Snapped Shot

Hugo Chavez sure seems to enjoy slinging these letters around. It sure doesn't seem to be a good way of dispelling the notion that he's a Cuban Communist Stoolie, though...

One of my earliest memories of moving to Fairfax County was the drive from Interstate 95 up Route 1, and then up Telegraph Road through Lorton. As a Tidewater boy, I was intimately familiar with the history of Princess Anne County, which became the Virginia Beach of my youth, but hadn't learned much else about our Commonwealth yet. It therefore comes as no surprise that names like Colchester, Gunston, and Pohick didn't mean anything to me yet.

In the 18 years since first coming to Fairfax County, it has changed in innumerable ways. Neighborhoods have sprung up from nowhere, virtually overnight, and become completely occupied within months. In the midst of all this change, it isn't surprising to notice that the threads of history sometimes become obscured by the inevitable march of "Progress."

Take, for instance, The Village at Mount Air, near the intersection of Telegraph and 7100 (formerly Backlick Rd) in the Newington area of Lorton. I have driven past it countless times, even looked at houses for sale there, and never once had I even considered the origin of its name! Continue reading »

Ward Smythe has a wonderful write-up of the re-enactment of the first English landing out on Cape Henry, in Virginia Beach. Be sure to hop on over and check it out—complete with awesome pictures!

Thanks for sharing that with us, Ward!

We're looking forward to going down to Williamsburg on the 11th and 12th for the 400th anniversary celebration. It's bound to be an awesome time, an historic occasion I'm eagerly looking forward to. Anyone else planning on going?

They're not called the "Useless Nations" for nothing, folks.

Another day, another terrorist press conference. You've gotta love how far the press will go to fawn over these thugs.



A handful of photographers sent photographs over the wires of this farce, but of all of them, Reuters is characteristically short on details. Can you guess what Mohammed Salem left out of his captions? I'll be dropping more hints following the break, if you're interested!

Be sure to check out our previous coverage of terrorist press conferences as well. This isn't the first time that the press has gotten the vapours over a group closely resembling the dreaded Ku Klux Klan. Continue reading »

Does anyone even wonder how Mohammed Salem is able to get such unrestricted access to an openly hostile militant group like Hamas?


Notice how Hamas is portrayed as a brave group of warriors, putting on their best game face and preparing to meet the enemy in a hail of fire. Also notice that you'd never find a photograph of the Israeli Defence Forces in the same light, as they're relegated to being portrayed as the Evil Jew Death Forces and Oppressors of All Peoples.

And they say the press is "fair." Ha.
Continue reading »

It's as if the Cuban government exists for no reason other than to counter our constant speculation about Fidel Castro's demise. Not a day after questions were raised in the comments thread just referenced, the Cubans have released this high-resolution photograph of, well, I'll just call him "Fidel"—to "prove" to us that he's still "with" us.


It is nice to know that they're still in the business of "quashing" rumours. It's not like Cuba has any real needs to tend to, right?

Facial recognition experts, do your worst:

Chris Anderson isn't going to like this report from Harvard (PDF, h/t LGF):

An open society becomes the victim of its own openness. During the war, no Hezbollah secrets were disclosed, but in Israel secrets were leaked, rumors spread like wildfire, leaders felt obliged to issue hortatory appeals often based on incomplete knowledge, and journalists were driven by the fire of competition to publish and broadcast unsubstantiated information. A closed society conveys the impression of order and discipline; an open society, buffeted by the crosswinds of reality and rumor, criticism and revelation, conveys the impression of disorder, chaos and uncertainty, but this impression can be misleading.

Charles points out, as I have on previous occasions, that the press felt no need to question Hezbullah's statements and public presentation. The very same press that accepted Nasrallah's talking points verbatim could be found questioning every statement released by Israel, and reporting every rumour about the IDF as fact.

How's that for "fair and balanced" coverage?

The press failed miserably in the Israel/Lebanon war. Instead of acting as the arbiters of debate, and trying to provide a factual pictures of events on the ground, they allowed themselves to be used as propagandists.

Chris likes to counter that the U.S. Army puts the same restrictions on reporters that Hezbullah did. If that's the case, Chris, then how do you explain this story getting out into the general public? If our Army were as censored as you like to suggest that it was, wouldn't stuff like that never hit the news?

If the press were interested in the "truth," I think we would've seen more skeptical coverage of Hezbullah in last summer's war. Like, for starters, perhaps asking them why they insist on hiding behind civilians.

See also: Hyscience, The Jawa Report, Ace of Spades HQ, EU Referendum, Michelle Malkin.

Look who's come out of his li'l ol' hidey hole:


You can find more goose-stepping dictatorial goodness beyond the fold. Continue reading »

Charles Johnson and Aussie Dave beat me to it, but here it is in case you haven't seen it yet. Can you spot the irony in the following caption?

Continue reading »

I see, via Sweetness and Light, that Hillary Clinton is promising to slash 500,000 contracting positions off of the Federal rolls if elected:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that if elected she would put an end to the outsourcing of critical government functions to the private sector and axe up to half a million federal contracting jobs.

Considering that approximately 499,999 of the 500,000 contractors (okay, so I'm exaggerating a touch) currently reporting to Washington, D.C. live in Northern Virginia, it'd be interesting to see how this affects our economy up here.

Personally, I'd love to see some of these superfluous contracts go away. I've seen more waste in the past 5 years of contracting than I ever dreamed existed, from last-minute fiscal-year spending sprees, to employees being kept on the job because the overall contract demands that they be there, demand or not. But seriously, if Hillary Clinton thinks that killing the Northern Virginia economy to spite the evils of contracting, I can't imagine that Richmond would be too happy about it.

There's plenty to clean up in contracting. But to blame the problems we're seeing on the Bush Administration is absurd -- There are plenty of works decrying the evils of contracting from the 1800's, if you're under the delusion that this is a "modern" affliction. And if any of you think that turning all of these "contract" positions into Federally-unionized Civil Service jobs would actually solve anything?

Well, let's just say that I'd be happy to start taking bids on Key Bridge.

Hillary, you're barking up the wrong tree. Cutting your stanch supporters in Northern Virginia off at the knees is not going to win you any friends.

Then again, as a Republican, I guess I should encourage her to keep on truckin', huh?

Reader JayDee [ed.: That would be JayDee as in "my best friend JD, since the 4^th 7^th grade," of course. I didn't mean to "diss" ya, JD, but the ol' Crackberry isn't the most conducive device for lengthy authoring!] reports that Boris Yeltsin has died today.

*NEWS ALERT* - 9:54 AM Apr. 23

*FORMER RUSSIAN PRESIDENT YELTSIN DIES*

A Kremlin official today said Boris Yeltsin had died at age 76 but gave no
cause of death or further information.

Is Fidel Castro back in good enough shape for the public spotlight again? Or have they just finished training his body double well enough to go out and start meeting people?


For more on the history of the Traditional Dictatorial Use of Body Doubles, be sure to see good old Wikipedia.

It seems that the wily Indonesians have gotten into the whole spirit of Earth Day. I'm kinda curious, though, as to when the Confederate States of America was re-established, and why they think that it's an "environmental criminal." (h/t Sweetness & Light)