“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."
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Danica Patrick takes it to Vegas in Third Nascar Race
Danica Patrick is in Las Vegas for her third career NASCAR start.
Will three be a charm for this winsome filly in her final start before going back to Indy Cars?
In San Francisco, greedy public unions finally overplayed their hand. It's happening all across the country actually, but every city, county, township thinks "It's different here".
The news of the day for unions and their sympathizers is the public is finally fed up being raped by public unions.
Dear SF Muni, **** you. Let me start over. **** you.
I’m done with your lies.
You show up late. When you do show up, you’re a total *******. Your driver acts like it’s a serious inconvenience that I’ve burdened him with the “driving people around in a bus” part of his “driving people around in a bus” part of his job. ... Union Greed Nothing Short Of Amazing
It is hard to be surprised by union greed, but rejecting an 8% pay raise with a contract that guarantees they get the second highest pay in the nation, sets a new standard for public union greed and arrogance.
That aside, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd is making a major mistake. The only thing unions understand is total and complete annihilation. Moreover, what the union fully deserves is complete annihilation.
The union pests need to be treated like the termites they are. Thus Elsbernd should be gathering signatures to completely privatize the transportation system.
Negotiation with unions as with termites, simply does not work. Extermination is the only solution. Unfortunately, termites are a much easier problem to deal with.
Wynn said since the president made his remarks, a large corporation that didn’t receive taxpayer dollars pulled out of a $5 million convention at his resorts.
“It was a direct result of the comment made by the president,” Wynn said. “Whatever the president’s intentions were, it gives you an idea of how sensitive the public is.” --- Wynn said he’s created numerous jobs in the city with his Wynn Las Vegas and Encore resorts. He said the government can’t boast of the same accomplishment.
“I created 4,000 or 5,000 jobs here,” he said. “Does that make us a bad guy? How many new jobs did Uncle Sam create? Zero. “
"There are more questions afoot in this market in America that will impact '11 than I have hair on my head, I'm happy to say, and I still have a full head of hair.
I have more pessimism than I've had before, and it's based upon the political environment in which we are living today. And it definitely is impacting Las Vegas.
The president of the United States hasn't missed one single opportunity to squelch Las Vegas.
We get phone calls -- and I'm not going to mention the names of the companies -- from chairmen who say we don't want to appear to be profligate because Barack Obama said this or that about Las Vegas."
Ex-UN nuclear chief: change in Egypt is inevitable
By SARAH EL DEEB
CAIRO (AP) - The former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency who has emerged as an opposition leader in Egypt appealed to the government Saturday to heed calls for change before frustration over a stale political system ruled by one man for nearly 30 years spirals out of control.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate who has seen a wave of support from youths and reformists who see him as a potential challenger to President Hosni Mubarak, told The Associated Press that getting the general public on board with a peaceful movement is his biggest challenge.
...there was a chance to save this situation last week. If the operators had voted in favor of the concessions, they could have made the case that they were doing their part for the city, recognized that times are tough for everyone and built some good will.
Instead, they look defensive, angry and out of touch. Irwin Lum, head of the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, says if Elsbernd is hoping to force another vote on the concessions, he is wasting his time.
"He's holding a gun to our heads for political advantage," Lum said. "As long as there is going to be a ballot initiative anyhow, why are we giving up $15 million if they are just going to take it from us later?"
Oh, I don't know, how about because it will be much worse for the drivers if the amendment passes? It will open the door for an examination of some of the work rules - like being allowed to call in sick one day a week and still earn overtime.
At this point, the operators say their position is set in concrete and they will just have to accept whatever comes out of the November election.
"We don't have a choice," said Lum.
Actually, you did. You voted it down. This would be a good time to see if you can get that deal again.
It is preposterous that businesses are under attack in the United States of America. Anybody that makes over $250,000 in the form of a personal income tax return is now, by Washington definition, a rich person, when everybody who has got a college degree knows that the personal income tax rate in the United States of America is the business tax of America.
I am disgusted and angry at the apparent ignorance of the administration and the Congress to recognize the fact that the individual tax rate in the United States of America is in fact a business tax of America. And if you keep banging on that, you will destroy the incentive for job formation in the United States of America.
For all of you that hated BUSH for going into Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein
Read this and kiss my ass...
By Mihemed Eli Zalla 25/02/2010 Three mass graves were discovered in the sub district of Dubiz in Kirkuk. Announced the Kurdish daily news paper ASO on Sunday, Feb.21st. These graves are to be excavated by the Ministry of Anfaled and Martyrs of Kurdistan regional government in a near future.
“The graves are holding remnants of children from both Chamchamal and Garmyan areas”. Sayd Fazil Amin the head of KRG martyrs office in Kirkuk told ASO, these kids were taken into captivity during 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds.
Anfal genocide was a campaign against the Kurds in 1980s. It was aimed at the elimination of the Kurds in Iraq, by destroying and burning Kurdish villages down. Killing and burying alive the people of these villages. It costed over 200,000 lives of innocent Kurds.
The media channels have not yet been invited to publish the unearthing of these three ‘out of hundreds of’ mass graves. We will soon invite the Arabic as well as other foreign media and officially announce the discovery, added Amin.
“We were jailed in a prison in Dubiz for a while. The only thing we knew then was that of, our crime was being a Kurd. In Dubiz they separated us into men, women and children” Bafraw, an Anfal survivor told Hawler Tribune, “Amanj, my 7 year old son, before taken away was very sick, I asked if I could go with him. They [soldiers] told me, do not worry we will put an end to his sickness, I know how they did it”
Kurds know all their beloved Anfaled ones are dead somewhere in the deserts of Iraq. All they are awaiting for is the return of their remnants. As said Bafraw “Ever since then I have been waiting for him”
A group of experts from ministry of Anfaled and Martyrs are to excavate these graves soon. The graves hold remnants of 272 children and the oldest one among them is a 16 year old girl. A pregnant woman is also among them, added Amin.
MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) — Marines and Afghan troops cleared the last major pocket of resistance in the former Taliban-ruled town of Marjah on Saturday — part of an offensive that is the run-up to a larger showdown this year in the most strategic part of Afghanistan's dangerous south.
Although Marines say their work in Marjah isn't done, Afghans are bracing for a bigger, more comprehensive assault in neighboring Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban where officials are talking to aid organizations about how to handle up to 10,000 people who could be displaced by fighting.
I was talking to a friend last evening. He has done quite well in the commercial real estate market especially in student housing.
What's so on is very, very ugly and can get even worse and last a long, long time.
What I learned confirmed my desire to detach from all debts and investments.
The mortgage market is such a screwed up disaster that legally, it could take years to sort out. Long story short, notes and mortgages have been separated as the paper has been resold and reassigned.
In the meantime, the lawyers will get richer and richer as predatory mortgage servicers seek to foreclose on producing properties which have maturing mortgages. In other words, even good properties which throw off a lot of cash are being foreclosed only because lenders will not make new loans.
I was having a mid afternoon lunch yesterday and a few booths down, sat a "bubba", who, for all I know could have been not that distantly related to yours truly.
I wish you could have heard the dialect and accent.
I did notice Danica Patrick for the first time yesterday in a late night news clip and was a little...mystified. Rather shovel-faced and thin-lipped, and quite short. Though I don't question her driving ability one bit.
"Rather shovel-faced and thin-lipped, and quite short." --- Trish is joining with the drivers apre 5 years ago protesting the unfair weight advantage of little Danica, vs their fat-asses/
German is the only foreign language my children gamely tolerate me speaking for any length in their immediate presence, assuring me that I am a complete embarrassment in every other one.
I DO do some mean Deutsch though I've long since dumped about half my vocabulary.
"For all of you that hated BUSH for going into Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein
Read this and kiss my ass..."
The world is a shit place and we do our part.
In addition to the thousands of US dead and wounded in Iraq, estimates for the Iraqi dead range from 100,000 to 600,000. Iraqi refugees as a result of the war: over 2,000,000.
It's the mideast version of winning friends and influencing people.
History is written by the winners. I was against the war going into it. However, if pre-war estimates had been realistic ($1.6 - $60 billion cost, weapons of mass destruction found, out of there in a year or so) Bush would have been a hero. Instead what we got was zero planning, poor execution, incompetance and a $1 trillion dollar plus price tag.
Yea, Bush and the neocons did us and the Iraqis a real favor.
We skewed the system to favor money men, those who made easy money breaking companies and punished through regulation, tax and tariff those men that created real wealth, built things, invented things and hired people to work.
We skewed the system to favor the jackals, the John Edwards of the animal world , that made big easy money taking down doctors and innovators, risk takers.
We skewed the system so that the gun slinger doctor who could save your life was run out of town replaced with the safe and meek doctor who can safely and quietly sew you back up to die with dignity and he can protect his portfolio from a John Edwards.
"We skewed the system so that the gun slinger doctor who could save your life was run out of town replaced with the safe and meek doctor who can safely and quietly sew you back up to die with dignity and he can protect his portfolio from a John Edwards." --- Amen to that. Wife and child may well have been saved by a gunsinslinger who intervened with a "sew you back up to die" loser, reading a book when he should have been monitering and attending to a woman giving birth.
Paid the slinger in cash. ...along with profuse thanks.
The reason you see no strategy in the Dubai assassination is that you have bought into the MSM coverage, which portrayed it as a poorly handled goof that left the Mossad wide open. Many commentators said the assassination was beneath the Mossad - as if the Mossad had somehow forgotten their expertise and flubbed up.
Do you seriously believe this is the case? Where you see no strategy, I see grand strategy. Think about what the Israelis have done.
They have waltzed into Dubai, allowed themselves to be videotaped every which way -- including while putting on costumes and wigs -- killed a man, and waltzed right back out. They did it in plain sight. And they did it using British passports.
What does this say to Hamas, and Arab nation onlookers? It says that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, however many video cameras you may have watching you, we will find you, and we will kill you. And you will know who we are, and yet you will never find us. And MOST importantly: we are going to do it in as brazen a manner as possible.
We are even going to swipe the passports of some innocent British citizens, daring the West to criticize us. But we don't care. We are going to kill you in such a manner that you will immediately be able to track us down - but we'll already be gone. The Israelis didn't use fake passports not because they didn't have the technical expertise or the brains, but because they wanted to pull off their assassination in the most brazen, flagrant manner possible, while still allowing themselves to get away with it.
And just because the British and American pundits didn't pick up on this, doesn't mean Hamas didn't get the point.
And surely any message to Hamas is really also a message to Iran. Is Netanyahu willing and able to launch a new war that will engulf the West over the wishes of the US president? I think he's telling us the answer to that question.
Drop it in a little text file, remove the 3 (_) marks, and pin the text file to your desktop with a shortcut icon. Lower left corner works for me. It doesn't matter.
Draft your comment, pick a link name, and copy the code from the convenient little text file into the comment. Overwrite "link name" with your selection's link name. Drop the link URL into the code, overwriting "URL". You're done.
About half of Marvin's incredible magnetism was/is, by my reckoning, the voice. He could make nursery rhymes or fabric softener jingles sound attractively masculine and deadly serious.
The character of The Sergeant in The Big Red One is one I could watch every other week and not grow bored, though most men, I have found, prefer his performance in The Dirty Dozen. Because it's The Dirty Dozen.
My dad will always be a big fan of Cat Ballou and has been known to call on my birthday to give me the Kid Shelleen rendition of Happy Birthday To You.
"A pilot from Mathewson's squadron at Creech Air Force base guided his drone over the Ranger position. The Predator had never been used in a hot battle to support ground troops, and the Air Force controller embedded with the Rangers was hesitant to let it fire.
"To prove its accuracy, the Predator crew launched one of its two Hellfire missiles at an empty hilltop. The hit was accurate, but it left the drone with only one missile. The pilot steadied his plane and squeezed the "pickle" button on his stick, setting loose his last missile and obliterating the Taliban machine-gun nest. "We would have all died without the Predator," the controller recalled months later to Air Force officials..."
WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.
Specifically, he talked about connecting with countries that do not have an established space program and helping them conduct science missions. He mentioned new opportunities with Indonesia, including an educational program that examines global climate change.
I dunno. Whizzing around a slick, enclosed surface with fucking meat cleavers on your feet, whacking at a small object known to have killed participants and spectators alike, doesn't strike me as the equivalent of paint drying.
Just one suggestion: Maybe if you did it like the Aztecs (or Mayans, or whichever it was,) and cut off the heads of the losers (and, maybe, all their countrymen.)
Well, gee, some professional hockey players from the U.S. and Canada that normally play for teams from the U.S. and Canada got together and beat some professional hockey players from the U.S. and Canada that normally play on hockey teams from the U.S. and Canada.
I guess we all gotta commit suicide, now, or somethin, huh? Except for Ash, who is, suddenly, wealthier, smarter, and better looking than ever before (and will probably get laid tonight for the first time since the Last Olympics.)
I have learned three things on my road trip to Kentucky a) I have more road rage than I thought, especially with people who feel the need to speed past me just to get in front of me only to slow down just to kick up all the salt on the road onto my car...fucking prick with no mud flaps. b) I pay 125.00 a year for uninterrupted satellite radio only to find that in the 12 hour drive here, I have heard at least four songs repeated three times and now I need to write someone and c) their bare trees here...are really spooky.
According to German official data, four people were killed in Germany as their cars were struck by trees dragged down by the gust. The Frankfurt airport had to cancel at least 200 flights due to sweeping winds up to 130 km per hour and the city's central train station was forced to close temporarily.
A woman in England was reportedly killed in her car by surging floods.
Before landing on France, Xynthia had already caused three deaths in Spain and one in Portugal.
For the record, I loved Kentucky. I escaped barren, bone-ass-cold CT one mid-March, many years ago. Just as Spring was coming on in Lewuvul. What a treat.
I stayed for a month and a half.
Then I returned to CT.
It was still winter.
I've been trying to think of nice things to say about CT ever since.
You made it there uneventfully.
Have a glass of wine and enjoy a good night's sleep.
We had a great time. I always make the most of any situation, no matter what. The drive is boring, though, there's nothing to see but mountains and trees. So, my camera is filled with mountains and trees. I'm having a Michelob lime and trying to find what's first on the agenda for tomorrow.
Lewuvul...Hahahaha, I just got it. That's the way the lady at the welcome center pronounced it and we're all like how far is Louieville with our Philly accents.
At first, I didn't understand what she was saying. I think she kept repeating it over and over just to hear me say it. And then when we left they probably made fun of our accents as we did theirs.
Many are the conversations I've had in the South - which I do love - where I've had to ask some poor fellow or gal to repeat what they said a third time. At that point, you just smile and nod like the alien visitor that you are.
Eventually it doesn't sound so much like they're trying to communicate with a mouth full of marbles.
And I'll tell you what: The drawl of many a Southern woman could absolutely charm the Pope out of his pants.
One of God's gifts to men and Mankind alike, I think, that sweet, soothing drawl.
We're not really manufacturers anymore . . . . mostly we just take screws out of boxes that say "made in China," and put'em in boxes that don't say made in China.
That top pic looks like Dan got augmented. That would suck. I'd rather suck on the genuine articles, but unlike our dearly departed Bob, I will not inflict you with the details.
What are you talking about, Doug? I linked an article. It fits in perfectly with what I've been saying. To wit: Our manufacturing sector has to change.
If a Chinaman can do what you do, you're screwed. We have to go to more robotics, more computers.
Doug, an American farmer, for example, might be using a 12 row combine to harvest his corn. One man sitting on top of a 12 row John Deere can gather up to 120 Acres/Day. And, he's getting 165 bu/acre.
Most corn in China is picked by hand. A man with a bushel basket. And, he's probably getting less than a hundred bu/acre. Guess who exports corn, and who imports corn?
We can beat those guys (in fact, we do every day in advanced, high value products,) but we have to operate at a higher level than them.
Those guys, and gals working at that grunge-hole can learn how to operate sophisticated equipment; but, we've gotta make the training available. And we better do it soon, because those shitty jobs will be gone in a year, or two. Like the man said; even that goofy thing they're doing with repackaging screws can be done with a $50,000.00 machine.
Next year, or the year after, that machine will cost $30,000.00, and the gov. will make him a deal on depreciation, and those folks will be hittin the briks.
Doug, please; if you don't read the links, don't argue with them.
We manufacture more than ever. We do it with less, and less people. That trend has to accelerate.
You keep wanting simple answers that fit into a sound-byte. They don't exist. A lot of different things are involved. One is healthcare. I won't go there right now. As I said, "Training" is huge. You've gotta have access to capital. We have a lot of Capital in the country; access is screwed up right now. Tax policy is really, really important. What Goldman Sachs wants isn't necessarily what we need.
Shit, I don't know why I bother. You don't even read links.
Doug, we manufacture Caterpillars, John Deeres, 747's, F16's, Cat Scan Machines, Navistar trucks, Super Computers, and Desalination Sytems. We manufacture "High Value-Added" products.
We will have to start manufacturing more of the Walmart type products one of these days. But, we can't do it with 20th Century assembly lines. We'll have to do it with 21st Century methods.
As for Health Care: It's just so much more complicated than you want to make it out to be. It's not just a "Social Good" argument; it's, also, a "business" argument. I'm taking "meds" at the present, so I'll try to flesh out the "business" argument another day.
I'll wait to see which of the three, "I, I, I, duh, duh, duh", dueling Greeks and Germans, or Danica makes the most comment.
ReplyDeleteWhich would you rather talk about?
How sweet it is.
ReplyDeleteFinally.
ReplyDeleteWhat were you saying?
:)
Looks like someone is obsessed with Danica. If only you saw her suited up.
ReplyDeleteDancia is the best eye candy, of the bunch. So there is no contest.
ReplyDeleteGotta be goin' with ...
