“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Friday, October 02, 2009
David Letterman says he is creepy.
Letterman inappropriately involved his audience in his revelations, by bringing it into his comedy routine.
Why are they applauding?
What did he have to say about Sarah Palin and her family?
Gag Reflex: I think David, Whoopee, and Roman would make a fine threesome.
There goes my gag reflex.
This sort of crime doesn't pay. The only way to blackmail somebody for their sordid past is when that person has an investment in the appearance of moral propriety. The entire Hollywood crew has been rolling in the pig trough for decades and people know it.
Rufus, There are still (crazy) people out there saying housing has turned around. (that Carpe Diem guy someone here linked to, for instance) Kind of hard to avoid foreclosure when you lose your job.
As President Obama reviews policy on Afghanistan, US Marines in Helmand province are claiming a success story.
UK and US forces have driven the Taliban from Garmsir and introduced an atmosphere of relative safety.
Ian Pannell reports. --- Edd Hendee (Texas Radio Host) just got back - he slept in the same tent as this BBC Crew. He was impressed with the crew, and VERY impressed with the Marines.
Doug, housing was the first in; it'll be the first out. Having said that, there are some big, strong headwinds blowing in our faces.
In the Great Depression the Banks "went down." The Good news is, this time we kept the banks, afloat. The Bad News, however, is the Fed isn't going to let them lend much for awhile. Until they start lending, we're All in the soup.
Even when they do start lending, we'll still be facing a shortage of oil, and higher gasoline prices. Probably, "Way" Higher. That will hold demand down for all "other" products.
I'm afraid we've got a tough ten, or more years bearing down on us.
I visited your site http://2164th.blogspot.com/ it is very much informative and it shares so many educational information which gives many thing to know . I am very much impressed to your site. I have been maintaining this blog http://nonsense-verse.blogspot.com to share the NASA information to everybody. My blog deals with current news on NASA Space Shuttle Missions, International Space Station News, Astronauts News and Moon & Mars, Aeronautics, Science & Technology.
So if you could provide me a link to my blog, it will be much more useful for user and young school and college peoples. It would be great pleasure if you can add this link http://nonsense-verse.blogspot.com in your site so that it can benefit our visitors.
Your site contains so many other standard information which gives more knowledge. The presentation of the information is very nice and made the users to read it get the concepts in the right manner.
"Spending my last day of a twoweek holiday on Copacabana beach and it is rocking. Rio would put on a great show, it is a very special city and deserves the first South American games."
Anon via text on 81111: "I think Madrid will win. Remember their bid is master-minded by Samaranch Senior."
Five minutes in, and I couldn't handle any more of the self-possessed moron. If there was a punch line, somebody let me know. That's a terrible way to start your day, five minutes of Letterman.
Essay questions before my first cup of coffee are never well answered. I suspect it has something to do with why Conan, the precocious child star, was selected to replace Jay Leno. I think that's what happened. I never watch TV.
There is a new book on the market about Pat Tillman. I saw an interview with the author and he stated that General Stanley McChrystal was the point man in the cover-up.
Because that's exactly what he wanted, if he had waited for the tabloids to rip him apart then his viewers would think differently of him. It's like the fat kid making fat jokes first. He wants to fit in so he brings it up first making him feel excepted.
I was just thinking who, I needed to sleep with around here to get on that list everyone is so anxious to be on. You know the one at the top of the page.
Hmm…let’s see, I don’t like politics, so you’ll never see me talk about them because, A) it bores the piss out of me. B) You’ll never be able to sleep your way to the top, because you’ll always get caught. And C) No one can ever agree on anything. Ugh… And don’t give me that, “You really need to know what’s going on, in the world around you,” speech. Peter Jennings tells me exactly what I need to know and when, I need to know it, with a little dash of Matt Lauer on the side. I’m good to go.
Doug, you don't get it. Money does "grow on trees." More or less. OK, it comes out of "printing presses."
We have a "Fiat" currency. So does everyone else. It's a "virtual" construct. A system of "credits," and "debits" in an imaginary accounting system.
