When I was 10, I founded an international organization known as the Black Cat Club. My friend Richard was the only other member. My younger brother, Hal, had “provisional status,” which meant that he had to try out for full membership every other week. We told him we would consider his application if he jumped off the garage roof—about eight feet from the ground. He had a moment of doubt as he looked over the edge, but we said it wouldn’t hurt if he shouted the words “Fly like an eagle!” When he jumped, his knees came up so fast that he knocked himself out. I think the lesson he learned that day was not to trust his brother, which is a pretty valuable one for a growing lad.

I wrote “The Dangerous Book for Boys” as a handbook for boys with scenes like that from my childhood in mind. I wasn’t trying to please anyone else. I was just trying to free boys to be themselves again, the way we were when my brother and I were growing up.................................

There really is a new video showing BBC reporter Alan Johnston wearing a suicide belt.

IN the battle for the women’s vote, Fred Thompson has a secret weapon against Hillary Clinton - the legions of former girlfriends who still adore him and who want him to be president.

The Hollywood actor and former Tennessee senator racked up an impressive list of conquests during his swinging bachelor days in the 1990s, but he appears to have achieved the impossible and kept their friendship and respect.

Lorrie Morgan, a country singer who dated Thompson and considered marrying him in the mid1990s, told The Sunday Times: “I couldn’t think of a bad word to say about Fred if somebody put a gun to my head.

“Fred is a perfect example of chivalry. He’s the kind of man little girls dream about marrying, who opens doors for you, lights your cigarettes, helps you on with your coat, buys wonderful gifts. It’s every woman’s fantasy.”

JR via Captain’s Quarters

Why does a chicken coop have 2 doors?

Do supporters of Palestinians love Arabs or just hate Jews?*

Gaza has now reached its nadir as a poverty-stricken, Islamist terror state. Michael Medved quotes Gazan poet Bassem al-Nabris as writing that, if there were now to be a referendum in Gaza on whether the Israeli “occupation” should return, “half the population would vote yes. But in practice, I believe the number of those in favor is at least 70%.”

How did things get this way? Is it time for soul-searching among the Western countries—including an important part of the Israeli body politic—that long regarded “Israeli occupation” as the ultimate evil, to be ended at all costs without checking too closely how it was done or the consequences?..........................

* FreeRepublic

svimvear!!!

*

Agent Bedhead

Saw this at Costco today and we both immediately noted the proper gun safety technique of the traitor martyr terrorist........

The surge of forces into Iraq is over. The surge of operations has begun, the commander of Multinational Corps Iraq told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference Friday................

~SNIP~
There are already results, he said. To the west, the Marine’s 6th Regimental Combat Team is well into the process of establishing Iraqi police precincts in Fallujah, where violence has significantly decreased during the past few months. The leathernecks found a very large cache with more than 25,000 gallons of nitric acid. The city of Ramadi, which up until a few months ago was considered lost, is returning to normal. “Attacks in Ramadi are at a two-year low,” he said.

South of Baghdad, the Multinational Division Center began Operation Marne Torch against al Qaeda safe havens along the Tigris River. The coalition has not had forces in the area in two years. “This is an area known for producing car and truck bombs that are sent north into Baghdad,” Odierno said.

Coalition and Iraqi forces already have eliminated and detained more than 100 enemy fighters. Forces in the area are slowly and deliberately clearing the area of enemy while reaching out to the local populace.

“Of note, the citizens there are coming forward, providing tips to coalition forces, which has helped us to find and clear many (improvised explosive devices),” he said. “Some of the highlights from Operation Marne Torch: 17 caches found and cleared, 288 structures cleared, several Iraqis added into our biometric database, 46 captured insurgents, 18 of which are considered to be of high value.”

In the city, “some parts of Baghdad are doing well and seeing progress, while others still have high levels of violence,” Odierno said. Coalition focus is clearing and controlling the security districts of Adamiyah in the northeast, Rashid in the south and portions of Mansour in the northwest.

“These are the areas where we’re seeing the majority of violence inside of Baghdad,” he said. “These are areas where sectarian fault lines exist, convergence of (al Qaeda in Iraq) and Shiia extremists.”

Building joint security stations and combat outposts – the building blocks of the strategy in the capital – continues.

“In some neighborhoods, such as Ameriyah, we have had residents come forward to coalition forces and express their weariness of (al Qaeda in Iraq) and a desire to band together to form neighborhood watches,” he said. “The government of Iraq is actively publicizing the joint security stations to Baghdad citizens and providing telephone numbers to report suspicious behavior and tips, and they continue to be very high, as we continue to get many tips.”

In the city, three rocket and mortar cells have been taken down in the past few days, and a list of material taken from caches includes 21 107-mm rockets and more than 100 artillery shells. In Rashid, 750 gallons of nitric acid, and four truck and car bombs were found. In Sadr City, troops have found five mortar systems, 54 mortar rounds, and three 107 mm rockets. Also in Sadr City, coalition forces took down a particularly active indirect-fire cell…

Irony—with real iron

For those who may have missed it, MM sez Jayzus wants Nationalized Restricted Health Care.

Stated Agenda vs Actual Agenda

Mark Steyn:

I think socialized health care is the single biggest factor in transforming the relationship of the individual to the state....

Socialized health care is the biggest cause not just of the infantilization of the citizenry but of the state.

...the unloveliness of any British city after six in the evening - the dolly birds staggering around paralytic, the pools of “pavement pizza”, the baying yobboes gagging for a shag and hurling bollards through the bus shelters to impress the crumpet - is a natural consequence of what happens when the state relieves the citizen of primal responsibilities.

“It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers! In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late. Accordingly, I’m readily willing to yield my command to these obviously
superior intellects, and I’ll, in turn, do my best for the cause by writing editorials - after the fact.”

You’re not supposed to call them “Beer” popsicles, but government regulators say that’s what they are. Now, their investigators are trying to stop an Alexandria restaurant and bar from introducing the adult treats to their patrons.
Chef Frank Morales makes the popsicles by cooking the beer with bits of fruit and a liquid that he calls his secret ingredient.

“It’s meant to be refreshing,” he says, “It’s not meant to be intoxicating.”

One restaurant-goer says, “I think it’s a great idea! It’s refreshing and tasty. You can’t go wrong with it.”

~SNIP~
Rustico is promising to play by regulators rules, but if they allow the popsicles, the chef says he’ll be adding Beer Banana Splits and Peanut Butter and Beer Jelly sandwiches to the menu.