Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Poetry Corner: The Cremation of Sam McGee

This was a favorite of mine as a youth and a favorite of Ronald Reagan's as well.

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The Cremation of Sam McGee
by Robert W. Service


There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he’d often say in his homely way that “he’d sooner live in hell.”

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
“It’s the cursed cold, and it’s got right hold till I’m chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet ‘taint being dead—it’s my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains.”

A pal’s last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn’t a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn’t get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: “You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it’s up to you to cremate those last remains.”

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows—O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I’d often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the “Alice May.”
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then “Here,” said I, with a sudden cry, “is my cre-ma-tor-eum.”

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;
Then I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don’t know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: “I’ll just take a peep inside.
I guess he’s cooked, and it’s time I looked;” . . . then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door.
It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

"Pumpkinheads"

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Stewart and Colbert


H/T American Glob

Quote du jour

In 2006, when Nancy Pelosi took the reins of the House of Representatives, gasoline was about $2.25 a gallon. She said that was outrageous and she was going to "do something about it."

She did.


-Proof

Saturday, October 30, 2010

A Little All Hallow's e'en e'en Saturday Night Music

Sheb Wooley - Purple People Eater...because people were easily amused in 1958

Saturday Linkaround

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President Obama 0-for-14 on what he’s doing right

Not One Word, And I Hope a Polar Bear Eats You


NPR Highlights Anti-Semite in Its Explanation of Juan Williams Firing

Belated Fulminations (on NPR) -Nordlinger

Marine Corps Commandant Says U.S. Can’t Withdraw From Afghanistan On Obama Timetable


First Ever Photograph of a Human Being

Ethics Foundation Requests A.G. Holder Investigate Sen. Boxer


Two Crimes Made in the Name of Alan Grayson: But Grayson is an Honorable Man


Alaskan Talk radio host off the air after rallying listeners to run for Senate

Democrats Running Nastiest, Most Personal Campaign Ever


11 Reasons to vote for Democrats in November
-video



Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Barbara Boxer: Family Profits From Fake Indian Tribe She Helped Create

Funny thing! I wasn't even going to write about this, I was just going to post a link to it in the Saturday Linkaround and let people read or not read it as they will. Then, getting ready to post the link, I went to The Hill and found this:
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Although, if you look, the comments below the "page not found" reference this story. But, I guess it could have been a "broken link", so I took their advice and searched "Barbara Boxer Indian", was taken to this page:
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And when I clicked on the link guess where it took me? (Bonus points if you guessed "page not found"). Here's from a helpful email from the Fiorina camp:

The Hill’s Pundits Blog: Barb Boxer’s Indian tribe take
By Rick Manning
October 30, 2010
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/lawmaker-news/126619-barb-boxers-indian-tribe-take


For the past 10 years Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has been playing a game that would make Jack Abramoff blush, a game that can best be described using the language of “Get Smart’s” Maxwell Smart as “the ole family-profiting-off-of-the-Indian-tribe-that-you-created trick.”


Here’s the story.


In 1998, Lynn Woolsey introduced legislation reinstating an Indian tribe in the wine country of Northern California that had been declared defunct by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1958. None of the Indians of the tribe objected at that time; they received a payment and went about their lives. The Woolsey bill would reinstate the tribe but specifically prohibited them from starting a casino. The legislation ran into trouble when the Bureau of Indian Affairs opposed the legislation because it had not seen any evidence that the tribe was significantly tied to the terminated tribe.


In 2000, Boxer helpfully picked up the Woolsey bill, but changed the prohibition against gaming, and designated any land that the group owned to be considered as a reservation.


In the same year, Boxer got her language into the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act of 2000, and with the changes unbeknownst to either fellow Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) or House sponsor Woolsey (D), the bill was signed into law by then-President Clinton.


With us so far? A defunct tribe of Indians gets reinstated and Boxer inserts language that states in essence, any land they purchase becomes a "reservation". Neat, huh? Get around all those federal and local laws and taxes with the stroke of a pen. But as they say on the infomercials, Wait! There's more!

Shortly after passage, the newly minted Indian tribe declared that after much soul-searching, the only thing it could do was open a casino on the outskirts of San Francisco in the town of Rohnert Park.


The tribe turned its fortunes over to two firms to make its dreams of wealth come true — Platinum Advisers, a political consulting/lobbying firm, and Kenwood Investments 2. Amazingly, and I’m certain quite coincidentally, Barbara Boxer’s son, Doug, was a partner in each firm.


To avoid immediate citizen concern about a casino popping up in their posh neighborhood, Doug Boxer’s Kenwood Investments 2 kindly fronted for the casino interests in purchasing a tract of land in Rohnert Park, as well as helpfully taking options on adjoining parcels of land for themselves to sweeten the pot. (Can I say pot and Sonoma County, Calif., in the same breath?)


Then Platinum Advisers sprang into action to try to gain community support for the casino. They apparently didn’t do a very good job, because the casino still is not built 10 years later.


According to Reference.com, Doug Boxer’s take from the project was a very Abramoff-like $8 million.


What makes the story timely is that the federal government just a couple of weeks ago was compelled to declare the land that Boxer’s son had purchased on behalf of the Indian casino a reservation, effectively killing the local zoning and lawsuits that had tied the project up in knots for most of the past decade.


