Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A gun "buy back" scheme that actually works

Not really a buy back per se, rather a scheme to get the bad guys to rat each other out for a grand a throw. Either way, its targeting the guns in the hands of bad guys rather than honest folks.

Brilliant.

Local 10
The Miami-Dade Police Department has made its first arrests in the agency's gun bounty program announced last week.

Police received a call from a tipster referencing the "One Gun, One Arrest, One Grand" campaign who informed them of two men on the streets "in possession of firearms illegally," Miami-Dade police Cmdr. Linda O'Brien said[...]

[...]were all found to be in possession of weapons. Police said there were ammunition, a bulletproof vest, illegal drugs, a safe, an antique gun and two cash register drawers inside the apartment.

The "One Gun, One Arrest, One Grand" campaign offers a $1,000 reward to anyone who calls in a tip that leads to illegal guns being taken off the streets. The program is open to any citizen, but it is being targeted to more than 300 people who are released from Miami-Dade County jails on any given day[...]

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Its a joke right? Nope, its not. Measuring titties is patented.

Patent number 5,965,809 awarded October 12, 1999. I don't believe its happenstance this was awarded during the Clinton administration, not for a minute ;->

US Patent Office
This relates to a method of direct measurement to determine cup size of the breast which includes band size measurement by initially measuring the user's chest or torso circumference with a flexible tape measure immediately below the breasts followed by[...]Next, a measurement conversion is made wherein a measurement of seven inches corresponds to an "A" size cup, eight inches a "B" size cup, nine inches a "C" cup, etc. Each one inch increment determines a cup size[...]


James Gleick has graphic from the patent.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Scraping the bottom of the bad guy gene pool

Desert Flier
[...]"No casualties from the VBIED".

We all have this incredulous "what the....?" look on our faces. Turns out, the VBIED driver only managed to blow himself up. His incompetence has an end result of one death....his own. This is a first for me, and I'll take it as a sign that the insurgents are scraping the bottom of the bad guy gene pool at this point.

Is your beer good or bad?

Madfish Willie has some ways to discriminate between the swank and the swill.

Heh, sounds about right

You scored as Rogue, Rogues share little in common with each other. Some are stealthy thieves. Others are silver-tongued tricksters. Still others are scouts, infiltrators, spies, diplomats, or thugs. What they share is versatility, adaptability, and resourcefulness. In general rogues are skill at getting what others don't want them to get; entrance in to a locked treasure vault, safe passage past a deadly trap, secret battle plans, a guards trust, or some random person's pocket money.

Rogue

90%

Sorcerer

80%

Monk

70%

Fighter

60%

Barbarian

60%

Paladin

50%

Ranger

50%

Cleric

50%

Wizard

40%

Bard

40%

Druid

40%

Which D&D Class Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Prohibited for export - WMD (Wardrobes of Mass Destruction)

The DoD is apparently disposing of some surplus WMD at Mainz-Kastel Germany. Among the list of dangerous items for sale are such scary things as book cases, desk chairs, folding tables, and yes...the infamous WMD - wardrobes of mass destruction!

Being that this lot consists of potentially "dual use" technology items like folding tables, there is a lengthy list of countries to which the buyer is prohibited from shipping these WMD's to after purchase. This list includes a long list of sworn enemies of the USA including the well known terrorist hideout and training ground of Haiti.

Far be it for me to suggest that the DoD are ummm...fucking retards here with regards to Haiti. I'm just saying...

I've just written my congressman requesting an official explanation as to why Haiti would be on a list of countries that shipping furniture to is prohibited. If I get an answer, I'm betting it will be quite entertaining.

Those vanishing snows on Kilimanjaro -- not global warming

Apparently, the inconvenient truth about the retreating glaciers on Kilimanjaro is that its not global warming, rather the increase in sun output that has been observed over the past few hundred years.

CO2 Science
[...]In a final study that describes what has actually happened to Kilimanjaro's glaciers, Cullen et al. (2006) report that "all ice bodies on Kilimanjaro have retreated drastically between 1912-2003," but they add that the highest glacial recession rates on Kilimanjaro "occurred in the first part of the 20th century, with the most recent retreat rates (1989-2003) smaller than in any other interval." In addition, they say that no temperature trends over the period 1948-2005 have been observed at the approximate height of the Kilimanjaro glaciers, but that there has been a small decrease in the region's specific humidity over this period.

