Unemployment insurance filings rose to 500,000 last week, reflecting continuing layoffs in the private sector and state governments. Economists say a healthy economy averages fewer than 400,000 claims per week.
Obama begins Massachusetts vacation after bumpy week
The president goes to Martha's Vineyard for a 10-day break after a multistate fundraising blitz and an uproar over the New York mosque plan.
Democrats are poised to pass a bill today that will provide $26 billion in additional funding to help states cover Medicaid expenses and teacher salaries. To pay for the bill, however, they are accelerating the scale-back of food stamp payments — at a time when a record number of Americans are relying on food stamps
According to the Department of Agriculture, a record 40.8 million Americans were receiving food stamps in May.That's 13% of the population.
Professional investors move into flipping foreclosed homes
Squeezing out amateurs, private equity funds and wealthy individuals are buying distressed properties at public auctions, refurbishing them and selling them for quick profits.
...But there is always September. How is your summer going?
Compared to last summer it couldn't be better.
ReplyDeleteOh mel, you're such an upper.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I've been told, actually,several times this summer.
ReplyDeleteThere's no sense in harping on the fucked up government we're in it's not going to change anything and will only make me not have the summer I just explained.
Don't get me wrong it does concern me and yes I do worry about it but I don't let it take over my life like it does some people.
what a bunch of fuckers....
ReplyDelete"A bounty on the Taliban's head"
ReplyDeleteThe comedy never stops.
There has been a huge bounty on Osama and Doc Z, for almost a decade.
That plan failed.
Already, in spades.
The denial of reality is amazing.
The Saudis are going to buy $60 billion USD of modern attack aircraft and transport helicopters, from US.
Obviously the US is not at war with Saudi Arabia, nor with their State Religion.
Yet there are many that continue to tell US that we are, at war with Islam.
Lying to themselves and US, in the face of reality.
The United States told the Israeli that the Iranians are not a nuclear threat. This after careful study and deliberation, the testimony and input of many US Navy admirals and politicians.
The facts are clear, the United States has decided, Iran poses no nuclear threat.
Anyone that would claim otherwise, well, they'd have to embroiled in conspiracy theories.
If Mr Bolton tells US otherwise, he is just plain wrong, maybe he is just another bit player, doing his part in the conspiracy to delude the American people.
I'll say one thing: The motherfucker might be a "one-termer," but he's sure as hell getting his money's worth.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bolton, he's just plain "nuttier'n a fruitcake."
ReplyDeleteThe way the Republicans are acting, rufus, I would not even count on his being a "One Termer".
ReplyDeleteThey've even soured my wife, now.
The talk of changing the 14th Amendment, that took her over the edge.
I'm just a little "conflicted" over the news on the troop "drawdown."
ReplyDeleteFrom here on out, every time a battalion leaves, the remaining troops are in just a little more danger. That's a dangerous area to be caught out "undergunned."
Not that I think they're undergunned at present, but, in all honesty, I don't have a clue as to the makeup of the remaining troops. Does anyone?
50,000 troops still there, will they all be inside the wire?
ReplyDeleteRisk aversion will be a high priority.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention, Ryan babbling about "privatizing" Social Security.
ReplyDeleteAnd, now, Dick Armey's got himself another fifteen minutes of bright lights, and all he wants to do is rave about "abolishing" Soc Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and, I guess, everything but his OWN "Rufus Paid" Pension, and healthcare.
Democrats are evil, and Republicans are fucking Morons.
If Ron Paul runs I'm voting for him.
Let's see if I've got this right - the nation can't function if the King is on holiday - right? Not that ole dubya ever spent any time at his ranch. Do you really think most Americans care if he's taking holiday's? I don't.
ReplyDeleteole whit got offended I see, such a sensitive sole I guess.
No loud chatter in the bar please for it is only intended for right thinking gentleman please (and a few of their chosen lady friends of course).
boring!
I haven't heard a word on what their routine will be, Rat. But, if their job is to "Train" the Iraqi army . . . . you can't hardly do that "behind the wire" can you?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we're not going to be "leading" any operations, but it seems to me like it'll be more dangerous if they're out there and the Iraqis are "leading."
I mean, I don't know; I'm just babbling, now.
And no parades, no claims of victory, nor even success.
ReplyDeleteJust roll on out to Kuwait, like it was just another day.
A total cluster fuck of bad planning, imagery and messaging.
Or maybe the Army wants to look like losers. Hard to tell any more.
Have they been down so long, that now, to them, it looks like up?
Well, hell, Ash; at least we knew Dubya wasn't enjoying himself. I mean, he was in Texas, after all.
