"Yalla Ya Nasrallah"

Hilarious video with a catchy tune and footage of Israel's military. Subtitled in English.

If you know the artist, please post it in the comments.

We dodged a bullet...

... though the rest of the U.S. hasn't been so lucky.

Near as I can figure, it got down to the mid-30s last night. Still, I hope y'all let Fluffi and Fideaux sleep indoors. It was mighty chilly.

Bomb found in car.

In today's Nola:

State Police are investigating a bomb they found in a vehicle during a traffic stop in Elmwood.

Read it all.

What in tarnation is goin' on down there?

Open letter to Britney Spears

My dear Ms. Spears,

This letter is prompted by my 14-year-old Darling Daughter's disappointment. She's afraid for your well being, sweetie! Especially since she's seen the pictures. You know the ones - with the blank spots hiding naughty bits. Ick.

The gossip columnists are having a field day. Surely you're used to living in the public eye by now, but still. It's painful to read.

You need a makeover.

One of your greatest assets is that you're a talented young lady from Kentwood, Louisiana. Quit trying to be a Hollywood socialite, partying with the likes of Paris and what's-her-name - you know, the other chick who doesn't wear drawers.

Those two, I wouldn't invite to scoop poop.

Get some counseling for your self-esteem. Not a Hollywood shrink - pick a good one in Baton Rouge or Hammond, y'know? Spend more time with your kids (they're adorable!), and much less time partying in public.

Hire a better stylist. Stay outta the plastic surgeon's office. You're a cute girl. Let everybody else look manufactured, and you be the real one.

You're from the back of beyond in the Deep South. Work that for all it's worth. Be proud of your roots. They're unique!

If you need some time out, send me an email or leave a comment. Everybody ignores us, so you could hide here for a couple weeks and decompress. We'll toss balls for the dogs, walk in the woods, plink with the .22s. Darling Daughter is a competent babysitter; leave your entourage out on the Left Coast.

Love ya, kiddo. Take care.

Batten down the hatches.

Prepare for the worst - even though it's only a 30% chance. And don't leave Fideaux or Fluffi outdoors Tuesday night.

Image redacted from the NWS:

The blogs of war.

Any readers alive and aware during the Vietnam War? To me, it was the first conflict we watched on television. A lot of footage was on the nightly news.

In the present war against islamofascism, we don't only have soldiers' letters home or articles from reporters who are, more often than not, sipping cocktails at a hotel in Baghdad and taking reports from "stringers" with an agenda. We've got milblogs.

There are too many of 'em to list, so hie thee to Milblogging-dot-com and read, read, read.

On the war in Iraq

Via Michelle Malkin, a great and thoughtful post from The Anchoress[excerpts]:

This is an enemy that does not wear a uniform, it hides in the crowd, it fights with no code and concurs with no convention. It doesn’t mind hiding behind women and children or storing arms in churches. If this enemy takes a prisoner it slaughters him on camera, and with great glee.[...]This is an enemy that says, “you love Pepsi, we love death. And we are happy to die as long as we are killing you, too.”[...]…they’re fighting and using terrorism as a means of movement, to advance an idea the bottom line of which is “Die. Or, you know, convert. But mostly die.”[...]If Bush fails in going “all in” and we pull out, okay…we’ve brought our sons and daughters home and basically rendered meaningless our 3000 honorable military deaths. Iraq will immediately fall and the 21century killing fields will commence.

[...]
The whole thing.

"Home-loan house of cards ready to fall"

Excerpts [emphases mine]:

This week brings an update on the deterioration, via comments from two very knowledgeable friends. One of them, a former top executive at a subprime lender (whose chronicling of the unwind has been amazingly accurate and timely), told me that serious issues are developing, and that large companies like New Century Financial, Accredited Home Lenders and NovaStar Financial will, in his words, "hit the wall" very soon. [...]"This will, and should, take years to play out. (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke will yield to the Lobby and the Street, trying once again to lower rates and allow people to bail themselves out, while in turn allowing the buyout firms of the world to overpay for the companies they buy with easy money. The game is so rigged against honesty, it boggles the mind."[...]I am not as sure as he is that it will take "years" to play out. The damage will last for years, but the crackup that precedes the big damage will happen this year, I think.

Read it all, and Mr. Fleckenstein's earlier article, Voodoo Debt and the Coming Recession.

Be careful out there.

Earlier:
Mortgage lenders going bust
More on the bubble
Biggest bubble of 'em all
Advice for the New Year

"A Sense of Place"

Fascinating article in Gambit about the Neighborhood Story Project. Excerpts, with emphases mine:

The fate of the poor obscures a deeper issue. With most of the projects now empty, crime is surging.[...]NOPD is deteriorating, while the drug culture, permeated with guns, is on a roll. [...]Annie Pearl Nelson, a 40-year resident of the (now empty) Lafitte housing project, has this to say in a book called The Combination:

"When I first moved into Lafitte, this was the best housing development there was. The kids could come outside and they could play. You could leave all the doors and windows open. We didn't have to worry about breakin in, robberies, or anything like this. ... But now you could see [drug] transactions goin on anywhere you might be passin. ... I've had someone run in my door twice and the police were there, and they ran in my house twice."

Okay. The "welfare culture" has yet to return to New Orleans. The National Guard's still there, so there are a lot of good guys with guns on the street.

Yet it sounds like the Wild West down there.

Is this some mass post-Katrina psychosis goin' on? Or is it possible that those at fault for the crime were not the so-called entitlement class?

Once upon a time, we lived in a violent, poor, inner-city neighborhood. Ashley Nelson puts it so well:

Ashley Nelson's grief over her parents' drug use leads to an unblinking look at reality: "People I know who sell [drugs] say, 'They just making a living cuz it's hard." But it's more than that, too. Once I asked my uncle, 'Why do people deal drugs?' He told me, 'Respect and power. ... Once you get it, you feel like a leader.'

My experience is, this stuff about respect gets all mixed up in inner-city kids' minds. Yeah, in some ways the ghetto respects a drug dealer. He's got money. People fear him. Junkies worship him. He's got the juice and he gets what he wants.

In areas where many people struggle day-to-day, and there are no better examples around - because even the moderately successful leave - the drug dealer is king. He's the role model that too many children wish to emulate.

So I applaud HUD's efforts to close down those big projects permanently and go to smaller, scattered sites and vouchers. Children need to learn that the wider world views those "street heroes" with utter contempt, as the scum they are. They should live in a more varied environment and have exposure to working- and middle-class mores.

Then we'll make a dent in this problem.

Do go to Gambit and read it all.

It's Slothful Sunday.

This is a new weekly feature here at bogalusa!.

For at least an hour on Sunday, I put my feet up and do nothing instead of somethin' like yard work. I read the news, or a short story, or contemplate the lint in my navel.

At the moment, I'm not scrubbing floors.

What aren't you doing?

UPDATE: The look of the blog is cleaner with Arial instead of Times New Roman, ain't it?