I can haz Ceiling Cat?

Yes, you can now papercraft your very own Ceiling Cat, the deity of LOLcats.

–via my personal LOLtormentor.

Carlos Santana: Europa

There is probably no way I could, in a blog post, truly convey how much this particular song influenced me as a musician. When I was 19, I was getting very serious about the guitar, but I couldn’t get “the sound” I heard in my head. The closest I could get was the Jimi Hendrix/Marshall Stack sound, but that just wasn’t me at all… then one day I heard this tune at a drummer pal’s house. “That’s it! That’s ‘the sound’ I want! Whatever it is he’s playing through, that’s what I want!”

It turned out to be a MESA/Boogie Mk I amplifier, and I ordered one immediately. They were all hand made then, so it was seven months before I got it. The serial number was in the 2000 range (Super low). I’ve had over a dozen Boogies over the years, and I still use a MESA power amp in my large venue rig today.

I went on to learn Europa, and for years it was my signature piece in several bands I played in. I – just this second – got the idea to do a solo guitar arrangement of it!

Here’s the original recording, with no video, just a static image. I still get goose bumps listening to it all these years later. One of the most beautiful solo guitar tunes of all time.

Welcome back, Missredi!

I’ll Say!

Mel Gibson’s Scottish accent in the movie Braveheart has been voted the second worst in cinema history.

No shit. The only accent I’ve heard in a movie that was worse was the “Australian” hunter/documentary star in “Shark Attack 2“.

Besides, Scottish accents are far nicer than anything Mel Gibson’s ever sounded like!

Epiphany of the Week

Paul Krugman in his New York Times blog post “The Conscience of a Liberal:”

“I’m sorry to say that a large part of the progressive movement seems to have lost its sanity.”

You’ve just now worked that one out, Paul?

Further To The Amusing Beaver

My favourite beaver, after being pulled from the airwaves, has hit the big time this week, after being featured in a column by Traceeee Hutchison. As usual, Trace needs a good whack with a cluebat, because she seems to think that women being able to come up with, ahem, creative, ways to refer to their bodies is a sign of oppression from males. Huh?

Oh and Traceeee, I beg of you. Please, for the love of God, oh please, no more columns about your vagina!

The Last of The Few

Just gotta love Theo and his Group

Ride Design Fail…AND Sidewinder Fail…No Shit.

The FAIL Blog WordPress

N. Korea raps U.N. human rights report

The

U.N. report presented in Geneva by envoy Vitit Muntarbhorn pointed to North Korea’s “appalling” prison conditions and “extensive use of torture and public executions,” Yonhap news agency reported.

In response, North Korean Foreign Ministry official Kim Yong-ho was quoted as saying, “Nowhere in the report exists truth.”

The official said the U.N. report was a product of “the most explicit and extreme political offensives” and “double standards.”

Kim also accused the envoy of “serving as a mouthpiece for antagonistic forces.”

I’m with the DPRK……How could the U.N. tell? The DPRK, doesn’t even have fucking candles.

News Item..UPI

Satellite Snap Global Security

Consumer mood weaker, confirms recession: survey

It is me and the cynicism that courses through my veins, (and arteries, just in case you need that part of it) or is there a delightful degree of glee in this Reuters piece?

“There was nearly unanimous agreement among consumers that the economy was now in recession,” said Richard Curtin, director of the survey, in a statement.

read the rest if you choose

Has to be me, right?

more melting music

To continue missredi’s Santana mood…..Smooth.

an interesting commentary

i  like reading his articles .. most of it i agree with.  nonetheless he is intelligent in my eyes

http://www.brendanoneill.net/TenDaysToWar.htm

CAMPAIGN WIRE: McCain Worries Terrorists Will Try to Tip Election Against Him

John McCain said Friday that he worries terrorists will try to tilt the election against him in November.

McCain was asked by an audience member during a town hall meeting in Springfield, Pa., if he thought Al Qaeda in Iraq or another terrorist group would “ratchet up” attacks to increase U.S. casualties right before the election, to encourage voters to elect a president “more willing to withdraw.”

“Yes, I worry about it,” McCain answered. “I know that they pay attention because (of) the intercepts that we have of their communications.”

 

Fox News

a little friday night dance music

Santana/Chad Kroeger…Into The Night

This moves, people…Hold on to your cocktails.

One tough young lady…Earns the Silver Star.

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan – A 19-year-old Army medic from Texas is set to become the first woman in Afghanistan — and only the second female Soldier since World War II — to receive the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest medal for valor.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow Soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five Soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through enemy gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

“I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there,” Brown told The Associated Press during a March 8 interview at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.

“We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag,” Brown said.

She started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded Soldiers had scrambled out.

“I assessed the patients to see how bad they were. We tried to move them to a safer location because we were still receiving incoming fire,” Brown said.

Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front-line combat roles – in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women Soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than previous conflicts.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, of Nashville, Tenn., received the Silver Star in 2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.

Four Army nurses in World War II were the first women to receive the Silver Star, though three nurses serving in World War I were awarded the medal posthumously last year, according to the Army’s Web site.

Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said ammunition going off inside the burning Humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. She said they were sitting in a dangerous spot.

“So we dragged them for 100 or 200 meters, got them away from the Humvee a little bit,” she said. “I was in a kind of a robot-mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of.”

For Brown, who knew all five wounded Soldiers, it became a race to get them all to a safer location. Eventually, they moved the wounded some 500 yards away and treated them on site before putting them on a helicopter for evacuation.

“I did not really have time to be scared,” Brown said. “Running back to the vehicle, I was nervous (since) I did not know how badly the guys were injured. That was scary.”

The military said Brown’s “bravery, unselfish actions and medical aid rendered under fire saved the lives of her comrades and represents the finest traditions of heroism in combat.”

Military.com

Happy Friday, Pi Day!

Enjoy a very rare Friday, 3.14, Pi Day.

I have a gig tonight, so it’s not only Friday, Pi Day for me, but also Pie Day: Pizza Night at La Trattoria!

I will play for pizza. 😉

See yous all after the gig.

A veep I can really get behind

Bobby Jindal for McCain’s running mate!

Finally, somebody has suggested a GOP candidate I know something about and like. The upside? He’s young, he’s ethical, and he could run for the presidency in 2012 or 2016 and have a decent chance of winning.

No, this is the time for change, real change. This is a time for someone whom everybody knows to be the rising star of the GOP, the new governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. 

And what a governor! Sworn as Governor in January, after winning 54 percent of the vote in the open-field primary, Jindal immediately called a special session of the legislature and persuaded them to pass his 64-point agenda for ethics reform. They said ethics reform couldn’t be done in Louisiana — a state whose reputation as a cesspool is legendary — but he did it in a two-week session. Now he’s calling a second special session to pass the tax cuts necessary to jump-start the post-Katrina economy in his state.

His ethnicity is a plus, showing the rest of the world what is possible, and taking the wind out of Obama’s sails. I didn’t trust Obama before because of his leftist, socialist views and his lack of accomplishment, and I REALLY don’t trust him now that Michelle and his “uncle” Rev. Wright started flapping their bigoted yaps. And though Jindal was born in the US, he is surely familiar with the belligerent history of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent.

If McCain is to win, he needs not just numbers but enthusiasm. The Democratic primaries consistently have brought out twice as many voters as the Republican primaries. Jindal has already demonstrated that he can get voters enthused. The old rules that chose vice presidents for sectional balance or the ability to win big states are out of date. Moreover, Jindal record on issues and accomplishment can easily satisfy the base of the Republican Party. He rises above provincialism. His ethnicity will appeal not only to minorities at home who feel that they have been ignored, but will reach out across oceans to project the American dream to the world. Jindal has crammed a lot of legislative and executive experience into a career that is just beginning. If McCain wants to prove to conservatives that he means business and not empty words, he could not do better than to chose Jindal. Soon.



Videos of news of the day, well worth watching.

ClipSyndicate

7 Players Desert Cuban Soccer Team During Qualifying Tournament in Florida…

I dunno…Seems to me, from what OUR American (and World ) Left say…These guys made a damn bad decision. I mean, according to those on the Left, we are the most evil nation, to EVER exist.

TAMPA, Fla.  —  Fidel Castro might be gone from power, but some things never change.Seven members of Cuba’s national soccer team, which tied the United States in an Olympic qualifying match Tuesday night, deserted the team before its match Thursday against Honduras.

the rest at Fox News

Enjoy your stay guys. If Hussein Obama wins…He just may send your asses back to Uncle Fidel.

Weather Channel Founder: Sue Al Gore for Fraud…This WAS a MUST see…

The founder of the Weather Channel wants to sue Al Gore for fraud, hoping a legal debate will settle the global-warming debate once and for all.

John Coleman, who founded the cable network in 1982, suggests suing for fraud proponents of global warming, including Al Gore, and companies that sell carbon credits. “Is he committing financial fraud? That is the question,” Coleman said.“Since we can’t get a debate, I thought perhaps if we had a legal challenge and went into a court of law, where it was our scientists and their scientists, and all the legal proceedings with the discovery and all their documents from both sides and scientific testimony from both sides, we could finally get a good solid debate on the issue,” Coleman said. “I’m confident that the advocates of ‘no significant effect from carbon dioxide’ would win the case.”

Coleman says his side of the global-warming debate is being buried in mainstream media circles.

“As you look at the atmosphere over the last 25 years, there’s been perhaps a degree of warming, perhaps probably a whole lot less than that, and the last year has been so cold that that’s been erased,” he said.

“I think if we continue the cooling trend a couple of more years, the general public will at last begin to realize that they’ve been scammed on this global-warming thing.”

“You want to tune to the Weather Channel and have them tell you how to live your life?” Coleman said. “Come on.”

He laments the network’s decision to focus on traffic and lifestyle reports over the weather.

“It’s very clear that they don’t realize that weather is the most significant impact in every human being’s daily life, and good, solid, up-to-the-minute weather information and meaningful forecasts presented in such a way that people find them understandable and enjoyable can have a significant impact,” he said.

“The more you cloud that up with other baloney, the weaker the product,” he said.

Coleman has long been a skeptic of global warming, and carbon dioxide is the linchpin to his argument.

“Does carbon dioxide cause a warming of the atmosphere? The proponents of global warming pin their whole piece on that,” he said.

The compound carbon dioxide makes up only 38 out of every 100,000 particles in the atmosphere, he said.

“That’s about twice as what there were in the atmosphere in the time we started burning fossil fuels, so it’s gone up, but it’s still a tiny compound,” Coleman said. “So how can that tiny trace compound have such a significant effect on temperature?

“My position is it can’t,” he continued. “It doesn’t, and the whole case for global warming is based on a fallacy.”

Fox News

Proof That I Can’t Nurture Anything Green

The lawn when I moved in to this house seven months ago:

The lawn this afternoon:

I blame Bush.