Bunny Boiler at it again

While I'll never consider the British to be paragons of comedy, I love Brit prankster Thalia Zucci, who, in her persona as "The Bunny Boiler", flirts with random guys in front of their girlfriends.

I haven't blogged about her for some time, but here's her latest--going after a guy in a coffee shop.


Bunny Boiler At Coffee Shop - Watch the top videos of the week here

You gotta wonder how any of these guys ever make things right with their girlfriends again.

Congress poised to hand more tax money to group under criminal investigation

And the chief villain is Representative Barney Frank, (D)--MA, of all people. The guy who made the abuse at Fannie Mae possible is once again abusing the power of his office, this time for the benefit of ACORN--a systemically-corrupt socialist organization that Barack Obama was once employed by back in his "Community Organizer" (street agitator) days.

Under the guise of due process concerns, congressional Democrats have opened the way for organizations with criminal histories to gain greater access to taxpayer funds. Exhibit A here is the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), now under investigation in at least 14 states for voter registration fraud.

Earlier this month, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, sponsored an amendment to the $140 million Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act. The Frank measure allowed organizations being investigated by state or federal authorities on corruption charges to receive federal funds as long as they avoid conviction. Frank argued that his amendment, which was approved by the House, protected the presumption of innocence in federal spending.

But federal ethics rules have long stipulated that either an actual or apparent conflict of interest can put a government employee at risk of prosecution for ethics violations. So, if the Frank amendment becomes law, the federal government will have a double standard, ignoring the presumption of innocence for its employees with apparent conflicts of interest, but extending the presumption to its funding recipients.

ACORN claims to be non-partisan, but it and its many affiliates have ardently supported Democratic incumbents and candidates at all levels of government. For example, the Obama campaign in 2008 paid more than $880,000 to Citizen Services Incorporated, an ACORN affiliate that helps organize get-out-the-vote efforts that always seem to focus on heavily Democratic precincts. Seen in this light, the Frank amendment has the look of a pay-back from grateful Democrats, especially since, as The Examiner has previously reported, ACORN is eligible for billions of dollars under the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has crafted legislation to block ACORN from receiving such funding, but Frank and his Democratic colleagues are determined to block her effort. Only four Democrats voted against Frank’s amendment, which overturned an earlier amendment from Bachmann that would have precluded ACORN from receiving funds. This means 245 House members are on record supporting – or are unconcerned – about federal funding going to groups suspected of criminal behavior. “It is not only legitimate for Congress to decide the threshold for accessing taxpayer funds; it is incumbent upon us to do so,” Bachmann said. “And, for far too long, Congress has cavalierly distributed taxpayer money.” This is a shameful abdication of our fiduciary duties.” We couldn’t agree more.

So where is "President Hope and Change" now? Is he going to step in and do the right thing, or is he just going to sit back and let his former contemporaries at ACORN cash in courtesy of the public treasury?

Animal Day at the Lair

And it's not just black German Shepherds this time.

First of all, I had three yearling bucks come down to eat the corn in the back yard. But before I could photograph them, this adult doe charged in and chased them away, claiming the corn for herself.

So I watched her for a while, and then I went to go sit on the front deck and eat some peanuts.

But alas! The peanuts were almost gone. And this was a new bag, just purchased the other day. Where'd they all go?

Then I thought about it. Nicki had left the bag outside on the deck--open of course. Who, other than us, would have eaten them? Suddenly I had my answer as a Blue Jay swooped down and snagged another peanut out of the bag and flew off. Whoa! Those Jays had just cleaned me out of two pounds of peanuts in a couple of days.

Here's one of the culprits snatching another one out of the bag. They're bold enough that they don't even care that I'm standing right there.

Guess I've got to train someone to not leave open bags of peanuts out on the deck.

And for those wondering what Lagniappe's been up to...

Courtesy of Nicki, who felt sorry for him since he had no place of his own to lay his little dog head (apparently my laundry pile wasn't appropriate in her estimation), he got a new bed, and he's been spending all his time testing it out.















