Just before going into Holy Week Mode:
my final spew-forth on that perennial subject,

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD
AS WE KNOW IT

More reviews on "LARA ANTIPOVA
and People's Commander STRELNIKOV
doing the GRAND TOUR -- Part Deux"

[1] WHY I LOVE THE KRAUTHAMMER

Dr. K. assesses the Amerikka Suxx tour with his customary aplomb and deftly planted poignards. My favourite bit:

Obama says, "In America there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world."

...It's hard to appreciate an entity's leading role in the world when it's been sucking on your tit for 60 years, as Europe has...

[h/t Gateway Pundit]


[2] JAMES LEWIS AT AMERICAN THINKER
has been doing some THINKIN' about it.

We know that Obama has a very conventional mind. I have not heard a single novel or even interesting idea from the man over all the months that I've listened to him. He clearly has no understanding of classical economics. He doesn't understand, as Bill Clinton did, the real harm and suffering that welfare dependency has inflicted on black people after LBJ's War on Poverty. He does not understand the elementary difference between productive and non-productive investment of scarce resources. He has no conception of the damage inflicted by inflation on the poor, more than even on the rest of the country. He has no real understanding of the dizzying complexities of foreign policy -- nor does his Secretary of State, who was hardly picked for her competence in foreign affairs.

These are not just rank amateurs, they are willfully ignorant amateurs, who also happen to be grandiose narcissists, and who now have free reign over the levers of power in the United States. We are all watching the Titanic steaming full speed ahead right before that diamond-hard iceberg tears off all the steel rivets from her skin. If you're not aghast, you're just not paying attention.

[h/t Hugh Hewitt]


[3] OVER AT URGENT AGENDA, WILLIAM KATZ
weighs in with these observations about the foreign follies of our "apprentice president":

I'm reminded of something that George Shultz, President Reagan's secretary of state, once said: "Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table." The president should mount that quote on his desk. Throughout the trip he has appeared more the neophyte than the leader, more the apprentice than the president.

His trip came at a moment when the Pentagon is preparing widely publicized budget cuts. It came at a moment when the phrase, "the war on terror," has been dropped from administration vocabulary. It came at a moment when the administration flashes "weakness" rather than strength. And, of course, the president spent an embarrassing amount of time this last week apologizing for America's sins, real or imagined, mostly imagined. There was no shadow of power. There was only the shadow of a kid playing in the sandbox.

[4] ULTIMATE POLITICAL ANIMAL, DICK MORRIS
does some niggling over small matters of American Law and Constitutional Tradition, as recently blown to smithereens by the itinerant president: "Obama Just Repealed the Declaration of Independence" (picky picky picky, Dick!)




[5] JOHN HINDERAKER AT POWERLINE
asks the obvious question:
"The Apology Tour: Will it Ever END?"


[6] CRAZY-AS-A-LOON NORTH KOREAN COMMIE DICTATOR launches big-ass missile --
Leader of the Free World bends over and assumes the position:

"Change: $8B for ACORN, while missile defense slashed $1.4B"


And a whole round-up of disturbing slaps upside the head from Gateway Pundit.

I'M NO GOOD AT MULTI-TASKING --
THERE'S TOO MUCH GOING ON,
IT'S COMING ON TOO FAST,
HOW DOES ONE ADDRESS THE AVALANCHE
OF HORRORS?...

Well, we could start with Michelle's sweaters.

She began promisingly enough, leaving Washington in what may be her best fashion experiment yet, the striking black and white suit with the graceful long coat.


But it all kind of went to pieces when she emerged at the other end with her knees poking out from under another one of these peculiar shades of mustard, covered by a faux medieval surcoat. Bleah.


Then the parade of the sweaters began.

First was the demure little black on white number, which was lovely in its way, but more like an elementary school-marm's daily outfit than anybody's idea of the proper dress for meeting the Queen -- or, in Michelle's case, groping the Queen.

Yes, the palace issued calming re-assurances that no protocols were demolished by Mrs. Obama's unprecedented effrontery and violation of the most basic norms of British royalty etiquette. In fact, it was pointed out that the Queen returned the favour. Yeah.

Memo to Michelle's Social Secretary: the Queen has good manners, and 80 years of experience encountering the public. Her token half-lift of a closed-fisted arm was her way of covering for her crass guest, having more respect for the visitors than they had for her.

