Rusted Sky

BREITBART.COM - Castro's Final Moment 'Very Far Away'

Well, it'll happen eventually.

Maybe in 5 years we can vacation in Cuba!

J.

Job's changed, I'm a lot busier than I was. When things settle down (or I get used to it) I hope to start blogging more. Till then, figure one or two posts a day. Maybe. If I'm not exhausted.

J.

VANITY FAIR : FEATURES : GENERAL

Good Lord.

J.

Politics. These guys caused the damn problem.

Former Clintonites Slam Bush's 'Stewardship of Military' -- 08/02/2006

(CNSNews.com) - A group of former Clinton administration national security experts on Tuesday joined Democrats in Congress in criticizing the Bush administration for what they called "a serious failure of civil stewardship of the military."

In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi the National Security Advisory Group expressed its "deep concern about the U.S. Army's current state of readiness" and urged them "to take immediate action to address the urgent problem."

The group is chaired by former Defense Secretary William Perry and includes other Clinton-era officials like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.

The group wrote that as much as two thirds of the Army's operating force did not meet the military's readiness requirements. The classified readiness grading system considers a unit's strength, equipment and training levels to determine if it is ready to complete its mission.

Any military takes a lot of money to run. Beans and bullets, payrolls and parachutes - they've all got to be paid for somehow. And let's be honest, pay for the military takes up a lot of the budget. The old days of draftees being paid paltry sums (there was a song before WW2 - "21 Dollars a Day, Once a Month" which gives you an idea what they were paying back then. $21, once a month. I tried finding the lyrics on-line, no joy. It's by Felix Bernard. Kind of surprising nobody's put them up...) are pretty much over. We don't have a conscript military any more - the pay rates have to somewhat correspond to the civilian world to keep people. That takes money.

Those lovely cretins were all for cutting the military to the bone and a bit beyond in the '90s - furnishing a little 'Peace Dividend' that they could toss to their voter base. Lot of people excessed, a lot of manning requirements reduced to a bare minimum.

Now they've got the God-Damned GALL to say that Bush hasn't been doing well by the military? I'd suggest they do something biologically unsuitable, extremely improbable, manifestly illegal and downright painful with the horses they rode in on.

I'm not going to say I'm NEVER going to vote for a Democrat again - but by God this makes me think a lot more than twice about voting for anyone with a D behind their name. This is sheer, rank, asinine stupidity complaining about the situation THEY created in the first place.

But you know? There's going to be folks nodding and saying they're right. They won't look at the actual state of the military in the '90s. They won't look at the history of these people and what they did to bring about the problems the military has today. What's important is to blame Bush.

But you know something else? This isn't unusual. We keep hoping that it's time to disband the military - to cut the budget, because we don't need it any more, or need it as much. It never is, really, time to shut it down, but that doesn't keep it from happening. It happened after WW1, WW2, the Korean war, after Viet Nam, after GW1.

We never seem to learn.

J.

Welcome to Retro-Gram.Com Purveyors of Internet Telegrams

"The style and class of vintage telegrams, with the speed and convenience of e-mail."

Heh. This is good. My brother's got a birthday coming up soon. I might send him one of these via snail-mail.

"Dear Brother.

Love, Your Annoying Younger Brother."

I LIKE this idea...

Snail mail's $4, Emails are free. Think of the possibilities.

J.

Want to search for dust grains?

Stardust@Home - About Finding Stardust

On January 15, 2006, the Stardust spacecraft's sample return capsule parachuted gently onto the Utah desert. Nestled within the capsule were precious particles collected during Stardust’s dramatic encounter with comet Wild 2 in January of 2004 and something else, even rarer and no less precious: tiny particles of interstellar dust that originate in distant stars, light-years away. They are the first such pristine particles ever collected in space, and scientists are eagerly waiting for their chance to "get their hands" on them.

Before they can be studied, though, these tiny interstellar grains will have to be found. This will not be easy. Unlike the thousand of particles of varying sizes collected from the comet, scientists estimate that Stardust collected only around 45 interstellar dust particles. They are tiny—only about a micron (a millionth of a meter) in size! These miniscule particles are embedded in an aerogel collector 1,000 square centimeters in size. To make things worse the collector plates are interspersed with flaws, cracks, and an uneven surface. All this makes the interstellar dust particles extremely difficult to locate.

If we were doing this project twenty years ago, we would have searched for the tracks through a high-magnification microscope. Because the view of the microscope is so small, we would have to move the microscope more than 1.6 million times to search the whole collector. In each field of view, you would focus up and down by hand to look for the tracks. This is so much work, that even starting twenty years ago, we would still be doing it today!

This is where you come in:

J.

LA Weekly - Guess Who’s Coming to Iftar

J.

Not that they haven't before - but it's kind of sad to watch this. I remember how Air America was promoted as the answer to Conservative talk radio - and it looks like it's just not attractive enough to get the listeners.

Nobody's stifling their ability to speak, nobody's saying they can't broadcast whatever they want - but if you don't get the ears, you don't get the ratings. You don't get the ratings, you don't get the revenue. You don't get the revenue, you don't get much cooperation from broadcasters who actually expect to get paid to carry your show.

Lefty Net Off WLIB

THE liberal Air America radio network is going to be harder to hear in New York.

Next month, it is switching stations - to a weaker AM station, WWRL (1600 AM).

Al Franken and his lefty colleagues are leaving WLIB (1190 AM) apparently because they couldn't come up with enough cash for the owners, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, Pierre.

Starting Sept. 1, Air America will be on WWRL, at the top of the dial where AM signals are weakest - especially at night, when greater FCC restrictions apply.

As The Post reported last March, the ratings-challenged liberal network failed to renew its two-year lease with the Suttons.

Relations between the Suttons and the network's execs were rocky from the start and only got worse after the network's shaky finances became known and a scandal broke out involving loans to Air America from a Bronx charity.

WLIB's future after Sept. 1 is not known, although radio industry heavyweight Randy Michaels - the builder of 1,200-station Clear Channel - has expressed interest in leasing the station as a base for a new talk-radio network.

Michaels declined comment yesterday and the Suttons didn't return calls.

J.

Well, not much of one.

Iran: We supplied Zelzal-2 to Hizbullah | Jerusalem Post

Iran admitted for the first time on Friday that it did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hizbullah.