Your "wealth," your "Capital," or "Property" is worth exactly what the Congress, and President of the USA says it's worth. The fact that it's "yours" is a phenomenon, not of your rights, but of the fact that they haven't gotten around to taking it, Yet.
Your rights are NOt absolute. In fact, they're not even "negotiable." They're an "aberration" that the ptb haven't, Yet, gotten around to taking. Take it "Seriously" if you want to, but it's unlikely that it'll change matters to any quantifiable extent.
If the "Debt" gets too high, they'll just inflate it away. If the obligations get too high they'll just "Change the Law."
Relax, have a beer. At least the Tsunami didn't get ya.
“HOW on earth could 52% of America NOT have known that”
Because it was not 52% of America – it was more like 33% of America. Lots of people chose not to vote. I was one of them. Can you blame me?
Don’t worry, though. It will all work out. Yes, there will (at best) be a military take-over in the US to revive the Constitution. At worst, the Cold Civil War in the US will turn hot. The rest of the world will have to learn to look after itself, and most of the Europeans will have to learn Russian. Astonishing thing is that people in future years will look back on the 00’s as the last of the Good Times. This is as good as it is going to get for several generations — go forth and enjoy it! --- Everyone has gone nuts.
All do respect, I don't think anyone in here is going to ask, what my sign is.
Bob is due back any day now. Course, Bob probably already knows your sign.
There's always Ash.
Not a day goes by that Ash doesn't ask somebody one of his trademarked questions. Like, "Tell me 2164th, how can you defend the regime in Honduras and condemn the regime in Iran?"
All you have to do is weave your sign into a position that arouses Ash's leftist moonbat sympathies. Then he'll ask for sure. Or, if you're from Rhode Island, fer shu-ah.
Oh, yeah, he slept with several women at work and someone tried to blackmail him for, what...two million dollars? Then he tried to justify it on national TV, making a joke out of it because his reputation was in jeopardy.
Letterman was an asshole long before he admitted his latest zesty tales this week. I don't give a damn what he said this week. His bona fides as an asshole have been long established.
A 2008 firefight in eastern Afghanistan has become a template for how not to win there, and helps to explain the strategy of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.
The battle of Wanat is being described as the “Black Hawk Down” of Afghanistan, with the 48 American soldiers and 24 Afghan soldiers outnumbered three to one in a four-hour firefight that left nine Americans dead and 27 wounded in one of the bloodiest days of the eight-year war.
Soldiers who survived the battle described how their automatic weapons turned white hot and jammed from nonstop firing. Mortally wounded troops continued to hand bullet belts to those still able to fire.
The ammunition stockpile was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, igniting a stack of 120-millimeter mortar rounds — and the resulting fireball flung the unit’s antitank missiles into the command post. One insurgent got inside the concertina wire and is believed to have killed three soldiers at close range, including the platoon commander, Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom.
The description of the battle at Wanat — the heroism, the violence and the missteps that may have contributed to the deaths — ends with a judgment that the fight was “as remarkable as any small-unit action in American military history.”
Growing Taliban influence in northern Afghanistan is threatening a new military supply line painstakingly negotiated by the U.S. as rising violence takes hold on the one-time Silk Road route.
The north has deteriorated over just a few months, showing how quickly Taliban influence is spreading in a once peaceful area. Local officials say the Taliban are establishing a shadow government along the dilapidated road that ultimately could prevent vital supplies carried in hundreds of trucks every week from reaching the military. It also raises the danger that the supplies could end up in militant hands as fodder for suicide attacks.
People in Baghlan and Kunduz provinces complain that international forces, the government in Kabul and aid have passed them by in favor of more troublesome regions. Militants are taking advantage of that resentment, and control by either Afghan or international forces is slipping. "For the past two to three years, it's deteriorated day by day,"
US troops in Afghanistan are shocked by the standard of equipment their British counterparts have to use.
