Check this out. lol!

a natural reaction to the self induced and largely imaginary pressures of blogging . . . an undertaking which was totally voluntary and which does not directly contribute to his or her continued survival, on this, our planet earth.

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This is hilarious. Via The Cotillion.

By the way, this week's hostesses for the Ball are: Sadie (warning: femme fatale alert), Beth (warning: sticky fingers alert), Claire (warning: shoe fetish alert), and Denita (warning: Sweet lyrics alert)

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Good coverage over at Anubis.

No casualties, thankfully.

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[That's a Cole Porter reference, by the way.]

i'll be busy again today, so look for poetry tonight.

In the meantime, read this fantastic post from Baron Bodissey at Gates of Vienna.

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What an honor it is to host this week's Cotillion Ball, along with Dr. Sanity, RightGirl, and Beth of My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Week in and week out, i am amazed at the talent to be found in the links of the Cotillion Ball, and this week is no different.

At my corner of the Ball, a costume theme in honor of our friends and allies, the people of Great Britain. And in honor of these grand ladies of the blogosphere, enjoy a little bit of British fashion history while you peruse the links.

While we're talking fashion, Holly of Soldiers' Angel is providing cute barefoot sandals and her original artwork out of the generosity of her heart to members of the military. She's given away over 200 miniature paintings so far, and has received many gracious thank-yous from servicewomen who appreciate a gift of somthing girlie.

In the "great minds think alike department," i was happy to find a kindred spirit in Jody of Steal the Bandwagon on the subject of the death penalty. Jody explains her change of heart regarding that touchy subject thusly:

At first it sounds great. Sure, you have so little regard to human life to take someone elseÂ’s life? Fine. Say hello to Mr. Sparky. And for most of my life this is how I have regarded the death penalty.

But I am beginning to wonder if putting to death anyone can fit into my personal ideology. I am adamantly against abortion and euthanasia. The act of willfully taking anotherÂ’s life devalues human life. The story last [year] regarding the newborns being euthanized in a Dutch hospital made me shudder. Imagine where life is so unvalued that a doctor is allowed to take it?

Zendo Deb of TFS Magnum found a site that has some very interesting and provocative information about self-defense, along with some cool graphics. Check out "Two ways to shield yourself from a violent attack." It's an effective way to get across a very simple yet important message. Go visit Deb and follow her link to A-Human-Right.com. Ladies especially should pay close attention to the page entitled "Stay Safe."

Michigander E. M. Zanotti of The American Princess thinks a man named Ted might be a good choice to replace governor Jennifer Granholm. No, not Kennedy... Ted Nugent.

No. I am not kidding.

Yes, sir. The Nuge, the Motor City Madman, may be throwing his camouflage cowboy hat with the real 'coon tail into the ring to take on the Moled Wonder.
. . .

Not that the Nuge isn't qualified, he's written for more than 40 publications and is author of 'God, Guns and Rock nÂ’ Roll,' 'Kill It and Grill It' and the newly released 'BloodTrails II.' HeÂ’s serving his fourth term on the National Rifle AssociationÂ’s board of directors, and is president of the Ted Nugent United Sportsmen of America. And if that wasnÂ’t enough, his No. 1 voted hunting show 'Spirit of the Wild' on the Outdoor Channel. He's the national spokesman for D.A.R.E. and he's got a solid political outlook . . .

i already alerted you to The Anchoress's blog post about the 1999 ABC News report that, quite beyond belief, completely contradicts the standard MSM line about any pre-war connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq. This post is the type of stuff that makes The Anchoress one of those blogs you should check daily as you're taking that first sip of coffee.

The same is true for Fausta's Bad Hair Blog. She implores us to focus like a laser beam on the real scandal confronting us all:

There is ONE, and I repeat, ONE pressing issue of our times: we are at war. Not a 'little' war in a far-away place, but an assault on all civilisation The Democrats simply don't have a clue as to what to do about that.

And that's the real scandal.

Denita of Who Tends The Fires describes what it's like to live along the Gulf Coast during hurricane season.

All along the Coast a person can see the legacy of numberless hurricanes. No structure is without its scars and replaced siding, with holes pocking the window frames where plywood was hastily thrown up to protect the glass. Only those houses that were built during the more peaceable Winter are pristine and untouched--and it's a sure bet that they'll no longer be virginal within a couple years.

Children are not luggage. That may seem like an obvious point, but some folks apparently need to be reminded of the child/luggage dichotomy. Beth at Yeah, Right, Whatever has the details.

Imagine for a moment that you're a mom with a dilemma. You have to get your kids to their dad's home several states away. Your car will not fit them all. What do you do?

Here's a hint- you DON'T put your kids in the frickin' trunk!

2004 Weblog Award winner and Cotillion blogger Kate of Small Dead Animals is a great place to get a conservative's perspective on Canadian politics. Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall.com shares a great bit of family history involving the mighty 8th AAF. And pretty much everything at Villainous Company is always worth linking to; here she exhorts WaPo columnist Richard Cohen to stop lying.

i hope you enjoyed the Ball. Please go check out the rest of the links at Dr. Sanity's, RightGirl's, and Beth's

Posted by: annika at 12:36 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Want a laugh? Go check out the comments to what has become my most popular post ever: "My E-Mail To L!nds@y Loh@n."

