DEVIL DIALOGUE

This morning's exchange between Dennis Miller and "Salman," Miller's Ed McMahon, regarding the prospect of huge crowds greeting Barrockstar Obama in Germany :

Dennis: So a million people show up. Who cares what Germany thinks? I don't care if TWO million people are there....

Salman: I know how many WON'T be there....

Dennis: How many?

Salman: Six million.

RIM SHOT!!!!!!

AL GORE -- TREE KILLER


Americans for Prosperity does a little Michael Moore number on a recent Algoriffic Environmentalcase Event. [hat-tip National Review Online]




Heh.



Also at NRO:

"If God didn't want us to eat cows, he wouldn't have made them out of steak."

The Book of Numbers,
ch. 19, v. 1-2.

Hmmmmmm.

א וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל-אַהֲרֹן לֵאמֹר.	1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying:
ב זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה, אֲשֶׁר-צִוָּה יְהוָה לֵאמֹר: דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ פָרָה אֲדֻמָּה תְּמִימָה אֲשֶׁר אֵין-בָּהּ מוּם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-עָלָה עָלֶיהָ, עֹל.	2 This is the statute of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.

PEOPLE HAVIN' FUN WITH
OBAMESSIAH CAMPAIGN GEAR

[found at LUNDESIGNS, h/t Powerline]


OBAMA ROAD crew:


Alternative Campaing Logos:











Alternative posters:
















I actually saw this one in Houston -- several times:

TONY SNOW,
1955-2008

R.I.P.

Between the painting, wallpapering, plant-potting, and such here in outer Newfoundland, I've hardly had time to even absorb, much less mark and opine upon, the passing of Tony Snow. We all knew it was coming, but tried to play ostrich about it anyway.

There's been lots of retrospective on the 'net -- one of the benefits of having it, so as to preserve and reproduce words and voices out of the past -- again, too much to absorb any time soon. But while stumbling around in search of who might be saying it best, I was moved by the all-too-human response of Mark Davis at RealClearPolitics:

Like Tim Russert before him, Tony Snow brought an infectious passion and likability to his craft... His 17 months at the White House press room podium made predecessor Scott McClellan look like the useless shlub history now reveals him to be.

When Tony Snow took over that post in Spring 2006, one of President Bush's key problems was the passionless ineptitude that poisoned the delivery of his message. Snow fixed that in one day, establishing a style of addressing the press with conviction and humor. There had been no one like him before, and I don't see anyone equaling him again.

[He] never let go of his passion for life, even as cancer slowly robbed him. Now we are the ones who have been robbed. Tony Snow should have been able to see his kids grow older as he grew old with his bride, and we should have been able to enjoy his sunny demeanor during political clashes lasting well into the middle of this century. It is his gifts, the kind he shared with Tim Russert, that are sorely needed, not just in government and on TV, but in our entire national discourse.

I am sad and angry and I miss him. My faith tells me I'm not supposed to grumble so much when God calls people home. Well, I'm sorry. While I know there's some great talent gathering in heaven, I simply was not done with them down here.

Having gotten that off one's chest, the more gracious reflection was the President's:

I know it's hard to make sense of today. It is impossible to fully comprehend why such a good and vital man was taken from us so soon. But these are the great mysteries of life -- and Tony knew as well as anyone that they're not ours to unveil.

The day Tony was born was also the day that many of his fellow Catholics pay tribute to Saint Justin. Justin was also a gifted thinker and writer, and a powerful witness for the Christian faith. Because of his beliefs, he suffered many times of trial, and in the year 165 A.D. he was arrested. Before he received a sentence of death, he was asked: "If you are killed, do you suppose you will go to heaven?" Justin replied: "I do not suppose it, but I know and am fully persuaded of it."

Tony Snow knew that, as well. That brought him great peace. When talking about the struggle he waged so admirably, he said that no matter how bad times may sometimes seem, "God doesn't promise tomorrow, he does promise eternity."

And so today we send this man of faith and character and joy on his final journey. Tony Snow has left the City of Washington for the City of God. May he find eternal rest in the arms of his Savior. And may the Author of all creation watch over his family and all those who loved him, admired him, and will always cherish his memory.

Requiescat in pacem.

MICHAEL RAMIREZ of Investor's Business Daily remains the pre-eminent editorial cartoonist of the day.

