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Investors.com:

New documents obtained by a watchdog group show our commander in chief gave the name of a Navy Seal Team 6 commander to the makers of a movie about Osama bin Laden…

"These documents, which took nine months and a federal lawsuit to disgorge from the Obama administration, show that politically connected filmmakers were given extraordinary and secret access to bin Laden raid information, including the identity of a SEAL Team 6 leader," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Appalling.

"It is both ironic and hypocritical," Fitton noted, "that the Obama administration stonewalled Judicial Watch's pursuit of the bin Laden death photos, citing national security concerns, yet seemed willing to share intimate details regarding the raid to help Hollywood filmmakers release a movie 'perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost' (as described by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd) to the Obama campaign."

Minor point - it's 'rien' not 'rein'.

Thanks ET, appreciate it.

If the French version is a 10, this is, what, un quatre?

I don't know the score in French, because the song is en anglais.

Here's a french version. mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hqc-NWlNJQ&feature=related

Would the last person out of Detroit turn out the lights? Oh, wait, too late

Matt Gurney May

As it is, many of the lights have gone out on their own. An estimated 40% of the street lights in Detroit are already broken, and the city doesn’t have the money to repair them even if there was any public demand for them to be in working order. Seventeen percent of the street lights date back to the 1920s and would cost hundreds of millions to repair or replace. Many others have long been stripped for their metal wiring. The city hopes to borrow enough money to replace and upgrade roughly half of the lights operating in the city, but will only do so in certain areas. It hopes this will encourage Detroit’s existing population to concentrate itself in a more economically viable, smaller core.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/05/25/would-the-last-person-out-of-detroit-turn-out-the-lights-oh-wait-too-late/

He was probably thinking of Trayvon:

In two campaign speeches over the last two days, President Barack Obama has twice mistakenly mentioned "my sons" when defending his administration’s regulation requiring virtually all health-care plans in the United States to provide women, without any fees or co-pay, with sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions.

Obama, of course, has two daughters--10-year-old Sasha and 13-year-old Malia--but no sons.

Not that we're aware of.

Everything on my little table began trebling and rattling and shuddering; certain items made a desperate bid for freedom - cast themselves over the edge - will have to be replaced. Merci, Edith. Merci, EDB.

EBD, alors.

The song is better in French.

EBD, Obama needs Hollywood to look good. He wouldn't need it if he was useful and honest.

Great presentation from TED. Couple of things I found interesting: two fantastic use of charts, one high tech, one very low tech, both compelling, and the way it takes certain things "we all know", and calmly refutes them.

Religion and Babies

I confess I prefer the rolling French "r" on "regrette" and "rien", but Piaf's voice is thrilling as always and forever.

I did not know she had done an English version. Translation is difficult especially when everything has to scan and rhyme. But the French version is much more powerful--closer translation might be something like this:

I regret nothing
Not the good that was done
Or the wrong. It's all the same to me.
It is paid. Swept away. Forgotten...
F**k the past.

Re: Edith Piaf: Thanks a million. This brought back great memories. My mother used to iron and sew while listening to a French station on a large Zenith radio housed in a hardwood cabinet. The sound was superb. I recall that number so well.

If any of you remember the movie "Saving Private Ryan," At one point they find a gramophone, crank it up and play "Tu Est Partout." (I think it's on Youtube.)

"La vie en rose" is another beautiful Piaf song

Re: "Tu est partout." by Edith Piaf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_vb6ce0mdIU

Let me fix a headline for the Post, who ought to know better than to print sedition:

"Tell it to the hangman, you little traitors."

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/25/fighting-words-a-look-at-what-quebec-student-protesters-are-really-thinking/

(For pity's sake, hasn't anyone here had quite enough of the miserable French?)

Wandering through the pages of the web, found this interesting piece from Korea Has Talent.

A rather interesting story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ46Ot4_lLo&feature=related

EBD: "Not that we're aware of."