In terms of why glacier retreat on Kilimanjaro was so dramatic over the 20th century, the six researchers note that for the mountain's plateau glaciers, there is no alternative for them "other than to continuously retreat once their vertical margins are exposed to solar radiation," which appears to have happened sometime in the latter part of the 19th century. They also say, in this regard, that the "vertical wall retreat that governs the retreat of plateau glaciers is irreversible, and changes in 20th century climate have not altered their continuous demise." Consequently, the 20th-century retreat of Kilimanjaro's plateau glaciers is a long-term response to what we could call "relict climate change" that likely occurred in the late 19th century[...]

Another way to get killed -- wearable TV's

As if cell phones weren't distracting enough, now we have wearable TV's so people can have half their vision obstructed too. The device costs about $800, so of course oblivions wearing one will become prime targets for snatchers as well as more prone to walking in front of buses, driving into bridge abutments, lurching down elevator shafts, etc.

Reuters (vid at this link too)
Japanese commuters can now stay tuned on crowded trains, with what's called the world's smallest wearable TV.

"Teleglass T3-F" is attached to glasses like a jeweler's eyepiece, with a remote control arm extending a mini-screen.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Comet wiped out northern hemisphere 13K years ago

Vague stories of apocalyptic events, fire and brimstone, great floods, etc. These are common long distant past historical themes running through many physically seperated cultures.

Traditionally they've been chalked up as legends, fanciful stories, or gross exaggerations...well maybe they all had a basis in actual events.
[...]Stone Age cultures were destroyed and populations of mammoths and other large land animals were wiped out. The blast also caused a major bout of climatic cooling that lasted 1000 years and seriously disrupted the development of the early human civilizations emerging in Europe and Asia.

"This comet set off a shock wave that changed Earth profoundly," said Arizona geophysicist Allen West.

"It was about 2km-3km in diameter and broke up just before impact, setting off a series of explosions, each the equivalent of an atomic bomb blast.

"The result would have been hell on Earth.
Most of the Northern Hemisphere would have been left on fire."[...]
UPDATE: Some background on the mass die off 13K years ago -- as far back as 03' this Science Daily article suggested it was a major climate change event that caused the die offs.

First the bees, now the rhinos

Of course I blame global warming for the disappearance of the Nepalese rhinos.
[...]Officials said dozens of rhinos appeared to have gone missing in recent years

Amazing F-15 footage



Israeli pilot lands an F-15 that missing a wing.

H/T Grouchy

Chinese ship 3 tons of poisonous puffer fish into US

Not for aquariums, for people to eat, mislabeled as Monkfish. Once is happenstance, twice coincidence, the third time will have to be considered enemy action...

Chicago Tribune
[...]The company shipped 282 boxes, with 22 pounds of frozen fish in each box.

The boxes were labeled, "Monk fish, gutted and head off, Product of China," the company said. The product was sold to restaurants and stores.

Pufferfish, also known as fugu, is a delicacy in Japan. Chefs must be licensed and usually undergo at least two years of training on how to safely remove the toxic parts of the fish.

The FDA describes tetrodotoxin as "one of the most violent intoxications from marine species." Symptoms begin as a numbness of the lips and tongue that can progress to paralysis[...]

Thursday, May 24, 2007

But I was told they fly kites in Iran, how can this be?

If you're a queer Iranian and want some sanctuary, your only hope is to take a Mexican vacation and jump the border -- THEN the politicians in the US will be glad to sign you up.

Amnesty International
Amnesty International has called on its members worldwide to appeal to Iranian authorities on behalf of 17 men who are reportedly being held for "homosexual conduct." The men were severely beaten when they were dragged from a private party by police, and may have been tortured in prison, according to reports. The offense of "homosexual conduct" is punishable by death or flogging in Iran[...]

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Ummm, about those vanishing honey bees

We know that bees (and other things) apparently respond to the earth's magnetic field as part of their navigation mechanisms. Pretty cool eh?
Honey bees orient to the earth's magnetic field. This ability may be associated with a region of transversely oriented magnetic material in the front of the abdomen. The magnetic moment apparently develops in the pupal state and persists in the adults.
Now we also notice that very recently the earth's magnetic poles have decided to go moving around in fairly radical way.
After some 400 years of relative stability, Earth's North Magnetic Pole has moved nearly 1,100 kilometers out into the Arctic Ocean during the last century and at its present rate could move from northern Canada to Siberia within the next half-century[...]
Radically shifting magnetic fields, lost honey bees? I suppose I'm a retard to think there might be a connection here that makes more sense than blaming it on global warming...

