Snapped Shot

The Toledo Blade has responded. I won't quote verbatim, but if I may summarize their findings:

1. I'm a reckless boob. [Ed:—No argument there!]
2. The Director of Photography was involved in selecting photos on the day of the shoot, and didn't see anything unusual at the time.
3. They have internally done a frame-by-frame analysis, and the photo in question is in line with the rest of the shots from on-scene.
4. No alterations were visible in any of the shots.
5. Mr. Wadsworth used: Canon 5D 16-35mm zoom f/2.8 lens.
6. Image originally recorded in RAW format, resulting in 30mb file per-frame.
7. Oddities in photo related to high field-of-view. [Ed.:—combined with absolutely awful image resizing software. Might want to upgrade that, Luann!]
8. We were caught in the past, so we'll admit it if we get caught again. [Ed.:—Not sure about the logic on that one]
9. And, last but not least:
   We're gonna sue you! [Ed.:—Sigh. Never heard that one before...]

I'm satisfied by their technical answer, and as I had said from the beginning, this was nothing that was a "sure" thing. As such, I do offer my deepest apologies to Jeremy Wadsworth for this, and trust that his reputation will not be affected in the least by someone as insignificant as myself. (Besides which, judging by his bio photo, he'd beat me up right quick on any given day!)

My hat's off to the Blade's editorial staff for their quick (if not intellectually violent) response. And, should their Counsel come calling, please notice that my current net worth can be summarized thusly (see illustration).

Update: From the "You Ever See A Story Come Apart Like That?" department:—Rhonda Shearer of the Art Science Research Laboratory has been in touch with the Steele family regarding this photo. The verdict?

Yeah, you guessed it:—It is completely genuine, and it depicts exactly what they saw when they were in hospital.

It doesn't make me feel any better, but my thanks are due to Ms. Shearer for getting that cleared up with a bit of that old-fashioned "investigative" journalism.

(Maybe I'll have to try that out one of these days.) Continue reading »

Cool—Greetings again, fellow Michelle Malkin fans! Be sure to click here for the latest updates and dictatorial hilarity!

Who would've thunk it, but many of the pictures released by the Iranian government have now been proven to be complete forgeries. Like this one, for example:



As Arash Kamangir points out, the photographic evidence presented by at least some reports is years old. Suitably Flip commenter Jono points out that there are only three missiles present in the original picture, and now that you mention it, the middle two missiles appear to be clones of each other, with pretty amateurish cloning to create the launch signature of the third from the left.

An Iranian dictatorship... lying? Impossible.

Many thanks to Charles Johnson for pointing this latest fauxtography out. Even though there's a "Curses, Foiled Again!" thrown in because he beat me to it yet again.

Update: Moved all of the irrelevant data below the fold. Here's what really matters:—Agence France-Presse has retracted the image, and has posted this combo illustrating exactly how the image was modified, which I'm very gladly posting here under license:



Digitally altered, indeed. In fact, one could say that this is a photoshop... disaster.

Nothing says it like a Patented LGF Throbbing GIF, no?



The Obama campaign just called. Apparently, they'll be announcing that Obama supports opening a channel of diplomacy with the airbrushed rocket, immediately, so we can "better understand" how our Western understanding of ideas like "Truth" and "Accuracy" have hurt its feelings and caused it immense anger towards America.



Update: In a move that will surprise nobody, we discover the the New York Times is claiming full credit for this discovery. Heh, I'm sure that's ethical, right?

(And sorry for filling up your mailbox, Ace. It's what I do the bestest! )

See-Also:

EU Referendum, Pat Dollard, Blackfive, Pirate's Cove, Confederate Yankee, Geenstijl, Ace of Spades, Gateway Pundit, A Blog For All 2, Sweetness & Light, GOP and College, Jihad Watch, CAMERA Snapshots (No relation), Prairie Pundit, What the Crap?, In from the Cold

Continue reading »

Donkeyrock sends this latest edition in, uniting the "It's Just Photoshop" and "In Mahmoud's World" features for the first time, ever:

I'm betting on ye firing squad, personally:

Pa. senator says slavery would pass in a secret ballot

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A state senator told a black pastor testifying at a committee hearing that, given the chance to cast secret ballots, his fellow legislators would vote to legalize slavery.

Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, D-Philadelphia, made the comments Tuesday during a hearing on a Republican-sponsored bill to amend the state Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriages and civil unions, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site Wednesday.

“What you are advocating here is that we take away the rights of a minority. And I don’t think that’s right,” Fumo, a staunch defender of gay rights, told the witness, Gilbert Coleman Jr., senior pastor of Freedom Christian Bible Fellowship in Philadelphia.

He added, “If we introduced a bill on slavery, it might pass. That doesn’t make it right.”

Coleman, who was testifying in favor of the measure, responded: “I doubt that sir.” “Oh, don’t bet on it in this General Assembly,” Fumo countered. “I know some people up here, especially on a secret ballot, it would be almost unanimous.”

Fumo declined to comment Wednesday, but said he would release a statement through his spokesman later in the day.