Reminded me of the wondrous Calpurnia [the Queen, not Michelle], housekeeper to Atticus Finch and the young'ns, who took Scout to task when she drew attention to Walter Cunningham's over-use of syrup on his dinner. Hissed Calpurnia, "That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear!" The Queen and Calpurnia knew how to treat people, even when they "commit solecisms that society would never pardon."

You don't touch the Queen. Them's the rules. Even if you tower over her and she looks so cute and helpless down there. She's not any such thing. And she'll still be on her throne when Mr. and Mrs. Chicago Way have been shown the exit door from D.C.

Other sweaters followed, the cute, the weird and ugly, all just peculiarly inappropriate to the image of the First Lady. Jackie Kennedy wouldn't have gone out to walk the dog in any of them.














Why am I fixating on this? Because it's easier than coming to grips with the sheer madness and horror being perpetrated on Mr. Obama's seduced, mocked, and abandoned mistress, the United States of America.

BARACK AND MICHELLE'S MOST EXCELLENT EXECRABLE ADVENTURE

--or--

LARA ANTIPOVA AND PEOPLE'S COMMANDER STRELNIKOV DO THE GRAND TOUR

What can one say about the first president in American history to go abroad to a major international gathering and (you should pardon the expression) sell the country down the river?

Oh yes, he gave lip service to tsk-tsking Europe for failing to live up to any decent standard of participation (gratitude?) expected of their privileged comfort-status (gift of the U.S.A.?) within the world community to beat back the scourge of Islamofascism. But what most of his slavering anti-American audience came away with was the admission the the big bad U.S. is a big bad bully that went haywire in Iraq and tortured tens of thousands of people in Guantanamo.

Speaking of "lip service", the Great One's teleprompter appears to have been suffering from jet-lag, and failed him noticeably at one of his Big Speeches. Gateway Pundit [more and more my daily go-to guy] has the clip of one pregnant pause, but it's nothing compared to the painful silence after he uttered "liberté" because he couldn't come up with "egalité, fraternité" on his own, in his repugnant comparison of our respective national mantras -- despite Jefferson's spasm of theoretical fondness for the bloodshed of revolutions, I doubt he would have tolerated it if "life, lberty, and the pursuit of happiness" had been born in the shadow of Madame La Guillotine. (Slide forward to minute 6:40 -- the pause that refreshes...)



John Crace at the decidedly left-leaning U.K. Guardian seems to have noticed the Emperor's awkward nudity, and fisked his halting performance mercilessly. Enjoy.

I checked with TOTUS (Obama's Teleprompter's blog site) and it's not admitting anything about its obvious lapses (how arrogant!), but one of its commenters, called TruthWillWin, coined a wonderful moniker for the Big Guy: "Reader of the Free World." Heh.

What we saw there was the foreign policy equivalent of the coach of a far-and-away best hockey team [for instance, the 24-time Stanley Cup winning Montreal Canadiens] going to a league meeting and volunteering to only suit up a 14-year-old goalie with no helmet and bed-pillows for pads, just to make it "fair" for everybody else. Yeah, that will win friends and respect for your team. Not to mention inviting the Philadelphia Flyers to move in and break the kid's neck. Now THAT'S strategery.

President Obambi announced to his Strasbourg town hall audience that among his aims was to repair the supposedly "drifting" relationship between America and its NATO allies, and getting Europe to step up to the plate in the fight against terrorism. He announced that the G20 meeting was a success. That was a lie. Sweetness and Light sums up the scope of his abject failure to win over his European hosts.

Most egregious of all was his throw-away characterization of six years in which, through wrenching trial and considerable error, Iraq has been transformed into a functioning, genuinely multicultural if infant democracy through blood, toil, tears, and sweat of the American military and their families, as a misadventure upon which we got "SIDETRACKED."

How comforting, how encouraging for my son -- on the job seven days a week, housed in temporary shelters, flying through sand-storms, fixing to broil in the approaching summer, separated from his wife and child for months -- and he not having the worst of the experience by any means -- how wonderful to know that his Commander-in-Chief thinks all of this sacrifice has been for some giant oopsie on which the nation got "sidetracked." Shucks, shrugs Obama -- our bad.

Barack Obama's presidency has broken over the fruited plains like a giant shamal, bringing dirt, darkness, and disorientation, faster than anyone could ever have predicted. Those of us who opposed his election and saw through him from the start likely thought that we might reach this level of impatience, even disgust and outrage, with him in one or two years. That we are there after only two months is absolutely terrifying.