Secretary-general of the "Intifada conference" Mohtashami Pur told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles so that they could be used to defend Lebanon, Channel 1 reported.

The extent of Iran's intimate involvement in Hizbullah attacks is starting to emerge.

According to the defense establishment, the reason Hizbullah has not fired long-range Iranian-made Fajr missiles at Israel is due to Teheran's opposition. Israel now understands that without direct orders from the ayatollahs, Hizbullah is not allowed to use Iranian missiles in attacks against Israel.

This isn't good. (Well, it's good they've admitted what was pretty much self-evident, since it's clear that Hezbollah hasn't got much in the way of an industrial base to draw on...) What will the UN say about it?

If past performance is any clue, they'll commission a panel that will, if they're really fast, have some recommendations about possible ways to construct a committe to investigate the possibilities of empowering a panel to maybe think about drafting some sort of sanctions against Iran.

In other words - not much.

Iran's been playing for time. And I'm afraid that time's close to up and they'll have what they've been trying to develop. I'm thinking that we're going to see a nuke pop off before this is all over.

Would Hezbollah/Iran be so crazy? You damn well betcha. Iran, as you may recall, used to use human wave tactics to clear minefeilds. And they used kids in those human waves thinking they were a cost-effective way to get at their enemies.

If taking out Israel means losing a hundred thousand Palestinians or Lebanese - well, thats a price they're willing to pay.

J.

Katje posted a comment down in Rusted Sky: Hmmm. where I was wondering why there was a sudden attack of modesty in Paris of all places.

Normally, I'm in favour of people keeping as much of their personal geography covered as possible, but things like this are turning me farther and faster toward the Dark (or rather, "Nude") Side...

Save The Nude Sunbathing!! Anything rather than appeasement - our eventual demise as the culmination of a million little deaths.

Camel Nose In The Tent: Camel Tales & Stories.

One cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. "Master," he said, "let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." "By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.

A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." "Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.

Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." "Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself.

Hows far does the camel have to be IN the tent before someone notices?

J>

Bombs on German Trains: A Middle Eastern Connection? - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

A leak from the investigation into a pair of unexploded bombs found on trains in Germany this week has produced a strange detail -- a bag printed in Arabic. German officials won't confirm anything, but the case has ignited a national debate about rail security.

Oh, wait. Mel Gibson was an ass. I should have KNOWN what would have priority.

J.

It's getting even sicker.

israelinsider: diplomacy: Lebanese report: Hezbollah planted disabled children in basement to die

A French language Lebanese publication, citing an unnamed source in Hezbollah, has claimed that the organization placed a rocket launcher on the roof of the notorious building in Qana to provoke an Israeli attack and brought invalid children inside to serve as victims and blacken Israel's name.

The Lebanese magazine LIBANOSCOPIE, associated with Christian elements which support the anti-Syrian movement called the "March 14 Forces," report that Hizbullah masterminded a plan that would result in the killing of innocents in Qana, in an attempt to foil Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's "Seven Points Plan" calling for deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah. The magazine reported: We have it from a credible source that Hezbollah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations.... Hezbollah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the diplomatic initiative," the site stated.

(Sidebar: Meanwhile, the Lebanese Red Cross reported on Monday that only 28 bodies, 19 of them children, were removed from the rubble. The count is half that of the 50-60 bodies still being reported by news agencies, quoting Lebanese security officials.)

"We have it from a credible source that Hezbollah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations.... Hezbollah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the diplomatic initiative," the site stated.

The site's editors claimed that Hezbollah staged the event because of Qana's symbolic significance: "They used Qana because the village had already turned into a symbol for massacring innocent civilians, and so they set up 'Qana 2'." The incident has indeed been dubbed "The second Qana massacre" by the Arab media.

However - if this is true, and I see little reason why it wouldn't be - this mean Hezbollah was in direct violation of the Geneva Accords.

They put civilians deliberately in danger, and ensured their deaths. They turned that building into a very hard-to-resist target, sure the PR flacks would spin it so the Israelis would be guilty.

Bastards.

The CARE meter's really smokin' now.

J.

Shutdown the Internet

I'm pushing the button and calling it a night...

J.

FOXNews.com - Poll: Sen. Lieberman Cutting Into Challenger Lamont's Lead in Democratic Primary - You Decide 2006

HARTFORD, Conn. — U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, fighting for his political survival, appears to be cutting into challenger Ned Lamont's lead the day before Connecticut's Democratic primary election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.

But I think it's because he's an apostate. He doesn't BELIEVE, deep down, that Bush is the source of all evil. That the world would be a fine and tidy place if only Kerry or Gore were President. He dares to look at the real world and judge things by what he SEES, not by what he BELIEVES is out there.

You don't hear the phrase 'Reality Based Community' all that much in political discourse any more. Ever wonder why? Could it be that when actually tested against reality, the 'Reality Based Community' fell visibly out of alignment? (And then manifestly refused to admit it?) 'Reality Based' means that you actually are aware of reality, and use it to form and guide appropriate actions and responses to the situations you find yourself in.

(For instance, when driving, it's NOT a good idea when faced with an obstacle in the road to pull BACK on the steering wheel in an attempt to get your car to lift over it. You might have a deep belief in the ability of your car to fly, but when tested against reality you'll find it faulty.)

Joe Lieberman sees reality, and votes according to what he thinks is the best way of dealing with it. I wish him all the luck in the world tomorrow. Because we need more politicians who can tell the difference between 'reality' and 'Reality-Based' fantasies.

J.

We promised the little guy we'd go to Six Flags this year. And we did, on Saturday.

You know something? It was a lot more fun 20 years ago. Of course, Saturdays are big days in any amusement park, but it sure seemed like the park's unable to handle the crowds they're drawing. We got there around 3:30, got into the park about 4:30 (we weren't that far back in the parking lot, but there was a tram and we figured we'd save our feet... that was a time-wasting mistake) and were about to ride the Mine Train (it not having a TERRIBLY long line, only about 45 minuntes) when thunderstorms popped up in the area and they shut it down for about 45 minutes.