Lately, every couple of days someone has been commenting to that post. i guess google searches for L!nds@y have increased since the Herbie movie came out, and my site pops up as the number seven result in a search for the sudden waif's e-mail address.

Most of the people who arrive and comment do not seem to have a clue, and think that i am either L!inds@y herself, or a close friend of hers. It's funny. For instance, this chick thinks L!nds@y is in the habit of giving her phone number out to random strangers:

Dear Lindsay or whoever is reading,
Hey, what's up? I would like to know more about Lindsay Lohan. If anyone know her phone no & e-mail or one of them pls give it to me.If this e-mail reads it lindsasy lohan ,can u give me your phone no & e-mail pls. Thanks . Bye

Here's someone who took my satirical post way too seriously.

u honestly think Lindsay would respond to that.. and wat makes u think tht by telling her u noe a cool guy shes gonna care.

My post has become a discussion board of sorts for a totally different audience, most likely international, and very obviously young. i am beginning to worry about the state of English language education in the world, now that i've seen a sampling of what passes for spelling and grammar.

well i thing lindsay is the best actris in the world .and herbie fully loaded is the greatest movoe i ever saw. all the movies of linsay i h ave saw but i just want to know if anybody has her email adress i will be great to have it thanks bye

"i love how the auteur combines editing and cinematography in idiosyncratic ways as a commentary on outmoded concepts of "reality" [here make the "quote" gesture with fingers] utilizing both the explicit and implicit narrative meanings in the film Freaky Friday."

"Oh yes, but the subtlety of The Parent Trap is at once delicious and painful as an expression of ambivalent attitudes toward the ideological issue of violence, drawing upon conventions of cinematic realism to characterize the plot structure and mise-en-scene exposition of theme and characters."

"Exactly. I wept."

But most of the comments contain the same question: "How can i get in touch with L!nds@y?" Since i have been silent on the matter, as i can't answer that question, other commenters have offered their advice.

I have several adresses thay all clame to be lindsays I emailed her about amillion times I have mary kate and ashleys but who knows if they are real.

Posted by: annika at 07:19 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 I wood rathar have Sandra Bullocks email if u r the one who has that kinda stuff. Do you like work with the stars? Too Funny. The strangest search phrase I've been found by is, "dog ate my homework image". I guess the Sandra Bullock reference gives away the fact I'm not a teeny-bopper female. For that matter, so does using teeny-bopper. Your site always makes me smile. Thanks.

Posted by: Jim at July 14, 2005 07:58 PM (ponKd)

2 Shit, your site always gives me a hard-on, no wait, that's Roger's site... so how about Sandra Bullocks number? Oh yeah, Mary Kate and Ashley... after they swallow, they barf it back up... ruins the whole thing.

Posted by: Casca at July 14, 2005 08:16 PM (qBTBH)

3 You are just too funny.

Posted by: Brad at July 14, 2005 11:41 PM (Qz3ul)

4 Jim, I live just a couple of blocks over from Sandra B. I don't know her email address, but I guess I could always drop something directly into her mailbox (if I were in anyway a fan of hers...I'm not...too nasally and whiney with no breadth or variety to her acting ability) Annie, I have two diff. posts on Ashless Simpson (one on her Super Bowl fiasco, the other on a petition to ban her from every singing again), and both of them elicit the same types of teeny-bopper comments as your LL posts...

Posted by: Robbie at July 15, 2005 06:05 AM (lbWbV)

5 Annika, is this really worth a few hundred hits?

Posted by: Mark at July 15, 2005 08:46 AM (Vg0tt)

6 hahahahahahahah

Posted by: dawn summers at July 15, 2005 10:48 AM (ZyabD)

7 C'mon, annika! You're in California! Lindsay's in California! Don't you two know each other?

Posted by: Victor at July 15, 2005 12:58 PM (L3qPK)

8 Annie, I'm so sorry. How are you handling the news?

Posted by: Radical Redneck at July 17, 2005 10:49 AM (Hn8NG)

9 Didn't Paris have Lindsay's number? Completely off topic - a year ago, our church's high school youth group went to Florida. When the other groups found out that our group was from California, they asked our group if they surfed. Finally, one of our group wrote "I surf to school" on his backpack. The guy lives in Rancho Cucamonga, which is in the 909, fifty miles away from any beach.

Posted by: Ontario Emperor at July 18, 2005 11:16 PM (A0qGO)

10 haha, classic.

Posted by: Patriot Xeno at July 20, 2005 10:41 AM (LPdru)

11 Call me evil. I even adopted Jim's favorite word "teeny-bopper." However, I left off the dash, which will probably cause a flame war even worse than the Lindsay-Britney battles. When I was 9 or 10 years old, our class was assigned to interview someone. Two of us in the class decided that we would interview President Richard Nixon. To this day I don't know why we didn't get the interview. (Actually, one student did interview the Arlington, Virginia Superintendent of Schools. But Paris Hilton didn't know him.)

