Many of us think about the long-term shifts necessary to win this struggle: euthanizing the United Nations and overhauling other malign and anachronistic institutions. Fat chance. Mustaf Jama's express check-out is the perfect parodic reductio of "security": The state is willing to inflict pointless bureaucratic discomfort and inconvenience on everyone else, but the demographic group with the most links to terrorism gets to go through the fast-track VIP channel.

He also discusses what's going on in Somalia as the Ethiopian army swept through and booted the Islamist forces there, though they'll surely be back.

At least the Ethiopian forces are allowed to fight without being placed in a straitjacket of white guilt that has caused the death toll in Iraq to roll past 3000 dead American soldiers. Either take the f*cking leash off our warriors or bring them home before more lives are wasted kissing the ass of the "religion of peace". Hear me Dubya?!?!?

The Treason Media Just Keeps Lying

The TM insists on using the euphamism "a women's right to choose" to describe abortion, the unholy sacrament of the fascist Left. So enthralled with the Culture of Death - that they uncoincidentally share with the Islamofascists - but too cowardly to announceth their unbridled enthusiasm for infanticide, they use this worthless term (Choose? Choose what? The soup or salad?) to disguise their anti-human rhetoric.

Anyhoo, over at Power Line, they cover a story run in the NY Times Magazine last spring that purported to reveal the lousy conditions for women in El Salvador including a woman who supposedly got a 30-year prison sentence for having an abortion. Problem with this tale of woe is that it's not true - the baby was born and then murdered leading to a conviction for aggravated homicide.

Facts are funny things and while it's nice the the Times is willing to cop to the inconvenient truth that the facts don't support the article, they have no intention of correcting the story. That's right, it's fake AND innacurate, but will be left as it stands because....well, because the TM and their flagship the Times don't care about the Truth; not when it stands in the way of their advancing their agenda of fascism and the Culture of Death. As Power Line concludes:

The fundamental point, however, is more basic: the Times misreported a critical fact in a cover story in its magazine, and refuses to make a correction even after the error has been called to its attention. When it comes to abortion, it is more important--for the Times, anyway--to be on the "right" side than it is to be right.

Also at Power Line, a link to the Media Research Center's wrapup of crazed quotes from the TM, including many Times honchos.

UPDATE: The Corner's Andy McCarthy - he a former Federal prosecuter who handled the first WTC bombing in '93 - reports that the Times flat-out lies in today's front page article about what's happening to enem combatants.

The NY Times should change their slogan to, "All The Sh*t Which Fits Our Agenda, We Print."

Top Ten Lowlights of The New York Times in 2006

Times Watch counts down the Grey Lady's Greatest Hits Against Truth - the acts that have sustained her as the flagship of the Treason Media.

Narrowing down the 2006 edition of the Top Ten Lowlights of The New York Times to a mere ten entries was a tough task –the paper provided such a wealth of biased behavior throughout the year, from reporters throwing national security secrets onto the front page to publishers going on liberal rants at graduation ceremonies. But we’ve managed to whittle down the worst from another liberally slanted year from the New York Times, and here is the rundown, in ascending order of gruesomeness.

Check out what made fascist liberals happy this year.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Issues Explored

Getting geeky again, but only because I've got a pair of these X-Fi cards - an Xtreme Music and Fatal1ty uber version - and while I haven't experienced any problems, I agree that Creative needs to get their act together, as the last graf of this NGOHQ investigation:

In addition, their X-Fi prices are extremely overpriced and unattractive. Why would anyone pay so much to buy some product that doesn’t even have SPDIF/DDL outputs? So, instead of making front panels, ridiculous Fatal1ty marketing, they should do something useful and smart. Anyway, if Creative Labs will start making these changes I mentioned they might have a chance and convince us to stop using the onboard Realtek audio, and to buy their products. Creative has to make changes and shake the entire company if they wish to impress us. Instead of blaming other manufacturers and DDR Dual Channel and IRQ Sharing, they should investigate research and make changes because they are the ones selling the cards, not the others. Blaming others is not helping. They should take action themselves. Until then, if anyone asks me what I think about X-Fi, I will simply say, "Crap, it isn’t worth your money."

The implementation of the hardware on the Music version was disappointing because there was no way to attach the wires for the case-mounted mic and headphones jacks. I found a German message board that had the pin assignments and photos of how to rig it, but I couldn't get things to stick properly and it was an unsupported method. When the Fatal1ty cards, which come with the drive bay interfaces, were being cleared out at a reasonable $140 (AR) price, I got one even though my case door is full-height, meaning when I wear my headphones, the bottom of the door interferes with my chair.