Viva Las Vegas, baby!
Steve Wynn on BHO on Vegas is priceless!
ReplyDeleteSan Francisco Infested with Union Parasites and Pestilence; Outrage Over Transit Worker Pay
ReplyDeleteIn San Francisco, greedy public unions finally overplayed their hand. It's happening all across the country actually, but every city, county, township thinks "It's different here".
The news of the day for unions and their sympathizers is the public is finally fed up being raped by public unions.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Outrage grows over Muni operators' pay.
---
Inquiring minds just might be interested in the message "Rocket Shoes Open Letter To SF Muni"
Dear SF Muni,
**** you.
Let me start over.
**** you.
I’m done with your lies.
You show up late. When you do show up, you’re a total *******. Your driver acts like it’s a serious inconvenience that I’ve burdened him with the “driving people around in a bus” part of his “driving people around in a bus” part of his job. ...
Union Greed Nothing Short Of Amazing
It is hard to be surprised by union greed, but rejecting an 8% pay raise with a contract that guarantees they get the second highest pay in the nation, sets a new standard for public union greed and arrogance.
That aside, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd is making a major mistake. The only thing unions understand is total and complete annihilation. Moreover, what the union fully deserves is complete annihilation.
The union pests need to be treated like the termites they are. Thus Elsbernd should be gathering signatures to completely privatize the transportation system.
Negotiation with unions as with termites, simply does not work. Extermination is the only solution. Unfortunately, termites are a much easier problem to deal with.
Wynn: Obama's Remarks Bad for Convention Business
ReplyDeleteWynn said since the president made his remarks, a large corporation that didn’t receive taxpayer dollars pulled out of a $5 million convention at his resorts.
“It was a direct result of the comment made by the president,” Wynn said. “Whatever the president’s intentions were, it gives you an idea of how sensitive the public is.”
---
Wynn said he’s created numerous jobs in the city with his Wynn Las Vegas and Encore resorts. He said the government can’t boast of the same accomplishment.
“I created 4,000 or 5,000 jobs here,” he said. “Does that make us a bad guy?
How many new jobs did Uncle Sam create? Zero. “
WYNN:
ReplyDelete"There are more questions afoot in this market in America that will impact '11 than I have hair on my head, I'm happy to say, and I still have a full head of hair.
I have more pessimism than I've had before, and it's based upon the political environment in which we are living today.
And it definitely is impacting Las Vegas.
The president of the United States hasn't missed one single opportunity to squelch Las Vegas.
We get phone calls -- and I'm not going to mention the names of the companies -- from chairmen who say we don't want to appear to be profligate because Barack Obama said this or that about Las Vegas."
NO! Can't he just go away?
ReplyDeleteEx-UN nuclear chief: change in Egypt is inevitable
By SARAH EL DEEB
CAIRO (AP) - The former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency who has emerged as an opposition leader in Egypt appealed to the government Saturday to heed calls for change before frustration over a stale political system ruled by one man for nearly 30 years spirals out of control.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate who has seen a wave of support from youths and reformists who see him as a potential challenger to President Hosni Mubarak, told The Associated Press that getting the general public on board with a peaceful movement is his biggest challenge.
the rest, if you can stand it.
...there was a chance to save this situation last week. If the operators had voted in favor of the concessions, they could have made the case that they were doing their part for the city, recognized that times are tough for everyone and built some good will.
ReplyDeleteInstead, they look defensive, angry and out of touch. Irwin Lum, head of the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, says if Elsbernd is hoping to force another vote on the concessions, he is wasting his time.
"He's holding a gun to our heads for political advantage," Lum said. "As long as there is going to be a ballot initiative anyhow, why are we giving up $15 million if they are just going to take it from us later?"
Oh, I don't know, how about because it will be much worse for the drivers if the amendment passes? It will open the door for an examination of some of the work rules - like being allowed to call in sick one day a week and still earn overtime.
At this point, the operators say their position is set in concrete and they will just have to accept whatever comes out of the November election.
"We don't have a choice," said Lum.
Actually, you did. You voted it down.
This would be a good time to see if you can get that deal again.
ElBaradei is for hope and change,
ReplyDeleteWhit!
Get with the program!
:)
ReplyDeleteYeah, he could fill a post in O's administration except that he is accustomed to the high lifestyle of Geneva.
A gadfly.
Hard to believe BHO Admin is low rent, but then again, I don't know much about Geneva.
ReplyDelete...other than it must be the exact opposite of my hometown.
For 15 Million Unemployed, any Job is a Good Job; Questions for Pollyannas; Wishes Aren't Fishes
ReplyDeleteWYNN:
ReplyDeleteIt is preposterous that businesses are under attack in the United States of America. Anybody that makes over $250,000 in the form of a personal income tax return is now, by Washington definition, a rich person, when everybody who has got a college degree knows that the personal income tax rate in the United States of America is the business tax of America.
I am disgusted and angry at the apparent ignorance of the administration and the Congress to recognize the fact that the individual tax rate in the United States of America is in fact a business tax of America. And if you keep banging on that, you will destroy the incentive for job formation in the United States of America.
And that's simple truth."
For all of you that hated BUSH for going into Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein
ReplyDeleteRead this and kiss my ass...
By Mihemed Eli Zalla
25/02/2010
Three mass graves were discovered in the sub district of Dubiz in Kirkuk. Announced the Kurdish daily news paper ASO on Sunday, Feb.21st. These graves are to be excavated by the Ministry of Anfaled and Martyrs of Kurdistan regional government in a near future.
“The graves are holding remnants of children from both Chamchamal and Garmyan areas”. Sayd Fazil Amin the head of KRG martyrs office in Kirkuk told ASO, these kids were taken into captivity during 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds.
Anfal genocide was a campaign against the Kurds in 1980s. It was aimed at the elimination of the Kurds in Iraq, by destroying and burning Kurdish villages down. Killing and burying alive the people of these villages. It costed over 200,000 lives of innocent Kurds.