Posted by: Ontario Emperor at July 21, 2005 01:05 PM (c6rOB)

12 I totally agree. That is exactly how I understand it.I am very lucky to get this tips from you neon signs wholesale. Great! Thanks for sharing will be sure to follow this blog regularly Business Signs. WOW! this is awesome LED neon sign! you can download it at my website for FREE along with lots of other games and media content LED Signs. I look forward to more updates and will be returning.Cheers!

Posted by: Advertising signs at January 21, 2011 02:57 AM (zpIH7)

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i will be pretty busy today, so Poetry Wednesday will be posted later today.

Meanwhile, check out some of the great blogs on my sidebar. Like Little Miss Attila, who wrote something recently that i can totally relate to:

as I tick down the list of things I'm interested in: cars, trains, guns, military strategy. Motorcycles.

I'm clearly not a middle-aged woman, but rather a 16-year-old boy trapped in a middle-aged female body.

Posted by: annika at 08:12 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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This week's Cotillion Ball, highlighting the best women bloggers around (minus one), is being hosted at the following wonderful sites:

Feisty Repartee
Sisu
Villianous Company

Sissy Willis describes the Cotillion like this:

Then there are the Ladies of the Cotillion. Hold the door for one of them as a courtesy, and she'll flash you a dazzling smile. But sign her dance card, and you'd better have your wits about you. She adores a rousing debate at least as much as a fling around the dance floor and does not suffer fools gladly. The blogosphere is littered with the corpses of lesser word warriors' debating points.

And speaking of -lanches, Hello to all Rodger fans!

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1 Thanks for the lovely mention, annika.

Posted by: Sissy Willis at July 12, 2005 09:59 AM (IzODM)

2 Annika: If you learned the Viennese Waltz, you too would be invited to the Cotillion Ball.

Posted by: Jake at July 12, 2005 05:35 PM (r/5D/)

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Old media cartoonists should know better than to talk smack about the blogosphere. The consistently readable Varifrank delivers a well-deserved bitchslap to Gary Trudeau and a whole demographic.

thatÂ’s ok Gary. My generation will be here after yours is soon gone to write the legacy of your lives. That is our revenge. We get to be the ones to tell your tale. And I do admit your generation did do one thing right, it created the internet.

Thanks man! You just gave the power of the press, once just reserved for people like yourself, to average wingnuts like me. "Power to the people" isnÂ’t that how the song used to go? Well here it is baby!, only it seems that your generation really didnÂ’t mean "power to the people" it really meant "power only to people who think just like us". Whoopsie Daisy! I guess that didnÂ’t work out quite like you planned either. Is there anything your generation worked on that did work out? Well, yeah, The Internet. Now chock full of those people you and your cartoon now decry as 'unemployed losers'. Its funny the way you say it just like your parents called the people in your generation "in need of a haircut and a bath".

And my generation is now exploiting the internet. Did I say "Exploit"? Shall we call it what it is? Let's call it a revolution!( quick, get that Beatles record, whereÂ’s that "you say you want a revolution"- I so want to rip that to an MP3 and provide a link right here.) And since were throwing metaphors around, Those "barbarians at the gates" that you are hearing? Those "barbarians" are people like me, who can reach more people in an afternoon than you could do in the first 10 years of your underground 'fighting against the man' career. Only we arenÂ’t underground, were that 'evil middle class' America you railed so much about when you still had hair on your head and not in your ears. Thanks to your generation, we donÂ’t have to go through people you to talk to each other any more. We control the means of production comrade.

The 'silent majority' just got High Speed Wireless Broadband baby, and if you were part of my generation, youÂ’d know what that meant.

Varifrank, on a roll now, continues:

We donÂ’t think America is a bad place. We think its a pretty damn nice place. We cant help but notice the people that risk their lives to come here are all smiling when the arrive, almost as if they were happy to be here. Imagine that! Perhaps they havenÂ’t been reading your cartoon or listening to Air America. Maybe if we put Al Franken on the Air in Tijuana, that might stop the illegal immigration problem( oh if only we could warn them Gary, if only...) We donÂ’t need to translate Air America to Spanish, the language of the upper class yellow coward is universal around the world. The only people we see in this country who stagger around unhappily are ones with the Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers on their cars. Maybe the new car smell in Volvos isnÂ’t quite as country fresh as it is in our hummers...

We donÂ’t think the military are baby killers. We honor our troops, We honor the past, We honor the dead. We respect the living. My generation didnÂ’t need a draft, it volunteered! 'Greatest Generation'? Well, we think that gene skipped a generation. Your generation wants to lay prostrate at the feet of those who killed innocent people in Manhattan, wants to equate Mohammed Attas soldiers in Guantanmo to the likes of Martin Luther King in a Birmingham jail. This generation has given its life to go kill those who killed us and to help spread the liberty of democracy, yes - I said it, liberty , Democracy AND YES, FREEDOM to those who are enslaved. Your generation sneers at the very idea of such a thing. Your generation thinks the only thing the world needs to be liberated from is us. You think that because some of us donÂ’t want to have our tax money go to 'piss christ' that we donÂ’t have freedom, while women who were shot in the back of the head for kite flying in Afghanistan wonder just what the hell your generation is talking about.

i really believe that a lot of liberal mischief is the result of an ill-conceived nostalgia for the sixties. The press believes that their high water mark was toppling Nixon. When in fact, Nixon toppled himself. But they desparately want to do it again. And to the old media, if truth gets in the way, fuck the truth. They want another Nixon.