Surround headphone audio was one of the big bullet points of the X-Fi, but the lack of connection options for non-drive equipped cards is pathetic. If you have speakers - and who doesn't? - you can't hook those up AND headphones; it's either or and that sucks. While the effect isn't as clear as discrete 5.1 surround speakers, it's still really good and helps in games like BF2142 when someone is trying to sneak up on you. (I've ambushed and knifed guys who I can't believe didn't hear me coming.) It also allows me to play at 2 am without bugging the neighbors, who have complained to management over me playing Quake 4 at 6 pm, not that loud. Losers.

The Suicide Bombers of Geekdom

I've mentioned before about the incurable arrogance of Linux geeks and how they're the suicide bombers of geekdom. (Apple worshippers are merely sad cultists.) For a primo example of the blind anti-Microsoft lunacy that animate them, check out this item and comments from BadVista.org, a site put up by the Free Software Foundation.

While I sympathize with the concerns about the overwhelming dominance that Microsoft has in the PC market, to cast them in terms of such sheer evil and to act as if switching to hard-for-even-geeks-to-manage Linux alternatives is counter-productive. People like the applications, like GAMES, that run on Windows and the fact that the majority of peripheral hardware doesn't work under Linux is a deal-breaker, but to the Linux jihadists, that's just proof of the evil of M$'s dominance and blah-blah-woof-woof.

The violent and condescending rhetoric of the "free software" anarchists is similar to the violent and condescending rhetoric of the fascist Left: If you don't follow them, you're an idiot who needs to die for their cause. Nice. But not very effective in converting people to the cause.

The failure of the Zune and the slow drift toward using Firefox and other alternatives is showing that building a better mousetrap is the way to get people to change than sneering and bullying people if they don't buy into your lunacy.

Japanese. Bikini. Rodeo. Pie-fighting.

No wonder Godzilla keeps flattening the place.

How Terrified Is The Left of Mitt Romney?

Plenty, as the drumbeat of character assassination and religious smearing against someone who hasn't announced his candidency has shown. The latest is this Huffandpuff Post turd pile, "Mitt Romney: Coward Or Racist?" Romney was term-limited out, but the Treason Media and the unhinged fascist moonbats are furiously trying to spin this as a crushing defeat for Romney. (Uh...how do you defeat someone who wasn't in the race?)

James Boyce flat out lies and says that this is "Republican hypocrisy" and then closes with:

just maybe, Mitt The Wannabe Wingnut doesn't want to have his picture in the paper to be used against him shaking hands with, of all things, a black man.

That just won't play well in some parts of the country will it Mitt? Gee, if you had stayed out West and been Governor of Utah, this probably wouldn't have happened.

So Mitt, here's the way I see it. It's December 22. Plenty of time to move some things around and actually be around on January 4th. If you show and shake Deval's hand, I'll write a retraction right here.

If you don't, I'll put you down for a coward. And a racist. Seems fair to me.

I wasn't even aware that Patrick was black, but then again, I'm not a race-obsessed racist like the majority of the fascist Left who see nothing but skin color and use that to divide and exploit the people.

As usual, the foaming hatred of the moonbats evaporates in the face of the Truth as someone wrote to The Corner and explained:

By tradition in Massachusetts, the departing Governor NEVER attends the inaugural swearing-in of his successor. The two meet in the Governor's office, exchange some symbols of office, and then the outgoing Governor leaves the building via the front doors for his "long walk" down the steps. At the same time, the incoming Governor is escorted to the House chamber for his swearing in.

Because Deval Patrick wanted to hold an outdoor swearing-in on the front steps, it was not possible to do the "long walk" at the same time. For that reason, Governor Romney magnanimously offered to do the exchange of symbols and the long walk the previous evening in order to accommodate Deval Patrick's change in the swearing-in.

If Romney had demanded that tradition be observed, he would've been crucified as a racist sore loser, but by going along with Patrick's departure from tradition, he is still being crucified as a racist sore loser by the lying fascists of the Left. Nice how that works, eh?

I wonder if Boyce will print his promised retraction? Heh, just kidding. I know he won't. The fascist Left NEVER allows inconvenient truths get in the way of their totalitarian agendas.

Romney has the Left scared. Bad. They're already showing signs of Romney Derangement Syndrome. Hmmmm...could there actually be something good for America in this guy?

