5 Months
Martha Stewart's been sentenced to 5 months in prison, and there you go.

Update: 5 months in prison, 5 months house arrest, and 3 years probation, with a stay on the prison sentence until her appeal has been resolved.

Liberals are inarticulate wife beaters! Famously leftwing Slate accidentally said something interesting.

The Cos has chastised young black men for "beating up your women because you can't find a job," blasted poor parenting in the ghettoes, heaped scorn on Ebonics, and lambasted aimless blacks for squandering the hard-won gains of the civil rights movement.

Many critics expressed shock that the beloved figure of Americana—the genial observational humorist; the wise paterfamilias of the beloved The Cosby Show (1984-1992); the winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002—should offer such a pointed, and conservative, political message.

Got that? Being a conservative means treating your wife right, getting a job, raising your children, speaking correctly, and not throwing away your chances. What's more, in hippy-liberal world, that's unAmerican, unfatherly, and unbecoming of an MoF winner. I'm gonna go laugh for a little bit... (Via Miniluv)

Through the void to be destroyed, or is there something more?
Pretty cool.

After nearly 30 years of arguing that a black hole destroys everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking is saying he was wrong...Hawking will present his latest finding at a conference in Ireland next week.

It was Hawking's own work that created the paradox. In 1976, he calculated that once a black hole forms, it starts losing mass by radiating energy. This "Hawking radiation" contains no information about the matter inside the black hole and once the black hole evaporates, all information is lost.

But this conflicts with the laws of quantum physics, which say that such information can never be completely wiped out. Hawking's argument was that the intense gravitational fields of black holes somehow unravel the laws of quantum physics.

Other physicists have tried to chip away at this paradox. Earlier in 2004, Samir Mathur of Ohio State University in Columbus and his colleagues showed that if a black hole is modelled according to string theory - in which the universe is made of tiny, vibrating strings rather than point-like particles - then the black hole becomes a giant tangle of strings. And the Hawking radiation emitted by this "fuzzball" does contain information about the insides of a black hole.

At the conference, Hawking will have an hour on 21 July to make his case. If he succeeds, then, ironically, he will lose a bet that he and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena made with John Preskill, also of Caltech.

The duo are expected to present Preskill with an encyclopaedia of his choice "from which information can be recovered at will".

Stephen Hawking and R. Buckminster Fuller in two days! Isn't this blog cool? Hehe.

Bunny Wabbit Miwitia Strikes Again
ALF burns some more stuff.

The Animal Liberation Front is taking responsibility for last week's arson on the BYU campus.

The extremists torched two tractors and thousands of pounds of cardboard near the Ellsworth farm an animal testing area on the Provo campus.

ALF's sister organization, the Earth Liberation Front, took responsibility last month for the $1.5 million arson fire at a West Jordan lumberyard.

A student reacts, eliminating any remaining shred of faith in the educational system:

“Well if they really did do it then I think it's good that they took responsibility but I feel like in cases like this they would better off doing something through the government where they could actually change the laws of animal rights just doing acts of terrorism doesn't change anything,” said BYU student Lisa Bleazard.

Something tells me she doesn't exactly "get it".

Canadian Invasion Canada Free Press is reporting that the left plans to bus mobs of violent Canadian terrorists Canadian activists to the U.S. to "help" with the Republican convention.

Bandanna and mask-wearing activists, hobbling horses by tossing marbles under their hooves at next month’s GOP Convention, are taking their inspiration from a violent June 15, 2000 Queen’s Park Toronto protest. Organizers of the notorious Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) had a deliberate agenda to bring down police horses at the protest, staged against then Ontario Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris. The public image of proud police horses whinnying in pain and fear remains in public memory, and marked the massive exercise in civil disobedience as the mother of all protests. Some 42 Toronto police officers were injured and vets worked for weeks after the protest saving nine injured horses. Since the horse-hobbling protest, Clarke has been active south of the border. In February of 2002, he was questioned by immigration officials when he was crossing into the U.S. from Canada to speak at a Michigan State University. Clarke was asked what anti-globalization protests he had attended and whether he is opposed to the ideology of the United States. His car was searched and he was frisked. Denied entry to the U.S., he was interrogated by a special agent with the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. He was asked if OCAP was a cover for anarchism and if he was a socialist. The agent had a file on OCAP, leaflets from public-speaking engagements Clarke had taken part in and even the name of a man Clarke has stayed with in Chicago. Clarke was accused of being an "advocate for violence" and threatened with jail. Astonishingly, the interrogator asked him questions about Osama bin Laden.