The Marines speak with nothing but respect for those who held this ground in far fewer numbers – the British servicemen who passed, as some might say, this poisoned chalice on to them. If anything, there is muted admiration for how they coped with less equipment, particularly with their vehicles.
The Greatest Afghanistan War has deteriorated so noticeably that one can now feel the enemy's growing pulse. Each month it beats steadier, stronger, and in 2010 it will finally be born. --- On Aug. 26, I was in Helmand with the British when a bomb exploded in Kandahar, killing at least 41 people and blowing out windows in the room I later rented to write this account. There were bombs and attacks on a daily basis in Kandahar but I only watch from the roof as Afghans kill Afghans. Potential for civil war is great.
In this unprecedented moment, dozens of the world's most notable nations have focused on helping one land, yet Western sympathies for Afghanistan already have peaked.
While an Afghan avalanche is poised, our thoughts are growing cold. This is it. Either we will begin to show progress by the end of 2010 or, piece by piece, the coalition will cleave off and drift away, meaning 2011 will begin the end to significant involvement in Afghanistan.
Trish, obviously my drinking took place, in my home...alone, while others were out having a good time. It's a shame, I definitely would have been in that conga line. I usually start the damn thing.
And, if I were there you wouldn't have been watching you would have been joining in.
Well, doug, that story about US troops doing battle in Afghanistan is interesting.
One wonders why their mortar rounds were not dispersed amongst their mortar positions, but held centrally in a single target-able location. Leading to catastrophe.
How many casualties did the US troops induce, with that high volume of fire. Were they hitting anyone, or keeping just their heads down?
From that snippet, from the BC, I'd say our troops were ill led and suffered from a lack of fire control discipline.
I had an excellent time, mostly trying to decipher the ramblings of a charming Scotsman - all of whom, I beg the Foreign Office, need to come with helpful subtitles.
David should get a job at ACORN...
ReplyDelete"What is legitimate for Jove is not legitimate for oxen."
ReplyDelete___Terence
I think David, Whoopee, and Roman would make a fine threesome.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he mentioned Sarah Palin has the No 1 selling book in the country, and it hasn't even been printed, yet.
ReplyDelete1.1 Million Fewer People Working in September Compared to July
ReplyDeleteThis is really getting ugly.
It's going to get a lot worse.
Gag Reflex: I think David, Whoopee, and Roman would make a fine threesome.
ReplyDeleteThere goes my gag reflex.
This sort of crime doesn't pay. The only way to blackmail somebody for their sordid past is when that person has an investment in the appearance of moral propriety. The entire Hollywood crew has been rolling in the pig trough for decades and people know it.
Rufus,
ReplyDeleteThere are still (crazy) people out there saying housing has turned around.
(that Carpe Diem guy someone here linked to, for instance)
Kind of hard to avoid foreclosure when you lose your job.
Harder still to become a homeowner with no job.
BBC NEWS South Asia US success story in Afghan town
ReplyDeleteAs President Obama reviews policy on Afghanistan, US Marines in Helmand province are claiming a success story.
UK and US forces have driven the Taliban from Garmsir and introduced an atmosphere of relative safety.
Ian Pannell reports.
---
Edd Hendee (Texas Radio Host) just got back - he slept in the same tent as this BBC Crew.
He was impressed with the crew, and VERY impressed with the Marines.
Chicago eliminated from Olympics consideration.
ReplyDeleteWhoops.
Doug, housing was the first in; it'll be the first out. Having said that, there are some big, strong headwinds blowing in our faces.
ReplyDeleteIn the Great Depression the Banks "went down." The Good news is, this time we kept the banks, afloat. The Bad News, however, is the Fed isn't going to let them lend much for awhile. Until they start lending, we're All in the soup.
Even when they do start lending, we'll still be facing a shortage of oil, and higher gasoline prices. Probably, "Way" Higher. That will hold demand down for all "other" products.
I'm afraid we've got a tough ten, or more years bearing down on us.
Seems like "Chicago Politics" doesn't work too good "outside of Chicago."
ReplyDeleteWatta Maroon.
