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.
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
Before I head off to continue building this FCS db for a sim, I'll leave you with this snippet sent by CAPT H, regarding Parliamentary point-scoring in the Great White North...
Hon. Jay Hill (Secretary of State and Chief Government Whip, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I too have been here quite some time now, about 14 years or close to it.I have, as my colleagues have, for the past number of weeks listened to the member for Bourassa denigrate and personally attack our Minister of National Defence. The member says he has been asking these questions properly. The Minister of National Defence is a man with an outstanding 35 year career serving our country in the Canadian armed forces. The member has called him an “arms dealer”. Today he called him a “spendthrift” for the minister's efforts to rebuild the Canadian Forces and to give it the equipment it needs, to give it the tanks it needs.
If he wants me to apologize, I will apologize. I should not have called the member an idiot because even an idiot would support the Minister of National Defence.
Get the whole picture here, at David Akin's blog.
Nice take-down, Mr. Hill. -the Armorer
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What is this? Groundhog’s Day? (Rubs out 24. Writes in 25. I may get the month wrong, and the time, and…., but I at least get the day right.).
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Maggie's mother, Alyson Breathed, says she was told her daughter would not be able to graduate if she didn't pay or name the other kids involved..
“They were encouraging me to encourage her to out the other kids and I don't encourage her to do that,” said Alyson
Ah, yes, don’t rat out your friends to ‘The Man’ for vandalism, but whine about taking on the consequences (girl won’t receive her diploma for a prank of vandalism) for getting caught. Yeah, that’s smart and consistent. I wonder what the do in ‘critical thinking classes’ up there in Portland, OR high schools these days.
--ry
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I have some insider insight on this (not this particular event, but the threat of it):
Such a scenario, say some experts, is not only possible but likely in the near future.Look, for example, at what happened to Estonia last week. Ever since the government of the Baltic state decided (rather tactlessly it must be said) to remove a war memorial to the Red Army from a square in the capital, Tallinn, Russian outrage has ensued.
This took the form of demonstrations and even riots. But then something extraordinary happened: quickly, and wholly without warning, the whole country was subjected to a barrage of cyber-warfare, disabling the websites of government ministries, political parties, banks and newspapers.
Techniques normally employed by cybercriminals, such as huge remotely-controlled networks of hijacked computers, were used to cripple vital public services.
Nato has sent its top cyber-terrorism experts to Tallinn, with western democracies caught on the hop over the implications of such an attack.
The Estonian defence ministry said: "We've been lucky to survive this. If an airport, bank or state infrastructure is attacked by a missile, it's clear war. But if the same result is done by computers, then what do you call it? Is it a state of war? These questions must be addressed."
What am I talking about? This. Attack of the Cyber Terrorists. More likely than Y2K ever was. -the Armorer
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Maryann of Soldier's Angels Germany sent me a link to a Stars and Stripes article about the collectible weapons (most of 'em not importable to the US, alas) being discovered amongst the arms caches in Iraq.
Leaving aside some of the inaccuracies - like WWII Sterling (they must mean Sten, vice the 50's era Sterling or just got it altogether confused) and the pic caption calling the PPSh 41 submachine gun a rifle...hey, I've got one - but I digress!
If I were recalled and sent to Iraq, I would be struggling with my collecting jones... but I also know I would be indulging myself getting to shoot some weapons that I only own in unshootable fashion. The collection has benefited from this sort of thing. The Castle PIAT is now properly dressed in canvas (usually missing from the few samples in private hands) that were recovered from a warehouse in Iraq. -the Armorer
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Snerk! Take a break, surf the referrals, find this. Salamander, you *dog* you. Note the date. -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 (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's 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 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".
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