I'm heading to NY (state, not the city!) to wallow in the basements and attics of a couple of 100+ year old buildings rewiring them. I'm sure I'll meet lots of new 8 legged friends, and slugs the size of hot dogs. 100 years seems to be sufficient time for a sizable population of sizable slugs to develop in a building's basement.
Its not something I look forward to, but its something that needs to be done...
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Murtha - clueless then, clueless now
Murtha urged disasterous Somalia pullout
How disasterous was it? Just ask the man who was in a position to know - OBL himself.
H/T DANEgerous
How disasterous was it? Just ask the man who was in a position to know - OBL himself.
OBL "fatwa" : "...However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the ‘heart’ of every Muslim and a remedy to the ‘chests’ of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut , Aden and Mogadishu...I'll say it again - A few decades in the marines doesn't mean you know anything about geopolitics. Indeed, the fact that he only rose to the level of colonel during that time is a fair indication that he didn't have "the right stuff" to play on a geopoltical stage. Retiring as a colonel is what happens to the guys who are passed over for promotion several times in a row. They don't get passed over because they're exceptional, they get passed over because they're mediocre talents.
H/T DANEgerous
You gotta be shitting me! Developer:0 Fairies:1
What else is there to say?
H/T Pambie
H/T Pambie
Genesis Properties ceased plans to develop a new housing community in St Fillans, Perthshire, because the locals believe they may be disturbing a small colony of fairies living under a rock.
Marcus Salter, head of Genesis: “A neighbour came over shouting, ‘Don’t move that rock. You’ll kill the fairies’. Then we got a series of phone calls, saying we were disturbing the fairies. I thought they were joking.”
The rock protrudes from Dundurn mountain, ancient site of St. Fillan’s attempts to convert the Picts.
Mr. Salter attended a community council meeting, and Jeannie Fox, council chairman, said: “I do believe in fairies but I can’t be sure that they live under that rock. I had been told that the rock had historic importance, that kings were crowned upon it. A lot of people think the rock had some Pictish meaning, it would be extremely unlucky to move it.”
Genesis relocated the entire project.
Monday, November 21, 2005
The Clueless Cavalcade! -- an ongoing Purple Avenger feature
I've decided to implement a running post that I'll update as new oblivions present themselves as ripe targets for scorn and derision.
I present to you Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau. Weapons grade crazy. Industrial strength stupid.
H/T DBS
Los Angeles school district has a 50% dropout rate.
WTF?!?! You thought Lousiana was tops in corruption and ineptness? Meet the new king of the hill folks - the LA School District. (H/T Nickie Goomba)
WaPo's Dana Milbank - biased hack, liar and more!
Ace does the smackdown. Good stuff. Brent Bozell has another good Milbank smackdown too.
One letter in Pravda in Paradise (i.e. The Palm Beach Post) today struck me as clueless in the extreme. This dude apparently thinks the US military is a bunch of amateur rubes who go off to war equipped like a cub scout troop. Apparently he's never heard of all the NBC gear we have that generally make chem weapons an annoyance rather than a deadly threat. Jeez, 30 years ago in BCT at Ft. Dix I learned how to deal with this stuff.
It should be noted that the Post's editorial staff could have used this letter as an opportunity to have a "teachable moment" for the readers -- but they chose otherwise.
I present to you Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau. Weapons grade crazy. Industrial strength stupid.
...pleaded guilty Friday to defacing cars with bumper stickers supporting President Bush...pleaded guilty to felony mischief and must pay restitution to the owners of the damaged cars to clear his record.
H/T DBS
Los Angeles school district has a 50% dropout rate.
WTF?!?! You thought Lousiana was tops in corruption and ineptness? Meet the new king of the hill folks - the LA School District. (H/T Nickie Goomba)
WaPo's Dana Milbank - biased hack, liar and more!
Ace does the smackdown. Good stuff. Brent Bozell has another good Milbank smackdown too.
One letter in Pravda in Paradise (i.e. The Palm Beach Post) today struck me as clueless in the extreme. This dude apparently thinks the US military is a bunch of amateur rubes who go off to war equipped like a cub scout troop. Apparently he's never heard of all the NBC gear we have that generally make chem weapons an annoyance rather than a deadly threat. Jeez, 30 years ago in BCT at Ft. Dix I learned how to deal with this stuff.
It should be noted that the Post's editorial staff could have used this letter as an opportunity to have a "teachable moment" for the readers -- but they chose otherwise.
Palm Beach Post letters to the editorIf Iraq really had WMD, Bush did the unthinkable
The president was very sure that there were no weapons of mass destruction and no danger of biological or chemical attacks on our troops in Iraq ("Bush blasts critics on Iraq," Nov. 12). He was so sure that he had no qualms about sending them in.
Patently, he believed the intelligence of other nations and that ours was flawed. He was so sure the troops would be safe that he did not need to let the inspectors finish their investigation. Not even a rabid Democrat would accuse the president of sending American forces in without assurance of their safety from these terrible weapons. It would be better for conservatives to admit that the president deliberately used intelligence that he knew was false than to accuse him of recklessly endangering U.S. personnel.
REV. SEBASTIAN MUCCILLI
Lake Park
Maureen Dowd caused the Paris riots
Funny stuff. Highly recommended!
Maureen Dowd caused the Paris riots
Maureen Dowd caused the Paris riots
What's in ICSQ-2003-00025586 and why doesn't senator Levin want us to know?
Come on Carl - why are YOU "cherry picking" intel? IF this ICSQ-2003-00025586 doc supports democrat contentions, its is certain it would be front page news. That it is not is damning.
References:
Weekly Standard
Stephen Hayes
Stephen Hayes (page 2)
References:
Weekly Standard
Stephen Hayes
Stephen Hayes (page 2)
There are many such documents in a U.S. intelligence database known as HARMONY. One example: Document number ICSQ-2003-00025586 was captured by the U.S. military during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Here is the synopsis of that document that appears in the database:Category: Al Qaida
Title: Letters, logbook, training manual from Al Qaida Chemical Plant regarding Chem Warfare
Short Description: Contains papers concerning Iraqi officials, prices of equipment, training plans, and actions by high level officers all concerning chemical warfare
Agency: DIA
Document Date: Feb-02
Document #: ICSQ-2003-00025586
What does it mean? I'm not sure. On the one hand, any document under the heading "Al Qaida" that mentions "chem warfare" and "Iraqi officials" is inherently interesting. On the other, we don't know what the document tells us. Just as it is possible that the document reveals Iraqi complicity in al Qaeda's efforts to secure WMD, it is conceivable that the "papers concerning Iraqi officials" include indications that Iraqis rejected al Qaeda overtures for assistance on chemical warfare. Although some HARMONY documents are flagged as being of suspect authenticity, this one is not flagged. Still, it is possible that it is a fabrication and was entered into the database without an assessment of its authenticity.
I can't answer these questions. Someone probably can.
As Sen. Roberts and Rep. Hoekstra push their proposal to declassify the untranslated Iraqi documents, the White House might seek to obtain and release those documents already translated and evaluated.
The document above has been translated. It has been summarized. It has been entered into HARMONY. We'd like to know: Is it authentic, and what else does it say?
Sunday, November 20, 2005
This kid catches on quick!
Up Town Girl
...The teacher explained to him, kindly I might add, that at times he gets a bit out of line and if he’d work a bit harder he could win. This wasn’t acceptable to him as he reached into his pocket pulled out a dollar bill and offered it up to her stating, “Will this help”?
But don't question their patriotism!
Grey Eagle
Congratulations To Those Who Oppose The Soldiers
I wish to express my congratulations to the hackers, vandals, and anti-war visitors who successfully blocked my ability to post any further tributes to the soldiers. I am sure you find victory in preventing myself and others from having a place to read and pay our respects to the Fallen Female Soldiers, and my brother’s in arms, the brave soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division. I can only imagine your satisfaction in justifying the disgrace of men and women who died for this country. You may not feel it was justified, but they gave their lives believing in what they were doing. Apparently freedom of speech is merely a phrase to you, not something you believe, in unless it applies to you...