The Santa Rosa Press Democrat rightly pinned the federal decision right on the Senate Ethics* Committee chairwoman’s doorstep by pointing out that since she used the word shall, rather than may, in the legislation that birthed this tribe, the federal government had no choice but to declare the property that the tribe subsequently purchased to be tribal lands.


The rest of the post goes on to examine the, shall we say, less than stellar (or convincing) bona fides of this "tribe." Read the whole thing if it ever goes back up.

Both Boxer and Harry Reid have done very well by their children, by steering millions of dollars their way. Now if someone could only remind them to do right by the people who elected them and the taxpayers of this country.

Could you remind them for me next Tuesday?

*"Senate Ethics" - under Boxer, an oxymoron. (See: "Obama Justice Department")

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Update: Moe Lane has written on this as well here.

Christina Hendricks With a Big Smile Across Her Chest

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Looks like she's got her Halloween costume all picked out!

More at The Last Tradition

Quote du jour

Like many intellectuals, Woodrow Wilson assumed that if things were bad, “change” would automatically make them better. But the autocratic governments in Russia and Germany that Wilson abhorred were followed by totalitarian regimes so oppressive and murderous that they made the past despots look almost like sweethearts.

-Thomas Sowell

Friday, October 29, 2010

Friday Night Babe

In keeping with the spirit of keeping this feature as timely as possible, tonight's FNB* is Kara DioGuardi, daughter of some politician somewhere!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

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Obama Gets His History Wrong...Again!



Ever get the feeling that this guy not only slept through twenty years in Jeremiah Wright's church, but slept through all his history and civics classes, too?

Listen to the bone headed blunder he makes about Social Security. Originally intended for widows and orphans??? Please! It was sold as a retirement plan, complete with Al Gore's "lock box" (full of I.O.U.s ever since Congress figured out they could raid those funds with impunity.)

BTW, is it safe to assume from his halting, near stuttering delivery and inaccuracy that he was not only off script, but off prompter as well?

More at theblogprof

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Quote du jour

Comrade Pelosi cared not a whit about the will of the people, nor about the conversations democratically elected officials in both parties were having with their constituents whom they serve.

Damn the torpedoes, damn the consequences, and damn the Constitution.

-Cheri Jacobus

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pajamas Media: "Something Stinks in California's 47th Congressional District

by the Left Coast Rebel

Last night I wrapped up an article for Pajamas Media on California's CD-47. I focused on a funny bit of news related to the Van Tran campaign, here's the opener:

Away from the face-off between the two candidates, something smells as bad as trash-truck juice on a Death Valley summer day in California’s 47th.

In search of the olfactory offense, I point the reader to a Van Tran mailer masquerading as a fragrance sampler, making its way to the mail boxes of likely voters in Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Anaheim.

Don’t judge this book by its cover; it’s no ordinary fragrance sampler:


Note that the mailer says: “Open for a Free Sample Fragrance of: Loretta, The Scent of Washington.

You have to read the rest to see what happens when the mailer is opened! Later on in the piece I describe Van Tran campaign HQ, it's a pretty neat story:

The folks in the Van Tran campaign were a pleasant bunch. After meeting them I could sense that they are having fun (easily evidenced by the humorous mailer too), working hard, and ready to win. At the same time, I gathered that they were perfectly able and willing to go back to normal life if the election doesn’t go their way on Tuesday.

Central command for Van Tran is set up in a foreclosed Blockbuster building in Garden Grove, a city of 175,000 in northern Orange County. The building was essentially stripped of most things that one would associate with the past life of movie rentals such as shelving and other interior structures. Although the sign had been removed, the outline of the letters B-L-O-C-K-B-U-S-T-E-R were still clearly discernible on the building’s stucco exterior.

It was somewhat dirty inside, a proverbial makeshift campaign war room with folding tables set up for walk-in volunteer phone bank folks. Van Tran signs were strewn graciously and haphazardly across the walls, and there was a constant buzz of activity. The accommodations were functional but not flashy.

Please read the rest, comment, Facebook 'like' it and pass it along to friends - especially those of you that live in California. And please, above all, support Van Tran and other conservative candidates in the closing days of the 2010 midterm election.

Nothing short of the future of the nation is at stake.

Bonus Quote du jour

The President is being disingenuous. When you consider that the Democrats were in charge of regulating Fannie and Freddie, insisting they were fine when the Bush administration tried to rein them in, and the fact that the Democrat controlled House (which writes the budgets) and the Senate have been controlled solely by Democrats for the last four years, you have to conclude that it was the Democrats that dug the ditch the economy fell into.

-Proof

Quote du jour

If Bush and the Republicans drove the economy into the ditch, then Obama and the Democrats are shooting the tow truck drivers that come to get us out.

-Proof

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Medal of Honor

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First Lieutenant Charles P. Murray, Jr.


