GOP Vixen

Super-serial SP overreaction

I couldn't help but laugh at this post on Daily Kos in reaction to "South Park's" goof on Al Gore last Wednesday:

"... Last night's South Park episode seemed to imply, if not to blatantly claim, that global warming is equal to a fictional monster.  Global warming is a real and serious problem, and to equate it with a 'ManBearPig' is just ignorant and irresponsible.  And portraying Al Gore as a whiny little bitch whom 'nobody likes' is just, frankly, rude and insulting.

And let me point out that I did NOT vote for Al Gore in 2000.  I voted for someone nobody here has probably heard of, David McReynolds of the Socialist Party.  Yeah, I was a little more radical in my younger days.

But you have to give Gore some credit at least for his part in bringing global warming to the forefront of attention.

Now, I like South Park.  I think they have a really good sense of satire, and sometimes they make great political points.  But sometimes I get a real libertarian capitalist vibe from that show that just irritates the crap out of me.  And last night's episode was a great example of that libertarian capitalist mentality."

"Libertarian capitalist vibe"? That's hot.

Axis of commies

They're plotting... they're scheming... they're madly chuckling as they rub their hands together and brainstorm (limited activity here) on ways to stick it to the big, bad US of A! From AP:

"Bolivian President Evo Morales joined Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in Havana for Saturday's endorsement of a socialist trade initiative aimed at providing an alternative to U.S.-backed free trade efforts in Latin America.

Morales on Saturday planned to officially include his Andean nation in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas — a pact that leftists Castro and Chavez signed a year ago.

So far, only Venezuela and Cuba are signatories to the pact known by its Spanish acronym as ALBA, which also translates to mean 'dawn.' It also been referred to as the 'people's trade agreement.'

The pact calls for shared trade and cooperation agreements among Latin American nations in lieu of Washington's unsuccessful Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, which Chavez and Castro said was a U.S. attempt to 'annex' the region."

These guys are really starting to bore me...

It's high times in Mexico, baby

Mexicans may be streaming north of the border, but they're soon just going to be part of a population swap with rowdy college students and run-of-the-mill crackheads. From AP:

"Mexicans would be allowed to possess small amounts of cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use under a bill approved by lawmakers that some worry could prove to be a lure to young Americans.

... Currently, Mexican law leaves open the possibility of dropping charges against people caught with drugs if they can prove they are drug addicts and if an expert certifies they were caught with 'the quantity necessary for personal use.'

The new bill drops the 'addict' requirement, allows 'consumers' to have drugs, and sets out specific allowable quantities, which do not appear in the current law.

Those quantities are sometimes eye-popping: Mexicans would be allowed to posses 2.2 pounds of peyote, the button-sized hallucinogenic cactus used in some Indian religious ceremonies.

Police would no longer bother with possession of up to 25 milligrams of heroin, 5 grams of marijuana (about one-fifth of an ounce, or about four joints), or 0.5 grams of cocaine — the equivalent of about 4 'lines,' or half the standard street-sale quantity.

The law lays out allowable quantities for a large array of other drugs, including LSD, MDA, MDMA (ecstasy, about two pills' worth), and amphetamines. ..."

I'll bet this is the Mexican government's train of thought: Flood of Americans comes south to buy drugs. Pick them up for jaywalking on way to drug dealer's store. Every American knows to take some bribe money south of the border in case you get picked up by la policia on some bogus charge; Mexican localities rake in bribe money to stimulate economy. Cool theory, eh?

In other news...

"A demonstration by thousands of Mexican workers Friday to promote union solidarity turned into a protest against America's vast influence on the nation's economy, with many protesters saying they will take part in a boycott of all things 'gringo' on Monday.

... The proposed boycott — known as the 'Nothing Gringo' campaign — is timed to coincide with Monday's 'Day Without Immigrants' protest in the U.S. aimed at pushing forward a proposal for immigration reform including legalization for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants."

However, if a gringo walks in to a Mexican shop, the salespeople bypass the natives and press to make a deal with the gringo with the U.S. dollars.

Yet adds the AP:

"... But even activists are confused about which companies are U.S.-owned. Sears is cited by boycott organizers, despite the fact that Sears' Mexico stores were bought by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim in 1997. And few organizers mention Vips _ the chain of ubiquitous Mexican diners _ even though they are owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

   

A quarter of Mexico's formal private-sector jobs with regular pay are provided by U.S. firms, according to the chamber, including Walmex, the Mexican Wal-Mart subsidiary that is the nation's biggest private employer with 140,000 workers. Delphi Corp., the U.S. auto parts maker, is second with 70,000 workers."

Toodles,
GringoVixen

Iran

In the end, doesn't it come down to this:

1. Iran has nuclear weapons with a missile capability of delivering them to Europe. Or...

2. We take military action to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

I think it's that simple of a choice. And if you want to rattle a liberal, present that very real option to them and see if they will even choose. Mine won't. Because it's a choice between Iran with nukes and Bush being right. And the left finds both equally unbearable.

This isn't Russians with nukes. Russians are godless; they want to live for as long as possible. These are relgious fanatics with nukes. Lunatics. Lunatics who have made their intentions of wiping Israel off the map with Hilter-like-clarity.

I hope Bush is only playing Mr. Diplomat. I hope it's all a smiling game to shush his critics, appease the liberal media, and bluff the Iranians. I hope we're watching and planning and preparing to do anything necessary to keep Iran out of the Nuclear Club. Because I don't like racist, sexist, theocrats with nuclear weapons.

And why is it liberals only tolerate and seek to understand racist, sexist, theocrats who hate America and Jews?

Great American Shopfest!

