The family is back from our ten day jaunt to Disney World. We stayed at my parent's winter home in Davenport which is a little south of the Disney Property. I'll be posting (w/ pics) as soon as I can get my act together and download some of the photos we took.

We hit the Magic Kingdom at 9 am on our second day in the land of make believe. Thirteen hours later I found myself hating all mankind.

Just wondering how long it will take Burger King to sue Mr.Morad Benhamida and his business partners?

Also wondering how long it will take for total Western assimilation to occur? Like Levi's in Russia...

Will a fatwah be proclaimed and a Jihad be called against this clear demonstration of Ismalic business men embracing Western culture?

Have it your way, indeed, Ali.

We shall see.

This is what happens when you have no natural predators (i.e. men in orange and cammo with rifles and shotguns) to thin the flock.

According to Police Chief Sidney M. Wordell, six animals have been destroyed — two skunks, two raccoons and two foxes. Two people, he said, have been bitten by foxes that were reported to have been acting aggressively. In the first fox bite incident, William Ryan, 9, of 134 Maple Ave. was getting out of the front passenger seat of the family car at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday, July 23, when a fox attacked and bit him on the toe.

And here is my favorite part...

Little Compton police officer Jason Peixoto, evidently in the area responding to another sighting, destroyed the animal shortly thereafter with one shot from his service pistol.

Nicely done Officer Peixoto.

The situation in which I found myself was not uncommon and does not bear going into here, but the elderly gentleman I met could accurately be described as a Blue-Blood; definitely old family and old money. I believe he was an ambassador at one point as is evident by the many photos of himself with Presidents, various Royals and heads of state from the 1960's through the 80's. He was very pleasant, charming and jovial. When we parted, he offered to shake my hand, with his left as it appeared a stroke or some other malady may have limited the use of his right.

It was at this point I was dumbstruck. To say his hand felt like a satin lined cloud is to be conservative in its description. It was not a wet fish handshake. It was firm yet, his hand was by far the softest thing I have ever experienced. I've felt soft skin. I thought that after knowing my four babies and having experienced a wife with the clearest, softest skin you could image I was well versed in the area of soft skin. I was wrong.

As I was driving away, it struck me that there was a whole "class" of people out there that could conceivably have hands like this, though I have never crossed paths with any of them until now. These people I refer to are people who may have never actually performed physical labor at any time during their entire lives. Never raked leaves, mowed the lawn, cut or carried firewood, pumped gas, moved rocks or built a birdhouse. My father has hands that could crush stone or sand a tabletop. Mine are calloused and while not nearly as grizzled, are definitely hands that have seen their share of work.

I'd never given this sort of thing much thought before. I'd always thought the Howell's were just caricatures of blue-bloods. Turns out... Thurston and Lovey are out there.

Funny how even a simple thing as a handshake can throw your whole day.

We still do whatever the hell we want, don't we?

Maureen Dowd on her mother's passing.

Mr FM reviewing Super Heroes to defend the Kingdom. (I nearly pissed my pants)

Stephen Green (Vodkapundit) has a really good story about one of his earliest memories of Unions and the "thugery" potential.

The BBC is reporting about a 28,000 old stone "dildo". Do these people have nothing better to do?

Sony books Bush critic's political thriller

Richard Clarke gets book and movie deal.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sony Pictures is negotiating to acquire film rights to the first novel from Richard Clarke, the counterterrorism expert who accused the Bush administration of ignoring the terrorist threat before the Sept. 11 attacks.

His novel, "The Scorpion Gate," will be published in October by Putnam Adult. The studio hopes the film adaptation will be the first in a series of John Clancy-style political thrillers.

Who the hell is John Clancy???? Did you mean Tom Clancy?? Who the hell is editing Reuters?

