Say Anything Blog

Just the other day, I wrote that something seemed fishy about the whole Foley-IM issue.  Now, Drudge is reporting that the whole thing was a prank gone bad.

It seems the whole IM thing was designed by the page to goad Foley into talking dirty over the Internet:

According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.

As I originally said, the logging of the IMs was suspicious to me.  Apparently, I was right to question it.

Because Akira Haraguchi has invested… I’d say a significant portion of his life dedicated to pi. 

Akira Haraguchi, 60, needed more than 16 hours to recite the number to 100,000 decimal places, breaking his personal best of 83,431 digits set in 1995, his office said Wednesday. He made the attempt at a public hall in Kisarazu, just east of Tokyo.

Pi is a physical constant defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Let that sink in.  This guy has memorized pi to 100,000 decimal places.  I don’t know 95% of the phone numbers listed in my cell phone - if it goes, my contacts go.

Now if you want to downplay this accomplishment, pi has an infinite number of decimals, as it never repeats.  So percentage-wise, Haraguchi has memorized 100,000/infinity = 0.  So he’s accomplished nothing.

Cross-posted.

The years that make up life are the adolescent years, starting from when you grow thirteen fresh on to the world raring to know more and ending when you are to have learnt responsibility and what it takes to be out in the world on your own. This troubled time in between is your teens. Your teens are pretty much what make you. Before this, you were small and innocent and could be excused for anything you did because of the very same reasons. After them you are officially supposed to be on your own two feet - on your own in the world. The fact that after your teens you go headlong into the world and make your mark makes the teenage part of life the most important of all life’s phases.

As parents, it is natural to fear your childs’ escapades, wild or non-wild, but these are the experiences that make him or her. You, as a parent, would find it scarier because you have been through the grind and you know how it could ruin you. It could have possibly ruined you to make absolutely expected teenage mistakes or you could have seen people whom you love make the most stupidest ever “teenage mistakes” which are absolutely expected but which could ruin one badly.

Teenage mistakes are better classified as rash stupid decisions that teenagers made for various reasons. One of the reasons why they suddenly break out is because they have been groomed over and over again...they want to do things for themselves for once. Over the years india and the world society has changed. They don’t want to be told. Now, being told doesn’t mean that you are under someone’s authority and that you are under oppression-but as expected that is one thing every groomed teenager tends to think and rebel for the sake of rebelling. You can curb their rebellion but they will eventually get that angst out sometime. No parent can control their children for too long unless they let them make their own decisions. Now as parents, you too must have gone astray a little bit atleast. You could deem it stupid (no doubt it is) but it served the purpose of making you understand in good time that it was indeed stupid of you to do so.

The secret to keeping teenagers under control is giving them their space when they think they need it. Soon enough they will realise that rebelling is only leading them to their own down fall and they will come to their senses. It is absolutely natural and instinctive to want to keep a hold on them but if you let them go they will come back with sense intact - just make sure they don’t cross the line.

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Robert108 earlier posted Youtube’s banning of Michelle Malkin’s anti-jihad video.  Michelle responded by posting this on Youtube.  If it goes dark then we know what happened.

From Michelle Malkin:

Banned on YouTube

Back in February, you may remember, I cobbled together a little mini-movie called “First, They Came” inspired by the Mohammed Cartoon riots. It’s a simple slideshow highlighting the victims of Islamic violence over the years. We posted it at YouTube a while ago. No problems. Until last week, when I received this e-mail:(in body of piece, informing her that her video had been removed)

[...]

Anti-jihad YouTube users have reported having their videos yanked and accounts suspended, including Crusader18. Another YT user, Intelsum, writes:

It has come to my attention that Jihadis organized a campaign against us to have our videos removed by You Tube. Some people’s accounts have even been terminated. I don’t know exactly how the You Tube suspension system works, but it looks like a video will be removed if it gets a certain number of complaints (which may be accepted without investigation), and an account gets closed when the third video is removed. One of my videos was recently removed for “inappropriate content.” The video, ‘It’s In The Koran’ could be viewed at http://www.terrorfreeoil.org/videos/ItsInTheKoran.php, second screen (alternative video source). This video contains no sexually explicit content and could only be offensive to Muslims who reject any notion of criticism. At the same time, many al-Qaeda propaganda videos, Nazi videos, etc. are posted on You Tube.