How Tsunami Aid Funded Sharia Slavery

Michelle Malkin has some depressing stories about how aid to Indonesia after the tsunamis two years ago has been used by the local Islamofascists to impose sharia upon the women of the area. Other items there also discuss the medieval treatment women living under Islam faces.

It's interesting that in a world where sharia enslaves women, the fascist Left attacks the Catholic Church for not ordaining women priests; and where sharia murders gays, the fascist Left attacks Dubya for opposing gay marriage. So obsessed with destroying Dubya and humbling America are these unhinged liberals, they fail to realize that their sacred right to abortion and tolerance for homosexuality will be the first casualties when they are forced into dhimmitude before the sword of Islam.

Idiots.

Dirk Named Time Magazine's Person of the Year!!!

Wow!!! I didn't realize that I was in the running, but what can I say, the picture doesn't lie.

And Now The News....

No, not the AP and their fake Iqaqi cop source that appears to make Reuters fauxtography scandal look like stealing paperclips from the office, but a batch of wacky bloopers from local and national sources.



Nice one, Shep. Puts your crying during Katrina in perspective.

Top 25 Worst Album Covers of 2006

The merry pranksters at Pitchfork Media have tossed up a feature of what they think are the worst album covers and while I don't think they're all that bad and the comments are that funny, I know these guys, so check it out.

Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda

After Nancy Pelosi was finally talked out of putting an impeached Federal judge in charge of the House Intelligence Committee, she went and placed Texas Congressman Silvestre Reyes into the top slot. But, as Jeff Stein of Congressional Quarterly’s discovered, Reyes, doesn’t really know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite and five years after 9/11 believes that Al Qaeda is a Shiite organization.

Reyes stumbled when I asked him a simple question about al Qaeda at the end of a 40-minute interview in his office last week. Members of the Intelligence Committee, mind you, are paid $165,200 a year to know more than basic facts about our foes in the Middle East.

We warmed up with a long discussion about intelligence issues and Iraq. And then we veered into terrorism’s major players.

To me, it’s like asking about Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland: Who’s on what side?

The dialogue went like this:

Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?

“Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about predominately?”

“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an al Qaeda club house, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.

That’s because the extremist Sunnis who make up al Qaeda consider all Shiites to be heretics.

Al Qaeda’s Sunni roots account for its very existence. Osama bin Laden and his followers believe the Saudi Royal family besmirched the true faith through their corruption and alliance with the United States, particularly allowing U.S. troops on Saudi soil.

It’s been five years since these Muslim extremists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center.

Is it too much to ask that our intelligence overseers know who they are?

The reason why I found this amusing is that an anonymous coward has been heckling me (what's new?) in the comments section and made a big deal as to whether I knew who the players in the Iraqi insurgency were. I wonder what this poor fool is going to do when he sees that while he's busy attacking a lowly lil' blogger, the topmost officials of his party couldn't pass the same test he's making a big deal about here? Heh.

Someone, Please Buy Me This Shirt!!!

I'd be deeply appreciative. Thank you.

New Talent on 60 Minutes

Click this, bitches!!!

The Truth On Iraq

The Jedi-haiting John Podhoretz shouldn't be allowed to review movies, but he's still sharp on politics and he speaks some inconvenient truths which will be old news to regular Dirkworld® readers, namely, you can't win a kinder, gentler war. (Duh.) Some clips:

[W]e relented on several occasions when we had a chance to score a major victory over the bad guys. Because politics was more important than military victory, because playing the game was more important than killing the enemy, we chose to lose.

After the beheading of Americans in Fallujah, we had the city surrounded - but, because it seemed an attack on Fallujah would be problematic for Iraqi politics, we pulled back. We had the Shiite monster Moqtada al-Sadr in our sights as well, but let him go as well for fear Iraq's leading Shiite cleric would turn on us.

Each of these decisions seemed prudent at the time. In retrospect, they seem disastrous. Our failure to take Fallujah after the deaths of Americans gave the enemy the sense that we were weak. Our failure to kill Sadr has led to a situation in which he has excessive power over the elected government.

[snip]

So we need a new plan. But the Baker-Hamilton advice isn't a new plan. The Democrats don't have a new plan. The only plan that will work is a plan to face the tripartite enemy - the Saddamists, the foreign terrorists and the Shiite sectarians - and bring them to heel.

Kill as many bad guys as we can, with as many troops as we can muster.

If this is unrealistic, then Iraq is lost.

If we can't win, then we lose.

Political change doesn't win wars. That's what we've learned, painfully and horribly. Only winning wars wins wars.

