Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico said it will withdraw its ambassador and severe diplomatic ties with Venezuela if that country's president doesn't apologize Monday for warning Mexican leader Vicente Fox: "Don't mess with me."
Monday, November 14, 2005
Mexico/Venezuela relations tank - Mexico may recall embassador
Hugo needs a Dale Carnegie course in how to win friends and influence people. He's got the "influence" (negatively) part down, but the winning friends part is still a little shakey. Seriously, it would have been pretty easy to cast this guy as Al Capone for that scene in the movie where he gives the "motivational talk" with the baseball bat.
Associated Press
Associated Press
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Are liberals unpatriotic?
Froggy poses the question and presents a hard well documented smackdown.
I won't go as far as to make it a blanket accusation, but we're probably talking in the realm of 85-90% though.
I won't go as far as to make it a blanket accusation, but we're probably talking in the realm of 85-90% though.
More on the Falluja white phosphorous lies
Game, set, match baby. The leftist commies have been caught red handed pitching bullshit propaganda.
Confederate Yankee has the goods
Confederate Yankee has the goods
Tectonic shifts in Saudi policy open WTO doors
Yep, the "neocon" agenda is a complete failure. Saudi trade with Israel. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Tunisia, and Pakistan starting softening their stances on Israel, the Syrians rocked back on their heels and withdrawn from Lebanon, Libya pulling in its fangs, etc. These are all very dire developments. Indeed, I dare say -- harbingers of impending doom.
[moonbat==off]
Keep drinking that KoolAid and chanting the mantras. The Saudi's just put themselves square in the crosshairs of every Islamofacist in the world with this move...which implies they've decided to FULLY "get on board" in the WOT.
Washington Times
[moonbat==off]
Keep drinking that KoolAid and chanting the mantras. The Saudi's just put themselves square in the crosshairs of every Islamofacist in the world with this move...which implies they've decided to FULLY "get on board" in the WOT.
Washington Times
GENEVA -- Saudi Arabia has agreed to end all economic boycotts of Israel, allowing the World Trade Organization (WTO) yesterday to admit the oil-rich kingdom as its 149th member, diplomats said.H/T Captain Marlow
...
When will the Chavez invasion of Curacao begin?
[UPDATE]
Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks Chavez has designs on Curacao now ;->
Publis Pundit has noticed something is going on.
VCrisis is onboard.
[UPDATE]
He's not looking to buy 50 or so new top line Russian fighters and 40 Russian helicopters and 100,000 new Russian assault rifles because he likes their nifty paint jobs. He's already got a servicible bunch of US, Brit, and French gear in inventory that was more than enough to maintain VE's security.
For a supposed "populist" this is some heavy jack being spent on weaponry that might otherwise be spent doing something useful for the people of VE.
There is something cooking here. After much thought, I've concluded the target is most likely Curacao.
Curacao has one of the THE largest refineries on the planet.
Curacao has extensive drydock and facility.
It has some oil.
Its VERY close to the VE coast.
Its owned by the Dutch who probably wouldn't defend it.
The invasion would be a fait acompli before NATO could do anything
Chavez is sending troops and officers for "training" in Cuba.
60 new Russian Migs is a lot of air superiority cover for an island just off the VE coast.
Connect the dots - Curacao is a phat target ripe for the picking and there's not a damn thing the Dutch, the US or Nato could do about preventing it because it is so close to the VE coast. Chavez WOULD succeed in taking Curacao. Once that is done, O.I.L. becomes his most effective weapon to keep the west at bay.
Why THIS STORY about Chavez threatening to turn over his F-16's to Cuba and China never made the news in the US is pretty interesting.
Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks Chavez has designs on Curacao now ;->
Publis Pundit has noticed something is going on.
VCrisis is onboard.
[UPDATE]
He's not looking to buy 50 or so new top line Russian fighters and 40 Russian helicopters and 100,000 new Russian assault rifles because he likes their nifty paint jobs. He's already got a servicible bunch of US, Brit, and French gear in inventory that was more than enough to maintain VE's security.
For a supposed "populist" this is some heavy jack being spent on weaponry that might otherwise be spent doing something useful for the people of VE.
There is something cooking here. After much thought, I've concluded the target is most likely Curacao.
Connect the dots - Curacao is a phat target ripe for the picking and there's not a damn thing the Dutch, the US or Nato could do about preventing it because it is so close to the VE coast. Chavez WOULD succeed in taking Curacao. Once that is done, O.I.L. becomes his most effective weapon to keep the west at bay.
