H&I* Fires, 16 OCT 2007

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.

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Denizen on Denizen conflict! Okay, more like playing field goal kicker at a business meeting with a paper triangle.

I’m probably losing, but it is an interesting argument ‘tween Alan (maple syrup swilling…) and I. Is Canada freer than the city of Syracuse, NY? If it is that Canada is freer than Syracuse why is that? Show your work for full credit (wait, am I using GenX40 humo(u)r at Castle Argghhh!? Is that allowed?).
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Does anyone remember Josh Rushing? Seems he’s doing fine working for al-Jazeera, and has produced a documentary about the AK-47 that’s caught the attention of the boys over at DefenseTech.
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Another one from D-Tech that should make more than a few around here happy: is the Army planning on a modern .45 cal sub-machine gun?
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Silly String for Soldiers. It has finally happened. Good for her. Marcelle Shriver, you rock.
--ry
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Heh. Gotta love them "I gotta be free to be me!" Baby Boomers. I disassociate myself from the label - I think the upper bound should be drawn with a bright line between those in the group that came of age with the draft - and put the rest of us who were not subject to the draft back with the Gen Xer's. Because in my personal experience, we're very different, politically. Oh, don't gimme those weak arguments about how the demographers make their choices.

Yet that is what Sacramento lawmakers -- the macho Schwarzenegger even -- have decided they have the right to do. My generation thought we'd be so tolerant and open to the different drummer. Yet we keep electing politicians who believe they have a right to dictate how other adults live. Busybody granny politicians treat adults -- whether they're 20 or 50 -- like children. Maybe they're right, because California voters let them do it.

Read Debbie Saunders here.

Bill JTG left this comment on a previous post:

I just did a Rule 34 search on Google and got 323 hits for the string,

Lanchester Operational Research porn.

Heh. 'Round here, *this* is Lanchester pr0n. An expose' of the fiddly bits! -the Armorer

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Now hear this! Ry can have 120 experience points. That is all. -the Armorer

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Inexplicable political decisions... explained. I despair. -the Armorer

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Back from a short hiatus while I worked on things that will surely irritate the Code Pink lady from my local school district (project going along swimmingly with official announcements to come), I jump in full force with a "I told you so"...Monsieur Putin warns against any military action "in the Caspian region" as well as airs his displeasure at a possible oil pipeline from the "Caspian" region to the west, circumventing Russian control of energy resources to Europe.

Puty-Poot is concerned over the loss of revenues that war and a pipeline could inflict on his largely oil based economy. Not to mention the political pull he had over the Euros in Eur-Asian affairs and fun times in the Security Council over Iranian sanctions.

During his visit to Tehran Monday, Putin was quoted as saying about the Iranians:

"Threatening someone, in this case the Iranian leadership and Iranian people, will lead nowhere," Putin said Monday during his trip to Germany. "They are not afraid, believe me."

Which, of course, leads you to believe that everyone is afraid of what the crazy Americans will do. While Ahmadinejad has been trying to play the "I'm crazier than you" card and making threats about using his proxies to cause unrest, they know that the Americans will go war on a pretext. Just ask Saddam Hussein. Oh. You can't. He's dead.

In another laughable moment, the Iranians and Marxist try to get together to present a world wide Revolution against the Imperialist West and end up looking like idiots when Che's daughter, a devout Marxist, contradicts the Iranian line that Che was a man of God (like we didn't know he was a murdering, atheist, anarchist, but the Iranians failed to do their homework).

Aside from trying to remake Fidel and Che into God fearing men, the whole idea that these nations whose economies are based on a failed economic system, are going to overthrow the "world order" is pretty funny. This is based on the new leftist idea that Socialism (communism by another name in the south and with an Islamic twist in Iran) will work. It's just that the Russians didn't do it right. My favorite is the outright plagiarism of a known Reaganism:

"Today, communism has been consigned to the garbage can of history as foreseen by Imam Khomeini," Qassemi said

You know you want to laugh. If it wasn't for the Iranians and their nuclear plans, possibly creating a second "Cuban Missile Crisis" all over parts of South America (something Puty-Poot has to be thinking about while he delays the Bushehr plant completion indefinitely), these folks would just be laughable. Kind of reminds you of Baghdad Bob. Though I do wonder what Putin thought about all the Anti-USSR rhetoric prior to his arrival.

Moving on...