Citation:

For commanding Company C, 30th Infantry, displaying supreme courage and heroic initiative near Kaysersberg, France, on 16 December 1944, while leading a reinforced platoon into enemy territory. Descending into a valley beneath hilltop positions held by our troops, he observed a force of 200 Germans pouring deadly mortar, bazooka, machinegun, and small arms fire into an American battalion occupying the crest of the ridge. The enemy's position in a sunken road, though hidden from the ridge, was open to a flank attack by 1st Lt. Murray's patrol but he hesitated to commit so small a force to battle with the superior and strongly disposed enemy. Crawling out ahead of his troops to a vantage point, he called by radio for artillery fire. His shells bracketed the German force, but when he was about to correct the range his radio went dead. He returned to his patrol, secured grenades and a rifle to launch them and went back to his self-appointed outpost. His first shots disclosed his position; the enemy directed heavy fire against him as he methodically fired his missiles into the narrow defile. Again he returned to his patrol. With an automatic rifle and ammunition, he once more moved to his exposed position. Burst after burst he fired into the enemy, killing 20, wounding many others, and completely disorganizing its ranks, which began to withdraw. He prevented the removal of 3 German mortars by knocking out a truck. By that time a mortar had been brought to his support. 1st Lt. Murray directed fire of this weapon, causing further casualties and confusion in the German ranks. Calling on his patrol to follow, he then moved out toward his original objective, possession of a bridge and construction of a roadblock. He captured 10 Germans in foxholes. An eleventh, while pretending to surrender, threw a grenade which knocked him to the ground, inflicting 8 wounds. Though suffering and bleeding profusely, he refused to return to the rear until he had chosen the spot for the block and had seen his men correctly deployed. By his single-handed attack on an overwhelming force and by his intrepid and heroic fighting, 1st Lt. Murray stopped a counterattack, established an advance position against formidable odds, and provided an inspiring example for the men of his command.


1st. Lt. Charles P. Murray: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes

There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:
“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”


Cross posted at Say Anything

Allen West for Florida and the US



Florida has some good men running this year. I know I have readers in Florida, (and you know who you are!) so get out the vote for men like West and Rubio.

H/T The Other McCain

(VIDEO) MoveOn.org's Lauren Valle Proved a Liar by Just-Released Video Showing Events Before Head-stomping Incident

by the Left Coast Rebel

If you are like me and voraciously following election news this week, you are most-likely exhausted of reading about the "head-stomping" incident involving a violent, paid, far-left batsh$t-crazy MoveOn.orger with a mile-long rapsheet and a Rand Paul supporter. The left has found it to be the cause célèbre of the final week election push - proving just how desperate, doomed and pathetic they truly are. In some ways I consider the issue a blessing as it is distracting hundreds of Soros-funded Bolshevik-bloggers at this point and Rand is going to easily win his race.

Lauren Valle (the MoveOn.org activist) has repeatedly claimed that she was just trying to get a signature and photograph from Rand Paul. She said this on MSNBC last night:

Well just before the tape I was identified by the Rand Paul campaign because they’ve seen me around town at these events. And they realized they know me because of my work and they don’t support it. So they actually formed a blockade around me once they realized that I was there. And as Rand’s car pulls up they step in front of me and start to block me so I stepped off the curb to try and get around them and at that point they pursued me around the car, chased me around the car, and what you see in the video is when I’m in the front of the car and that’s when I’m pulled down and then my head is stomped on.


She is an out-and-out liar.

The following video clearly shows Lauren Valle rushing Rand Paul's vehicle and pushing her sign into the car. A clearly dangerous, provocative act that completely discredits her version of the events. Hat-tip to Redstate:



I guess that Lauren Valle and MoveOn.org assumed that the rest of the video would never surface, this revelation easily disproves the 'angry-white-male-mob' that the Bolshevik bloggers are running with.

And for the record - though it won't matter to the trolls out there - it is never ok to step on someone's head. Tim Profitt should face serious penalties and the full extent of the law for doing so.

Cross posted to LCR.

Demagogues-R-Us

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Barack Obama, in typical liberal fashion, was less than completely honest the other day when he made this statement about government funding:

Obama was meeting in a backyard conversation with neighbors, but in addition to fielding questions, he suggested a few things to ask Republicans on the campaign trail. Specifically,
"What are you going to cut. There's this deafening silence."


Deafening silence. My first thought was, he didn't speak to any conservatives I know! Since at least the days of Reagan, the conservative movement has been rife with suggestions on how to cut the federal budget.

Upon further reflection, I decided that one major obstacle to frank and honest public discourse is the demagoguery of Democrats and other liberals.

When Republicans wanted to give more money to school lunches in the form of grants to the states, thus taking it out of federal control, Democrats demagogued this issue by saying that Republicans wanted to "cut school lunches". More money = cuts. Got it!

When Newt Gingrich proposed allowing people to direct the investment of a mere two percent of their Social Security retirement (some might actually call that "choice") it was demagogued as "privatizing Social Security", privatization implying a takeover instead a supplement or complement.

Back in 1995, when Republicans suggested a cut back in support for public television, the issue was (and is again) being couched as "Republicans hate Sesame Street", or "Republicans hate Big Bird". Never mind the fact that the Muppets, a division of the Disney empire, have garnered huge financial rewards via licensing, toys, books, movies, clothing, DVDs, etc. In the demagogues' mind, moving Big Bird away from the public trough is to "hate" Big Bird.