Happy, happy dog.

On Memorial Day...

Dolla dead?

And who really cares?

Apparently another so-called "rapper" was shot today. This time it was some punk from Atlanta who decided to go to Beverly Hills, California. "Dolla"--real name Roderick Burton--came up with memorable raps like "Who The Fuck Is That?", "I'm Fucked Up" and Good Pussy". His loss will be...
Well let's be honest--it'll hardly be noticed at all.

This is what we call a "misdemeanor homicide". It's one where the value of the victim was worth less than $300.

I'll save my sympathy for young men who stay in school, get and keep jobs, and stay off of drugs and booze and otherwise out of trouble but get killed for no real reason, usually by some drope-smoking, career-criminal knucklehead who thinks that "Dolla" and others like him set the standard for what the youth of today should try to be like.

And I'll remind Dolla's fan base and peers that no one ever got shot (or arrested) for singing too loud in the church choir or living an honest, respectable life.

Andrew Mizak--nominee for Loser of the Year, 2009

File this one under "You've got to be kidding..."

An Ohio man actually called the police because his obese 28 year old son--who still lives in the man's basement--refused to clean his room and threw a plate of food at him.

And if that isn't weird enough, the overgrown man-child, Andrew Mizsak, is a member of the local school board and insists that he's prominent in local Democratic Party politics.

It's odd enough that a Bedford father would actually call police after arguing with his son about cleaning his room.
Stranger still, the sloppy son is 28 years old and serves on the Bedford School Board.
"I know this looks bad," said School Board member Andrew Mizsak, who lives with his parents and also works as an independent political consultant. His mother, Paula, is a Bedford councilwoman.

Mizsak's dad, also Andrew, called 9-1-1 on Thursday after his son threw a plate of food across the kitchen table and balled his fist up at his dad when told to clean his room.
The senior Mizsak, 63, wouldn't press charges and told police, "I don't want to ruin his political career." According to the report, he said: "Andrew is 270 pounds and he can't fight him, that they do everything for Andrew and he doesn't even pay rent."

The elder Mizsak said Saturday, "I overreacted. No big deal."

According the report, "Andrew was sent to his room to clean it. He was crying uncontrollably and stated he would comply."

Mizsak said he was embarrassed to take police away from more important work.

"My dad and I love each other very much," he said, promising to keep his basement room clean. "I'm lucky to be living in their house."

So what we have here is a fat, over-indulged loser who has become, thanks to his parents’ enabling and refusal to push him out the door into the grown people’s world, a 28 year old spoiled brat. He even cries when the police tell him to go clean his room. I’ve known six-year olds more mature than this putz.

Anyone wanna place a bet on whether or not he’s still single?

And I can’t help but notice the fact that the stories all seem to avoid mentioning his political affiliation. So with that in mind, I did a bit of Google investigating.

Sure enough, he’s a Democrat.

I was pretty confident that he would be, because if he’d been a Republican, it would have been in the headlines. But I figured that he might also have been a Libertarian, what with him living in his parents’ basement and apparently not having a real full-time job and all.

(School board jobs are part time and usually don’t pay a lot of money if they pay at all, and “political consultant” is like “artist” or “actor”. Yeah, it’s possible to make a living doing just that, but most people who so label themselves actually spend a lot more time waiting tables or flipping burgers.)

Here's an article that he recently wrote for the Bedford, Ohio School Board website. In that article (besides gushing over Obama), he writes:

I must tell you that I am not just a Democrat, I am the Democratic Leader of the City of Bedford and Village of Walton Hills, Ohio,...

All I can draw from this is that the other Democrats there must be some serious goobers if this lame-o can rise to the top of their heap.