The media channels have not yet been invited to publish the unearthing of these three ‘out of hundreds of’ mass graves. We will soon invite the Arabic as well as other foreign media and officially announce the discovery, added Amin.
“We were jailed in a prison in Dubiz for a while. The only thing we knew then was that of, our crime was being a Kurd. In Dubiz they separated us into men, women and children” Bafraw, an Anfal survivor told Hawler Tribune, “Amanj, my 7 year old son, before taken away was very sick, I asked if I could go with him. They [soldiers] told me, do not worry we will put an end to his sickness, I know how they did it”
Kurds know all their beloved Anfaled ones are dead somewhere in the deserts of Iraq. All they are awaiting for is the return of their remnants. As said Bafraw “Ever since then I have been waiting for him”
A group of experts from ministry of Anfaled and Martyrs are to excavate these graves soon. The graves hold remnants of 272 children and the oldest one among them is a 16 year old girl. A pregnant woman is also among them, added Amin.
A must note:
ReplyDeleteMARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) — Marines and Afghan troops cleared the last major pocket of resistance in the former Taliban-ruled town of Marjah on Saturday — part of an offensive that is the run-up to a larger showdown this year in the most strategic part of Afghanistan's dangerous south.
Although Marines say their work in Marjah isn't done, Afghans are bracing for a bigger, more comprehensive assault in neighboring Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban where officials are talking to aid organizations about how to handle up to 10,000 people who could be displaced by fighting.
Umlauts and eszetts are sexy.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the matter with you people?
I was talking to a friend last evening. He has done quite well in the commercial real estate market especially in student housing.
ReplyDeleteWhat's so on is very, very ugly and can get even worse and last a long, long time.
What I learned confirmed my desire to detach from all debts and investments.
The mortgage market is such a screwed up disaster that legally, it could take years to sort out. Long story short, notes and mortgages have been separated as the paper has been resold and reassigned.
In the meantime, the lawyers will get richer and richer as predatory mortgage servicers seek to foreclose on producing properties which have maturing mortgages. In other words, even good properties which throw off a lot of cash are being foreclosed only because lenders will not make new loans.
What's the matter with you people?
ReplyDeleteI was having a mid afternoon lunch yesterday and a few booths down, sat a "bubba", who, for all I know could have been not that distantly related to yours truly.
I wish you could have heard the dialect and accent.
I did notice Danica Patrick for the first time yesterday in a late night news clip and was a little...mystified. Rather shovel-faced and thin-lipped, and quite short. Though I don't question her driving ability one bit.
ReplyDeleteThe camera lens loves people unequally and some not at all.
ReplyDeleteUmlauts and eszetts are sexy.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the matter with you people?
So are html links so readers don't have to do the labor of a lazy commenter.
What does Danica's husband do?
ReplyDeleteWill there be no Danica Juniors?
"So are html links so readers don't have to do the labor of a lazy commenter."
ReplyDelete---
Amen!
In Spades!
...and I ain't talkin O'bama
I'm with Trish, Danica isn't doing it for me.
ReplyDelete"Rather shovel-faced and thin-lipped, and quite short."
ReplyDelete---
Trish is joining with the drivers apre 5 years ago protesting the unfair weight advantage of little Danica, vs their fat-asses/
German is the only foreign language my children gamely tolerate me speaking for any length in their immediate presence, assuring me that I am a complete embarrassment in every other one.
ReplyDeleteI DO do some mean Deutsch though I've long since dumped about half my vocabulary.
"For all of you that hated BUSH for going into Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein
ReplyDeleteRead this and kiss my ass..."
The world is a shit place and we do our part.
In addition to the thousands of US dead and wounded in Iraq, estimates for the Iraqi dead range from 100,000 to 600,000. Iraqi refugees as a result of the war: over 2,000,000.
It's the mideast version of winning friends and influencing people.
History is written by the winners. I was against the war going into it. However, if pre-war estimates had been realistic ($1.6 - $60 billion cost, weapons of mass destruction found, out of there in a year or so) Bush would have been a hero. Instead what we got was zero planning, poor execution, incompetance and a $1 trillion dollar plus price tag.
Yea, Bush and the neocons did us and the Iraqis a real favor.
.
We skewed the system to favor money men, those who made easy money breaking companies and punished through regulation, tax and tariff those men that created real wealth, built things, invented things and hired people to work.
ReplyDeleteWe skewed the system to favor the jackals, the John Edwards of the animal world , that made big easy money taking down doctors and innovators, risk takers.
We skewed the system so that the gun slinger doctor who could save your life was run out of town replaced with the safe and meek doctor who can safely and quietly sew you back up to die with dignity and he can protect his portfolio from a John Edwards.
I'm with Trish, Danica isn't doing it for me.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Teresita, "Waaaaaaaaaaa..."
You're outnumbered, sweetie.
Keep posting the pitchers, though. It's still cold outside.
My wife is a (too far distant) scion of the "True Temper" dynasty.
ReplyDelete...I see no relation between Danica's face and that of a shovel.
True Temper, or otherwise.
Obama signs one-year extension of Patriot Act ..... where's the left's vitriol for shirking their campaign plank? ....
ReplyDeletehttp://apnews.myway.com/article/20100228/D9E4T02G0.html
"We skewed the system so that the gun slinger doctor who could save your life was run out of town replaced with the safe and meek doctor who can safely and quietly sew you back up to die with dignity and he can protect his portfolio from a John Edwards."
ReplyDelete---
Amen to that.
Wife and child may well have been saved by a gunsinslinger who intervened with a
"sew you back up to die"
loser, reading a book when he should have been monitering and attending to a woman giving birth.
Paid the slinger in cash.
...along with profuse thanks.
Women in Motorsports
ReplyDelete.
What would MY eye candy be this fine morning?
ReplyDeleteI'm in the mood for a little Lee Marvin.
The Message from Netanyahu
ReplyDelete26 FEB 2010 12:58 PM
A reader writes:
The reason you see no strategy in the Dubai assassination is that you have bought into the MSM coverage, which portrayed it as a poorly handled goof that left the Mossad wide open. Many commentators said the assassination was beneath the Mossad - as if the Mossad had somehow forgotten their expertise and flubbed up.