So we stayed in line there. If the rides were closed, why bother going to another one? We waited... and waited... and waited... and finally it started up again and we made it through about 6:30. Time for dinner - and we decided on ribs and chicken... only to find when we arrived that the concessions folk were far more concerned with talking amongst themselves in groups than with taking care of the customers. I was very impressed at their ability to NOT provide the service that would yeild a meal for hungry park-goers.

We gave up on that and hit up one of the Papa John's pizza stands. $45 later, we had four large slices of pizza, (two with pepperoni), two bottles of water, two orders of cheese bread, and two small drinks. We sat at a non-too-clean table, and cleaned it when we left (leaving it considerably cleaner than when we sat down) and staggered on. We separated - and I and the little guy's friend went to the Great American Scream Machine, while Sue and the little guy went to stand in line for the bumper cars. We finally met up again close to two hours later - the lines were indeed that bad.

I was going to try to ride Goliath, the new coaster at the park - but it was after 9 and the park closed at 10, and the line areas for THAT were full and then some - so I went with the others to try riding Thunder River. We stood in line for about 50 minutes, and rode it at 10:10. Then it was time to stagger out - and with the trams to the parking lot overloaded, it was 'March or Die' time as we hoofed it to the car. (The little guys were barely able to make it.)

We exited the parking lot itself at 11:15. There wasn't any sort of traffic control visible. All in all, a thouroughly unpleasant day. At the park tickets would have been $50 each, or $40 on-line. A family of 4 showing up at the gate would have been out close to $300 for tickets, food and drinks. ($3.50 for a bottle of water? $3.49 for a small drink?)

The company itself isn't doing so hot. I don't expect it'll fail, but it's not healthy, and seems to be confusing adding new rides at the park with actually making a park work well. There's a certain price/value ratio that must be maintained in order to keep the customers coming back - and as far as I'm concerned the price badly outweighs the value.

J.

8/8/2006 - Federal and Statewide

U.S. Representative, District 4
Democrat
13% of precincts reporting - Votes - Percentage

Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. 2,581 - 73.8%
Cynthia McKinney - - - - - - - - - 917 - 26.2%

Of course, early returns don't necessarily point the way the election's going to go. Still, I hope McKinney the nutcase has to go find a real job. (Though there's not much future in cop-slugging, and I think Sharpton and Jackson have the race-baiting market sewn up.)

UPDATE: Looks like she's gaining.

66% of precincts reporting

Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. 25,152 - 58.2%
Cynthia McKinney ------------- 18,067 - 41.8%

With 96%, it's at 58.8-41.2. Unless McKinney's got some stuffed ballot boxes somewhere, she's out.

And it looks like Joe Lieberman didn't win his election. Much rejoicing among some Democrats tonight...

J.

Nothing like rolling up your sleeves and pitching in to give some 'moral support'.

My Way News - Iranians among Hizbollah combat dead: TV

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.

It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.

Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral.

I get the uncomfortable feeling that Iran's really pushing this confrontation. And I'm not seeing any good ends coming from it.

(Let's see. When did I last change the battery in that old Civil Defense radiation meter I got on EBay a few years back...)

J.

Sky News: Air Chaos After Terror Plot Disrupted

There is chaos at British airports after police disrupted a plot to cause "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" by blowing up planes over UK and US cities.

The explosives would have been smuggled aboard at least six airliners as hand luggage - and could have been missed during x-ray screening.

Speaking at Scotland Yard, Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said he was confident the police had disrupted a plot "to cause mass murder on an unimaginable scale".

He said 21 people arrested in London, Birmingham and the Thames Valley were still being held - the culmination of a covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.

Clicking on the links produced this little gem.

Prof Paul Wilkinson, of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, said nothing on this apparent scale had succeeded before.

"This is really a very ambitious plot indeed," he said. "It is the kind of spectacular potentially lethal attack which the al Qaeda network has been particularly interested in carrying out.

"I would be very surprised if it was found that they were not involved as a movement.

J.

At last, someone on the left opens up his eyes and actually LOOKS at what he's been seeing all along.

OpinionJournal - Extra

My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman.

This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing--in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.

I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.

Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony.

Realistically, though, it's hard to look objectively on something and label it bigotry or hatred when all your friends and acquaintances are saying pretty much the same thing. For instance, take a look at the DU or Kos community. By my standards, there's a lot of bigotry and hatred on display there, for (to my mind) very little reason. But to them, it's all normal - everyone's on the same wavelength and there's nothing to be at all concerned about. They've normed out their behavior, and on the ammeter they're sitting nicely at zero. They're neither left or right, they're smack-dab in the center as far as they're concerned. Anyone who doesn't agree with them is wrong. And since they're right, anyone bringing up facts that show them to be mistaken is just plain wrong from the start and any premise they bring up can be safely ignored.

You might also say the same thing about sites like LGF, Instapundit or other 'rightward' blogs. However, what I see there aren't opinions that are cast in solid steel. Give evidence (and the standard of evidence is significantly higher than "I think that...") and opinions and ideas change accordingly.

Hate? Yeah, you'll see hate there. But it's not a generalized hate, it's extremely focused. There's no general hatred of Muslims as a group, only those who want to see us either converted to their specific sect or dead. And frankly, I fall into that category. You want to live your life worshiping Bucky the Sacred Beaver and his Twelve Logs of Righteous Living? Go right ahead, it's no skin off my nose. Where I get ticked off is when YOU insist I've got to memorize the Twelve Logs and worship Bucky, or you'll kill me.

At that point, you go from friendly and amusing neighbor to downright threat. I don't like that. I'm more than willing to let you live your life how you want. But when you insist on turning me into your enemy, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise when I start acting like it.

The funny thing is, I see myself as being in the middle. There's a lot of folks to the left of me, there's a lot of folks to the right. And that's pretty much a constant of our politicial viewpoints - no matter where you are on an objective scale, from frothing left to frothing right, YOU are in the center.

And at some point you look around and go 'I'm in the center of THIS?" Then you move along and establish a center elsewhere...

In the next few months, with the Lieberman loss and the NetRoots crowd bouncing around in triumph, I think a lot of the moderate Democrats are going to be looking at the party they've loved for a long time and finding it unrecognizeable. The Democratic Party that Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman were once proud members of may be no more, replaced by a changling that looks like the DNC, but really isn't. And they owe the country more alleigance than the party that left them a long time ago...

J.