Why THIS STORY about Chavez threatening to turn over his F-16's to Cuba and China never made the news in the US is pretty interesting.
VENEZUELA'S president has threatened to give Cuba and China F-16 fighter aircraft from his arsenal, insisting that the US has failed to fulfil its maintenance commitments for the combat planes.
President Hugo Chavez, who has overtaken his ally Fidel Castro of Cuba as the regional nemesis for the Bush White House, said: "We can do whatever we want with the planes. Maybe we'll send 10 to Cuba, or maybe to China so that they can see the technology."
The donation or sale of the F-16s would violate agreements concerning the exchange of military hardware without US permission and put further strain on relations between the two countries. However, the Venezuelan F-16s were bought in 1983 and are not believed to contain any sensitive technology.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Is the nuke weapons "Iranian laptop" a sucker job?
New York Times
OK, so US intelligence claims we've got a stolen laptop full of nifty bomb design and analysis data. This raises a number of questions the NYT article fails to address.
A) Assuming we had an asset in a position to filch such data, why did they ripoff the whole machine? People tend to notice when whole machines go missing. Classified operations, like Iranian bomb design labs, usually have asset protection plans and security in place to keep things like laptops from growing legs and just walking away on their own.
B) Would the iranians be dumb enough to keep things like bomb designs on a laptop rather than on a mainframe or network with higher security protocols that audit who is accessing what and when it gets accessed? As a 25 year veteran of the computer industry, I would have to guess the Iranians are not this stupid.
Even non-classified US businesses do things to prevent confidential data from walking away. ex. For insurance companies and banks, IBM sold a special version of one of their old PS/2 machines that had no local media. It was just a medialess LAN workstation. People could access and work with data, but couldn't save it locally. All higher quality LAN cards have the ability to RIPL (remote IPL) a machine off of a server making local media unnecessary.
C) Modern laptops are super easy to replace components on. Assuming the Iranian asset had access to this hardware, why would we not simply supply them with a drive that was identical to the one in the machine and do a swap? Certainly the CIA or FBI has people who could counterfeit up all the proper labels with identical serial numbers, etc for the swapped drive so there would be no (obvious) indication a swap had occured. The swapped drive would just need to exhibit a fatal hardware problem that would make data unrecoverable - ex. like a head crash that peeled media off the drive. Drives fail all the time. It would just be considered a routine maintenance thing. It would certainly be easier to sneak a small laptop drive out of a secure facility than a whole laptop.
This story smells -- it reeks of a setup/trap by the Iranians to discredit the US and it appears we've taken the bait. If the story is true, then the Iranian security is more inept than I ever imagined. For the moment at least, its much easier to believe this is a setup rather than the real thing.
In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.
The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting.
OK, so US intelligence claims we've got a stolen laptop full of nifty bomb design and analysis data. This raises a number of questions the NYT article fails to address.
A) Assuming we had an asset in a position to filch such data, why did they ripoff the whole machine? People tend to notice when whole machines go missing. Classified operations, like Iranian bomb design labs, usually have asset protection plans and security in place to keep things like laptops from growing legs and just walking away on their own.
B) Would the iranians be dumb enough to keep things like bomb designs on a laptop rather than on a mainframe or network with higher security protocols that audit who is accessing what and when it gets accessed? As a 25 year veteran of the computer industry, I would have to guess the Iranians are not this stupid.
Even non-classified US businesses do things to prevent confidential data from walking away. ex. For insurance companies and banks, IBM sold a special version of one of their old PS/2 machines that had no local media. It was just a medialess LAN workstation. People could access and work with data, but couldn't save it locally. All higher quality LAN cards have the ability to RIPL (remote IPL) a machine off of a server making local media unnecessary.
C) Modern laptops are super easy to replace components on. Assuming the Iranian asset had access to this hardware, why would we not simply supply them with a drive that was identical to the one in the machine and do a swap? Certainly the CIA or FBI has people who could counterfeit up all the proper labels with identical serial numbers, etc for the swapped drive so there would be no (obvious) indication a swap had occured. The swapped drive would just need to exhibit a fatal hardware problem that would make data unrecoverable - ex. like a head crash that peeled media off the drive. Drives fail all the time. It would just be considered a routine maintenance thing. It would certainly be easier to sneak a small laptop drive out of a secure facility than a whole laptop.
This story smells -- it reeks of a setup/trap by the Iranians to discredit the US and it appears we've taken the bait. If the story is true, then the Iranian security is more inept than I ever imagined. For the moment at least, its much easier to believe this is a setup rather than the real thing.