ReplyDeleteIn the summer.
I'm just guessing, Rat, that that was on orders from Obama.
ReplyDeleteNo Triumphalism.
Mustn't upset his Muzzie brethren.
Blogger desert rat said...
ReplyDeleteAnd no parades, no claims of victory, nor even success.
ya, right, I'm sure you and the rest of the populace would be fooled by such a cynical demonstration of idiocy.
good point rufus - Texas in the summer, yikes. I just heard on the radio here as I woke up some Canadian visitors left their 2 year old in the SUV as they tended their 7 year having a seizure. The 2 year old died in the hot car.
I've got to get some sleep. I've got my hours completely screwed up. I'm feeling nuttier than Bolton.
ReplyDeleteI mean, look where Dubya's mission accomplished stunt go him!
ReplyDeleteAt this point, ash, it'd be a tough sell. Especially when we are leaving so many behind the wire, still.
ReplyDeleteEspecially without an Iraqi government to hand off to.
Pretty much a total cluster fuck we've built there, after a $trillion USD and seven years of sustained effort.
Thoroughly typical of the Federals work product though.
ABC News -
ReplyDeleteJohn McCluskey and Casslyn Welch were taken into custody near the town of Springerville, Ariz., near the border with New Mexico. The duo told authorities that if given the chance, they would have shot it out with ...
Iraq: What Will the Remaining 50,000 U.S. Troops Do?
ReplyDeleteTime tells
"And no parades, no claims of victory, nor even success.
ReplyDeleteJust roll on out to Kuwait, like it was just another day."
From the troops standpoint, I would imagine it's probably the way they want it.
Which would you rather do, come home to friends and mom and the kids with the little ones waving those small little flags or wasting another day marching in a stinking parade?
However, the point is well taken on the lack of claiming victory.
.
.
... Eden Aberjil could not understand all the fuss over her Facebook photo album chronicling her days in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
ReplyDelete"IDF — the best time of my life" features shots of her standing beside some Palestinian men. She is the one in uniform, beaming at the camera. They sit behind her, bound at the wrist and blindfolded, stoic captives as unaware of at least one aspect of their humiliation — the camera — as Aberjil remained after the whole thing went viral.
"I don't understand," she told a radio station after the story broke this week. To a newspaper, she said, "I just documented my routine and posted the pictures as a way to remember."
...
The Israeli military was, like Bennett and Wilf, emphatic in condemning Aberjil, who left active service last year. "On the face of it, it appears that this was coarse and ugly behavior by the soldier," the army said in a statement. "This behavior does not reflect IDF values and norms expected of soldiers." But that brought mocking laughter and the release of a flurry of similar Facebook photos from Breaking the Silence, a group of former Israeli soldiers who advocate ending the occupation of Palestinian territories because of what it's doing to the young Israelis enforcing it.
"The first time you enter a house in the middle of the night and see the children crying because your face is painted, you feel something, but the next time less and less and less, and slowly, slowly you cross lines you never thought you'd cross," says Yehuda Shaul, one of the group's founders. "This is what needs to be talked about."
More violations of the Geneva Accords, by the Israeli military, pretty common place, routine it seems:
"I just documented my routine and posted the pictures as a way to remember."
The IDF's version of Abu Ghraib.
ReplyDeleteoh. my. even allen can't defend those actions :)
ReplyDeleteas evidenced by his absence!
ReplyDeletear ar ar
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what struck me. That damned Stryker Brigade looked good. I mean, they looked like they were ready, willing, and able on about 0.0 Seconds notice to wheel them things around and kick some serious ass.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help remember when the first troops crossed the berms that night. Some of them didn't have body armor. They were riding in in thin-skinned humvees, and Bradley death traps, and the Marines were towing half their amphibs behind other amphibs.
Right now, the U.S. Fighting force has got to send spasms of awe, and dread down the spines of any Would-be Asshole, anywhere. Those Strykers were ready to rumble. I just know the chickenshit general hate to see that wire fencing around their pretty little machines, but, you can bet Al Queda hates that fencing more. No more easy shots.
I noticed some of them, I couldn't tell if it was all of'em, had the x-band guided, anti-mortar systems. The troops looked healthy, clean, in good spirits, and, quite frankly, like some people I wouldn't want to meet in a dark desert.
It was an extremely expensive exercise, but I believe we've come out of it with a Military that's more lethal by a factor of several.
I hate ALL fucking generals, but, damn I'm proud of Those guys.
Most BP Oil Still Pollutes the Gulf
ReplyDeleteU.S. News & World Report -
Two new analyses report that huge plumes of oil generated by the BP spill continue to roam deep within the Gulf of Mexico and appear disturbingly stable.