Here's another prediction: by the time the 2010 elections get into gear, if not before, appearances by the President or members of his party will periodically be met with mass demonstrations and calls of "traitor." Please, Mr. President, surprise me. Make it not so. [I LOVE this picture -- hat-tip Michelle Malkin]

In the last video that confirmed beyond doubt Osama Bin Laden's earthly existence [produced in November 2001, remember!] he uttered his famous horse metaphor: "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse." Fresh from his triumph on September 11, he was convinced (not without good reason) that America had shrunk into the weak horse.

However, he was in a cave in the mountains of Afghanistan at the time, and George Bush was in the process of replying with a horse metaphor of his own -- to quote Nicely Nicely Johnson, "I got the horse right here, his name is Paul Revere, and there's a guy that says if the weather's clear,
CAN DO!!!!"



We could, and we did, though it's true enough to say that we could have finished it up better. [Apparently there was too much argument in the war room about whether to put the bet on Epitaph or Valentine....] However, may I point out, what we did in Afghanistan in 2001 -- blow in, overthrow bad guys, put local government in place, set up election, blow out -- is EXACTLY what the Monday-morning quarterbacks in Washington and the newsrooms were saying we should have done in Iraq. I'm just sayin'....

In my quest for the "strong horse/weak" horse quote, I ran across a prescient speech made by columnist-to-the-world and boy genius Mark Steyn in Berkeley a couple of years ago, on the occasion of the 23rd annual Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Lectureship in National Security Affairs. If you think the title's long, the lecture was 50 minutes, and the questions another 40 -- but it's worth every minute of your time to watch and listen. I provide it here as a public service. As they say in Mr. Steyn's home state of New Hampshire, Live Free or Die.
slams the door on a courageous and loyal Iraqi interpreter's bid to seek asylum (read: survival) in the United States. Nice.

Oh, and Wall Street teeters in continuing insecurity, taking only a mild breather while Barack the Obarometer of Doom is out of town, and Joe ("I wish I were as intelligent as the similarly-named plumber") the Creepy Veep is being kept marginalized and relatively quiet. Oh, and did I mention that President Obumsfeld is trying to fight another war on the cheap? So says the man who knows, Michael Yon.

Finally, America begins to see what it means to live under Mob Rule, as carefully illustrated by classical historian, California farmer, and increasingly pissed-off dude, Victor Davis Hanson.

If you're not scared of these folks, friends, and what the future under their domination holds for us all, you ought to be. It has indeed happened too fast -- I had thought that it would take at least six months or more to answer my fundamental question, has Obama been the user or the used?

Did he sit through the Rev. Wright's sermons, and write (if he did) the essentially racist roll-out of his early life in biography #1 because he really believed that stuff, or because he knew that pretending to do so would position him for the fast-track to political power? Is he the starry-eyed golden boy of master manipulators like Bill Ayers and the Chicago-way activists, who took one look at him and made him their child-star goose that would lead them to the golden egg of ultimate power? Or is he the master manipulator himself, who made a bee-line for the Windy City and its ruthless machine, and sought out the power brokers who could shoulder him along on the sedan-chair of dirty tricks to the mountain-top from whence he could roll out the Revolution?

I'm going for the latter -- it's only two months, and that's my final answer. On the one hand, he's NOT brilliant (no matter what Bill O'Reilly says) because unfortunately you don't have to be to hoodwink half the American electorate. And no one who is brilliant would have made such a headlong amateurish hash of his first 30 days, nor would he believe the utter crap philosophy to which the man adheres. And he is both an ignoramous about world history, and nothing short of a fool on foreign policy.

But he does have cunning, and he is a hardcore leftist ideologue who will stop at nothing to achieve his transformation of Amerikka. And he is, by the way, a garden-variety Chicago-way political thug.

"I won."

"Don't think we're not keeping score, brother."

"My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

He won the votes (though he bought some of them with illegal money) and he certainly won the war for media attention and advocacy -- nobody held a gun to the mainstream media's heads and forced them into their slobbering obsession with him. I had no desire to hate him, and to tumble into a dose of Obama Derangement Syndrome. When he began rebuilding the Clinton administration I thought he was at least wise enough to know that he was in over his head. Silly me. I underestimated his raw arrogance. He is a dangerous man, and there will be hell to pay in some form or other. Right now, I can only think of one thing to advise him -- to beg him, even.

[Salty language alert -- ladies, avert your eyes.]

Or if you can't quite handle that, there's always this:

Semper Fi, but nearly FUBAR.

SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE --
THAT'S ALL YOU'VE GOT LEFT

But you'll enjoy singing along with this old favorite.
Listen well, and then go throw some tea in a harbour.