Read the whole thing.

Awhile back, I had an exchange on the “Jesus Camp” thread with someone who insisted that YouTube was objective, and that they just published everything submitted to them. I guess that isn’t exactly true. I’m sure the jihadis don’t object to anti-Christian videos.

There is a great cultural and political divide in this country.  It’s deeper and wider than even I can comprehend.  I have written on this before, If the divide we have politically were geographic we would be in full blown civil war, if it were geographic we would label the other side as a whacked out cult.  I know this because I have friends who have political views that can only be explained as otherworldly.  Out on a far stratum of space.  A strange parallel universe.  Completely alternative to anything I know or understand.  Nice people but so incredibly wrongheaded as to make me think they are aliens, strangers in a strange land, completely other.
Almost as if they are visitors from another planet, maybe Mars.

What brings that into focus is the Foley thing.  I’m just about sick of hearing about this already.  He’s a creep.  He needs treatment.  I don’t care what party he’s from; he needs excising from the body Politic.

But those from Mars, (I have now decided to quit calling people Liberals, democrats, wacky left, weirdoes) I’ll just give them the more accurate appellation of being from Mars; those from Mars are just giddy.

Turning on National Liberal Public Radio is a love fest of joyful Martians dancing around whatever kind of maypole they have on Mars in anticipation of how the Foley thing will allow the Martians to take over the congress.  Never mind that the Martians are incompetent to govern and have no idea of what life is like on earth.  The Martians have NEVER been able to lead with any kind of competence.  Nothing has changed; they still have a Martian mentality which means they have no concept of earthly things.

Well, my Martian friends, don’t get too excited too soon.  You Martians are not an organized political party.  A fellow Martian said that long ago.  Mark Twain.  You have the record of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory more times than not.

Then there’s the whole being a Christian thing.  That John (Lukewarm) Danforth is bemoaning the conservative Christian takeover of earth politics.  Danforth is a Martian in earth clothing.  My main concern is that we have too many of these.  I am also highly amused by Martians telling me what the UBER-Earthling Jesus would or wouldn’t do according to Martian scripture.  Danforth does that, and elequontly says, “Can’t we all just get along?” Sorry John, That’ line’s been taken.  I want to know what middle ground looks like in the abortion debate, in homosex, in pornography, in a hundred other things.  What does middle ground lukewarm morality yeild?  John and other clergy of his denomination gave us an openly gay Bishop.  Is that the middle ground?  It would be always good for a Chuckle if it wasn’t so sobering.  These Martians who put on a Christian hat frequently send me emails that begin, “How can you say or believe THAT and call yourself a Christian”.  I guess according to Martian theology I can’t.  I’ll take my chances.  I’m still from earth.

Then there are the Islamic Fundamentalists.  There’s no compromise with them either.  They are like the Martians in that they see earth as a foreign place.  They are actually Venusians.  Different Godhead.  Different planet.

What is true of both Martians and Venusians is there is no compromise with either.  We just can’t let the invasion of the body snatchers go on from either planet.  They are a foreign substance and must not be allowed to take over earth.

I have seen enough Star Trek Next Gen (actually all of them) to say that if the Borg or any other foreign entity takes over another planet its bad news for the conquered planet.

The same is true of the Martians and Venusians.  Don’t let them take over.  Foley or not, you must vote republican this fall.  Yes, there are a few Martians in earthly clothing among them, but we will discover them and like Foley, out they go.

Today at Townhall.com, Dr. Walter E. Williams has a wonderful piece on the minimum wage and its effect on discrimination:

What minimum wage laws do is lower the cost of, and hence subsidize, racial preference indulgence. After all, if an employer must pay the same wage no matter whom he hires, the cost of discriminating in favor of the people he prefers is cheaper. This is a general principle. If filet mignon sold for $9 a pound and chuck steak $4, the cost of discriminating in favor of filet mignon is $5 a pound, the price difference. But if a law mandating a minimum price for chuck steak were on the books, say, $7 a pound, it would lower the cost of discrimination against chuck steak.

Read the whole thing.

This is a great side-by-side comparison of what Israeli missle strikes are claimed to have done versus what they actually do.

