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I heard the boom this morning, but I didn’t realize that the shuttle was coming in so I didn’t have any idea what might have caused it.  I thought that it might just have been a sonic boom from a military aircraft of some sort.  I haven’t heard them in many years, but with the military on higher alert status recently, I didn’t think it that much out of the ordinary.  I remember when I was growing up we used to get them from the aircraft going to Barksdale AFB (this was in the late 70’s and early 80’s and someone once told me that they were SR-71s, but I don’t know whether that was true or not).  It wasn’t until I met up with some friends to go to the boat show that they told me what had happened (I spent most of the morning in a news blackout because those goons at Charter can’t seem to keep the cable TV and internet working on Saturday mornings; this is the third time in six weeks that this has happened).

It’s a terrible thing and I hope that we find out what happened.  From what I’ve read in the past couple of minutes it is going to be a very difficult task due to the violence of the breakup (the shuttle was traveling at over 12,000 mph at over 200,000 ft altitude).

Off to check the news networks for updates…

As a confirmed carnivore, I am not at all surprised by this.

Hat tip: Juan Gato.

Words cannot describe the rage that consumed me when I read this:

Kenosha – A high school senior accused of dumping his newborn son in a portable toilet apologized for trying to kill the baby but said he threw the infant away because he didn’t want the child, a detective testified Wednesday.

Gabriel Estrada, 18, was bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, Estrada remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail.

In a written statement he gave to Kenosha County Sheriff’s Detective Scott Stanek, Estrada said he thought the baby would be found in two or three days, and it would be dead by then.

The sheer callousness and stupidity of such an act boggles me.

I don’t have children of my own.  However, after holding my nieces when they were just a few hours old I came to understand why and how most parents will do anything to protect their children.  It seems impossible to me to hold a small infant and not be awed by the tremendous power we have to affect their lives and humbled by the responsibility that comes with it.  They’re older now, but I still shudder at the thought of anything happening to my nieces and I feel a tremendous responsibility to protect them in any way possible.

I have never been able to understand how people can intentionally hurt a child or how someone can be so disconnected from humanity as to dispose of one as if it were an inconvenient bit of refuse.  What’s more, it is such a stupid thing to do.  There are many ways that this could have been handled.  There are so many people out there that want children who would jump at the chance to adopt this child.  Even the (17-year old) mother wanted the child taken to a church.  And from what I’ve been told, Wisconsin has a drop-off law that would have allowed them to give the baby away with no questions asked.

No, I will not feel sorry for this piece of crap and whatever punishment he receives.  Whatever it is, it won’t be sufficient.

Link via Rachel Lucas, who’s also mad as hell about this.

Has anyone besides me noticed an increase in meanspiritedness in commercials of late?  I know that businesses have been more cutthroat in their advertising with regards to each other, but it seems to be spreading out from the competitor to other entities now.

As an example, there was a recent Compass Bank ad series (I think it was them, it’s been a week or two since I heard this one) that was touting the result that 98 percent of their customers would recommend their bank to someone else.  That’s an impressive result (if true), but they seemed to feel that it wasn’t enough.  The whole point of this series of commercials was to disparage the “2 percenters” as nuts.  The one that I remember most was one where they asked the lady why she wouldn’t recommend them and her reply was that if she did then people would constantly be asking her for advice.  The commercial, at least on its surface, was treated in a humorous fashion.  Maybe I’m being over sensitive here, but it came across the wrong way to me.

A second example (which is what prompted this entry) was some commercial on TV where they said that “4 out of 5 dentists” would recommend their product (I don’t remember what it is right now).  Once again, they tried to be humorous about it, with a skit where one dentist was swatting a fly with a clipboard, hitting the last one, causing him to pass out and hit the “No” button.  Even so, it still came across as mean-spirited.  It also comes across to me that the company isn’t secure in its use of “statistics.”  It’s like they feel some need to explain away any and all possible dissent (i.e. there can’t be anything wrong with our product; there must be something wrong with the person who didn’t like it).