(hat-tip Dennis Miller Zone)


HEH. Oh yeah.

July 15 DISPATCH from MICHAEL YON

It's been my privilege to have supported former Green Beret and self-embedded reporter MICHAEL YON for the past three years, as he has consistently produced the most impassioned, vivid, and informed reporting from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like all his enrolled supporters, I've received regular email notice of his latest dispatches, with links to his website for the full texts, always signed "Very respectfully," for he has always respected the relationship built with his readers, and fulfilled his end of the bargain by offering them the raw truth, positive or not.

Today Yon's email headline reads more bluntly than the linked text on the website, but the message is the same. Today he feels confident enough to tell his correspondents this:

"We have won the war in Iraq."

No one who uttered those words, short of General Petraeus himself, could be more readily believed than Michael Yon.

We are there.

Our soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen have bled [Sgt. Major Prosser, Deuce Four, at right], but the prize has been victory.

The road ahead is not without pitfalls, but the conclusion -- the real "mission accomplished" moment, is in sight.

On the other hand, Yon is equally blunt in saying that the war in Afghanistan -- never really over, despite reports to the contrary -- is indeed being lost. But it is not unwinnable, if the same determination put forward in the Iraq surge strategy is applied there without delay.

If there is one massive IED embedded in both roads ahead, it would be the election of Barack Obama as president. (That's me speaking, not Yon, who declines to comment on such matters.)

Stay tuned.

SCREECHED-IN!!!

This evening we were welcomed into the fellowship of honorary Newfoundlanders by a ceremony known as "screeching in." It involves various religious postures and distributions which could perhaps be considered a bit blasphemous if it weren't all fer the laughs, ya know.

To start with, ya gets in a semi-circle with yer shoes off, ya see, and den ya kneels down on da floor. Den da skipper, 'e serves up the goods to all assembled, while the first mate reads off some quotated bits to teach ya da symbolism der.

First ya has a Purity peppermint nob, standin' for da sweetness o' da fraish air an' such. Den ya gets a chunk o' hard tack (also by Purity -- I t'ink we has a genuine sponsor tie-in deal goin') to remind yas of the hardships of life on da rock. (Do I detect a smatterin' o' "Why is this night different from every other night"? Ahoy-vay, matey.)


Den we moves on to a taste of fat pink bologna, which symbolizes.....well, ya got me.





Next we stands up and, after stumblin' half-arsed through the Newfoundland national anthem, we begins a one-by-one Catholic-style veneration-like ritual, where each initiate has to come forward and "kiss da cod" -- its fraish, an' gutted, and straight out o' de oice -- an' it looks at ya wid a sorta com'ithery expression, its nasty little wormy mustaches hangin' down and it eyes wide with curiosity. So we kisses da cod, der.

Finally, we gets to da Prodestant portion o' da program, where buddy comes out wid little trays all covered with tiny glasses full of liquid, kinda low-church communion-like. But they was all filled with Screech, y'see, that fine old Newfoundland drink which is a kind of rum spiked with ethanol er somethin'. And ya takes yer shot glass, waits until everybody has one, and then ya knocks it back in one great whack.

My guess is that in the ordinary way of things, this last ritual would have continued until most of the assembly was proudly horizontal. But there were kids involved (who got nothin' but cranberry juice) so that was the end of it.

We gets our official certificates and a copy of the anthem, and was packed off to dinner.

Later this evening, skipper comes round by the house to give us a special prize: we got the promiscuous cod! -- head, tail, eyeballs, wormy things, and all -- to wrestle with for dinner tomorrow.

'Twas a fair evening. Yis, b'y.


AND ON THE HORIZON....

The aforementioned "kids" who also got screeched-in were the crew of the Concordia, a tall ship that doubles as a school for high school students. This group was the summer session class, just four days into their sailing career. They arrived this morning. A taste of old times for this once busy harbour. A fine sight.

"Oh beautiful for spacious skies...." --
What am I doing up here?

YO!!!

HOW DID YOU SPEND YOUR 4TH OF JULY?

1,215 of America's best spent it doing this:

[hat-tip Bob Krumm via Instapundit]





I spent mine in the fresh air of Newfoundland.

Stars and Stripes, flown briefly in Iraq on a CH53, flapped languidly in the ocean breeze.

Beautiful here too. Also spacious skies.

Ain't the same, though.