Via: Libertarian Republican

He could use a good history lesson as well judging from his recent comments.

Its a tie-in to the release of the real movie like Animatrix was to the last Matrix movie. Lets hope it doesnt blow the “live action” movie off the map as with happened with the Matrix.

Dan Hannan reports that the Irish are waking up to the fact that they new EU constitution treaty may not be that great for them. Unlike the UK their government had the guts to let the people decide. Needless to say the establishment is pro and anyone with a brain/sane is against. It will be interesting to see how the EU reacts when the Irish people give em’ a two fingered salute.

Not its not about Michael Jackson but Jonathan King impressario/pederast. Check it out and have chuckle…its free btw.

Mike Huckabee offered a strange analysis of national priorities at a conference on diabetes in Washington. He told the audience that diabetes presents a bigger threat to Americans than terrorism, which is both true and utterly pointless at the same time. He also underscored the suspicion which Republican primary voters had about his nanny-state tendencies (via JWF):

Surely this is a bit offensive to all those who have died as result of terrorism?

Via: Hot Air.

Decent writer…political idiot. Either that or he does not engage brain before he speaks.

Welcome to the May 1, 2008 edition of carnival of the vanities. Relatively thin on the ground this week. Let’s jut blame it on the fact that its actually sunny and spring-like.

El Burro presents Otherwise “Nice Guy” Spring Breakers Dynamite Balcony, Do Not Understand Subsequent Arrest posted at wonky donky, saying, “Otherwise “Nice Guy” Spring Breakers Dynamite Balcony, Do Not Understand Subsequent Arrest. SO, as a Refresher Course: Outside the confines of Hazzard County, Georgia, It would seem that complete or partial detonation of a public structure is in fact best left in movies with ‘House’ and ‘Animal’ in the title and not practiced in real life.”

Barb A. Ryan presents Asset Allocation, Investment Asset Tax Location, and Emergency Cash Management posted at Pasadena Financial Planner.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Research Interview Series posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, “Check out these interviews with leading neuroscientists and psychologists on a variety of topics: brain health, happiness, trading psychology, weight loss, memory…”

Walter W. Fouse presents Avoid Large Actively Managed Mutual Funds posted at Best No Load Funds.

Larry Russell presents The Financial Services Industry is Still the Largest S&P 500 Sector – Even after the Collapse of its Stock Values posted at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of the vanities using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: carnival of the vanities, blog carnival.

American Thinker:

She is the biggest loose cannon in either campaign. She’s got a chip on her shoulder the size of a redwood and an overweening sense of entitlement that makes her one of the more unattractive advocates for Barack Obama – despite the fact that she’s his wife.

Michelle Obama is a disaster waiting to happen. Unless Obama sends her on a very long cruise or tries hiding her in a closet until after the election, there is little doubt in most observer’s minds that she will eventually, detonate a bomb or two that will require major damage control.

the blog québécois

A group is trying to force Maine politicians to stop taxing the hell out of them. A tax revolt is happening in Maine and its well worth supporting. Maine’s spending and taxation is out of control driving everyone out of the state. It has to stop and this might just help.

read more | digg story

What the hell is he thinking? The Corner has more about this rather troubling decision.

I was impressed with McCain’s speech on judicial appointments however. Its show a great contrast with his opponents and reassures the base. Activist judges are a scurge in the US (and the UK for that matter) and must be prevented from attaining the highest legal office in the land.

A grumpy old man walks into a local First Baptist Church and says to the secretary, “I wanna join this damn church.”

The astonished woman replies, “I beg your pardon, sir. I must have misunderstood you. What did you say?”

“Listen up, dammit. I said I want to join this damn church!”

“I’m very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in this church.” The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the pastor’s study to inform him of her situation. The pastor agrees that the secretary does not have to listen to that foul language. They both return to her office and the pastor asks, “Sir, what seems to be the problem here?”

“There IS no damn problem!,” the man says. “Looky here, I just won $200 million bucks in the damn lottery and I want to join this damn church to get rid of some of this damn money.”

Armed police have been shot at after being called to an incident off King’s Road in Chelsea, west London. It followed reports of gunshots in Markham Square around 4.50pm. They came under fire at the scene and a police spokesman confirmed that officers fired back.

read more | digg story

If this was ‘the end of the beginning’ of Cameron’s ‘compassionate conservatism’ in proving itself credible and fit for the government of an increasingly diverse nation, it may also prove to be ‘the beginning of the end’ of the British Labour movement’s longest stretch in government since it was first established 108 years ago.

read more | digg story

Fraser Nelson has some thoughts on this as well which is worth a read.