In the wake of the Juan Williams debacle, the wisdom of public funding for such a slanted media outlet comes again to the forefront, and still the demagogues trot the Muppets out as if Republicans hate children.

In the arts, if a chocolate smeared Karen Finley or a Robert Maplethorpe of bullwhip fame, or Andres Serrano (Piss Christ), (or most recently, a picture of Christ receiving oral sex from another man), provokes public outrage, Demagogues-R-Us march out their legions to decry those Philistines who want to eliminate funding for the "Arts". You know...ballet and symphony orchestras.

Maybe the "deafening silence" you hear, Mr. President, is the result of decades of lies, smears and innuendo heaped upon conservatives by the demagogues in your own party? Perhaps if the party of Demagogues would sit down and rationally and calmly discuss the matter, the budget could be cut in ways that the vast majority of the American people would find acceptable.

It is not just the art that is obscene, Mr. President. It is the spending.
And the demagoguery that defends it.

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything, Lady Cincinnatus .

Watch This And Then Go Vote

Brought to you by Lady C.

Quote du jour

This administration is beset with a kind of economic illiteracy.

- Brit Hume, Fox News Sunday

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Boxer to Drain Senate Swamp?

Remember when Nancy Pelosi likened Washington to a swamp that needed to be drained? Guess who's supposed to be draining it on the Senate side?

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Creature From the Senate Swamp


Barbara (Ma'am) Boxer chairs the Senate Ethics Committee. That's right. E-T-H-I-C-S. She's the chair. She was the one to send Chris Dodd a letter making demands for him to come clean regarding his Countrywide mortgages. But, according to the Washington Examiner,
Boxer held no fewer than seven mortgages with Countrywide Financial, the company at the center of the mortgage scandal she was investigating as chair of her committee.


Then there's a matter of a million dollar property in Oakland that she failed to mention joint ownership of on any of her financial disclosure forms.

And somehow, should Ms. Bouncer be re-elected and the Dems retain control of the Senate, who do you think will be investigating Ms. Bouncer's financial lies irregularities? That's right.

Barbara Boxer.

Just one more reason to Bounce Babs this November 2nd.

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Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything

Update: Maggie's Notebook has a good piece on this as well.

Storm Clouds Gather over Democrat Turnout

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bstXBEDnG9w/TMcsCpaRxrI/AAAAAAAADzA/XqUYq0X6ihQ/s1600/1217316476caJ2zyQ.jpg
Storm clouds gather before the historic 2010 election

by the Left Coast Rebel

A new meme is developing that stormy skies in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast may keep Democrats away from pols across the nation on November 2. The subtle reasoning for this is simple - folks that vote Democrat are so incredibly helpless that they cannot even brave bad weather to perform their civic duty.

Nothing shows the fall from our founding and rugged individualism quite like this. First, let's begin with this from The Hill:
According to Laurel Harbridge, a Northwestern University political science professor, GOP voters are not typically discouraged by rain. “Republicans are helped by bad weather ... it does harm Democratic prospects.”
What? Republicans are helped by bad weather? I thought that Republicans created bad weather on election day. Soros told me so!

More from The Hill:

Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University, echoed Harbridge. “Bad weather almost always hurts Democrats,” she said. “The traditional Democratic base tends to include lower-income people and the elderly. Both of those demographic groups have a hard time getting to the polls.”
Now we are getting closer to the gist of theme here. Many Democrat voters are poor and lazy. In fact, they are so lazy that they may not attempt to manage a bit of wet weather to protect taxpayer-funded goodies.

Forget the old people too, they clearly are defenseless as cumulonimbus clouds approach.

However, on a more serious not, riddle me this - are dead democratic voters less likely to show because of bad weather?

I would crawl over miles of broken glass mixed with rusty nails, under spiral barbed-wire and dodge the occasional land mine to vote for the future of this nation on November 2, wouldn't you?

Apparently the Democratic base's ballot box 'robbing form Peter to pay for Paul' credo doesn't elicit an equivalent degree of emotional response as fighting for the very survival of one's nation.

Cross posted to LCR.

Quote du jour

It's been said that a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged. Perhaps we can consider this as Juan Williams' mugging?

-Proof

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Other Addams family

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Quote du jour

“A great wave of oppressive tyranny isn’t going to strike, but rather a slow seepage of oppressive laws and regulations from within will sink the American dream of liberty.”

— George Baulmer

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Defend The Defender's Right to Vote

Michael Ramirez on the travesty of denying the opportunity for our servicemen overseas to vote:

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Leftist Alarmist (Insert Disaster Here) Moment

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Kaithy Shaidle, in examining 5 Leftist Lies About the Best Source of Oil on Earth, shares with us an excerpt from an actual Greenpeace press release:

‘In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world’s worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE].’


Too funny! I've personally received emails from incompetents who want me to invest my money, along the lines of "Mr. (insert name here), we'd like to handle your investments"

We've always suspected that the environmentalist whacko crowd weren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer. I think this goes a long way to confirm that!