Revisiting the Darfur situation - because it is important
This is basically just a bump of a previous post, but it rolled off the radar screen, so I link it again. Mark my words - Darfur isn't about nutty Islamists running around wasting people for religious/racist reasons. The Darfur slaughter is all about O.I.L. and who will get to develop it.
Darfur - the French/Chinese oil connection
Darfur - the French/Chinese oil connection
The Faluja "white phosphorous" kerfluffle and the liars who created and pimp it.
Captain Marlow has the goods
Basically a bunch of Italians commies pimping a bunch of made up and inaccurate crap - which is of course how commies have operated for the last 100 years. Their pics are bogus, knowedge of weaponry highly suspect, and their motives transparent. The difference this time, is the blogosphere. They've been called out on the scam and exposed as liars. The expose is now getting more traction than their original propaganda. See Right Nation for lots more info and links too
Basically a bunch of Italians commies pimping a bunch of made up and inaccurate crap - which is of course how commies have operated for the last 100 years. Their pics are bogus, knowedge of weaponry highly suspect, and their motives transparent. The difference this time, is the blogosphere. They've been called out on the scam and exposed as liars. The expose is now getting more traction than their original propaganda. See Right Nation for lots more info and links too
Bruce Willis has discovered Michael Yon -- and was impressed
BruceWillis.com
I've blogrolled Yon, but he's worth mentioning again. Michael Yon is the REAL DEAL. Yon is the best war correspondent since Ernie Pyle, and I dare say, he is even better than Pyle because he comes at it with a little different perspective than Pyle did. You see, Yon is ex-special forces. He KNOWS how things fit together in ways ordinary "journalists" don't -- and he relates it in ways everyone can understand.
I've blogrolled Yon, but he's worth mentioning again. Michael Yon is the REAL DEAL. Yon is the best war correspondent since Ernie Pyle, and I dare say, he is even better than Pyle because he comes at it with a little different perspective than Pyle did. You see, Yon is ex-special forces. He KNOWS how things fit together in ways ordinary "journalists" don't -- and he relates it in ways everyone can understand.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Tin foil hats make moonbats nuttier
This is something I've long suspected -- the foil hat craze was a government created plot. Now that we know "the truth" it looks like time to start shorting Alcoa stock ;->
MIT student study
MIT student study
...It has long been suspected that the government has been using satellites to read and control the minds of certain citizens...H/T Ace
Thursday, November 10, 2005
The Amman bombing was an assassination - bank on it.
It would seem General Bashir Nafeh was putting some pressure on the Palestinian extremist factions. Could there be any better reason for say...Hamas to contract out a hit to AQ? If Nafeh was coordinating with the Israelis in a crackdown, that surely would have made him a marked man.
Mark my words folks - this was no ordinary splodydope "martyrdom operation" as is being claimed by AQ Iraq - this will ultimately turn out to be an assasination of a major PA figure.
The bombers themselves would of course get fed some bullshit story about striking at the Americans, Iraq, blah, blah, blah so they wouldn't have reservations about hitting a PA general, but the planners surely had a much different goal in mind. The other two hotels would have been just distractions to muddy up identifying the real target
United Jerusalem
If we apply Occam's Razor, the only rational conclusion is this was a hit. The chances of this being a coincidence are astronomical. Note also that the general was returning from a visit to Egypt. I think its safe to say he wasn't there to discuss the latest olive crop yields. He was there to discuss the security situation on Gaza'a southern border which has been problematic for both parties.
The next question to be answered is - who within the PA had access to the general's itinerary and was in a position to leak this info to Hamas? (or some other radical faction that didn't want the PA cracking down on extremists and closing down the sieve that is the Gaza border).
Was the general's intinerary specific as the the hotel he would be at? In any case, this hit would need to look like a random bombing. Multiples would fill the bill nicely even if the general's specific hotel were known.
It should be noted that Col. Abed Allun (also killed in the bombing) was a high ranking security official within the PA, so this was a "twofer" in regards to zapping high profile PA security officials.
It also should be noted that only one [edit: now being reported as 3] Americans has been reported killed in the blast so far. This is most curious if AQ wants to strike at Americans isn't it? They've not shrunk from wasting Americans elsewhere. Why be a piker here? This aspect doesn't wash if these were just random bombings. Surely if you wanted to get Americans, a watcher could be posted to ensure that the lobbys were well stocked when the splodydopes were to be sent in.
