No, I haven't seen it yet, but my friend Prof. Chaos has. He says:

... this movie offers a more sophisticated understanding of US foreign policy than you find even in academic journals. I will likely require this film in my IR courses once the DVD is out.

Posted by: Rusty at 01:13 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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Today is my lovely wifes birthday. Let me just say one thing: she still has a fine can--for a woman of any age--let alone one with three kids.

No more blogging today. If there is a blog emergency just e-mail me.

Posted by: Rusty at 09:08 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Posting will be light today. Duty calls.

Posted by: Rusty at 10:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Who's your daddy George? You biyatch.

On a related note Jeff Quinton pisses me off this morning with this post: After initially indicating there might be a Star Wars-themed television show in the future, George Lucas has backed off reports that a Skywalker-centered television show was in development, according to T.V. Guide (can't find an article online yet to any report of this.)

Ok, so the first few seconds of the post I'm thinking, "Awesome, there's going to be a Star Wars TV show!! Something better than those lame-o shorts on Cartoon Network, I hope."

Then you get to the second part of the sentence, and I'm thinking, "What?!? I get all excited only to be told that Lucas is not going to do a Star Wars TV show!!!!"

Two immediate analogies come to mind:

1) Draft-gate. You know, a story about a non-story. "After 25 years Lucas still has no plans for TV show despite the buzz from Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) that with the present dearth in network programming production of the show was inevitable and, after all, weren't all these Sci Fi reruns and Buck Rogers remakes just a back-door way of making the Tatooine Chronicles a reality without letting the American viewing audience understand the full extent of the ratings war?"

2) "Can I come up to your room and use the bathroom." Then, it turns out she really has to use the bathroom. "Could there be a Star Wars themed TV show?" Come on into the room baby. Bathroom is right over there. Let me just slip into something more comfortable. Go on into the bathroom. That's right, make yourself at home. Viagra kicking in. Toilet flushing. Viagra working. Water running, wash up good baby. Anticipation. Come on out baby. I'm ready to go. "Star Wars themed movie? No. Thanks for the toilet. Toodles." Aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

We have a name for a post like that: C*ck tease!!!

Posted by: Rusty at 09:59 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Well, my little Pet Jawa has been amongst the top 100 blogs for months now. I'm getting a lot more traffic than I ever dreamed of. A lot of that traffic is by repeat customers and I'm getting so many comments that a number of people have suggested opening a Jawa discussion forum.

So, why am I still so blue? All this and still no Instalanche!! Validation in the blogosphere, we all know, comes from one source alone.

Well, I'm through with you Glenn Reynolds. No more will I seek the much coveted Instalanche. Instead, I'm going after the much yummier Instant Lunch.

How do the two compare?

Instalanche-immediate spike in traffic, lasting up to 48 hours.
Instant Lunch-immediate spike in sodium level, MSG headache up to 12 hours.

Instalanche-expect at least two or three bloggers to get a kick out of your post and add you to the blogroll.
Insant Lunch-expect at least two or three co-workers to get a kick out of you eating the sh*t they swore they'd never touch again their first day out of college.

Instalanche-a sudden feeling of self-satisfaction knowing that somehow your post drew the attention of the right-blogosphere's top blogger.
Instant Lunch-a sudden feeling of stomach-satisfaction, with the caveat that the empty calories you just scarfed down will leave you lethargic for the rest of the day.

Instalanche-with the sudden spike in traffic you can now up your Blog Ad rate to just under covering your total monthly ISP and blog host bill.
Instant Lunch-with the money you saved by eating cheap MSG laden quasi-Asian food you can now afford to run to the video store and rent the latest Adam Sandler film--only to find that you remember neither the food nor the film in the morning.

*UPDATE: Flea tells me it's an 'Instalanche'. What the h*ll is a lanche anyway? Sounds French.....or Canadian....either way, it does have a very Thurston Howell III air about it. Anyway, I've corrected it.

*the truth is I really did eat ramen-in-a-cup for lunch today. Not kidding. Three words: dee-li-cious!!

Posted by: Rusty at 02:41 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Check it out:

DW: Would you use the word "treason" to describe [Kerry's activities]?

GE: No I wouldn't go that far, but in my own mind it comes damned close....

....Where are his discharge papers? He has not put up a copy of his discharge from the naval reserve. That should have taken place in 1978 when his service in all forms was completed.

The press seems to have no interest in this.

Speaking of Kerry's discharge papers....and here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Posted by: Rusty at 12:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Funny. Via Flea.

Posted by: Rusty at 11:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Image via Cranky Neocon

John Edwards yesterday: "We will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases. ... People like Chris Reeve will get out of their wheelchairs and walk again."

Posted by: Rusty at 08:59 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Yesterday I complained that Pay Pal was acting screwy. Rick from Vices and Virtues e-mailed me this article this morning: Problems With Online Payment Service PayPal Persist for Fifth Day

Posted by: Rusty at 08:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I thought you guys might get a kick out of this spam e-mail I got. Note to self: If you dont want people to stereotype you it's probably not a good idea to act exactly like the stereotype. Also, from my good friend Bill Dauterive, "The only reason stereotypes last so long is 'cause their mostly true."

more...

