Mahna Mahna (Do doo be-do-do)

Dude!

Some of my friends (who happen to be regular readers here) pointed me to this a few weeks ago. I thought it was cool, but SYNCHRONICITY IS COOLER!

Today, I flip on the TV in order to play Halo 2, and there's a Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper commercial. With THE MAHNA MAHNA SONG! I think it was just released today, because I haven't found any mention of it on the Net yet. As soon as I see the commercial online, you will be the first to know.

UPDATE 2/15/05: Fresh off the presses! The Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper Mahna Mahna commercial is available at ifilm!

CPAC Blogger List Released

The list is available here. I didn't make it, and looking at the list, it probably would've taken me about 10,000 more hits a day that I get (meaning maybe 10,050 total per day). Oh well. There's always next year.

Likelihood Of Confusion

Ron Coleman just IM'ed to let me know about his new blog, Likelihood of Confusion. Coleman is a Jewish lawyer, and it looks like his blog is going to cover issues related to both of these from a conservative perspective.

Coleman is best known, at least by me, for having witty advertisements on Instapundit's sidebar (Mental Note: Get a screenshot one of these days, so people will know what the heck I'm talking about). And longtime readers may remember that he was quoted in my Most Famous Post Ever.

Welcome, Ron! You should be added to my Blogroll by the time anyone reads this.

UPDATE: Ron has sent me this screenshot from Instapundit's sidebar:

e2 Ministries

Prime Minister of Toast and myself have been working on a new ministry idea for a few months now. It's called e2 Ministries, and you can read about what we're trying to do at the About page here.

Today, we took an important step forward. We are actively soliciting bands to join with us in our mission. A few local bands have already received emails. If you haven't, it's either because I don't have an email address for you, or maybe I just haven't heard of you ;). Anyways, IF you are a Christian band that's located in the Chicagoland area, AND you're willing to join with us in our mission as outlined on the website, then PLEASE contact us at info@e2-music.com.

PS: Venues are the next step. We've already mentioned our idea to one or two, but we haven't canvassed yet. If you represent a venue, though, feel free to contact us!

XBOX LIVE

Yes, I finally have it. My gamertag is jpers36 , since Death Star was taken.

Look for me playing Halo 2!

PERSONS 2008 UPDATE

Hmm. Maybe I won't be facing Jesse Jackson, Jr. in '08 after all. Check out this article -- Jackson is taking Mayor Daley and the Chicago City Council to task for corruption related to a minority set-aside program. Some aldermen are striking back, accusing Jackson of tarnishing the Mayor's reputation in order to set up his own run for mayor in 2007.

Instead of sitting in judgment of the City Council, [Police Committee Chairman Isaac] Carothers advised Jackson to pay attention to the chronic flooding in his own district, including recent problems in Ford Heights.

Asked if he believes Jackson's strident attacks against Daley are a prelude to a 2007 campaign for mayor, Carothers said, "It's a precursor. He wants to be king of the world."

Christian Music Makeover?

This is silly to me. What need is there for a Christian band to get a 'makeover'?

The band will undergo a physical, musical and spiritual makeover, bringing about both personal and professional transformations. The physical makeover will include a MAC Cosmetics session for lead singer Heather King, weight loss programs for two of the band members courtesy of Jenny Craig, and individual fitness training with Natural Physiques personal trainer and author Jeremy Likness.

The musical makeover will include performance coaching with Tom Jackson, and new guitars for the entire band courtesy of Daisy Rock Guitars. Lead singer Heather King will have to learn how to play her guitar (yes, they're providing guitar lessons too), with a goal of playing live at a Daniel’s Window concert by the end of the campaign.

The spiritual makeover includes an interactive online devotional with the band and a pending partnership with a major Bible publisher. Fans will also be invited to participate in a soon-to-be-announced service project coordinated by international relief organization Food For the Hungry.

How are we going to make over this Christian band? By throwing brand names at it! JENNY CRAIG! DAISY ROCK! NATURAL PHYSIQUES!

Jesus Christ? Naw, he's prehistoric.

I'm not criticizing the band so much as the industry and whoever thought up this crazy idea. Sounds like Daniel's Window is getting tons of free merch out of this, and of course a lot of recognition, and although I don't like their choice, it's their decision to make. But what industry exec made this boneheaded decision, and what's it got to do with Jesus?

"The ‘reality’ phenomenon has taking America by storm, and we figured why leave out the Christian music industry,” says Cross Driven Records president Ryan Howard. “Daniel's Window is a fantastic band and has the real potential to be one the industry's best. Especially with the help of the great sponsors already involved, and the many more to come. Christian music fans - get ready for a transformation!"