Saturday, November 19, 2005
The democrats 2006 "plan": spend, spend, spend, spend
TIME
Expand support for higher education.
Create a National Institute of Science and Engineering
Use government contracts and tax incentives to boost solar and wind power
"You got a job, you got health care." Give the uninsured vouchers
Everything on the table—loopholes, pork, Bush tax cuts.
The Bush tax cuts have resulted in increases in treasury revenue, not decreases as predicted. Democrats won't cut pork - pork is what their whole existence depends on. With the major spending growth in politically "untouchable" entitlement programs, and democrat's historical aversion to pork elimination, this all sounds like quite a pipe dream to me.
Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois had a nice moment on Meet the Press about a month ago. He said Democrats would run on their "ideas" in the 2006 congressional elections...
The Bush tax cuts have resulted in increases in treasury revenue, not decreases as predicted. Democrats won't cut pork - pork is what their whole existence depends on. With the major spending growth in politically "untouchable" entitlement programs, and democrat's historical aversion to pork elimination, this all sounds like quite a pipe dream to me.
Asian "superhighway"
The price of building materiels is going to go up even more now...
Ace Of Spades
Ace Of Spades
...The treaty was signed by 23 nations at a UN meeting and outlines a network that will link the continents in some 140,000 km (87,000 miles) of roads...
File under weird shit - frat house full of dead critters
Jeff Dahmer was unavailable for comment...
Ball State Daily News
Ball State Daily News
Authorities are still investigating why four dead animals – a doe, buck, coyote and possum – were found scattered throughout the house of an off-campus fraternity on Nov. 10....
The OSM Fraud Revealed
The nefarious nature of this OSM scam is revaled by Iowa Hawk (who is also a participant). Seriously, I don't blame any of them for cashing in on this obvious fraud while it lasts - I would too. I've been looking for a good scam for years that wouldn't land me a berth at Club Fed.
Apparently it works kinda like this: a bunch of bloviating blog whiners collectivize (Soviet Style) to extract serious jack from unwitting advertisers who were liberally plied with ruffies before contracts were signed. At some point, the advertisers wake up and realize their wallets have been raped and the perps have vanished into the ether. This is of no consequence of course. The deed is done, the cash extracted and distributed, and everyone on their way to Tahiti laughing like maniacs.
It is a thing of beauty.
Apparently it works kinda like this: a bunch of bloviating blog whiners collectivize (Soviet Style) to extract serious jack from unwitting advertisers who were liberally plied with ruffies before contracts were signed. At some point, the advertisers wake up and realize their wallets have been raped and the perps have vanished into the ether. This is of no consequence of course. The deed is done, the cash extracted and distributed, and everyone on their way to Tahiti laughing like maniacs.
It is a thing of beauty.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Shocker: Aristide was corrupt
IOL
Port-Au-Prince - A probe of former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide's administration turned up evidence of embezzlement and other irregularities, according to a report by the country's central economic and financial investigation agency...In July, another probe also found evidence of corruption and embezzlement within Aristide's administration, noting that nearly $20-million in public funds had been diverted to private accounts in Haiti and the United States between February 2001 and February 2004
Mayor candidate: homeless to work for crack
I don't know about the cleaning up the streets aspect of such a proposal, but I'm 100% certain any existing garbage dumpsters in the city will be picked clean in a heartbeat if this moron gets elected. When asked why he robbed banks Willie Sutton replied: "that's where the money is". Well...dumpsters is where the garbage is concentrated...and I'm quite sure street people are aware of this fact.
Edmonton Sun
Edmonton Sun
Andrew Uitvlugt..."So what I propose to do is to possibly motivate people with drugs to do constructive work, like get them out there picking up garbage, and then we'll give them some crack,"H/T The Jawa Report
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Giant camels found in Syria
Modern camels are lothsome creatures as everyone knows. They smell, are stubborn, and can have vile dispositions. Were it not for their unique capabilities, most people would consider them no better than huge landroving wharf rats. Now we find that they used to come in a "super size" model as well?!? I'm having a hard time getting my head around the implications of a giraffe sized camel. Would you run away? Worship it? Harness it? Eat it? Maybe stake it out and use it for shade? The concept just shatters all notions of everyday prehistoric man's life as we have understood it thusfar. Giant. Freaking. Camels.
ADNKI
Beheaded Wiccan Parrot
Frat house full of roadkill
Dinosaur: Koolasuchus
Rampaging Moose
Thousands of rotting sea urchins
Cows tailcapitated
Vicious attack squirrels
Fairies under rock stop developer (I guess fairies are critters, right?)
ADNKI
More fun critter stories:
Swiss researchers say they have found the fossil remains of gigantic camels - as tall as giraffes - that roamed the steppes of central Syria some 100,000 years ago ... "We immediately realised that the bones belonged to a previously unknown, extinct species," ... found more than 20 fossil remains ... suggest that the prehistoric camels were almost double the size of their modern-day relatives.
Beheaded Wiccan Parrot
Frat house full of roadkill
Dinosaur: Koolasuchus
Rampaging Moose
Thousands of rotting sea urchins
Cows tailcapitated
Vicious attack squirrels
Fairies under rock stop developer (I guess fairies are critters, right?)
Orange county NAACP chief makes switch to GOP
Orange county NAACP head defects to republicans
...As of this week, Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County's NAACP, has switched parties -- to become a Republican.
"I've thought about this for two years," Wallace said Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours after returning from the elections office. "This is not a decision I made yesterday."
It is, however, a decision that rang out like a shot among political circles.
...
A Romanian speaks out about the USA
I'm constantly amazed that we Americans appear to take for granted what others gaze at in wonder and awe. Why is it that they recognize that its worth saving and defending when many of our own citizens don't? We aren't perfect, but apparently it takes someone who lived under communism to realize that you could certainly do a lot worse.
READ IT
READ IT
...What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace.
I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion...
Only freedom can work such miracles.
MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AMERICA
Only freedom can work such miracles.
MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AMERICA
General Vernon Chong's letter to the senator about WOT
Too long to reproduce here. Go READ IT ALL.
The general hits a home run. He "gets it".
H/T California Conservative
The general hits a home run. He "gets it".
H/T California Conservative
Iraq's WMD and terrorist ties revealed?
I know Newsmax is a flakey source...but... It is well within the realm of possibility though, because translating millions of documents takes time. There's still significant revelations coming out of the old KGB archives and they were opened up many years ago. We only got started on Saddam's stuff a couple of years ago.
NEWSMAX
NEWSMAX
Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks...
PRC car sales skid, reveal internal issues
XINHUA
...A rash of car purchases by Chinese individuals a few years ago have persuaded most global auto giants to pin their hopes on the Chinese market. But the sudden slowdown of car sales since last year, largely due to worsening traffic and rising oil prices, have made many of their ambitious capacity-expansion plans look like pipe dreams...
...Though some have recently scaled down their investment for the coming years, the forecast for the industry's output implies that most automakers are still reluctant to acknowledge reality...
...But the current Chinese conditions of a widening urban-rural income gap, poor urban planning and emerging problems of resources and environment all mean the market now, and in the foreseeable future, is not as huge as predicted...
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Unconventional warfare lessons - from Tom Sawyer
SOCOM.MIL(PDF document)
“I want you to move into that province, oust the al Qaeda, co-opt the locals (click here for a good example of this), and bring security to the region. Take as many Afghan forces as you can muster and be ready to move as soon as you can. What are your questions?”
Those were the orders I gave the Special Forces A-Team commander as he and his 12-man
team moved into the Lware District in Afghanistan during the winter of 2003/04. In short, I tasked him to conduct unconventional warfare in that region by fighting the terrorist by, with and through the indigenous forces rather than by using primarily U.S. military might. What is unconventional warfare? The Department of Defense Dictionary of Military...
...After reading through Joint Publications, Army Manuals and military history, I realized I learned much of what I need to know about unconventional warfare in the eighth grade. It was then that I read Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer.” In that book, Tom Sawyer was tasked to paint the fence in front of his aunt’s home. In order to accomplish this task, Tom co-opted his friends and neighborhood pals to paint the fence for him. He painted just enough himself to inspire and instruct his surrogates. In the end, the fence got painted, the whole community had bought into the project, and he did not get paint on his overalls.