The anti-war left is the same way. Young activists, trained in the crucible of our universities by former hippies who think they "stopped the war, man," want nothing more than to do it again. Never mind that Nixon stopped the war, not the activists. (As Michael Medved is fond of pointing out, the giant anti-war demonstrations all but evaporated after Nixon ended the draft. Even as the war continued.)

Listen, i went to Berkeley. If there's one drumbeat that you hear all through undergrad there, it is this: Make a difference. Sounds great, but the thrust of that imperative is limited and obvious once you spend a few semesters there. "Making a difference" is narrowly defined not as "having a family," "raising good children," or "contributing to society in a constructive way." It's defined as a blind opposition to anything traditional. "Tear it all down, man."

Trouble is, that sentiment is in itself traditional. Yes, traditionally Marxist.

Link via Dymphna at Gates of Vienna.

Posted by: annika at 10:53 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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From Moonbat Central:

Incredibly, the British press is actually using the 'T' word. Yes, they are referring to the London Underground perps as terrorists. Why is this so unusual? Because the British media have been religiously scrupulous in referring to all terrorists and mass murderers who attack Jews as 'activists' and 'militants'.

. . .

It was suddenly not a legitimate form of protest against occupation to mass-murder civilians. The British newspapers did not not issue special editions documenting the abuses of human rights by Britain, nor bemoan the 'grievances' of those angry at the UK. Not a single Euro-politician made a speech denouncing the illegal British occupations of the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.

. . .

And the BBC has not demanded that the Brits re-examine their own behavior, to discover which manifestation of their arrogance provoked the Al-Qaida savages.

. . .

There were no protests against British plans to implement 'profiling' at its airports and train stations. . . . Human rights groups did not demand that any captured subway terrorists be treated as prisoners of war with full Geneva Convention privileges and good lawyers.

Posted by: annika at 10:28 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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This is a blog phenomenon. Pretty cool, too.

Posted by: annika at 09:57 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Check out what the girls of the Cotillion are doing at this week's Ball.

Dance over to the following sites:

The Anchoress
Little Miss Attila
Charmaine at Reasoned Audacity
Jody at Steal The Bandwagon

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We're a week away from the All-Star break, and i'm sure everybody's wondering how annika's A's are doing in annika's own fantasy baseball league, MLBloggers.

i suck.

Every other owner has been in first at least once. i've set a record for being in last place the most consecutive weeks.

Yep, pretty much all of them.

i drafted poorly. i built my team around Eric Gagné, who went on the DL almost immediately, came back briefly, and is out again. i got no runners except for Podsednik, with his sub-par offensive stats.

But that's only for starters.

i'm in the bottom three in the following stats: runs, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage, wins, saves, strikeouts, earned run average and walk+hit ratio.

Yep, pretty much all of them.

i'm even behind Ted, who doesn't even like baseball. i'm way behind gcotharn, and he's never played fantasy baseball before. (In fact, gcotharn is in first place!)

Victor and Matt tried to help me out with some very generous trades, and yet i still suck. While Dawn and The Maximum Leader never make a roster change and they're beating me.

i'm losing to Paul, who apparently gave up his blog so he could devote more time to kicking my ass!

Even a Geek knows more about baseball than i do.

It's hard to believe, but i'm even losing to a bunch of Zombies and Rats.

Yes, as Charlie Brown said: Rats.

Posted by: annika at 09:25 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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A salute to Milbloggers.

Throughout our nation's great history, patriotic ladies on the homefront have always stood behind our fighting men (and now women) 110%. From Betsy Ross and Clara Barton to Rosie the Riveter and the Gold Star Moms, American women have felt pride in each victory and grieved each tragic loss as our nation's military stood guard over our freedoms.

Here on the blogosphere, the ladies of The Cotillion are no different. For this year's July 4th celebration, we are highlighting some of the great Milbloggers, current and former military men and women, who have kept us all so well informed in this age of media bias.

euphoricReality

euphoricReality’s tagline is “Because truth is more important than popularity,” which is a fitting motto for any milblogger.

The four bloggers who run this site are Kit Jarrell, an Air Force veteran who served in Bosnia; KitÂ’s husband Corey "The Marine," who served three years in the USMCÂ’s elite Marine Security Guard Battalion; former Army Airborne veteran and history buff Heidi Theiss; and finally guest writer Andi (who has her own blog), a veteran of the storied 2nd Armored Division.

euphoricReality does a great service by regularly highlighting some of our American Heroes like Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch, for whom we should all give thanks.

