"Hamas Vows to Avenge Israel's Killing of Rantissi"
Okay, I'm curious - what is Hamas going to do that it hasn't already sworn to do since it's inception? Kill every Jew? Oops. That's already part of the platform. From Article Seven:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him...."

I mean, when you draw a line in the sand that consists of murder, mayhem and destruction, well, you set the terms. Don't get upset if a missile comes calling.

BUSH'S PRESS CONFERENCE
He's not The Great Communicator, but he was earnest and plain-spoken. The idiotic question of the night (which was presented in many different forms) was, should he apologize for 9/11?

What a stupid question. If your house is broken into, do you expect the chief of police to come over and apologize that a burglar robbed your house? Are the police really to blame when crime happens? Maybe if the police knew a crime was about to be committed you could park a cruiser in front of the house, but even that's no guarantee that your home won't be robbed. When would a apology be appropriate?

A good police department doesn't mean there is no crime; but it should act as a deterrent to dissuade criminals from committing crimes in the first place. Likewise, extending the analogy to our government, a strong defense with appropriate intelligence-gathering assets and a quick, measured response to terrorist acts should make such animals think twice about attacking us.

Apologizing for events beyond your control is a foolish liberal invention, and contributes nothing to a real solution. Yet the press continues to act like something's wrong when administration officials don't feel the need to apologize.

MISERABLE WEATHER:

It almost exactly like Miami, except that it's always raining, it's cold, it's windy, it's....

Well, never mind. It's nothing like Miami.

AS AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE, THIS IS SO NOT FUNNY:
Those fun-loving folks at Planned Parenthood have a new site up:

http://www.saveroe.com/whitehouse/

These are the same people who pilloried Bush for doing this.

UPDATE: Surprise! Planned Parenthood took the original, tacky website down. Guess they didn't think it was that funny. That's okay, thanks to the miracle of the web, you can find the page here.

WHY DO THEY HATE US?
An absolutely awesome Lilek's bleat today:

We stopped pretending we would ratify Kyoto. We only spent $15 billion on AIDS in Africa. We did not take dictation from Paris. If we had done these things, it would minimize the world’s anger.

Is the world angry at Russia, which spends nothing on AIDS and rebuffed Kyoto? Is the world angry at China, which got a pass on Kyoto and spends nothing on AIDS for other countries?

Is the world angry at North Korea for killings its people? Angry at Iran for smothering that vibrant nation with corrupt and thuggish mullocracy? Angry at Syria for occupying Lebanon? Angry at Saudi Arabia for its denial of women’s rights? Angry at Russia for corrupt elections? Is the world angry at China for threatening Taiwan, or angry at France for joining the Chinese in joint military exercises that threatened the island on the eve of an election? Is the world angry at Zimbabwe for stealing land and starving people? Is the world angry at Pakistan for selling nuclear secrets? Is the world angry at Libya for having an NBC program?

Is the world angry at the thugs of Fallujah?

Is the world angry at anyone besides America and Israel?

And that just happens to be easiest part to quote. Read the rest.

POP-POP POP POP POP...
This happened to be a day when I needed this:

HOW NOT TO IMPRESS YOUR GIRLFRIEND
This potty-mouthed moron's attorney claims he's an honors student?

I find that hard to believe.

AIR AMERICA DOESN'T SOUND VERY IMPRESSIVE...
Initial reviews are flat.

It's obvious Franken doesn't like Ann Coulter. I don't blame him; she's a lot funner than he is.

WILL KERRY SURVIVE UNTIL NOVEMBER?
The Democratic challenger's poll numbers are dropping fast. Still, it's way too early in the race to tell what will happen, but Bush is in a lot better position than his father was this time umpteen years ago.

I really like Tony Blankley's take on Kerry, published in a column in the Washington Post:

What may become the enduring exemplar of the Kerry style was his spontaneous expletive on the ski slopes when his Secret Service guard bumped into him by accident (while guarding him): "I don't fall down. The S.O.B. knocked me over." To instinctively say that about the man who is sworn to put himself between Mr. Kerry and a bullet, paints a lasting and contemptible character portrait. Contrast that with what Ronald Reagan said shortly after he was shot: "Honey, I forgot to duck." It was at that moment that 60 percent of the American public fell permanently in love with the Gipper. As Ernest Hemmingway put it in another time, that is grace under pressure — and Mr. Kerry doesn't have it.

Read the whole thing here.

SOME GOOD NEWS! YEA!!!
The Statue of Liberty is reopening.

IRAQ IRAQ IRAQ....
There are a lot of people who are down on Bush regarding Iraq ("Bush Lied, People Died," etc etc). The lame, predictable bleating from the left all but ignores every other reason we had to go in. Invading Iraq was an inevitable aspect of the War On Terrorism. Saddam Hussein was a destabilizing influence in the entire Middle East. He paid Palestineans to become suicide bombers. He likely funded other terrorists as well. He harbored them and had training camps established for them. He was an obvious player in promoting terrorism. Never mind what he did to his own people. And has anyone noticed that Saddam ignored virtually every demand made of it by the UN? I mean, is the United Nations an impotent organization, or what?

There have been OBVIOUS peace dividends. Khadafi is becoming pacified. North Korea and Syria is pushing for stronger diplomatic ties. The terrorist network has lost a major source of funding.

And of course, now we're discovering that the "Oil for Food" program (that the UN organization put together, see above) has been a scandal. That deserves a lot more than I have time to write, but here's a good link for now:

And Kerry plans to apologize to the world for invading Iraq if he's elected. Spare me.