WORLD REJECTS OBAMA: CHICAGO OUT IN FIRST ROUNDTHE EGO HAS LANDED
ReplyDeleteThat's Cute
The Ego has Landed should be the mantra in perpetuity.
ReplyDeleteThey're blaming Michael Jordan for not promoting Chi-Town!
ReplyDelete...always did like Mike.
Hello Sir,
ReplyDeleteI visited your site http://2164th.blogspot.com/ it is very much informative and it shares so many educational information which gives many thing to know . I am very much impressed to your site. I have been maintaining this blog http://nonsense-verse.blogspot.com to share the NASA information to everybody. My blog deals with current news on NASA Space Shuttle Missions, International Space Station News, Astronauts News and Moon & Mars, Aeronautics, Science & Technology.
So if you could provide me a link to my blog, it will be much more useful for user and young school and college peoples. It would be great pleasure if you can add this link http://nonsense-verse.blogspot.com in your site so that it can benefit our visitors.
Your site contains so many other standard information which gives more knowledge. The presentation of the information is very nice and made the users to read it get the concepts in the right manner.
Our title is Nasa Space Information.
Hope you would add my blog.
Waiting for your positive reply.
Thank you
With Regards,
John David
IOC is RACIST!
ReplyDeleteCarter tells me so.
Poor little black boy, as the National Hemorrhoid Peanut Farmer would say.
AND the House of Reps passed a bill saying Gitmo detainees can't be brought here.
ReplyDeleteBHO's Presentation was delivered with his trusty Teleprompter.
ReplyDeleteAn IOC First.
Kieran, Rio via text on 81111
ReplyDelete"Spending my last day of a twoweek holiday on Copacabana beach and it is rocking.
Rio would put on a great show, it is a very special city and deserves the first South American games."
Anon via text on 81111:
"I think Madrid will win.
Remember their bid is master-minded by Samaranch Senior."
Whit,
ReplyDeleteA friend asked me to remind you to check your email.
BBC SPORT Olympics Live - 2016 Olympics decision day
ReplyDeleteLive coverage of the great event.
Rio Wins!
ReplyDeleteRio Wins!
Rio Wins!
Oh my God, Rio Wins!
PBUH
Why are they applauding?
ReplyDeleteFive minutes in, and I couldn't handle any more of the self-possessed moron. If there was a punch line, somebody let me know. That's a terrible way to start your day, five minutes of Letterman.
I used to like Jack Paar.
Why are they applauding?
ReplyDeleteEssay questions before my first cup of coffee are never well answered. I suspect it has something to do with why Conan, the precocious child star, was selected to replace Jay Leno. I think that's what happened. I never watch TV.
Rio's Olympic bid video
ReplyDeleteFry finds 'funniest ever' mating ritual
ReplyDeletestopped in at Huntington Bank today to discuss a refi
ReplyDeletehe said no problem, we can give you, instead of a conventional loan a new "product"..
so let's say i need 380k for my refi...
they will lend me 400 on a "line of credit" to pay down as i please, INCLUDING an interest only monthly payment..
all at the low rate of 5.1%...
then he says.. it's adjustable and that his people say interest rates are going to stay low for the forseeable future...
I queried..
china? india? weak dollar, 23 trillion in debt over the next 10 years? war in iran?
and your saying low rates?
then I asked what is the "CAP"
is dug for a few minutes and then said 18.9%..
I asked have you never heard of Carter, 21% interest rates?
He answered no...
I told him nicely to go fuck himself...
doug
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid we've got a tough ten, or more years bearing down on us.
well we HAD 18 years of unchecked growth...
cycles baby... cycles...
There is a new book on the market about Pat Tillman. I saw an interview with the author and he stated that General Stanley McChrystal was the point man in the cover-up.
ReplyDeleteYeah, ash, there well could be.
ReplyDeletethanks, Linear.
ReplyDeleteWhy are they applauding?
ReplyDeleteBecause that's exactly what he wanted, if he had waited for the tabloids to rip him apart then his viewers would think differently of him. It's like the fat kid making fat jokes first. He wants to fit in so he brings it up first making him feel excepted.
