Two Iranian sisters face death by stoning after a Sharia conviction for adultery.

The two were found guilty of adultery — a capital crime in Islamic Iran — after the husband of one sister presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away.

“Branch 23 of the supreme court has confirmed the stoning sentence,” said their lawyer, Jabbar Solati.

The penal court of Tehran province had already sentenced the sisters identified only as Zohreh, 27, and Azar (no age given) to stoning, the daily said.

Solati explained that the two sisters had initially been tried for “illegal relations” and received 99 lashes. However in a second trial they were convicted of “adultery.”

No word yet if Minneapolis Community Technical College will carry the stoning live on a jumbotron.

That this blog kicked off.

The day had gone like this:

1. I’d been at work – at a squalid little dotcom in Minnetonka.
2. I’d gone to an appointment. There, I found a copy of Time magazine.
3. There, I read a piece about the new breed of conservative intellectuals. One of them was Andrew Sullivan. A sidebar discussed “blogger.com”, the software he used to produce the site.
4. I raced back to work and went to Andrewsullivan.com for the first time. And read. And read. And read.
5. And, as you can see by the timestamp, I went home after work, fixed dinner, got the kids situated, raced out to Blogger.com, and launched the first-ever version of Shot In The Dark.

This blog and I have been through a lot together – and although I haven’t used it as a personal diaryblog, little bits and pieces do dribble out. This blog has seen me through:

• A gruelling year of unemployment and underemployment (five and six months, respectively)
• Four serious girlfriends. Er…three and a half serious girlfriends, to get technical.
• Rediscovering a social life. When I started the blog, I was a barely-divorced guy whose perspective was shaped by years of dealing with little kids. Via blogging, I met a whole new social circle – the NARN guys, the MOB, the Salem Radio crew, and many, many more.
• I recovered some old acquaintances – I can’t tell you how many high school friends I’ve reconnected with via this blog; hey Chris, Nancy, Martha, Dan, Janice, Tom, Jack, Alayne, Pennie, both of you Dans…well, OK. I guess I can tell you how many.  Also some different acquaintances, from college (yo, MLP and Mr. P) and afterward (hiya, Bergses!).  Anyway, here’s a shout-out to Jamestown in the house.
• And of course, best of all, all the many new friends I’ve made.
• Six jobs (all but the first and the most recent of them contracting gigs)
• A near-accidental fall back into my first love, talk radio, including realizing the great dream from my twenties, hosting a national network talk show (actually, 13 times, for Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager).
• Astounding growth from my kids; when the blog started, Bun was 10 and Zam had just turned nine (the day before, in fact). Today, they are 16 and (yesterday) 15. My elementary-school kids are now teenagers, and perilously close to going out into the real world.

I have a lot of readers who’ve been regulars since almost day one. How can you tell if you’re one of them? If you remember when the site’s original greenish-tan background, you’ve been reading a long time! I implemented the site’s current basic design in March of 2003, and have managed to keep things more or less the same despite leaving Blogger for Moveable Type in March of ’04, and again for WordPress in November of ’06. Expect a direct-to-brain feed, at this rate, by October of 2010.

Anyway – thanks to all of you who stop by and brighten my day by paying attention to my logorrheac screedmongering.

Update: Commenter “Old Buddy” – who is among the list of high school classmates I list above, although I’m not saying which – notes that I forgot to shout out to Pennie. D’oh! How could I forget? Hey, Pennie!

…that one of the Northern Alliance’s producers, “Antoine”, has a new blog out.

Check out “The Twon Spot”. It’s new, but if Antoine puts as much stuff online as he circulates via email, it’s gonna be huuuuuuge.

…a lot of happy gambling addicts out there today:

Add it up and you had a stunning 17-14 victory by the 12-point underdog Giants in Super Bowl XLII played in front of 71,101 fans at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Next year, the Bears, baby.

OK.  On to the serious bidness.  When do pitchers and catchers report again?

Soon?

Please?

I don’t believe in Karma – but I do believe what goes around comes around.

Maybe it’s my Scandinavian roots, but I’ve always tried to shy away from “overconfidence” – especially the great proto-American injunction against “counting your chickens before they’re hatched”.

So – while I’ve come to regard John McCain as a better option for the GOP nomination than, say, Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul (I’ll get behind him. anyway), I gotta confess; I heard Mac’s statement that he assumes he’ll get the nomination, and thought “this is the sort of thing that people unwittingly say that gets ’em into the history books”.