Though, in Pallywood’s defense, the IDF could be testing out a missle who’s payload is rotating sledgehammers. (h/t Tim Blair)

For more crazy news and stories, see here.

The Democrats are calling for the heads of the Republican Congressional leadership on the basis that they didn’t do enough to protect these young men. According the Democrats(and some Republicans, including Michelle Malkin) they should have known what was going to happen, and should have acted pre-emptively to stop it from happening.

If this is really the issue, why aren’t the parents of the young men in question strenuously objecting to Foley’s behavior, as well as that of the Republican Congressional leadership? All we have heard about them is that they didn’t want anything done about it when informed of the emails, which, it turns out, were not illegal, and may not have even been immoral or unethical.

Let’s be clear: If Foley did anything improper with these young men, he should at least be censured. He has already gone beyond that, apparently at Hastert’s request, and the parents aren’t out in front of the cameras and microphones, demanding that heads roll.

If all this is what the Democrats claim it is, where is the outrage from the principals? The motives of the Democrats are clear: They want to defeat their opposition by any means whatsoever, but the people who have a dog in this fight, the young men and their parents(and friends and neighbors), are strangely silent. Where’s the outrage?

If the Democrats are so interested in protecting young men and boys from sexual predators(or potential ones), why did they oppose the Boy Scouts when they wanted to ban homosexual Scoutmasters because of the potential of the same kind of situation that exists between Congressmen and pages?

Why the outrage now?

Jeez:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record) said through his lawyer Tuesday that he was sexually abused by a clergyman as a teenager, but accepts full responsibility for sending salacious computer messages to teenage male pages.

Attorney David Roth said Foley was molested between ages 13 and 15 by a clergyman. He declined to identify the clergyman or the church, but Foley is Roman Catholic.

Victimhood II; the Sequel. This guy has had more success than nearly anyone on the planet and he’s got to play the victim card. First he tried to get out of trouble by checking himself into rehab and now it’s a “clergyman” that made him do it.

As far as perversions Foley’s was relatively mild. It’s not that he actually physically molested these kids. (That we know of). But why doesn’t he quit playing the victim and just go away?

Update: Captain Ed has his thoughts on this matter over on Captain Quarters. Mostly I'm linking to it because I like his title.

When He Tells Us He Got Abducted By Aliens, Call Me

Maybe it's even true, but who cares? He's fifty-four years old! If he had problems, it was incumbent on him to address them some other way than by engaging in cybersex masturbation sessions between votes in the House.

Over the weekend I checked on “Kent Conrad in the news. If found an article that ran in the ContraCostaTimes. This article also ran in the GF Herald, but that’s where I saw it first.

The article talked about differences in the Conrad campaign versus the Grotberg campaign. I picked up on very interesting quote by Senator Conrad:

Conrad said his campaign strategy is simple: Do it all the time, not just in an election year.

“When I come home, I don’t just sit in the living room,” Conrad said. “I go from town to town.”

So Senator Conrad has admitted that he only comes to North Dakota to campaign. Not to do one other thing. I wonder why that is.

Well we’ve all seen the article Rob ran on the shabby little apartment that Senator Conrad claims is his residence. Here’s a picture of Senator Conrad’s official residence which amounts to a mailing address:



Here's the apartment building:



This apartment is owned by GKC apartments. On his financial disclosure form he lists this as “Conrad Brother’s Partnership.” This property is assessed at $280,900. Since this building is a sixteen-plex the value of Kent Conrad’s official residence at $17,567. That’s not much for a big important Senator.

So I got to wondering where does he REALLY live? Well that’s also on the Internet. I’m not going to give his address but his “secondary residence” is valued at $935,740. Remember though the Washington DC real estate market has exploded in recent years.

I suppose by now you’re wondering what Senator Conrad’s real residence looks like. Well thanks to friends in low places I was able to find out. (Out of respect for his privacy I smudged out the street number).



So now we know why Senator Conrad only visits North Dakota to campaign. He wouldn’t be caught dead to be seen in his stinky old Bismarck living room. It also shows why Senator Conrad has to pose in front of his grandparents former house when he pretends he’s a North Dakotan.

North Dakota should be represented by North Dakotans in Washington. Right now we have three bureaucrats in Washington that only come home to campaign.