And, there's really nothing wrong with sleeping with a few woman at the office.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking who, I needed to sleep with around here to get on that list everyone is so anxious to be on. You know the one at the top of the page.
ReplyDeleteAnyone, I don't discriminate, so lady's?
Is there a test?
ReplyDeleteA dare, double dare?
Hmm…let’s see, I don’t like politics, so you’ll never see me talk about them because, A) it bores the piss out of me. B) You’ll never be able to sleep your way to the top, because you’ll always get caught. And C) No one can ever agree on anything. Ugh… And don’t give me that, “You really need to know what’s going on, in the world around you,” speech. Peter Jennings tells me exactly what I need to know and when, I need to know it, with a little dash of Matt Lauer on the side. I’m good to go.
ReplyDeleteWill that get me in?
I can copy and paste any link you'd like. That seems to be the pattern around here.
ReplyDeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteAsh found out the General was involved in the Tillman fiasco.
That guy is
ON TOP OF THE NEWS!
No problemo, WIO:
ReplyDelete'Rat says it's all the GOP's fault, and the Dems have made all the right moves since December, and Rufus says don't
sweat the debt
cause money grows on trees.
---
Obama Will Spend More on Welfare in the Next Year Than Bush Spent on Entire Iraq War, Study Reveals
Obama's Policies Would Redistribute Nearly $1 Trillion in Wealth Every Year
Hispanic Caucus Calls for Ending Program That Identified 100,000 Illegal Aliens, Many With Criminal Records
Wanna bet the World Financial Markets see it that way 2 years from now?
ReplyDeletethis is way more interesting
ReplyDeleteAwe, come on, you guys can't be that hard up? Where's Bob?
ReplyDeleteDoug, you don't get it. Money does "grow on trees." More or less. OK, it comes out of "printing presses."
ReplyDeleteWe have a "Fiat" currency. So does everyone else. It's a "virtual" construct. A system of "credits," and "debits" in an imaginary accounting system.
Your "wealth," your "Capital," or "Property" is worth exactly what the Congress, and President of the USA says it's worth. The fact that it's "yours" is a phenomenon, not of your rights, but of the fact that they haven't gotten around to taking it, Yet.
Your rights are NOt absolute. In fact, they're not even "negotiable." They're an "aberration" that the ptb haven't, Yet, gotten around to taking. Take it "Seriously" if you want to, but it's unlikely that it'll change matters to any quantifiable extent.
If the "Debt" gets too high, they'll just inflate it away. If the obligations get too high they'll just "Change the Law."
Relax, have a beer. At least the Tsunami didn't get ya.
Maybe you better have two beers.
ReplyDeleteI also recommend dumb dumb shows for those of you who don't take the time to watch anything other than history and science channels.
ReplyDeleteDumb dumb shows are stupid sitcoms that have no meaning and require no brain activity to watch them. Everyone needs a mental break once in a while.
From the end of the silver certificates, along with JFK, the US currency has been, as rufus says, a fiat currency.
ReplyDeleteLook at currency values since 1959 until now. That is the baseline.
It is one of defacto inflation and devaluation.
If one wants to discuss just who makes up the "powers that be" why then you're just 'not serious'.
I must be wrong you're all out drinking, dancing and having a good time and you're not really ignoring my plea for attention.
ReplyDeleteI can hear you all now, "hurry up, someone put up a new post, maybe she'll go away."
ReplyDeleteOh fuck! I was never nominated. How could, I miss a little glitch like that?
ReplyDelete"I nominate, MLD, to be on the board of directors."
Alter ego, "I second the motion."
Is there any chance of being CEO?
ReplyDeleteHang in there, MLD.
ReplyDeleteSome of the boys is just shy. When one of them sidles up and says "What's your sign?" you'll know he's ready for you to set the hook.
But you know all that stuff, anyhow.
How come you're hanging around here on a Friday night?