Posted by: Rusty at 08:10 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Go check out Fellowship 9/11 over at IFILMS:

Michael Moore's searing examination of the Aragorn administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events at Helms Deep. With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering - or if necessary fabricating - the facts, Moore considers the reign of the son of Arathorn and where it has led us. He looks at how - and why - Aragorn and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saruman connection to Helms Deep, despite the fact that 9 out of every 10 Orcs that attacked the castle were actually Uruk-hai who were spawned in and financed by Isengard.

UPDATE: Treebeard, man. It's all Treebeard!

Posted by: Rusty at 03:51 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Long-time friend Professor Chaos has endorsed Bush. I think it was the sheer brilliant weight of my arguments for Bush that overpowered his puny objections. Either that or he is finally seeing Kerry for the warmed over hippie that he really is. Either way, I'm happy. Welcome aboard!! Expect your Rove/Haliburton checks to be deposited in your Swiss account ASAP.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Not that anybody except Gordo the Cranky Neocon cares, but is paypal down across the blogosphere or are they just screwing with me? Oh, FYI--MPJ has collected almost $8 in total contributions this year!!

Posted by: Rusty at 12:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I've already mentioned that I forwarded some e-mails to various law enforcement agencies, including one that threatened the President's life. I also e-mailed several host companies in the UK letting them know some of their subscribers are violating terms of usage. I really didn't expect to get anything back, but the webmaster over at NTL got back to me within hours and is busy hunting down one of the culprits. Thanks for everyone's input and advice.

On a related note, Jane pointed me to this great article by American Warmonger on how to hunt trolls the right way. The good news is that no dogs, tree stands, or orange vests are required! One advantage of MT over Blogger is that it records IP addresses of everyone who comments.

Posted by: Rusty at 10:46 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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NZ Bear is now declared Sith Lord and Imperial Undesecratary! Have you guys seen the new ecosystem design? It is truly amazing, awesome, cool, neet-o, etc. The Commissar describes the enhancements this way:

- a graph showing your rank and # unique links over time

- an expandable tree menu showing the links which the blog has received from other blogs

- an expandable tree menu showing the blog's ten most-linked-to posts and who linked to them

Posted by: Rusty at 09:49 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Mark Steyn's publishers at the Telegraph thought that readers in the UK couldn't handle this piece of solidly British advice. Here's a tidbit.

I’d written about Kenneth Bigley, seized with two American colleagues but unlike them not beheaded immediately. Instead, sensing that they could exploit potential differences within “the coalition of the willing”, for three weeks the Islamists played a cat-and-mouse game with Mr Bigley’s life, in which Fleet Street, the British public, governments in London and Dublin and Islamic lobby groups in the United Kingdom were far too willing to participate. As I always say, in this war the point is not whether you’re sad about the dead people, but what you’re prepared to do about it. What “Britain” – from Ken Bigley’s brother to the Foreign Secretary – did was make it more likely that other infidels will meet his fate.

Posted by: Rusty at 09:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Any readers in the Plano, Texas area? Jeff Quinton has lost his dog.

UPDATE: Slapping forehead!! Jeff lives in South Carolina. Trust me, I knew that. We've had many a discussion on who the real 'SC' is!!! It was actually Chad Evan's dog. Chad was just guest blogging over at Backcountry Conservative. The good news is that Chad found his dog!!

Posted by: Rusty at 09:19 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Sorry, I had to clean out my inbox. I probably read like 100 messages, banned at least 5 readers, and deleted about 30 or so comments. I'll blog more tomorrow, I promise. Also, if you sent me an e-mail and I didn't respond I apologize--another victim of the collateral damage of a Google bomb. Traffic seems to be getting back to normal so I'll respond to any new e-mails you send my way.

Posted by: Rusty at 04:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been getting a lot of 'love mail' as of late, and thought I'd share one of the comments with you. Some of it is too sick to pass along, some predictable, and one that I forwarded to the FBI. Maybe a techie out there could help me figure something out: is there an easy way to locate a person through their IP address?? Not necessarily their physical address, but maybe their ISP? How do I do that?

Ok, here's some reader mail:

Ahmad: We will kill more and more of you american pigs. Die all western pigs in the land of Allah.

Posted by: Rusty at 04:24 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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As you can see, My Pet Jawa is growing up. Most of the 374 e-mails that I found in my mailbox today are the comments you leave which are forwarded to my old Yahoo account. I've asked friends to start e-mailing me on my G-mail account because at some point it just becomes unmanagable to sort through 300+ e-mails. Here's the dilema: since I use Yahoo messenger I am alerted whenever a message comes into the Inbox--I love this feature of Yahoo mail. On the other hand, last Friday I got slammed with well overn 45k hits and 100k page views--this translates into a lot of comments and a lot of e-mails. After awhile I just tune out and ignore e-mails in my Yahoo box. On normal days it's not that big of a problem, but when the Google bomb goes off my Yahoo account becomes a graveyard of unread messages (which is why sometimes I get right back to readers/blog friends and other times I never reply).

My G-mail account is much more managable. Only people I have e-mailed or who take the time to look up my e-mail account on this page write me there. The disadvantage? No way to let me know when I get a new e-mail--I have to refresh the page just to check. When a blog friend or reader e-mails me with a breaking news tip I sometimes don't get the message for awhile.

So, here's the question: does any one know of a G-mail plug in that will notify you when a new message is received? That feature would be very helpful.

Posted by: Rusty at 03:25 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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