In a nutshell, Tom Sawyer was demonstrating unconventional warfare tactics. He was accomplishing his goal working by, with and through his community members. In war fighting, if you are fighting by, with and through indigenous forces or if you’re collecting...
The US Army in Yemen -- hearts, minds, and sheep
Classic SpecOps -- develop eyes and ears you wouldn't otherwise have within the local populace. If the American come and cure some sick animals, that is the kind of news that spreads among locals. That is the kind of local news that can erase a lot of Al Jazeera propaganda. Direct action, on the ground, bypassing the government kleptocrats.
You know terrorists aren't bringing vets to keep the local's flocks healthy.
Might this be a precursor to some SpecOps operations in Yemen? Yemen has been a hotbed of nutjobs in the past -- nutjobs that have been giving the Saudi's a hard time.
SOCOM.MIL(PDF doc)
96th Civil Affairs Battalion helps treat livestock herds in Yemen
You know terrorists aren't bringing vets to keep the local's flocks healthy.
Might this be a precursor to some SpecOps operations in Yemen? Yemen has been a hotbed of nutjobs in the past -- nutjobs that have been giving the Saudi's a hard time.
SOCOM.MIL(PDF doc)
96th Civil Affairs Battalion helps treat livestock herds in Yemen
By Marine Corps Cpl. Jeff Nagan
Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Public Affairs
One of the most effective ways of measuring the wealth of the people within the Horn of Africa and surrounding regions is the health of their herds. Animals provide the people with vital food and are a chief source of commerce. A small bit of medical care for their herds goes a long way in improving the lives and future of the people in the area. For the first time, U.S. servicemembers deployed to Yemen, at the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, to assist the local people in strengthening and healing their livestock....
...“Nobody has come before,” said Ahmed Salih Ali Muthana, a local herder. “I’m very happy. It’s beautiful to see the Americans working with the people of Yemen.”...
...The mission wasn’t without its hurdles, said Capt. David E. Fleming, 96th CA Bn. veterinarian. Although the herders could see and feel the impact of the mission, many of the political leaders had little idea of what the Americans were doing.
“We have had to work hard building relationships at the local and central level,” Fleming said. “We have to constantly reinforce our relationships, explaining that we are here to help the local and central government.”...
...The 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, volunteers from Camp Lemonier and local Yemeni veterinary students treated more than 24,000 animals, which included sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys and camels.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
UAE to allow women to vote and hold office
Dominos falling...
Would this have happened without all those female purple fingers in Afganistan and Iraq?
Gulf News
Would this have happened without all those female purple fingers in Afganistan and Iraq?
Gulf News
A highly placed source confirmed to Gulf News that work was going on at the topmost levels on the planned reforms. "Women will be able to elect, and be elected to, government positions. There will be a complete change in the political scenario next year. Top officials are already working on this project," the source said.
Canadian liberals to use "tax cuts" to spur economy
USA democrats must be slashing their wrists about now. Those ingrate leftist Canucks just blew holes in the democrats mantra about tax cuts.
Brandon Sun
Brandon Sun
The beleaguered Liberal government will promise significant cuts to personal income taxes and a sprinkling of corporate tax reductions today in a pre-election mini-budget that offers something for everyone.
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale will promise to lighten the tax burden on Canadians, reiterate an earlier plan to cut billions from corporate taxes and introduce other business tax changes as part of a broader plan to boost the economy, sources say.
Monday, November 14, 2005
If Clinton lied, did thousands die?
If this is true, Hillary is finished.
Factor-8
Factor-8
For more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profi ted from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. Thousands of unwitting victims who received transfusions of a product called Factor 8 made from this blood died as a result...
...People are still dying. Around the world major classaction lawsuits have been filed and criminal investigations are underway. While the rest of the globe looks to America for answers, the story remains largely untold and no one has ever been held accountable...“In the early days of AIDS, we at the CDC were surprised that the hemophiliac community was infected so rapidly. This shocking documentary tells why.”
Dr. Donald Francis/ former head of AIDS Laboratory
at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
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
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."
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.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Live blogging Wilma until the lights go out
From Palm Beach County FL
~7:00pm Sunday: Finished helping another fellow board up his place. This is the 3rd house I've helped board up. Am I the only one in south FL with proper tools to do this sort of thing? Seriously, jerking around without a good hammer drill takes forever. Some people are just pounding in masonry nails...makes a real mess of the stucco and concrete coming out. Might as well just shoot it with a Hilti gun if you're gonna do that and save a lot of time.
I've donated all the extra Tapcon's and washers I had to help other people. Home Depot is out of Tapcon's and fender washers. I was reduced to drilling holes in pennies and a bunch of electrical box knock outs I had been saving. FYI: drilling pennies is cheaper than buying real washers. With a drill press it goes pretty quick.
~1:30am Monday: Plywood was up on my crib yesterday. I still hear the sound of saws and hammers in the middle of the night though. Why do people wait like this? Working in the middle of the night sucketh greatly.
Still some houses in this neighborhood that haven't bothered to do anything at all. Too late now.
~2:30am Monday: Winds seem about 30mph. No rain yet. Leading edge of the rain looks about 2hr away on local radar. Streets are quiet now. People are either done or have given up.
~3:30am Monday: Winds seem about 35mph, guts to ~45. No rain yet. Trees getting whipped around a bit. Key West is getting hurricane force winds.
~4:45am Monday: Winds seem about 35 sustained, gusting to 50ish, light rain.
~7:00pm Sunday: Finished helping another fellow board up his place. This is the 3rd house I've helped board up. Am I the only one in south FL with proper tools to do this sort of thing? Seriously, jerking around without a good hammer drill takes forever. Some people are just pounding in masonry nails...makes a real mess of the stucco and concrete coming out. Might as well just shoot it with a Hilti gun if you're gonna do that and save a lot of time.
I've donated all the extra Tapcon's and washers I had to help other people. Home Depot is out of Tapcon's and fender washers. I was reduced to drilling holes in pennies and a bunch of electrical box knock outs I had been saving. FYI: drilling pennies is cheaper than buying real washers. With a drill press it goes pretty quick.
~1:30am Monday: Plywood was up on my crib yesterday. I still hear the sound of saws and hammers in the middle of the night though. Why do people wait like this? Working in the middle of the night sucketh greatly.
Still some houses in this neighborhood that haven't bothered to do anything at all. Too late now.
~2:30am Monday: Winds seem about 30mph. No rain yet. Leading edge of the rain looks about 2hr away on local radar. Streets are quiet now. People are either done or have given up.
~3:30am Monday: Winds seem about 35mph, guts to ~45. No rain yet. Trees getting whipped around a bit. Key West is getting hurricane force winds.
~4:45am Monday: Winds seem about 35 sustained, gusting to 50ish, light rain.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Iraq adapting fast to procedural justice
In a matter of hours we see a transition from a lust for summary justice to a willingness to allow the system to proceed. This is a significant change because it represents a level of faith that "the system" will likely converge on an acceptable result.
Saddam is nominally on trial here, but what is really being put on trial is the way he ran the country and the methods he used. In building the case point by point in public, rather than delivering a "summary bullet", the media perpetrated myths and apologia surrounding Saddam will fall along with him. It will no longer be possible for some to sweep this reality under the rug. Its very easy to say "oh, I know he was a bad guy", its quite something else to know exactly what "bad guy" means.
IRAQ THE MODEL
Saddam is nominally on trial here, but what is really being put on trial is the way he ran the country and the methods he used. In building the case point by point in public, rather than delivering a "summary bullet", the media perpetrated myths and apologia surrounding Saddam will fall along with him. It will no longer be possible for some to sweep this reality under the rug. Its very easy to say "oh, I know he was a bad guy", its quite something else to know exactly what "bad guy" means.
IRAQ THE MODEL
...“Why do we have to listen to this bull****?” said one of my friends.
“I prefer the trial goes like this:
Q:Are you Saddam Hussein?