Fumo, who is white, is in his last months in office after a 30-year career as a state senator. He decided not to seek re-election because of pending federal corruption charges that accuse him of using his state staff for personal and outside work.

Yeah, his spokesman definitely has some "s'plainin" to do, though probably not as much explaining as if he came from our Party.

I do think it's interesting how the gay lobby constantly has to pander to fears of slavery and the dastardly revocation of "rights" in order to try and cram their fringe agenda through state legislatures. Real classy, ain't it? "Better stop those dastardly Republicans, or they'll take away all of your rights" might make for dramatic prose, but it's definitely not grounded in anything approaching fact.

Of course, it's also quite adorable to see that this same fellow is getting ready to be slammed with some federal corruption charges. I guess he has problems figuring out what kind of work is "appropriate" for State employees?

Or maybe he just thinks that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania owes some good old-fashioned slave labor to him?

Good that the Wire Service That Hates Me saw fit to mention that little factoid, though they did wait until the 7th paragraph.

Exit Question: What do you think the headline would have been if this were a Republican's remarks?

I'm betting on, "Republican Senator Threatens Blacks With Slavery."

Feel free to pitch your ideas down in the comments. We'll see who's got the best penchant for dramatic flair around here!

(h/t FR)

Remember our odd Windows Vista promo from last week? Looks like it's not the first time Microsoft has gone on the impossible mission:



Of course, to turn this into even more marketing gold, allow me to point out that everything will feel like an "impossible mission" under Windows Vista.

Oof. What a pun.

If you're time-constrained, be sure to skip forward to 2:37 for the best part. Big hat tip to Da Boyz for this hilarity. Continue reading »

This is actually pretty funny:

A Palestinian protester uses a sling against Israeli soldiers while eating an ice-cream during a protest opposed to Israel's security fence in the West Bank village of Bilin April 4, 2008. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (WEST BANK)

Another version of the same caption reads [Ed.:—The photo has been refiled, so the original caption is no longer available at this link.]:

A Palestinian protester eats an ice-cream and uses a sling shot at Israeli soldiers during a protest against Israel's security fence in the West Bank village of Bilin April 4, 2008. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (WEST BANK)

No matter which way you slice it, I'm definitely chuckling over here. Probably not what that "protester"-slash-anarchist intended, but well worth it nonetheless.

For more on the weekly circus that is Bilin, be sure to check out this video.

Curses, beaten to it by 30 minutes!

Another shot, courtesy friend of Snapped Shot Muhammed Muheisen. I like Muhammed's version better.

Hmm: Almost completely retracted—See update below.

I'm generally quite supportive of ye Luton Lionheart, but I think that this might be taking things a teensy bit too far:

Foreword: I think that the declaration 'Where do you stand and who do you stand with' rings true with this excellent essay on the madness of the self professed King of the anti-Jihad movement - The Lizard King Charles Johnston and his pack of blood thirsty ravenous hounds.

You know, the funny thing about fighting amongst ourselves is that we are far too easily distracted from seeing who the real enemy is here.

Priorities, gentlemen, priorities.

Paul, we need to do our best to keep you out of Ye Olde Pokey, don't we? Tossing about overly-zealous anger probably isn't the best way to do that.

Charles, I think it's pretty clear that Islamic fascism (What's it at now, 10% of 1 billion are "extremists?") is a far greater danger to the world at present than race-baiting white fascists (of which there are what, a thousand or so?)—wouldn't you agree?

Just my two cents, y'all. If you want to keep on fighting, I'll just have to go nuke s'more popcorn.



Update: After a series of compelling arguments, I'm pretty convinced, y'all. Josephine in particular has laid things out very succinctly here and here—Some of Lionheart's articles have been extremely unusual, to say the least, and there really isn't any reasonable way to explain these quirks away.

Death threats, charges of random and spurious treason, "accidental" deletion of entire posts—Google Reader sees everything, Paul—it's really far beyond the normal parameters of ordinary "discourse."

But hey, it's the first one of these that I've earned in quite a while:



Now how 'bout some popcorn?

Update x2: By death threats, I'm referring to this deleted post (courtesy Google Reader):

The battle for 'Hearts & Minds' across the World Wide Web begun along time ago with those bloggers around the World who are the cornerstone of bringing truth to our supressed world.

This with me is just one battle in our War on the Web.

Where do you now stand and who do you stand with is the question?

Step forward or step aside so that the real men and women of this generation can be counted and become the new defenders of our civilization for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

Little Green Footballs you are a traitor, nothing less than the equivalent of a Second World War Nazi collaborator who would have been shot because of his treason - Iam sure there are many who would have obliged!

My personal post for you is coming so I am sure your army of readers will make sure you get me message, my tiny stone for my slingshot - Read your Bible and see the outcome!

This was followed almost immediately by this one:

I know LGF wrote a supportive post about my plight, but in the same instance ripped it apart and did alot more damage than good.

God bless you Charles and may He continue to use you.

Lionheart

This seems to be quite a severe mood swing, considering we're back over on the death to Charles Johnson side of things as of yesterday.