AAAAAARGGHH! CCM is becoming my kryptonite. And speaking of CCM, I've bought this, which will be an interesting and hopefully enlightening read.

'Peace' Protestors Attack Protest Warriors

This story is making the rounds of the blogosphere (scroll ahead a few pages and down to the 12:12pm entry):

12:12 p.m. ET
Not So Peaceful Peace Rally
Hundreds of people gathered at both ends of Meridian Hill Park in Northwest Washington for a peace rally sponsored by the D.C Antiwar Network.

But there were interlopers: Thirteen members of ProtestWarror, supporting the Bush administration and its policies in Iraq. When the Bush supporters arrived, about 20 black-clad, self-described anarchists emerged from the crowd, shouting profanity and epithets and demanding that they leave the peace rally.

When the Bush supporters refused to leave, the anarchists tore the signs out of the Bush supporters' hands and stomped on them. When ProtestWarrior leader Gil Kobrin objected, several male anarchists knocked him to the ground, kicking him in the back and punching him. Other anarchists punched and shoved Kobrin's 12 colleagues.

After D.C. Antiwar Network members broke up the fight, the Bush supporters heeded their order to leave the park. Kobrin then called D.C. police, who are now guarding them at the entrance of the park as they hold up their pro-war signs. "We're going to hang tight," Kobrin said. "We're expressing our freedom of speech just as they are expressing theirs." --Robert MacMillan

If I were still stationed in DC, I'd have been with the Protest Warriors, perhaps at this incident . . .

UPDATE: Gil Kobrin has a group blog, We Won't Get Fooled Again. Their post on the attack is here.

UPDATE 2: Gil posts on the ProtestWarrior thread dedicated to this event (edited for profanity):

I haven't read all the posts, but I'll shoot off a quick reply.

First off - I'm ok. We're ok. My back is killing me (they kicked me in the spine and kidneys), but I'll live.

We were not shouting or chanting when the anarchists attack; we weren't even talking with anyone at the time. We were simply holding signs.

As for all you liberal *******s who are calling us Protest******s etc, let me make one thing clear: I gave the order not to punch back. I will not endanger the lives of ProtestWarriors by starting a riot, against anarchists armed with steel pipes and knives. You have a problem with that, than you have a problem with me.

More later.

UPDATE AGAIN: The Washington Post has a story on it here titled "Protesting the Protestors". It raises some interesting questions regarding ProtestWarrior, and I may address them in the near future.

Sites picking up the story:
ProtestWarrior Forums
Instapundit
Kerry Spot
Say Anything
Heroes from the Past ;)
Raje's Rants
GregNews
The Sundries Shack
Red State
NIF
Mark Atwood
This Untamed Fire Of Freedom
USS Neverdock
Destinedfornothing
The Global Awakening
Pass The Ammo
The Lumber Of The World
Blogs for Bush
Double Toothpicks
TBogg
Free Republic
The Center For Advanced Studies In Right Wing Conspiracies
The SHEEP'S CRIB
Top Dead Center
Precinct 333
Flopping Aces
Ninme
View Of The Republic
LGF
The Underscore
RobBernard.com
News O Rama
More Eclipse Ramblings
ipse dixit
Chrenkoff
In The Right
Trials and Tribulations
Semper Cogitans; Numquam Laborans
Caliber50
Citizen Smash

Mortor

Well, speaking of Lord of the Rings parody, check out this really simple, really funny riff on Lord of the Rings.

"That Was Me You Hired"

This is what I do when I'm bored. We'll see whether it becomes a regular thing. If so, LotR will probably be up next.

Jesus is Lord

Read this. Via Thinklings.

New Jersey Slayings Update

Lara, a friend of mine from Valpo who is now in grad school in New Jersey, passes on the local reaction to the slaying of a family of Coptic Christians.

According to Lara, the murders have been the top stories all week for the local New Jersey news outlets. Furthermore, the religious hatred angle has not been supressed, but has been mentioned openly (for example, this story at the Star-Ledger). So she was surprised at my report of the (lack of) play that this story has been getting nationally. Libertarian Girl has further thoughts on this, and points out that this story was promoted to CNN's page during the same news cycle as the Jersey slayings were not.

Lara also send on a couple other interesting links. First, this story at the Star-Ledger's site reports that relatives of the Armanious family believe that the murders should be attributed to American violence in general rather than Islamofascist hatred. I'm not sure about this. The New York Post reports that "[t]he heartless killer not only slit Sylvia's throat, but also sliced a huge gash in her chest and stabbed her in the wrist, where she had a tattoo of a Coptic cross." That's an indicator that the killings were not random, but rather targeted based on the Armanious family's faith.