The scale of Mr Johnson’s victory has prompted fears at Tory Central Office that his charisma and general likeability could make him appear a better potential Prime Minister than Mr Cameron.

This is not so surprising as Boris, despite what the left might say, has far more of a “common touch” than Cameron. Cameron patronisingly pontificates while Boris speaks to people in a way people like. Cameron fills a room because of his position while Boris fills it with her personality.

Via ConHome

Bruce Anderson adds to Tory Boris bashing with this piece. They aren’t very happy he won are they?

According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, you could be modeling the coming wave in leadership styles. The lengthy, multi-page piece is definitely worth a read, but here are a few snippets…

Just like being a game-master in a pen & paper rpg can do wonders for your creative mind this is not exactly a revelation for many of us. Hone your leadership skills in a virtual world then take it to the street.

read more | digg story

DR is reporting that John McDonnell MP is planning to be a stalking horse for Brown. Cabinet ministers are said to be secretly plotting behind his back. Well considering lots of Labour members are openly calling for Gordon’s head this hardly a shock.

P.J. O’Rourke in the L.A. Times:

Well, here you are at your college graduation. And I know what you’re thinking: “Gimme the sheepskin and get me outta here!” But not so fast. First you have to listen to a commencement speech.

Don’t moan. I’m not going to “pass the wisdom of one generation down to the next.” I’m a member of the 1960s generation. We didn’t have any wisdom.

We were the moron generation. We were the generation that believed we could stop the Vietnam War by growing our hair long and dressing like circus clowns. We believed drugs would change everything—which they did, for John Belushi. We believed in free love. Yes, the love was free, but we paid a high price for the sex.

the blog québécois

Mojitos all ‘round.

He heads straight back to New York in December 1922 and throttles an infant Stan Lee before he can grow up and create Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, The Hulk and so many more. Mankind is saved from a twilight cinema world of dire superhero films…

Andrew says: Leonard does a good line in patronising rubbish ala Obama. Superhero films are popular therefore their rubbish. Perish the thought Hollywood actually makes movies people like to go see.

read more | digg story

Richard Barnes, the Conservative Leader in London, has told the BNP that they will have problems finding secretaries and support staff in the London Assembly and that they won’t be forcing admin staff to do their jobs.

Andrew says: This would be incredibly stupid of the Tories in the assembly to do. Are they trying to give the BNP more publicity? Petty moves like this are just foolish and counterproductive. This also feeds into the BNP mindset that they and their voters are being shut out by the establishment.

read more | digg story

These sorts of ideas are why the BNP got more than 5%.

He will press for the Union Jack to be flown permanently over City Hall, for burkas to be banned from public buildings and for official celebrations to mark St George’s Day. He will resist the planned construction of a huge new mosque, the biggest place of worship in Britain, in Newham, East London.

One thing about neo-Nazis is they know how to be populist and talk out of both sides of their mouths. I bet that if you said the above to many people without mentioning the BNP they would agree.

If you want to quell the BNP vote then politicians need to address the issues of the most disenfranchised grouping in Ken’s London…the white working class. They need to be address and made to feel as though people in city hall are actually listening to them. Under Ken any criticisms of his policies were met with charges of one or more isms. The bullying and intimidation of working class whites was palpable.

A city hall sponsored St George’s Day parade would be a very good start.

Boris needs to be a mayor for all Londoners not just the ones who bitch the loudest or have the pushiest representatives.

Pushing the BNP vote under the carpet is not the answer.

That load of crap called Headcases was far nastier.

Weekly Standard:

A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring “account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms.” No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, “The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants,” is enough to short circuit the brain.

A “clear majority” of the panel adopted what it called a “biocentric” moral view, meaning that “living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive.” Thus, the panel determined that we cannot claim “absolute ownership” over plants and, moreover, that “individual plants have an inherent worth.” This means that “we may not use them just as we please, even if the plant community is not in danger, or if our actions do not endanger the species, or if we are not acting arbitrarily.”