Today, Heidi has posted a 4th of July Tribute featuring some beautiful songs of patriotism that mean a lot to her. They may bring a tear to your eye. And so may Kit Jarrell's update on the missing Recon team in Afghanistan. The media has reported their loss so matter-of-factly, that we tend to forget how much we owe to men like these. Kit names them, and reminds us not to forget them:

As you enjoy your holiday today, take a moment to remember these men and their sacrifice. DonÂ’t just say you will and forget as soon as you get out to your patio. Really stop. Think about what they gave so you can throw some fat steaks on your grill, hoist a beer, and spend time with family and friends.

When youÂ’re done doing that, say a prayer for the families of these men. Their barbecues and family reunions will never be complete again.

Stryker Brigade News

The Stryker Brigade News blog is a site run by a group of volunteers, all of whom have friends or family serving in the Army's Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. As you all know, the Stryker is a wheeled armored combat vehicle, and this blog contains a great many Stryker related photographs, some very artistic.

Last October, one of Stryker Brigade News' contributors became personally acquainted with the price of war. Mike Oreskovic's son Michael was severely injured in a car bomb attack only a week before he was scheduled to come home. The blog has continued to update regularly on Mike's recovery since then. Most recently Mike was featured in a Washington Post article as one of several veterans who attended this weekend's reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. The full article is very much worth reading.

Brain Shavings

Representing the United States Coast Guard in the ranks of Milbloggers is Puddle Pirate of Brain Shavings. The Pirate has a novel idea on how property owners can insulate themselves from eminent domain seizures in the post-Kelo era.

Let's say that you own some attractive real estate that your local government wants to take from you through eminent domain. To foil their plans you enter into a contract with the state government, where in exchange for a fee, the state automatically takes title to your property if your municipal or county government ever attempts to condemn it, and you get to live on the land. Perhaps it could be set up as a trust with the state as trustee.

Anyway, since a local government doesn't have the authority to condemn state property, they lose all incentive to condemn your property once you tell them about your new arrangement. If the condemnation would be for a true public use (as we used to understand it) like building a highway or a bridge, you can always put a clause in the contract that exempts such true public uses from triggering the passage of title to the state.

doubleplusgood infotainment

doubleplusgood infotainment has been a long time fixture on my own blogroll. Its proprietor, JCrue, is a retired Marine who blogs from Reno, Nevada. i like his tagline: "Freedom of speech makes it much easier to spot the idiots."

Being from Nevada and all, JCrue has a special incentive to keep an eye on the disgrace that is our Senate Minority leader. He pulls no punches either.

Screw you, Harry. I saw what Carter did to our nation and I saw what Clinton refused to do for our country and I have to say, you and your fellow party members are at least dedicated to the same cowardice those two were.

When the troops begin to believe the (D) party supports them and no longer hears your party's words on al-Jazerra as evidence of dissent and used as anti-American propaganda, then maybe, just maybe, I will start to believe what you have to say. But only when the men and women serving overseas believe without reservation and are confident in their daily tasks that you, the (D) party, and the entire nation stands behind them, your words sound hollow.

ARMOR GEDDON

ARMOR GEDDON is a fabulous blog, run by Neil Prakash who is currently stationed in Germany after a tour in Iraq commanding an M1 Abrams tank. It's a relatively new blog, which he started at the urging of his friend Sarah of Trying to Grok. (Sarah's husband served alongside Neil in Iraq.)

Neil's blog contains some of the best war writing of any Milblogger around. Seriously. He's funny, he explains things well, and he has a great eye for the details of a tanker's life. You really get an insight into both day-to-day life and the exhilaration of combat. Neil's posts about the battles of Fallujah and Baqubah are worth reading from beginning to end. He should think about contacting a literary agent someday.

Not to be missed are ARMOR GEDDON's collection of video clips from Iraq. His latest is a montage of footage related to a few IEDs his platoon found on Election Day in Iraq. It's a mini-movie, complete with explanatory footnotes in this post. Great stuff, if you have broadband. Even if you don't, it's totally worth waiting for on dial-up. Trust me. Turn up the volume and enjoy the fun.

So, from annika's journal a very special Thank You goes out to all Milbloggers and every member and veteran of our armed services: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. Thank you for watching our backs on this Fourth of July and on every day of the year. We owe you a great debt, and we'll keep you all in our prayers.

Please also go check out the other Milblogger tributes filed by the wonderful ladies of the Cotillion.

Happy Fourth!

Posted by: annika at 12:08 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The purpose of this blog is to:

1. Bloviate.

2. Increase awareness and appreciation of good poetry.

3. Make fun of people, especially celebrities.

4. Interact with like-minded folks.

5. Promote my own ego-satisfaction.

It is not the purpose of this blog to:

1. Present ironclad arguments in favor of my stated positions, although i sometimes try to do that.

2. Regurgitate the party line, as all long-time visitors should know.

3. Sacrifice honesty to the god of consistency or slay the demon of fallacious reasoning, although i tend to favor those ideals.

4. Be nice, although i often am.

5. Promote your agenda; your website; your point of view; or your online gambling/porn/prescription drug scam.

i've successfully avoided posting a Statement of Blog's Purpose for over two years, but i think its time has come. i'm sick of people telling me what i should and shouldn't do with my own bandwidth. [Well... Pixy's bandwidth.] If i want to make fun of Lindsay Lohan, i will. If i want to do a non-religious post on Easter Sunday, i will. If i want to drop a subtle hint that i might not be celibate, i fucking will. If i want to run your ass out of the comments because i don't like you for no good reason at all, i will. Even though i almost never do that, i reserve any and all rights.