Secondly, Lara says that this link has video footage of the family funeral, at which a fight broke out. Unfortunately, viewing requires a paid subscription. If I find the video hosted for free elsewhere, I'll post an update.

Coptic Christians Slain In New Jersey

Read this overview of the story. Hossam Armanious was a Coptic Christian and an Egyptian-American who frequented a chatroom at Paltalk, often to argue about Islamic persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt. According to a family friend, he was threatened in the chat room by some Muslims. They had stated that if he continued to speak out, they would kill him.

Hossam, his wife and his two daughters were found brutally murdered on Friday. Most news outlets are either not carrying the story or are omitting the death threat aspect.

Protest Warrior Inauguration Counter-Protest, Chicago, 1/15/05

Update: Captions Added


Inauguration Protestors at Senn High School




Police Officers conversing with PW Chicago leaders



PW Chicago at Senn High School



The Mega-Sign



Police Escort



End All Occupations Sign



Another attempt at getting an image of the End All Occupations Sign



Inauguration Protestors at the local Alderman's office



"Senator Paul Wellstone:Murdered By The Bushmob"



The other side of the Wellstone Sign



Broadway Armory -- Location of the Inauguration Protest Rally



Two Inaugural Protestors, lost, who were willing to talk with PW Chicago



A better picture of the Broadway Armory



The officer on the right, an Iraq veteran, initially thought we were liberal protestors and was confused as to why we would have a flag



The Police Presence. How many Chicago PD vehicles are in this image? Hint: I think there's at least one plainclothes vehicle.



CapnTal espousing the merits of the Socialist Action Network



Jpers36 (UndercoverPunk) advocating rational thought



The American Flag



Two Inauguration Protestors willing to talk rationally with PW Chicago

The Extinction Of Tape?

According to this news report, studio recording tape has gone extinct, at least temporarily. The last manufacturer of reel-to-reel tape, Alabama-based Quantegy Inc., has filed for bankruptcy and closed its plant. Quantegy hopes that restructuring will allow it to open back up, but at the moment there is no manufacturer of what was once a music industry staple.

Many bands and producers which still use reel-to-reel for aeshtetic reasons are hoarding, tracking down used reels, or making plans to resplice. And NASA's bugging out, too --- the space shuttles use Quantegy's tape to record all sorts of data.

The Bulls Are Back

For those who haven't been paying attention, the Chicago Bulls are on a five-game winning streak, after having put together a similar streak a couple weeks ago. Since opening 0-9, the team is 15-9, and their most recent win just put them in playoff contention. I think that the East is weak enough for the team to keep their spot, maybe even improve a spot or two. And again, since the East is weak, who knows what will happen once they get in?

So write this down, or save the text to your hard drive or something: JOSH SAYS THE BULLS ARE MAKING THE PLAYOFFS.

Another Great Essay

Norman Podhoretz has just released another great essay, titled "The War Against World War IV". Its focus is the various reasons for being against the Bush Doctrine and the War on Terrorism (which Podhoretz labels 'World War IV'). The article dismantles each of these reasons as well as their perceived effect on the Bush administration.

And if you haven't yet, also check out Podhoretz's previous essay "World War IV: Why It Started, What It Means and Why We Have To Win". Both of these essays have been published in Commentary Magazine.

Hmm. Maybe I should get myself a subscription.

Did Greedo Shoot First?

Sam Davatchi here finds a short comic that gets to the bottom of the issue.

Topps Profiteering Update

Original post here.

I just got a new email from Topps offering the latest Topps Chronicles card, and there's an important note at the bottom:













See that? "ALL PROCEEDS FROM THIS FIRST CARD GO TO RELIEF EFFORTS" -- I wonder if others besides myself have accused Topps of profiteering. This note WAS NOT in the first email I received.

Bloggers Helped Set Up Memogate?

I don't know if anyone else has picked up on this yet, but according to the independent report, the trail from Mapes to Burkett goes through two anti-Bush "bloggers" -- Paul Lukasiak of The AWOL Project and Linda Starr of, well, Linda Starr. I have bloggers in quotes because Lukasiak's site is in reality not at all a blog.

Excerpts from the report:

On Monday, August 23, Mapes learned that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett was rumored to have important documents regarding the President’s TexANG service. Paul Lukasiak, who operates a website on which he posts disparaging analyses of President Bush’s TexANG service, told Mapes that another blogger, Linda Starr, had seen new TexANG documents regarding President Bush. Starr hosts a website that recently contained the slogan, “Bush lied, Americans died,” and is the editor of Online Journal, an online newsletter often critical of President Bush.

Mapes contacted Starr, who responded that she believed that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett had a two-page, classified document regarding President Bush’s TexANG service, and Starr speculated that it might be a disciplinary report. This disciplinary report was thought to relate to an assessment of whether Lieutenant Bush was fit to fly jets armed with nuclear weapons. Starr told Mapes that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett was trying to determine the best way to disseminate the information to journalists "without leaving any fingerprints." (IRP Report, pp. 59-60)

So Mary Mapes got a tip from Lukasiak, an anti-Bush web citizen, stating that Starr, an anti-Bush editor/blogger, might have some documents relating to the AWOL story. And Starr sent Mapes on to Burkett.

Between August 24 and August 31, Mapes and Smith spoke to Lieutenant Colonel Burkett many times. They also spoke to Starr because they believed that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett respected and trusted her, and they thought that an alliance with Starr might help them to convince Lieutenant Colonel Burkett to give them the document(s). (ibid, p. 60)

So, in the interests of gaining this new document, the 60 Minutes news team allied itself with a source that it recognized to be biased to the left. Conflict of interest? Breaking of standards? Unfortunately, I'm not an expert in journalism, but it sounds fishy to me. Is this acceptable?

On Sunday, September 5, Colonel Charles was still involved in attempting to confirm facts related to the Killian documents. Colonel Charles spoke to Lukasiak and asked him for additional samples of Killian’s signatures from public documents. (ibid, p. 83)

Colonel Roger Charles was Mary Mapes's military affairs consultant. He asked Lukasiak to track down examples of Killian's signatures on public record.

Many of the sources of information that were used for the September 8 Segment had an anti-Bush political agenda. First, Lieutenant Colonel Burkett was a visible and outspoken critic of President Bush. Second, Mapes and Smith also relied on Linda Starr to assist in obtaining the documents from him. Her website was and still is filled with anti-Bush statements. Third, it appears that Mapes first came to learn about Linda Starr and her possible link to TexANG records from Paul Lukasiak, another anti-Bush blogger. Fourth, Ben Barnes appeared on the September 8 Segment to claim that he provided assistance to President Bush to gain entry to the TexANG. Barnes was a well-known supporter of, and fundraiser for, Senator Kerry’s presidential campaign.

The Panel recognizes the appearance problems involved in receiving information from partisan individuals. It is not at all unusual or inappropriate, however, for news organizations to obtain information from a political, business or other opponent of the subject of an investigation, given that supporters are manifestly less likely to provide critical or damaging information. It only becomes problematic if the political bias of the source is allowed by the reporter to affect the fairness of the story.

The Panel does not believe that evidence exists to demonstrate that the political leanings of any source influenced the production of the September 8 Segment. Doubtless, however, these sources to some degree sought to use 60 Minutes Wednesday to further their own political agendas, as they likely viewed a TexANG story on President Bush’s service as potentially helpful to efforts to defeat President Bush in his reelection campaign. It goes without saying that CBS News must guard against being used by people pursuing particular agendas and must have careful and balanced reporting and vetting. As noted below, management of 60 Minutes Wednesday and CBS News recognized the political significance and sensitivity of the story and made a number of edits to the September 8 Segment script to make it more balanced. (ibid, pp. 213-214)

So I guess the Panel sees no problem with the alliance between 60 Minutes and Linda Starr.

In order to emphasize what 60 Minutes allied itself with, here's an excerpt from Starr's blog, from a post regarding the Swift Boat Vets dated August 27, 2004:

These guys are goons and have been proven to be liars repeatedly. I don't like to make such a denigrating personal comment, but gee, Steve Gardner looks like a reject out of a "Planet of the Apes" movie. I have yet to see another human look so much like an ape in a suit. Gardner also comes across as a liar to me. In my opinion, he is just a loser who hates Kerry because Kerry is everything he could never be - articulate, refined, educated, sophisticated and cool under pressure . Gardner did everything but come out and directly threaten Kerry's life. I hope the Secret Service checks out the transcript. At one point, Gardner was hollering over Ian that Kerry can't be commander in chief! At least Larry Thurlow didn't totally embarrass himself.

It's obvious that the Swfit Boat LIARS are pure partisans, eaten up with jealousy over Kerry's many wonderful accomplishments. Kerry is a gentleman, who protested the war courageously, but only after he served in it heroically. John Kerry did positive things with his life. The disparity between Gardner and Kerry is nearly as big as the disparity between GWB and Kerry.

GWB isn't even in the same class with John Kerry. There simply are no fair and balanced comparisons, because comparing GWB to Kerry is like comparing Dom Perignon, to near beer.

Emphasis in preceding quotes mine.