A:Yes.
Then take this bullet in the head.”...
...As the prosecution went deeper into details and facts, the way we viewed the trial began to change an d those among us who were demanding a bullet in Saddam’s head now seemed pleased with the proceedings “I don’t think I want to see that bullet now, I want to see justice take place as it should be”.
We were watching an example of justice in the new Iraq, a place where no one should be denied his rights, not even Saddam.
We smiled seeing the news anchors lower their voices and nodding down when the prosecution grew stronger and more reasonable and convincing and they also abandoned the previous poetic sentimental tone that couldn’t stand in the face of facts and figures.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri
Seriously, can there be any doubt left at all about the heights in the UN power structure to which corruption extends? Oil for food scandal and now this obvious (and inept) assassination coverup seal the deal.
It should be clear now the UN is incapable of cleaning itself up - it is institutionally corrupt and there exists no higher authority capable of rectifying this.
I hate to say this, but Bill Clinton is starting to look GOOD as a candidate for UN Secretary General. His zipper scandals would be a refreshing change from the dreary soul crushing scandals and corruption we have now - Bill's scandals have entertainment value.
Times Online
It should be clear now the UN is incapable of cleaning itself up - it is institutionally corrupt and there exists no higher authority capable of rectifying this.
I hate to say this, but Bill Clinton is starting to look GOOD as a candidate for UN Secretary General. His zipper scandals would be a refreshing change from the dreary soul crushing scandals and corruption we have now - Bill's scandals have entertainment value.
Times Online
THE United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday.H/T Ace
The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.
The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.
The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut...
...One crucial change, apparently made after the report was submitted to the UN chief, removed the name of President al-Assad’s brother, Maher, his brother-in-law, Assef al-Shawkat, and other high-ranking Syrian officials.
The final, edited version quoted a witness as saying that the plot to kill Mr Hariri was hatched by unnamed “senior Lebanese and Syrian officials”. But the undoctored version named those officials as “Maher al-Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleyman and Jamal al-Sayyed”.
Make your computer run faster!
OK, So I put that site meter gizmo on this moron blog and it tells me things...all sorts of creepy semi-intrusive things about people reading this stuff...none of which I or anyone else really cares about.
However, site meter did tell me some stuff, that being an engineer, I now feel obligated to reflect back to my readers.
A) Most of you are using a 32 bit color depth on your video settings. FYI - the human eye is incapable of discerning 32 bits worth of color depth - it buys you nothing, zippola, zilch. Just a bunch of worthless data your machine is sloshing around that just costs performance. The human eye CAN distinguish more than 16 bits of color depth, but the difference between 16 and 24 bit color is almost undetectable for ordinary web surfing and playing of video clips. If you do a lot of photo realistic editing/retouching and such, maybe 24 bits makes sense - but for the vast majority of people 16 bit depth is perfectly acceptable and will probably run visibly faster than 32 bit. Give it a try, you will probably like it.
B) Most of you (90%+) are running Windows XP or Windows 2000. The installation DEFAULT for these systems is to ENABLE some completely retarded "feature" called "transition effects". What this does is make your fast computer feel like an old 286 when you're navigating through menus. Did you knowingly pay hard cash for Windows software with intentional delay loops in it to make it feel slow? Probably not, but that's what you got. Right mouse button click on the blank desktop. Select "Properties". Select "Effects". Then disable that transition effect brain deadness and watch your machine start to feel like a new machine.
However, site meter did tell me some stuff, that being an engineer, I now feel obligated to reflect back to my readers.
A) Most of you are using a 32 bit color depth on your video settings. FYI - the human eye is incapable of discerning 32 bits worth of color depth - it buys you nothing, zippola, zilch. Just a bunch of worthless data your machine is sloshing around that just costs performance. The human eye CAN distinguish more than 16 bits of color depth, but the difference between 16 and 24 bit color is almost undetectable for ordinary web surfing and playing of video clips. If you do a lot of photo realistic editing/retouching and such, maybe 24 bits makes sense - but for the vast majority of people 16 bit depth is perfectly acceptable and will probably run visibly faster than 32 bit. Give it a try, you will probably like it.
B) Most of you (90%+) are running Windows XP or Windows 2000. The installation DEFAULT for these systems is to ENABLE some completely retarded "feature" called "transition effects". What this does is make your fast computer feel like an old 286 when you're navigating through menus. Did you knowingly pay hard cash for Windows software with intentional delay loops in it to make it feel slow? Probably not, but that's what you got. Right mouse button click on the blank desktop. Select "Properties". Select "Effects". Then disable that transition effect brain deadness and watch your machine start to feel like a new machine.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Dead man gets parking fine
Accusations unfounded? Ahem...
Courier Mail
Courier Mail
A COUNCIL has apologised for slapping a parking ticket on the car of a dead driver. Police found the 71-year-old man slumped in his vehicle in a shopping centre car park in Croydon, in Melbourne's east, yesterday afternoon.
The man had reportedly been missing for nine days.
...Maroondah Mayor, Councillor Paul Denham, said the man received a parking ticket around 10.30am on Tuesday, two days before his body was discovered...
...Cr Denham has angrily hit back at claims the council was over-zealous in its pursuit of parking fines to top up its coffers.
"The accusations regarding aggressive parking infringement actions are unfounded," Cr Denham said.
Dinosaur of the day: KOOLASUCHUS
In celebration of my TTLB designation as "crawly amphibian", the Purple Avenger presents for your viewing pleasure a little heralded, yet facinating dinosaur : KOOLASUCHUS
... Until 1989 it had been thought that the temnospondyls had died out some 100 million years earlier, at the end of the Triassic period. The find of Koolasuchus changed all that - here was a fossil "living fossil" - a survivor from a far-distant time in the past.
As a typical big amphibian, Koolasuchus was capable of crawling on land, but would have been more at home in water. At over 5 metres long and equipped with a massive skull, it was a powerful carnivore capable of eating crustaceans, fish, and even small dinosaurs like the young of Leaellynasaura. It is probable that it could detect the vibrations of prey in the water. As the prey passed by, it could just open it's huge gaping mouth and snap it up.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
"Journalists" who need to buy a vowel and get a clue
What's wrong with this SF Chronicle article?
An explosion set fire to a Houston refinery Sunday as workers tried to restart gasoline-producing equipment that had been shut down since Hurricane Rita...At full strength, the refinery produces 268,000 barrels a day of crude oil.H/T Moonbattery
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
You're busted with 1700lb of dope -- "Thanks, OnStar"
No more freeze pops for you kid.
Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque Journal
A call made to OnStar by a 2-year-old boy helped him escape from a locked Cadillac Escalade. But his dad wasn't thanking OnStar. Police were. That's because when Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputies went to rescue the boy Wednesday night after being called by the vehicle security company, they found 1,700 pounds of marijuana worth more than $500,000 inside a trailer near the sport utility vehicle, investigators said...Sheriff Darren White said. "As the commercials say, 'Thanks, OnStar.'
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
The Ramadi attack from one who was there
Who you gonna believe? The dude who was there or some reporter regurgitating crap while cribbing in the al-Rashid hotel?
Warriors Voice
"Insurgents Died Last Night...Plain And Simple "
Warriors Voice
"Insurgents Died Last Night...Plain And Simple "
Revealed: IRA bombs killed eight British soldiers in Iraq
Why am I not suprised?
INDEPENDENT(UK)
INDEPENDENT(UK)
Eight British soldiers killed during ambushes in Iraq were the victims of a highly sophisticated bomb first used by the IRA, The Independent on Sunday can reveal...
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Darfur explained - the REAL story?
Want to know why the FRENCH(oppose UN sanctions) and CHINA(abstains on Darfur UN vote) are being such assholes in the UN about Sudan? You see, Sudan has oil - quite a lot of it, and quite a bit of refining capability along the coast as well.
Being the treacherous weasles they are, the French would not jeopardize their claim to a $200B deal over a bunch of dirt poor folks down in the south. The Chinese are squishy on the genocide thing at the UN for the same reason O.I.L.
