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The FSB Reminds us all
Take note those of you who say that "Saddam wasnt a threat to us"; The Russian FSB and its haphazard use of a few milligrams of highly radioactive Polonuim has managed to kill at least one of their targets, put the lives of thousands of others at risk and effectively destroyed a British Airline. Imagine what the impact would have been if the attack had not been aimed at a few ex-patriot Russian "troublemakers" but all the tourists visting the Tower of London, or any of the shopping malls or large restaurants in the greater London area itself. Impossible you say? Tell me how.
Bear in mind that during this entire attack, not one process used for the detection of radioactive materials, Customs, British security forces or the local police had any idea that their deployment against English citizens was underway until the attack was long over, and it was only the detection of the radioactive materials in the victims urine that showed what was involved.
In the atomic age, all that is really needed to be a threat to your nieghbors and to the world is the desire to kill. The Russian FSB has just demonstrated the large scale threat to human health that can occur with just a small amount of radioactive material in the hands of someone with the desire to use it. I remind the reader that in the world of espionage, the FSB is considered to be somewhat ethical, unlike many of the security services of the middle east and North Korea.
Anyone who says Saddam wasnt a threat need only call the governments of Kuwait, Jordan, Syria and yes, even Iran to find remnants of towns and cities that were destroyed by the despotic Hussein Regime. Take one part despotic hatred and combine it with one part atomic materials and combine them with world wide Airline service and you can in a few hours spread enough materials to effectively destroy the economy of any country in the world. That is a recipe for blackmail on a global scale.
Those of you who say that America and the West have no business telling Iran that it cant have Atomic Weapons need to remember that Iran is the client state behind Hezbollah. You'll remember Hezbollah, who recently sent 10,000 missiles into civilian areas of Israel and has had a hand in killing several of Lebanons elected leaders via assassination, not to mention controlling large sections of that countries infrastructure for the purposes of spreading terror throughout the middle easy. Im sure that there are those of you that say that Iran would never do such a thing as terrorize countries with blackmail and espionage, but the record says otherwise.
Posted @ November 30, 2006 07:49 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
A Survey For you - The readers of Varifrank
Please take a few minutes and help the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism with their survey of Blogging and of this blog in particular.
After the survey is complete I will post the emails I sent to the group with my opinions about blogging and what it is we do out here in the blog-o-sphere.
Posted @ November 29, 2006 08:41 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)
Castro may be no-show at 80th birthday
You know, If someone throws me a party and everyone comes from all around the world to celebrate and I dont bother to show up at my own party, people would talk.
Of course it may not the the 'guest of honor', but the venue:
Snip...
"...The birthday celebrations were to begin Tuesday night with a gala at Havana's Karl Marx Theater."
End Snip...
Oh, that sounds like fun! Nothing says drink and dance till midnight like the name 'Karl Marx'.
Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, Gummo and Karl. You remember Karl Marx, the cranky, constipated not very funny Marx Brother who ran off to Cuba with Grouchos first wife. His catchphrase was "Arise, you prisoners of starvation!".
He went over like a lead balloon, except in France, where everyone naturally thought he was a genius.
He made Gummo look like Robin Williams.
Posted @ November 28, 2006 03:18 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Hey Kids! Congressman Rangel wants to help you get into College!
I know I'm getting into this one late what with the Holiday fol-der-all, but I caught the latest Rangel-ism.
Then I remembered that Rangel is a Congressman. Congressman take nominations for people to attend this nations Military Academies. An Honor, a privelege of the highest value that given only to a small number of people every year. By an Act of Congress passed in 1903, two appointments to each academy are allowed for each senator, representative in Congress.
Sure enough, Congressman Rangel has a very nice link on his congressional website, under "Constituent Services" that tells you what you need to do to get a Nomination to attend a Military Academy, all courtesy of "Charles Rangel, The Peoples Friend"!
Snip...
"...Nominations in my Congressional District are made on a competitive basis, stressing scholastic, athletic and leadership abilities. The basic eligibility requirements for a nomination include the following:
- Must be 17-21 years of age as of July 1st of the year of admission
- Must be unmarried with no dependent children
- Must be a United States Citizen
To apply for a Congressional Nomination, students must submit all the following information to my Washington office by December 31st.
- Letter of Recommendation from Guidance Counselor or Principal
- SAT or ACT scores sent directly from the Educational Testing Service (ETS)
- Official school transcript sent directly from your academic advisor/institution
- Complete list of your extra-curricular activities
- Three (3) letters of recommendation from people who know you other than members of your family, but from people you know well (this does not include the recommendation by the Guidance Counselor or Principal)
- A 300-word essay explaining why you want to attend the academy
- A recent photograph..."
end snip...
So remember you high school layabouts in Charles Rangels Congressional district, you have just about a month to get your paper work in so you can be considered for something he thinks your probably are overqualified to do. What I want to know is,given what he said on "Meet the Press" what are his standards for acceptance for the nomination?