That is all.

More: Wow. i thought i was pissed off. Check out Beth. Right on girl!

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At the risk of being accused as a mindless parroter of conservative talking points, let me quote Jeff Goldstien's deconstruction of the "chickenhawk meme," which is so clever i plan to adopt it and mindlessly parrot it all over fucking creation.

HOWS THAT ASSSHOLE?! THAT FUCKING PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH FOR YOU YOU PRETENTIIOUS HYPOCRITICAL DICK?!!

[N.B. The above flip-out was directed at a troll, not you, Jeff.]

But i digress. Here's the quote:

Sadly, the chickenhawk argument, though logically puerile, can prove quite rhetorically effective—in the same sense that charges of homophobia and racism have proven effective in debates over gay marriage and government funded affirmative action programs: such charges, cynically delivered, tend to stifle substantive discourse, forcing one side of the argument onto the defensive by changing the focus of the debate from the issues themselves to the character of certain professors of those issues—and in that regard, they help to sustain the status quo.

The bottom line is, the chickenhawk argument is an impediment to legitimate discourse and debate—and legitimate discourse and debate over national security is a necessity in a free society; and for that reason, those who raise the chickenhawk argument should be treated by everyone—right and left—as intellectual pariahs.

. . .

The gist of most of the 'arguments' in support of the [chickenhawk] meme’s righteousness is that people so willing to speak vociferously in favor of the war should put their money where their mouths are—and merely advocating for the cause doesn’t count. Which means, of course, FDR should’ve strapped on a helmet, picked up a rifle, and had one of his aides wheel his crippled ass in front of a Panzer. BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY!

Posted by: annika at 01:55 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 thats why i keep coming back great post

Posted by: troll? at June 30, 2005 02:28 PM (7exp2)

2 I used to work with someone who, when accused of being this or that, would say: "Ok, I'm this or that. But lets stay focused on the point we are discussing..." They handled that type of thing as well as anyone I've ever seen. It is an exasperating thing to have interjected into a conversation. Its difficult not to roll one's eyes and give back some attitude. But that's what they actually want. You give attitude; the conversation is sidetracked; they win.

Posted by: gcotharn at June 30, 2005 03:25 PM (F5ahJ)

3 The "chickenhawk" slur is uber-illogical: If you dislike crime, why aren't you a police officer? If you don't like homes on fire, why aren't you a firefighter? If you hate the idea of stray pets, why don't you adopt a cat or 10? I am sure you think up your own examples, but none of the ones I have given (as well as the "chickenhawk" bomb) even attempt to deal with the real underlying issues. Just diverts it to the people involved in the conversation.

Posted by: Mark at June 30, 2005 03:46 PM (or801)

4 "If you are so against the ChimpyMcBushHitler-Halliburton war, then why haven't you gone to Fallujah to sign up for the insurgency? Why not help out where help is most needed to end teh IllegalWarForOil? I mean sitting on the Web carping about it isn't doing a single thing to end it. It's about Direct Action ma-an! Go put your action where your mouth is."

Posted by: Desert Cat at June 30, 2005 04:36 PM (n/TmV)

5 Heh, a good evening for me is whiping a gunny sack full of hairball makers off the bay bridge, but that was a good one DC.

Posted by: Casca at June 30, 2005 06:49 PM (qBTBH)

6 Each time someone lobs the chickenhawk rhetoric at me on my blog (almost daily, it seems), I've found the best way to shut them up is to mention that I have already pulled a tour in Iraq. The usual respone (because they don't know when the hell to give up), is why don't I re-enlist if I believe so much in this current war. The fact that I'm now disabled from my first tour usually shuts them up. But now I'm going to have to use that "wheel my his ass in front of a Panzer" quote. Brilliant!

Posted by: Robbie at June 30, 2005 09:27 PM (htx4h)

7 The original chickenhawk term specfically referred to the pussies (like Bush) who actively dodged the draft, but still supported the war. Folks like Limbaugh, Cheney, G. W. Bush, Tom Delay, et al. ad nauseum, who were as gung ho as they could be about 'Nam except for the part where they might be drafted themselves. BTW, hearing you spout off about the use of the term stifling debate has a wonderfully comic effect. Lanks for the laughs.

Posted by: sigh at July 11, 2005 10:03 PM (n5EIB)

8 The original chickenhawk term specfically referred to the pussies (like Bush) who actively dodged the draft, but still supported the war. Folks like Limbaugh, Cheney, G. W. Bush, Tom Delay, et al. ad nauseum, who were as gung ho as they could be about 'Nam except for the part where they might be drafted themselves. BTW, hearing you spout off about the use of the term stifling debate has a wonderfully comic effect. Thanks for the laughs.

Posted by: sigh at July 11, 2005 10:03 PM (n5EIB)

9 no, thank you!