You read my mind.
On the flip side, Obama tends to collect around him some very devious and calculating trouble makers. David Axelrod, for instance...perhaps inserting 'my sons' to set tongues wagging, another distraction from important issues.

NOT BROKE ENOUGH YET:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018290482_calpers26.html

Has aonyone seen the piece on CBC.Ca where a Japanese guy (artist) was getting "asexual" surgery so he decided to cook up his genitals for a group of "connoisseurs."

Needless to say, the CBC did not publish my comment that simply stated, "Vote Liberal."

Our tax dollars hard at work!!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/05/japanese-artist-cooks-serves-own-genitals-at-banquet.html

PS: "Ron in Kelowna"?? once suggested a special web site for unpublished letters, comments etc.

Long overdue!

@plainzdrifter 1:49 am
"..a Japanese guy (artist) was getting "asexual" surgery so he decided to cook up his genitals for a group of "connoisseurs.""

I didn't read the story because the subject was just too appalling, but seeing this makes me wonder about something.

Changing gender is now the latest "new" thing so will there be a new craze, i.e. selling your discarded parts for Japanese food delicacy connoisseurs after the fashion of shark fin soup?

Bet there's a mint of money to be made in the blackmarket or, better yet, with the change in tastes, your "wedding tackle" (Michael Coren's favourite description)can be sold on the open market.

Germany going backwards?

Coal power use will rise an estimated 13.5 percent in Germany this year, resulting in at least 14 million metric tons of additional carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, even as the nation continues to idle two-fifths of its nuclear power fleet.

http://quixoteslaststand.com/2012/05/26/germany-returns-to-coal-power-as-nuclear-sits-idle/

This essay from a liberal site no less.

From the comments at the NP students link:

As my old dad used to say " If I give you the money... you learn nothing. But if you spend your own money you'll learn quicker".

Brilliant!

As the Foreign Legion troops returned to their barracks in Algeria after the attempted coup in 1961 they were heard to be singing "je ne regret rien."

As a follow-up to your piece on "Education Research as Clown College" I submit this UK advertisement for a "Professor of Widening Education":

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AEN313/professor-in-widening-participation/

Like many of my colleagues, I've noticed that I have been widening considerably over the past few years and that while our student body isn't widening, the bodies of our students certainly are.

I wonder if the successful applicant had a paper in at the AERA conference.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/highest_official_in_the_land_qcWIdV2meDQX8Zsg7OWNEK

Apparently Obama was quite the pothead when he lived in Hawaii.

Unfortunately,this will make him even MORE popular with his constituency.

Barry's Choom Gang

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/a-users-guide-to-smoking-pot-with-barack-obama

pkuster - Those dirty nuclear plant cooling towers are deceiving. Had no idea steam produced that much soot.

Thanks for la Môme en anglais, mon ami.

Another picky point: it's "regrette" not "regret".

[Thanks. Sometimes I throw in the odd spelling mistake just to see if anyone's paying attention. (*cough cough*) --EBD]

Since May is masturbation month and I'm sure everyone is tired by now, I just wonder how many enthusiastic followers knew that cornflakes were invented as a anti-masturbation food. Dr Kellog was a "expert" in this field.

http://hypervocal.com/news/2012/corn-flakes-inventor-john-kellogg-wanted-to-sew-your-foreskin-with-silver-wire/

Signs of the Time

You knew this already though

-Team: Priest Removed From Ministry Due To Sex Abuse Allegations Now Works At PHL

The new lawsuit, filed in federal court against the Camden Diocese says quite a bit. It accuses Harkins of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl 10 to 15 times in 1980 and 1981.

He then used his TSA badge to walk into a restricted area where our cameras could not follow.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/05/24/i-team-priest-removed-from-ministry-due-to-sex-abuse-allegations-works-at-phl/

This is disturbing and disappointing. If the culprits can't be named,then there is no downside to accepting illegal contributions. You only pay back when you're caught,so you may as well load your pockets with as much as you can.