Hey, you know what would be cool? If we had a journalist or something in the media who would go look up all the people who entered the military thanks to Charles Rangel's nominations so we could see how they did with their second choice, defaulted careers in the military. Tim Russert, Call Your Office...!
Posted @ November 28, 2006 01:55 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
A small point, but an important distinction
People often point to our nations inability to tolerate losses on the battlefield as one of the decisive factors in warfare in the modern age that is defeating the western world; but few take the time to think that we are also being defeated because we have chosen a strategy of not inflicting losses on the enemy.
We have created a culture that can not accept the idea that death and destruction are the natural wages of warfare. We no longer penalize those countries that engage in warfare by destroying their infrastructure and killing large numbers of their armed forces or their civilian populations. Almost from the start, our armed forces are more interested in the humanitarian aspects of the battlefield than we are in inflicting the horror of war as a way of incenting the enemy into "bending to our will". The result is that we have forced our enemies into a strategy of using civilians as shields and cities as fortresses against retaliation.
In World War II, it was common practice for Allied ground forces who found themselves under sniper attack in small european villages to back off and call in an artillery barrage. The result of this action was not that "the sniper was brought to justice..." but that the general civilian populace were taught that their quiet tolerance of the "insurgent" or sniper would probably result in their own destruction. The result of this sort of practice was that the civilians would find their way through enemy lines to let the allied forces know where the snipers were in their town, not because the necessarily liked the allies but because it was the only way of avioding the horror of their artillery.
Imagine the battlefield commander of today who doesnt give three days notice of an impending attack on a town, a full press briefing of who and what will be used in the attack. Heaven forbid if during the attack someone manages to get video of the enemy being killed in the streets during the attack.
You dont have to imagine it. Thats Falluja.
Now try to imagine your grandfather standing on the outskirts of Caen saying "Hey, someone get the New York Times up here, we need to make sure that the French civilians get out of Caen before we can send in the artillery in three days..." Chances are more likely that after a week of watching his men get killed from sniper fire from the beautiful church spire in the middle of town that "the old man" simply cranked the field telephone a few turns and gave the map coordinates to HQ and let fly with an artillery barrage, all while he and his men cheered each shell as it went overhead into the town as they ate dinner in their foxholes.
"Thats war" is what he would have said if you were silly enough to ask him how he could have done such a thing. But what I wonder about is why we even have to ask. We in the modern age are too far gone from the age of horror to understand that sometimes horror is exactly what is called for, if only to stop a greater horror from occuring.
"War is cruelty and it cannot be refined" The man said, and we in our foolishness have tried to do just that.
We have predictibly failed.
Our modern age has provided a plethora of "wonder weapons" which can destroy precise targets with great regularity at low cost to ourselves and the civilians in the area. We feel better because as basically humane people, we desire to see that only the guilty are punished and the innocent are not effected, but in war and in war zones, this is a perversion of reality. The unintended result of our desire to be humane is that the civilian populace in war zones do not fear our weapons,because they are known to be precise and guided not just by electronics but by squads of lawyers and analysts who will do a great deal of work to ensure that the target is legitimate long before the word is given to launch.
Unfortuantely, the civilians do fear the insurgents who now find the only place to hide and receive cover is within the civilian populace itself. In our desire to be nice, we drove them there and our desire to be nice has given them no penality for doing so.
With no threat of retaliation by our armed forces, they have no choice but to work with the insurgents, to provide them cover, either by quietly turning a blind eye or by overt acts of support. This is the direct opposite of the effect that we need in order to be effective on the battlefield.
I am not advocating a return to "area bombing", but I am saying that it may be time to re-examine the effect of our tactics. No matter how legitimate we are in our desire to be humane on the battlefield, the effect has been to drive the enemy into the very place we were trying to keep them out of and as a result the long term effect will be the death of more civilians, which is what we were trying to avoid.
The best way to lower our losses and the losses of civilians everywhere is to ensure that our military is so universally feared that just the threat of its being used causes those who would be our enemy to come to the table and talk. What I fear is that our desire to be nice and loved in the world has caused just the opposite to be true.
"If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking."
"War is, at its best, barbarism."
"This war differs from other wars in this particular: We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make young and old, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war."
General William T. Sherman.
I politely remind the reader that General Sherman effectively ended the Confederates desire to continue the persecution of the War with his actions across the State of Georgia.
Posted @ November 28, 2006 11:46 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
Iranian Military Aircraft Crash - A Pattern?
Well maybe not a pattern but there sure seems to be a real problem in Iran with aircraft crashes.
From Aviation Safety Network for aircraft accidents in Iran Since 2000:
Date Aircraft Type Fatalities
27-NOV 2006 Antonov 74 38
01-SEP-2006 Tupolev 154 28
28-MAR-2006 Antonov 12 0
09-JAN-2006 Falcon 20 11
06-DEC-2005 Lockheed C-130 94+
12-AUG-2005 Antonov 140 0
20-APR-2005 Boeing 707 3
07-MAR-2005 Airbus A.310 0
25-JUN-2003 Lockheed C-130 ?
19-FEB-2003 Ilyushin 76 15-22
23-DEC-2002 Antonov 140 44
24-FEB-2002 Ilyushin 76 ?