So Zogby shows Mitt up by eight in California, now. We can’t call it a “turnaround”, since a smallish fraction of the delegates have actually been allocated (that’s what tomorrow’s all about!).  And Mac may well be right, and it might not be the worst thing in the world.

But it reinforces the lesson; if you’re a Republican and you’re reading this, you need to show up at your caucus or primary tomorrow if you’re in one the the Super Di Duper Tuesay states (and Minnesota is one of them) and get your two cents into the works.

Find your precinct caucus, and hire a sitter, and be there.

True North has the best wrapup of Minnesota Caucus information anywhere, plus a caucus finder.   Read ’em, use ’em, be there.

I went to check out this piece, by ultra-left Chomsky acolyte George Lakoff, intending to bury him, not praise him.

And I still might do that.

But there’s a teaching moment in here, too. 

Lakoff, by way of attacking Hillary and her attempt to pillory Obama on “the issues”, discusses something I wrote about last week re the video of Obama talking about Ronald Reagan.

Because while conservatives’ admiration of Reagan is obvious (and in some extremes, dysfunctional), you can learn a lot from a diametric opponent’s reasoned analysis.

In Thinking Points, the handbook for progressives that the Rockridge Institute staff and I wrote last year, we began by analyzing Ronald Reagan’s strengths as a politician. According to his chief strategist, Richard Wirthlin, Reagan realized that most voters do not vote primarily on the basis of policies, but rather on (1) values, (2) connection, (3) authenticity, (4) trust, and (5) identity. That is, Reagan spoke about his values, and policies for him just exemplified values. He connected viscerally with people. He was perceived as authentic, as really believing what he said. As a result, people trusted him and identified with him. Even if they had different positions on issues, they knew where he stood. Even when his economic policies did not produce a “Morning in America,” [pfffffft, whatever – Ed.] voters still felt a connection to him because he spoke to what they wanted America to be. That was what allowed Reagan to gain the votes of so many independents and Democrats.

And that’s my big concern about this campaign.  Obama does, indeed, understand Reagan’s technique, although I do believe him to be genuine in his approach.  Unlike Reagan, though, Obama is an inch deep in the experience department, and his policies are (to this conservative) noxious, debilitating and dangerous.  I think – as I noted on the NARN show last Saturday – that Obama has the potential to be the next Jesse Ventura, or Jimmy Carter; a soothing and invigorating personality that draws lots of personality-driven voters to the polls. 

Worse, I think that the GOP nominees suffer by comparison. 

Romney shares values (#1 on Lakoff/Wirthlin’s list) – with most American voters; he’s definitely right on most issues.  But can you honestly say he connects with those undecided, non-political, “Reagan Democrat” voters?  That they look at his CEO hair and his perfect modulation and trust, identify and connect with him?  It’s a question, not a statement.

McCain has obvious crossover appeal – or so the media tells us – but that’s largely because he has crossed over, on so many issues.  He’s cranky, cantankerous – he’s America’s irascible grand-dad.  How does he stack up on  values, connection, authenticity, trust and identity?  I suppose it depends on who you ask. 

Lakoff inserts a bunch of baked wind about conservatism before getting back on point:

The Clintonian policy wonks don’t seem to understand any of this. They have trivialized Reagan’s political acumen as an illegitimate triumph of personality over policy. They confuse values with programs. They have underestimated authenticity and trust.

I wonder – again, asking rather than stating – if the GOP isn’t doing the same.

(Via Joel Rosenberg)

As I’ve noted in many places in several forums and media, I’m going to caucus for Romney, but if JMac wins the nomination, I’ll be right there.

I’ve linked to a fair amount of stuff supporting the more overtly-conservative Romney.

I should point out that Marty Andrade – who’s been an “out” McCain supporter all along – states some very articulate cases for Mac and against Mitt.

Start here, and then go read this.

And he also notes that, after four years of blogging, he’s up for at least another.  That’s a good thing.

Hang in there, Marty.

On Friday, Minneapolis Crime Watch noted:

There have been NO murders yet in 2008. (Knock on wood). By this time last year, we had 7.

Only 11 months to go!

Jay Reding gives one of the most complete shreddings of Barack Obama out there.

While I’ve complimented Obama’s communication style, it is just that – style. Reding closes that circle:

Ultimately, what makes Obama so troubling is that he’s putting out the political equivalent of junk food. His silky-smooth and tasteful rhetoric is ultimately full of calories, but has no nutritional value. A President must make hard decisions. They must not only talk about “change” but about facing down the real issues that effect the lives of voters. The American public deserves something more than smooth talk—they deserve real and substantive answers. Will Barack Obama continue to govern along the same far-left liberal lines as he has voted in the Senate? How will Barack Obama deal with the threat of terrorism? How will he deal with the impending insolvency of Medicare and Social Security? Talking about “change” is not an answer. Saying “yes we can” is not an answer. The American people deserve real substance, and Senator Obama is feeding us empty calories.