The committee offered this illustration: A farmer mows his field (apparently an acceptable action, perhaps because the hay is intended to feed the farmer’s herd—the report doesn’t say). But then, while walking home, he casually “decapitates” some wildflowers with his scythe. The panel decries this act as immoral, though its members can’t agree why. The report states, opaquely:

At this point it remains unclear whether this action is condemned because it expresses a particular moral stance of the farmer toward other organisms or because something bad is being done to the flowers themselves.

What is clear, however, is that Switzerland’s enshrining of “plant dignity” is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization, causing us to lose the ability to think critically and distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns. It also reflects the triumph of a radical anthropomorphism that views elements of the natural world as morally equivalent to people

I tracked down the report, and here it is, in all its pomo stupidity, if you can stand it. (PDF file):

The hierarchical position can be criticised for being unclear about why the membership of a species, or the complexity of abilities, should be morally relevant. This objection is usually countered by saying that the complexity of an organisms telos correlates with its ability to perceive harm. Further, we should take into account that our understanding is multiply situated, i.e. it remains tied to the abilities given to us and achieved by us culturally: the human perspective cannot be overcome. This does not rule out our ascribing moral status to other living organisms.

the blog québécois

Welcome to the May 5, 2008 edition of best of me symphony.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Ode To A Greedy Squirrel posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

SomeGuy presents Recession—the REAL definition (hint: it’s not two months of declining GDP) posted at Hunting Happiness, saying, “Gives the CORRECT definition of a recession. We have seen the effects of the slowdown all around us, but thus far SomeGal and I have been fortunate to not have felt any serious negative effects.”

Sally Thompson presents 50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers posted at JobProfiles.org – Job Descriptions and Online Schools to Start Your Career.

Alex Blackwell presents The Secret to Life in One Sentence or Less posted at The Next 45 Years.

nickel presents The Value of Doing Your Own Taxes posted at fivecentnickel.com.

CreditAddict presents How to Place a Fraud Alert on Your Credit Record posted at CreditAddict.

Michael Law presents Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act: Questions and Answers posted at Online Casino Blog, saying, “Check out the new changes in online gaming law… it might affect you!”

Michael Law presents Virgin Gets Hammered By Adverse Inference posted at A Law Student and Young Lawyer Blog – Law Vibe, saying, “Check out this article about megacompany Virgin Entertainment getting hit with a massive lawsuit.”

Michael Law presents Condo-Hotels: Questions and Answers posted at Michael Emilio.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents The Brand New World Of Peer To Peer Lending posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Thank you!”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of best of me symphony using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: best of me symphony, blog carnival.

Please check out Haveil Havalim and the latest from the Britbloggers. Shire News Network celebrates the Israeli 60th Anniversary.

A notable stories of recent months should have been the evidence pouring in from all sides to cast doubts on the idea that the world is inexorably heating up. The proponents of man-made global warming have become so rattled by how the forecasts of their computer models are being contradicted by the data that some are rushing to modify the thesis.

read more | digg story

U.K. voters resoundingly rejected the Labour Party in local elections last week. It was no capricious shift, but a citizen revolt against trendy carbon and nanny-state taxes that empower only bad government. For Labour, it was the worst election in 40 years. Every tax and intrusion imposed by Labour in recent years was justified as being for voters’ “own good.” Ending global warming, reducing carbon footprints, lowering carbon emissions and raising public funding of renewable energy – all were excuses used to hit the voters’ pocketbook with more taxes. Yet none of these taxes improved the quality of life.

—Investor’s Business Daily, 2 May 2008

This is Peter Hitchens’ Mail on Sunday column Why is the Left-wing BBC trying so hard to persuade us that the Tories are on the way back? Why do you think? Because the Tories have become Left-liberals, like the BBC….

Andrew says: I got to agree with Hitchens here. The Tories did not do anywhere as well as it first appears if you really look at the statistics and the results. The hard-left’s frothing about the Boris win is rather fun to watch however.

read more | digg story

Casket Salesman, Animal Alpha, Hurricane, To-Mera, & Sixx AM

Hurricane re-releases, Sixx solo, jazz metal, and some indie-tinged rock. What’s not to like?

This result isn’t just a wonderful victory for Boris and the termination of Livingstone. It’s also a defeat for the campaign – an exceptionally dirty one, at that – waged against Boris by a small band of separatists claiming to act in the name of all London’s Muslims.

read more | digg story