20-FEB-2002 Tupolev 154 0
12-FEB-2002 Tupolev 154 119
17-MAY-2001 Yakovlev 40 30
13-NOV-2000 Yakovlev 40 0
24-SEP-2000 Fokker 100 0
18-JUL-2000 Fokker F-28 0
02-FEB-2000 Lockheed C-130 8
02-FEB-2000 Airbus A.300 ?
We can draw two conclusions from this data.
Lesson 1. Try not to fly in Iran.
Lesson 2. NEVER Fly on Russian aircraft.
Posted @ November 26, 2006 10:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Reminds me of a funny story...
I was in a bar in San Diego once. You know the sort of place, bad lighting, no windows, one jukebox stocked only with music from the 60's and not because they like it but because they are just stuck in some sort of rut. The kind of place where beer was the only thing served from behind the bar.
There I was, standing at the bar enjoying the general ambiance and couple of underage beers when I heard the unmistakeable sound of 50 people suddenly going quiet in a very unnatural way.
Why? because a group of Jarheads in back had decided to poke fun at a couple of swabbies at the next pool table. The last words I heard before the dust flew was something about "glorified chauffeurs". I have to assume the Navy took offense to that comment and responded in a decidedly unfriendly way to the Jarheads because all of a sudden pool cues, balls, tables, small Navy guys, beer mugs and all sorts of debris began flying around the bar.
At that point, there was only one thing to do. I jumped over the bar for cover and continued drinking with the bartender and my civilian friends, helping him fend off the occasional uniformed interloper who thought of using some part of the expensive parts of the bar as a weapon or a place to hide until the Shore Patrol arrived.
Which is sort of what this exchange on Powerline between Mark Steyn and Ralph Peters reminds me of.
Best not to jump in and take sides in a fight like this. Its best to stay out of the way and let the boys have at it for awhile.
Posted @ November 26, 2006 03:46 PM | Comments (3)
Post Thanksgiving Bloat
A New 4 Wheel Drive Vehicle, A big holiday and a rare window of good Pacific Northwest weather can only add up to one thing.
Road Trip.
So after crossing three mountain ranges with 2 blinding rainstorms( in both directions)we managed to get an introduction to "burgerville" in Albany Oregon( I Highly Recommened!), a Hockey game between the Seattle Thunderbirds and the Chilliwack Bruins on Friday Night. I think I've finally found a sport with enough violence to keep me interested as a spectator. I grew up on the edge of a desert, so Hockey is an exotic event for me, much like surfing must be in Edmonton Alberta.
For Thanksgiving we had Fresh Turkey, Turkey Curry, Turkey Soup, Salmon, Salmon Chowder and Nanaimo Bars. Thanksgiving took three days to move through all the entrees from snacks, pastries, meats, vegetables, fish and pies and it was worth every minute.
How was the car? Well, with 2 kids, 1 wife and a 70 pound dog with all our gear stored on board, the new FJ Cruiser was outstanding in all conditions encountered and we encountered everything except blistering sunlight. City and country, heavy weather, rough roads or in town heavy traffic, this is quickly becoming my favorite car.
On the way out of town I got to see this lovely aircraft sitting on the ramp:
The 747 LCF (Large Cargo Freighter) captured out the car window as we barrelled out of Seattle on Saturday. (Ok, look at the nose of the Aircraft. Thats your normal 747, just try to remember what it looked like to see one of those for the first time. Now, look behind the nose on the fuselage where the normal 747 bulge usually drops. This 747 is considerably larger than that first 747 you saw now isnt it...)
After 1986 miles, punctuated by potato chips and roadside hamburgers/fries/shakes, heavy rainstorms, fog, freezing mountain summit roads, Oregon "Truck Trains" and what seemed like a nearly endless stream of christmas tree trucks this is exactly how I feel right now.
Very,Very large and Pea-green.
Posted @ November 26, 2006 02:19 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Foggy headlines on Drudge
Drudge has a headline that says:
"Congressman calls for cutting off funding for Iraq", which is misleading to say the least.
The "Congressman" is Dennis Kucinich.
So to be accurate, the headline should be:
"US Ambassador to Barsoom says; "No more Quatloos for Iraq!"
Ladies, take heed. This is what happens to your children if you choose not to breastfeed.
Posted @ November 16, 2006 09:22 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
I have something in common with North Korea
Scarlet Fever is breaking out in several North Korean provinces, which makes me ask "Why"?.
I had Scarlet Fever once, and now North Korea has Scarlet Fever so "It's a small world after all...".
I dont think I've ever heard of a "Scarlet Fever Epidemic". I sure hope that who ever is making this diagnosis is getting it right and that really is Scarlet Fever and not something else that has escaped the weapons labs of that regime.
(Here is just a partial list of my wounds)
2 broken arms.
1 broken leg.
1 broken jaw.
Dislocated shoulder.
Kidney Reconstruction Surgery to correct birth defect.
Acute Appendicitis (removed)
Tonsilitis (removed)
Pneumonia.