Rule Five Experiment in 3D

Scientific inquiry is the cornerstone of Proof Positive, so when I saw a 3D picture of Anna Kournikova, I wondered to myself, what would happen if I took a digital picture of the published 3D picture and then posted that on a server on the Internet, if that picture would still come across as 3D when it finally shows up here on the blog.

So like Newton under the apple tree, or Galileo contemplating his namesake in the shuttle bay of the Enterprise, here goes:

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Rule Five had nothin' to do with it! Standard red and blue 3D glasses will let you see the results so you can judge for yourself.

Quote du jour

Tragically, minimum wages have the unquestioned support of good-hearted, well-meaning people with little understanding, who become the useful idiots of charlatans, quacks and racists.

-Walter E. Williams

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Congress Hard at Work

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Rep. Barbara Lambert, D-Milford and Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, play solitaire Monday night as the House convened to vote on a new budget.


Remember when Bill Clinton said he'd worked harder than he'd ever worked to try to keep his promise on tax cuts? Looks like the latest crop of Democrats are following in his footsteps. At least we're not paying these clowns, are we? Are we???

No, no, no Barbara! Black ten on red Jack!

More at Allied Liberty News

Cross posted at LCR.

Saturday Linkaround

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Barack Obama, Identity Thief

Barbara Boxer (and Raul Grijalva) Approved Code Pink Trip to Fallujah to Donate $600,000 to Extremists

John Stossell: "The battle for the future" -Video

The U.S. Constitution in a Nutshell: O’Donnell Is Right, Coons Is Wrong

Waiting for ‘Superman’: One of the Most Persuasive Documentaries You Will See

VFW DISSOLVES PAC BOARD!

FAIL: Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Accidentally Accuses Six House Dems of Having “Nazi Ties”

Is California Insane?

MSM ignoring that 38 black Republicans running for national office

How to Turn a Recession into a Depression- VDH

Presidential Hypocrisy: Democrats Get 2x The Foreign Cash Than The GOP

Klavan Explains Our Political Situation. A Byzantine Möbius Strip Drawn By Escher, If You Will
James Cameron – Hypocrite

March 2009: Juan Williams Describes The Viciousness Of The Left

Exclusive: New Study Says Cost of Health Reform Subsidies Could Far Exceed Previous Estimates

A bad day for the spooks

Obamas have booked the entire Taj Mahal Hotel



Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics.

Cross posted at Say Anything

A Little Saturday Night Music

Grieg's Peer Gynt: In the Hall of the Mountain King

Krauthammer on Juan Williams' Firing: Illogical and Hypocritical



More at Newsbusters

Woman Drives Ten Months With Corpse in Car

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com


Some people will do almost anything to use the HOV lane!

H/T Pat Dollard

Clueless Joe Biden to Campaign for MyCongressmanIsNuts Alan Grayson.

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Hey Joe! Just how many IQ points do you and Alan Grayson have between you?


Just how desperate do you need to be to invite Clueless Joe Biden to campaign for you? According to The Hill, that's exactly what's going to happen. (I love the smell of desperation in the morning!)
You have the historically illiterate plagiarizer Joe Biden, who thought that FDR went on TV for a fireside chat during the Great Depression, campaigning for the Oaf from Orlando, whose thin skin caused him to call for the arrest a person for merely expressing a political opinion (MyCongressmanIsNuts.com) of him. Good thing it wasn't Juan Williams, he'd have had him shot!

Among the outrageous things Grayson has said, was "The Republican health care plan is this: 'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly'.", and posting an ad of his opponent, edited wildly out of context, accusing him of being like the Taliban, for uttering words that were taken out of context from a heavily edited speech. Because Alan Grayson is a well spring of integrity, once the utter falseness of the ad was pointed out, he continued to run it.

He may not be your Congressman, but he is nuts. With any luck, Biden will regale Florida audiences of how he, Clueless Joe, son of a Welsh coal miner, was the first of his family to have a college education wasted on him...

H/T memeorandum

Herman Cain on the Fair Tax



Herman Cain on tax reform and dishonesty in advertising by a certain political party, whose symbol is a donkey*, who shall remain nameless.

More at the Blog Prof

*To put it charitably.

Obama to Introduce Teleprompter to India

by the Left Coast Rebel

Yesterday's Messiah is going to India next month and he's taking a teleprompter with him. Get a load of this:

A teleprompter will be in use for the first time in the Central Hall of Parliament when US President Barack Obama addresses MPs on November eight.

Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual--not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.


It's worth noting, that once again, one has to go to the foreign press to read the truth on the Gelding, Boy-King, Messiah of yesteryear.

"Because no other president has used one so consistently and so many events, large and small."

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/obama-6th-grade.jpg
Obama speaking to a 6th grade class several months back

This week I sat down with Assemblyman Van Tran in Orange County for PJTV. I didn't used a teleprompter during our taped discussion, nor did he. Also, he noted to me that Loretta Sanchez needed one during the one and only debate that they took part in recently.

That's pathetic and so is the picture above! Cross posted to LCR.

Where's Obama?

With most of the blogosphere pontificating over Juan Williams or laughing at the viral video mocking Barbara Ma'am Boxer, I thought something a little less intense was in order:
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Juan Williams Hammers Last Nail Into NPR

Another schadenfreude moment:



Mr. Williams goes through a litany of things liberals have said on NPR without losing their jobs. As they say on Sesame Street, Can you say...double standard?

