Maxfield Parrish illustration, Knickerbocker's History of New York (1899)

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Some kind of blog: 

The Irascible One

Let the paranoia begin --- You might remember during the Bill Clinton years in the White House, every time someone criticized Madame Hillary (Queenie), the first words out of her mouth were "vast right wing conspiracy."  She got her way or else.  Nothing as elegant as "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," mind you, usually just full of venom and spittle.  And tinges of White House Paranoia are beginning to appear in her campaign.

In Iowa the other day, a gentleman called her on some statements she had made about Iran and the current administration's attempts to make us believe Iran is a terrorist nation.  Hillary seemed to be agreeing with the Bush folk.  Randall Rolph was immediately challenged and denounced.  She accused him of "being from a rival campaign, a plant."

Rolph it seems lives about 20 miles from where The Hillary stop was located.  She attempted to apologize, but the press heard it all.  Is it time to break out your copy of the Starr Report?

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Gore Gored in Scotland --- Former veep Al Gore, glorying in his recent spat of good news got a come-uppance from a British High Court judge recently.  Gore, sharing in two Oscars for the film, "An Inconvenient Truth" and sharing a Nobel Peace Prize to boot might find the film booted from classrooms in England, Wales, and Scotland.  The judge found the film contains "nine scientific errors," and has ruled it can only be shown in schools if those errors are pointed out.

The three most glaring, Mr. Justice Burton said, are

• Mr. Gore's assertion that a sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of ice in either West Antarctica or Greenland "in the near future". The judge said this was "distinctly alarmist" and it was common ground that if Greenland's ice melted it would release this amount of water - "but only after, and over, millennia".

• Mr. Gore's assertion that the disappearance of snow on Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa was expressly attributable to global warming - the court heard the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established the snow recession is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.

• Mr. Gore's reference to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears had actually drowned "swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find the ice". The judge said: "The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm."

Maybe not as bad as Marion Jones or Barry Bonds, and he probably won't be asked to return either his Nobel or his Oscar, but this does point out how mistruth is often advertised as truth.

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Stirred, not shaken, please --- This little tidbit was found on the BBC International Wire recently, and it needs to be passed along.  A tourist in Australia accidentally swallowed a poison and went into a coma in a less than medically perfect region of Down Under.  Doctors normally would have used what they call a "medicinal alcohol drip" as an antidote to the poison.

Not having any medicinal alcohol, they substituted vodka for the procedure.  The drip was the equivalent of several glasses of vodka per day and lasted several days.  The man didn't come around for a couple of days and the medical staff said his hangover would have "well and truly gone" by then.

Quantas is accepting reservations at this time.

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More Hillary? --- This little squib was sent to the Irascible One by an anonymous donor but I believe it was first published in a Dennis Meyers column that he syndicates, dealing with "today in history" type articles.  It speaks for itself.

Hillary Clinton/October 10, 2002: In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program.  He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001.  It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.  Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security.

Thank you, Dennis.

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