...but then again global warming is the cause of everything, so I'm going to have to go with the smart money and blame these radical movements of the north pole on it too.

Damn Bush -- that sellout SOB is giving the fucking north pole to the Russians!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Gallium may have anti-biotic properties

Why this didn't get a bit more high profile coverage by the MSM is a mystery.

MedPageToday
The metal gallium -- approved as a drug by the FDA to treat symptomatic cancer-related hypercalcemia -- may also be useful as an anti-microbial, according to researchers here.

The metal appears to act as a "Trojan horse" to bacteria, taking the place of iron that the microbes need to grow and replicate, said Pradeep K. Singh, M.D., of the University of Washington.

In mice, doses of the metal administered nasally were able to prevent death from a lethal dose of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the researchers reported online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, in advance of the April print issue[...]

Friday, May 18, 2007

War porn Friday - battleships really are dead now

There has been much consternation within the ground pounder ranks, and dinosaur surface warfare types, about the demise of the traditional battle ship's 16" guns. They were very good at what they did -- accurate supporting fire (although not so much on the WWII style surface engagement scenario anymore). The ability to hit something 20 miles away, in a matter of seconds, without putting a pilot at risk, or using a very expensive Tomahawk was very very attractive. It was a capability that has been lost when the battleships were mothballed/scrapped until now...

Enter the Raytheon ERGM.(PDF) Its fires from a common 5" naval gun (which we have LOTS of), but has a range of 40+ miles due to a rocket boost, and can hit on the first shot because its GPS guided.

The democrat's military mole surfaces

Read through that article posted at ThinkProgress. The mole is exactly who I thought it would wind up being -- Fallon. If Bush has any sense at all, he'll remove this guy ASAP. He'll be doing everything in his power to throw monkey wrenches Petraeus's way.

ThinkProgress

[UPDATE]
You will recall that Fallon was in command in the Pacific when THE CHINESE SUBMARINE INCIDENT occurred, and is the architect/advocate of a harebrained scheme of "military cooperation" with the PRC (in which the PRC never reciprocated after we showed them all of our family jewels)
...The incident is a setback for the aggressive U.S.-China military exchange program being promoted by Adm. Fallon, who has made several visits to China in recent months in an attempt to develop closer ties.

However, critics of the program in the Pentagon say China has not reciprocated and continues to deny U.S. military visitors access to key facilities, including a Beijing command center...

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Teen paints Queen's portrait using Vegemite

I presume it works well as caulking and does yeoman duty for concrete repair as well.


New Zealand Herald

A Queensland teenager has painted a portrait of the Queen in Vegemite[...]Ms Chard has also painted a Mona Lisa and a self-portrait in Vegemite. Her mother Angela said the portrait was unusual but well executed. "I usually see Stef's paintings in oil, so I was very surprised when I saw a Vegemite painting of the Queen," Mrs Chard said. "It's turned out really well, it's fantastic."[...]

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Robert Wexler(D-FL) on illegals and the border

Wexler is generally one of the raving leftists in congress. However, he seems to be breaking ranks with the rest of the democrats on illegals and the border taking a very tough stance. I just received this email response from him (bolded sections were bolded in Wexler's response):
Thank you for contacting my office regarding your thoughts on immigration. I agree with you that immigration is one of the most critical problems Congress must address.

It is imperative that we actually learn from past policies and implement changes that make lasting, comprehensive changes instead of providing toothless sound bites that leave us with essentially the same broken system we have now. What we have now hurts everyone . The number of illegal immigrants hurts American workers who have to compete against artificially lower wages. It hurts the taxpayers who have to foot the bill for not only the cost of undocumented people using government services but also high-priced border security efforts that have not met their predicted goals. And, it is not fair for the many immigrants who try to enter our country legally.

First and foremost, Congress must repair our broken borders . I think the most important step Congress can take to reform immigration policy is to redouble our existing immigration and border security system. In the previous few years, Congress has enacted several pieces of legislation that dealt with enhancing immigration-related border security. While Congressional funding for border security has sharply increased over the past few years, this funding is not nearly adequate. Second, we must enforce the workplace laws that already exist to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants . Hiring illegal immigrants drives wages down for American workers and often puts those illegal workers in abusive working conditions. There is no reason that the laws already on the books cannot be used to stop this practice, and I will continue to speak out on this issue. And finally, we must take a responsible look at the serious shortcomings of our present system and make responsible, informed changes so that the legal immigration system operates efficiently.