President Bush needs to decide, as soon as possible, that he is going to win this war - that the bad guys are going to die, that we are going to kill them and that we will achieve our objectives in Iraq. That is the only way forward for him if he doesn't want to end up in ignominy.

The clock is ticking. He has only a week, maybe two, to change course dramatically. To choose to win, and to direct the military to do so.

Or we are sunk, and so is he.

Again, duh. The problem is that seeing as Dubya doesn't seem interested in shutting down a Treason Media addicted to aiding and abetting our enemies and revealing our secrets, he's unlikely to suddenly grow a pair and fight the war we've never had.

Ladies, better start your bhurka shopping.

Paging Scarlett Johansson...

I'm on record as being smitten with the talent and physical charms of Scarlett Johansson...

...but it's gotten difficult to ignore the lousy liberal idiocy that never ceases to spew from her pretty mouth. (See two posts down her quote in Mark Steyn's column.) Yeah, she comes from NYC liberal stock and she works in Hollyweird, where feality to the fascist tropes of the ultra-rich Leftists must be sworn, but when such utterly ignorant garbage is uttered, it really squelches my boner just as badly if she were a bimbo of the Anna Nicole Smith stripe.

First a news item from the Land of the Religion of Peace, via Powerline:

Who's the Enemy?

Many liberals say it's Bushitler. Of course, they can say that without fear of being drawn and quartered. As can happen to those who cross our real enemy in places like Afghanistan:

The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.

These people are evil incarnate. It is disturbing that so many Americans have apparently lost interest in fighting them.

Now here's what Scarlett had to say about Dubya and his pro-life beliefs.

We're supposed to be liberated in America but if our president had his way, we wouldn't be educated about sex at all,” Scarlett says. "Every woman would have six children and we wouldn't be able to have abortions," she adds.

Yeesh...

She does realize that the fact that she's able to spout such banalities is due to the fact that Dubya has made a half-assed stand against the Islamofacists who would put her in a bhurka and make her pop out a dozen lil' jihadists, doesn't she? (Of course, she does date Josh Hartnett, so the news that she may be a moron shouldn't be so surprising, but come on.)

Looks like I'm down to Anne Hathaway. I hope she's not stupid, too.

Friday Fiver Super Catchup Edition!!!

Egads!!! I certainly have been neglecting these along with everything else. Let's run 'em down!!!

1. What is your nearest lake or river?

The Detroit River

2. Do you believe in heaven?

Yes

3. What's your lucky number?

6

4. Ever know anyone who appeared on a game show?

Game, no; talk, yes.

5. Charades: good times or lame?

Depends of the group.

===============

Tell us your favorite songs / types of music for...

1. Getting in the mood to party:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

2. When you're depressed:

Old Cure music (really pile it on)

3. When you're in lust:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

4. Exercising:

If I exercised? Hmmm....

5. Driving / riding in the car:

Andrew W.K.

==============

1) Tell us about where you live:

Dirkworld®

2) If you could change one thing about your home, what would it be?

More hot Asian girls in Catholic schoolgirl outfits

3) Do you do laundry on a regular schedule?

No

4) Describe the place that you sleep:

Too-small bed

5) This morning: was it easy or difficult to start the day?

As usual, difficult

============

1. What's your favorite candy:

Smartees

2. What's the best scary movie?

Can't think of one offhand

3. Do you like to be alone at home?

Sure

4. Pumpkin pie: eat it or throw it?

Eat it

5. The most distasteful Halloween costume you can think of:

A Democrat

==============

1. Have problems sleeping?

Sleeping, no; waking up, hell yeah

2. Last dare accepted?

Never get dared

3. Last dare given?

I don't dare people

4. Are you free with your feelings?

Usually

5. Tell us a lie:

I'm a Democrat and want to exterminate all Christians and conservatives

=============

1. The time:

It's time to get ill!!!

2. The weather:

Sunny and unseasonably warm

3. The big news story:

Haven't seen the paper yet.

4. Your favorite hangout:

Home

5. The must-have accessory:

A gun. A really big gun. And lots of bullets.

=========

1) Name one of your bad habits:

Procrastination. (The fact I'm doing a dozen of these at once is a good example.)

2) What do you expect from friends?

Loyalty

3) What is the last thing you wrote down?

An address or robbery note.

4) What is the last favor you did for someone else?

Helped vacuum my mom's car

5) What is your favorite TV show?

24

======

1. What's the last thing you broke?

A young girl's heart

2. What's the most expensive thing you've broken?

A young girl's heart

3. Do you consider yourself clumsy or graceful?

Graceful

4. How much money do you have in your wallet right now?

What? And get mugged as a result?