They caught Chester Stiles (Chester the Molester). That's great. And it appears he has a long rap sheet of criminal offenses, including known and alleged other assaults on little girls. Sadly, though, the AP continues to report that, according to the Ad, Chester has a Navy Seal background. I think this has been busted already. He's not and never has been a "Navy Seal".

Criminals are routinely claiming to have been one or the other of the biggest, baddest butt kickers in the military. It's how they impress or intimidate other weaker criminals or victims to shut up and go along with their crimes. When they are booked for other crimes, they often also give those fake details to the police. Commonly because they are afraid for their lives when they go into jail or prison. Police and prosecutors rarely check this information with the DoD or other resources because it is not pertinent to their case. Unfortunately, like this prosecutor, they also release that info to the press and end up smearing some good people.

Career criminals know that "trustees" (other criminals who are trusted to work in different areas) get that info reading their intake paperwork and spread it around to the general population. Child molesters would be high on the list of people needing some sort of rumor that they can kill with their bare hands in order to save themselves the inevitable assaults and possible murder by other inmates that are common for men of Chester's ilk in prison settings.

Anyone with the links or info on the "Chester not a Navy Seal" situation, leave it in comments and we'll pick it up.

Back to inter-national news, the press is finally reporting "Al Qaida in Iraq is Crippled", but don't count them out yet. They are still fighting off final destruction in the last remaining districts they can find sympathy (or, at least, fear) in. That and they are funneling people and money (what they can get) into Waziristan for attacks in Afghanistan and trying to whittle out a more secure enclave in what may be their final host nation.

These guys are like the guests you can never get to leave the party, drinks all the liquor, breaks your stuff, pees on your carpet, vomits in your washer machine and then passes out on your $3000 leather couch. The British apparently are insisting on bringing the party to an end.

You should also be reading the Tank for a good insight into the Lebanon/Syrian/Hezbollah situation. But also because of little gems like this one, if you missed it: Abdul Sattar's killer, lately captured, confesses to killing the Sunni Sheik heading up the Anbar Awakening. The best part that literally tells AQ's story in Iraq:

At the time al-Jumayli was apprehended, I pointed out that he was captured in Balad, near Diyala, and stated that he may have traveled there to celebrate. My source confirmed that this was indeed the purpose of his trip, but said that al-Qaeda's local emir was in far less of a celebratory mood: He feared the probable retaliation.

And he should because the Shi'ites and Sunni in Diyala have been banding together in their own version of the Awakening while Sadr's SCIRI rival, al Hakim, made a recent visit to al Anbar to promote reconciliation with the Sunni. Not to mention, since Sadr went rogue from the UIA alliance in parliament and the Sunni in Anbar are becoming politically important, everyone is chatting about possible new political alliances that will reshape Iraqi politics.

Sadr was reported as late last week making overtures to the Sunni Accord Front (largely related to the remaining Ba'athist insurgents) who are also disenchanted with Maliki's government and share Sadr's view that the Americans should "get out ASAP".

Which makes them Iraqi Democrats (in the party sense, not the politics) since the democrats over here keep insisting that the war is lost and we should withdraw immediately. Last week, Nancy Pelosi, who doesn't really like the nasty hippies camping out in her upscale neighborhood and freaking out the grand kids, was still trying to turn the anti-war folks off of their cannibalistic attacks on their favored party by telling them to work on GOP congress people to get them to "end the war".

Apparently, Nancy hasn't gotten the message that we are, in fact, ending the war in Iraq as quickly as possible. AQ's on the ropes and the Sunni/Shia civil war is just about nil. Of course, if it ends with "victory", Nancy and crew are going to have some "'splaining to do" come next elections.

Or not. Hillary is apparently becoming more hawkish than hawks on certain subjects. At least over seas where it matters less to her constituents who are about as divided as South Africa in the 80's. One thing about schizophrenic, two party politics, it keeps your enemies guessing. As noted above, only completely stupid Iranians would not be afraid of crazy Americans who talk rather loudly and tend to hit people with their big stick a lot more in the last two decades.

Speaking of possible hard nosed, sometimes irrational, always dangerous dictators, a book was recently released called "Letters to Hitler". I want to read it as many of the letters are here to unseen straight from the KGB archives and range from the gamut of adoring fans to official letters on the internal operations of the Nazi political and war machines. Of course, get it while its hot because it will probably sell like hotcakes in the middle east where Hitler is on par with such notables as Sayeed Qutb.
-Kat