Thank you again for taking the time to write. Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions you may have or anytime I may be of assistance to you. I hope you will find my website (www.wexler.house.gov) a valuable resource in keeping up with events in Washington and South Florida.

With warm regards,

Robert Wexler
Member of Congress

The palestinian civil war

Scorpions in a bottle. Let them reduce each other.

Reuters
Hamas gunmen stormed the home of President Mahmoud Abbas's top security chief in Gaza and at least 16 people were killed in fierce factional fighting on Wednesday that pushed Palestinians closer to all-out civil war[...]

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Toad flees Portugal in bagged salad


When a country's toads are shipping themselves overseas in salad bags, what kind of a statement is that about the desirability of living in that country? Seriously, toads are notably unfussy about their accommodations. Some shade, some bugs, and they're good to go. It takes something extraordinary to drive them to becoming illegal immigrants reduced to escape attempts via salad bag.. Daily Mail
A mum screamed out loud when she found a rare natterjack toad in her supermarket salad[...]

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Used CD's more dangerous than guns in Florida!

If I sell a gun to a pawn shop or gun dealer, they can turn around and resell the gun the same day and pay me for it with cash. Used CD's are of course far more dangerous than guns, requiring a 30 day cooling off period.

You don't suppose the heavy hand of the RIAA stuffed a few FL legislator's pockets with bundles of cash to get this plainly unconstitutional legislation rammed through do you?

What ever happened to that quaint notion of "legal tender for all debts public and private"?

Scientific American
[...]In Florida, the new legislation requires all stores buying second-hand merchandise for resale to apply for a permit and file security in the form of a $10,000 bond with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In addition, stores would be required to thumb-print customers selling used CDs, and acquire a copy of state-issued identity documents such as a driver's license. Furthermore, stores could issue only store credit -- not cash -- in exchange for traded CDs, and would be required to hold discs for 30 days before reselling them[...]

CompuBeaver


Heh, you probably thought this had something to do with porn right? Wrong. Its a PC deftly packaged into a stuffed beaver. The perfect gift for that person who "has everything".

Japanese nerve gas attack cult back in business

Ain't that just peachy. I'm guessing its gonna be a long hot summer...

AFP
apan's intelligence agency Thursday launched inspections of a new offshoot of a doomsday cult that launched a deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway in 1995, reports said.

It was the agency's first monitoring of the splinter group, named Hikari no Wa ("Circle of Brilliance"), since a reputedly moderate former leader of the Aum Supreme Truth cult started the offshoot earlier this week[...]

Friday, May 11, 2007

Where did you guys come up with a hero like this?

An amazing story of what success in Iraq can look like. Go read it all.

AJC
One man is an African-American who grew up in south Atlanta, graduated from Washington High School and joined the Army after college.

The other is a powerful Sunni sheik who reached adulthood in Ramadi and lived the bulk of his life under Saddam Hussein’s rule.

One lost eight of his soldiers in Tameem, a western Ramadi neighborhood where rocket-propelled grenades, improvised explosive devices and suicide bombings were part of the daily vocabulary.

The other lost his father and three brothers. They were assassinated by al-Qaida terrorists.

A friendship between the two men, both in their early 40s, would have been unimaginable a few months ago[...]

[...]The people of Tameem, Al-Rishawi jokes, would elect Johnson police chief if an election were held today.

And to the people of Atlanta, the sheik asks: “Where did you guys come up with a hero like this?

US citizen sentenced for smuggling F-14 parts to Iran

Iranian born US citizen of course...looks like treason is only good for 2 years at Club Fed these days. I plan to write my congressman and question the trivial length of the sentence. I suggest you do the same.

US Immigration & Customs Enforcement
SANTA ANA, Calif. - An Iranian-born United States citizen was sentenced here yesterday in U.S. District Court to two years in prison and six months of home confinement for illegally exporting U.S. military aircraft parts to Iran via associates in Germany and the United Arab Emirates[...]