5. Someone asks for change while you're walking down the street -- what do you do?

If she's hot, help her; otherwise, beg off

==============

1. Where were you last night?

Girlfriend's place

2. Did you speak with anyone?

Yes

3. What were you wearing?

The usual: Viking helmet, grass skirt and swim fins

4. What did you eat or drink?

Food and beverages. Duh.

5. Can anyone verify your whereabouts from midnight to 5am?

Yes.

===============

1. How much TV do you watch?

More than I really have time for. Currently about 4-5 hours per week.

2. What type of show is your favorite?

Well-written ones.

3. Which talk show host do you hate?

All of them, except Ellen DeGeneres - she's nice.

4. Are you looking forward to any new season premieres?

24, baybeeeeeee!!!

5. Which show is your guilty pleasure?

I have no guilt.

======

1. When is the last time you dressed inappropriately for a situation?

Can't recall

2. How many friends do you have?

Not as many as I deserve

3. Are you running on time today?

Heck, no! (It's a normal day.)

4. Do you use bleach on your laundry?

No

5. What are your thoughts on guns?

They're made scapegoats for the failures of liberal immorality.

===========

1. When I'm angry, I ____

Plot the destruction of my foes.

2. The first time I ____ I also ____

played with my band; made out with a cute girl

3. I was born in ____

New York City

4. My favorite ____ is ____

sex symbol; Angelina Jolie

5 I laughed so hard when ____

Sean Connery asked for the "Anal Bum Cover" category on a SNL "Jeopardy" sketch.F

Four Jills In A Jeep

What do a 64-year-old suicide bomber, and Episcopalian Bishop, Scarlett Johansson and Condoleeza Rice have in common? The brilliant Mark Steyn explains and it's pretty depressing stuff. The punchline:

So many of our present woes are due to thinking we know things. To our four Jills in the jeep, let's add one Jim, apparently back at the steering wheel in the current war: James Baker, renowned foreign policy "realist" and the man Beltway wags are currently referring to as "the acting secretary of state." The "realists" think that "containment" and "stability" are wise strategies. In fact, they're the absence of strategy. The fertility rate in the Gaza Strip is one of the highest on earth. If you measure the births of the Muslim world against the dearth of Bishop Kate's Episcopalians, you have the perfect snapshot of why there is no "stability": With every passing month, there are more Muslims and fewer Episcopalians, and the Muslims export their manpower to Europe and other depopulating outposts of the West. It's the intersection of demography and Islamism that makes time a luxury we can't afford.

We can argue about exactly what this trend means, but not that it means nothing. At the very minimum, I'd suggest, it means the Episcopal Church is irrelevant to "the stewardship of the earth" and that Scarlett Johansson will end her days on an earth whose stewards regard being tested for HIV twice as a sign of many things, but not, on the whole, "social awareness."

Definitely read it all and see how Western society is slowly commiting suicide due to its collective unwillingness to see the threat it faces. That Scarlett is a beautiful idiot is no surprise - not many conservatives are allowed to have careers in entertainment - but the idiocy of Condi is chilling. The fact that she was touted as a possible Presidential contender should make Americans wonder how in a land of 300 million people, we are force to choose from such meager politicians.

Iggy Pop's Lust For Laughs

Yeah, the Stupid Party got their punk bitch asses handed to them, but they pretty much had it coming. Perhaps I'll scrape up some time to chin-stroke about it, but really all I've got to say at the moment is:

1. So, the voting machines weren't rigged after all. Duh. (Memo to RFK, Jr.: Go intercourse yourself with a metal slat. You're welcome.)

B. After the 2004 Election, the big babies of the Left cried, called everyone who voted for Dubya stupid, threatened to leave the country(but didn't - poseurs), asked if Cali and NYC could secede to Canada, needed therapy, etc. They were basket cases.

After this year's letdown, conservatives promptly blamed the proper party: The Stupid Party. From the hubris-encrusted leadership, the Party's total failure to be anything but wasteful sloths to Dubya's inarticulate and ill-timed behavior - yeah, sack Rummy after he's cost you everything - you didn't hear a lot of blaming the voters as much as yelling at the pols themselves.

Shows you who the adults were, no?

Anyhoo, even if your the most depressed Republican, here's something that should crack you up, courtesy of The Smoking Gun: Iggy and the Stooges concert rider. If you've always wondered what could top Van Halen's "no brown M&Ms" edict, here's a contender. I've only read the first page, but I suspect the other 17 pages are a pip. Enjoy!!