So Dad—who seems to lack any idea of what it means to be a man (undoubtedly a Democrat as well)—has to call the police because his fat (270 lbs) slob of an underachiever son won’t clean his room. Then dad apologizes, clearly not because he wasted the time of the police officers, but really because he doesn’t want to harm his fat sissy of a son's obviously promising chance for a career in politics. The nut sure didn’t fall far from the tree in this goofy family.

But it sure does say something for the voters in Bedford, Ohio that this whole family has been elected to some political office or another. And while it’s true that we usually get the government that we deserve, if I lived in Bedford, I’d be pissed if my slack-jawed, idiotic neighbors continually imposed losers like that on me come election day.

Another day, another DC run.

So having nothing much better to do today, since it was so nice out and not too hot, I took another run around Washington DC.

Parking--as usual--down on Hains Point, I ran north along the Potomac River, up past the Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Center, then I kept going up Rock Creek Parkway until I got to P Street, which I took east a block or two, looking for 23rd Street or Massachusetts Avenue, either of which I expected would take me to today's intended target, Sheridan Circle.

I wanted to go here for several reasons. First, I like General Sheridan. Second, I hadn't been here before. Third, it was in the middle of Embassy Row, and I like looking at all of the mansions housing the foreign diplomats, most of whom can't drive or park worth a damn. Finally, at approximately 3.6 miles from my parking area, the mileage just seemed to work.

It actually took me a bit to find it, because I did not know where to get off of the parkway and the first five people that I asked on the parkway bike path had never heard of it and didn't know where it was.

I'd have called them idiots, but then I didn't exactly know where it was, either.

So I got a bit off-route, but eventually some nice lady who actually did know where it was pointed me in the right direction and I found it.

It's basically a statue in the middle of a traffic circle. DC has lots of traffic circles, but only one with a statue of Gen. Phil Sheridan and his horse, Renzi. It looks like this:

On a side note, that statue was designed by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who went on to design and begin the work on Mount Rushmore. Cool, eh?

So I took in the statue for a bit, then headed back down to my car, eschewing the parkway for a trip through DC's streets so I could see something new. The people were out on the sidewalks, some of them seriously not paying attention, and while passing through the area around Washington Hospital Center, I had to dodge through a whole family of head-in-the-clouds tourists who were looking everywhere but up the sidwalk. I missed most of them but finally collided with a boy of about 12 or 13, knocking him to the sidewalk. But he seemed ok so I carried on, Hopefully next time him and the rest of the Gawker family will pick up a little situational awareness.

When I passed a 7-11 store at 912 New Hampshire Avenue, I stopped in because I was pretty thirsty and getting a bit dehydrated. I was going to buy a bottle of water but damn it--I dropped the two dollars that I'd put in my pocket to buy a drink with somewhere along the route. But the manager on duty was a good duck and seeing how sweaty I was, he gave me a drink of water gratis. Note to self: patronize this store the next time that I have money!

I got a bit bottled up trying to run through the Watergate and Kennedy Center, causing me to backtrack significantly and adding several blocks to my run. But I didn't care, because I was just feeling good and enjoying the day. I took Virginia Ave down to 23rd Street, past the Magic Gourd--DC's best Chinese restaurant--and continued on down to the Lincoln Memorial again. (I could almost have my mail forwarded here...) I ran across the plaza, stopping for just a second to enjoy the view of the Capitol dome and the Washington Monument at the far end of the Reflecting Pool, and then it was back down the Potomac and back to my car. estimated distance covered: 7.75 miles, thanks to my meandering. Time: 1hr, 30 minutes. Going to have to pick the speed up a bit, but then dodging pedestrians on the sidewalks and waiting on traffic lights doesn't exactly help the speed.

All in all, it was a great day to be running, and well worth to trip down. DC is such a nice place at times, and it could be a great place if they'd just get rid of all the people.

Idiot of the day--the Fat Guy from Budget Pest Control

So here I am, trying to get gas today. I pull into the gas station and observe a line of three cars on one side of the pump island (one filling and two waiting), and one vehicle on my side. I note when I pull up to it that it's parked with it's gas tank door away from the pump and that there's a two gallon gas can sitting next to the pump in front of the truck--a white small pick-up bearing the logo of a local small company, Budget Pest Control.