Do you seriously believe this is the case? Where you see no strategy, I see grand strategy. Think about what the Israelis have done.
They have waltzed into Dubai, allowed themselves to be videotaped every which way -- including while putting on costumes and wigs -- killed a man, and waltzed right back out. They did it in plain sight. And they did it using British passports.
What does this say to Hamas, and Arab nation onlookers? It says that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, however many video cameras you may have watching you, we will find you, and we will kill you. And you will know who we are, and yet you will never find us. And MOST importantly: we are going to do it in as brazen a manner as possible.
We are even going to swipe the passports of some innocent British citizens, daring the West to criticize us. But we don't care. We are going to kill you in such a manner that you will immediately be able to track us down - but we'll already be gone. The Israelis didn't use fake passports not because they didn't have the technical expertise or the brains, but because they wanted to pull off their assassination in the most brazen, flagrant manner possible, while still allowing themselves to get away with it.
And just because the British and American pundits didn't pick up on this, doesn't mean Hamas didn't get the point.
And surely any message to Hamas is really also a message to Iran. Is Netanyahu willing and able to launch a new war that will engulf the West over the wishes of the US president? I think he's telling us the answer to that question.
Read
it here
Can we stipulate, there are few men that would not want this for at least a lap or two?
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDeleteNo argument with that.
Back when men were men.
(Trish, re: Lee Marvin)
ReplyDeleteor 3?
ReplyDeleteQuirk :Yea, Bush and the neocons did us and the Iraqis a real favor.
ReplyDeleteThey did, sorry if you cant see it...
...still searching for my best friend in college.
ReplyDeleteA Lee Marvin lookalike who may well have perished commanding a Swift Boat.
Start with this:
ReplyDelete<_a href="URL">link name<_/a_>
Drop it in a little text file, remove the 3 (_) marks, and pin the text file to your desktop with a shortcut icon. Lower left corner works for me. It doesn't matter.
Draft your comment, pick a link name, and copy the code from the convenient little text file into the comment. Overwrite "link name" with your selection's link name. Drop the link URL into the code, overwriting "URL". You're done.
Many will sing your praises.
For Doug and Trish ain't life Garand?"
ReplyDeletea great photo on many levels.
ReplyDeleteLee's contemplating current ROE.
ReplyDelete...unconvinced
About half of Marvin's incredible magnetism was/is, by my reckoning, the voice. He could make nursery rhymes or fabric softener jingles sound attractively masculine and deadly serious.
ReplyDeleteAnd he was one of my first screen crushes.
ReplyDelete"1978:
ReplyDeleteJanet Guthrie finishes ninth in the Indy 500, finally proving to the world that women can do anything Steve Krisiloff can do"
---
LOL
Forgot about the voice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder.
...have to watch some cheesy Sub Flick.
(doubt if there will be any memorable homages to the Jerk Admiral that blasted his sub up into a ship full of Japanese students off Pearl Harbor)
ReplyDeleteIrony, notwithstanding.
Red
ReplyDeleteMenace: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation
LT, neat little trick here:
ReplyDeleteTo display a greater than sign in a blog, type
>: (except use a semicolon instead of a colon)
>
Less-than sign is:
<: (same deal)
<
Thanks, T. I'll save that trick.
ReplyDeleteThe character of The Sergeant in The Big Red One is one I could watch every other week and not grow bored, though most men, I have found, prefer his performance in The Dirty Dozen. Because it's The Dirty Dozen.
ReplyDeleteMy dad will always be a big fan of Cat Ballou and has been known to call on my birthday to give me the Kid Shelleen rendition of Happy Birthday To You.
Kid Shelleen
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBkTJGWJLYs
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna do it.
ReplyDeleteEMPact America
ReplyDeleteThat was marvelous, whit.
ReplyDeleteWhat a stunningly handsome man's man.
And I still say the woman's woman is Myrna Loy, to which I could never aspire. Having long since been pigeonholed as a Katherine Hepburn.
ReplyDeleteLife is unfair that way.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIslamic Solidarity Games Cancelled over Dispute on Gulf
ReplyDelete.
"A pilot from Mathewson's squadron at Creech Air Force base guided his drone over the Ranger position. The Predator had never been used in a hot battle to support ground troops, and the Air Force controller embedded with the Rangers was hesitant to let it fire.
ReplyDelete"To prove its accuracy, the Predator crew launched one of its two Hellfire missiles at an empty hilltop. The hit was accurate, but it left the drone with only one missile. The pilot steadied his plane and squeezed the "pickle" button on his stick, setting loose his last missile and obliterating the Taliban machine-gun nest. "We would have all died without the Predator," the controller recalled months later to Air Force officials..."
The Future of the Air Force? Rickenbackers and Bongs vs. The Computer Wizards
.
Say Trish, I do know what you mean though.
ReplyDeleteI like to think of myself as the Gary Cooper type. Unfortunately, most people just look at me and think of George Clooney.
Life is unfair.
.
To protect our privacy and to have fun, I will do a post with everyon'es high school or college picture.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who wants to play scan and email to the bar.
This would require figuring out how to use the scanner. Which would first require hooking up the behemoth.
ReplyDeleteAsking for assistance would lead to questions.
Not to worry, Quirk. It's simply the red hair and irritating conceit.
ReplyDeletePictures?
ReplyDeleteNo fears of ending up on an Israeli passport at some point?
(Or the Nations Most Wanted?)
.
Sorry, think I'll have to pass on that fun.
ReplyDeleteYou never know what blogs the local FBI guy is reading. :)
Not to mention all them ex-wifies.
ReplyDeleteI could scan my seventh grade photo and frighten the bejeezus out of everyone.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Steve Carrel, "I have to go wash my eyes."
America's Most Wanted?
ReplyDelete.
College photo? OK.
ReplyDeleteWould anyone willingly post a high school photo?
.
I cannot say that I am shocked by the response. Q wins for the most amusing.
