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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From a Canadian blogger of our acquaintance comes this Epic Fail. -the Armorer
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The Australian Navy goes on Christmas vacation.
Some serious problems there, and it's nice to know, I'm sure, that you can take a knee behind the shield of the US Navy, regardless. And not all of those ideas - such as skeleton staffing to no staffing, are ideas not worthy of meritable consideration - no matter how jarring they seem at first glance. -the Armorer
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Anybody notice that, given the depth of his political experience, that President-elect Obama is giving us pretty much the same people we would have gotten with a President-elect Clinton? Hope and change is starting to look like 90's nostalgia. Good enough, as long as it's with post 9/11 eyes.
On another topic - Kat, in her post below, talks about using the SOFA agreement as a vehicle for declaring victory - there are others already flogging the horses on that bandwagon - over at Zombietime they're pushing the idea of the People spontaneously (well, the Blogs) declaring 22 November Victory In Iraq Day. Me, given the unconventional nature of this war, I'm minded to hold the victory celebrations until, oh, 2013 or so, when we see how well things hung together after we leave in 2011. This war isn't like WWI and II, where the winners and losers sat across from each other at a table and signed documents clearly acknowledging the cessation in hostilities. In this instance, the enemy is still keeping his vote in play. I am *such* a wet blanket, I know. -the Armorer
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This takes "cow tipping" to a new technological high. Or, low. Something like that. -the Armorer
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From a french blog, Serendipitous Altruism, a post about how a French soldier views his American counterparts in Afghanistan. Merci, ami! -the Armorer
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Civics Quiz. I got 32 of 33. The one I missed, I missed because I misread the plain english of the question. Fie. -the Armorer
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From a Canadian blogger of our acquaintance comes this Epic Fail. -the Armorer
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The Australian Navy goes on Christmas vacation.
NAVY chiefs battling a staffing crisis have taken the unprecedented step of ordering a two-month shutdown over Christmas, and have told personnel with child-care problems that they can work from home.
The navy has also ordered all ships not deployed on operations home for Christmas to try to combat a 2020 shortfall in trained personnel.
In addition, the number of sailors forced to stay on board ships docked in their home port on "duty watch" as sentries will be reduced from previous levels of 15 to 20 people to a skeleton staff.
Instead sensors and alarms will be used to guard the ships, with the ultimate aim being to do away with the need for any people at all.
Some serious problems there, and it's nice to know, I'm sure, that you can take a knee behind the shield of the US Navy, regardless. And not all of those ideas - such as skeleton staffing to no staffing, are ideas not worthy of meritable consideration - no matter how jarring they seem at first glance. -the Armorer
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Anybody notice that, given the depth of his political experience, that President-elect Obama is giving us pretty much the same people we would have gotten with a President-elect Clinton? Hope and change is starting to look like 90's nostalgia. Good enough, as long as it's with post 9/11 eyes.
On another topic - Kat, in her post below, talks about using the SOFA agreement as a vehicle for declaring victory - there are others already flogging the horses on that bandwagon - over at Zombietime they're pushing the idea of the People spontaneously (well, the Blogs) declaring 22 November Victory In Iraq Day. Me, given the unconventional nature of this war, I'm minded to hold the victory celebrations until, oh, 2013 or so, when we see how well things hung together after we leave in 2011. This war isn't like WWI and II, where the winners and losers sat across from each other at a table and signed documents clearly acknowledging the cessation in hostilities. In this instance, the enemy is still keeping his vote in play. I am *such* a wet blanket, I know. -the Armorer
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This takes "cow tipping" to a new technological high. Or, low. Something like that. -the Armorer
************************************
From a french blog, Serendipitous Altruism, a post about how a French soldier views his American counterparts in Afghanistan. Merci, ami! -the Armorer
************************************
Civics Quiz. I got 32 of 33. The one I missed, I missed because I misread the plain english of the question. Fie. -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. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.
The Good epic failure.
The picture is HILARIOUS, and had me blowing soda out the nose. (For the record, carbonation does not work well with nasal passages.)
The Bad epic failure.
eHarmony is a private company, and government getting into their business is as my old CSM used to say, "as wrong as two dicks in a room full of nuns".
There are companies out there for alternate lifestyle people to meet and match, and if it were not for already finding a woman who puts up with me, I would be tempted to go to the NY state attorney general and file a complaint because I can not go to the alternate lifestyle sites and find a potential mate.
The Ugly epic failure.
For some reason, I can't open the comments or read more sections on the story about eHarmony. I used multiple browser platforms to try to access it.
Heh. Thanks for telling me. The system does that sometimes, seemingly random, though I'm sure it isn't.
The solution is to copy the post and repost as a new post, which I will do.
Oh wait! Maybe my international focus has dimmed my nationalistic-civic sensibilities... Yeah, that's it! I'm becoming a euroian-trans-progressive-post-christopian-demogogic-liberalatinous-unigreenie! Yeah! It's not that I just had 4 brain cramps and a 'WTF?!'
Wow, I think I'll keep that degree and display it with pride: High-end east-coast liberal grad program and all; it's not my fault I'm no longer wholly red-white-and-blue blooded. I've got tincture of unescoblue coursing through my veins. I'm a nascent citizen of the world and who needs to know all that plain old American civics stuff...
And look, too! Just in time for our new president and as Cassandra put it so nicely, all the 'hopey-changey' stuff to sustain me. I'm renewed, rejuvinated, contrarationalized -- a NEW American, ready to join the post-modern minute-persons on the front lines of egalo-relativistism.
Yeah, that's the ticket! I am not just a dumba$$ who missed 5 _easy_ questions on a test (like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of what?" or the effects of ROE VS. WADE. duh.
<well that was cathartic, but I'm still stupid and that just hurts.... crap.>
You ain't been pursuing enough happiness, clearly!
And blue tells you to redefine happy when they take away your toys.
As for redefining happy, that's why there's zoloft... <all butterflies and floaty music and $hit>
The navy news is a little odd. They don't ususally take Chrisitmas off, none of them do. The only thing I could gather from it is the navy is seriously understaffed.
Well I got 30 of 33. The one on sputnik seems a bit off topic to me.
On the other hand I am pleased there was only one of those stupid Greek philosophy questions this time.
Argent - Sputnik might have been off topic, but it was a softball and I'll take it.
13) Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:
A. all moral and political truth is relative to one’s time and place
B. moral ideas are best explained as material accidents or byproducts of evolution
C. values originating in one’s conscience cannot be judged by others
D. Christianity is the only true religion and should rule the state
E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason
I chose "C. values originating in one’s conscience cannot be judged by others" as my answer.
4
Compromise of 1820
Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1852
And Kat's recent love life.
The one I missed was:
30) Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending
To my great shame I put B., could I get it more wrong?