If one were just a tad conspiracy theory oriented, it would be easy to imagine a French/Chinese/Khartoum scheme to eliminate John Garang(check!) and eliminate the people who were supporting his movement(in progress, semi-check!) so the Garang/White Nile deal could be completely disavowed by the Khartoum government. After all, these are the same wonderful folks who bombed the Rainbow Warrior.
The French and Chinese are also looking to get "cozy" in WEAPONS SALES. Note that this French push for the Chinese weapons sales thing occurs in early 2004 -- coincidentally this is roughly the same time John Garang is putting together the White Nile deal with the Brits and roughly the same time the Janjaweed crew kicks into high gear eradicating/dislocating Garang supporters in the south. Pure coincidence? Maybe, maybe not...
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
BBC ARTICLE
Harvard University feels strongly enough about the Chinese connection to the Darfur slaughter that they move to divest university investments in PetroChina in April 2005
The HARVARD GAZETTE had this to say about the divestiture action:
Stay tuned - this saga will be updated as I find more
Being the treacherous weasles they are, the French would not jeopardize their claim to a $200B deal over a bunch of dirt poor folks down in the south. The Chinese are squishy on the genocide thing at the UN for the same reason O.I.L.
If one were just a tad conspiracy theory oriented, it would be easy to imagine a French/Chinese/Khartoum scheme to eliminate John Garang(check!) and eliminate the people who were supporting his movement(in progress, semi-check!) so the Garang/White Nile deal could be completely disavowed by the Khartoum government. After all, these are the same wonderful folks who bombed the Rainbow Warrior.
The French and Chinese are also looking to get "cozy" in WEAPONS SALES. Note that this French push for the Chinese weapons sales thing occurs in early 2004 -- coincidentally this is roughly the same time John Garang is putting together the White Nile deal with the Brits and roughly the same time the Janjaweed crew kicks into high gear eradicating/dislocating Garang supporters in the south. Pure coincidence? Maybe, maybe not...
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
BBC ARTICLE
Garang played an important role in a deal that gives White Nile a 60% stake in developing the Block Ba oil concession, a region thought to contain $200bn worth of untapped oil at current prices...Further, we see Garang disavowing the French claim to the oil fields HERE (gasandoil.com)
...founded by a former star of the England cricket team, Phil Edmonds, who developed a strong working relationship with the ex-rebel leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement...The company says Garang's death won't affect its exploration concession as the deal it signed is backed by other high-ranking figures in southern Sudan's semi-autonomous government...
...Meanwhile, the French oil giant Total claims to have rights over the same area under a 1980 agreement it signed with the other side in the civil war - the national Sudanese government.
Total, along with partners Marathon and Kuwait Petroleum, says it is confident it will regain access to the stake, which it abandoned in 1984 after an employee was killed in civil-war related violence. Total executives say the central government is the only authorized body to grant oil concessions and that the provisional government of South Sudan wasn't a legal entity when it signed with White Nile.THE CHINA CONNECTION
Garang disagrees: "Total can cling to whatever (reasons) they like. We will cling to the oil, because it is ours."
Harvard University feels strongly enough about the Chinese connection to the Darfur slaughter that they move to divest university investments in PetroChina in April 2005
The HARVARD GAZETTE had this to say about the divestiture action:
...Oil production is widely understood to be a crucial source of revenue for the Sudanese government, essential to the government's capacity to fund military operations, and an asset of exceptional strategic importance to the regime. According to a recent report of the U.S. Department of Energy, "With the start of significant oil production (and exports) beginning in late 1999, . . . . Sudan's economy is changing dramatically, with oil export revenues now accounting for around 73% of Sudan's total export earnings." [Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, Sudan Country Analysis Brief, July 2004.] As of January 2004, Sudan's estimated proven reserves of crude oil stood at 563 million barrels, more than twice the 2001 estimate. As of June 2004, crude oil production had risen to 345,000 barrels per day, up from 270,000 barrels per day just a year earlier. [Ibid.]...
Stay tuned - this saga will be updated as I find more
Friday, October 14, 2005
Economics on Gilligans Island
Interesting read. Facinating perspective on "money". Highly recommended.
The Monetary Economics of Thurston Howell III
The Monetary Economics of Thurston Howell III
File under Weird Shit: Harvard Med School tested Coca Cola effectivness as spermicide
Apparently it worked - Coke "classic" being the most effective of the
product line.
JOURNAL PAGE IMAGE
Curiously, there were no volunteers for the Drano and battery acid control groups.
product line.
JOURNAL PAGE IMAGE
Curiously, there were no volunteers for the Drano and battery acid control groups.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Yemani AK47's traced to Saudi attack
To anyone who has been following developments in Yemen, this is hardly shocking news. But most of you haven't so I'll mention it. Its probably about time we do a little house cleaning in Yemen. I don't imagine the Saudi's are all that pleased with having a bunch of loons on their southern borders...
SJ MERCURY NEWS
SJ MERCURY NEWS
SAN'A, Yemen - Two AK-47 assault rifles used in a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia have been traced to Yemen's Defense Ministry, according to Western and Yemeni officials, raising new fears that the country isn't doing enough to fight terrorism.
The revelation comes five years after al-Qaida-linked militants bombed the USS Cole destroyer on Oct. 12, 2000, at the port in San'a, the capital, killing 17 sailors.
In other worrying developments, Yemeni militants are believed to be among foreigners fighting U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials have said.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Canadian homelessness 3X that of the USA?
Here we have the CBC pitching the notion that there's 250,000 canadians "living in the streets". OK, I'll take them at their word on that.
Given the Canadian population this works out to about 1:131 Canadians "living in the street".
Now we see a new HUD survey coming up with a figure of about 1:400 for homeless in the USA.
Ain't socialism grand? High unemployment, comatose economies, and now high homeless rates as well. I must admit, that's a real winning combination if you're trying to run a country into the ground. Kudos to Canada - the "plan" is working!
Given the Canadian population this works out to about 1:131 Canadians "living in the street".
Now we see a new HUD survey coming up with a figure of about 1:400 for homeless in the USA.
Ain't socialism grand? High unemployment, comatose economies, and now high homeless rates as well. I must admit, that's a real winning combination if you're trying to run a country into the ground. Kudos to Canada - the "plan" is working!
Washington Times: DPRK counterfeiting US $100 bills
Of course anyone reading this blog already knew this quite a few days ago when I figured this out while groking a BBC piece about some crusty old hardcore Irish commie being arrested.
WASHINGTON TIMES
WASHINGTON TIMES
The Bush administration formally has accused North Korea of manufacturing high-quality counterfeit $100 "supernotes" for the first time, according to an indictment made public yesterday as part of a 16-year probe.
"Quantities of the supernote were manufactured in, and under auspices of the government of, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)," said the indictment of Irish national Sean Garland and six others.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Jamaat ul-Fuqra in Virginia
Worth a look. The guy was an amateur and obviously a little scared doing this preliminary recon and it shows in the writing and pics, but its still informative.
Might this be a muslim version of the whole David Koresh saga? It sounds odd, real odd.
GATES OF VIENNA
Might this be a muslim version of the whole David Koresh saga? It sounds odd, real odd.
GATES OF VIENNA
An Iraqi confronts the Code Pinkos
Yea, I know Free Republic and all that, blah, blah. Forget that shit - this man has a story to tell and its a good one. Click it. Click it NOW. Click it like a VIKING!
CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE
Assumptions
On various levels we all sleepwalk through the day making assumptions about things. As an engineer I may make a few less than other people, but I still make quite a few.
There is a sort of physical "shock" when our assumptions are proven wrong. Blood pressure, heart beat, general mental well being that day; all of these can change in a flash when one of our assumptions bites us.
Here's a "starter" basic everyday assumption list:
- We assume flipping a swich will produce light. There's many possible reasons I can think of instantly why a light might NOT go on. OK, you change the bulb, still no-go. Go see that all the breakers are on - still no-go. NOW WHAT? Your starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach because this isn't something trivial. Its starting to look like a real problem. Which leads to a second "Assumption"
- We assume the electric in our house will continue to work tomorrow as it does today. Is this a valid assumption? Not really. Systems degrade and wear. Switches fail, wall recepticals fail, breakers occasionally fail etc.