HOWEVER, there are certain groups that have generally avoided going after Americans directly (for obvious reasons) -- one of them being Hamas. Now I'm going to speculate some:
Suppose Hamas needs the general dead (for obvious reasons)?
Suppose they don't want to be directly associated with the hit (also for obvious reasons)?
Suppose they contract out the hit to AQ? (in exchange for giving cover to AQ operations in Gaza)?
Suppose one of the terms of the deal is that not too many Americans get greased just incase the job is botched? Hamas doesn't really need a bunch of Navy Seals sneaking around Gaza snatching their honchos, so keeping the American damage to a minimum would be one of their requirements for an "outsourced" job.
AQ certainly needs a Gaza base far more than they needed to do a few random bombings.
The bullshit Islamist AQ website claims taking the blame deflect interest away from Hamas.
AQ gets their safe haven in Gaza.
The troublesome general is eliminated.
Not too many Americans are wasted which keeps Hamas happy with the job.
The details of this particular scenario may be all bullshit, but it makes a lot more sense than writing this off as just another random AQ bombing.
There are other possible scenarios that require the general getting dead too.
AQ's quality of recruits in Iraq has been severely damaged as I've noted previously. If the general were working with the Egyptians and Jordanians to cramp the flow of higher quality import talent from North Africa, that too would necessitate the hit. This scenario would eliminate the need for a Hamas connection and allow for an "all AQ" operation.
Mark my words folks - this was no ordinary splodydope "martyrdom operation" as is being claimed by AQ Iraq - this will ultimately turn out to be an assasination of a major PA figure.
The bombers themselves would of course get fed some bullshit story about striking at the Americans, Iraq, blah, blah, blah so they wouldn't have reservations about hitting a PA general, but the planners surely had a much different goal in mind. The other two hotels would have been just distractions to muddy up identifying the real target
United Jerusalem
...The Palestinian Special Forces, under the command of the Bashir Nafeh - also a member of the unofficial "disengagement talks" - have logged a number of key arrests lately, some in coordination with the IDF and the Shin Bet. They have made arrests and neutralized bombs and suicide kits.
...
If we apply Occam's Razor, the only rational conclusion is this was a hit. The chances of this being a coincidence are astronomical. Note also that the general was returning from a visit to Egypt. I think its safe to say he wasn't there to discuss the latest olive crop yields. He was there to discuss the security situation on Gaza'a southern border which has been problematic for both parties.
The next question to be answered is - who within the PA had access to the general's itinerary and was in a position to leak this info to Hamas? (or some other radical faction that didn't want the PA cracking down on extremists and closing down the sieve that is the Gaza border).
Was the general's intinerary specific as the the hotel he would be at? In any case, this hit would need to look like a random bombing. Multiples would fill the bill nicely even if the general's specific hotel were known.
It should be noted that Col. Abed Allun (also killed in the bombing) was a high ranking security official within the PA, so this was a "twofer" in regards to zapping high profile PA security officials.
It also should be noted that only one [edit: now being reported as 3] Americans has been reported killed in the blast so far. This is most curious if AQ wants to strike at Americans isn't it? They've not shrunk from wasting Americans elsewhere. Why be a piker here? This aspect doesn't wash if these were just random bombings. Surely if you wanted to get Americans, a watcher could be posted to ensure that the lobbys were well stocked when the splodydopes were to be sent in.
HOWEVER, there are certain groups that have generally avoided going after Americans directly (for obvious reasons) -- one of them being Hamas. Now I'm going to speculate some:
The details of this particular scenario may be all bullshit, but it makes a lot more sense than writing this off as just another random AQ bombing.
There are other possible scenarios that require the general getting dead too.
AQ's quality of recruits in Iraq has been severely damaged as I've noted previously. If the general were working with the Egyptians and Jordanians to cramp the flow of higher quality import talent from North Africa, that too would necessitate the hit. This scenario would eliminate the need for a Hamas connection and allow for an "all AQ" operation.
Amman bombings - the REAL reason
Do you believe in the tooth fairy? I don't. When a general gets whacked in a bombing, the chances of it being a "coincidence" are slim and none. This is Zarqawi declaring war on the PA. Here's the "money quote" hidden away at the bottom of a CNN article.
[UPDATE: If you got here from a direct link read this post too. I'm absolutely convinced this was a hit on Nafeh now]
CNN
[UPDATE: If you got here from a direct link read this post too. I'm absolutely convinced this was a hit on Nafeh now]
CNN
Officials from other governments, however, were among the dead. Four Palestinians, including Maj. Gen. Bashir Nafeh, head of Palestinian military intelligence, died in the blast at the Grand Hyatt, said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.