I’ve been digesting the President’s address.  It’s something of a mixed bag.  Tax cuts are always good (and that old dog about “tax cuts for the rich” just won’t hunt anymore).  He gives lip service to fiscal responsibility, but then he goes and loads up a bunch of pork (Medicare, AIDS in Africa, mentoring, hydrogen power, etc).  Then there’s the standard boilerplate about how “evil” drugs are.  Sometimes it’s so hard for people to admit when they’re wrong.  If he really wanted to be remembered as a truly compassionate conservative, he’d end this insane war on drugs.

On the positive side he made it clear that a bunch of kvetching from so-called allies won’t deter us from our course:

Yet the course of this Nation does not depend on the decisions of others. Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.

He also throws in support for the resistance in Iran and tells the North Koreans that we won’t be blackmailed.  Then he runs down the litany of evil in Iraq.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where all this goes, but I’d hoped for better news on government spending.  Actually, with all the focus on foreign events, I’d hoped he would focus strictly on that, but it appears that he had to address criticism from the Democrats on domestic affairs.

Update  I don’t pretend to be fair and balanced, so I didn’t bother to watch the Democratic response.  I’m so fed up with them and their class warfare, life’s lottery bullcrap that I can’t watch most of them without getting apoplectic (but don’t assume that I like the Republicans either).  Anyway, Vodkapundit has a few words on the topic.

“The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
   —Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Damn, and I liked Janeane Garofalo.  I always liked her smart-ass attitude.  But then I guess I hadn’t been paying attention to her politics. 

This idiotarian parade just keeps marching on and the celebrities are dropping like flies.  If this keeps up I won’t have any movies or music left.  Bah.  I guess I’ll have to read more (provided there are any authors left as well).

I debated with myself on whether to post this, but there are some things that have been bugging me and I’ve got to get them off my chest.  What good is a blog if you can’t vent about what’s on your mind, no matter how sensitive?  So, here goes…

Guys, there are some bathroom habits we need to discuss so that we can all get along with a minimum amount of conflict and disruption (not to mention disgust):

• Food has no place in the men’s room.  I recently saw a guy take an apple into a stall with him.  Ok, maybe I’m the one with the hangup, but it disgusted me to no end.
• If you’re going to use a stall, close the door.  I hate walking in and finding someone else in there.
• Lift the lid!  Unless you’re an olympic-class sharpshooter, you’d best put it up.  Some poor shmuck has to come in and clean up that mess.  Have mercy on them.
• Wash you hands!  It helps prevent the spread of disease.  That, and I don’t really want to touch your wang germs on the door handle.  I don’t really want to get to know you that well, thanks.
• Personal space!  Leave an empty stall if available, otherwise we’ll have to revoke your man card.

Ok.  I feel better now…

Thanks to Instapundit I was glad to see this:

A judge threw out a jury’s verdict today in what had been considered a landmark case against the distributor of a gun used in the shooting death of middle school teacher Barry Grunow.

It’s about damn time that people stopped harassing law-abiding sellers of a legal, non-defective product.  That damn jury was out of control and the judge put a stop to it.  It was pure emotion on the part of the jury.  They had found that the gun was not defective, yet still assigned blame to the distributor.  It’s too bad the distributor will still be out legal costs for this fiasco.  Maybe he can countersue or ask for sanctions.  I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know his options, but I would want vengeance if I were him (I want vengeance and I’m not him, but then I’m not a very forgiving type ).

I’m so sick and tired of opportunistic parasites like this trial lawyer and the Brady bunch trying to make hay of every criminal act commited with a firearm.  A pox on all their houses!

Acidman delivers again, with this post:

…  I AM a liberal in the classic sense of the word.

I believe in individual liberty. I believe that EVERYBODY should be free to live his/her life as a free citizen of a free country and do pretty much whatever he/she wants to do, as long as it harms no one else. (And I’m NOT talking about harming someone’s delicate sensibilities) I believe that government should build roads and bridges and provide a robust standing army. Outside of those functions, I believe that government should butt OUT of my life.