SMARTEST WOMAN IN THE ROOM
MAKES A GLOBAL FOOL OF HERSELF
YET AGAIN

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Broadbottom, fresh from presenting an "Overcharge" button to the Russians, and expressing the hope that North Koreans are listening to her on Greta von Susteren better than they listened to her when she was in Seoul, topped herself yet again on her recent visit to Mexico.

Privileged to stand up close to the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, she expressed her admiration by asking "Who painted it?" Her flummoxed host, one Monsignor Monroy, could only splutter, "God."

Now I have no quarrel if a week ago Hillary had never heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe, knew nothing of the story of how the image of the Blessed Virgin came to appear on the cloak of a peasant, and laughed heartily when she was told.

But wait --apparently, she wasn't told. But, hey -- how could this ridiculous monument to superstition possibly merit some advance leg-work by Hillary's minions anyway? They have far more important matters to attend to -- like boning up on their Russian translation....

Hillary returns stateside in triumph, stopping off in Houston tonight to accept probably her most fitting and well-deserved honor in a distinguished (?) career of standing next to important people. She steps up to the podium -- to follow in the footsteps of, among others, Katherine Hepburn, Phil Donahue, Canadian butcher-of-the-unborn Henry Morgentaler, and, perversely, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-- to accept the coveted Margaret Sanger Award for outstanding service in the cause of lifelessness.

Ah, yes, Margaret Sanger -- that apostle of eugenics, paragon of racism, saint of sterility, doyenne of demographic suicide. Who would not crave to stand heir to such a legacy, and to be publicly crowned with such dusty and desiccated laurels? A proud moment, Mrs. Clinton.

Were there no lightning bolts available in Mexico on Thursday?

[Hilarious Hillary Hat-tip: Gateway Pundit]

Add this to the body of general knowledge lacking in our President:

HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE CONSTELLATION "ORION"

John Hinderaker over at Power Line tells of the Obamessiah's apparent cluelessness when setting eyes on the name "Orion" as one element of the name of a corporation involved in his clean energy roundtable -- such that the Barackster mispronounced it over and over again.

Attached to Hinderaker's memo is the following, from our boy Iowahawk, who once again, NAILS IT, with acuity that's just downright painful. The Presidential Teleprompter speaks:



Read more at Iowahawk's site, taking all precautions not to wet yourself laughing.

Despite my massive head-cold --
or maybe because of it -- I engage in......

EVIL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MISFORTUNES
OF AN EVIL MAN

I have done my best over the years to ignore the verbal excretions of one Father Andrew Greeley, Catholic priest, cheesy pop novelist, and sociologist boil-on-the-bum of Chicago/American Catholicism. I came close to meeting him once, on vacation in Wisconsin, because he and my parents had a mutual friend, a married ex-priest. Greeley never showed, but I always considered it the sole point in his favor that, while remaining on friendly terms, he had very much disapproved of the ex-priest's bailing out of his vows, and had refused to attend the man's wedding.

In preparation for that possible encounter, I bought a volume containing three of Greeley's novels. I could only make myself get through one of them, and discovered in it yet another reason to think ill of him: it was a crappy piece of potboiler/bodice-ripper/soft-porn "romance" -- and to the perennial question, "How does a priest know so much about sex?" it gave the definitive answer, "Actually he doesn't know much of anything, especially if he thinks women get turned on by being roughed up."

Anyhoo, it obviously wasn't of vital international Catholic import that Greeley was the victim of a nasty car accident last November, because it only just came to my attention today, kind of accidentally. (Unlike when Fr. Benedict Groeschel was hit by a car -- seems like the whole Catholic world knew and fell to its knees to pray him back to health.) It seems that Greeley was getting out of a cab in Chicago, fell down, hit his head, and was dragged a bit because his coat was caught in the door. Nasty.

He was sedated into unconsciousness for quite awhile, but apparently has been up and into the rehab more recently, and is being cared for at home by family. Well, good for him.

I hadn't given the man a thought for years and years, but at some point during the election season I ran across a link to his columns written at the time. To no great surprise, he was one among that foul demographic, the Catholics for Obama. Okay, we know you're out there, and your mental gymnastics must be downright painful. What was shocking, disgusting, shameful, outrageous about his version of Obamaphilia were the newspaper columns he wrote that engaged in vicious flat-out libel against Sarah Palin (and, to a lesser extent, John McCain), and others that were filled with flat-out baseless race-baiting. Read them here (if you think it's necessary) and see if I'm exaggerating.

