We Made It!!!!!!!

Iraq, the gift that keeps on giving.

With the 4 Christmas Day Deaths in Iraq we finally, finally, finally beat the record of 2,973 murdered on 9/!! by 2 dead Americans.

9\!! ~ 2,973 Dead
Iraq ~ 2,975 Dead

For a moment there I thought it just wasn't going to happen, got it in right under the wire, which just goes to show ya that you can never misunderstimate the "Can-Do" spirit of the American people, when they set their minds to a goal.

Isn't this the Best Christmas, ever?

Here's the story fresh off the wire:

"By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 26, 2006; 6:57 AM

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American toll beyond the number of victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad injured at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The attacks occurred in a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood.

In separate attacks, a bomb exploded in a central Baghdad market, killing four people and wounding 15 others, police said. Two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi police patrol in an eastern neighborhood of the capital, killing four policemen and injuring 12 people.

In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital, another roadside bomb killed three civilians _ including an 8-year-old girl _ and wounded six other people, police said.

The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 _ five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The milestone came with the deaths of the three soldiers Monday and three more Tuesday in roadside bomb attacks near Baghdad, the military said.

President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States' post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad. Going on offense against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaida and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush has said.

Democratic leaders have said the Bush administration has gotten the U.S. bogged down in Iraq when there was no evidence of links to the Sept. 11 attacks, detracting from efforts against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

The AP count of those killed includes at least seven military civilians. Prior to the deaths announced Tuesday, the AP count was 15 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday. At least 2,377 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers."

Fucking Awesome!!!

Bush said, "Bring It ON!" and I guess he got taken up on it, huh?

Merry Christmas.

Merry Monday

Jurrasic Pork expands on his ever burgeoning "It's A Blunderful Life" meme, complete with PhotoShopped illustrations done by a talented collaborator over at Hooterville.

Go check it out, tell him Nyc sent ya.

Today, of all days, when the death toll in Iraq, 2,972, pulls to within one death of tying the 9/!! record of 2,973 dead.

That enough of a Christmas "miracle" for ya?

Don't go too heavy on the eggnog.

Oh, and Pope Nazi?

Quit kidding yourself and your flock with your delusions.

All the "Prayer's For Peace" in the world are not going to bring back a one of those men and women, so knock that bullshit off.

Thanks.

Abramoff Does The Hokey Pokey Today!!!

In honor of that, A Pen Warmed In Hell, brings you a visual blast from the past from our archives. Seems like it was only yesterday that they slapped the cuffs on him, my how time flies.

BTW, I've been to Jack's old restaurant, "Signatures" and I gotta tell ya, judging from the quality of the offerings, and the prices, it wasn't the food that anyone went there for.

Stuck In The Mud, or Metaphors Are Us

On November 6th, 2006, The USS Intrepid Floating Museum was to be moved from her berth on the West Side of Manhattan, where she had been living after her Naval decommissioning, to Bayonne, NJ, so that she could undergo a much needed overhaul and get all spruced up for future generation of war-pr0n loving Americans.

The above pic is from an Ebay promotion where 6 seats were to be sold at $100k a pop.

Guess what?

Wouldn't you know it?

Here in the land of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coullter, and Rupert Murdoch's flag waving, jingoistic, war-profiteering gang over there at Fox News there were...

No takers.

None.

Zilch.

Zero.

De Nada.

The Big Zero.

Goose Eggs.

Not one of those fucker wanted to step up to the plate and do the right thing with their ill-gotten gains.

At least none that wanted to put their money where their moufs are and "Support The Troops" in a tangible way, past putting a magnetic yellow sticker on their Stupid Ugly Vehicles.

Which is just as well, because after sitting in that one spot for the better part of 20 years, a lot of silt built up and she got, well, stuck in the motherfucking mud!

How's that for a metaphor for our age?

And on the Monday before the Mid-Term Congressional Elections, no less.

(Full Disclosure: I once kinda briefly lived aboard the USS Intrepid a few months prior to my enlistment in the US Marine Corps, here's the story I've relayed elsewhere to a friend about it:

Back in 1986 I worked on a Michael Keaton movie called 'The Squeeze' and practically lived on board this sucker for about two weeks because it was 8 hours between call and my commute home, (we shot at night, yuck), was a 2 hour journey each way, so a coupla mornings I'd do the linger in the background thing until everybody left and I'd go sleep for a few hours in my little hidey-place.

It was funny, on the days I left with the crew the pre-Ghouliani era hookers were waiting for us at the exit gates. Always made me feel like I was leaving a factory in the 1930's instead of modern day film location. :-)

When the movie came out, it was clear that they had re-shot some of the sequences that didn't involve HS Marching bands, NJ General cheerleaders, Marine Corps Color Guard and John Davidson, in a studio in North Carolina....

.... I was a Set\Parking PA,Craft Service, Evian Water Boy, Stepin Fetchit.

One of the more interesting tasks on that job was they had me go out and buy gallons and gallons of that ghetto wine, Ripple, because Micheal Keaton's lovable loser character is supposed to take a bath in it according to the script, though I think they cut that scene out of the movie.

Another example of the profligate wastefulness of Hollywood.

The again, it wasn't a total waste for me, by the end of shoot, Über-hottie, Rae Dawn Chong, Tommy Chong's daughter, and the movie's love interest was calling me by my name. :-) How cool is that?")

Update: After several weeks of effort, an effort that cost significantly more than the $600K they tried to raise in the $100k per seat promotion, they finally got the mud cleared from the propellors and got the old girl moved so she can get her 21st century Museum refurbishment.

If things go according schedule, she should be back just in time for a triumphal return to Manhattan just in time for the 2008 Presidential elections.

Then again, I wouldn't hold my breath.

"Christians" The Church And The Bible

"There aren't a lot of things in this world that one can be sure of, but I do know this; anytime you go by a Church, of any denomination, that's filled to the rafters with people, you can be certain that the vast majority of them haven't read The Bible, because if they had, that Church would be nearly empty."
Nyc Alberts, October 2006

I'm going to expand on this later, but for now, these two links from Marshall Brain should help with the background thinking on this:

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god-challenge.htm
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/bible.htm