America has an obesity problem – intellectually as well as physically. This nation loves empty calories. Jesse Ventura was an Almond Joy, if you catch my drift – and we all know how that turned out. Obama is like a Three Musketeers bar.

…Zam will be starring in a episode of my “Twenty Years Ago Today” series.

He came along at about 12:20AM, fifteen years ago this morning at United Hospital. He was two weeks late, and was covered from head to toe with a bright crimson rash; his forehead was pushed down over his eyes, which I didn’t really get to see until he was a couple of days old.

Fifteen years later he has eyes – which, like any normal teenager, are usually screwed into a disdainful scowl – and a forehead (or so I remember – he usually has one of those wool caps on).

And he’s still Zam, and I think I’ll keep him.
Happy Birthday, not-so-little guy!

A robbery led to the shooting deaths of five women at a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois, in suburban Chicago.

When police arrived, they found multiple victims shot and killed in a back room of the store, Tinley Park police Sgt. T.J. Grady said.

As of 6 p.m., police confirmed that the motive in the case was robbery. In a press conference Saturday night, Grady said there is no indication that the suspect is still not armed.

“They are taking it very methodically,” Grady said about the search for the suspect, including working with a witness to try to get a composite of the shooter. Police have also pulled video from stores and establishments in a mile and a half radius around the store to see if the shooter stopped in anywhere prior to the shooting.

I hope the police find the shooter, although it looks like the first ten hours of manhunt have gone unrewarded.

It’s worth noting that while, unlike the Westroads Mall in Omaha where a shooting on December 7 of last year claimed eight, the Lane Bryant in Tinsdale Park was not posted against concealed carry permit holders.  The reason, of course, is that Illinois has the toughest state-level gun control laws in the country – and Chicago is worse still.  And while there was a private-property case to be made for Westroads (and other stores) being able to bar the law-abiding gun owner from their premises, it’s the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago that keeps the locals disarmed and helpless in this case.
The upshot another disarmed population being slaughtered like sheep.

When will the  brain-dead cretins who legislate gun bans (against the law-abiding) learn?  Or, better yet, be held accountable for the rivers of innocent blood on their hands?

Today on the Northern Alliance Radio Network:

• Volume I “The First Team” – John, Brian and Chad – will kick things off from 11-1.  I’m guessing there’ll be some Johan Santana talk…
• Volume II “The Headliner” – Ed and I will be doing our thing from 1-3.  We’re gonna talk Super Tuesday, you betcha.
• Volume III, “The Final Word” – King and Michael will talk with reps from each of the remaining Prez campaigns, from 3-5PM. 

So tune in to all six hours of the Northern Alliance Radio Network, the Twin Cities’ media’s sole guardians of sanity. On the air at AM1280 in the Metro, or streaming at AM1280’s Website, or via podcast at Townhall.

(Along with the Stroms, from 9-11, natch).

Go here, and vote for anything but Black Sabbath.  Because I totally hate Black Sabbath.

Yes – for the first and only time in my life, I’m running a campaign based purely on hatred.

Do it for the children.

 Thanks.

Let’s harness some of that election mania right about now.

For whom are you going to caucus?

Results are not binding on any of the major parties

Yet.

But I will occasionally publish things like…

…the last ten songs on my IPod:

10. Talk of the Town, Pretenders
9. Gone Away, Offspring (by far the best thing they ever did)
8. New Girl Now, Honeymoon Suite (by far the only thing they ever did)
7. The Punk And The Godfather, the Who
6. She’s Happy, the Gear Daddies
5. I Believe, Stevie Wonder
4. Little Mascara, the Replacements
3. Rockaway The Days, Springsteen
2. Jelly Roll, Charles Mingus
1. Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed, Richard and Linda Thompson

That feels much better than cat pictues, dinnit?

Jeff Horwich at MPR’s “In the Loop” reports on the Super Tuesday mania among Twin Cities’ twentysomethings.

It’s notable, if only for being the first time in history a public radio personality has performed as a human beatbox.

Except maybe Peter Segel.  I can’t remember.

…when you wonder if Scrappleface and Iowahawk are even legally satire anymore.

