H&I* Fires Dec 22, 2006

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite. [Admittedly, I'm fibbing. Trackbacks are still broken]

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

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HFM learns the hard way.... Never underestimate the power of the blogger! Congratulations to Michael Yon for staying strong and hard, and helping to take down Shock magazine. I'm still trying to figure out why editor-in-chief, Mike Hammer, is "stunned" by the move. BUWAHAHAHA. Somebody buy that man a Clue Bat! h/t to Huntress, who had the pleasure of "breaking" the news to Michael this morning. (btw... Mike's working his way back to Iraq for more boots-on-ground reports) OH HAPPY DAY! ~AFSis

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For those of you who want the hi-res version of the Motivator series, Strategy Page just posted the whole set, original typos and all. -the Armorer

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Brit spy problems?

A BRITISH military aide to the commander of UK forces in Afghanistan has been accused of spying for Iran.

Cpl Daniel James, 44, appeared in court yesterday, charged under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act with communicating information “useful to the enemy”.

Read the whole thing here.

More things Brit: THE last surviving crew member of Lord Nelson’s former warship HMS Victory from its time at sea has died aged 103. Fair winds and a following sea, Mr. Perrett.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam.

And in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not entry for the day, there's this:

SKYDIVER Michael Holmes cheated death when his parachutes failed and he plunged 15,000ft — on to a BLACKBERRY BUSH.

The 25-year-old Brit screamed ‘s**t, I’m going to die’ as he plummeted at 100mph — but the thick brambles saved his life.

Read that story here - and H/t for all three of the above to Jim C. -the Armorer

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La Schlussel continues her meltdown - and foolishly takes on Baldilocks while doing it. Baldilocks has a useful warning for people of the Right who see Barack Obama as a target - treat him just like the Castle Rules of Commentating - Attack the Message, not the Messenger. H/t, Darleen. -the Armorer

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T'was an ACLU Christmas... the video is funny, but I think Jay's link to this guy and the ensuing discussion in the comments is perhaps even funnier. -the Armorer

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if (Don Surber uses it this way a lot) someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".