I have always wondered why Greeley has been able to operate unrestricted, especially as a crap novelist, under the Chicago episcopal authority -- but then, I suppose under Cardinal Bernardin anything was possible. And, as much as I like the way the present Cardinal, Francis George, thinks about most things, it doesn't appear that the creeps have been cleansed from the temple on his watch -- let's not forget the 25-year reign of the execrable Fr. Michael Pfleger.

Bits and pieces of the story -- some assembly required:

-- Greeley was hysterically enthused about the mere idea of an Obama presidency. But.....
-- Greeley believed that the Obama presidency was impossible because America is too racist
-- Greeley was utterly euphoric in the wake of the election.
-- Greeley was wearing his Obama cap when he fell and conked his head.

I report, you decide. I'm Catholic, so of course I don't believe in Karma.


Other Catholic matters:

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
INVITES THE ABORTION PRESIDENT
TO DELIVER THE 2009 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

As Leno said to Hugh Grant after he got busted with a prostitute,

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKIN'????"

There's a church in Rome on the Piazza Navona called Sant' Agnese in Agone. It is said to mark the spot where the Saint Agnes was confined, naked, inside a brothel so that she could be summarily violated, because Roman law did not allow the execution of a virgin. She emerged intact [only to be beheaded later] because the miscreants inside the brothel had decided there were some lines even they would not dare to cross. Nevertheless, the name of the church tells of the AGONY of humiliation and terror she must have suffered awaiting her fate.

The upper ranks of administration at University of Notre Dame, especially its president, Fr. John Jenkins, should give a moment's thought to the insult and agony they offer to Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin for whom their institution is named, in inviting, for the purpose of honoring, as commencement speaker the man who may be the most activist political promoter of abortion and infanticide in America's history.

There have been many instances of perverse thinking over the course of the recent American election cycle, but none worse than the block of Catholic voters who pulled the lever for the Abortion President. This fetid rot at the core of the American Church now blasts its stink to the far reaches of the land by such a high-profile act of apostasy.

One retiring UND professor bemoans the situation here.

Sign, call, demonstrate the ire of the faithful here.

Dies irae, dies illa.


MISCELLANY

More from the Windy City: Gary Sinise fumes about the De Palma version of Iraq.

Further north: David Warren speaks from the Great White North, with pithy Obamanalysis.

Then down south: Mark Steyn sums up the Hopeychanger's latest Very Bad Week for Orange County (and the rest of us).

Anne Coulter tames her customary bile in a well-deserved tribute to the late Ron Silver, who died too young of cancer a few days ago. Two Hollywood scions make their contribution here.

And President Obambi's TELEPROMPTER has its own blog. Rush Limbaugh immediately puts the comic cherry on top by referring to the teleprompter as TOTUS. This, my friends, is political satire at its very finest. "Reflections from the hard drive of the machine that enables the voice of the Leader of the Free World" Love it, love it, love it.

Caller to the Limbaugh show, speaks to substitute host Mark Steyn today: "Obama doesn't want to BE president, he just wants to play one on TV."

Heh. Yeah.

JUST PASSING THROUGH

Well, I've just come off teaching as much as I could of the two millennia of Christian art and architecture to a dozen new deacons (I got up to around the 1500 year mark, selectively, in about three and a half hours), and all that compacting of data and analysis has wrung out my brain.

Am preparing to head south to visit various family, having duly packed off masses of chicken fajita jerky to Al Asad air base, via Treats for Troops. (Great group -- send a soldier some goodies.)

Can't stop to chat now, but will insert this incendiary device just for fun. Greyhawk over at Mudville Gazette thinks it's an unfair comparison, but I disagree.



Also worth noting, from the Milblog universe: you know that much-touted "drawdown" of 17K troops by diverting them from Iraq to Afghanistan? Commingler-in-Chief Obambi neglected to mention that another stryker brigade is being sent to Iraq in place of the "diverted" one. So it's a wash -- no drawdown, just one more chapter in the Obama multi-front shell-game. Thanks for popping up that illumination shell, Mudville and Blackfive.

Blackfive also has some good stuff on the new documentary "Brothers at War", where the film-maker follows around his two brothers both serving in Iraq. This sounds like something I may be able to watch. I have a pile of videos I've ordered over the past five years or so, all fine work about the real face of the Iraq campaign, bought because I wanted to support the filmmakers who are usually working on a shoestring to get the truth out against great odds. But so far I really haven't been able to make myself watch any of them. The most recent (which isn't for sale yet) is "Taking Chance", a remarkable true story of the return of a Marine's casket for burial at home. It sounds wonderful, and got rave reviews from military folks everywhere. I think I'll probably be ready to watch it in, oh, maybe 2012 or 2015? Not now -- too close to the bone.