Scarlet Fever.
Ruptured trachea.
Coma - 72 hours (due to severe head trauma)
That old " what doesnt kill you makes you stronger" chestnut?
I'm here to tell you, its crap.
Posted @ November 15, 2006 08:06 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Well that was fun
I was out of the house at 4:30 this morning for a quick flight down to San Diego for business. I arrived at the site at 8:30 and then talked, demo'ed and 'whiteboarded' almost non-stop until 6:00pm. I then drove back to the airport, only to sit at the gate until 9:45.
I finally arrived back at the house at 12:30 am. Theres a 20 hour day for you. This is the kind of stuff they dont tell you about on career day in high school.
Posted @ November 14, 2006 12:53 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
So, Which Car was it?
As I said earlier this week, I’ve been engaged in the worst of all consumer tasks; buying a car.
The 1999 Dodge Dakota, which has been a problem since the first week I bought it, has finally made it to the point where I no longer considered it reliable enough to keep, so it has to go.
So the question became, what do I replace it with? I don’t commute, so gas mileage is not the biggest of my concerns. I essentially need a weekend toy. My preference? The Land Rover LR3, but since I have kids in the stage of life where braces are a part of our weekly discussion, that was out of the question.
So long story short, the two candidates quickly became:
The New 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser
And
Let’s start with the Nitro. Once upon a time, there was the Dodge Durango SUV that was based on the Dakota, and everyone said it was too small and they were right. Then there was the Dodge Durango that is based on the Dodge Ram, and now everyone says its too big, and you know what, they are right too.
So Dodge is trying a new around town SUV platform, known as the Nitro.
I don’t call it the Nitro, I call it the Pinata. The Nitro is basically a simple box that is stuffed to the gills with cheap little goodies. It’s a nice enough car, its got a few basic features that I like, but there was one feature that I loved, and frankly that’s what attracted me to the car in the first place.
Its called the ‘mygig”. The ‘mygig’ is an in-dash mounted device that contains a voice actuated GPS, satellite radio and all the Bluetooth phone stuff as well as a 20gb hard disk for storing all sorts of MP3s. It’s very impressive. I have no doubt that in the next five years all car manufacturers will have something very similar in their options list.
Here’s where it starts to get, oh, let’s use the word “funny”, just to keep me out of court. Despite the fact that it was the ‘mygig’ that lead me to the Nitro in the first place, I could not find any dealers who had one. I don’t mean that they didn’t have one for sale, but they had one to demo, I mean no one in my 200 square mile area said that they had one.
Not a single one.
So, I asked the next question, “When will they be available?” The response? Polite laughter. So here I am, looking at a car with the idea that I want to buy it, yet the key option is really not an option, but I’m given assurances that when they become available, I will get a discount.
Like I said; “Funny”.
This isn’t the first time in this car buying adventure that I’ve run into this particular phenomenon, but it is the second time I’ve run into it with this vendor. Earlier this summer, I was looking at the Jeep Liberty. Why? Because “Dr. Z” the cartoon German advertising campaign of Dodge, said; “Und Zee Dodge Leeberteee has a Diesel engine!” I thought “Wow”. A diesel engine on a small SUV, how cool is that! I’d get about 26 miles to the gallon on an engine with nearly zero maintenance for a good long time.
So I began to go find one to look at and all the while watching advertisements where that very same thing was being advertised, it does tend to give you the impression that such a thing exists. I found a lot of things on various Dodge lots, but I never found a Jeep Liberty Diesel. I found out later that two months before I saw the first advertisement for the Liberty Diesel, Dodge had stopped making them. Funny, no one every bothered to tell me that at the 20 or some lots that I visited this summer. If I had managed to find a Liberty with a diesel engine, it would have been an orphan, the last of its kind.
When I asked at the Car Lots about the “Liberty Diesel”, all I got was polite laughter.
So, Nitro fails not because it has anything spectacularly wrong, it doesn’t, its not a bad little car, but because its really strike three for me with those guys at Dodge.
Strike one – My truck, purchased in 1998, only driven occasionally, has always had an air conditioning system that requires recharging every year, and had gone through, not one but three water pumps. It also suffered from broken nylon bearings in the windows, parts that could not cost 2 cents, but required 600 dollars to replace the entire automatic window mechanism to replace. The service Department said; “ Yeah, it happens a lot. You have to roll your windows down regularly or the bearings develop hairline cracks”.
600 bucks, for two nylon roller bearings. Yesssssss.
So, I wouldn’t be looking for a new car if the old one from this vendor hadn’t done such a poor job in the first place.
Strike 2 is the rather difficult to explain missing car.
Strike 3, the option that doesn’t seem to exist.
Despite all this, I looked seriously at the Nitro. I can be a generous and forgiving person.
And then I looked at the 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser.
Having once had a Toyota FJ40 in the early 80’s of which I dearly loved; I was more than intrigued with people told me that Toyota was bringing back something modern in this line.
Then I saw one and it was love at first site. This is a very nice off road SUV, that has enough creature comforts to make it acceptable around town. It is not like most of what passes for SUV’s, which are often just minivans that are made acceptable to men.