- We assume the brakes in your car will stop us. Its a real bummer when the pedal plunges to the floor and the car keeps going. There's so many ways a brake system can fail that people really shouldn't assume its going to work. If you are prone to tailgating people, this is something to ponder.
- We assume water will come out of the faucet.
- We assume our shoes won't fall apart out on the street.
- We assume our keys will work in locks
- We assume the spare tire is present and inflated
- We assume the pathetic little kit the auto maker provided will be sufficient to change a tire.
- We assume when winter comes the furnace will work.
- We assume there will always be food at the store.
- We assume there will always be gas at the gas station
- We assume the roof will get through another year OK.
- We assume the other drivers on the road will behave somewhat sanely. This can be a fatal assumption. I always assume everyone is trying to kill me.
- We assume that our own reckless behaviors will be non-fatal, when the experiences of others proves otherwise.
- We assume the coffee cup doesn't leak.
- We assume that food isn't poisoned.
- We assume the toilet will flush down a bowl full of crap and make it go away.
- We go to bed at night assuming our neighbors aren't Ted Bundy.
- We assume that little used cabinet over the fridge isn't hiding a monstrous nest of spiders.
- We assume the water will continue to flow after soaping up in the shower.
- We assume the power will stay on long enough to take that shower without being in the dark.
- We assume a book we buy will have all its pages and in the correct sequence.
There is a sort of physical "shock" when our assumptions are proven wrong. Blood pressure, heart beat, general mental well being that day; all of these can change in a flash when one of our assumptions bites us.
Here's a "starter" basic everyday assumption list:
- We assume flipping a swich will produce light. There's many possible reasons I can think of instantly why a light might NOT go on. OK, you change the bulb, still no-go. Go see that all the breakers are on - still no-go. NOW WHAT? Your starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach because this isn't something trivial. Its starting to look like a real problem. Which leads to a second "Assumption"
- We assume the electric in our house will continue to work tomorrow as it does today. Is this a valid assumption? Not really. Systems degrade and wear. Switches fail, wall recepticals fail, breakers occasionally fail etc.
- We assume the brakes in your car will stop us. Its a real bummer when the pedal plunges to the floor and the car keeps going. There's so many ways a brake system can fail that people really shouldn't assume its going to work. If you are prone to tailgating people, this is something to ponder.
- We assume water will come out of the faucet.
- We assume our shoes won't fall apart out on the street.
- We assume our keys will work in locks
- We assume the spare tire is present and inflated
- We assume the pathetic little kit the auto maker provided will be sufficient to change a tire.
- We assume when winter comes the furnace will work.
- We assume there will always be food at the store.
- We assume there will always be gas at the gas station
- We assume the roof will get through another year OK.
- We assume the other drivers on the road will behave somewhat sanely. This can be a fatal assumption. I always assume everyone is trying to kill me.
- We assume that our own reckless behaviors will be non-fatal, when the experiences of others proves otherwise.
- We assume the coffee cup doesn't leak.
- We assume that food isn't poisoned.
- We assume the toilet will flush down a bowl full of crap and make it go away.
- We go to bed at night assuming our neighbors aren't Ted Bundy.
- We assume that little used cabinet over the fridge isn't hiding a monstrous nest of spiders.
- We assume the water will continue to flow after soaping up in the shower.
- We assume the power will stay on long enough to take that shower without being in the dark.
- We assume a book we buy will have all its pages and in the correct sequence.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Watch Me Light This Fart On Fire...
Being one of those 60's 70's kids, I find this hilarious and 100% accurate.
Watch Me Light This Fart On Fire...
Watch Me Light This Fart On Fire...
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies or DVD's, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good, and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
Sunday, October 09, 2005
stench of thousands of rotting sea-urchin carcasses
Q: How could the neighbors not notice this previously?
A: The stench of MA politics has made them immune to bad smelling stuff.
LOWELL SUN
A: The stench of MA politics has made them immune to bad smelling stuff.
LOWELL SUN
City health inspectors, drawn by the overpowering stench of thousands of rotting sea-urchin carcasses, uncovered what they say was an illegal seafood-processing plant on Middlesex Street.
“I got a call (Tuesday) from an ambulance company saying ‘I drove by it and thought there might be a dead body in the building' because it did smell like a cadaver,” said city Health Director Frank Singleton. “You've got thousands of little bodies. It's almost like one big corpse.”
Hey Joe - you're smarter than the left thinks you are!
Read it all, I just clipped out the last few paragraphs. Bottom line: the "meme" the left constantly pitches about the public still believing Saddam was involved in 9/11 is largely B.S. and a product of flawed polling. Shame on them.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
After September 2001, pollsters switched from recording spontaneous responses to presenting respondents with “forced-choice” questions. This switch, “probably made in order to more efficiently process the survey data, had the unintended effect of exaggerating the degree to which Americans saw a connection between Hussein and the attacks,” Althaus said.
In addition, most polls only permitted respondents to assess the likelihood that Saddam was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. Only one poll allowed respondents a range of options. This poll, sponsored by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, revealed that about one in five Americans believed Saddam was directly involved in the attacks.
“It appears that rather than becoming duped, as the popular account has it, the American public has gradually grown more critical of the idea that Hussein had a hand in 9/11,” the researchers wrote. “Rather than showing a gullible public blindly accepting the rationales offered by an administration bent on war, our analysis reveals a self-correcting public that has grown ever more doubtful of Hussein’s culpability since the 9/11 attacks.”
ROK's spend $380M on 3 mile ditch
You thought the Army corps of engineers could make big cash evaporate like a sno-cone in the Sahara? Trust me - we're just amateur posers. I have to bow my head in shame when presented with profligate spending like this. The ROK's must be in total Phat City to buy into this. Of course the US plans on building a $280M bridge to an island with virtually nobody living there, so we may catch up yet...
taipeitimes
taipeitimes
Hundreds of South Koreans gathered in downtown Seoul on Saturday as the city officially reopened a stream that had been hidden under cement paving stones for nearly 50 years.
The Cheonggyecheon, which runs 5.8km through central Seoul, was opened to the public after a two-year multimillion-dollar face-lift ordered by Mayor Lee Myung-bak, who had pledged to recover the city's ecological landscape.
"It seemed like a far-fetched dream when they first said they will restore the stream," said 59-year-old Yoo Young-koo, who runs a business in central Seoul. "It's really nice to have a place to rest and take a stroll right in the center of the city."
South Korea's drive for industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s has helped the country become the world's 11th-largest economy, but it has also trapped major cities like Seoul in walls of concrete.
The US$380 million project involved demolishing an elevated highway that was built on top of the Cheonggyecheon, which was paved over in 1958-61 to prevent flooding and pollution...
Chavez makes his first move - foreign corps being extorted
This is commonly known as "extortion" in less urbane circles.
AP Story
AP Story
Venezuelan Tax Agency Orders Shutdown of IBM, Others
The Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's tax agency said that it had imposed fines and ordered the temporary closure of several foreign companies, including International Business Machines, due to tax irregularities.
Moonbat claims DHS is bugging your laptop!
Ummm, yea right.
Notice how the make/model/manufacturer of this supposed laptop have been completely omitted from this article?
Notice how he says the computer is an "almost brand new laptop"? It either is new or it was used. If it was used he has no idea what happened to it previously.
We're getting pretty deep into tin foil hat territory here...
HAL TURNER
Notice how the make/model/manufacturer of this supposed laptop have been completely omitted from this article?
Notice how he says the computer is an "almost brand new laptop"? It either is new or it was used. If it was used he has no idea what happened to it previously.
We're getting pretty deep into tin foil hat territory here...
HAL TURNER
GOVERNMENT AND COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS CAUGHT INSTALLING HARD-WIRED KEYSTROKE LOGGERS INTO ALL NEW LAPTOP COMPUTERS!
Devices capture everything you ever type, then can send it via your ethernet card to the Dept. of Homeland Security without your knowledge, consent or a search warrant each time you log onto the internet!