Time test: 35 minutes past the hour.

So a cease fire resolution's been signed by the UN Security council. Well, I'm sure it's worth the paper it's printed on.

My Way News - Security Council OKs Mideast Peace Deal

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday that calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and authorizes the deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

The draft, which had been proposed by the United States and France, offers the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of significant bloodshed. It was the first significant action by the Security Council, the most powerful U.N. body, to address a war that has killed more than 800 people, destroyed Lebanon's infrastructure and inflamed tensions across the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed the resolution late Friday, after a day of dramatic day brinksmanship including a threat to expand the ground war in Lebanon. But Israeli officials said Israel would not halt fighting until Israel's Cabinet has approved the cease-fire deal in its weekly meeting Sunday.

It takes only one side to make a war. It takes two sides to make a peace. Israel would like peace with Lebanon - but Hezbollah's in control and that peace looks pretty unlikely.

J/

I've been accused, in other forums, of being hate-filled. Needless to say, I don't agree with that - but let's look at some of the things I'm believing these days and I'll let you judge for yourself.

Pre 9/11, I had this warm and fuzzy idea that Muslims were just regular folk. I’d worked for some, and they were pretty good people. After 9/11, it’s getting more and more difficult to persuade myself that Muslims are good folk. I know that not all adhere to the ‘Kill them all, let Allah sort ‘em out’ philosophy, but it’s sure looking more and more like there’s a strain of Islam that will need to be uprooted and destroyed to protect the rest of Islam and civilization as we know it.

And THAT isn’t made easier by the ‘why can’t we all just get along’ crowd. The reason we can’t get along is that THEY hate US, not the reverse. They want to kill us. Their avowed mission is to die, taking as many unbelievers with them as possible. It’s not hard to understand that they’d rather cut your head off than make any deals with you, that they’d rather kill a woman in a bikini than look at her, that they want EVERYONE to believe JUST as they do, with no variance, and those that don’t DESERVE to die. And it's their mission, their calling, to make sure that death occurs.

Perhaps those on the left are playing the old ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ tune - but they’re going to find out that all that’s earning them (since those on the left trying to play that game seem to also be quite in favor of women’s rights - which would earn them death - and gay rights - which would earn them death) is a slightly later place in the headhacking line.

So. Peaceful? Gentle? Co-Existing? Those folks who are proclaiming that Islam is a peaceful religion had better start showing us that, and stop telling us just how peaceful and gentle you wish you were if it weren’t for all the damn unbelievers cluttering up the place.

And just in case you're tempted to say I need to be 'enlightened' about how peaceful Islam is and how violent Christianity is -- I'm aware of the checkered past of Christianity, and I'm also aware that it has (at least for the present time) grown out of it. Sorry, but fuck the enlightenment bullshit. Any time I’ve been told I need to ‘enlighten’ myself, it’s usually someone looking to blow smoke up my ass. “Gee, you really need to ENLIGHTEN yourself about the conspiracy about the moon landings! About the REAL purpose about HAARP. About the explosives that were embedded in the WTC when it was built!” Enlightment? No thanks. I’ll make my own conclusions based on a really voluminous reading habit and a wide knowledge of a lot of things and a pretty good bullshit filter. All ‘enlightenment’ does is give me what someone THINKS is going on, and I can figure out for myself what to think, thankyewvurrymuch...

But you know, there's something that the peace-loving folks have gotten right.

Hate breeds hate.

Pre 9/11, about 99.98% of the folks in the US couldn’t have cared less about Islam. It wasn’t on the radar, except in a ‘Oh, look at what those nasty Taliban are doing’ sort of way. It was a non-issue.

Now, it’s an issue. Now, hate is building. That hate’s building because people are looking at Islam’s excesses, and NOT liking what they see. Hate DOES breed hate - in the hated. And w're hated, folks. We're really hated.

I used to have a great deal of sympathy for the Palestinians. Then 9/11 hit, and I started paying attention to what was going on inside Palestinian society. You want to talk about HATE, there’s a good place to start. When your society as a whole raises a child to believe that the absolute pinnacle of his life, the highest purpose he coupld possibly attain is to serve as a one-shot explosives delivery platform, there’s something seriously and decidedly fucked about that society. And I don’t attribute it all to Israel by a long shot - Israel took a few dozen square miles of desert and made it bloom - while the Palestinians took a few dozen square miles of desert and turned it into Dante’s Hell.

They’ve bought into the fiction that they’re entitled to what ‘magically’ appeared when Israel was created, overlooking the fact that they could have done the same thing if they wanted…. or rather, if their leadership had wanted it instead of grabbing it from Israel after THEY made it. As it was, they fucked themselves royally by their blind allegiance to Arafat and now they wallow in their own hatred. They can SEE they’ve been fucked over by their leaders, they KNOW they’re really badly screwed, and they’ve got to completely and totally deny it… because to ACCEPT it would be to take responsibility for it.

And THAT is completely and utterly unthinkable. It’s far easier, far better to deny it completely and blame someone - ANYONE - else for the problems they’ve so carefully and determinedly woven into their society for years. They've created a culture based on hatred of those who aren't them. Hatred of the Jews. Hatred of the US. Hatred of anyone who isn't a Palestinian. They marinate it in, they wallow in it, they eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They mainline it, snort it and smoke it. And we're supposed to be sympathetic towards them? Sorry, but my sympathy meter’s gone to zero and then pegged to the left. When Hezbollah kidnapped the soldiers, it started to smoke. I’m out of sympathy for them.

As far as Hamas and Hezbollah go, they’re getting what they deserve and I hope they appreciate that they’ve been setting the conditions for the Israeli reprisal for a long time. I’m amazed, frankly, that the IDF’s been as selective as they have been - if it were me I’d have been looking at carpet bombing and napalm. But then, I’m not terribly patient and would tend to be rather unforgiving after about the hundredth or so Hamas attack.

On one board I've seen, a commenter mentioned there’s a billion Muslims and they aren’t going away. That’s fine - I don’t want them to go away, I want them to stop blowing themselves up at perceived slights and provocations, looking to take out their angst and hatred on the world that’s not living up to their standards. I want them to realize that they lose a hell of a lot more respect when they violently demonstrate about CARTOONS and make death threats than if they just shrug it off.