"Brothers at War" is something a little different (though its trailers do warn that military families may be disturbed by the part about an IED explosion -- and the foul language!!! Are they kidding?), so maybe I'll give it a look before the next decade. Opening this weekend in selected theatres, with filmmaker Jake Rademacher and producer Gary Sinise attending the premier in Fayetteville, N.C.


IT'S THE ECONOMY, COCOA PUFF

You probably didn't put all your eggs in one basket, but the trouble is, governments have a way finding all your baskets and playing reverse-Easter-bunny. Here's a young woman who knows how to get the point across to the post-literate generation. I think it's smashing.



[Hat-tip/ Real Revo]

HIATUS AND A HALF

The Dow may be down, but my Tao is not -- I'm just WAY too busy to post right now.

On alternate Tuesdays when it's raining I have been known to wish that I actually understood what the numbers mean that come after words like "Nasdaq" and "Dow" and stuff like that on TV. Neil Cavuto remains cute, Larry Kudlow is not cuddly, but on the whole I don't know what they're talking about. Probably a pretty good thing that I don't own any stock.

Coming soon to this site: I "Fisk" the Commander-in-Chief's revolting performance at Camp Lejeune. It's about the first thing he's said that contained anything meaningful enough to be Fisked. Made me want to smack him right in the teeth. Cue the Secret Service.

TOP GUN -- or --

MY SON, THE PROJECTILE

Number Three son received word today that he has achieved his MOS (Military Occupation Specialty), something known, colorfully, as "Tailhook" -- i.e., prepare to be blasted off an aircraft carrier with a BIG slingshot. To wit:




Congratulations to the young Ensign. Ahoy matey!

I knew there was some reason I was awake, blogging, until 5:00 this morning...

After days of delays, and hangin' out at the Kuwait Starbucks, at last we have the word.

IT'S OFFICIAL --

HE'S BACK IN THE SANDBOX

Cincinnatus returns to Al Asad for a second tour. From everything we've heard, it's going to be: "Will the last Marine to leave the base turn off the lights?" All is truly quiet on that western front, and the long-sought "exit strategy" will probably be in full swing in the next six months or so.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Anywhere except in your local newspaper, or on your mainstream/lamestream major TV networks, where Good News is No News, and No News keeps the public in tune with "the program". Scroll down for the low-down on what exactly that program is -- see Terry Moran.......

Tell me -- Would these two people [SMAK!!!!!] even recognize their countrymen today?

And SMAK!!! to my baby Marine out there in the desert.

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day...
If you make the Most High your dwelling-
even the LORD , who is my refuge-
then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

Psalm 91

And tell me now,
thou naughty varlet,
tell me,

where has thou been this month?
Falstaff, Henry IV,1

Hard to believe, it's been a month since the coronation of Emperor Obambi the First. (First Emperor of the U.S. -- I believe the last monarch was a mere king, name of Garfield Goose.) Things have been happening [read: "spinning out of control"] so fast there's hardly been time to make any predictions. I wish I'd made mine back when they started to occur to me -- I'd sound so smart now.

To wit:

1) Obama's first term will see double-digit inflation.

2) Obama's first term will see double-digit unemployment.

3) Obama's first term will see some type of foreign policy disaster in the wake of America's image being transformed into the "weak horse" of UBL's dreams, thanks to the President morphing into the Groveller-in-Chief. (Even Joe Biden had the first part of that figured out, so it's OFFICIALLY a no-brainer.)

4) Obama's first term will be the only one he gets. I thought these things would come true, but I also thought it would take a year or so to become obvious. At this point 1 and 2, and possibly even 3, may come true before Christmas.

You almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost.

All through his preposterous ascendancy of the past year I have been unable to figure out whether he is a cold and calculating dissembler, deliberately seducing the nation with a charm that masques both insincerity and a deeply radical agenda; OR he was and remains an idealistic and not so very bright instrument in the hands of machievellian leftists who found in him their perfect vehicle for societal transformation, and have buoyed him along atop the mosh pit of ivy-league credentialing and Chicago politicking, eventually positioning him to be the figurehead of their long-awaited revolution; OR a bit of both.