Remember that Monday, May 1, is the Great American Shopfest! Get out there with your cash to celebrate the Great American Work Ethic by shopping and working hard! Enjoy lighter traffic (maybe) on the L.A. freeways by others engaging in their May Day boycott.

In recognition of the Great American Shopfest, may I recommend some of my favorite Los Angeles shopspots:

Sephora, Manhattan Beach Village. Dropped a bunch of my tax return at this mecca of beauty products the other day. Plus, Manhattan Beach Village -- on Sepulveda Boulevard at Rosecrans -- is a small but upscale collection of shops with good restaurants.

Ross at National and Sepulveda. One of the best (and biggest) Ross stores in the county. Take advantage of lighter customer flow to really hunt through the handbags and home goods at this Ross. Don't miss the Michael Kors and Dior sunglasses locked in the jewelry case!

Irish Import Shop, Melrose and Vine. Say "hi" to some immigrants, those who own the oldest Irish import shop in the nation! Includes a decent-sized grocery section with lots of Cadbury and spotted dick. They recently put in a larger refrigerated case, too, with bangers, soda bread and more.

Tower Records, any location will do! The classic record store. They've been responding well to the challenge from big-box stores by having bins of sale CDs with good titles. Take the time to dig!

The Container Store, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa. Fascinating for the sheer amount of doohickeys they carry to store stuff.

Nordstrom Rack, Victory Boulevard, Woodland Hills. Having studied each of the area's Nordstorm Racks (outlets), this is probably the best one. It is surely the largest. Close second place to the one on Howard Hughes Parkway -- where you can add to your day of shopping with a movie at the multiplex there!

Off 5th, Ontario Mills. Can you imagine how great the outlet malls are going to be on Monday?? This Saks Fifth Avenue outlet is amazing. Look for the colored dots on price tags, then find the color-code index to get as much as 70 percent off the lowest price. I've picked up Kate Spade shoes for $30, Isaac Mizrahis for $10, Emanuel Ungaro tops slashed from $300 to $30, a Mongolian lamb scarf that my cats still want to kill, and more!

Tom's Farms, 23900 Temescal Canyon Road, Corona. As long as you're out in Ontario, head down Interstate 15 to Tom's Farms, a mecca of goodies spread out among different shops including one with dried fruit, nuts and candy, a farmer's market, and a wine and cheese shop with freshly baked French bread loaves as you enter. (The French don't work, either!)

'South Park' goofs on Al Gore

Because he really does still deserve it! This week's new episode begins at a school assembly, where Al Gore comes to warn the kids about the greatest threat to the planet. Just as you picture "global warming" coming out of Gore's mouth, he unveils ManBearPig: a creature that is "half man, half bear, half pig." The robotic and dorky nature of Gore's character is perfect, as is the less-than-lukewarm reaction he receives wherever he goes. When Gore corners Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman on the basketball court to ask them to sign an acknowledgment of the ManBearPig threat, Stan's dad pulls up and picks the kids up, saying, "Boys, I don't want you hanging out with that vice president anymore." Stan responds, "I feel bad for him, Dad. I don't think he has any friends."

Gore then drags the boys to Cave of the Winds to hunt ManBearPig, and in his frenzy fires off a weapon, sparking a cave-in that traps the boys. While rescuers are trying to reach the kids (in a scene reminiscent of the mine accident last year), Gore is patting himself on the back: "I killed ManBearPig. I saved the planet. Everyone is super-stoked on me, even if they don't know it."

After the boys save themselves, Stan snaps at Gore that this is why he has no friends: "You just need ManBearPig to get attention for yourself because you're a loser!"

In this "South Park" season, where hybrid car drivers generated a smug storm, it's not hard to see the dig at Gore's environmental alarmism...

("Manbearpig" replays at 11 p.m. tonight on Comedy Central)

Headline of the day

From the Daily Telegraph:

"Islamic clerics want to close YMCA"

Did they really take the Village People song that seriously?

Chavez spreads the paranoia around!

For those of you who aren't aware of these charming little units lurking within the United States, Bolivarian Circles are groups dedicated to spreading Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian revolutionary fantasy around. Last night I sent an e-mail to one chapter via an address that I found on a lefty Web site. I fully identified myself, was extremely polite, said I was working on a piece about groups involved in pro-immigration demonstrations, and was their Bolivarian Circle involved in such activism?

The reply:

"I don't know who you are and why you are bringing this type of questions to us maybe you can find with the police or the FBI the names and pictures of the thousands of individuals who went to the immigrant march on March 25."

This is paranoia of which Chavez himself -- who constantly swears that someone's about to attack him -- would be extremely proud!

Caption this!

It's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's first documentary short! But surely he needs some subtitles, eh?

Why is it...

... that every time I get stuck on the phone with MSN tech support, I want to bomb Pakistan and India afterward?

First of all, they don't respect the fact that you do know a little bit about what's happening with your computer. Yes, I've already done diagnostics on my modem. And a few minutes ago when I had to call, I knew exactly what the problem was. In fact, I had a handy error box telling me what the problem was. My password needed to be reset, something that happens every year or so.

But the techies -- who still had an old address of mine on file, even though I've updated it every time I've called for the past few years -- always get worked up that I'm using a manual dial-up (why not the MSN start-up page?!!???) and that I don't use Internet Explorer (which happens to invite viruses). This is not the problem, I tell them, I need to reset my password. Techie No. 1 says that he needs to transfer me to a connectivity specialist. To reset a damn password?!? Then techie No. 2 asks all of the same questions that technie No. 1 wasted my time with.

After all of their brilliant diagnostic detective work, turns out my password just needed to be reset. That, by the way, was 20 minutes on the phone.

If India and Pakistan do ever go to war with each other, can they aim for the MSN call centers?