inside a Beirut bunker.

Actually, I think he’s beginning to look a lot like Jack Palance.

Mount St.Helens Attacked By Giant Space Fly!

No, really. For example;

Does he have a certain fondness for German Shepherd dogs?

Would he prefer a vegetarian diet?

Have you noticed your World Atlas keeps falling open on the map of Poland?

Jeff Goldstein sits down with one of the most fascinating corpses of 2006;

protein wisdom: “So. What was the last thing that went through your head just before you went to your eternal reward…?”
al-Zarqawi:
protein wisdom: “Besides pieces of farmhouse foundation and bits of your sternum, I mean?”

On “Achievement”

The Winnipeg Sun brings us this happy ending;

Schenk scaled a 32-foot-long ladder and managed to clamber onto a thick branch — which neighbours estimated to be at least 40 feet off the ground — begging the cat to come into his arms.
“This guy’s too old to be doing this,” said a neighbour named Jim as worried residents and emergency workers watched the man cling to the tree.
Schenk eventually got a hold on Max. A loudly meowing cat in hand, Schenk began clambering down the tree’s thick trunk before inching his way down the ladder as worried neighbours, firefighters and paramedics watched.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I confess to shedding a quiet tear every time I see a cat skeleton in a tree.

According to a CKNW “news flash” the Ethics Commissioner has stated that no rules were broken in the floor-crossing. I’ll see if I can find some links.
What a surprise.
I wonder how Jack & his buddies feel about the Ethics Commissioner now?
UPDATE: CTV has details
crossposted

I have never understood why Ontario (or maybe it’s just Toronto, I don’t know) actually ships their garbage to the US, Michigan to be specific, in the first place. Ontario’s land mass is 1,076,395 km² and Michigan’s is 56,890 mi² – you don’t need to do the math to see that already this is making zero sense (to me, anyway).
What’s really strange is this article implies that interstate garbage dumping is something of an industry.

Granholm and Democratic legislators have pushed for a series of measures that would limit the importation of out-of-state trash and improve the safety of waste being hauled into Michigan.
House Democrats want the state to institute a higher dumping fee, which they say would discourage Canadian dumping by raising costs. Michigan now charges just 21 cents per ton, the lowest rate in the region.

How weird is that? Were some guys smoking stogies in a back room in the State Capitol Building sitting around, shooting the breeze & someone (probably not an environmental-activist-kind-of-guy) says “Hey, we don’t have enough garbage here! Where can we get some?” Is this some get-the-unemployed-working project gone horribly wrong? Did some other stogey-smoking guy (probably a union-kind-of-guy) say “Excellent idea! I’ve been saying we need to make government work for the people, and the people need good jobs. Garbage men get paid good money, so let’s do it! Job creation! Brilliant!” And then some shipping-magnate-kind-of-guy saw dollar signs?
But that still doesn’t explain why Toronto, or Ontario, or both are shipping their garbage to Michigan. For crying out loud, how hard is it to create a landfill?
Yes, they stink. They’re GARBAGE, after all, but that can be controlled. If you get creative with recycling & the processing of, well, garbage, then seriously, how hard can it be? Apparently, you don’t even have to have massive quantities of land available, if you do it right.
If someone out there can explain this mystery to me, I would be forever grateful.

MIddle East Times;

Thousands of people flocked to southern Egypt on Monday to seek blessing from a calf that they believe was born as God’s reply to the publication in Europe of cartoons depicting the Prophet, police said.

Some 20,000 thousand people had gathered in front of Mohammed Abu Dif’s house in the village of Tunis to see the holy mammal, whose skin folds when he was born reportedly formed the words “There is no God but Allah”, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

(The skin folds are reportedly visible only to those who stand very close to the animal.)

Caller ID (2.6 meg)
(h/t Inoperable Terran – one of the blogosphere’s best linkmeisters, who thinks it fails at its probable intended purpose.)

Since I’ve offended someone…

Sgt. Torn: Drop the gun! Drop it! Drop it!
Ahmed(in un-subtitled Arabic):Muhaia, dirka muhaia! Jihad allah dirka fatwa�..jihad�. (slowly trails off)
Their eyes lock in a longing stare as both slowly lower their rifles.

---

Notice: there was a server changeover last night at my host, and I not only lost a few newer posts, I couldn’t access this comments thread until this morning. Apparently, there are a few people who still get sucked into feeding the trolls. I’ll deal with him, but in the meantime – just stop responding. Thankyou.

Received from anonymous source;

“All of the evidence is not in, but it appears that US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice may have slept with Prime Minister Paul Martin when she was in Ottawa.
I will send details when they become available. All I have now is this photograph.”

BREAKING
MARTIN ISSUES DENIAL

First Liberal: (strumming guitar)
Second Liberal: Do you know any Blue Rodeo, sir?*
First Liberal: Just shut up and mark ballots.
(A shameless ripoff of a classic PW * series)

First Liberal: Conservatives starboard! Shields!
Second Liberal: Sir?
First Liberal:
Second Liberal: Excuse me – Mr. Prime Minister?
First Liberal:
Third Liberal: Shhh.. We’re not supposed to talk when he’s cloaked.
(A shameless ripoff of a classic PW * series)

First Liberal: Scott?
Second Liberal: Yes, Sir?
First Liberal: Do you hear the horses?
Second Liberal: Go back to sleep, sir.
First Liberal: Their eyes are so blue…. *
(A shameless ripoff of a classic PW * series)

School kids marking official EC ballots?

Ahem
Update – “Harper New Democrat” Ian of Marturia writes in the comments;

As one of the teachers who participated in this “mock election”, I can tell you what happened to the ballots. In my school, all the ballots are totalled and the numbers (not the ballots themselves) are sent to the organisation running this. For the record, they are official-looking ballots, on card stock and whatnot, with the names of the candidates for the riding the school is in on them. We instruct the students to treat them as a real ballot (i.e. only an X next to the name you’re choosing is acceptable). From what I know, the organisation in charge (whose name escapes me at the moment) just wants to use the student numbers to compare against real polling numbers on the 23rd. Hope that helps.

When I first saw this story, I assumed that the schools were conducting mock ballots in the manner Elections Canada proposes. Perhaps it’s still completely innocent, but hat they’re using real candidates names does open up legitimate questions as to what the organization in charge is up to. One hopes the teachers ensured that all were destroyed.

What a difference a “d” makes (MP3 file)
via David Akin

First Liberal: What’s this?
Second Liberal: We’re chipping in, sir.
First Liberal: Oh. Clearly.
Second Liberal: For jet fuel, sir.
First Liberal: I suppose the cowboy hat is Herle’s idea of a joke.
(A shameless ripoff of a classic PW * series)

Angry has a rumour that Dear Leader has sent out a call for help.
I say call Team America!
Update – got word from a second source that there may be something to Angry’s rumour that there may be issues involving Paul Martin’s plane. Breakdown? Or – and this is pure speculation on my part – with stories of the Liberal party’s massive debt and possible bankruptcy, maybe it’s cash only at the PetroJetFuel pump… heh.
Send in the Sea Kings!
Update #2 – Paul Martin’s plane did a touch and go in Saskatoon, arriving about three hours late. They blamed freezing rain in Vancouver for delaying their departure.
So, was there freezing rain in Vancouver? It’s 46F there at the moment.
Update #3 I’ve been stuck in Vancouver airport when they’re hit by freezing weather – it’s a mess. Or maybe not. I just placed a call to an agent at Air Canada cargo (located in Vancouver) who couldn’t remember any freezing rain or commercial flight delays. Well, there should have been lots of media on the plane. Perhaps we’ll hear from them.