" More than half of political gifts in probe found to be illegal"

" as Elections Alberta says that under changes to election law made in 2010 it cannot reveal any of the donors or recipients. "

http://www.calgaryherald.com/touch/news/story.html?id=6681733

Socialism's natural end result: No beer, Paddy.

That's 'nuff for a revolution, begorra.

"An Irish pub is more than just a bar. It means home, community and cultural heritage, and it's often the center of social life in rural areas. But many pubs are closing as the Irish economy suffers. As Vincent laments, the Celtic Tiger is long gone, and people are worried about the future. "Don't ask what the future is going to bring - I don't know", says pub owner John Murray, and adds that he wouldn't recommend anyone to start running a pub now. "It's not a good life at the moment for making a living."

...-

"European Union

Pubs run dry in crisis-ridden Ireland"

"The Celtic Tiger left our shore, He left in Zero Eight,
He left in such a hurry, Hadn't time to close the gate.
Don't know if he'll come back again, Or we will see him more.
But we are very sorry that the tiger left our shore."

Vincent Pierse is standing in his favorite pub in the town of Roscommon, reciting one of his own poems. The stories he tells aren't always this melancholy - in fact, he generally prefers tales of a cheerier kind."

"Ireland will hold a referendum on the fiscal compact in late May. But Dublin could fail. Many Irish have lost hope. The crisis is even threatening the pubs, the traditional centers of social life in Ireland."

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15974630,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-eu-2092-rdf

Pat Buchanan is one of my favourite writers. INTERESTING column, the Unraveling Myth of Watergate:

"Writes Himmelman: 'Carl and Bob, with Ben's explicit permission, lured a grand juror over the line of illegality ...'

This means that either Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee lied to Williams about breaching the grand jury, or the legendary lawyer lied to Sirica, or Sirica was told the truth but let it go, as all were engaged in the same noble cause -- bringing down Nixon.

Who was that grand juror? Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee know, but none is talking and no one is asking. The cover-up continues.

Had one of Nixon's men, with his approval, breached the secrecy of the Watergate grand jury, and lied abut it, that aide would have gone to prison and that would have been an article of impeachment.

Conduct that sent Nixon men to the penitentiary got the Post's men a stern admonition. Welcome to Washington, circa 1972.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51725

For those about to laugh, we salute you:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3889944325139005442

[Zoolander clip of male models accidentally self-immolating]

Brilliant and LOL-worthy.

Ryder Hesjedal is about to become the first Canadian to ever win the Giro D'Italia, arguably a much harder race than the Tour De France. He doesn't dope either. He will place very high in the Tour De France one day for sure.

"Lloyd's of London preparing for euro collapse"

"The chief executive of the multi-billion pound Lloyd's of London has publicly admitted that the world's leading insurance market is prepared for a collapse in the single currency and has reduced its exposure "as much as possible" to the crisis-ridden continent."

"Richard Ward said the London market had put in place a contingency plan to switch euro underwriting to multi-currency settlement if Greece abandoned the euro.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph he also revealed that Lloyd's could have to take writedowns on its £58.9bn investment portfolio if the eurozone collapses.

Europe accounts for 18pc of Lloyd's £23.5bn of gross written premiums, mostly in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The market also has a fledgling operation in Poland.

Lloyd's move comes as a major Franco-German provider of credit insurance for eurozone trade, Euler Hermes, said it was considering reducing cover for trade with Greece because of the risk the country might leave the eurozone.

When a company goes bust, it is often sparked by withdrawal of credit insurance for suppliers wanting to trade with it."

urlm.in/mrwp

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9292511/Lloyds-of-London-preparing-for-euro-collapse.html

"Since May is masturbation month and I'm sure everyone is tired by now, I just wonder how many enthusiastic followers knew that cornflakes were invented as a anti-masturbation food. Dr Kellog was a "expert" in this field."

Trust me, it doesn't work.....

How my last comment got into this thread, beats me.

No pun intended.

Okay, I figured it out.