Last U.S. combat brigade leaves Iraq to an uncertain future
ReplyDelete...
"The President, however, admitted in a sombre speech to veterans earlier this month that “the hard truth is we have not seen the end of American sacrifice in Iraq.”
More than 50,000 fully combat capable U.S. soldiers, backed by hundreds of warplanes in the region and aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the Gulf, remain in Iraq and pack a punch larger than most of the world’s militaries. Although they are supposedly reduced to a training and support role backing Iraq’s army and police through the end of next year, a slide into violence or the collapse of Iraq’s fragile democracy could force Mr. Obama to send in reinforcements. "
...
"Despite billions in new equipment and billions more in training, the security forces’ operational experience and institutional history is mixed. Even stiffened by the continuing presence of 50,000 U.S. soldiers for at least another 16 months, it remains an open question how well Iraqi security forces will respond when finally left to cope on their own.
They won’t be totally alone, however. In addition to the remaining American troops, the U.S. State Department is poised to lead the continuing U.S. role in Iraq, and announced plans to double the number of private security contractors in the country to 7,000 to ensure the safety of the huge civilian development effort. "
...
"Despite billions spent since 2003 building and rebuilding the grid, Iraqis suffer with less than six hours a day of electricity in sweltering Baghdad, where midsummer temperatures routinely soar near 40. The rich buy generators – just as they did in Saddam Hussein’s era. Everyone else suffers in the heat and the darkness.
Iraq’s economy remains a paradox. Vast oil wealth, booming bazaars, private property and a nascent stock market exist, yet the state controls almost every sector from energy to banking. The state is the biggest employer and owns most of the land and much of the mostly antiquated manufacturing sector.
Oil accounts for 95 per cent of government revenue and 60 per cent of Iraq’s economic output, but the sector employs barely 1 per cent of the population and production still lags behind pre-2003 levels, which were artificially low because of international sanctions. Yet the oil sector employs barely 1 per cent of the population."
...
"There have been three democratic national elections in Iraq under the U.S.-led occupation, but more than five months after the most recent one in March, the country remains without a functioning government. "
...
"A thriving, peaceful, democratic Iraq will “deal the terrorists a crippling blow and establish a beacon of liberty in the Middle East,” George W. Bush predicted a couple of years into the second American-Iraqi war. And that, added Mr. Bush, would make the world a safer place.
That hasn’t happened yet. "
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/last-us-combat-brigade-leaves-iraq-to-an-uncertain-future/article1679114/
Two new analyses report that huge plumes of oil generated by the BP spill continue to roam deep within the Gulf of Mexico and appear disturbingly stable.
ReplyDeleteLava lamps on a large scale.
.
Makes it sound like we left 50,000 Cooks, and Supply Clerks behind. There's got to be at least one Armored Division, and, the equivalent of one, or two full Infantry Divisions. Hell, we couldn't put 50,000 in the field w/o having at least that many trigger-pullers in the mix.
ReplyDeleteMost of our "cookin," and "supplyin" is done by civilian contractors, anyway.
I'll say one thing: The motherfucker might be a "one-termer," but he's sure as hell getting his money's worth.
ReplyDeleteNow, that's funny, I don't care who you are.
Like I said in an earlier post, they will ride this pony until it is dead.
I think they (the Obamas) walk around the WH everyday, still not believing they live there.
I see the normal nazis are in the bar today.
ReplyDeleteI will focus on other issues than to lower myself to try to argue with them.
But they are nazis, if not in deed yet, certainly in thought.
Even I would not go so far as to call Eden Aberjil a nazi, even though her behavior typifies the willful ignorance exemplified by any number of authoritarian tendencies.
ReplyDeleteTypical of Europeonic thought processes. She is centered upon herself, unable to see the "big picture". She still does not understand that she violated the basic human rights of those prisoners.
Just as the IDF now says she did.
That still falls short of her being a nazi, despite the protestations of "o".
Hell, WIO, you, obviously, wouldn't know "nazi" if one bit you dead in your ass.
ReplyDeleteIt's "Godwin's Rule;" you can't go around calling everyone that disagrees with you a "Nazi." If you do that, pretty soon the word loses all meaning.
I'd have to cut that gal some slack, at least until I knew what her job was. When you're in a "combat" situation it doesn't take but a heartbeat before you've completely "depersonalized" the enemy.
ReplyDeleteYou tell a soldier that was, just yesterday, getting shot at by the asshole that now it's "disrespectful" to take his picture, he'll think you've gone completely insane.