I want Sunnis to stop bombing Shiites. I want the mullahs and imams to realize that THEY are the ones who’re going to have to drop the damn attitude that they’re ENTITLED to make everyone else do what THEY think is right. I want the Palestinians to disabuse themselves of the idea that they are somehow entitled to Israel because their forefathers bugged out when told to when the countries surrounding Israel declared war and tried to wipe them out. That Hezbollah is somehow entitled to fire missiles into Israel, and kidnap soldiers without fear of reprisal. That Islam is NOT going to be the dominant, worldwide religion, and Shari’a is NOT going to become law covering the world. That they’re going to have to learn to live with other religions that don’t believe as they do. That a woman wearing a bikini in public isn’t a justification for rape. That somehow they can drag the world kicking and screaming back into the 8th century.

As I said - THEY learn tolerance of others and stop blowing shit up, and we’ll all get along fine. If they don’t, it could get real messy real damn fast. And that’ll be greatly regretted - but it’s past time they grew up and realized the world is not going to conform to their desires. And if they want to destroy the world if they can't have it, then they're going to be destroyed.

The truth is that some sects of Islam have refused to accept the responsibility of rationally dealing with a world that will not bend to their wishes.

They bring their doom on themselves. I’ll not shed a tear for the death of someone who’d gladly kill me because I don’t believe like they do. Live and let live - I’ll gladly follow that - but that requires both sides to accept it. Radical Islam isn’t showing that sort of tolerance. I’ll not bare my throat and let myself be killed because my unbelief is intolerable to them, and I’m supposed to be ‘accepting of their cultural differences’. You can embrace their knife if you want. I won't.

Have a nice day. Don’t forget to floss.

J.

(This has been excerpted from my comments at Dust My Broom - Kipling-izing Jihad. Unfortunately, thecomments which caused my comments have been removed, for whatever reason.)

This is sickening. But there's a real problem here which I don't think people have paid as much attention to as they should. Can you guess what it is?

Bottle and baby used as bomb | The Daily Telegraph

A HUSBAND and wife arrested in the British terror raids allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a mid-air suicide mission.
Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.

The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now insisting mothers taste babies' milk at check-in desks before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights.

The pair are among up to 23 suspects being questioned over a plot to bring down nine airliners over five US cities, killing thousands of people in the air and on the ground.

And how do you fight an enemy that brainwashes it's followers to use THEIR OWN BABY as a prop to hide explosives? This points out to me, in a horrific way, how far they'll go to 'win' against the West. Against civilization as we know it, and as they hate it. How do yoiu reason with that? How do you get it to grudgingly allow YOU to exist?

I fear that soon we're going to have to get over our fantasy that the War on Terror can be won without a whole lot of death and destruction. And by 'whole lot' I'm meaning hundreds of thousands to millions of dead. I thought it might be possible - but it's starting to look like the rot that I thought was minimal is instead pervasive, and the radical meme is extremely strong and contagious.

Militant, radical Islam is not willing to tolerate the existance of other belief systems - even within Islam itself. All you have to do is look at the Sunni-Shia split. If militant Islam didn't have the West to hate, it would consume itself in dozens of little sectarian wars. As it is, we're a great big target and have their attention... for now. The West MUST be subjugated to the will of Islam - or destroyed. There's no other option in their worldview.

I know we're in a generational war. But we'd better get clear on who the enemy is pretty damn quick. We won against Communism because it was a socio-economic meme that couldn't work in the long run against Capitalism. We won't have that advantage against a socio-religious meme, and frankly, aside from open warfare, I don't see much of anything that would work against the sort of indoctrination that could impell parents to blow themselves up with a baby. And that scares me no end, because it's damn hard to fight against insanity like that.

Wholesale death and slaughter's in the cards. Damn.

J.

Saturday did some running around with the little guy - first to Krispy Kreme, then got the car washed (right before it rained) and a new antenna (metal fatigue snapped the thing off where it screwed into the socket.) and a couple of new keyboards. He saw this thing called the 'Virtually Indestructable Keyboard', and thought it was real neat. I bought one for his system, and I got an Inland RF Keyvoard and Mouse. I had a mini-sized EL keyboard, but the letters were wearing off the keys and I'd replaced it with an IConcepts Inferno keyboard, but I wanted something a bit less 'clicky'. I bought an Inland U-Touch RF Keyboard as a replacement. (Hey, it even had a wireless mouse with it!)

Bluntly, the thing wasn't a good example of Inland's quality control system. I hard a hard time getting it to bond with my system, and the kkkkkkkkkkeeeeybbbbbbbbbbrd would stu-stu-stutter and ms smpl letters. And did I mention the " " key wasn't working? (The '1' key, along with others) And a lot of those that did work, occasionally toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook off on their own. The darn thing was free with it's letters, I'll grant it that much. I returned it today. It was cheap, but it wasn't worth the price. I make sufficent typos without the keyboard helping out.

Last night we (The little guy and I) went to see "Zoom". It was a good tounge-in-cheek send-up of the 'Team of Superheros' genre, and well worth the money. I recommend it. Today we went to see 'Barnyard", which was a... um... remake of "The Lion King" with cows. It had some funny spots, but I don't see it lasting long in the theaters at all.

And tomorrow, Third Grade starts for the little guy. Wow, the time's sure passing.

J.

Hey, some Muslim passport official might see the pic and get turned on!

Telegraph | News | Passport photograph of girl's bare shoulders rejected 'as it may offend'

A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders.

Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.

The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France.

Because of the way the camera was set up, the picture came out showing Hannah's shoulders.

The family had it signed and presented it at a post office with the completed form but were told that it would not be accepted by the Passport Office.

A woman behind the counter informed them that she was aware of at least two other cases where applications had been rejected because a person's shoulders were not covered.