Freedom Of Information Act Requests For Explanation From DHS, refused.
Saturday, October 08, 2005
The coming revolution in lighting - the last lightbulb you will ever buy
LED's baby, L.E.fuckingD's. I've been keep loose tabs on this technology for a while now and its looking like its ready to bust into the mainstream in a big way.
Advantages?
- Long life ~100,00 hours
- Low volt D.C. (this means cheaper houses if lighting circuits can be done with lighter gauge wire)
- Low power draw. - lower operating lifetime costs. Lower than even flourescent or screw shell Compact Flourescents (which I highly recommend)
Lumileds.com(PDF spec sheet)
Advantages?
- Long life ~100,00 hours
- Low volt D.C. (this means cheaper houses if lighting circuits can be done with lighter gauge wire)
- Low power draw. - lower operating lifetime costs. Lower than even flourescent or screw shell Compact Flourescents (which I highly recommend)
Lumileds.com(PDF spec sheet)
UK genetic engineers create mosquitos with glowing testicles
INDEPENDENT
...British scientists have made a breakthrough in the control of malaria: by creating mosquitoes with fluorescent testicles.
The team of researchers at Imperial College London has found a way to tell the sex of the mosquitoes - by genetically modifying them so that the males express a glowing protein in their testes. A laser beam then singles out the glowing larvae, which are then separated from the females...
North Korea in the counterfeit US currency business
The DPRK getting jiggy with Irish leftists is an interesting development.
If the DPRK is now in the counterfeit business, why do we need to give'em any aid or reactors? They can print up whatever cash they need to buy that stuff on the open market. I really get irked when someone tries to "double dip" me.
BBC
If the DPRK is now in the counterfeit business, why do we need to give'em any aid or reactors? They can print up whatever cash they need to buy that stuff on the open market. I really get irked when someone tries to "double dip" me.
BBC
Sean Garland, 71, from Navan in County Meath, appeared at Belfast County Court on Saturday.
The US government alleges he and others bought, moved and either passed as genuine or re-sold high quality counterfeit $100 notes.
A defence lawyer said Mr Garland "strongly protested" his innocence.
The US authorites further allege that Mr Garland "arranged with North Korean agencies for the purchase of quantities of notes and enlisted other people to disseminate" the money, known as "superdollars", with the UK.
Idiot Dutch princess wants "negotiations" with AQ
Ah yes, the tired old "its the poverty" excuse for terrorism. What an abject CROCK OF SHIT.
Were this the case, the USA would be seeing waves of Haitian terrorists flooding into the country since Haiti is arguably poorer than any of the Arab countries. However, this is not the case. Haitians are indeed flooding in on all manner of dubious contraptions that (more of less) float, but they're NOT coming here to terrorize - they're coming here to grab a slice of the American dream for themselves - not to tear it down. The Haitians aren't stupid - if you want some help, the way to get it is not by blowing up the bank.
The grandness that is the USA was built by people who came here with NOTHING. Desperately dirt poor immigrants who came packing only hope, not material wealth. Never did they believe that they could terrorize themselves to prosperity. They did believe they might be able to work their way to it - AND THEY DID!
My suggestion to the princess is this: BUY A VOWEL, AND GET A CLUE.
de Volkskrant
For those not conversant in Dutch, like myself, you can CLICK ON THIS LINK to get an English translation.
Were this the case, the USA would be seeing waves of Haitian terrorists flooding into the country since Haiti is arguably poorer than any of the Arab countries. However, this is not the case. Haitians are indeed flooding in on all manner of dubious contraptions that (more of less) float, but they're NOT coming here to terrorize - they're coming here to grab a slice of the American dream for themselves - not to tear it down. The Haitians aren't stupid - if you want some help, the way to get it is not by blowing up the bank.
The grandness that is the USA was built by people who came here with NOTHING. Desperately dirt poor immigrants who came packing only hope, not material wealth. Never did they believe that they could terrorize themselves to prosperity. They did believe they might be able to work their way to it - AND THEY DID!
My suggestion to the princess is this: BUY A VOWEL, AND GET A CLUE.
de Volkskrant
For those not conversant in Dutch, like myself, you can CLICK ON THIS LINK to get an English translation.
The conflict between All Qa' ida and the West must become solved by peaces negotiations under supervision of an independent agent. This says princess Irene of Lip-Biesterfeld Saturday in the peoples paper...
...The causes of the islamic violence have to make according to Irene with poverty, trade barriers, wrong proportions. ‘The differences between the property and the property-nots its entire out balance.'
Friday, October 07, 2005
US penetrates AQ network in Iraq
This Col. Robert Brown interview is the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that we have managed to insert/flip assets into an AQ network.
This is a MAJOR DEVELOPMENT and the MSM has totally ignored it. Of course it may just be psyop - to get them paranoid and start whacking each other too. But I tend to suspect maybe not when taken in the context of the rest of the interview and Yon's most recent dispatches. There is "a sense" here that the population is starting to turn on the insurgents in a big way. It could be that last years insurgents(native Iraqi, not imported talent), after seeing that we really DO want to help them rebuild this country have flipped. Nobody wants to be on a losing side...
I mentioned this Brown interview in the roundup post below, but I know you lazy HeadlineReading™ bastards won't bother to read the whole thing.
I originally sent this to ACE (Cutaway == Purple Avenger) and Nicky snarfed it up from there. Spread the word, I don't care about attribution, JUST. SPREAD. THE. WORD.
MFN-IRAQ
This is a MAJOR DEVELOPMENT and the MSM has totally ignored it. Of course it may just be psyop - to get them paranoid and start whacking each other too. But I tend to suspect maybe not when taken in the context of the rest of the interview and Yon's most recent dispatches. There is "a sense" here that the population is starting to turn on the insurgents in a big way. It could be that last years insurgents(native Iraqi, not imported talent), after seeing that we really DO want to help them rebuild this country have flipped. Nobody wants to be on a losing side...
I mentioned this Brown interview in the roundup post below, but I know you lazy HeadlineReading™ bastards won't bother to read the whole thing.
I originally sent this to ACE (Cutaway == Purple Avenger) and Nicky snarfed it up from there. Spread the word, I don't care about attribution, JUST. SPREAD. THE. WORD.
MFN-IRAQ
"...One of the great pieces of information we got recently is 80 percent of the al Qaeda network in the north has been devastated. And those are not our figures, those came from the last six leaders in Mosul , al Qaeda leaders that we captured; they informed us of that. We also had a letter that was captured from Abu Zaid (sp) going to Zarqawi . We recently killed Zaid (sp) and we had that letter, and it also talked about the desperate situation for the al Qaeda and the insurgents in Mosul and in the north. And then also, sources we have inside the al Qaeda network up here have also informed us of that..."
WaPo : Dem study says democrats should "throw the moonbats overboard"
Ouch! Howard Dean and Algore must be having siezures after reading this.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON POST
...Democrats must "admit that they cannot simply grow themselves out of their electoral dilemmas," wrote William A. Galston and Elaine C. Kamarck, in a report released yesterday. "The groups that were supposed to constitute the new Democratic majority in 2004 simply failed to materialize in sufficient number to overcome the right-center coalition of the Republican Party."
Since Kerry's defeat, some Democrats have urged that the party adopt a political strategy more like one pursued by Bush and his senior adviser, Karl Rove -- which emphasized robust turnout of the party base rather than relentless, Clinton-style tending to "swing voters."
But Galston and Kamarck, both of whom served in the Clinton White House, said there are simply not enough left-leaning voters to make this a workable strategy. In one of their more potentially controversial findings, the authors argue that the rising numbers and influence of well-educated, socially liberal voters in the Democratic Party are pulling the party further from most Americans. [Avenger's note: Doh, it took'em this long to realize this?!?]
On defense and social issues, "liberals espouse views diverging not only from those of other Democrats, but from Americans as a whole. To the extent that liberals now constitute both the largest bloc within the Democratic coalition and the public face of the party, Democratic candidates for national office will be running uphill." ...