Michael King has continuing coverage of the Lt. Governor Knoll saga and her recent "apology". You can read my take on her bullsh&* sincere apology here.
Michelle Malkin's exceptional coverage and commentary on this matter can be found here. Michelle is right on top of this story as the Lt. Governor keeps digging a deeper hole. The outrage of insulting a fallen Marine's family is one thing but my favorite part of this whole story is the two words she chose when proclaiming she's against the war; "our government". What I assume she means is Governor Ed Rendell's (and she as his Lieutenant Governor) administration is against the war but again as with so many things in life, the choice of words is very telling. It's painfully obvious that she does not understand, as is the case with so many Democrats these days, that "our government" means "the people's government" not the Governor's.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised by this story. What's that, gentle reader? You are not surprised that the infamous Hanoi Jane has decided to protest another war? Relax, neither am I. I'm surprised by her means of transportation. A bus! But not just any old bus; A bus that runs on vegetable oil. Can you dig that?! No? Me either.

As I pondered this Vegetable oil burning vehicle, several thoughts came screaming into my melon. The most prevalent was that I seem to remember Vegetable oil not being all that cheap the last time I was in the market.

So I went here, Greasel.com, to see what the deal was. This site will give you all the info on how to convert your diesel burning vehicle to a vegan hot rod with relative ease.

What's that you say, gentle reader? Sure I could convert my diesel Mercedes or Ford F-250 pickup to a "greasel" but where oh where would I fill my tank? Good question. This site recommends;
Be patient in your initial hunt for oil. Forget the Fast food places and chain restaurants. They tend to have nasty oil, and are less likely to let you have it.(not that you want it.) Smaller independently owned restaurants tend to have better oil, and you have a better chance of talking with someone who will give you permission. Chinese and Japanese restaurants seem to be the best, but there are always exceptions to the rule.

Riiiight.

So let's see, need to tank up. Pull into Cho's #1 Chinese Buffet, pull around back and see if they have any used oil they want to get rid of.
I guess that would be one way to avoid the price at the pump.

Not practical you say? Well these folks don't seem to mind the inconvenience. Check out the "dumpster diving" picture which to those in the know demostrates the proper technique for "Oil Gathering".

While I tend to mock many "environmental" causes, I do applaud the effort to find alternative fuels. Sometimes the most amazing discoveries come out of complete lunacy.

I can't see this catching on, ever, but it does beg the question; does running your vehicle on refuse from the fry-o-lator have any upsides?

Price per gallon? Well if you were to buy it pure, like Wesson in bulk, it would cost around $9.23 per gallon. That's without tax. I'm sure Uncle Sam will need to tack on a load of those. Today's Self-serve price(at the corner station) at the pump for regular unleaded gas was $2.36 per gallon or 1/4 the price of vegetable oil. Granted, you could go dumpster diving for used oil and get it for free, but then you'd need to figure in labor and time, perhaps dry cleaning expenses. Not cost effective yet, I would think.

The only real plus from this form of fuel that I can derive from all of this is the increase in business to fast food restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King. Imagine yourself sitting behind a bus burning vegetable oil. Instead of sniffing noxious diesel fumes, you smell the glorious aroma of freedom fries cooking! The natural progression is to figure out where you're going for lunch.

For those reporters who forget the price paid for asking the tough questions. Correspondents in this country take for granted that they can ask any question of anyone at any time no matter how insulting, arrogant or argumentative the question may be.

This is one of the very freedoms that our military fights for every day, albeit one that might not be at the top of their list. Mrs. Greenspan navigated a line of questioning that she has done many times at home with American leadership. For her trouble she nearly had her arm broken. The press corps that travels with the President and the Secretary of State (and others) has become more of a pack of pit vipers than reporters. They ask "questions" in such a way that you can almost see the visceral hatred dripping off their words. In our country, this attitude has almost become expected.

A free, vigorous and open debate is great and what is painfully obvious here is that it is something that should not be taken for granted.

What I hope she took away from this was a sense of appreciation for her freedoms at home and maybe to rethink her attitude, but...

It is our job to ask," she said later. "They can always say `no comment' ... but to drag a reporter out just for asking is inexcusable behavior."

Afterward, Mitchell said she was "angry, embarrassed, humiliated" and upset that she had become part of an attention-getting incident. "Reporters don't want to become part of the story," she said.

"I would rather see them live up to their promises," she said. "What they did to me is not important. They can't control my life."

... then again, maybe she doesn't get it.

StephenBlythe was a Great Army General in a past life. Discover your past lives @ Quiz Me

Dig it. I'm thinking Patton.

How about this one... What kind of dog would you be?

discover your dog breed @ quiz meme