OK, I figure. This shouldn't take long. Obviously the guy just went in to give the cashier a few bucks to fill the gas can. I can wait.

And wait I did. While I waited, the car on the other side of the island finished fueling. Then the second car pulled up to the pump, completely fueled up, and left. Finally, after I (and the cars in line behind me) waited almost five minutes--and the third car on the other side is filling--out of the gas station waddles this fat crotch monkey with a big sack o' groceries. He walks around to the driver's door of the Budget Pest Control truck, puts them inside, and then calmly waddles over to the gas can and begins to fill it, totally oblivious to or unconcerned about all of us who have been sitting here while he blocked the pump because he was too lazy to park right then either get in line or just walk over with his gas can after he finished his shopping.

And to set the scene properly, let me explain that this gas station has numerous parking spots away from the pumps for people who want to buy store goods, and there are signs right on the pumps that tell people to park in those spots before going into the store to buy groceries.

You would not think that a sign would be needed to tell people this, but this certified ass-hat in his Budget Pest Control truck has just validated that need. And he still ignored it and several people had to just sit and clench their teeth while he was inside the store buying pork rinds and moon pies instead of actually buying gas from the pump that his truck was parked in front of.

Now to be fair, I have no idea how this guy is at his job. Having Googled his business, I have concluded that he's his own sole employee as he operates out of his house at 79 Muskrat Run, a rather seedy dirt-road subdivision not too far from this gas station. But judging by his thoughtlessness exhibited here at the gas station, I would never trust this bozo to spray toxins in and around my house because I doubt that he's sharp enough to kill all the pests and not kill me, Lagniappe, my neighbors, etc. I also doubt that he'd be considerate enough to do the right thing and correct any problems that I would probably find with his job after he left--people who are this inconsiderate generally aren't too worried about their reputations and can be counted on to provide poor customer service.

So if you need pest control in the Harpers Ferry, West Virginia area and you want someone who is actually smart enough to pour piss out of a boot, I'd recommend that you avoid this guy like the plague.

Police Week 2009--Pt. 2

Wednesday night was the Candlelight Vigil, where the names of those slain in 2008 were read. And for each officer so memorialized, Honor Guard detachments from their departments escorted members of their family to their special reserved seats.


As it grew dark and the candles were lit, you got a real sense of how many people were there. The candles stretched out for two blocks in front of the memorial, and a block to either side. There were thousands and thousands of them, each one held by a police officer, family member or survivor.






Following the ceremony, many of us adjourned to the area set up by the Fraternal Order of Police to socialize. Again, it was wall-to-wall police officers. The streets of Washington DC have doubtfully ever been safer.


A Police bagpipe band played throughout the night.



And these three gals were observed behaving badly numerous times before they were finally "detained" by various police officers.

Yes, that's Poet Laureate, Bridget, and Nicki, the three bloggerettes from The Sniper blog. I have several more "interesting" pictures of them, but I've been warned that Lagniappe will get it should those photos surface.

Back from Police Week

OK, I'm back from Police Week, having spent a few days down in Washington DC to mingle with cops from all over the world. Lagniappe did not come along--he stayed back here to guard the Lair and my neighbors popped in and fed him, walked him, and subjected him to the exhaustive tortures of their six year old boy whom Lagniappe loves to play with. I think that he was relieved to have me back.

Police Week 2009 was quite the event. Officers came from all around the world, from small departments to large ones, to honor those fallen in the line of duty. This year, we gathered to honor the 140 American police officers killed in 2008 as well as to remember the over 18,000 law enforcement officers who have given their lives in the line of duty to date. Police officers and their survivors filled the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, DC. The walls of the memorial were covered with tributes to those who died in the line of duty, and many of them served to remind us that each one was a man or woman left behind family, friends and peers. Please click on these pictures to see them as they ought really be viewed.

























































Nate Burnfield. Shane Miller. William Burkett. Ricky Timbrook. Joshua Miktarian. Kathy Ann Cox. Thomas McMeekin Jr.. Thomas Morash. David Wilhelm. Scott Stewart. Just a few of the many names. My brothers and sister in blue. Gone now, along with so many others. But never, ever, forgotten.