This article has been brought to you by the POC - the Permanently Offended Committee. Remember, if you think that someone, somewhere might possibly be offended by what you're thinking or doing, you MUST stop doing it immediately, unless you're of a protected class!*

* Protected classes include but are not limited to blacks, feminists, gays, fundamentalist Islamists, Native Americans, Aboriginals, teachers' union members, unions of all sorts, members of academia with the proper political alignment, DU and Kos posters, Indymedia contributors, 'reality based' political activists, trust fund activists, and anyone who really really really hates Bush. Protected classification is unavailable to groups or individuals who believe in personal responsibility, who have undergone military service (unless you deserted) or persons of color who have the misguided idea that you can succeed without massive amounts of governmental aid. This list is not intended to be comprehensive or complete, but instead is to be used as a guideline to quickly determine the potential for coverage as a protected class. Please note that simply being in a protected classification is not protection from non-PC controllable events - for example, if a radical Islamist is faced with a pair of feminist lesbians, the feminist lesbians may NOT object to the mysogynistic way they'll be treated by the radical Islamist. As Orwell so pointedly wrote in "Animal Farm" - "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

J.

It's getting pretty clear at this point that the WoT really does boil down to some rather simplistic concepts.

On the one hand, you've got us. The Coalition. Depending on your point of view, we're either lawful, neutral or chaotic good. Or possibly lawful evil.

On the other side, you've got Radical Islam. The headhackers. The barbarians who'd .. well. Not much point in me going off on another rant, is there? They're lawful or neutral evil - characterized by -

Will not necessarily keep his word to anyone.
Lies and cheats indiscriminately.
Will happily kill an unarmed foe.
Will harm and use an innocent, killing if necessary.
Uses torture to extract information. (And enjoys it! May torture for pleasure).
May kill for sheer pleasure.
Feels no compulsion to help others without some sort of tangible reward.
Works with others if it will help achieve his personal goals.
Will take dirty money, etc. without hesitation.
Will betray a friend if it serves his needs.
Has little respect for others' lives.

Ah, isn't it fun to try to simplify real-world situations into a neat black and white (or good and evil) dichotomy?

Part of the problem with labeling is that the labels don't always stick. If you do something wrong - are you always going to do the same thing wrong in the same way? Once you get a traffic ticket, are you always going to be getting traffic tickets for the same offense? You'd hope not, you'd think that you'd learn after the first one that the risk isn't worth the reward. However, with governments things are a bit different. Again, you hope that the results of an action are worth the potential risk. (Which, greatly simplified, is the thinking behind pretty much every war.) The problem arises when you start doing altruistic acts - especially when your nation hasn't exactly been praised for altruism in the past. (WW2 notwithstanding...)

The WoT is at once an altruistic and a selfish act. We don't want to be attacked, so in order to forestall attacks we're looking at changing the status quo... when that status quo which we supported diligently for decades (through republican and democratic administrations) set up the precursor conditions for a hell of a lot of trouble that came to a head on 9/11. However, THAT was simply the symptom of problems we'd studiously ignored in the past.

But altruism isn't always recognized. I'll touch on that later, I hope.

J.

Found at DRUDGE REPORT 2006�

Iran says won't back down over nuke plans (Because it's nobody's business if they decide to make them. Right?)

My Way News - Bush Sees No End to War on Terrorism (Alt least not in the next two years. 20? Maybe. 60? Possibly. Could be tomorrow, if we simply accept Allah and pass out burqas.)

Sky News: Airport Chaos: 20,000 Missing Bags Looks like a whole lot of bags got misrouted in the mess. Whoopsie.

Sky News: New Arrest Over Airport Terror Plot Updated Tuesday, 20:36 GMT.

Truely we live in interesting times...

J.

UN Resolutions just aren't worth the paper they're printed on, are they?

Israel threatens to resume war if Hizbullah refuses to disarm | Jerusalem Post

The IDF will have to resume operations in Lebanon if the expanded United Nations force being assembled does not fulfill its obligation to dismantle Hizbullah, an official in the Prime Minister's Office warned on Tuesday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly reached a deal allowing Hizbullah to keep its weapons but refrain from exhibiting them in public. Israeli officials called the arrangement a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which passed over the weekend and was approved on Sunday by the cabinet.

Nah, who'm I trying to kid? They've wadded up the resolution and used it as toilet paper. Isn't it nice to find out that some things are predictable and constant? Trust in Hezbollah is completely misplaced...

I wonder how much longer it will be before hostilities resume?

J.

Nothing like alienating a constituency you're hoping will improve your demographics...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Democratic political ad is under fire from Hispanics who say it unfairly compares Latino immigrants to terrorists.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sponsored a 35-second ad on its Web site that shows footage of two people scaling a border fence mixed with images of Osama Bin Laden and North Korea President Kim Jong Il.

J.

Kidman condemns Hamas, Hezbollah | Herald Sun

NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.
The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today's Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It specifically targets "terrorist organisations" such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

However, Jon Benet Ramsey's front page news. Gee, isn't it peculiar that a 10-year old murder's getting front-page headlines in the US, but 85 high-profile Hollywood stars going against terror doesn't even rate highly enough to be mentioned ANYWHERE in the day's coverage?

Or even rate a mention in the LA Times itself?

To be fair, I'm simply searching the above sites for "Kidman". Perhaps there's some other search terms I should be using? And this IS supposedly in tomorrow's paper - so how did the Aussie paper find out about it before it went to print?

Something else that's odd... since when do Australian papers scoop US papers? Is that what things are boiling down to? We have to go outside the country to get positive news on the WoT? Why didn't this make the radar?

J.

So I can schedule posts to appear at later times.

Can't seem to get it going though... grumble.

J.

I'm scheduling a few posts to see if the CRON job I set up is working properly.

Please do not adjust your television set.

J.

Down in Rusted Sky: The building of hatred... AJacksonian commented as follows....

The question of 'why do they hate us?' is one that is disingenuous as it tries to figure out 'intent' rather than judge actions. I do not care why the act the way they do, it is barbarous and there is NO justification nor reason for it. And trying to convince me that the hatred of barbarians can be ended by *talk* and *finding out why they hate us so* is that of asking for being killed, not in stopping the killers.

I agree that the old conception of Total War is not the answer to this kind of conflict. War is required, but a reformulation of much older warfare that is *also* asymmetrical and unstoppable and finds ways to cut off enemies from supplies and goods and commerce. That requires that we think a bit more like the early Rebublic and then recast those thoughts into the 21st Century. A civilied method of fighting and winning is available... just *not* the one we have been told is the *only* one available. It isn't... not to the Republic of Free People living under the Constitution of the United States. We have *more* options because... well... we had a rough upbringing and needed to take down mere bullies from time to time, and keep the powder of the military dry for bigger things. When Law Enforcement, Force of Arms, Diplomacy, and All other Lawful parts of Government prove ineffective at fighting... then it is time for that *other* war power to come out... the one where Citizens take down the little bullies so the military can take out the Giants amongst Nations.

