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July 31, 2008
Conservative coffee
Do you ever walk into your local coffee shop and think, "You know what this place needs? More Ann Coulter."
Apparently there's a new Conservative Cafe in Indiana that caters just to you and others looking for an escape from the "liberal bastion coffeehouses" of America. The description sounds like something written by Stephen Colbert:
Ann Coulter books sit stacked by the fireplace, and a picture of Ronald Reagan hangs on the wall. Fox News plays on all the televisions, and stock market quotes scroll along an electronic ticker above the cash register.Behind the counter, owner Dave Beckham smiles proudly in a khaki T-shirt that reads "Zip It, Hippie." The shirt is for sale at the Crown Point, Ind., cafe, along with ones that say "Peace through Superior Firepower."
And the owner's explanation for why he started the shop is even more Colbertesque:
He didn't like piped-in folk music, specialty drinks with faux-Italian names or patrons who frittered the hours away on laptops or listening to iPods. The atmosphere, he said, seemed an affront to Midwestern values he learned growing up in northwest Indiana."Coffee shouldn't be about sitting in a cafe for 12 hours," Beckham says. "Coffee gets us through our workday. It's what we drink before we make steel for the rest of the country or head out into the fields."
That's right! Damn latte-drinking liberals, always trying to enjoy their coffee with fruity flavors and homosexual-sounding additives like cream and sugar. Real conservatives like their coffee like their politicians—bitter and without foreign-sounding names.
My philosophy is, if your coffee isn't literally making hair grow on your chest as you drink it, you're not doing it right.
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari at 12:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 30, 2008
"Knuckle-knocked"??
It was cool when Barack and Michele did it before his big victory speech earlier this year. But a quick note to folks in the mainstream media and the business world: Maybe you should take the transition from hand shaking to "fist bumping" just a little bit slower. Quite frankly, you're embarrassing yourselves.
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari at 9:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 16, 2008
Wedding crashers
If last week's stories about U.S. forces inadvertently bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan seemed familiar, that's because they've done it before. Five times, at least.
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari at 8:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 11, 2008
Dangerous wedding parties in Afghanistan
U.S. forces have bombed two wedding parties in Afghanistan within the last week, once on Friday killing at least 23 people, and again on Sunday, killing at least 47 civilians, 39 of them women and children.
Civilian casualties are once again becoming a concern (to the handful still concerned about that particular war), according to the BBC. The UN said last month that nearly 700 Afghan civilians had lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, about two-thirds in attacks by militants and about 255 in military operations.
The sad thing is, this war has been going on so long that this barely qualifies as news anymore.
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari at 12:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
McCain's voting record, or lack thereof
Senator Ted Kennedy, who suffers from a life-threatening brain tumor that requires daily treatment, has now officially voted more times in the last few months than John McCain. And Kennedy's only voted once since being diagnosed on May 20.
Kennedy wanted to make the Senate vote on the recent Medicare bill—which halted a 10% pay cut for physicians who accept Medicare—so badly that he supposedly flew from Massachusetts to DC after the day's treatment, walked onto the Senate floor to a standing ovation, belted out an "Aye," and then flew home immediately after the vote.
McCain? He hasn't showed up to vote since April 8, missing a total of 76 votes.
And we're not talking about inconsequential votes or voting margins large enough for his vote to be inconsequential. When the Senate took up the Medicare bill two weeks ago, it fell short by one vote, and Kennedy and McCain were the only absent Senators.
Here's the attendance record for the 110th Congress according to the Washington Post's database:
John McCain: Missed 374 votes (61.8% of total)
Barack Obama: Missed 263 votes (43.5% of total)
As I've said before, missing a few votes when you're running for president is understandable. But at some point you have to at least attempt to do the job you were elected to do.
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari at 8:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 9, 2008
Sovereignty flip flop
John McCain, 2004: Well, if [the Iraqi government asks us to leave], then I think it's obvious that we would have to leave because— if it was an elected government of Iraq— and we've been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government, then I think we would have other challenges, but I don't see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people.
George W. Bush, 2007: I don’t see how we could stay [if Maliki asked us to leave]. It is his country.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, Yesterday: "Our stance in the negotiations underway with the American side will be strong ... We will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn't have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq."
John McCain, Yesterday: ""I have always said we will come home with honor and with victory and not through a set timetable. We will withdraw, but ... the victory we have achieved so far is fragile and (the redeployment) has to be dictated by events and on the ground," he said, adding that Iraqis would act in their national interest and the United States would act in its own interests.
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari at 9:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 8, 2008
Let them eat cake
The G8 leaders met yesterday to discuss solutions to the global food crisis (that has led to mass starvation, riots, and instability across the plant) over an eight-course, 19-dish meal prepared by 25 chefs.
The Guardian has the scoop on the menu:
Guests at the summit, which is costing £238m, were then able to pick items from a tray modelled on a fan and decorated with bamboo grasses, including diced fatty tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce, and pickled conger eel with soy sauce.Hairy crab Kegani bisque-style soup was another treat in a meal prepared by the Michelin-starred chef Katsuhiro Nakamura, the grand chef at Hotel Metropolitan Edmont in Tokyo, alongside salt-grilled bighand thornyhead (a small, red Pacific fish) with a vinegary water pepper sauce.
Finally there was a "fantasy" dessert, a special cheese selection accompanied by lavender honey and caramelised nuts, while coffee came with candied fruits and vegetables.
If you think that's a little over the top, one of the solutions proposed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was a little "prudence and thrift in our kitchens." He claimed that, if only the average consumer would stretch out their weekly food budget, we could reduce "unnecessary demand for food."
Overall, the summit is costing nearly $470 million. For a little perspective, the UN World Food Programme said in April that it needed around $700 million in funding to do its job—feeding starving people around the world—for the remainder of the year.
This is the world we live in.
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari at 11:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack