A Little Travelin' Music Please

It's summer. Let's drive.

Not So Fast There McClatchy

The McClatchy Company is the dominant newspaper group in the Carolinas. Among the papers they own are the one in the biggest metro area, The Charlotte Observer, and the two state capitals, The Raleigh News & Observer and The State in Columbia, SC. You would think that in South Carolina, a state that has just one Democrat holding a statewide office (he won by 500 votes), the capital city news outlet would at least be moderate. You would be wrong. The State is just another unreadable lib rag.

When the Joe Wilson story didn't go exactly the way The State hoped-- most people thought Joe was a hero not someone who should be run out of Congress-- they tried another tactic. While MoDowd and Jimmy Carter were hollerin' about race The State promoted on their "news" pages the speculation that Joe Wilson's calling out of President Obama for blatant fibbing would lead to tourism declines. You have to understand, South Carolina has a large tourism industry. It's not Florida large, but given the size of the state it's pretty important-- especially on the coast. So when a legacy media outlet says that something will hurt tourism they want to scare people.

Well, that didn't work out for the McClatchy gang either. Probably because the story itself was pretty much fact-free. They did find some underling in the state tourism office who said that they had received 147 e-mails from people who were never coming to SC because of Wilson's famous two words. Well, most of us figured that 100 of those were from the SEIU, 40 were from ACORN, and 7 were from the senators who voted to keep giving ACORN taxpayer dough. In other words, we yawned.

But today we have real news about South Carolina tourism. The Carnival Cruise Lines have announced that they will begin more than 70 cruises/ year from the port of Charleston next spring. It's hard to find much about this on The State's site this AM, but the Charleston Post & Courier has it front and center.

-- The 2,056-passenger Carnival Fantasy will embark from the end of Market Street for five-, six- and seven-day voyages to the Bahamas and Key West, Fla., beginning in May. As many as 70 calls per year will more than double the current number of cruises and, by some estimates, inject millions of dollars in direct local economic impact with each of them.
Top port and political leaders excitedly shared the news Thursday from a Waterfront Park pier while curious tourists observed from the nearby oversize swings. Onlookers gazed into Charleston Harbor and over at the freshly painted cruise terminal being prepared for a major overhaul.

A city-organized task force in 2004 found that a ship stopping in Charleston spends $1.7 million in supplies from local vendors and State Ports Authority fees, while a ship originating in Charleston spends $2.5 million.

Look! Up In That Tree

Sometimes one takes a week away from work and goes off in an attempt to find a place where Liberty and Freedom still exist. Then, while in Zambia an unfortunate incident occurs.

Excerpt:

LUSAKA - A monkey urinated on Zambian President Rupiah Banda as he spoke to journalists at a news conference on Wednesday.
Banda softly shouted: "You (dart throwing monkey) have urinated on my jacket," and paused as he looked up to see the animal playing in a tree just above his chair.
"Perhaps these are blessings."

As it turns out, yesterday was full of just such activity. For my part in it, I apologize to President Banda. I was trying to hit the journalists.

Hope and Change for Peace and Love

From the "we're so September 10th now" file comes these two stories this week:


The Obama administration quietly is doing away with the arming of commercial pilots.



The Obama administration considers releasing terrorist detainees in America.




That Eric Holder is workin' overtime, baby. It's good to see that the domestic policy of Lord Obamaprompter is dovetailing with the foreign policy. Across the world we're pissing off our allies and playing kissy-face with Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran. Domestically we're making travel more dangerous and setting terrorists free on the streets.


It's real comfortable in that hammock, Lord O, until something blows up again. Oh, and the little joke about AIG and bailed-out banks being like suicide bombers shows you just don't really get it, pal.

Now That's Something You Don't See Every Day

The Russian city of Zheleznovodsk is in the heart of that nation's health spa country apparently. The Mashuk-Akva Term spa decided to draw attention to the curative powers of one of their classic spa procedures by commissioning a statue of an 800 pound bronze enema syringe bulb lifted into position by three happy little angels. According to an AP reporter, who went all the way to the Caucasus Mountains to get to the bottom of this breaking story, the spa director declared, "An enema is almost a symbol of our region."

With that gigantic load off your mind you can head into the weekend with a sunny disposition and a smile on your face. It's just a service we provide here at Monkeydarts.

Photos are from the unveiling as gas-filled balloons lifted the covers away.

H/T to Don Luskin who beat us to this heartwarming tale from Mother Russia.

Details On That Airline Ban of Carry-On Liquids

From today's Daily Mail.

Look sharp! da-da-da-da-da Be sharp! da-da-da-da-da

While on super secret "assignment" over the past five days in far away, frozen MichOhio I was staying at the home of some of my longtime associates. The first morning there I discovered that I had failed to pack shaving cream. The man of the house has been an electric shaver user for about 15-20 years so I presumed I'd need to head out to the nearest MegaMart.

But wait, he may not use shaving cream but that didn't mean he didn't still own shaving cream. Sure enough, I found a nice pretty white and red can of Gillette Foamy in the cabinet. The packaging looked a bit retro to me, but borrowers can not be choosers. So I blew the dust off the red plastic top on the can and checked the label.

Made in 1990. An 18 year old can of Foamy. Would it even work? Would the shaving cream be a beautiful white, foamy mound in my hand as I sprayed it out? Would the propellant even work? Would a brown puddle of rusty gunk splat out when I pressed the button? Has anyone ever used 18 year old shaving cream before?

I pushed the button down. A thick, bright, stiff, white pile of Foamy filled my hand. I dabbed some on after sniffing its clean, spicy, clean aroma. Perfect! The finest shaving cream I've ever employed. I even treated myself to a second shaving it was so good.

So, now I'm back home and beginning construction of a shaving cream cellar next to the existing wine cellar. I plan to buy up many different vintages of cream and lay down a few cans in the cellar. Today's free tip to other enthusiasts--- 1990 was an excellent year for Gillette Foamy. But make sure you collect some of the production from earlier in the season as the later 1990 vintages are a bit limp.

Carolina Blue Skies

A very windy Sunday afternoon found us looking for more pottery in the famous region surrounding Seagrove, NC. A beautiful day for a drive on the backroads of The Piedmont. (Finding lunch was a different story.) Back home in time to watch the final hour of golf from God's own course, Pebble Beach. A great weekend.