Bob Collins covered the “press” conference announcing the Super Bowl halftime entertainment.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

Not a very promising premise.  Right?

Oh, it gets worse:

This afternoon, Alicia Keyes and Jordan Sparks were announced as the pre-game entertainment, an event usually covered by the B-squad anyway, but still…

Lynne Miller (Ironstar) – “First of all, I love you. I think you’re fantastic….” It didn’t get better. She wanted to know what was in their iPods.

Amanda Jahn (Channel 3 News) – “First, you guys are so beautiful…” Why even bother with what her question was?

Yetta Gibson (Fox Phoenix) – “How ya doin? Where are your seats? And are you forced to root for the Knicks?” The what? The Knicks? I looked her up on the Internet. She’s described as “an Emmy Award-winning journalist.” That should tell you how hard it is to win a local Emmy.

Tom Petty, the halftime show, is up next. NFL Network analyst Terrel Davis says he’s never heard of Tom Petty. Ugh.

Never thought Nick Coleman would look good in comparison.

Leo at Psychmeister’s Ice Palace reprints the eulogy he gave at his father’s funeral.

Very worth a read.

Berkeley not only tries to shut down a Marine recruiting station, it gives Code Pink preferential treatment to carry out their harassment!

[the Berkeley City Council] voted 8-1 to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station “is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”

OK, so we’re used to Berkeley (and San Francisco, and Minneapolis for that matter) “sending” stupid “messages”. 

But this bit here… 

In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m.

In other words, in parking-strapped Berkeley, the City Council is lending city property to a protest group!

Can every protest group expect that sort of consideration?

Doy…:

“I believe in the Code Pink cause. The Marines don’t belong here, they shouldn’t have come here, and they should leave,” Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said after votes were cast….The recommendation to give Code Pink a parking space for protesting and a free sound permit was brought by council members Linda Maio and Max Anderson.

Some peoples’ freedom of speech is more important than yours, obviously.  At least, it is in Berkeley.

Code Pink on Wednesday started circulating petitions to put a measure on the November ballot in Berkeley that would make it more difficult to open military recruiting offices near homes, parks, schools, churches libraries or health clinics. The group needs 5,000 signatures to make the ballot.

In other words, zoning them like pr0n shops.

But here’s the part I like; it’s not entirely one-sided!

Because not only does the story note (as I did, years ago) that the Pinkers are stupid and ignorant – they’re lousy neighbors!:

Even though the council items passed, not everyone is happy with the work of Code Pink. Some employees and owners of businesses near the Marines office have had enough of the group and its protests.

“My husband’s business is right upstairs, and this (protesting) is bordering on harassment,” Dori Schmidt told the council. “I hope this stops.”

An employee of a nearby business who asked not to be identified said Wednesday the elderly Code Pink protesters are aggressive, take up parking spaces, block the sidewalk with their yoga moves, smoke in the doorways, and are noisy.

“Most of the people around here think they’re a joke,” the woman said.

A joke?  Really?  Seems a little…

…well, accurate.  It seems their Pinkers aren’t any smarter than ours are:

Fran Rachel, 90, a Code Pink protester who spoke at the council meeting, said the group’s request for a parking space and noise permit was especially important because the Marines are recruiting soldiers who may die in an unjust war.

“This is very serious,” Rachel said. “This isn’t a game; it’s mass murder. There’s a sickness of silence of people not speaking out against the war. We have to do this.”

“Our opponents are mentally ill”.

Oh, I’m looking forward to seeing those dimwitted old crones at the RNC.

Really, really, I am.

UPDATE WITH BOOYAH:  The American Legion says “Berkeley Delenda Est“.  Legion leader Marty Conatser does to the Berkeley Flower Children and the Pinkos what the Marines did to Peleliu (via Michelle):

“Osama bin Laden couldn’t have said it better,” American Legion National Commander Marty Conatser said of the Berkeley City Council Resolution, which tells the Marines that they are not welcome there. “Disgraceful, disloyal, ungrateful. These words are too kind in describing the actions of the public officials in Berkeley, who voted for this disgrace. Nonetheless, our Marines continue to bravely serve and in so doing, allow Americans to spout such foolishness. The American Legion not only strongly condemns this action by the City Council but also believes that a sincere apology is in order to all Marines, past and present.”…“I have been a recruiter in the National Guard and I know that it’s tough duty, with long hours,” Conatser said. “What these recruiters do is essential to our national security. Without recruiters we have no military. And I don’t think we can count on the flower children from Berkeley to protect this nation when it comes under attack. They have to remember that Marines are not the enemy; the terrorists are.”