As I've said in other posts, I don't care why they hate us. It's sufficient to know that they do, and that they intend to do whatever they can to destroy us.

I realize that's pretty short on nuance. And it doesn't look at root causes. And it doesn't seek to find some way to placate people who will gladly accept the offered bribe and slit your throat anyway.

When we realize as a country that we're in danger, when the threat becomes really apparent and impossible to ignore, when it becomes time to either fight or die as a nation - then all gentility and concern for civilian deaths will go out the window. We will, for a time, become as ruthless (or more so) as our enemies, and then revert afterward to the peaceful people we normally are.

But until we wake up, it's going to be one provocation after another, until we're miserable and angry while the 'peace' activists try to get us to placate the head-hackers by tossing out the Western politicians they blame for what's happened. But eventually a tipping point will be reached. Then we'll get pissed, then we'll be out for blood.

J.

In 1979 our C-130 was waiting at the terminal at the Istanbul airport. I watched as an Aeroflot airliner (badly in need of paint or polish...) was parked at the gate next to ours. I watched as it unloaded a bunch of shabbily dressed, beat-down looking folks. I remember thinking it was wierd - they looked so... ordinary. And they didn't even seem to take any notice of the USAF C-130 next to them.

They seemed ordinary. And they were. Subjects of a totalitarian government, they had little choice in their lives.

And now we're faced with a totalitarian religion. I really believe that there's quite a large number of folks within that religion who don't much care for the perpetual state of jihad their leaders are continually provoking, and (like most of us) would love to be left alone to worship as they please. But that's just not possible now. And there's a good possibility that it may never be that way again. The radicals in Islam have essentially defined the whole religion. And that's a shame, because a whole lot of good folks are going to die before the memes they've spawned and spread can be rooted out. There's several branches, but they all share certain defining characteristics, and I made light of them in my Rusted Sky: D&D Alignments in the WoT post. And Jason somewhat agreed with me, but thinks I don't pay enough attention to the differences between Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Quaeda.

Once again, you have stressed the similarities between the three while gliding over the differences. How about this one:
Hezbollah has a political constituency. In the actual government and on the ground in Lebanon, they serve the local people in many ways, and have the support of those people. In this respect, Hezbollah resembles a state in many respects. Al-Quaeda is a stateless organization. It exists in many countries, and it is at home in none. In all of the Middle East, they were forced to hide largely with the Taliban in Afghanistan. And the Taliban didn't even like those guys.
I think perhaps it would be better to look closely at these differences, and at the strengths and especially weaknesses that they present. That would be more effective, in terms of actually winning the war instead of fighting it for 60 years, than calling both "the enemy" and leaving it at that.

Jason, I really don't much give a rip about their differences. They're against freedom for others, they're for the imposition of their way of life on everyone in the area, with death for those who don't accept it. Israel's trying to exist, Hez and Hamas are trying to destroy it. Al Quaeda wants to destroy Western civilization. That's not sufficiently nuanced, I know.

Radical Islam's a malignant belief system. I don't much care if Hezbollah's marketing themselves as the good guys in Lebanon - I don't care if they run blood donation centers. Under that lovely Hezbollah flag, they've co-opted a significant portion of Lebanon and it doesn't look like they're going to give up their weaponry IAW the UN cease fire - so what you've got is a private militia taking over part of a country, and giving the world the finger.

That makes it real hard for me to believe that deep down they're really peaceful, and it's just those damn Jews that are the problem.

Sometimes it's possible to nuance yourself into immobility. They're depending on that sort of response from the world. Nobody does anything, believing in the magical power of a UN cease fire, while they prepare for the resumption of hostilities with goods from Syria and Iran. In fact, I wouldn't be at all suprised if they're doing resupply runs now. After all, this is just a hudna. And UN resolutions and cease fires... well, we know how much THEY count.

I am not worried about the condition or type of knife held to my throat. What I am concerned with is the fact that the knife is being held to my throat.

As I said, sometimes it's possible to nuance yourself into immobility. There's a whole lot of people who would insist that all possibilities of any situation be evaluated before any action is taken. Jason has a point, that the differences are important... but my point is that it's pretty much meaningless in the long run uless we actually admit that adherents of a peculair sect of Islam's the enemy, and And again I'm falling asleep in my chair here. I'm headed to bed - discuss amongst yourselves. Don't wreck the joint, okay? And take out the trash and turn off the coffeepot when you leave...

J.

Okay, an odd question for a Friday night...

What TV programs do you watch that your friends would find peculiar? (We got to talking in the shop about this today, BTW.) Most of the programs described I never heard of - simply because I don't follow prime-time TV any more.

My guilty pleasures... Fairly Oddparents on Nickelodeon -

TV Shows on Nick.com

The Fairly OddParents
Ballistic babysitters... Off-the-wall parents... Boring video games... What's a 10-year-old to do? If you're Timmy Turner, all you gotta do is turn to your magical, mystical and totally messed-up Fairy Godparents for help. But when the fairies involved are as wacky as Cosmo and Wanda, you might get more of their "help" than you bargained for!

TV Shows on Nick.com

Jimmy Neutron
Welcome to Retroville! Keep your hands inside the rocket at all times, don't get too close to the girl eating plant, and be careful not to step on the invisible hamsters. Wondering where all this wonderful stuff comes from? Why, James Isaac Neutron, of course, Retroville's resident Boy Genius. Jimmy's amazing inventions make his life easier and more interesting--when they work the way they're supposed to. Which is rare. But for Jimmy, his robot dog Goddard and his pal Carl Wheezer, every short circuit is a new adventure!

Anyway - what shows are YOUR guilty pleasures?

J.

And I'm thinking it's about time.

SpaceX, Rocketplane win spaceship contest - The New Space Race - MSNBC.com

Two aerospace teams headed by SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler will share almost half a billion dollars set aside for demonstrations of new spaceships capable of transporting cargo and crew between Earth and the international space station, NASA announced Friday.