Also killed was Col. Abed Allun; Jihad Fattouh, the brother of the Palestinian parliament speaker; and Mosab Khoma, Erakat said. The four were on their way back from Cairo, Egypt, he said, adding his condemnation of the attacks.
OMG - I could be rich!
I know how to run a welder, polisher, grinder and cutting torch. Now all I need to do is find a fool with more jack than brains and sell'em a bunch of scrap welded together and I'll be set for life.
Yo - rich morons out there. I'll do you a lot better than this guy did for say a paltry $5M and I'll throw in some snazzy polished copper and anodized aluminum stuff too...and I'll have the base gold plated.
Click here for pic of $25M woth of scrap metal
Metal "sculpture" sells for $23M
Yo - rich morons out there. I'll do you a lot better than this guy did for say a paltry $5M and I'll throw in some snazzy polished copper and anodized aluminum stuff too...and I'll have the base gold plated.
Click here for pic of $25M woth of scrap metal
Metal "sculpture" sells for $23M
A large-scale metal sculpture by American artist David Smith has become the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction, fetching 23.8 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York....
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Burma paranoia approaches DPRK levels
Damn, I can't keep all the places the US is supposed to be invading straight anymore...Venezuela, DPRK, Iran, Syria, and now Burma. These nutbars are going to have to get their stories straight. Look, we can only invade and manage a couple at a time, so someone is plainly in the clear. We're not done with Afganistan and Iraq yet, so ALL of these loons are in the clear for the forseable future.
The Australian
The Australian
RANGOON: Burma's reclusive military junta is moving key ministries to a secret location in the mountains and dense forest on the road to Mandalay, in what is believed to be a precaution against a US invasion....
Porter Goss goes soft on accountability review board
Disturbing shit. I was originally an enthusiastic Goss supporter when he became DCI. I though he was just the guy to clean out the rats nest. I can no longer say that. Its obvious he's covering something up. I want to know what that is. I want to see someone else with the necessary stones to do the job.
Senator Pat Roberts press release
Senator Pat Roberts press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 5, 2005
CONTACT: Sarah Ross Little(202) 224-4774
Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts Today Issued the Following Statement
“I have been informed of Director Porter Goss’s decision not to convene Accountability Review Boards (ARB) as recommended by the CIA Inspector General’s review of the actions of CIA personnel prior to September 11, 2001. “Because the ARB is generally the mechanism by which the CIA determines whether any punitive personnel action is warranted, I am concerned to learn of the Director’s decision to forego this step in the process.
“However, I spoke with Director Goss and Negroponte earlier today and they both strongly believe that this is the correct course of action.
“I have invited both Director Negroponte and Director Goss to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee later this month, where we have an opportunity to explore with them this decision and the basis for it.”
Radical Islamic Dutch "youngster" gets "treatment" rather than jail for bomb
Can anyone doubt that this murderous little weasle will escape at the earliest opportunity and go back to plying his deadly inclinations? The Dutch are certifiably nuts. Whackos like this need to be packed away for as long as the law allows.
NIS News
NIS News
The district court in Amsterdam ruled yesterday that a 17 year old boy from Almere had no terrorist plans for his home-made explosive. But he must undergo behavioural therapy at a youth institution...H/T Booker Rising
...Last March, the youngster made death threats by e-mail for MPs Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders...
...After the youth was arrested in Amsterdam in July, the police in a search of the boy's bedroom found a cardboard rod filled with gunpowder and metal and material for a detonating device. The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) concluded that the bomb was intended for an attack, but the court did not consider yesterday that this was proven...
...The boy is in a state of diminished responsibility, the behavioural experts have concluded...
...The court did not consider detention necessary, as the boy had already been in custody for four months
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Roof patching
Wilma peeled hundreds of shingles off my crib. It took a few days a fiddling around and 2.5 buckets of roof glop to effect repairs. No leaks during the last rain.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Power back on
5:30pm EST - power returns after 7 days of darkness.
Purple Avenger's hurricane observations:
Morons are everywhere
Morons are everywhere
Morons are everywhere
Morons are everywhere
Seriously, all the sorry looking dopes on TV standing in line for bottled water and ice? Pathetic.