ReplyDeleteJust trying to rile up some new blood. I'm telling you they are a hard bunch to crack.
ReplyDeleteAll do respect, I don't think anyone in here is going to ask, what my sign is.
ReplyDeleteGee I never knew any of that stuff Ruf'Rat:
ReplyDeleteTherefore a ten trillion dollar deficit is no different than a 1, huh?
NOW I get it.
Those Peroxide IED's make Blonde Bombshells.
ReplyDelete- Nick DiPaolo
How's that, MLD?
ReplyDeleteBuy me a Beer?
Reagan's deficits were going to "bust the bank".
ReplyDeleteMaybe they already have.
Continue on course and speed, doug.
You're already in a Polynesian Paradise, what more could YOU be wanting, now.
Not my 'sign', I'm sure.
You still didn't ask me my sign.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Blonde.
What's your preference?
96. Kinuachdrach:
ReplyDelete“HOW on earth could 52% of America NOT have known that”
Because it was not 52% of America – it was more like 33% of America. Lots of people chose not to vote. I was one of them. Can you blame me?
Don’t worry, though. It will all work out. Yes, there will (at best) be a military take-over in the US to revive the Constitution. At worst, the Cold Civil War in the US will turn hot. The rest of the world will have to learn to look after itself, and most of the Europeans will have to learn Russian. Astonishing thing is that people in future years will look back on the 00’s as the last of the Good Times. This is as good as it is going to get for several generations — go forth and enjoy it!
---
Everyone has gone nuts.
Strategically Shaven
ReplyDeleteAll do respect, I don't think anyone in here is going to ask, what my sign is.
ReplyDeleteBob is due back any day now. Course, Bob probably already knows your sign.
There's always Ash.
Not a day goes by that Ash doesn't ask somebody one of his trademarked questions. Like, "Tell me 2164th, how can you defend the regime in Honduras and condemn the regime in Iran?"
All you have to do is weave your sign into a position that arouses Ash's leftist moonbat sympathies. Then he'll ask for sure. Or, if you're from Rhode Island, fer shu-ah.
Three Google searches with surprising results:
ReplyDeleteletterman asshole--167,000 results
strategically shaven--546,000 results
rat wisdom--2,440,000 results
Proving?
The counter-intuitive property of complex systems.
Who is going to shoot the first National Guardsman, doug?
ReplyDeleteWhy is Letterman an asshole?
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, he slept with several women at work and someone tried to blackmail him for, what...two million dollars? Then he tried to justify it on national TV, making a joke out of it because his reputation was in jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteWhat an asshole.
ReplyDeleteNo, MLD.
ReplyDeleteLetterman was an asshole long before he admitted his latest zesty tales this week. I don't give a damn what he said this week. His bona fides as an asshole have been long established.
He's also a jerk.
Somebody from BC, 'Rat.
ReplyDelete---
U.S. Review of Battle Disaster Sways Strategy on Afghanistan
A 2008 firefight in eastern Afghanistan has become a template for how not to win there, and helps to explain the strategy of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.
The battle of Wanat is being described as the “Black Hawk Down” of Afghanistan, with the 48 American soldiers and 24 Afghan soldiers outnumbered three to one in a four-hour firefight that left nine Americans dead and 27 wounded in one of the bloodiest days of the eight-year war.
Soldiers who survived the battle described how their automatic weapons turned white hot and jammed from nonstop firing. Mortally wounded troops continued to hand bullet belts to those still able to fire.
The ammunition stockpile was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, igniting a stack of 120-millimeter mortar rounds — and the resulting fireball flung the unit’s antitank missiles into the command post. One insurgent got inside the concertina wire and is believed to have killed three soldiers at close range, including the platoon commander, Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom.
The description of the battle at Wanat — the heroism, the violence and the missteps that may have contributed to the deaths — ends with a judgment that the fight was “as remarkable as any small-unit action in American military history.”
Taliban Inroads in north imperil path for U.S. materials
ReplyDeleteGrowing Taliban influence in northern Afghanistan is threatening a new military supply line painstakingly negotiated by the U.S. as rising violence takes hold on the one-time Silk Road route.