No, this is not a “green” car. There is no Hybrid for this and there never will be either. This is a mud eating - go dangerous places in dangerous conditions - SUV that puts both the words Sport and Utility back into the category. There is no backseat Video system in this car. Its idea of luxury option is that you can get both AM and FM on the radio.
Yeah, I'm exaggerating, but not by much. This is not an apartment on wheels.
After I spent some time this week finding the right deal (Thank GOD for the internet!), I managed to get one last night, with everyone of the options I wanted( Heres an example of the sort of options you see on the FJ Cruiser - I got the passenger side armrest. wow...).
But once again I have been cursed by finding the right car, but the wrong color. I have never had both at the same time. I once had 1990 Nissan 300ZX that I dearly loved. I wanted Gunmetal grey with leather, I got white with a red cloth interior. However, I got all the options I wanted and they actually took my Pontaic Fiero for a trade. I loved the 300ZX. 172,000 miles and not one single incident of non-scheduled maintenance or problems. It was a fantastically good car.
The Fiero was the polar opposite of the 300ZX. The Fiero was the absolute worst car I’ve ever owned, and I once owned a ‘63 Chevy Corvair
Obviously I need to explain this. Look, it was the 70’s I was poor, and I still lived at home and was not allowed to own a motorcycle. I did not choose the car, it was chosen for me by my late father. After bringing it home for my 15th birthday, he took it entirely apart every single bolt from every single nut, right down to the frame and engine block. He gave me a three inch thick Chiltons repair manual and said with a hearty laugh “Better Start Reading Kiddo!!” My old mans sense of humor knew no bounds. My mission was to have it running by my 16th birthday. I’m happy to say that I succeeded. And yet, despite my amateurish teenage mechanical skills, that damned rubberband powered thing still worked better than the Fiero did its first day off the lot.
The old man also taught me to drive stick with the "three on the tree" transmission. I told you he was funny.
I love the FJ Cruiser. It’s great, I’ve got a smile a mile wide. You see, today there’s snow in the sierras and I think that right now I’ve got just the right platform to attempt to cross them even in the worst of conditions.
Blogging will be light this weekend.
Posted @ November 11, 2006 02:58 PM | Comments (2)
And not a moment too soon....
After 60 years, Germany finally finds the courage to hunt down and prosecute what they term as "war criminals".
Just to keep everyone on the page here, this has nothing to do with Rumsfeld. They will not stop at Rumsfeld, they will go after any and all US Armed Service members. The mission here is to put a stop to the effectiveness of the US Military.
It wont stop with Germany, and it wont stop at Rumsfeld.
I'll say more about this later, but I've got some shredding to do first.
Posted @ November 10, 2006 11:33 AM | Comments (4)
Chafee says he may leave GOP
Varifrank offers to rent the moving truck and help him pack if it will help.
One less east coast country club Republican whos voting record is to the left of Hillary Clinton is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
The man is Jim Jeffords without a set of convictions to which he can betray. Spineless jellyfish? Ive got a bowl of jello in the fridge with more fortitude than this goober. For gods sakes man get a comb...
How many pounds of lead based paint chips did this dork eat as a child? Does he really think that now that the GOP is out of power that he's suddenly in a great position to negotiate with the GOP to stay?
Just Go Already.
Dear Mr. Republican Party Leadership to be named,
Please post a picture of Senator Chaffee on the wall of your office, under it please post the words "Not This Guy".
Your truly,
Varifrank
Posted @ November 10, 2006 09:53 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Quick Observation
Im out and about this evening, engaged in the worst of all consumer tasks - Buying a car. We stop mid evening to eat a Mexican restaurant. On the TeeVee is Larry King, and James Webb is on the screen.
After watching him for 15 minutes, it suddenly hits me:
"Democrats won the election this year because their Republicans were better than our Republicans".
I gotta tell ya, I didnt pay much attention to him one way or the other, I'm not in Virginia and frankly the worst way to get to know anyone is during a political campaign, I wasn't aware of his background beyond "Senatorial candidate" but I like what I see. I can't understand how the election in Virginia was even close. If this cat had already been a Senator for one term and managed to not do anything embarrasing yet, I cant imagine how 'Her Exhaulted Majesty' would stand a chance in 2008.
Webb vs. McCain? McCain who?
Time will tell. Congress is the anvil on which Men's souls are tested. Most men fail that test, occasionally, every once in awile, someone comes along to screw up the class curve. Webb just might be that guy.
Democrats - the far left, anti-war, blame America first, give peace a chance Democrats - have much, much more to worry about from Senator Webb than they do from what's left of the Republican Party.
Maybe that explains why I've been in such an inexplicably good mood since Tuesday.
Posted @ November 09, 2006 08:34 PM | Comments (3)
Clarification
When I wrote Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit and said:
"...Rumsfeld will be remembered as the greatest change agent of all time.."
This is not the sort of "change" I had in mind.