I still don't know for sure. But the whirlwind of disaster he has reaped in just a few short weeks leads to me to believe that he is both more ideologically-driven and more dangerously clueless than my worst imaginings. And now he spins, in his little paper boat, awash in a thousand little hypocrisies and big blunders and experience-gaps, with nobody to blame but his own ambition, bombast, and half-page resumé.

Poor little O-man. He thought it was going to be all grace, and finesse, and smooth skating to the oohs and ahs of the adoring crowd. A little of this...








...and some more of this...











...and a whole lot of this -- colour, panache, and pretty, pretty people.



Then, even before he was inaugurated, the wheels came off the zamboni, the cabinet nominees started dropping like flies, and it all began to look a lot like this...







and way, WAY too much like this:












The assessments have been fairly, um, icy:

Victor Davis Hanson defines Irony and recommends Oxygen.

The ordinarily composed Anchoress detects a Coup.

Krauthammer deplores the alternate Fearmongering and Cringing.

And Mr. Gateway Pundit delivers non-stop shots to the administration solar plexus. Read 'em all.


All this clarity, however, has not prevented the 24/7 worship-fest from continuing:

Kathleen Parker hitches a ride on Air Force One, and reports on her Obamagasm at the Daily Beast.

But over at ABC, talking head Terry Moran goes one better -- in fact, he pretty much one-ups the whole world -- suggesting a parallel between George Washington and Barack Obama, insofar as the presidency is a "step down" for this man who led a "giant movement."

That's Obama, in case you were confused.

Never mind that the only giant movement Barack Obama encountered in his career as a cog in the Chicago machine was the one he stepped in when he publicly allied himself with Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and Fr. Pfleger.

Yes, remember where you heard it first, folks. Mr. Obama, the Messiah, the Chosen One, the Man-Child who owns the Promised Land, lowered himself to become our President. Well, bully for him.

Now, Mr. Obama isn't responsible for Terry Moran's bout of degrading delusional tongue-bathing (to use a Mark Steyn-ism). But he does seem to have bought into his own myth, even in these recent troubled weeks when his leadership has been tested and found wanting -- I get the sense he hasn't even noticed that. Just days ago I received an email from the man himself, recounting how the wonders of the Porkulus Bill were miraculously delivered. Said he:

Today, I signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.

This is a historic step -- the first of many as we work together to climb out of this crisis -- and I want to thank you for your resolve and your support.

You organized thousands of house meetings. You shared your ideas and personal stories. And you informed your friends and neighbors about the need for immediate action. You continue to be a powerful voice for change throughout the country.

The recovery plan will create or save 3.5 million jobs, provide tax cuts for working and middle-class families, and invest in health care and clean energy.

It's a bold plan to address a huge problem, and it will require my vigilance and yours to make sure it's done right.

I've assigned a team of managers to oversee the implementation .....

[A team of managers. Oh God, now we know we're really in trouble. Alinsky taught him well. And "thousands of house meetings"? Really? You know what -- I don't believe that for a minute. I know there was a big "call to service" before the inauguration -- in fact I saw him flogging it on a TV ad today -- way to spend the people's tax dollars, Mr. President. But, I'm sorry, I think he's just fantasizing. It's a thing you learn when you make your living as a community organizer. He goes on:]

Our progress will also be measured by the tens of thousands of personal stories submitted by people who are struggling to make ends meet. If you haven't already, you can read stories from families all across the country:

http://my.barackobama.com/yourstories

Your stories are the heart of this recovery plan, and that's what I'll focus on every day as President.

Could you just hurl? What is this guy, a Sixth Grade social studies teacher? And, sorry -- I just don't buy any of it.

Oh mercy.


I AM NOT A RACE COWARD

New Attorney General and star of Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale, Eric Holder, began his tenure as Chief Heap Big Lawyer by doing what Obama-style leftists do best: telling Americans how rotten they are. Apparently we're all cowards because we're afraid to talk about race.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO SAY??????

Well, one thing. I am not a race coward, so I will say it, though I stand alone.

I thought Aretha Franklin's hat at the Inauguration was just FABULOUS. The colour was tastefully understated, but the size and design were exactly what she needed to be seen way up in the crow's nest (NO NO NOT A RACIAL EPITHET!!!!!) of the inaugural stage arrangements, where all the musicians had to stand (REGARDLESS OF RACE!). It was a classic Sunday-go-to-meetin' hat (or Saturday if you're a Sabbath-keeper), and I thought it was terrific.

You go, girl.


THAT'S THE WAY THE HOPE COOKIES CRUMBLE

T'other weekend the spousal unit and I were invited to a friendly wine-tasting. There was a quiz about the vintages (referred to by our host as "Clinton era California Cabernets"), and the prize was a set of cookies iced with a familiar image (now the subject of copyright litigation.)