Kudos to Bill O’Reilly for giving him a forum to air his grievances.

Via American Glob

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel

Quote du jour

The biggest boondoggle in spending history. Really folks, what did taxpayers get with that trillion bucks besides more debt? Now we knew all along, what they really were shoveling was not asphalt.

-Sarah Palin,

Friday, October 22, 2010

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB* is Saffron Burrows!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

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Boxer: I've Worked So Hard for this Title - the David Zucker Video

This may be the funniest video this election cycle:

Call Me Madam Joe from RightChange on Vimeo.



David Zucker, the creative genius behind Airplane! and Naked Gun movies, once supported Barbara Boxer. "Let this video be my apology"

More at Gina Cobb

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel

“I Always Thought the Right Wing Were the Ones That Were Inflexible, Intolerant”

Juan Williams on Good Morning America:


It's been said that a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged. Perhaps we can consider this as Juan Williams' mugging?

Video via Say Anything

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel

New NPR Logo

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-dedicated to former employee Juan Williams

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel

NPR: Thought Police

by Lady Cincinnatus


Ah. So, we now learn that Juan Williams has always been a thorn in the side of NPR. And according to NPR, it is expected that proper political analysts must, "give his own analysis – while carefully choosing his words on any given subject."

And if those words are not chosen carefully enough for p.c. muslims and NPR, then you'll be fired...or just fitted with an electro shock collar. The electro shock collars just haven't come in yet.

NPR also goes on to whine that, "NPR's values emphasize fact-based, objective journalism" except when the "fact-base" relates to the real unease of a modern plane boarding caused by 19 muslims who flew planes into buildings that sent almost 3,000 innocent men, women and children to a fiery, violent and hellish death all in the name of Allah (peace be upon him).




Cross posted at Lady Cincinnatus

Fox News Offers $2 Million Contract to Juan Williams?

NPR's hissy fit may turn profitable for Mr. Williams after all!
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If this is true, it would be quite a coup for Fox News, since Mr. Williams is the embodiment of liberalism:
If you've seen Juan, you've seen them all!

Quote du jour

Perhaps calculating that removing relatively small amounts of fissile material from stable friendly countries didn’t quite do the trick, Obama proudly announced that the U.S. and Russia were disposing of 68 tons of plutonium. Unmentioned was the fact that this agreement was reached ten years ago — and, under the new protocol, doesn’t begin to dispose of the plutonium until 2018. Feeling safer now?

-Charles Krauthammer

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Bill O'Reilly Interviews the Fired Juan Williams



Liberals with the pretense of tolerance fire another liberal for appearing on Fox News expressing an opinion.

Video via Say Anything

Sarah Palin Signs American Flags at Tea Party, Liberals say Palin "Desecrated" Flag

by the Left Coast Rebel

My local news thought the following story was important enough to dedicate a large early morning segment to it.

They played this video wherein The Guardian caught up with Sarah Palin in Reno, Nevada, and filmed her signing autographs for fans:







No big deal, right? Well, Salon lib writers want you to take note of Palin at 1:30 on the needle. Look. Look closer. See it? It's a smoking, flag-desecrating, double-barreled shotgun.

In other words, Palin 'signed' an American flag which is a clear, imprisonable violation of the Flag Code and today's Wag the Dog tail-chasing leftist gotcha moment.

Salon points us to the precise section of the code:

Subsection 8, part (g) reads: "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature."
Ah, yes neo-Bolshevik progressives always refer to Subsection 8 of the Flag Code when a clear example of flag desecration comes into play. Except, of course, when the American flag is being burned. Then it is Consitutionally-protected free speech.

Bob Owens nails this level of intellectual deformation:

I've always found Salon to be one of the most informative web sites on the entire Internet...though not for the reasons you might think. Like many other sites that feature and attract progressives, Salon serves as a chronicle of the "liberal condition," collecting the insecurities and psychological projection of its writers and its intended audience.

Some interesting comments from the Salon article:

She's wrapped herself in the flag so often

she thinks it's part of the new Sarah Palin apparel line, now available at Walwart.

—pinkoursula

Seriously?

Take this story down. This is something you would see on Fox news if it were a Democrat. Don't sink to their level and promote scandalism. She probably signs flags every single day and any person with common sense knows that isn't desecrating the flag. Who cares about Flag Code? People fly flags at night without proper illumination of the flag everyday.

scandalism: journalism that promotes and hypes menial events to scandal

—dirtetimo13

The photographer is just as much to blame...

as you are not supposed to photograph the flag for personal/monetary gain, either. This is an embarrassing article, and Salon should be ashamed for putting it on their site.

—Derek73


And drumroll.....

The law against signing a flag is unconstitutional

If a law against burning a flag is unconstitutional, then so is a law against signing one.

—Michelangelo
Ah, yes, that sums it up!

Quote du jour

"If we're talking to people, the less details the better."