“Remember”?  They have to learn it in the first place.

Remember; if some tinhorn city government can vote to make the Marines (or any other body of government) “unwanted and unwelcome intruders”, they can do it to anyone. 

Polinaut reports that Obamapalooza is sold out:

A campaign spokesman says 15 thousand online tickets have been given out and the campaign is expected to give out a few thousand paper tickets. Update — All tix are gone. No tickets are available. I’m told there’s a waiting list of 2,000 people.

Obama is apparently going to throw a sweaty towel into the audience.

It was Monday, February 1, 1988. 

Working for the DJ service, the drill was to call in every Monday to find out where you’d be working for the coming week.  Guys who did mostly mobile shows – weddings and parties where they’d take a mobile rig out on the road – would get their locations and their rig assignments.  Guys who worked clubs – I was one of them – would get what club they were working on what night.  It made a handy way of firing people, if you were passive-aggressive; some jocks just stopped getting assignments for a few weeks; they usually took the hint.

I had the opposite problem.  After six weeks of club jocking, the service wished they had another of me.  They had me working six nights a week.  Which, being paid by the night, was a good thing.

The previous week:

• Monday: Off
• Tuesday:  Jams (the dive in Brooklyn Center)
• Wednesday: City Limits (the blah place in Rosemount)
• Thursday: Jams
• Friday: City Limits
• Saturday: George’s
• Sunday: City Limits (the snooziest night of the week; I usually ended up playing for the staff and two drunks by 11ish)

George’s was, of course, the highlight of the week.  All the more so because of Cathy.

So I called in for the week’s assignments.  I talked with Biff, the spiky-haired guy.

• Monday: Off
• Tuesday:  Jams
• Wednesday: City Limits
• Thursday: Jams
• Friday: City Limits
• Saturday: Jams
• Sunday: City Limits

“Um…”, I started, “No George’s?”

“Nah” said Biff.  “Couldn’t close the deal.  We were too expensive”. 

Crap.  I was already getting sick of Jams and “Slims”. 

After I got off the phone, my roommate Dan – the new, gay roommate – walked in. 

“Did you bring in the mail Friday??

No, I answered.

“I was supposed to get my paycheck”. 

Ow.  I’ll keep an eye peeled, I replied.  I noted that I’d gotten my paycheck…

I filed it away.  Maybe Wyatt knew something.

Joe “Learned Foot” Tucci tackles Susan “Xanax” Lenfestey’s nighmarish mope over the anniversary of the death of Molly Ivins.

Lenfestey:

Unlike Maureen Dowd, who delights in snippy wordplay, with Molly you felt the words erupting from her soul, ricocheting off her funny bone and then passing through her brain…

Tucci:

…and then finally exiting through her anus

Read the whole thing…

…especially to ponder the wonder of this idea:

FOOT HAS BRILLIANT IDEA: We need to start an all-ThunderJournalist thrash metal band whose songs are completely comprised of lines from Sooz’s columns. We could call it “Deathskull” (with umlauts over all the vowels).

(Or maybe “Death KAR for Cutie”?)

Hm.

Hmmmmm.

Along with Robert Kaplan, no author has done more to expose Americans to the theory and practice of counterinsurgency warfare than Max Boot.

And has he notes in the title of his latest piece in the Weekly Standard, We Are Winning; We Haven’t Won.

Today we know that the surge has succeeded: Iraqi and American deaths fell by approximately 80 percent between December 2006 and December 2007, and life is returning to a semblance of normality in much of Baghdad. Now the danger is that public opinion may be turning too optimistic. While Iraq has made near-miraculous progress in the past year, daunting challenges remain, and victory is by no means assured.

I saw many achievements and an equal number of obstacles during 11 days touring the American brigades spread across central and northern Iraq. (I was traveling in the company of my friend and fellow author Bing West at the invitation of General David Petraeus.) In broad strokes, the picture that emerged was of an Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) organization that is on the run but not yet fully eliminated. AQI has been largely chased out of the capital and its southern and northern belts, but the terrorists have taken refuge in the rural areas of Diyala, Salahaddin, and Ninewa provinces, where, as part of a new operation called Phantom Phoenix, American and Iraqi troops are starting to root them out. Likewise, the Jaysh al-Mahdi, the Shiite extremist group headed by Moktada al Sadr, has seen its influence curbed and its ranks splintered, but it remains a threat.

As always with Boot, you gotta read the whole thing.  Like Kaplan, he has no interest in pulling punches.