Posted by: annika at July 11, 2005 10:19 PM (iXY4D)

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Please check out this week's Cotillion Ball, hosted by the following lovely and talented ladies:

Rightwingsparkle
Not a Desperate Housewife
Maxed out Mama
Janette and Jody

This is some of the best stuff on the blogosphere, so don't miss it.

And while i'm at it, please go to fellow Munuvian Oddybobo's blog and read "I've Been Thinking, and That Is Bad!" Her thoughts on the Supreme Court are so close to mine, that i don't need to do that anti-establishment clause post i was going to do. Now i can take the night off, thanks Bobo!

Posted by: annika at 12:12 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Do they wear anything under those skirts?

Posted by: Casca at June 29, 2005 04:48 PM (qBTBH)

2 What about my take on it? huh?

Posted by: Scof at June 30, 2005 04:36 AM (x8hF4)

3 Laziest case of plagiarism I've ever seen ;~)

Posted by: Victor at June 30, 2005 04:50 AM (L3qPK)

4 Forgot to mention--I *love* the graphic you've got for your Cotillion link. Looks almost like an Erte print.

Posted by: Victor at June 30, 2005 04:52 AM (L3qPK)

5 Thank you for the linky-love. I needed a good rant.

Posted by: Oddybobo at June 30, 2005 05:17 AM (6Gm0j)

6 Thank you Victor, i stole it. Can't remember from whom.

Posted by: annika at June 30, 2005 07:14 AM (NCFFn)

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i wanted to see what bloggers were saying about the death of 58 year old Wal-Mart heir and Silver Star awardee, John Walton. He died in Wyoming today, when his experimental ultra-light crashed.

i looked up "John Walton" on Technorati and saw a pretty disgusting LiveJournal entry by a "blogger" (LJ blogs aren't real blogs, as you all know.) whom i won't link to. This ignorant bitch requires registration to read her drivel, so i couldn't read the whole entry. But the Technorati robot pulled this quote, which was quite enough:

The 11th richest asshole in the world ($18 billion) was killed in some kind of plane crash in Wyomning. John Walton (of Walmart), 53, is plunging towards the bowels of hell at this very moment.

Like most Americans with his kind of wealth, Mr. Walton was known as a philanthropist. The foundation he ran donated over 700 million dollars to education related causes over the last six years. i wonder how much LiveJournal bitch has contributed to charity.

Oh annika, you don't understand; the Waltons are rich, conservative, anti-union and Christian, so that makes them the embodiment of evil.

[As i continue to bang my head against the wall.]

Update: Zombyboy plumbs the depths of depravity known as the Democratic Underground, where many comments are in a similar, bigoted and hateful vein.

Posted by: annika at 11:35 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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1 Annie, While you and I, and no doubt Mr. Walton's fellow soldiers, may be impressed and thankful for his courageous service, the left would view it as just further evidence that he was a "killer".

Posted by: Pursuit at June 28, 2005 05:10 AM (n/TNS)

2 annie, stop banging your head on the wall; I find it better to mutter, "Tut, tut," while shaking my head ruefully. It's less painful, doesn't leave scars, and is just as effective in dealing with those who do not see.

Posted by: Victor at June 28, 2005 05:16 AM (L3qPK)

3 yes, pursuit, but medics are non-combatants! for pete's sake.

Posted by: annika at June 28, 2005 06:57 AM (aQZcw)

4 Ah, but he was saving the lives of killers!

Posted by: Pursuit at June 28, 2005 07:06 AM (n/TNS)

5 Ms. Annie... You might want to check with Matt over at Blackfive but I don't think Special Forces medics are noncombatants...

Posted by: davek at June 28, 2005 07:07 AM (oBH+P)

6 Yes, it seems that John Walton committed the biggest crime against humanity, he had money. It's a shame, I am sure. It's too bad that he isn't as talented as Micheal Moore because he is such a positive role model for society. He has money, but he is all about helping out the poor - right? I'm sorry, I am digressing. Actually you are spot on. The LJ'er couldn't be bothered about finding out the actual truth about the man. All she needed to know was that he had money. But it's odd, I doubt that she will ever say anything nasty about all those celeBRATies who have all that money...

Posted by: ethne at June 28, 2005 07:26 AM (miAG4)

7 Since when do idiots permit facts, reason, and logic to get in their way? And talking ill about a man who died a day prior in a PLANE CRASH -- how classy can you get?

Posted by: Mark at June 28, 2005 09:20 AM (bToiD)

8 sure - she/it was way to busy hating the man for being successful to actually research what he was all about ... and being a proud member of the lower 49%. /TJ

Posted by: TJ at June 28, 2005 09:22 AM (9Rmby)

9 annie, take victor's advice. i wonder if this guy was the guy/father that got into that naming fiasco at the u of mizzou a couple years ago. although i don't condemn the rich, i do wonder out loud sometimes how people that are as dumb as dirt, read as THK, can fall into a pile of shit and come out smelling like a lincoln rose. trust fund babies.

Posted by: louielouie at June 28, 2005 10:54 AM (xKfMm)

10 It makes me so sick that someone could make that kind of statement. Disgusting.

Posted by: ginger at June 28, 2005 12:33 PM (g2QG2)

11 Annie, Thank you for the additional information about John Walton. It gives us information on the kind of man he was. It is wrong that some people assume because a person has a lot of money, that person is a jerk. Appears to me to be just the opposite. Again, thank you.