In short, the dude is on a terrorism watchlist.

OCAP and the activists of other radical Canadian groups will be bussed by the thousands to the GOP convention at Madison Square Gardens to be on hand for the Aug. 31 official day of civil disobedience. The faces of some will be hidden behind bandanna masks. According to an Internet explanation of the masks, entitled Black Blocs for Dummies, "Masks promote anonymity and egalitarianism. They also protect the identities of those who want to engage in illegal acts and escape to fight another day."

You know, if you're not willing to attach your identity to your "rebellion", you're just an idiot kid playing some kind of game. The Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Anyway, I guess the criminal left only cares about animals as long as they think the animals are on their side. Interestingly, a google search on the Queen's Park incident finds lots of leftwing-sympathizing sites that accuse police of using "mounted Cossacks" to "provoke" the violence. Of course, if the police ever respond to their looting and vandalism, it's always taken as "provocation". I only have one question: If they weren't planning violence against mounted police, why would they have brought the marbles at all? In any case, why allow these terrorists across the border into the US in the first place at all?

Illinois gridlock continues.
The State of Illinois continues to fumble on dealing with the meth plague.

SPRINGFIELD — House Republicans announced plans Tuesday to launch a methamphetamine task force to focus on rehabilitation and site clean-up.

Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said the Legislature has about exhausted all avenues for criminalizing meth use and production that includes regulating everything from farm chemicals to cold medicine. He said the state must find ways to improve drug treatment for meth addicts.

“The addiction rate is so high that if we don’t reduce the demand for methamphetamine we’re going to have real problems, because it’s not like going out and stopping a Columbian drug cartel,” Rose said. “It’s typically 10 guys who buy Sudafed and go cook it.”

Now, while I don't see this as the answer (my idea involves, among other things, vigilante groups, bounty hunters, and a sex-offender type registry for meth manufacturers so people know who to keep an eye on and can attach real social consequences to these jerkoffs), this plague is serious for us downstate. As many as 60% of felonies in Saline county are meth related, and some kind of action is absolutely neccessary. So, why is the Illinois GOP having to try to pull forward all by it's little self?

House Republicans are moving forward with their own town meetings because a House joint resolution creating a state wide task force remains bottled up in the Senate Rules Committee. The resolution reached the Senate on May 27 amidst the ongoing budget gridlock that has eclipsed all other issues.

Thank you, Governor Blagojevich, for creating a statewide crisis that has damn near crippled Springfield.

As an aside, for all you gun nuts out there, I contacted Representative Bradley's office yesterday. Blagojevich did, indeed, veto Bradley's handgun bill as he threatened, and it will likely come up for override during the fall veto session.

Senator Obama
I'd say we're pretty much screwed.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka announced Wednesday he won't run for the U.S. Senate, leaving Republicans desperate for a candidate four months before the election.

"There was a moment when I said, God, I'd like to take this and run with it, and then I said, you know, put your head on straight and think about what you're getting into," the Hall of Famer said outside his Chicago restaurant.

Ditka enthusiasm among Republicans had been building for the last two days as the former coach mulled the possibility of a late-blooming political career.

Even a House Republican fund-raising reception on Navy Pier earlier Wednesday was festooned with "Ditka U.S. Senate" posters as legislative leaders endorsed him.

Illinois needs a third party, a "Take Back Illinois" party. The Illinois GOP is in total disarray and is on a virtual ride-along with the Chicago machine.

Michael Moore to be tortured in Syria
Careful Mikey, your unwholesome meddling in Canada could bite you in your big fat ass.

At a Toronto screening of his film Fahrenheit 9/11, an indictment of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, Mr. Moore said Mr. Harper "has a big pair of scissors in his hands and wants to snip away at the social safety net that distinguishes [Canada] from [the United States]."

He suggested a Conservative victory in the June 28 election would "be such a blow to those of us trying to get rid of Bush."

As far as Kasra Nejatian, a 21-year-old Queen's University student, is concerned, Mr. Moore broke the law. Specifically, the Canada Elections Act, which states "[no] person who does not reside in Canada shall, during an election period, in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate" unless the person is a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident.