Today the American League Championship series begins.

The three divisions leaders are Rob’s New York Yankee’s, Brenarlo’s Oakland A’s and my Minnesota Twins. The wild card is the Detroit Tiggers. I don’t know if there’s a Detroit fan, but I’m going to assign them to Likwid Shoe by default.

During the regular season Brenarlo had a small amount of trash talking over the race. He sorta bet me that the Oakland A’s would win 93-95 games.

Well they just about choked but they won the last game of the year, so he won his bet. I’d feel pretty bad about losing that bet except for the fact that my Twins finished with a better record. In fact today’s game between the Twins and A’s (surprisenly enough I’ll be home)is in Minneapolis for that very reason.

Since the Twins shook up the roster in Early June they’ve been the best team in baseball. During that time they lost two of their top pitchers. They managed to keep winning with substitute pitching. That is an impressive record.

What’s been fun this year is that so many Twins are having breakout years. Joe Mauer had a breakout year winning the batting title; as a catcher no less. Justin Morneau was number two in the AL RBI race. Shortstop Jason Bartlett had a great year after being called up in June. Michael Cuddyer had his breakout season hitting cleanup with 109 RBI’s. Nick Punto had a great defensive year and a very good hitting average year at 3rd.

Most of the Twins came up through their minor league system. Their second baseman, Castillo, was the only key player that they picked up.

The Twins one weak spot is the DH position. They haven’t gotten much productivity there.

None of the four AL playoff teams finished the last week strongly. The team that suffered the worst was the Detroit Tiggers. I predict that they’ll fall quickly to the Yankee’s.

I think the Twins will dispatch the A’s in short order. In fact after this week Brenarlo’s going to Blog in shame.

I’m concerned about my Twins facing the Yankee’s. However since they’re Rob’s team I think they’re setting him up to make up the “too many injuries” excuse meme. In sports that’s what Rob does best.

The biggest question mark is whether or not the Brad Radke will be able to pitch effectively. He’s had one short (but effective) start since he’s come off of a stress fractured shoulder socket. He’s a gamer and if he can pitch he will do it through the pain.

I won’t go into the National league. Mostly because I know NOTHING about the teams there. The Twins only lost one game in interleague play but that doesn’t mean that the team that shows up in the World Series won’t be first rate.

It should be a fun October for this Twins fan.


***Update*** I'm sure that losing 3-2 was part of Gardenhire's strategy to ultimately win the series against Oakland and the inevitable World Series.

Late on Friday night’s edition of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” former Bush administration aide Ron Christie, author of “Black in the White House,” pressed host Chris Matthews on the suggestion that if Republican Sen. George Allen’s alleged racial slurs in the 1970s are a character flaw, what about the Democrats re-electing Senator Robert Byrd, a former Klansman, this fall? Matthews protested in a lecturing tone that “everyone knows about it....It’s been raised a thousand times on his record.” After claiming he was not defending Byrd, he told Christie: “The guy’s 90 years old. Give him a break.” Emphasis mine.

Thanks to Newsbusters.

Now, I don’t have any special knowledge of any kind, but one thing has struck me strange about the tale of former Rep. Foley and the infamous IMs and e-mails.  Certain elements of the tale smell funny to me.

I can understand the e-mails still being around.  I am notoriously bad about not getting rid of old, deleted e-mails.  I could see this page having deleted them but not gotten rid of them completely.  The IMs are a different story and raise an interesting question.  Why would anyone be logging the IMs he received?

Logging IMs isn’t something that happens automatically.  The user would have to take action to cause that to happen.  Why would the page have done that?  I have to wonder if this wasn’t a set up from the beginning.  You get a kid to catch Foley’s eye.  Whe he starts getting IMs, you have the kid log them.  Then, when the time is right, you release the more lurid parts to the media.  We don’t have all the facts because we only know of the IMs that have been released.  There could be many others that contain the proof that this was a railroad job from the beginning.  Foley surely wouldn’t have kept the IMs.  We will likely never know tha truth.

None of this excuses Foley’s behavior.  Based on everything we know, he was a scumbag that went after boys.  He deserves everything that happens to him and more.  I just know that the logging of the IMs hints at something more sinister behind the entire thing.