Happy Valentine’s Day!

I received one of these today…

Click to see Bernice in action!

Kurt Westergaard and the Jyllands-Posten newspaper are still being threatened over the publication of 12 cartoons.

Captain Ed tells us that newspapers in Denmark have reprinted the cartoon in solidarity with Kurt and the Jyllands-Posten in light of the arrest of three people who were planning to assassinate Kurt over the drawing.

This is Kurt’s contribution:

Michelle has more.

I’ve had a lot of traffic today to my blogburst post of 2 years ago through Google Image Search.

It’s scary that the woman who would be President of the United States feels free to pressure a media outlet to suspend and/or fire an employee who says something on air that she doesn’t like. Howard Kurtz writes:

In case there was any doubt, using a prostitution metaphor for the daughter of a presidential candidate is not a good career move.

MSNBC suspended correspondent David Shuster yesterday for an undetermined period for making a disparaging on-air remark about Chelsea Clinton. Meanwhile, officials in her mother’s campaign raised the possibility of punishing the news channel by boycotting future debates.

While filling in as a host Thursday, Shuster was discussing the 27-year-old’s role in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign with two guests when he asked: “Doesn’t it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?”

In my opinion, the comment was pretty innocuous. The reference wasn’t to prostitution even with the use of the word “pimp”. Isn’t there a TV show called “Pimp My Ride”? From the urban dictionary:

pimping

More commonly used nowadays as making something cool or better.
Yeah, I was totally pimping up my profile today!

Sure MSNBC has the right to suspend or even fire an employee for something he says on air. The first amendment refers to government retaliation for speech, but this woman would be President of the United States. What happens when someone says something not so innocuous that’s against her or her administration? When she is the face of the government?

In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya (to Vizzini):

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Chris Lynch has some more musings over at A Large Regular.

And Atlantis is on her way to the International Space Station.

These launches never cease to amaze me.

So I went and voted in Illinois’ primary. For the Republicans, we have the candidates themselves, and then 2-4 delegates in each Congressional District. Mine has three. Then there are also three alternate delegates and other offices that are up for the primaries too.

Voting for the candidate means nothing on the Republican side. Just the delegates that are pledged to the candidates count.

So, I voted for Fred Dalton Thompson as a candidate and voted for Mitt Romney’s three delegates and alternate delegates.

And it’s Paczki Day! (Poonch-key). A fried dough filled with fruit or custard and dusted with powdered sugar. Paczki are made to use up the last of the lard, fruit, and sugar before Lent.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent, the Lenten season encompassing both St. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day this year.

I only watched two game minutes of the Superbowl last night and I picked the right two game minutes to watch, the last two. Wow. I was hoping the Giants would win. Congrats Giants and Eli Manning. Mr and Mrs Manning must be so proud of their boys, and with reason.

I was looking at an insert that had come with our Transformers DVD about a Bumblebee Camaro contest. You could win a Chevy Bumblebee 2009 Camaro if you had entered before 1/15/08. Too late.

What struck me though was the disclaimer:

WARNING: Cybertron Law forbids these vehicles to be equipped with Energon-powered alien technology of any sort. These Camaros will not transform into 18-ft.-tall Autobots. If they did, they would not do so in your presence. (It goes against the whole “robots in disguise” directive they live by.)

Ah. I love Bumblebee. When I was a kid, our first new car was a ’67 Camaro, maroon/burgundy with a black vinyl interior. I went on the test drive with my dad. 5 years old, in the front seat, legs sticking out because the seat hit about mid-calf on me, lap belt only. Crank windows, automatic transmission. I don’t remember if it had power steering, but I doubt it. Dad wanted to save money and didn’t even get the factory radio. For a few years we had this little brown cube AM battery powered radio that we used in the car. Dad did break down and have a stereo put in at some time.

Tomorrow is Paczki Day! (Poonch-key) Mardi Gras! The last day before lent begins. Ash Wednesday is, of course, Wednesday. Easter is March 23rd this year. Just a week after St. Patrick’s Day.

Via our friend Don Surber we find this interesting test from NPR. Who does the test indicate is the best fit for you?

My scores were:
McCain 30
Romney 26
Huckabee 23
Paul 20
Gavel 9
Obama 4
Clinton 1

I was a Thompson supporter. As he is no longer in the running, I have to make another choice on ÜberTuesday. It won’t be Mr. McCain however. I have issues with McCain. I will be marking my ballot for Mitt Romney on Tuesday.

We’re having a snow day here in the Chicago area. No school (except for me, I go to grad school online and work from home as a matter of course). Little Guy is home today and playing with his Transformers.

My neighbor has a Camaro and he got stuck in front of our driveway, then again a couple houses up, and one more time another house up. He turned around and came back. He was going to have to call in, but it’s difficult when you work retail. Luckily his boss lives nearby, has an SUV, and was on a four day weekend so he was available to drive my neighbor to work.

We have a Yukon XL. This kind of weather is one of the reasons why. The two mile trip to the train station was not too bad, but smaller cars with rear wheel drive and those with front wheel drive were having difficulty on even slight hills with the amount of snow on the ground.

Last night when driving to the train station to pick Hubby up, as opposed to dropping him off this morning, there was a car driving with only parking lights on. Please, why do dash lights come on with only the parking lights instead of with only the headlights. I have seen so many cars driving at night with parking lights because the driver isn’t aware that the headlights aren’t on because the driver can see his or her dash. With last night’s snow, the driver may have thought that his or her headlights were covered in snow or dirty and that’s why visibility was diminished…

Nikita the Siberian, however, is in his element!

what I know now, I wouldn’t have voted to authorize the use of force…

So said Clinton at last night’s debate.

But she didn’t know then what she knows now,  nobody knew then what they know now.

All she’s doing is giving excuses for voting according to the accepted knowledge and wisdom at the time.

She should have said that. She should have accepted responsibility for voting according to the best available information. Hindsight is 20/20. It’s  far easier to explain away a past decision based on present knowledge rather than accept that you made the best decision you could based on the knowledge available then.