The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, marks a dramatic departure in the way NASA does business and could give a boost to the nascent private-sector space race — including space tourism for paying passengers.

Emphasis on 'money'.

A smaller company has more at stake. They've GOT to produce, and they'll (hopefully) be looking for the best folks they can find. I might be wrong on that - but they won't be looking at the contract from NASA as a jobs program that doesn't necessarily have to produce a workable product.

J.

Even though it was more by accident than anything else.

Sharpton: ‘Gangster mentality’ hurting blacks - Race in America - MSNBC.com

Reverend says society should stop equating the attitude with blackness

INDIANAPOLIS - Many black youths fall under a spell of “gangster mentality,” preventing them from becoming leaders and making a positive impact in politics, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.

The civil rights activist faulted Hollywood and the record industry for making “gangsterism” seem cool and acceptable.

“We have got to get out of this gangster mentality, acting as if gangsterism and blackness are synonymous,” Sharpton said Thursday at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists.

And I expect Rev. Al will get the same sort of heat. But there's something seriously wrong in the black community, and it's not explained away by vestigal racism or as an artifact of slavery. Nobody white forces a black kid to stay away from school and miss the chance for an education. His peer group is another matter - emphasising the thug life over 'acting white', where learning and education are denigrated in favor of the more vile askpects of human behavior. If being ignorant, violent, mysogynistic and uneducated is supposed to be the hallmark of Black manhood, a serious culture change is needed...

(BTW, when I voted in the primaries for the 2004 election, I was expecting a Republican ballot. When I put the card into the voting machine (probably Diebold...) the Democratic slate came up. I looked at the names, rapidly narrowed things down to either Kucinich or Sharpton. Kucinich I kind of felt sorry for - I didn't agree with his politics and thought a guy had to be pretty darn desperate to run for President as a dating strategy - but didn't feel sorry enough to vote for him. Al Sharpton - I think (Iand still do) that the man's more a media manipulator than a politician, but he'd gotten himself into a position to ride the gravy train for at least a little while. So he got my vote. Hadn't intended to vote on the Democratic ticket, but what the heck....)

Good luck, Al. You're going to need it. But maybe, just maybe, the folks who won't listen to Cosby because he's not 'black enough' any more will pay attention to you.

J.

"It was too late...She'd already been mooned. Flashed her right there in front of the shock absorbers."

Totalitarian governments cannot allow free movement of information. They MUST control the flow of info, because their very existance depends on keeping the people from realizing how badly they're being screwed. The USSR mandated licences for printing presses and typewriters, and an unlicensed typewriter earned you a one-way ticket to Siberia. Cuba's got virtually no internet access, and neither does North Korea. Now, to those wonderful tech-free garden spots. we can add the totalitarian state of Iran.

Gateway Pundit: Iranian Bloggers Show Regime's Satellite Dish Destruction

Finally, the mullacracy is doing something to fight the staggering unemployment numbers.

This week the Iranian regime announced that it was about to launch a crackdown against "decadent" satellite television dishes.

...It didn't take them long to get cracking!

Aristides said...
Iran is preparing the information battlefield in anticipation of war. By removing our access to the minds of their people, the Mullahs are trying to avoid critical information events that could threaten or even topple the regime.

They've gone to school on our doctrine of Information Superiority, and they are trying to eliminate their vulnerabilities.

In other words, this is ominous.

The timing worries me. Three days until Ahmadamnutjob's going to be giving an answer to the UN on their uranium enrichment. And NOW he's cutting the cord to the outside world.

Most peculiar... and ominous.

J.

It looks like the expected cooperation isn't exactly what was expected...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Stand alongside Hizbullah, Lebanon's army tells troops

Stand alongside Hizbullah, Lebanon's army tells troops

Also...

Hizbullah's top official in south Lebanon, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, told reporters in Tyre this week that the group welcomed the Lebanese army's additional deployment in the south. "Just like in the past, Hizbullah had no visible military presence and there will not be any visible presence now," he said. "We are helping them with our experience by advising them on the best strategic areas to deploy and the best means of protecting this land from Israeli and US violations."

The UN's expected deployment of 15,000 troops is seen as an additional force to assist in Lebanon's defence against Israel. "We are happy with such a large force to provide sufficient deterrent to Israeli aggression," said Gen Kader.

Reinforcing the fears of many in Israel that Hizbullah would continue to pose a threat, Amal Saad Ghorayeb, a Hizbullah specialist, said the arrival of the army and Hizbullah's redeployment further north was a largely superficial transformation. "The fact they have insisted on retaining their weapons in that area suggests that they intend to use them if and when the time comes."

Suggestions from Washington that the Lebanese army should forcibly disarm Hizbullah have been met with alarm by the army command. "If the mission of the army is to defend the people then the whole country will be behind it, but if it is to act against the resistance, it puts a big question mark over the future of the country," Gen Hoteit said.

To quote Marvin the Android from H2G2... "This will all end in tears." And there's no Douglas Adams to do a rewrite of the script.

J.

In a decent, manly way, of course.

Heard about Yahoo's Konfabulator apps, and I've been busy checking them out. So far my favorites are the weather apps - but a lot of them need local weather station inputs. So - check out

NOAA - National Weather Service - Experimental XML data feeds - Current Conditions

Experimental XML Feeds of Current Weather Conditions
This page provides access to observed current weather conditions for about 1,800 locations across the United States and US Territories. Two file formats designed for computer to computer data transfer are provided. RSS and CAP/XML lists are provided to aid the automated dissemination of this information.

Information... ain't it great? All that weather info at your fingertips...

BTW, any opinions on why this year's hurricane season seems to be so much LESS active than last year? Don't tell me - let me guess. It's because of global warming, right? Right? I mean, ANY variation has to be a result of SOMETHING, right?

My folks are actually starting to complain about getting too much rain. In Albuquerque. New Mexico. Where a good year's rain is about 7 inches, they've had that much since June 1st. And more's in the forecast. (And we won't talk about El Paso, TX. 9.8 inches since 1 June. In the previous year, from 1 June 2005 to 1 June 2006, they had 10.34 inches, according to Weatherunderground. Floods and El Paso just don't go together in my book. A 'normal' year's about 5-7 inches...)

Centuries ago, there were a number of thriving communities in the Southwest. But the weather