Once again I invite you to pour a martini for yourself, get comfy, stoke (I like that word “stoke” great word) up a fire and join us for another episode of Master Piece Captain Capitalism;
How capitalism brought about it’s own demise.

A bear sighting in Galveston during Hurricane Ike.

In Baghdad, a Jihadist can’t even find a place to get a decent night’s sleep:

An operative captured on Aug. 21 said the group has “lost the overall fight” and suffers from “extreme financial difficulties.” Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq do “not presently have any long time plan and are only focused on short time fighting,” the operative told US forces.
Another operative, also captured on Aug. 21, said “foreign fighters in Iraq are on the brink of extinction and the group’s “biggest concern right now is where to sleep at night without being arrested.”

Fleeing Jihadists looking for a safe place to lay their weary heads may want to avoid Chicago though … for obvious reasons:

Chicago residents have faced an exceptionally deadly Summer this year — 123 people were shot and killed, twice the amount of US soldier casualties in Iraq over the same period.
Throughout 2008, murder rates in Chicago have risen. In July Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich said he was prepared to call in the National Guard to help restore order to the “out of control” city.

Well, perhaps that’s unfair. We haven’t yet seen rampaging gangs of PC’ers raping and pillaging political opponents.
Having said that, if Robert Fife’s report is true (and I believe it is, listen to his voice!), the news out of Newfoundland verges on the disturbing.
I’ve known several tens of Newfoundlander’s from my time in the forces . . . at that time they were like the “Gappers”, lots in. I can’t for the life of me see any one of them being either an instigator or a patsy. I hope that this report is a one off; that these strong and independent people are not being harassed because of a personal grudge by a loud-mouthed buffoon.
Cheers,
lance

Your lying ears — and videotape — versus Elizabeth May’s stack of Bibles:

Steve Paikin: “I thought I heard you say you ‘fundamentally agree with that assessment.'”
Elizabeth May: “No. I know, it’s funny how it sounds, but I said ‘I fundamentally disagree with that assessment.'”

May goes on to explain that the thousands of people who heard clearly what she actually said, in the clip Paikin played for her just moments before, are, in fact, mistaken:

May: “What happened is, I do have a tendency to talk fairly quickly, and I can remember we taped the segment on the Monk Center and I…”

Paikin: “It was live, actually…”

May: “Yeah…oh, but I watched on TV later…”

Paikin: “Right. We did it live at eight o’clock, and then you watched it later at eleven.”

May: “Okay, so I watched it later at eleven to see how it was and I watched and I thought ‘Oh, what happened there?’ And I remember the beginning of when I’m talking the mic wasn’t on and then it came to me and it ended up raising the volume on one part of my sentence and somebody else said something so I was fundamentally disagreeing with that assessment but turning away so the way it all worked out — and I could swear on a stack of Bibles and if anyone watches it they can see, plus the audience at the time understood what I was saying — I was sitting next to John Duffy, and Andrew Coyne was down the other end, and you were there — and if I had ever said in front of a room full of anybody that I thought Canadians were stupid I don’t think that would have passed without comment, so people at the time and in the moment understood what I had just said, but with the lifting the quote out of context, the putting it on a blog site and alleging that I’d said that, it’s created a bit of a firestorm, but anyone who watched my speech at the launch of the campaign on Sunday morning knows that my firm and passionate commitment is to be of service to people in this country and convince them that democracy works…”

Watch — and listen to — the whole tap-dance. It’s highly instructive, particularly when she describes how, in 2006, she was “devastated” that Harper and Layton “chose to bring down the government of Canada.”

When DNC talking heads start to complain … you might as well find the closest tar pit and walk in. 100,000 years from now scientists can argue whether your remains are those of a Libratas Scriptor or the more common Libratas Simplex.
… click.
Update: Speaking of God’s War … where have we heard that before?

Threw a McCain picture vs. an Obama picture up on HotorNot.com.
Guess who won.

Imagine that … McCain is so doddering he hasn’t even learned how to use email … shame shame shame:

Strange though … some North Vietnamese thug is responsible:

Yep. The day after 9/11, as part of its “get tough” makeover, the Obama campaign is mocking John McCain for not using a computer, without caring why he doesn’t use a computer. From the AP story about the computer illiterate ad:
“Our economy wouldn’t survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats,” [Obama spokesman Dan] Pfeiffer said. “It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn’t know how to send an e-mail.”
Well, I guess it depends on what you mean by “extraordinary.” The reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):

More @ Malkin

Light the barbecue and drown a Bangladeshi, parch an Ethiopian, and starve a New Guinean.
Kate Raworth of Oxfam International recently authored a 34-page report that began:

“In failing to tackle climate change with urgency, rich countries are effectively violating the human rights of millions of the world’s poorest people.“
[…]
creating floods, droughts, hurricanes, sea-level rise, and seasonal unpredictability. The result is failed harvests, disappearing islands, destroyed homes, water scarcity, and deepening health crises, which are undermining millions of peoples’ rights to life, security, food, water, health, shelter, and culture.

I’d say “cry me a river”, but that’d just contribute to rising sea levels. I[‘m sure that famine, flood, and all manner of nature caused sorrow were with us long before Al Gore invented the internet … and AGW.
This could be fun … “Rob a Limo-Liberal … save an island!”
ht

The recent announcement by Stephen Harper that Canada is for all intents and purposes out of Afghanistan come 2011, has raised some eyebrows. My views, which I admit are harsh, can be found at Celestial Junk:

All these valid concerns though, have little to do with PM Harper’s choice of words and choice of timing in announcing that we are out of the fight in 2 years. His words do nothing to get NATO to step it up; they do nothing but reduce morale within the forces, they shock and hurt the families of those who have died fighting, and most important, his words give greater comfort to the Taliban than Jack Layton ever could.

The Torch, which is likely Canada’s most level-headed military blog, has a wealth of opinion:
It’s important, right up to the time that I have to win an election
A modest Middle Ground Proposal
Brits Struggling With the Long Term
Whether to stay with the fight or pull out is not a simple question … in fact, it’s incredibly complex. The ramifications of either fight or flight are enormous … and neither is pretty. At the extremes there are those who scoff at the notion that the Afghan conflict is even winnable to those who’d simply nuke the whole region. Neither of these viewpoints offer anything constructive.
Appeal to experts can also be faulty, simply because there are too many self-styled experts, from Muslim talking heads to think-tanks with agendas. Often, the most valuable input can be found among the more lowly, like the LAV gunner who’s on his 3rd tour, or the Kandhar female doctor who loves her country so much she is willing to risk all. Journalists are usually of little help simply because most of them have proven to be as agenda driven as the most raucous of bloggers. There are rare exceptions like Michael Yon, who deliver the good, bad, and ugly with frankness … but they are rare and outside the mainstream. Experts who are “elected” of course, are driven by the pack and seldom … if ever … show the courage to go against the mob.
Perhaps, it’s actually a very simple issue … all about Will.