Self-composed

Someone won it. Uh… Someone participated in it.

Pat Bertoletti has eaten 1.75 gallons of ice cream in 8 minutes, 266 pickled jalapenos in 15 minutes and 42 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in 10 minutes, and 21 pounds of grits in 10 minutes.

His ability to down grits at a record pace gave him a title. On Saturday, Bertoletti will defend it at the Super Derby World Grits Eating Championship at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs in Bossier City.

Bertoletti said winning the grits title was pretty easy because there’s no chewing. He said the difficulty comes when you start to get full.

So when do you start getting full Pat? About 15 pounds or so?

“His ability to down grits at a record pace gave him a title.” That’s some first-rate reporting. How much are journalism degrees going for these days? I want to work for the AP too.

–Cue background bluegrass music–

“Hey Billy-Joe-Jim-Bob! How you reckun that feller down Shreveport wins all them grits eatin’ contests so good?

“Well Daryl-Gene, it says raught here in thisun here ‘Ssociated Press story in the paper its cuz he can eat grits real fast.”

“Well don’t that beat all?”

“Sure enuf do Daryl-Gene.”

I like grits with lots of butter and brown sugar. But I haven’t eaten 21 pounds of grits in my entire life.

Now referencing someone’s occupation is a racist slur. Gov. David Paterson of New York is accusing the Republican Party of using references to Obama’s past as a community organizer in place of an attack on Obama’s race.

“I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama ‘black’ in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention – a ‘community organizer.’ They kept saying it, they kept laughing,”

Gov. David Paterson of New York

Watch closely. Here is what you have to believe and the dots you have to connect in order to lend even a speck of credence to Paterson’s remark.

1. Republicans are racist - they don’t like Obama because he is black.
2. Significant numbers of undecided voters are racist and could be swayed with racial epithets.
3. These racist undecided voters need reminding that Obama is half black.
4. Republicans are conspiring to remind them of Obama’s race with coded attacks on Obama’s race.
5. When the undecided racists hear “community organizer” they know to remove the obvious context and hear something like “uppity negro” instead and think “oh yeah, that rascal is half black - I better not vote for him.”

That’s what Governor Paterson expects you to believe. Unfortunately, there are people who will vote against Obama because of his race - liberal, conservative, and otherwise. (Likewise, and just as unfortunate, there are those who will vote for Obama because of his race.) The point is, they don’t need veiled remarks from the McCain camp to fuel their stupidity.

All Paterson really wants to do is hurt his opponent - the McCain campaign along with Republicans and conservatives in general. In response to the sting caused by the jab that besides a couple brief stints as a legislator, all Obama can list on his resume as experience is community organizer, this liberal flails back with an accusation of racism. Nothing new.

The sick part is, they are reaching this far to make the accusation. In the past, it was just exploiting some gaff that could (but need not) be taken the wrong way - like the episode involving Strom Thurmond’s birthday party. Now all you have to do to be accused of racism is note that someone who brags about having been a community organizer was a community organizer.

I can’t remember who I heard make the point first, but it was a good one: Obama’s campaign, win or lose, is not going to heal problems of racism, it will make things worse. Why? Because as we see hear, anything said about him, no matter how true, that brings out something negative, will be seen as racism. If he loses the election, it will be on account of racism (not the fact that he’s a marxist who’s associated with angry extremists with a thin resume and shallow plan for the country) and if he takes the White House, anyone pointing out his bad decisions will be called a racist.

Paterson’s remarks are one of the countless exhibits in evidence of this very truth. This particular problem has nothing to do with racism and everything to do with the pathetic, dishonest, and desperate behavior of liberals who’ll sink to any low to gain or keep power.

Link

We were at the Raptor center near Iowa City. We were watching birds from a blind when we saw deer making their way past the blind - no more than 40 feet away. I managed to get a picture.

I have never been this close to a deer before. Apparently these are used to seeing humans as they were aware of our presence but weren’t frightened. We had time to snatch pictures. Above is one I made.

In a Rueters article fawning over Obama’s “call to service” the writer inserts this small paragraph smack dab in the middle:

He also would offer more service opportunities to retirees and set goals for middle- and high-school students to serve 50 hours a year of public service, and for college students to serve 100 hours a year.

The speech was part of a week-long campaign focus for Obama on values and patriotism in the run-up to the Independence Day holiday on July 4.

Obama, who would be the first black president, has been dogged by Internet speculation about his patriotism and criticism from Republicans about his liberal voting record.

“Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July,” he said. “Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it.

First off, why the attention to his race in this article? Completely out of place. The reason it’s there is to attach his race to any and all criticism from the right. Of course, no one is questioning his patriotism because he is black - maybe its because of the things he has said, done, and the behavior of the anti-American angry extremists who have existed in his orbit the last few decades?

Second: No thanks to the “you will serve…” stuff. I did my 20. That’s enough. The last thing I need is a president who is going to draft me, my kids, or anyone else. Let’s keep this country free.

I see nothing in the constitution that empowers the federal government to put people to work. To make them “serve,” to “set goals” for them, etc. Whether he has progression towards some sort of totalitarian system or not, (and he probably doesn’t) this is still the camel poking his nose in the tent. It is still a stepping stone for future fascists.

I stopped by del.icio.us to find out why Firefox 3 doesn’t have a extension available, and found out there is a new one. It doesn’t show up in Add-ons dialogue, but you can download it here.

I got tired of the old theme. Mainly because I jacked a few things up with the inner workings of php and Wordpress, so I decided just to use a theme created by someone else, modify it to my liking, and go from there.

That’s what it looked like before I got my hands on it. I don’t much care for the color scheme, but I think Mu could only have done a better job with the mechanics.

By the way, here is what my old theme looked like:

If you see anything that doesn’t look right, leave comments. And thanks MRignS for pointing out some flaws in the old one. That was the impetus for the change.

Update:

There. A few tweeks to the style sheet and things look halfway decent. To me anyway. If you see something that sticks out like a turd in a punchbowl, let me know. If you like it, let me know about that too.

It is great to see more pipe smoking blogs. Safari Bob has a great looking new blog with some rich content on our hobby. He discusses pipes and provides some quality reviews of blends. Bob has fourteen years of experience as a tobacconist at a well known shop and online retailer. I highly recommend this blog.

Smoking Safari

Regardless what you think about Limbaugh, its hard not to admit this was a brilliant move. Not so brilliant is Reid trying to take some of the credit. All he was in it for was getting someone censored.

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