Extreme Mortman

The shuttering of Bennigans restaurants means this is the one of the last times we can take the below joke out for a spin.

So, for one final trip around joke nostalgia lane:

This …

plus this…

equals this …

The greatest king of all-time — Evel Knievel — is dead.  Long live the king.

And yes, I’m still upset that I lost my Evel Knievel toy back in the early ’70s.  I think a friend stole it.

From the Cleveland Plain-Dealer’s Openers political blog:

After last night’s GOP presidential debate, a Dennis Kucinich fan named Davis Fleetwood queried Texas Rep. Ron Paul about Kucinich’s recent suggestion in New Hampshire that they run as a joint ticket. Paul called such talk “premature” and added “We’re just getting going.”

In other words, Fleetwood: Don’t stop thinkin’ about tomorrow.

Rabbi Dana Milbank instructs us today:

Entine, in his opening remarks, mentioned another source of Jewish pride: the Vulcan gesture made by Spock in “Star Trek.” It was, he said, a symbol used by Jewish high priests that Leonard Nimoy learned in synagogue.

We should add parenthetically that we Jews also are proud to have inspired the legendary Vulcan slogan: Live long and kvetch.

Loyal reader K T Cat asked us to plug this item — which we proudly do here:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims Thursday night at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony to support Besmaya’s San Diego residents.

Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California.

The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya. In a speech given during the presentation, Col. Abbass stated that he and the Iraqi soldiers were connected with the American people in many ways, and they will not forget the help that the American government has given the Iraqi people. Abbass was honored to participate by sending a simple fund of $1,000 to the American people in San Diego, to lower the suffering felt by the tragedy.

Glenn Reynolds reminds us to say Burma, not Myanmar.

For good reason.  From C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” this morning, here’s Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-IL), ranking member of the Asia Subcommittee:

… there’s even a dispute as to the name of it.  The popularly elected people who were elected in 1990 to the 485-member parliament led by Aung San Suu Kyi were never allowed to be sworn into office.  They just — they were elected, the junta came in and said that’s it, you’re not going to be able to take over office.  And of course she’s been under house arrest.  … And so of the popularly elected people and now the government in exile calls it Burma and the junta calls it Myanmar after the Myan people, I guess the major tribe if you want to call it that rules the country.  And here is a country that the Brits came into in 1824 in their colonization and completed that — actually in 1885, an exit to India.  And then as with India, they got out of the colony.  This is since 1947 and ‘48.  But the Brits did leave behind something interesting in Burma and that is they really left the rule of law not as strong as in India.  They left behind the civil service institutions, the organizations for setting up trade.  And I think it was in the ’30s that Burma actually led the world in exporting rice.  So it’s a country with a tremendous amount of potential.  Very strong people.  There are about a million Burmese that are living in exile, many in Bangladesh and other parts of the surrounding countries there.  So it’s important for the United States and for the world to keep our eyes on this country because it has the real possibility of becoming yet another democracy in Asia.

Oh, the duck.  Oh, the risotto.  Oh the crepes sporting raspberry and strawberry filling.

Tonight we treated the entire Extreme Mortman staff to a rare night out on the town, or, more accurately, an hour in the basement of the Willard Hotel.  That’s where the Hoover Institution held its annual reception, a culinary feast so extravagant it once again earned its reputation as the most dazzling collection of foods since the parents of Extreme Mortman served up three jars of pickled herring at his Bar Mitzvah.

You know how many hip parties rent really beautiful people to just hang out?  It seems the conservative Hooverites rent really smart intellectuals to just make interesting observations while sipping drinks.
But wait!  What’s that?  There, as we sip The Glenlivet, could it be?  Yes!  It’s Don Rumsfeld chatting up Doug Feith!  Not just chatting, laughing.  Laughing really, really hard.  The kind of laughter that’s so hard it could cause a mistrial if the Scooter Libby jury ever heard it.

We couldn’t figure out the joke, but we saw Feith sipping red wine, and Rumsfeld holding a glass of what seemed to be white.  We had Glenlivet, but liberals could have been just plain livid.  If only we knew what the joke was.  Perhaps the joys of private sector?

For some odd reason, counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who’s better suited for global warning than global warming, writes in today’s Washington Post about global warming, calling it a national security issue:

When the possibility of invading Iraq surfaced in 2001, senior Bush administration officials hadn’t thought much about global warming, except to wonder whether it was caused by human activity or by sunspots. Today, the world’s scientists and many national leaders worry that the world has passed the point of no return on global warming.

A flimsy connection to his expertise, indeed.  Since being a terrorism expert apparently now earns you climatology credentials, I’d like to chime in.  My connection to being able to talk authoritatively about global warming?  Simple: I’m a blogger.  And here’s what I think:

Thank God for global warming. What a warm winter it’s been so far.  Last year was pretty mild, too.  I’d much rather have 50 or 60 degree weather in January to take my three-year-old out to play than have to risk braving through freezing drizzle, icy patches, snow drifts, and other treacheries of the road.  So for New Year’s tonite, raise a glass for global warming.  Keep that warm trend going — no telling how many American lives are being saved.  How many counterterrorism specialists can make that claim?