I decided to employ them in an interpretive photo essay expressing the progress of Mr. Obama's first month as Chief Executive and Leader of the (for the moment) Free World.

There was a little bit of this...







...and then it went like this...











Then we moved on to this....











And it all came to this.



And it was stale. And flavorless. And Lord knows it was thin -- "a sight to behold in the age of obesity."


Then there were nothing but crumbs left. Kinda says it all.


Oh, and I almost forgot -- LAST PREDICTION:

5) Obama's first term will witness a Kristallnacht in Europe and around the world to make the last one look like the Teddy Bears' Picnic.

Just when you thought life was unkind....

POPE SPANKS PELOSI IN
PRESS RELEASE DUEL

It was High Noon on the news wires as Speakress Nancy "cheeks-like-a-snaredrum" Pelosi circulated a candy-floss and butterflies account of her private meet-up with Benedetto XVI. She thought she'd aced him with her blistering overhead serve and the accompanying Monica Seles grunt -- but His Holiness parried with a bullet-like backhand into the far court of public opinion.

Following the General Audience, the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage. His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception until natural death, which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists, and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of development.
[amazing disappearing mini-font now fixed -- sorry]

Whoooosh.

George Weigel wonders aloud, "Were They at the Same Meeting?" Good question.

I could not but dance.

SEPARATION ANXIETY:
BUILDING BRIDGES
(BETWEEN HIS WIFE'S HEAD
AND HER NECK?)

It seemed like such a good idea at the time: just after 9/11, a Muslim professional couple from Buffalo, New York, decided to found a cable television station to counter-act negative images of Muslims for an English-speaking audience in the United States. Muzzammil Hassan and his wife Aasiya started "Bridges TV". They created some of their own programming and purchased other content, at first running the station out of their home but eventually developing it into a going concern with its own studios and offices. There is ample photographic evidence of the couple as articulate, seemingly westernized people with good intentions and a successful business partnership. Here's a feature on their enterprise as seen on NBC in 2004:



But somewhere along the line things went horribly wrong, not with Bridges TV but with the Hassans' relationship. Aasiya Hassan had filed for divorce and gotten a protection order to keep her husband out of their home, where she lived with their two small children. Nothing too remarkable about any of this -- not even that remarkable that there were accusations of domestic violence. Happens every day.

What is perhaps more newsworthy than usual is Mr. Hassan's chosen resolution of his troubles. In a fit of truly extraordinary domestic pique, he separated Aasiya's head from the rest of her. He left the body in the TV studio, reported to the police station, and has been charged with SECOND DEGREE murder.

Huh??????????

Well, we can only hope that once the evidence is fully gathered, the charge will reflect the deed a bit more accurately. And in time we'll hear how he pleads, and know whether we'll have to insert "alleged" into the account. Good luck with that, fella.

At least he'll have one big plus on his side: media are already doing their level best to dance away from any narrowly applicable terminology like "honor killing", and are dos-y-doe-ing their way into the standard vocabulary of "domestic abuse." Keep moving, folks -- nothing to see here.

Mark Steyn, columnist to the world and crusader for free speech among primitive tribes of the far north (Toronto), weighs in over at NRO's the Corner. Money quotes:

Pay no attention to that dead body; the real victim here is Islam...

Beheaded woman in Buffalo? "Shocked friend says murder damages Islam's image."

But enough about all these corpses: Let's talk about me...

...when Mr. Hassan launched his Bridges TV station to counter "negative stereotypes" of Muslims, he got the traditional tongue baths from NBC's Brian Williams, NPR's "All Things Considered" et al - even though the station was entirely unwatched. Don't they have a responsibility to revisit the story now that it's got a little more complicated - or, as old-school editors would say, "newsworthy"?

If you're not intrigued by the apparent fraud at the heart of this man's life and work — a fraud in which the U.S. media cheerfully colluded — you lack the elementary curiosity necessary to be a journalist.

Yeah -- what he said.

Are we wrapping our heads around this, my fellow Americans?

It's the 21st century, in the Last Best Hope of the world, and a woman was effin' BEHEADED. In the same town where the Sabres play hockey and beef on weck is the favourite snack, and just down the road from where Marilyn Monroe shot "Niagara" -- that film where a garden-variety jealous husband strangles his wife, now that I think of it. Nasty, evil, but (dare I say it?) still something distant from decapitation on the barbarism scale.