ReplyDeleteOf course we have yet to hear from Doug.
You know, it's a Lot more Fun clicking back on the old EB when the first thing you see is Danica Patrick's titties.
ReplyDeleteJes sayin'.
I like my senior formal from high school.
ReplyDeleteThe "environmental," not so much.
...would lead to questions.
ReplyDeleteWe don't need no questions especially when we are taking the EB into the Facebook era.
...not one of my better ideas.
ReplyDeletenot being on facebook and no intentions in starting.
ReplyDeleteWe could post pictures of Obama; or we could post my "high school" picture; or we could post Danica Patrick lying on the hood of a sports car.
ReplyDeleteI'll leave it up to the readers.
Well. There you have it.
ReplyDeleteDanica's "titties" carry the day.
Lee Marvin bringing up the rear for those of us (meaning just myself) inclined to opposite amusements.
Feb 16
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.
Specifically, he talked about connecting with countries that do not have an established space program and helping them conduct science missions. He mentioned new opportunities with Indonesia, including an educational program that examines global climate change.
ReplyDelete"Climate Change" seemed like the Perfect vehicle to carry us to "one world," didn't it?
ReplyDeleteYou can count on "climate change" or "for the children" to tug at heart strings and purse strings.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting:
ReplyDeleteEurope wary of following Dubai Killers' Trail
I'll post a picture from when I was in sixth grade, I'm not afraid.
ReplyDeleteGood Lord, is there Anything on planet earth more boring than ice hockey?
ReplyDeleteOther than soccer, or course.
Do they Ever score?
"Curling" is more exciting.
ReplyDelete"Ice Dancing" is more exciting.
"Trish's Posts" are more exciting.
"Teresita's Grade School Pictures" are more exciting.
The only difference between Ice Hockey and Paint Drying is the paint is, actually, "Doing Something."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe you could make ice hockey interesting if you took away their sticks, and gave'm all Machine Guns.
ReplyDeleteSuit up Danica Patrick in a bikini, and ice hockey would put me to sleep.
ReplyDeleteIf we win it's Morning In America, Ash!
ReplyDeleteYou know it. I know it. We all know it.
And, it it's not bad enough - A freakin' tie mf'n game. They gotta do it some more.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take a nap; wake me when it's over.
"And, it it's not bad enough - A freakin' tie mf'n game. They gotta do it some more."
ReplyDeleteTie. Sudden death.
Obvious you've never played the game Rufus.
Go back to bed and let us enjoy it.
.
I dunno. Whizzing around a slick, enclosed surface with fucking meat cleavers on your feet, whacking at a small object known to have killed participants and spectators alike, doesn't strike me as the equivalent of paint drying.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I've never watched paint dry.
You're right, Q; If I ever got any closer to ice than a rum and coke it was entirely by accident (and, usually ended up in an accident.)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your "game."
Just one suggestion: Maybe if you did it like the Aztecs (or Mayans, or whichever it was,) and cut off the heads of the losers (and, maybe, all their countrymen.)
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
Oh, well.
ReplyDelete.
Looks like y'all can sleep in trish.
ReplyDeleteWell, gee, some professional hockey players from the U.S. and Canada that normally play for teams from the U.S. and Canada got together and beat some professional hockey players from the U.S. and Canada that normally play on hockey teams from the U.S. and Canada.
ReplyDeleteI guess we all gotta commit suicide, now, or somethin, huh? Except for Ash, who is, suddenly, wealthier, smarter, and better looking than ever before (and will probably get laid tonight for the first time since the Last Olympics.)
Is that about it?
naptime
: )
ReplyDeleteHeck, if Canada hadn't won, the whole country would have gone into mourning for at least a year.
ReplyDeleteFlag at half staff.
Don Cherry suicide.
LaBatt's beer shortages.
Major tie ups for Americans trying to get across the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor.
Change in government.
Heck those hosers deserve to be good at something.
Congrats to our friends in the Great White North.
Beauty
.
Olymic Athletes Hope to Turn in Strangely Bent Medals for Normal Ones
ReplyDelete.
America's Olympic Heroes
ReplyDelete.
I have learned three things on my road trip to Kentucky a) I have more road rage than I thought, especially with people who feel the need to speed past me just to get in front of me only to slow down just to kick up all the salt on the road onto my car...fucking prick with no mud flaps. b) I pay 125.00 a year for uninterrupted satellite radio only to find that in the 12 hour drive here, I have heard at least four songs repeated three times and now I need to write someone and c) their bare trees here...are really spooky.
ReplyDeleteAccording to German official data, four people were killed in Germany as their cars were struck by trees dragged down by the gust. The Frankfurt airport had to cancel at least 200 flights due to sweeping winds up to 130 km per hour and the city's central train station was forced to close temporarily.
ReplyDeleteA woman in England was reportedly killed in her car by surging floods.
Before landing on France, Xynthia had already caused three deaths in Spain and one in Portugal.
Over 50 Killed
saw a car flipped on its side today. I took a picture of it. It didn't look like anyone was hurt.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I loved Kentucky. I escaped barren, bone-ass-cold CT one mid-March, many years ago. Just as Spring was coming on in Lewuvul. What a treat.
ReplyDeleteI stayed for a month and a half.
Then I returned to CT.
It was still winter.
I've been trying to think of nice things to say about CT ever since.
You made it there uneventfully.
Have a glass of wine and enjoy a good night's sleep.
You just didn't make it there happily.
ReplyDeleteWe had a great time. I always make the most of any situation, no matter what. The drive is boring, though, there's nothing to see but mountains and trees. So, my camera is filled with mountains and trees. I'm having a Michelob lime and trying to find what's first on the agenda for tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI also like the fact that there isn't one once of snow on the ground.
ReplyDeleteI also got an unexpected text from a friend who said she would never text, so that made my day.
ReplyDelete"We had a great time."
ReplyDeleteI AM glad to hear it.
"I always make the most of any situation, no matter what."
No matter what? Well, that most definitely puts you way ahead of me.