That said, seeing as how his schedule will now be filled with congressional investigations, its clear that he wont have time to do the job. I dont have an opinion on Gates yes.
Oh, and we will be out of Iraq by July. And goddamn us all for that...
Posted @ November 08, 2006 10:08 AM | Comments (2)
My Metaphor for the day
General Grant at Shiloh in 1862:
"...That evening, the flash of Union gunboats shelling Confederate positions revealed the aftermath of battle. The Union Army had taken a terrible beating. Kept awake by the blast of cannons, Grant sought refuge under an oak tree, then in a log house which had been turned into a field hospital. "The sight was more unendurable than encountering the enemy's fire," he later wrote, "and I returned to my tree." Grant's most aggressive General, William Tecumseh Sherman, who commanded a division at Shiloh, approached.
Sherman had been under fire all day, and by the end of April 6th, he's convinced that the time has come to retreat from the field. But as he sees Grant, something in him says, "Don't give that kind of advice." He walks up to his friend, looks him in the eye, and says, "Well, Grant, we've had the Devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant takes a puff of his cigar, looks up, and says, "Yup. Lick 'em tomorrow, though..."
From PBS' American Experience.
Stop retreating. Stop whining. Lick your wounds. Prepare to fight again. In 24 months, we go back at 'em.
( And for the love of God, will someone find me a Sherman and Grant for this country?)
Posted @ November 08, 2006 09:38 AM | Comments (3)
Rightwing blogger Full employment act has just passed!
Democrats control the house.
An interesting turn for the country, but I wont have to hunt for a blog topic for two years.
A few quick notes:
I've been sentenced to two years of looking at Henry Waxman.
Alcee Hastings will be in charge of Intelligence for the House. That alone should make a blog post a day.
Charles "I cant think of a single tax cut I'd keep" Rangel. What I like about this is how I have just been classified as "rich". Wheee! I should call my mom and let her know I'm now a target for a higher tax bracket!
And Nancy Pelosi will be the third most powerful person in the free world. It sort of solves the Hastert problem in a unique way, doesnt it? That reminds me, Time to buy stock in Photoshop.
I take some comfort in the fact that Republicans are good at being the minority and Democrats look funny in power, sort like a 7 year old sitting behind the wheel of a Corvette trying to look over the dash.
I'm exceptionally happy that the "Chafee wart" is now removed from the 'Buttocks of America', and almost consider this all worth it to see him gone. The man was a Democrat. Yes, I enjoy saying "was".
In general, I see a real 'house cleaning' in place. Probably not the worst thing in the world, probably what those wig wearin' white guys had in mind back in the day.
Lieberman wins. Sweet. Who says religious supporters of President Bush and the "War in Iraq" can't win in the east? Oh yeah, Bush is still President, right? Gotta remember to get the old man a Veto pen for Christmas. I think he's going to need it.
Ah-nould wins. Get ready to call him "Senator Ahnold" in 4 years.
And remember kids, don't be bad sports. You get beat, say so. Shake it off. It's not the last election, its just this election. We get another shot at it in 24 months. You plays the game, you takes your chances. I lived through Jimmy Carter and a Democrat Controlled congress under the gaze of 20,000 Soviet Missiles. If we can survive that, we will still be here in 2 years.
Posted @ November 07, 2006 08:20 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)
Bill Whittle Explains It all For you
The man is back with more essay greatness. Here's just a taste:
"This is the cockpit of the F-102 Delta Dagger’s successor, the F-106 Delta Dart (I could not find an F-102 panel, but they would have been very similar)"
"Now, picture yourself in this chair, at 40,000 feet, traveling at one and a half times the speed of sound. Now imagine that someone has painted the windows white – you are flying on instruments. Now imagine that not only do you have to be able to fly blind, by referencing these instruments, but that you also have to stare into that orange jack-o-lantern of a radar, and interpret a squiggle that will lead you to your target. Now imagine that in addition to not hitting the ground, or your wingman, and watching the squiggle, you also have to turn those switches on the right side panel to activate weapons systems, to overcome enemy countermeasures…without looking outside, as you hurtle through air at -40 degrees F, air so thin that should you lose pressure, you have about 4-6 seconds of consciousness before you black out and die.
I maintain that the instant George W. Bush closed that canopy and took off on the first of his many solo hours in an F-102, it is quite impossible that he was either an idiot or a coward.
To which I humbly add "And I dont care who his daddy was or who may have helped get him into the Texas ANG, theres only one seat in that bird. You can have all the family connections you want, in that plane, theres nobody to help you through the takeoff checklist from the moment you sit down and buckle in."
Go read the whole thing whole thing already...
Posted @ November 06, 2006 05:12 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
Bwahahahahaha..
"...This revolutionary blended wing design, called BWB for short, was conceived by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation and now proposed by Boeing. Its flying-wing shape has a thick airfoil-shaped fuselage section to maximize overall efficiency by integrating the engines, wings, and the body into a single lifting surface. The BWB concept houses a wide double-deck passenger compartment that actually blends into the wing. Adjacent to the passenger section is ample room for baggage and cargo."
