Hyperbole for 1000, Alex

From Mark Steyn on the Hugh Hewett show (via Maggie’s Farm):

“Bush could very easily have said, well look, he could have stood there in the 2002 State of the Union and said look, I inherited this al Qaeda mess from Bill Clinton, because he didn’t have the guts to take out the guy in Afghanistan when he could have.   He could have stood there in 2003 and said well look, I inherited this unfinished Iraq business from my predecessor who just wanted to fly over and bomb the no-fly zone once in a while, and that’s unfinished business that I “inherited”.

Obama will still be blaming everything on what he “inherited” in years and years to come.   It’s time to man up.   You’re the president.   Nobody forced you to be the president.   You wanted the job.   Man up or get the hell out of the way.   But to stand there blaming in this cheesy, tacky, finger pointing at a guy who’s been gone now for over a year just makes you look Princess Fairy Pants. It’s pathetic.”

Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark.

“Look, look, look, the Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries.”

(HT: Darlene at Protein Wisdom)

He must have been off teleprompter.

An old man once told me to never follow anyone’s advice and figure things out by myself.

I wasn’t sure what to do.

Terror lizard attack narrowly averted.  Janet Napolitano declares, “The system works!”

A German reptile collector has been jailed for 14 weeks and must pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine for plundering New Zealand’s wild gecko and skink populations, a judge has ruled.

Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, is to be deported to Germany as soon as he is released from prison, Judge Colin Doherty ordered Tuesday.

Kubus was caught by wildlife officials at Christchurch International Airport on South Island in December, about to board an overseas flight with 44 geckos and skinks in a hand-sewn package concealed in his underwear.

He admitted trading in exploited species without a permit and hunting absolutely protected wildlife without authority, pleading guilty to two charges under the Wildlife Act and five under the Trade in Endangered Species Act.

(HT: SFGate)

Don’t know if this is legit or not.  You’re working on the rails. Checking the track. Just another day at the office… What can possibly go wrong?  I’m thinking this guy hasn’t paid attention to a safety briefing in his life.

FoxNews posted this bit about easily hacked passwords:

The 10 most commonly used passwords on the Web have been revealed as part of an analysis of tens of millions of Internet accounts.

Imperva, a data security firm, said it had analyzed around 32 million passwords that had been exposed in a recent hack of the RockYou Web site.

The top 10 most common passwords:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou *
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

* Note: this list was sourced from the RockYou website.

“Everyone needs to understand what the combination of poor passwords means in today’s world of automated cyber attacks: with only minimal effort, a hacker can gain access to one new account every second,” said Amichai Shulman, Imperva’s chief technical officer.

“Employees using the same passwords on Facebook that they use in the workplace bring the possibility of compromising enterprise systems.“

Hello, McFly!  In a spirit of Christian charity I must say that if you use one (or more) of these passwords, you’re a moron.  That is all.

Narcissist in Chief

Do you hear someone singing?

“I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and bright!
And I pity
Any girl who isn’t me tonight.”

(HT: Weasel Zippers)

If you’re an IT guy this might mean something to you, or not.  I’m right at the peak of inflated expectations.

Gartner Hype Cycle 2009

Hmmm.  Could it be because Christians, Jews and Buddhists aren’t actively trying to kill us on a routine basis?

Study: Americans More Prejudiced Against Muslims

NEW YORK  —  Americans are more than twice as likely to express prejudice against Muslims than they are against Christians, Jews or Buddhists, a new survey found. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they have little or no knowledge of Islam. Still, a majority dislike the faith.

The analysis, for release Thursday, is from the Gallup World Religion Survey and is part of a project on finding ways to increase understanding between Americans and Muslims.

President Barack Obama and his administration want to improve America’s image in the Muslim world. Many analysts who study extremism also say that U.S. Muslims who feel alienated from broader society resist integrating, potentially becoming more vulnerable to radical ideas.

In the poll, just over half of Americans said they felt no prejudice against Muslims. However, 43 percent acknowledged at least “a little” prejudice against Muslims, a significantly higher percentage than for the other four faiths in the survey.

About 18 percent of respondents said they had some level of prejudice against Christians, while the figure was 15 percent toward Jews and 14 percent toward Buddhists.

Asked about knowledge of Islam, 63 percent of Americans say they have “very little” or “none at all.” A large majority of respondents believe most Muslims want peace. Yet, 53 percent of Americans say their opinion of the faith is “not too favorable” or “not favorable at all.” By comparison, 25 percent of Americans say they have unfavorable views of Judaism, while 7 percent say they have “some” or “a great deal” of prejudice toward Jews.

Best quote ever on the state of the Democrat party:

“They seem convinced that the only way to rescue themselves from the trap in which they have caught themselves is to chew off the foot that’s still free.”

(HT: Ed Morrisey at Hot Air, by way of the Flea)