Mr. Nejatian has set up a Web site, chargemoore.com and is asking Canadians to sign his petition -- which he wants to present to Elections Canada, along with a formal complaint. Should Elections Canada pursue the complaint against Mr. Moore, it would be the first time a non-Canadian would be charged under the Elections Act.

Individuals cannot pursue alleged infractions of the Act; only Elections Canada can. However, Mr. Nejatian said he will challenge Elections Canada in court should it not take up his complaint. Mr. Nejatian further noted he was interested only in Canadian signatures -- if only to avoid having Mr. Moore start a "Republican conspiracy" in Canada.

Should Mr. Moore be found guilty of violating the Act, he could face a $2,000 fine and/or six months in jail, although Mr. Denis doubts Mr. Moore would do any jail time.

Oh, darn. It's still hysterical.

I Feel the Irony Burning
As Miniluv reported, the poorly conceived gay marriage amendment had a vote to vote (yes, a vote on whether or not to vote) shot down yesterday. 98 Senators voted, 48-50. 2 did not participate, and they were, of course, John Massa"Gay Marriage"chusetts Kerry and John "Deliverance" Edwards, in keeping with Kerry's habit of missing over 80% of the year's Senate votes. (For this, he wants a promotion?) I call it ironic, because you'd think gay marriage would be an issue very near and dear to their hearts.

You're not black, you're just pretending...
How ridiculous is this crap going to get?

Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, condemned the groups as a "collection of black hustlers" who have adopted a conservative agenda in return for "a few bucks a head."

"When the ultraconservative right-wing attacker has run out of attack strategy, he goes and gets someone that looks like you and me to continue the attack," Mfume said in his opening address to the NAACP's annual convention.

Yes, we've recruited black infiltrators to seed your organization with the evils of conservatism! Mfume is on my "Unrecoverable Idiot" list.

"They've financed a conservative coalition of make-believe black organizations, all of them hollow shells with more names on the letterhead than there are people in their membership," he said.

Inexplicably, Oliver Willis ran this under the title "Calling Out The Phonies". So, any blacks who don't adhere to socialism are just "pretend" blacks? Who's the racist, here?

Update: From the comments over at Odub's post:

"Seriously, Oliver, are you trying to fisk yourself?"

Seriously.

He Knew

The R. Buckminster Fuller postage stamp has finally been released.

The stamp artwork is a painting of Fuller by Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965). The painting, which originally appeared on the cover of Time magazine on Jan. 10, 1964, depicts Fuller's head in the pattern of a geodesic dome. Geodesic domes and a number of his other inventions surround Fuller, including the Dymaxion Car, the 4D Apartment House and several objects and models that reflect the geometric and structural principles he discovered.

Born in Milton, MA, in 1895, Richard Buckminster Fuller belonged to a family noted for producing strong individualists inclined toward activism and public service. "Bucky," as he came to be called, developed an early understanding of nature during family excursions to Bear Island, ME, where he also became familiar with the principles of boat maintenance and construction.

Fuller served in the U.S. Navy from 1917 to 1919, where he demonstrated an aptitude for engineering. He invented a winch for rescue boats that could pull airplanes out of the ocean in time to save the lives of pilots. Because of the invention, Fuller was nominated to receive officer training at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he further developed his abilities. In 1926, when Fuller's father-in-law, James Monroe Hewlett, developed a new way of manufacturing reinforced concrete buildings, he and Fuller patented the invention together, earning Fuller the first of his 25 patents.

In 1927, Fuller made a now-prophetic sketch of the total earth which depicted his concept for transporting cargo by air "over the pole" to Europe. He entitled the sketch "a one-town world." In 1946, Fuller received a patent for another breakthrough invention: the Dymaxion Map, which depicted the entire planet on a single flat map without visible distortion of the relative shapes and sizes of the continents.

After 1947, the geodesic dome dominated Fuller's life and career. Lightweight, cost-effective and easy to assemble, geodesic domes enclose more space without intrusive supporting columns than any other structure, efficiently distribute stress, and can withstand extremely harsh conditions. Based on Fuller's "synergetic geometry," his lifelong exploration of nature's principles of design, the geodesic dome was the result of his revolutionary discoveries about balancing compression and tension forces in building. Fuller applied for a patent for the geodesic dome in 1951 and received it in 1954.