[...]In January 2006, agents intercepted and seized maintenance kits specifically designed for the F-14 "Tomcat" aircraft that Tabib, along with his wife, Terri Repic-Tabib, had sent to Iran via Germany. Agents arrested the couple at their Irvine residence in February 2006. A search of the Tabibs' home led to the seizure of 13,000 more aircraft parts worth an estimated $540,000.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Tracking the telemarketers

*69 can tell you what the last number to call you was.

This web site can tell you if it was a telemarketer

Al Gore would spit blood seeing this vehicle


The completely preposterous and over the top 1937 Hartmann/Cadillac V-16 Roadster (only one produced)

The response has been incredible.


Jones Turkey and Gravy Soda
The response to the Turkey & Gravy Jones Soda has been incredible. Thank you for your interest and patience in regards to this soda. We apologize if you were not able to get your hands on the Turkey & Gravy Jones Soda. Since this was a premium edition with limited quantities in Michigan and Washington region, we sold out pretty quickly. However, due to the huge interests from our consumers, we will be better prepared to meet everyone's need next year.
Turkey and gravy soda is something that's right up there on the list of things I absolutely must do before I die, right up there with gouging my eyes out with red hot pokers and experiencing the pain of a Viking Blood Eagle first hand, so I was heartbroken to see that its not available locally.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Are you getting the power you're paying for?

This is going to be a rant.

The National Electric Code is "the bible" electricians and inspectors abide by. The purpose of the code is to provide the rules for "safe" installations.
Article 90.1(A) Practical Safeguarding. The purpose of this Code is the practical safeguarding of persons and property from hazards arising from the use of electricity.
Sounds good so far right? Everyone wants safe electrical installations. HOWEVER, that's all the code guarantees in many cases - safety. One can have a perfectly code compliant installation, that an inspector MUST PASS, that is neither efficient, nor practically usable, nor allows for any future expansions.
Article 90.1(B) Adequacy. This Code contains provisions that are necessary for safety. Compliance therewith and proper maintenance results in an installation that is essentilly free from hazard but not necessarily efficient, convenient, or adequate for good service or future expansion of electrical use[...]
This is why you'll see things like switches for a room light that require you to walk across a dark room to turn it on -- convenience isn't part of the code, so a sleazy contractor will do what is most convenient and cheapest for them. In my house, when you walk in the front door, you have to walk 20 feet across a dark living room to turn the living room ceiling light on. One of these days, its going to piss me off enough that I'll put in a bunch of 4-ways and do it the way it should have been done ;->

On to EFFICIENCY -- the main topic of this rant. The code specifies minimum wire sizes for particular motor loads and such. One of the things that gets cheaped out on all the time is the wire for A/C compressors. My whole development was wired with #10 wire on the A/C compressors. The code allows it, its done all the time in millions of houses, its considered "safe". However, its not efficient.

Typical residential A/C compressors are drawing in the range of 20 amps of 240V load while running -- well within the stated range of that 30A #10 wire commonly used. However, at a continuous 20A load, that #10 wire is going to get warm, quite warm, warm enough that it gets uncomfortably hot to the touch. The #10 that was in my attic got so hot I didn't want to keep my hand on it within about 5 seconds of the compressor kicking in.

When the A/C is running, its already hot in the attic right?

What is all that heat the #10 wire is throwing off doing? Heating an already hot attic, that's what its doing.

What's causing that "heat"? The intrinsic resistance within the wire itself The wire is acting like an inefficient form of space heater.

That resistance is lowering the voltage the A/C compressor motor is seeing causing it to draw more current to do the same amount of work. The motor starts operating at the lower limits of its practical voltage range.

All that POWER that's going towards heating up the minimum sized wire, is power that NOT making its way to the compressor to do something useful, and its robbing the compressor of the ability to operate in its most efficient voltage range.

Here's the bottom line: I up sized the wire going to my outside A/C compressor disconnect to #8 and now it only gets luke warm when the compressor is running rather than noticeably hot. I also fed the compressor from a panel that's only about 10' away rather than 60'. That panel is being fed by even larger #4 wire and all the circuits in it are normally lightly loaded, so the compressor is the heaviest thing it sees normally.

This upsizing of the wire on the path that feeds the A/C compressor made a VISIBLE DIFFERENCE that you could feel in the performance of the A/C compressor.