Middle east roundup post
Lots of news out of the middle east lately but nobody has collected some of the more relevent bits into one place so they can be groked as a whole. Plowing through all this will take a while and you'll really need to read all the pieces I'm going to link, BUT in doing so a puzzle starts to come together that the MSM is failing to recognize.
A) Gaza withdrawl - self explanatory, covered by MSM.
B) Palestinian looting/destruction of left behind infrastructure - covered by MSM.
C) Subsequent Hamas rocket attack and IDF retaliation - covered by MSM
D) Hamas announces cease fire - covered by MSM
E) Sunnis drop objection to Iraq constitution vote - covered by MSM
F) Lebanon requests FBI assistance in journalist bombing probe - covered (minimally) by MSM
G) The Iraq insurgency is collapsing rapidly - NOT covered by MSM at all.
1Must read MICHAEL YON(The Battle For Mosul IV) I'm not going to excerpt Yon because I want you to read his whole dispatch. There's too much there to distill into snappy excerps.
ROBERT BROWN INTERVIEW
H) Kuwait is softening its stance towards Israel and softening its support for the Palestinians. The New York Times ran this! Can you fucking believe that? NYT This is a story that basically supports the whole "neocon" game plan of how things were expected to start playing out in the middle east!
This is a lot of stuff, particularly if you go read the whole Yon dispatch and all of Brown's interview WHICH I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Think on this for a day "grok" the totality. We'll come back to it tomorrow.
A) Gaza withdrawl - self explanatory, covered by MSM.
B) Palestinian looting/destruction of left behind infrastructure - covered by MSM.
C) Subsequent Hamas rocket attack and IDF retaliation - covered by MSM
D) Hamas announces cease fire - covered by MSM
E) Sunnis drop objection to Iraq constitution vote - covered by MSM
F) Lebanon requests FBI assistance in journalist bombing probe - covered (minimally) by MSM
G) The Iraq insurgency is collapsing rapidly - NOT covered by MSM at all.
1Must read MICHAEL YON(The Battle For Mosul IV) I'm not going to excerpt Yon because I want you to read his whole dispatch. There's too much there to distill into snappy excerps.
ROBERT BROWN INTERVIEW
One of the great pieces of information we got recently is 80 percent of the al Qaeda network in the north has been devastated. And those are not our figures, those came from the last six leaders in Mosul , al Qaeda leaders that we captured; they informed us of that. We also had a letter that was captured from Abu Zaid (sp) going to Zarqawi . We recently killed Zaid (sp) and we had that letter, and it also talked about the desperate situation for the al Qaeda and the insurgents in Mosul and in the north. And then also, sources we have inside the al Qaeda network up here have also informed us of that. [Avengers note: this is the first time I've heard anyone mention that WE have penetrated AQ operations]
...
Like when we first got here in October, there was -- no hotline existed. We opened a hotline; we got about 40 calls a month prior to January. The last six months, we're up to 400 calls a month. Every day the citizens are stopping us on the street telling us where a potential suspicious individual is who may be a terrorist, and telling us where they tried to plant IEDs and those type of devices. So the population is clearly very confident.
...
Right now, 80 percent of the folks on the street in Mosul and Nineveh province in the north here say that they will vote. And very interesting -- these are -- many of the folks I talked to are Sunnis who are very upset that they were lied to last election, told not to vote, and they were very excited to vote this election.
...
COL. BROWN: We did face well-trained foreign fighters prior to January elections. We have not faced well-trained foreign fighters since. Since February of this year until now, we have not seen any well-trained, in fact, very poorly trained foreign fighters. So whoever was training them before, I don't know, but apparently they've lost their support and they're not able to train them and they've -- you know, now we're getting much younger -- we had 15- to 17-year- olds, very young. You know, we were estimating -- it's kind of hard, you know, when you see the remains of a suicide bomber, there's not much left. But from captured ones, and then reports from these folks, they were very young, 15- to 17-years-old; not well trained. And we have not seen well-trained foreign fighters at all since February. So wherever they were training before, I don't know, but it's sure not -- they're not doing it anymore that I'm aware of because they're not coming here and we have not seem them.
H) Kuwait is softening its stance towards Israel and softening its support for the Palestinians. The New York Times ran this! Can you fucking believe that? NYT This is a story that basically supports the whole "neocon" game plan of how things were expected to start playing out in the middle east!
This is a lot of stuff, particularly if you go read the whole Yon dispatch and all of Brown's interview WHICH I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Think on this for a day "grok" the totality. We'll come back to it tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Drunken watchman cuts cows’ tails
Dude couldn't imagine anything else to do but to cut their tails off? I've been drunk many times(not in the presense of cows though, at least not the 4 leg variety that is) and I can't say that slicing the tails off cows ever occured to me - even during the worst benders. This guy seems to have a seriously limited world view if disfiguring some hapless cows is the best idea he could come up with when drunk.
My suspicion, and its just that - a suspicion, is this guy was looking for a little "female companionship" and these gals were none too thrilled about his drunken advances. Now THAT sort of behavior might get you smacked up side the head by a tail because you'd be...well...in the general vicinity of the tail.
PRAVDA
My suspicion, and its just that - a suspicion, is this guy was looking for a little "female companionship" and these gals were none too thrilled about his drunken advances. Now THAT sort of behavior might get you smacked up side the head by a tail because you'd be...well...in the general vicinity of the tail.
PRAVDA
The personnel of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs’ office in Poltavskaya region arrested 39-year-old milker and watchman of one of the farms for cutting cows’ tails, Ukrainski Novyny reports.
The arrested man was in the state of alcoholic intoxication and became angry when one of the cows lashed his face with its tail.
“He could not imagine anything else but to cut cows’ tails”, a representative from the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ office reported.
The milker decided to cut the tails and realized what he was doing only after cutting the twelfth tail. Cows were crying from pain and lost a lot of blood.
The detainee explained that he had lost his temper.
Police officers initiated a case according to the article 299 of the Russian Criminal Code (cruelty to animals).
Monday, October 03, 2005
Volcano kills two in El Salvadore
Sounds ugly...could be the real deal.
TAIPEI TIMES
TAIPEI TIMES
El Salvador's largest volcano, dormant for more than a century, shook the ground as it woke up on Saturday...
...Military emergency sirens blasted, calling for an immediate area evacuation...
...The volcano "has begun to expel magma on the side of the town of San Blas...
...Hot rocks belched out by the volcano ranged from the size of a football to the size of a car, a journalist on the scene reported.
...Two people were killed when 200 residents fled the hamlet of Palo Campana, located just 2km from the crater, Interior Minister Rene Figueroa said....
Politically correct colors
I wasn't aware frequencies in the visible spectrum had any particular political implications. However, now that this has become an issue its clear the congress needs to take this up with the sun and and light bulb makers. The sun must be forced to stop emitting these offensive frequencies, and bulb makers must similarly be forced to build filters into their products. Naturally Home Depot will be expected to stop selling pink building products like toilets and sinks, ceramic tile and paint. Owens Corning must immediately halt production and distribution of their "pink" line of fiberglass insulation products -- after all, nobody wants their attic to project the "girlie man" image. Mixing of a gallon of white paint and and red paint to produce the color which shall not be named will of course have to be criminalized and made punishable as a "hate crime".
LOCKER ROOM FLAP
LOCKER ROOM FLAP
A University of Iowa law professor said she has received death threats after voicing her objections over the pink visitors' locker room at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.
Erin Buzuvis, 29, who moved from Boston to Iowa City to begin teaching at the law school, said she and several friends, colleagues and neighbors have been concerned for months about the message behind the locker rooms. She said the locker room promotes negative stereotypes.
Former Hawkeye football coach Hayden Fry had the visiting team's locker room painted pink in the 1970s. University officials have kept the color and expanded its use with the renovation under way at the stadium.
The carpeting, metal lockers, brick walls, sinks, shower floor -- even the urinals -- are pink.
"I've heard this is a way to honor a great coach, and Fry was a great coach," Buzuvis said. "But I don't think it does him any honor to perpetuate what is seen by many as a sexist and homophobic gesture."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)