The north has deteriorated over just a few months, showing how quickly Taliban influence is spreading in a once peaceful area. Local officials say the Taliban are establishing a shadow government along the dilapidated road that ultimately could prevent vital supplies carried in hundreds of trucks every week from reaching the military. It also raises the danger that the supplies could end up in militant hands as fodder for suicide attacks.
People in Baghlan and Kunduz provinces complain that international forces, the government in Kabul and aid have passed them by in favor of more troublesome regions. Militants are taking advantage of that resentment, and control by either Afghan or international forces is slipping.
"For the past two to three years, it's deteriorated day by day,"
'We pity the Brits' the view from the Marines -
ReplyDeleteUS troops in Afghanistan are shocked by the standard of equipment their British counterparts have to use.
The Marines speak with nothing but respect for those who held this ground in far fewer numbers – the British servicemen who passed, as some might say, this poisoned chalice on to them. If anything, there is muted admiration for how they coped with less equipment, particularly with their vehicles.
YON The Greatest Afghan War
ReplyDeleteThe Greatest Afghanistan War has deteriorated so noticeably that one can now feel the enemy's growing pulse. Each month it beats steadier, stronger, and in 2010 it will finally be born.
---
On Aug. 26, I was in Helmand with the British when a bomb exploded in Kandahar, killing at least 41 people and blowing out windows in the room I later rented to write this account. There were bombs and attacks on a daily basis in Kandahar but I only watch from the roof as Afghans kill Afghans. Potential for civil war is great.
In this unprecedented moment, dozens of the world's most notable nations have focused on helping one land, yet Western sympathies for Afghanistan already have peaked.
While an Afghan avalanche is poised, our thoughts are growing cold. This is it. Either we will begin to show progress by the end of 2010 or, piece by piece, the coalition will cleave off and drift away, meaning 2011 will begin the end to significant involvement in Afghanistan.
The Brits have always had the Best Soldiers, and the worst Generals.
ReplyDeleteWell, since that didn't work out, I could always go with the music video route.
ReplyDeleteI'm very flexible. It doesn't always have to be about the 70's.
Like this for instance
Glenn Reynolds Interview - The Warrior Ethos of Steven Pressfield
ReplyDeleteHow ironic is this
ReplyDeleteI can even go for a little country
ReplyDeleteHow about you?
And of course it wouldn't be me without a little wickedness
ReplyDeleteI never slept with anyone to get where I am.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait. That's about all I did to get where I am.
And some of us were indeed out drinking last night and watching (ahem) certain others of a certain age do the conga line.
And our Venezuelan counterparts do indeed know how to party with the Great Satan, given appropriate quantities of booze. Isn't that good to know?
Trish, obviously my drinking took place, in my home...alone, while others were out having a good time. It's a shame, I definitely would have been in that conga line. I usually start the damn thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd, if I were there you wouldn't have been watching you would have been joining in.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI hope you had fun.
ReplyDeleteJust as soon as, I'm done my coffee, I'll let you all get back to your regular programming.
Well, doug, that story about US troops doing battle in Afghanistan is interesting.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders why their mortar rounds were not dispersed amongst their mortar positions, but held centrally in a single target-able location. Leading to catastrophe.
How many casualties did the US troops induce, with that high volume of fire. Were they hitting anyone, or keeping just their heads down?
From that snippet, from the BC, I'd say our troops were ill led and suffered from a lack of fire control discipline.
Brave men that they are, regardless.
Trish does not conga.
ReplyDeleteNo incentive great enough, nor state of intoxication. Believe me.
I had an excellent time, mostly trying to decipher the ramblings of a charming Scotsman - all of whom, I beg the Foreign Office, need to come with helpful subtitles.
ReplyDeleteJust don't ever nod in agreement it could lead you to trouble.
ReplyDeleteOne more before, I go.
ReplyDeleteone of my favorites
This should get me on the list, damn it.