Posted by: N Diane at June 28, 2005 02:54 PM (CAT+l)

12 Don't hurt your head! Its such a pretty head. And filled with Civil War knowledge....

Posted by: gcotharn at June 28, 2005 05:34 PM (U/NfN)

13 i'm new to this site. it's so much fun to see passive-aggressive right-wingers pat each other on the back! it's almost so obvious that we shouldn't speak ill of this man who died the other day that you all shouldn't have to reassure yourselves so much. almost. it's great to watch though, you all took that one disgusting comment from some clueless webmonger and used it not only to defend something that hadn't been attacked (the monied class, or whatever) but to attack the imaginary attackers. you rightwingers have used this imaginary-attacker-siege-mentality to great effect recently, mostly defending yourselves from the phantom "attacks" by the left on things like marriage (gasp! gay marriage will kill america!) and religion (gasp! we're under fire because everyone doesn't agree with us!). don't you realize that defending something that hasn't been attacked makes you seem weak? anyway. i look forward to your snarky, passive-aggressive pile-on of responses. it'll be funny to see what happens when you aren't in the majority anymore and you have to figure out what you're really about again. endless power and enlargement of government aren't exactly bedrock republican principles, but you seem to have made an exception for bush. by the way, however full of shit that LJ bitch was, the reason some reasonable people don't like wal-mart is that it has put small businesses out of business and basically shuttered whole regions of the country. in the red states mostly. where's the outcry. now answer a question i didnt ask, defend against something that wasn't attacked, and spew the party line! it's fun and simple!

Posted by: eric at June 30, 2005 11:34 AM (hiCir)

14 how about i just fucking ignore you?

Posted by: annika at June 30, 2005 12:56 PM (Y4qg6)

15 well you're enlightened and that's what bush wants so enjoy. so much anger.

Posted by: eric at June 30, 2005 01:31 PM (hiCir)

16 Here's the accusation: (Take a) comment from some clueless webmonger and use...it not only to defend something that hadn't been attacked...but to attack the imaginary attackers. And here's the accuser doing that very thing: don't you realize that defending something that hasn't been attacked makes you seem weak? anyway. i look forward to your snarky, passive-aggressive pile-on of responses. Nice!

Posted by: Desert Cat at June 30, 2005 05:31 PM (n/TmV)

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Read part one of a story of the Old South, by Christina of Feisty Repartee. i'm hooked now.

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Doug Tennapel interviewed United States Air Force Major Steven A. Givler, who served during both Iraq wars as an intelligence officer.

Some highlights:

As far as ethics and rules of engagement are concerned, we take greater pains than any military in the world to safeguard civilian life. We actually incur a good deal of risk in order to avoid hurting people or damaging property. People donÂ’t realize what a change this is from how war has been waged throughout history. Civilian populations have always born the brunt of war, and suffered from the after effects. Look at WWII.

To destroy a single factory in Germany we might have had to destroy the entire city surrounding it, just because of the inaccuracy of our weapons. In Japan, we had to destroy even more because of JapanÂ’s decentralized industries. In Iraq though, I stood on a bridge that had been destroyed with a single laser-guided bomb. The mosque next to the bridge was completely unscathed. We could have carpeted the entire area with a B-52 full of dumb bombs from a safe altitude, but instead we sent in a fighter that risked surface to air fire just so we could be precise and spare any unnecessary damage. This in spite of the fact that our enemy makes no distinction between military and civilian, and has time and time again, used mosques and churches for military purposes such as fighting positions or places for hiding weapons caches.

. . .

When I see those 'war is not the answer' bumper stickers, I always wonder 'what was the question?' Because maybe weÂ’re talking different questions. Certainly, if the question is 'What do you do about a group of men who believe in slavery, who are completely dedicated to killing every one of us, and who cannot be negotiated with,' the war is definitely the answer.

People with those bumper stickers remind me of people who think meat comes from a grocery store. They have completely forgotten that something had to die in order for them to eat, and before it found its way to that sterile Styrofoam tray, that steak went through a very messy process. They have forgotten too, that our founding fathers said that occasionally the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots. It amazes me that they seem unaware that, were it not for war, their bumper stickers, if they were allowed to have them, would be printed in German, or Japanese, or Russian. War, and our success at it, is precisely what has earned them the freedom to be so naïve.

Unfortunately, the world is an imperfect place. Evil exists. Some people are so given over to it that there is nothing else that can be done with them other than to kill them. I know this is difficult for some people to believe. I wish I could show them what IÂ’ve seen, like the Brothel Palace, outside of Baghdad, where Saddam and his friends imprisoned women they kidnapped off the streets. Or maybe I could introduce them to Iraqis who were forced to watch their family members fed feet-first (to prolong the suffering) through plastic shredders. Maybe that would change their minds, but probably not. ThatÂ’s alright. IÂ’ve been there. I know that 5 million Iraqis owe their freedom to a war fought for them by Americans. I know that for them, war has definitely been the answer.

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