I got through this without needing bottled water or ice. I filled up some plastic bottles with (almost) free tap water before the storm hit. God forbid, but, gasp, I'll publicly admit that I drank room temperature tap water and soda. Since I'm typing this, it should be obvious that the "hardship" of not having icy cold drinks for a week did not kill or maim me to any discernable degree. I'm betting it would not have killed those MORONS that stood in line for hours and wasted gas getting to the distribution points either. People with meds needing refrigeration - you have a real excuse to be there. The rest of you bozos looking sorryass trying to scam a not so freebie, I have no sympathy whatoever. You were MORONS.
The "hurricane relief" I've received so far consists of $0.00 in government supplied materiels.
My roof lost hundreds of shingles - but I'm not whining about it on the radio or waiting for it to leak - I climbed up there with a bucket of roof tar and some patches made from a roll of tar paper I scored out of a dumpster 10 years ago and stashed away for just this kind of occasion. A couple of days of taring and fitting patches and the roof will be ready to take another hurricane - it made it through two last year with somewhat lesser damage I bandaided the same way.
When I put a new roof on its going to be at a time of MY chosing and at MY convenience. The only people who are really stuck are those who had significant structural damage that can't be hacked up with some tarps, tar paper, etc. They'll need to get something done fast and pay through the nose for it unless they're competent enough to do it themselves. You other able bodied clowns waiting for the tooth fairy to show up with a new roof before the next rain? You better smarten up and start patching or your shit is gonna get wet.
Amazingly, in spite of the full week of warning Florida had before Wilma hit, some MORONS still did absolutely nothing to prep their houses and had a lot of windows blown out and busted. One ~80 year old woman was killed when a big sliding door fell on her during the hurricane. I don't like to be disrespectful to the dead, but she must have been a MORON to be standing in front of a monstrous uncovered sliding door in the middle of a hurricane. Seriously, can you be any stupider than that and not get rewarded with death for your stupidity? I don't think so.
Plywood was plentiful, even up to the last day. I've been using the same plywood for the last 10 years. Some MORONS have thrown out the plywood they used. At $20/sheet this kind of stupidity gets expensive. Lean it against a wall in the garage for next year - then you won't be in a panic at Home Depot trying to buy something as a storm approaches. Save the Tapcons and stick them in a can somewhere - they can be reused. Come on people - smarten up.
Purple Avenger's hurricane observations:
Seriously, all the sorry looking dopes on TV standing in line for bottled water and ice? Pathetic.
I got through this without needing bottled water or ice. I filled up some plastic bottles with (almost) free tap water before the storm hit. God forbid, but, gasp, I'll publicly admit that I drank room temperature tap water and soda. Since I'm typing this, it should be obvious that the "hardship" of not having icy cold drinks for a week did not kill or maim me to any discernable degree. I'm betting it would not have killed those MORONS that stood in line for hours and wasted gas getting to the distribution points either. People with meds needing refrigeration - you have a real excuse to be there. The rest of you bozos looking sorryass trying to scam a not so freebie, I have no sympathy whatoever. You were MORONS.
The "hurricane relief" I've received so far consists of $0.00 in government supplied materiels.
My roof lost hundreds of shingles - but I'm not whining about it on the radio or waiting for it to leak - I climbed up there with a bucket of roof tar and some patches made from a roll of tar paper I scored out of a dumpster 10 years ago and stashed away for just this kind of occasion. A couple of days of taring and fitting patches and the roof will be ready to take another hurricane - it made it through two last year with somewhat lesser damage I bandaided the same way.
When I put a new roof on its going to be at a time of MY chosing and at MY convenience. The only people who are really stuck are those who had significant structural damage that can't be hacked up with some tarps, tar paper, etc. They'll need to get something done fast and pay through the nose for it unless they're competent enough to do it themselves. You other able bodied clowns waiting for the tooth fairy to show up with a new roof before the next rain? You better smarten up and start patching or your shit is gonna get wet.
Amazingly, in spite of the full week of warning Florida had before Wilma hit, some MORONS still did absolutely nothing to prep their houses and had a lot of windows blown out and busted. One ~80 year old woman was killed when a big sliding door fell on her during the hurricane. I don't like to be disrespectful to the dead, but she must have been a MORON to be standing in front of a monstrous uncovered sliding door in the middle of a hurricane. Seriously, can you be any stupider than that and not get rewarded with death for your stupidity? I don't think so.
Plywood was plentiful, even up to the last day. I've been using the same plywood for the last 10 years. Some MORONS have thrown out the plywood they used. At $20/sheet this kind of stupidity gets expensive. Lean it against a wall in the garage for next year - then you won't be in a panic at Home Depot trying to buy something as a storm approaches. Save the Tapcons and stick them in a can somewhere - they can be reused. Come on people - smarten up.
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