-Markos "Daily Kos" Moulitsas, on how to advance the "progressive" agenda

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Medal of Honor

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Technical Sergeant Vernon McGarity


Citation:

He was painfully wounded in an artillery barrage that preceded the powerful counteroffensive launched by the Germans near Krinkelt, Belgium, on the morning of 16 December 1944. He made his way to an aid station, received treatment, and then refused to be evacuated, choosing to return to his hard-pressed men instead. The fury of the enemy's great Western Front offensive swirled about the position held by T/Sgt. McGarity's small force, but so tenaciously did these men fight on orders to stand firm at all costs that they could not be dislodged despite murderous enemy fire and the breakdown of their communications. During the day the heroic squad leader rescued 1 of his friends who had been wounded in a forward position, and throughout the night he exhorted his comrades to repulse the enemy's attempts at infiltration. When morning came and the Germans attacked with tanks and infantry, he braved heavy fire to run to an advantageous position where he immobilized the enemy's lead tank with a round from a rocket launcher. Fire from his squad drove the attacking infantrymen back, and 3 supporting tanks withdrew. He rescued, under heavy fire, another wounded American, and then directed devastating fire on a light cannon which had been brought up by the hostile troops to clear resistance from the area. When ammunition began to run low, T/Sgt. McGarity, remembering an old ammunition hole about 100 yards distant in the general direction of the enemy, braved a concentration of hostile fire to replenish his unit's supply. By circuitous route the enemy managed to emplace a machinegun to the rear and flank of the squad's position, cutting off the only escape route. Unhesitatingly, the gallant soldier took it upon himself to destroy this menace single-handedly. He left cover, and while under steady fire from the enemy, killed or wounded all the hostile gunners with deadly accurate rifle fire and prevented all attempts to reman the gun. Only when the squad's last round had been fired was the enemy able to advance and capture the intrepid leader and his men. The extraordinary bravery and extreme devotion to duty of T/Sgt. McGarity supported a remarkable delaying action which provided the time necessary for assembling reserves and forming a line against which the German striking power was shattered.


T/Sgt. McGarity: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes

There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:
“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”


Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

“I think the Constitution is wrong.”

-Congressman Jim McGovern, D- MA

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Little POTUS That Couldn't

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Looking forward to November and 2012...

Star Trek: To Boldly Go... With Microsoft Windows!



A little geeky humor via The House of Eratosthenes

Quote du jour

We are taught to believe that ideology is the enemy of free thought. But that’s not right. Ideology is a mere checklist of principles and priorities. The real enemy of clear thinking is the script. We think the world is supposed to go by a familiar plot. And when the facts conflict with the script, we edit the facts.

-Jonah Goldberg

Monday, October 18, 2010

Coffee Lovers Rejoice!

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How many times have we been on this roller coaster? Coffee's good for you, coffee's bad for you...yada, yada, yada... Well, now, we're back on the good news end of the cycle.

The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reported that coffee contains soluble fiber, useful in lowering cholesterol.

With about 1 gram per cup, coffee's fiber impact is modest. But the report is the latest in a growing stream of positive news about coffee.

Some of the most promising findings come from studies of diabetes. When Harvard researchers combined data from nine studies involving more than 193,000 people, they found that regular coffee drinkers had a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who abstained. The more they drank, the lower their risk.

And, despite coffee's reputation for being bad for the heart, recent epidemiologic studies haven't found a connection; some even suggest coffee can be protective. A study in February's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that healthy people 65 and over who drank four or more cups of caffeinated beverages daily (primarily coffee) had a 53 percent lower risk of heart disease than non-coffee-drinkers.


Good news for those of us for whom caffeine is our drug of choice. Have that cup of coffee in the morning and if anyone gives you a hard time about it, tell them it was recommended to you by a qualified medical professional (I qualify that by saying I was a doctor in a play once!)

Lowering cholesterol, reducing risk of diabetes and possibly heart disease, and doggone it, it just tastes good! Forget laughter. Coffee is the best medicine!

Quote du jour

“The major purpose of our association is not the education of children, it is or ought to be the extension and/or preservation of our members’ rights. We earnestly care about the kids learning, but that is secondary to the other goals.”


-Mary Hatwood Futrell, NEA Past President, Los Angeles Times, 1982

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Jerry Brown Panders (More Than Usual*) for Votes

So what's new? Jerry Brown has been making a big deal over saying he will not raise taxes...without voter approval. What he has not said is that he won't further bankrupt the state. Here's what he has to say about paying for illegals to go to school:



"We have enough wealth..." We? You got a mouse in your pocket, Jerry? The state is broke. We don't have enough wealth to meet the obligations we already have without taking on more. This is pandering, plain and simple.

More at the Blog Prof

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

*Updated headline

Dirty Harriette - Walk Softly, Nevadans and Carry a Big Stick

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"Are you feeling lucky, Mr. Reid? Well do you?"


“Man up, Harry Reid,” Sharron Angle taunted him at their Las Vegas debate here Thursday night. That’s not an idle insult, coming from a woman who campaigns at times with a .44 Magnum revolver in her 1989 GMC pickup.

-Maureen Dowd

Poor NYT columnist! Think Maureen's tighty whiteys are in a wad over the pickup or that she's packing? Strong, self reliant women seem to disturb liberals. I don't know about you, but this makes me like Angle even more! And since Dingy Harry is running ads in Nevada about his support for firearms and hunters, Mo Dowd may be helping Sharon with the very demographic Harry is trying to corral.

