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...
Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).
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The Iran NIE continues to reverberate. The British aren't buying it. The quotes in the Daily Telegraph article linked above are brutal in their assessment of U.S. politics and intelligence agencies.
There's a lot we don't know about Mitt Romney, as evidenced by a list of biographical tidbits that are ancillary to an article on the state of politics in America. At the moment my opinion is that he's just another slick politician, but the list made for interesting reading and an indictment of media bigotry.
And finally, I found a fascinating creature this morning--a conservative psychiatrist! To call him provocative would be an understatement; right-wing "bomb-thrower" might be more accurate (he calls liberals "perverted" in their thinking). But his discussion of the intersection between radical Islam and the darkest of sexual perversion is fascinating, as is his analysis of "intellectuals" and their reflexive preference for talk over action. [I am by no means endorsing the breadth or depth of his conclusions (especially on the topic of liberalism); merely noting that there are challenging and thought-provoking ideas about human nature and the depths of human depravity embedded in his flame-throwing.] - FbL
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Wow. Senators Reid and Pelosi, call your office. This story must be spiked immediately!!! -der InstaFlugzeugführer
H/T to Powerline
P.S. The articles FbL refers to above are pretty interesting ... recommend you check 'em out.
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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."