Glocks...why?

OK, the time has come to explain the facts of life to the Glock-lovers out there. I do this not because I hate Glocks (in the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit to owning two of them at present), but to reach out to the poor, misguided folks who worship the things as if God himself crafted the first one and handed it down to Adam on the 8th day.

And that is, of course, silly. Every true scholar knows that God gave Adam a Model 1911 in .45 ACP.

But I digress.

Glocks have their good points. With approximately 34 parts per pistol, They are simple. So simple in fact that R. Lee Ermey is a Glock spokesman. R. Lee is a pretty simple guy so I'm not surprised that he's signed on with Glock. Of course the serious checks they write to him probably factor in there to some extent.

Glocks are also reliable. Seriously, you can't kill one. They are routinely torture-tested by gun mags and abused by police officers, more of whom carry Glocks these days than anything else, and they keep on shooting. Remember the old Timex watch slogan? "Takes a licking, but keeps on ticking." Well Glocks keep ticking too, often long after similar guns would have broken. They really are that good.

So what's my beef with them, you ask? It's simple:

Glocks have no soul.

Sure, the Glock is reliable, and it will probably never let you down, but it just lacks the aesthetic appeal of traditional sidearms like the Colt Peacemaker, the aforementioned 1911, the Browning Hi-Power, the Walther PPK or P-38, the Luger, and many other classic pistols. Traditional pistols tend to be designed with style in mind as much as performance. But the Glock? Heck, it's a squared-off hunk of steel and plastic with a matte black finish that has all of the grace and charm of some fifth-grader's shop class project. Visually appealing, they ain't.

Seriously, the Glock has all of the romance and sex appeal of your father's Oldsmobile. And yeah, if it's your first gun, I can see the allure, but like that "cool" AOL account that you used to use when you first discovered the internet, eventually you need to grow beyond it.

And that brings to mind another issue--the price.

Right now, Glocks are probably the cheapest service pistols out there. This is another reason why just about every novice shooter has one. You can buy 'em even if you're on a budget. And if you're a police officer...well Glock damn near gives them to police departments for free, just to get the service contracts and accessory sales.

And you probably thought that most police officers carry them because someone decided that they were the best pistols on the market, didn't you? Ha! Money talks and municipal bean-counters love bargains.

So what we really have is a rather ugly black plastic and steel pistol that works and works well, but it's about as cool as a moped, especially when stacked up against elegant and sophisticated sidearms like my personal favorite, the H&K P7. The P7 has been called "the sniper rifle of pistols", and I often tell folks that it a true specialists' weapon--elegant and precise, the equivalent of a Jedi Knight's light saber. Serious gun enthusiasts who recognize the P7 in the holster of a shooter instinctively know that said shooter is a man (or woman) with sophisticated taste. By that same standard, the Glock identifies it's owner as well: Joe six-pack. A guy (or gal) who goes through life meeting expectations but rarely if ever exceeds them. Parents approve of their daughters dating Glock owners, because Glock owners, like their Glocks, are safe and predictable. They don't scream "Man of action!" like the 1911 does, or "Renaissance Man" like the Hi-Power does. Nah. There are few surprises from the Glock, and that's primarily my objection to them. While I won't ever deny that they are effective and affordable, the fact is that they're just too plain and commonplace for a discriminating shooter like myself.

Granted, if I had to defend myself in a pinch, I'd feel more than ready with a Glock in hand, but until that day comes around again, I'll just continue to smile condescendingly at those folks who carry Glocks and go "Tsk, tsk, tsk..." when they're out of earshot.