"...Preliminary analyses indicate that the BWB would outperform all conventional aircraft. It is conceived to carry 800 passengers 8,000 nautical miles at a cruise speed of approximately 560 knots. This is almost twice the passenger capacity of the Boeing 747-400 and 69% larger than the new Airbus A380! This design would reduce fuel burn and harmful emissions per passenger mile by almost a third in comparison to today's aircraft. Other potential benefits of the BWB include increased aerodynamic performance, lower operating cost and reduced community noise levels."
From aerosite.net
Yeah, Like Northwest Airlines would actually spring for new aircraft...
Posted @ November 06, 2006 01:09 PM | Comments (8)
On the Receiving End
How do I know the "Get Out The Vote" machine in full swing?
Well, my phone has received a phone call every hour for the past two days. I enjoyed the Ben Stein call, but the rest just go right to the delete button. It's not that they are bad, its just that theres nothing more annoying the someone still trying to sell you when you've already bought the car.
There is one other thing I've noticed. All the calls are for Republicans and Republican issues. I havent received a single call or pamphlet from the Democrats for their candidates or issues in over a week. Its as if the Democrats ran out of ammo a week early. If it wasnt for the Media making up news to cover for them, they wouldnt have hardly any visibility at all.
UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit-eers!
I would think if there is anything to this "Democrat Wave" idea, you would see it reflected in the Doolittle-Brown race in my district (CA-4), but I just havent seen it.
It's as weak a race as I've ever seen for this district from the Republicans and yet the incumbent candidate Doolittle has always managed to maintain a respectable lead on his opponent and its not because Doolittles opponent is less than capable, he's actually pretty solid. The Democrats have worked their tails off in this district and they have spent a good deal of money to try to take the seat.
In my opinion, based on what I see and hear, all that work and money just hasnt paid off. I may be completely wrong in 48 hours, but it doesnt look to me like this seat is going to flip to the other side.
It seems to me that the money spent here might have gone to better use elsewhere for Democrats. It seems to me that early on in the campaign the Democrats put their strategy on the 'Abramoff scandal' as the key pivot-point of this election, and here we are in the last 48 hours of the campaign and it doesnt seem to have been the reason that anyone is making their decisions for who to vote for. I think that if the Democrats dont achieve their goals on Tuesday, a lot of people are going to blame Kerry, but I think the train might have come off the rails way back when the "Tie them to Abramoff" strategy was made.
I dont think a its a good working campaign strategy for Democrats to try to tie their opponents to a scandal that they then have to spend 20 minutes trying to explain to the voter, only to get a dismissive "oh they are all crooks" waveoff from the voter. It comes down to the old chiche of "Yes, Congress is a bunch of idiots, but my cogressman is a different, He's a pretty good guy".
When I ask people about what their decisions are going to be based on, Abramoff doesnt even move the needle on the average persons 'shock-o-meter'.
I think if Democrats can't win here, then they cant win anywhere and this whole "Democrat wave" thing is a creation of wishful media thinking, like so much of this election so far seems to have been.
My "I'm not to be listened to as a prognisticator because I dont know nuthin..." prediction is the Doolittle will win CA-4, but unlike most years, this year he really had to work hard to keep his seat. Why anyone, anywhere in their right mind would ever want to run for office is completely beyond my comprehension.
Democrats may salute themselves afterwards as having forced Republicans to spend money in previously uncompetitive districts, but that is what losers always say when they lose.
Posted @ November 05, 2006 02:43 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (11)
Shocking Hollywood news
From CNN.com
Snip.
"Neil Patrick Harris is gay and wants to quell any rumors to the contrary. "I am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," Harris tells People magazine's Web site. The 33-year-old actor said he was motivated to disclose his sexuality because of recent "speculation and interest in my private life and relationships." Harris stars on the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother." He started on TV as a teen, playing the namesake doctor on the series "Doogie Howser, M.D."
End Snip.
Oh.My.God! He's 33 FRICKEN YEARS OLD!
Posted @ November 04, 2006 07:26 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Press discovers shocking news regarding associate of church leader
"I did not have sex with him." Said cult follower Mary Magdalene in response to new questions about her relationship with the cult leader.
The Whole.Shocking.Story... can be found here.
Just imagine the press of today covering the "Nazarene Carpenter and his crazed group of followers". I half expect some days to wake up to breathless headlines that say "Our Church pews are filled with sinners! - says leading church cleric" as if that somehow refutes the core ethos of Christianity.
Posted @ November 03, 2006 01:26 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
8th Day of "Reasons to Get out and Vote Republican"
Today's Reason: To teach them a lesson. Its not the Republicans I want to teach, its the Democrats.
Here's what I want to teach them:
"The Anti-war movement is electoral poison".
In my mind, the "anti-war movement" is just the gateway drug to the more corrosive and dangerous mental drugs of "Anti-American" and "Anti-Capitalist". If you stop the Democrats natural attraction of "Anti-War" then you can stop the move towards the next stop in the descent.
We've taught the Democrats before, and we can teach them again.