Ms. Angle, if you're listening? A good set of Pachmayr grips * will give you good control and help reduce the feeling of recoil.

*Not a paid endorsement. I have a set of Pachys on my .44 magnum. But if you guys at the factory wanted to show your appreciation, I have other handguns! Heh.

More at Contentions

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

Matt Stevens Online at Cafe Noodle - Today

Matt Stevens of Saturday Night Music fame, is going to be performing at Cafe Noodle live online today at 3 PM eastern and noon pacific time (if I've got my time zones correct.)

A little taste:

Allen West on Honor, Integrity and Courage


A good man running in Florida. Maybe there is hope for "draining the swamp"?

More at Maggie's Notebook

Quote du jour

"If it's about the lives of my men and their safety, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can."
-Lt. Col. Allen West

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Democrats' Maginot Line

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John Harwood, Washington reporter for CNBC, was on NBC news tonight, reporting on what the Democrats are doing to prepare for November. As he spoke of the Dems retreating from funding several races, he used an unfortunate* metaphor. He said that the Democrats were drawing a Maginot Line to defend against losses in the Fall.

Perhaps the French could tell Mr. Harwood just how successful that was?**

Here's hoping you're right on the money, John! Heh.

*Depending on which side you're on!

**It was expensive, provided a false sense of security and ultimately failed at its intended purpose.

"Beaver" Cleaver's Mom: R.I.P.

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Barbara Billingsley, best known for her role as "Beaver" Cleaver's mom, June, in the hit series "Leave it to Beaver" has passed away at age 94.

A lot of us grew up with the Cleavers. We will remember you fondly, Ms. Billingsley.

Drugs: The Gift That Keeps on Giving!

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Heard this on the radio the other day.

LINCOLN, Neb.- The Nebraska State Patrol says 15 1/2 pounds of pot was found gift-wrapped following a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in Lincoln.

...a trooper pulled over an eastbound car for speeding near the Lincoln Airport exit on Wednesday afternoon. A patrol dog taken to the scene alerted officers to drugs in the rear of the car.

The patrol said troopers then found the marijuana and a half pound of hashish...in two gift-wrapped boxes.

Troopers arrested the driver, 52-year-old Edwin Yearout, of Sacramento, Calif.


Stupid crooks! Ya gotta love 'em! No entrance exams or IQ tests for the School of Hard Knocks. These "gifts" ought to give him what? Five to ten?

A Little Saturday Night Music

The Everly Brothers - "Dream" and "Cathy's Clown"



This one's for you, Sis!

Saturday Linkaround

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Mine Rescue: Crisis Shows Chile’s President To Be the Kind of Leader That America Desperately Needs

NY Times Distorts Planned Parenthood’s Record

USS Cole attack survivors angry at Obama

Finally: Obama Gets to Unwind With Some Golf #52

Obama Vacation Photos

Planned Parenthood running training sessions for FBI, DOJ to target pro-lifers as potential terrorists

Politics Upside Down VDH

Tea leaves in the works

Media Admission: Tea Party Not Racist


The Biggest Tax Increase In our History H.R. 4646



Credit card Verification Turned off allowing money laundering: Chamber of Commerce? Or Obama ’08?



Climate Change Guru Begs Liberal Elite "Please Vote Democratic, The GOP is On To Me"


BREAKING NEWS: David Axelrod is Revealed to Have Beastiality Problem





Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Sharron Angle Trounces Harry Reid in Debate

Left Coast Rebel gave us good coverage of the Angle/Reid debate. From every indication, she mopped the floor with him. She won the debate. She showed herself to be a contender. And that's a good thing!

But the question remains, how will that affect the election? Winning a debate is one thing, winning an election is another. A paraphrase of what FDR or Truman is reputed to have said, may apply here to Reid. Democrats may take the position that,
Yes, he's a doddering fool, but he's OUR doddering fool!


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Don't get cocky!

Quote du jour

A few years back, I thought even fainthearted Western liberals might draw the line at "FGM." (female genital mutilation) After all, it's a key pillar of institutional misogyny in Islam: Its entire purpose is to deny women sexual pleasure.

True, many of us hapless Western men find we deny women sexual pleasure without even trying, but we don't demand genital mutilation to guarantee it. On such slender distinctions does civilization rest.

-Mark Steyn

Friday, October 15, 2010

Michelle Obama Does Sesame Street

Katy Perry Does Elmo was so popular, I wonder how Michelle does Sesame Street will do?



This was from May, 2009, but the first I heard of it was today. The key to watching it is that one of the characters is red and a little fuzzy and the other one is a Muppet.

Red: Gina Elise Hits the Big Screen... Sort Of!

In the film "Red", opening today, if you look closely, you can see our friend Gina Elise of Pinups for Vets. That is, there is a picture of her, in a janitor's closet in the CIA where the Bruce Willis character hides. According to Gina:

"(the) photo is on the door, and the camera lingers on the photo for a while after he exits the room!" A little added bonus, sports fans!



Update: Be on the lookout for this picture:
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Nanny McPelosi

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