Beginning in the late 1960s, Fuller was especially involved in creating World Game, a large-scale simulation and series of workshops he designed that used a large-scale Dymaxion Map to help humanity better understand, benefit from, and more efficiently utilize the world's resources.

After being spurned early in his career by the architecture and construction establishments, Fuller was later recognized with many major architectural, scientific, industrial, and design awards, both in the United States and abroad, and he received 47 honorary doctorate degrees. In 1983, shortly before his death, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, with a citation acknowledging that his "contributions as a geometrician, educator and architect-designer are benchmarks of accomplishment in their fields."

It's only now that we're starting to understand just how far ahead of his time Fuller's work was. The structural theories he developed have proven to be built in the very fabric of the universe itself, with C60, a perfect spherical form of pure carbon dubbed "bucky balls" a likely key to the super-science of the future, including nanotechnology. (Until then, they are the playthings of super-nerds, being used in one case to build a microscopic abacus, manipulated with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope. Seriously.)

The world that Fuller envisioned, a world with a massive surplus of "energy income", is the future that may ironically prove possible thanks to the properties of the material named after him.

A sometimes overlooked fact is that Fuller was also a research professor at Southern Illinois University from 1959 to 1968. (There is hilarious footage to be had of his students trying to recreate his theories. You can also still visit his "dome home" in Carbondale, built on his geodesic dome principles, the same used to build the Epcot Center.)

As much as we've caught up to his mind in the last couple decades, trying to unravel his ideas can still be terrifying. I've heard it said that he's the inspiration for the Kansas song "Portrait". The lyrics certainly fit.

He had a thousand ideas, you might have heard his name
He lived alone with his vision
Not looking for fortune or fame
Never said too much to speak of
He was off on another plane
The words that he said were a mystery
Nobody's sure he was sane

But he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could see his view, Oh where was he going to

He was in search of an answer
The nature of what we are
He was trying to do it a new way
He was bright as a star
But nobody understood him "His numbers are not the way"
He's lost in the deepest enigma
Which no one's unraveled today

But he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could see his view, Oh where was he going to
And he tried, but before he could tell us he died
When he left us the people cried,
Oh where was he going to?

He had a different idea
A glimpse of the master plan
He could see into the future
A true visionary man
But there's something he never told us
It died when he went away
If only he could have been with us
No telling what he might say

But he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could see his view
Oh, where was he going to
But he knew, you could tell by the picture he drew
It was totally something new,
Oh where was he going to?

Wild stuff. (Via Miniluv)

Shameless Pandering
Four Right Wing Wackos has caught John F'in Kerry telling a couple pretty big whoppers about/to African Americans.

Joe Wilson, New York Times Both Full of Crap
Instapundit notes that the New York Times is finally touching, kinda sorta barely, on the fact that Joe "Secret Agent Man" Wilson was completely off his ass about his wife's status with the CIA being "leaked".

Michael Moore's Boring Blog
You can see it here. More importantly, he appears to have gotten bored and quit after just two posts. As Tim Blair said, he must've discovered there's no money in it.

The Future of France

From Australian Evil Pundit.

Your Funny For Today
Garfield:


(Click for full size.)
I'd say the media's credibility problem has gotten pretty real, wouldn't you? Heh.

Malpractice Revolucion
With Murphysboro and Herrin supporting Marion and Carbondale's new malpractice ordinances, Southern Illinois has won a major victory in our bloody War of Independence: Chicago has noticed the fight.

If the intention of the two medical malpractice ordinances approved by the Carbondale and Marion city councils was to bring attention to the issue, it seems to have worked.

The Southern Illinois effort to jump-start reform on soaring insurance costs received the recognition of the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday.

The Tribune ran an independent editorial on the "revolt" of the two communities and the attempt to shake the legislature in Springfield.

"The easiest way to explain it is 'objective fulfilled,'" Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole said. "We tried to increase our exposure and raise the issue of medical malpractice to more than a local concern, and make it regional and statewide." In addition to the lead editorial, Cole received space on the Tribune's commentary page explain why the city took such action.

Viva, viva! Now let's hope Blagojevich doesn't come back with helicopter gunships.