Lewuvul...Hahahaha, I just got it. That's the way the lady at the welcome center pronounced it and we're all like how far is Louieville with our Philly accents.
ReplyDeleteTrish, you don't even know what kind of situations I've been in and for the most part, I'm just like...oh well...shit happpens.
ReplyDeleteYou almost have to gag down that last syllable to get it just right.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I didn't understand what she was saying. I think she kept repeating it over and over just to hear me say it. And then when we left they probably made fun of our accents as we did theirs.
ReplyDeleteI'm just like...oh well...shit happpens.
ReplyDeleteSun Feb 28, 11:44:00 PM EST
Yes. Yes it does. And I believe I said something to that effect about two weeks ago. Our blithe motto: Shit Happens.
Two weeks ago.
Imperviousness is a true art from. My imperviousness at this point is tuckered out.
yes it is and sometimes you have to work at it.
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe for me to go to bed now. I hope I sleep well.
ReplyDeleteGood night.
Many are the conversations I've had in the South - which I do love - where I've had to ask some poor fellow or gal to repeat what they said a third time. At that point, you just smile and nod like the alien visitor that you are.
ReplyDeleteEventually it doesn't sound so much like they're trying to communicate with a mouth full of marbles.
And I'll tell you what: The drawl of many a Southern woman could absolutely charm the Pope out of his pants.
One of God's gifts to men and Mankind alike, I think, that sweet, soothing drawl.
Night.
ReplyDeleteBlue Collar Workers Hanging on by a Thread
ReplyDeleteWe're not really manufacturers anymore . . . . mostly we just take screws out of boxes that say "made in China," and put'em in boxes that don't say made in China.
Bubba, if your job can be done by someone in China you are one screwed duck.
ReplyDelete"Floating Storage" actually increased in Jan (last month for numbers.) Whut does that mean? Who knows?
ReplyDeleteScarce Whales - floating storage
It means there is, at the moment, a solid floor at around $69.00/bbl. What happens if oil slams through that "solid" floor? Yikes. $37.00, again?
There's some Big Boys out there flailing around. A mere mortal could get hurt.
That top pic looks like Dan got augmented.
ReplyDeleteThat would suck.
I'd rather suck on the genuine articles, but unlike our dearly departed Bob, I will not inflict you with the details.
Teresita said...
ReplyDelete"(except use a semicolon instead of a colon)"
LT ALWAYS uses a semicolon instead of a colon.
Just shows how paranoid he is about letting even the slightest details slip out wrt his homoerotic urges.
Mon Mar 01, 12:34:00 AM EST
ReplyDeleteJeezuz, Rufus:
You're worse than 'Rat.
You argued the opposite with me and others re: manufacturing a lot more than once.
What are you talking about, Doug? I linked an article. It fits in perfectly with what I've been saying. To wit: Our manufacturing sector has to change.
ReplyDeleteIf a Chinaman can do what you do, you're screwed. We have to go to more robotics, more computers.
Doug, an American farmer, for example, might be using a 12 row combine to harvest his corn. One man sitting on top of a 12 row John Deere can gather up to 120 Acres/Day. And, he's getting 165 bu/acre.
ReplyDeleteMost corn in China is picked by hand. A man with a bushel basket. And, he's probably getting less than a hundred bu/acre. Guess who exports corn, and who imports corn?
We can beat those guys (in fact, we do every day in advanced, high value products,) but we have to operate at a higher level than them.
Those guys, and gals working at that grunge-hole can learn how to operate sophisticated equipment; but, we've gotta make the training available. And we better do it soon, because those shitty jobs will be gone in a year, or two. Like the man said; even that goofy thing they're doing with repackaging screws can be done with a $50,000.00 machine.
Next year, or the year after, that machine will cost $30,000.00, and the gov. will make him a deal on depreciation, and those folks will be hittin the briks.
You claimed we had not lost a large percentage of our once vibrant manufacturing base.
ReplyDelete...even gave a link, which I, unfortunately did not read, and you, unfortunately, refused to repost.
Smells like Nirvanna
ReplyDelete- Weird Al
Doug, please; if you don't read the links, don't argue with them.
ReplyDeleteWe manufacture more than ever. We do it with less, and less people. That trend has to accelerate.
You keep wanting simple answers that fit into a sound-byte. They don't exist. A lot of different things are involved. One is healthcare. I won't go there right now. As I said, "Training" is huge. You've gotta have access to capital. We have a lot of Capital in the country; access is screwed up right now. Tax policy is really, really important. What Goldman Sachs wants isn't necessarily what we need.
Shit, I don't know why I bother. You don't even read links.
I read your last link.
ReplyDelete"We manufacture more than ever..."
Manufacture WHAT?
I contend we manufacture far less machines, from power tools, to TVs.
...or any number of items stocked by Walmart.
Your healthcare "arguements" mimic the Dems.
ReplyDelete...I'm still crying about the poor lady wearing her dead sister's dentures!
A large and growing demographic what with our worse than
CastroCare Nightmare.
White House Is Rethinking Nuclear Policy
ReplyDeleteAides to President Obama say he will permanently reduce America’s arsenal by thousands of weapons.
Craigslist
ReplyDelete- Al
Styrofoam Penis!
I remember early on in the Bush days when it was found that Big Macs were counted since they ARE largely "manufactured" here.
ReplyDeleteDoug, we manufacture Caterpillars, John Deeres, 747's, F16's, Cat Scan Machines, Navistar trucks, Super Computers, and Desalination Sytems. We manufacture "High Value-Added" products.
ReplyDeleteWe will have to start manufacturing more of the Walmart type products one of these days. But, we can't do it with 20th Century assembly lines. We'll have to do it with 21st Century methods.
As for Health Care: It's just so much more complicated than you want to make it out to be. It's not just a "Social Good" argument; it's, also, a "business" argument. I'm taking "meds" at the present, so I'll try to flesh out the "business" argument another day.
:) I don't think they were ever able to convince anyone that cooking hamburgers was a manufacturing operation, but I do remember the attempt.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the top paper that I read this month!!
ReplyDeletehttp://insurancetravel.info