Quote of the Day

"Oh my God! Do they bite?"

Exclaimed by Nicki--with more than a tinge of panic in her voice--upon seeing real, live deer step out of the woods and cross the road during an evening walk with Lagniappe and I this past Saturday night.

Sarah Palin, she's not. ;-)

Week-end summary

Sorry I’ve been absent for a few days, but it’s not as if I haven’t been doing stuff.

Friday I went for another great run down in DC. I started out—as usual—on Hains Point and ran across the 14th Street Bridge towards the Pentagon and Virginia. I got on the Mt. Vernon Trail that runs up the George Washington Parkway and ran north. I took a slight detour at Memorial Circle and ran up to the visitor center at Arlington National Cemetery, both because I like to run past the statues there and because I wanted a drink of water.

Leaving the cemetery, I continued north along the Potomac to Theodore Roosevelt Island. I had planned to go run a circuit around the island, but I realized that I was running short on time because I was supposed to meet Nicki, so I just crossed the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge back into DC and ran down Rock Creek Parkway, back past my old friend, the Lincoln Memorial, and south along the Potomac again until I got back to my ride. It was only about a five mile run, but it just felt great because the weather was good and there were lots of other runners and bicyclists out. I usually like work-out company, even though I tend to overdo it sometimes when I see attractive women…got to represent and so them just how fast I can run, even if I can’t really run that fast for long. I know better but I will still kill myself trying look good. Ah well…

And Saturday…now there was a treat. I got to go to lunch with some great folks at Magnolia’s at the Mill in Purcellville. Besides Nicki, there was Bridget and her beau, and The Sniper and his lady. Truly, a finer table of dinner companions I have not had in recent memory. Nothing beats a good burger and great beer enjoyed in the company of great Americans and there was no shortage of any of these things. Even Lagniappe got into the act, as he rode down in the dog van just to see Bridget, who is apparently the president of his fan club’s Virginia chapter. (Man, I hate that dog sometimes…what’s he got that I haven’t got?)

We then all went gun shopping after lunch over at Purcell Guns. What’s a good lunch without guns for dessert? It’s a small store but it’s packed with great guns at decent prices, and thankfully it wasn’t infested with Glocks. (Someone in our group has this thing for Glocks. I will, however, let that individual remain nameless because I don’t want to embarrass Nicki by calling her out as a Glock-lover. Oops. Sorry, Nicki.)

But now it's Monday, and time to get back to regular blogging business, if there actually is such a thing. And since it's Police Week, you know that I'll be down there taking pics and participating in the festivities later this week, so stay tuned!

A new character joins the Sesame Street cast

Well imagine my surprise yesterday to read that the PBS children's show Sesame Street got a new character.

'Sesame Street' Visit Thrills First Lady

NEW YORK (May 6) -- Inauguration Day? Nope. First puppy? Negative. Triumphal tour of Europe? Not even. First lady Michelle Obama called her appearance Tuesday on "Sesame Street" probably the best thing she's done since arriving in the White House.

So here's today's quiz, just for you sesame Street fans.

Which Sesame Street character twice said “for the first time in my adult life, I’m actually proud of America.”?

Was it:

1. Big Bird
2. Grover
3. Oscar the Grouch
4. Michelle Obama

Answer


Which Sesame Street character used their spouses’ influence to get a unique job at a premier hospital that paid over $62,000 a year, didn't require the character to even show up, and was so vital to that hospital that they eliminated the position as soon as the character left?

Was it:

1. Bert
2. Ernie
3. Mr. Hooper
4. Michelle Obama

Answer


Which Sesame Street character authored a poorly-written thesis at Princeton that was “full of paranoid claims and overtly racist feelings” and managed to have it restricted from public view until after the recent Presidential primary election?

Was it:

1. Cookie Monster
2. Elmo
3. Kermit the Frog
4. Michelle Obama

Answer


Yeah, this new character's going to fit in there just fine.