Future World Leaders
Here's three criminal masterminds who need their asses kicked.

CHESTER -- Police charged three teenagers with burglary and criminal damage to government-supported property in connection with the extensive vandalism that occurred at Chester high school during the July 4 weekend.

Chester police Detective Ryan Coffey said Timothy R. Ward, 17, of 329 Maple Lane in Chester and two male juvenile teenagers were arrested Monday in conjunction with the tens of thousands of dollars of damage at the school. He said authorities do not expect to make any other arrests in the case.

You know how they got caught: They bragged.

[Superintendant] Croft said it will likely still be at least a couple of weeks before the cost of the cleanup, repair and replacement is really known but it's believed damages will exceed $100,000 and could even be around $200,000. The district was fully insured but must pay a $2,500 deductible. Meanwhile, the work by Servpro and school officials continues to clean, repair, and assess damages. Croft said hopes are that they will be able to start school as planned with a teacher institute August 18 and student attendance August 20.

The damaged and destroyed items have been removed from Juergens gym so the ink, multicolored paint and fire extinguisher spray vandals deposited on the gym and its contents can be cleaned.

It's believed the floor can be cleaned but it's still uncertain how many of the 19 classrooms of desks, computers, printers, televisions, VCRs and other equipment stored in the gym can be salvaged. The items were stored there during renovations of the old 1926 section of the school. Croft said the items included about 300 desks, 84 computers and other items.

Vandals broke an exterior art room door glass sometime between 4 p.m. July 2 and 7:40 a.m. July 6 and reached in to open the door. In addition to dumping ink and paint and spraying four fire extinguishers all over the gym and everything in it, the vandals apparently used conduit from the ongoing construction work to bash television screens, VCRs, printers and computer screens.

They broke restroom mirrors, destroyed an athletic department video camera, and stomped a new $2,000 track timing system, punctured volleyballs and basketballs, stomped cheerleading uniforms and doused them with soda and Drano.

They also removed the door of Principal Danny Mark's office from its hinges after failing to break in and destroyed things there before removing the door to the main office and throwing papers everywhere. It's believed that nothing was stolen but damage was extensive.

One can immediately assess their intelligence: Not only were they stupid enough to get caught, but they were running around in a room full of thousands of dollars of electronics theirs for the taking, and they chose to smash it. Not only are they too big of a bunch of assholes, but they're simply too dumb to be released back into society.

We Get Junk Mail!
Look what I just got!

Dear MoveOn member,

You take that back!

Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, Fox News Channel turns Republican talking points into news headlines. Now Uncovered director Robert Greenwald -- working with a group of Fox-monitoring MoveOn members -- has put together a documentary film called Outfoxed that exposes Fox for what it is: partisan spin, not news.

Yes, and CN-"Without the assault weapons ban, machine guns will flood the streets! Why aren't your leaders doing more to stop these dangerous weapons?!"-N is, what?

This Sunday evening, July 18th, you're invited to be among the first to see Outfoxed at one of over 2,500 house parties across the nation, hosted by MoveOn and Common Cause members. Then join together in a coast-to-coast conference call with comedian and radio host Al Franken and the movie's director, Robert Greenwald. We'll kick off an exciting campaign to take on Fox for its partisan reporting and deceptive slogan "Fair and Balanced."

Can you imagine a more self-congratulatory circlejerk? The cult has produced a film, they're going to show it to their followers, then have said followers tune in to hear their High Priest, Al Franken, tell them that they should now believe what they already believed. (Then, perhaps he'll sacrifice a kitten.)

It's common in the left to treat dead horses as though they were revolutionary new ideas (HOLY CRAP, DID YOU KNOW THAT GUNS CAN KILL PEOPLE!? WE MUST ACT NOW!), but this is simply disturbing, as this movie will likely be seen by almost no one outside of the far left, meaning that it serves no purpose but to preach to their own choir so they can all pat each other on the back. (Let me pack a few more cliches in here.) How desperate can any group of people be to prove themselves right to each other? Even Michael Moore doesn't sink quite this low.

In any case, the last "exciting campaign" MoveOn invited me to join involved standing in a backyard full of hippies using their cellphones and a phone list provided by MoveOn to try to strongarm innocent people into voting for Kerry. MoveOn is a joke, and the left is the punchline.

Smile

Found at Applied Silliness.