First, let me state up front that because I am childless (by choice) and not married I am, according to the Dem party line not qualified to speak my mind.  Fortunately I am a Republican, therefore I am allowed to speak my mind.  Republicans understand a woman’s worth, and isn’t just being barefoot and pregnant.  I will, though, admit to wearing sandals 9 months out of the year.  I guess that qualified as 'barefoot’, right?

I talked to Rachel this afternoon.  After a marathon trans Africa – trans Atlantic flight that is sure to go down into myth and legend for the sheer scope of late flights, bad weather, and canceled flights, she is safe at home.  I don’t know if she was more excited about being reunited with her dog, family, or Stotz.  I have a feeling it was the dog!  We have discovered she was only 30 miles from the Somalia border where Al Qaeda terrorists were fleeing to get into Kenya.

Thank you for your prayers for her safety.  Without them I don’t think she would be home safe, today. 

There isn’t much going on in the continuing soap opera of Mommy Cat and the little ones.  On the other hand, I am not pleased with the incestuous behavior of Bat Masterson and Little Joe.  They are facing some surgery.  Little Joe seems to be coming into her own, finally.  She is still quite small, but is getting a very nice long coat of gray tabby.  I think she is going to be a medium hair, and looks like her great-auntie Doc Holiday.  She slept with me last night, I think.  Bat Masterson thinks he is hot stuff and sleeps on the chair in my bathroom, every night.  I don’t think Brunhilda is doing good at all. 

Last night I was watching Tombstone for the millionth time.  About the time Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan and Doc were about to commence “The Walk”, Rumsfeld jumped up on my lap.  I realized that he has basically been banned from Tombstone. Considering all the bad-guys who have graced that small hamlet (Curly Bill, Ringo, Clantons, McLaurys, Claiborn, Russian Bill, BTK, etc) none of them were banned from Tombstone.  It’s pretty bad when a 8 pound toy poodle is right up there with the worst of the worst.  But, a reputation’s a funny thing.  Sometimes it is deserved and sometimes it isn’t.

Am I the only person in the world who could care less about 24? If I had the DVD's and watched a season with some coherence, maybe, but I've never even watched an episode.  I'm far more interested in the premier of season II (and we have learned the last) of ROME.

An Alzheimer's gene has been found.

Below the Beltway has a fascinating piece from the NYTimes about National League pitchers vs. those in the American League.  Evidently most pitchers are better off in the NL. Why?  Is there better hitting in the AL?  The only logical answer I can come up with is the DL has an effect.  No real league would use something like the DL.

What is a life of enforced slavery like? The worst thing about this story is the woman's family has turned on her, she is the villain for wanting her freedom. Now she is no longer her family's cash cow. Just imagine, working for 20 years and sending ever cent back to - the Philippines (not Mexico ). Who is more guilty the employers or her family?

According to Edward Luttwak in the Opinion Journal today, George W. Bush is not the bumbling moron who has blown the war in Iraq, and the War on Terror, but has transformed the Middle East

"It was the hugely ambitious project of the Bush administration to transform the entire Middle East by remaking Iraq into an irresistible model of prosperous democracy. Having failed in that worthy purpose, another, more prosaic result has inadvertently been achieved: divide and rule, the classic formula for imperial power on the cheap. The ancient antipathy between Sunni and Shiite has become a dynamic conflict, not just within Iraq but across the Middle East, and key protagonists on each side seek the support of American power. Once the Bush administration realizes what it has wrought, it will cease to scramble for more troops that can be sent to Iraq, because it has become pointless to patrol and outpost a civil war, while a mere quarter or less of the troops already there are quite enough to control the outcome. And that is just the start of what can now be achieved across the region with very little force, and some competent diplomacy....

...When the Bush administration came into office, only Egypt and Jordan were functioning allies of the U.S. Iran and Iraq were already declared enemies, Syria was hostile, and even its supposed friends in the Arabian peninsula were so disinclined to help that none did anything to oppose al Qaeda. Some actively helped it, while others knowingly allowed private funds to reach the terrorists whose declared aim was to kill Americans.

The Iraq war has indeed brought into existence a New Middle East, in which Arab Sunnis can no longer gleefully disregard American interests because they need help against the looming threat of Shiite supremacy, while in Iraq at the core of the Arab world, the Shia are allied with the U.S. What past imperial statesmen strove to achieve with much cunning and cynicism, the Bush administration has brought about accidentally. But the result is exactly the same."

ISLAM:

In Australia, Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly has done so much damage to the image of Islam that some leaders of the Islamic community there compare him to Hitler.

In Germany, there is a surge of Germans converting to Islam.

Flap on the Iranian gorilla in Iraq.

The Captain's Quarters on Turkey and the Kurds.  This is something I've feared for quite some time.

Flopping Aces - Why are American lawyers aiding the enemy?  Who is paying them?

Little Green Footballs on radical UK Islamic supremacist inciting Jihad.

Mac's Mind on just who started what terror war.

John Bolton is like something unleashed.  Flap hasa his comments about peace in the Middle East being a waste of time.  Why is it that only the select few think the fact that he was forced to leave his post is a disgrace.  But - maybe having him speak his mind like this might be better. 

Read Gateway Pundit about the real Musharraf.  It is quite revealing.

REPUBLICANS LOSING THEIR SPINE:

You need to read Outside the Beltway.  What are we going to do with Republicans who go along with the Dems? 

DEMS GONE WILD

The Dem Plan - pull the rug out from under our troops - re: RightWing&RightMinded.

Political Pit Bull - One member of the MSM is asking what happens if we lose Iraq?  At least one is asking.

GOP Bloggers - Dems have no intention of solving problems, only creating them.

Strata - Why is the MSM ignoring our military heros?

PRIMARIES 2008:  Fullosseous Flap has a poll that mirrors the one GOP Bloggers is running. Hillary does Baghdad!  Human Events on Romney's blunders. Dobson thinks he is big enough to do in McCain.  I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick and tired of all these "Christian" conservatives telling us what to do and how to vote.  IRA anyone? Another Romney flip-flop? This time it is gun control.  Krusty says t here could be room for Rudy in Iowa.  I love the absolutely delicious possibility of a McCain-Romney murder suicide in Iowa.  It was predicted months ago.  I think it could happen.  The Tancredo Watch on TT's presidential? bid.  There are those who think TT is just doing this for publicity to increase his star power back in Colorado for a Senate run, but  he has name recognition enough back there.  I think it's his ego talking.   The Des Moines Register blog is talking the idea of a Brownback-Tancredo dream ticket.  Excuse me while I go barf!  Don't forget to catch my Tancredo Expose over at the Subway Canaries.