In the 2000 election, we taught the Democrats:
"The Anti-Gun position is electoral poison".
They used to run on "Anti-gun" like it was the first chapter of the bible. Now, they dont even mention it anymore. You see, Democrats can learn, hell even Rhesus monkeys in a lab learn to move the lever when they get a shock.
Democrats learn by losing, thats their shock. They cant believe it when you dont vote for them. It took weeks in 1994 for them to understand that they lost. They dont like to lose, but they are smart enough to learn from the experience. Republicans took 60 years to learn from the losses of the 1960's, they dont learn so fast, you have to beat them with a big cartoon mallet again and again and they still do the same dumbass things, like "Id rather lose on principal..." and crap like that. Democrats arent like that, Democrats react to losing power the way monkeys in a pharmaceutical cocaine study react to getting a carrot instead of their favorite derivitive of the coca leaf. They will do anything to get their fix, even give up on cardinal components of their movement, like their position on gun ownership.
1996: Gotta get a registration system going.
1998: We need a debate in this country about Guns.
2000: Its time to give up the guns.
2002: Anti-Gun? What are you talking about son, why I got me a
shotgun right here that my pappy gave me, of course I love guns, dont you got a gun? cant have enough guns!
As Republicans, we can debate what is and is not the proper conservative position on a budget. We can debate what is and what is not the proper position on immigration. We do it within the framework of "America the Beautiful", which is why the only debate we usually have on the military is "why the hell arent we squishing fill-in-the-blank-despot-of-the-moment" not the quality of the men and women in it. We can have a debate because we have a context that works. We know even when we lose a debate we come home with half a loaf of pretty good bread.
Their side doesnt have that context. Their side of the argument is often distilled into "America is wrong and you have too damn much money".
Now remember, until recently it was "America is wrong and you have too damn much money and too many guns", but we changed that.
We were successful at changing the other side from a dangerous idea. The Republicans were successful. Conservatives were successful. America, dare I say it, was successful.
And that was before we had an Internet. Just imagine what we can do now.Today we face a world where, like it or not, agree with it or not, desire it or not, fighting and dying in defense of this country is called for. Defense of this country is what is called for, in action and word.
We can no longer afford a political ideology that questions whether or not this country is worth fighting for. We cannot afford an ideology that says that defense of this country is inherently racist, imperialist, capitalist, "Only About Oil", and just plain wrong.
Why? Because its that sort of thing that gets more people killed around the world. It sets the stage for war. How many wars would get started if the people who wanted to start them with us, thought about it and said "No thanks!, We do that and Americans will want to hunt us down and kill us for sport, I'd rather try to be their friend, just look what happened to you-know-who..."
You want to stop terrorists? Stop treating them like they are heroes. Stop thinking that because they oppose the US that their cause must be "just". Stop thinking that every "rebel has a cause".
The "Anti-war" movement gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weak and that we can be beaten. This is what leads to more War and deadlier wars. What we see as a family disagreement and an intellectual debate is misinterpreted by the people that are out to kill us as a reason for them to step up attacks, its a reason to celebrate, its a reason to maintain positive morale in the face of devastating defeat.
"See, even the Americans support what we are doing, just look at their elections, look how so many of them actually argue that we are legitimate. They make fun of damned George Bush, We cant quit now, we've almost won!"
The "Anti-war" position kills people. It feeds our enemies. If you want to win a war (or end it) you need to starve your enemies, not encourage them. It's no more complicated than that.
If you vote for Democrats in this election, you might think youre voting for a perfectly nice centrist Democrat, but the "Anti-war" wing of leftist thought will take that perfectly nice candidate that you voted for and use it as evidence that their side in the argument is actually perferred by Americans. Not the "centrist American" side, but the loathesome "We hate America" side. Your vote will be used to prove it.
They will take that protest vote of yours to argue "America is in descent", that our sins have finally caught up with us and we need to be sorry for all the evil we have done in the world, and look at all the people who agree with us! They will argue that fundamental changes in our country are necessary to make up for our crimes of the past, that our its our military is actually what causes wars, that people in the military should be prosecuted and they are what causes other people in the world to hate us and not our lovely and socially relevent "pop-culture".
Look. Lamont is going to lose and Lieberman is going to win, but that is one race. That might be enough to make some Democrats scratch their head and think about the value of the "Anti-war" wing, but its not enough. If Democrats are tossed yet another defeat this time, they will learn. They will get the message. They will remove the leech of "Anti-war" from their crotch and we might start to see Democrats like Harry Truman again. Democrats who don't apologize for America or being an American.
And that will be good for all of us.
Until Then, Vote Republican, until the Democrats think of "Anti-war" like they now think of "Anti-gun".
UPDATE: Right on queue, Sy Hersh comes out and says this: "In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation,” he said. “It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you – there has never been an American army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq."
By implication, Mr. Hersh wants to know why we arent filling the streets calling our soldiers in Iraq babykillers.
Murderers? Stupid? Babykillers? In a single week, with just a hint that they might win a part of Congress, this is what we get to hear.
Posted @ November 01, 2006 06:21 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
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