If you ever have a house built, demand that the electricians upsize the wire going to the A/C unit. The cost difference is probably going to be less than $20 even at today's insane copper prices, but you're going to get that back very quickly in power saved by not heating your attic with skinny higher resistance code minimum wire. Your compressor will last longer because it'll be operating in its happy voltage range too.

Burn baby burn, Sarko inferno. Leftists gone wild.

Calmly and rationally expressing their "dissent" with a few hundred Car-B-Q's...which of course is the reason Sarkozy got elected in the first place.

Counterfeit electrical products

A long article, but worth reading. As usual, most of the dangerous fake crap is coming out of China...

EC&M
[...]counterfeit power strips marked for 12-gauge wire have been found to actually contain thin 24-gauge wire and caught fire under normal use. Counterfeit circuit breakers that looked indistinguishable from a name-brand breaker have been found to have nothing but a switch inside.

The direct threat to the health and safety of users of such products is clear[...]

[...]When a man caught by U.S. Customs officials last year importing counterfeit electrical receptacles was questioned about how and where the fakes were made, he told them he went to a home center in the United States, bought a name-brand receptacle, shipped it to a plant in China, said “make this for me,” and they did.[...]

Sunday, May 06, 2007

How do you explain THIS to the customer?

EC&M
[...]One day, an apprentice showed up in the unit I was working in, asking me to come help right away because he had a “situation.”[...]

[...]Whenever he put the drill in reverse, it would just pull him up — like the drill was in the “forward” position. I decided it was time to check things out on the first floor. After looking around for a few minutes, I was quite surprised to find the bit was nowhere near the wall he was trying to drill up into. He had drilled on such a great angle that the bit had come up right through the floor and up into the customer's couch! The drill bit would not pull out because it was completely wrapped around the coils of the couch.

I'll probably be called a vile racist for doing this...

...posting this link (see table 42). There's already a big shitstorm brewing over this.

Run down the "white offender" column and notice which crimes have 0.0* next to them. Then come back here and bring some hate.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

There Must Be a God In Haiti

This is a fascinating article about Haiti I found via random surfing. Originally it appeared back in 96' in Outside magazine. Its a long piece, but well worth the time. You won't be disappointed.

Several of my closest neighbors whom I get along very well with are from Haiti and we frequently stand around talking about the place and they've been teaching me Creole.

I've found Haitians in general to be quite friendly and uncommonly resourceful hard working people. Without doubt there are exceptions...Macoute/Attache death squads, corruption, etc but such things don't seem to break their spirit.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

VW bug ownage of Ferrari in drag race

Heh, its all about the physics baby. A 300hp bug motor with the weight over the driving wheels pushing 1800lb's can accelerate faster than the much heavier Ferrari with the driving wheels and motor in the wrong place. The bug driver even spazed a bit coming out of the gate, then blows by the Ferrari about mid track.

20 years ago I had a warmed over 66' Beetle with racing heads, Crane cam, lightened flywheel, etc that could take a Corvette every time at a stoplight. It was always a "teachable moment" for the Vette guys ;->

Unrequited love -- alas, she lives in the U.K.


Have you had a desire that was just not going to work due to circumstances? Damn, she lives in England.

Fred Thompson: The world can suck it.

I love this guy. This sort of talk is going to go over well in flyover country.

NRO
It bothers Americans when we’re told how unpopular we are with the rest of the world. For some of us, at least, it gets our back up — and our natural tendency is to tell the French, for example, that we’d rather not hear from them until the day when they need us to bail them out again[...]

Cuban cigars & hair dye "mission essential" to Saddam hanging

Good thing they didn't waste any money on him buying "luxuries" like hookers and blow.

NZ Herald
BAGHDAD - The US military bought Cuban cigars and hair dye for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein while he was held before his execution because they were "mission essential", a military investigation heard today[...]

Sabotage at Renault factory

Not smart. Who's going to build all the cars to replace those burned in the nightly Paris Car-B-Q's now? Hyundi, Daewoo, etc that's who. The European socialist workers paradise -- burning the candle at both ends. Nicely done boys, nicely done.

LIBCOM
[...]Workers at the Renault factory in Le Mans have been accused by management of sabotaging factory equipment.

The action appears to be a response to the sacking, ten days ago, of five workers for faute grave (gross misconduct). It is unclear how many of the 3000 workers were involved in the action, management has not specified exactly what form the sabotage took. The condamnation of the action by the CFDT union also fails to describe the action[...]