RICHARD CLARKE IMPLODES, NO FILM AT 11 (DUE TO MEDIA BIAS)
Another disgruntled Bush Administration employee writes a book and gets tons of media attention. Funny how ex-Clinton Admin folks didn't get such red carpet treatment. The best article I've read so far is from Ann Coulter.

GOING TO BE HARD TO BUY XMAS LIGHTS WITHOUT GUILT:
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-3-24/20545.html

China is apparently using slave labor in many of its factories. Despicable.

IS IT NOW SAFE FOR LEFT-WINGERS TO TURN THE RADIO ON?
The new liberal radio network Air America launches next week. Color me skeptical, but there already have been countless attempts of liberal talk-show hosts trying to make it big to a national audience. For the most part, none have approached the audience or impact of Rush Limbaugh. Not that the usual media suspects haven't tried to give this fledging network a boost. There's even an article in USA Today. Compare that with Rush Limbaugh, who was largely ignored until he had hundreds of radio markets. Even then, you could picture the sneers on the faces of everyone who thought that Limbaugh would be a "here today, gone tomorrow" phenomenom.

Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo are top-billed as hosts on the new network. Franken, in fact, plans on going head-to-head against Limbaugh in his time spot (weekdays, noon to 3). But as of yet things aren't going so well for Air America. In spite of months of planning and promotion, they're only in three markets. Two of them are small-market, Spanish-language stations. The apologists are out in force:

“This is a consequence of the company coming to the table late,” says Tom Taylor, editor of Inside Radio. “All of the big signals have already been taken by conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. If liberals had been buying stations a dozen years ago, they would have been in a much better position now to start this network.”

Phui. Liberals have to buy stations to be heard? I don't think so. There are plenty of timeslots out there, with stations continually jocking programs around to boost their ratings. Bottom line: Radio stations carry network programming because they want to attract listeners. Listeners mean advertising dollars. Air America has to prove it's worth listening to before stations are going to commit valuable timeslots to it.

When Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting there weren't any national broadcasts catering to the right. Broadcast news, and CNN were dedicated to presenting liberal views with only a rare nod to anyone with a Republican perspective. Limbaugh clearly filled a niche. What's going to be draw for Air America? Al Franken can be a funny guy, but I find his political humor a bit grating. Time will tell.

Other comments here.

UPDATE: The network has gone live today, now with five stations. Stand back.

CAN YOU SPOT THE ERROR?
Someone wants to blow up a drive-thru McDonald's restaurant in Northern Italy. He wasn't successful.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=506489

There's a 'bad science' error in the article - can you find it?

For my answer and to read other dark-humored comments, click here.

OH, THIS MAKES ME MAD....(or does it?)

A man living quietly in his home somewhere in Scotland gets a knock on the door. He opens it to find four armed men. This gang attempts to rob him. He grabs a sword from his wall, and stabs one of the men, killing him.

Guess who's going to jail? For EIGHT YEARS?

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2687311

UPDATE:
Strangely enough, there is more to the story - sometimes I have to be careful what I read:

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashire/archive/2004/03/09/NEWS7ZM.html

WEIRD SITE OF THE DAY....
http://www.jda.go.jp/JMSDF/event/cm_p/index.html

JAMES LILEKS IS COOL....
I especially like his writings when he's angry - the wit just shines through. But he and I have both noticed that Home Depot no longer sells GE light bulbs. Apparently he likes Reveal light bulbs. I like the Miser bulbs, myself. Anyway, he thinks Home Depot pulled GE products because GE wouldn't pay for the shelf space (as some retailers sometimes charge to get manufacturers to pony up for the best product placement).

Home Depot has always been an 800 pound gorilla with manufacturers. At first it was a great thing for consumers; you knew that you would always get a decent price for a hammer to replace the one that just vanished (but will reappear 2 hours after you get home). However, HD's buyers didn't know when to quit. The ubiquitous glass scraper is a prime example. How hard is it to find a decent scraper? All it has to do is hold a razor blade in a steel frame, with a slide switch to move the blade in and out for safety. Well, Home Depot no longer sells the reputable Stanley tool - now it sells something from China that barely survives pulling it out of the blister package. Sure, you pay half the price of the USA-made product, but it doesn't last the weekend!

Not that I'm always a "Buy America" kind of guy but I think this is a cheap ploy to get people to buy a LOT more paint scrapers.

Why not sell the cheap China knockoff along with the more expensive USA-brand? Well, Lileks hit it on the head - can we say it together? Not enough shelf space. It's hard to find two different brands of anything at Home Depot. And since the cheapest price is king, we all suffer.

At least Ace Hardware is still around.

Speaking of Lileks, he loves to do retro. And he has a great section on his website about how New York City's Times Square has changed through the years. Check it out.

...AND HE'S ALSO CONTROLLED BY THE JOOOOOOOS!

Like conspiracy theories? Can't figure out how Bush is so stupid that he can't tie his shoelaces, yet manages to outsmart the Democratic caucus - over and over again? Check out this article that wraps up every nasty thing Bush has done into one tidy article....

UPDATE: The link was retired - but I found someone who has it here.

THE IDES OF MARCH...

They haven't been pleasant. Bombings in Spain. Kerry's being a jerk. The weather in DC is cold and miserable. Jonah Goldberg ignores my email (more later...maybe). Frank J. of IMAO has a last name after all (but he's ignoring me, too). And I'm waaaay too busy to elaborate. How do people find time to do this stuff?