Just because some sleazy-assed General mouths such inanities doesn't mean we have to pay any attention to them.
that free healthcare won't produce cost savings after all?
ReplyDeletewhere are those jobs?
what about those monster deficits?
Oh, and the new memo - o can't be a muslim because he 's a big time Christian, bible thumper;
reads bible verses everyday he does - and I thought libs didn't fancy christian fundamentalists
rufus said...
ReplyDeleteHell, WIO, you, obviously, wouldn't know "nazi" if one bit you dead in your ass.
It's "Godwin's Rule;" you can't go around calling everyone that disagrees with you a "Nazi." If you do that, pretty soon the word loses all meaning.
I dont...
Rat is a nazi
Arms Dealer to Be Extradited From Thailand
ReplyDelete“They became aware in the mid 1990s that he had fundamentally altered the way wars were being waged. He was flying in planeloads of this stuff. There was a lot of alarm that we were facing something new. It was the privatization of warfare,” Mr. Farah said.
US To Try Ex-Employee
One wonders whether the US is trying this guy because he is selling to the bad guys or just because he is hurting their business.
When it suited the US government it used Bout's services. Now they would prosecute him. The quote is telling. They worry about him privatizing warfare. What the hell have we been doing for the past 20 years.
Heard on CNBC that last year the US sold 68% of the arms and armaments sold worldwide.
Perhaps its considered a monopoly and he wasn't paying his licensing fees.
No doubt he will be charged with supporting terrorists. Doubt any mention will be made of the times we or the UN or any other country has used his services.
.
Budget deficits have ballooned again, but the story is different this time. Americans are buying most of the new Treasuries being issued. Foreign governments, whose purchases were once critical, were net sellers of Treasury securities in the first half of 2010, according to figures released this week...
ReplyDeleteUS Savings Going Into Treasuries
.
I'm not sure the benefit of US treasuries being held by US citizens as opposed to foreigners. Would it be less painful to default on US citizens or something?
ReplyDeleteA lot of Rich folks in the U.S., Ash - trying to figure out how to "Stay Rich."
ReplyDeleteThey don't "want no cheese;" they just want to stay "out of the trap."
The Bond market is an Enormous market. China cut their U.S. holdings considerably, and no one even noticed.
ReplyDeleteDetroit is still all about cars.
ReplyDeleteThe International Auto Show gets a lot of press but you also have the Concourse D'Elegance and a lot of other money shows.
But for the little guy, there is nothing like the Cruises. They have them all over the state, but in the Detroit Metro Area they have about six of them. The original and biggest one is the Woodward Dream Cruise, thousands of old cars cruising for the better part of a week.
For anyone who likes the classic old cars, it's good times.
(It's been nice over the past couple years because you still had the cars but not as much of the corporate tents and renting out all the bars for clients.)
Dream Cruise
.
Rufus: Fri Aug 20, 01:31:00 PM EDT
ReplyDeleteRoger that.
Interesting point...
ReplyDeleteA certain Jew hating, Israel hating, Zionism hating rodent loves to Jew bait by using his amazing jew hating logic...
And yes Rat is a Nazi, maybe not in deed YET, but certainly in thought and expression.
But what is interesting is his applying of "sin" finger pointing...
to the Rodent, all Israeli "sins" are equal in graveness. As in his warped nazified mind all "sins" from the side of the Islamists, Iranians, Palestnians and or arab western hating trolls are explained, excused or overlooked...
One standard for all, no standard for anyone else.
By implying that somehow all photos are the same, no matter what the content as long as its a "Israeli" crime....
Next rat will be claiming Jews steal the native people's soul with the use of photography...
Or that the Photo's are a virtual catalog to organize organs for harvesting...
Rat is a virtual nazi..
Has ObamaCare’s Unpopularity Caused ‘Abject Panic at the White House’
ReplyDelete.
It is rainy season, a cool steady rain in the tropics.
ReplyDeleteObama’s job approval fell to 41 percent, the lowest level of his presidency, according to Gallup daily tracking poll released yesterday.
ReplyDeleteCan I claim the Obama vacations as a deduction on my taxes?
Once again, they managed to come on separate trips, turning money into CO2 with a vengeance, as they tell us to eat Tofu, and refrain from trips to Vegas.
ReplyDeleteMiserable, greedy, selfish fucking pigs.
Living large in the moment, and we will be carterized by their presence till your last dying breath.
ReplyDeleteOne theory expressed by Stan Goff, a retired special ops officer who assisted Ms. Tillman’s investigation, is that the soldiers responsible were itching for a firefight even though whatever threat existed had long passed.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fallacy, he says, to believe that young soldiers enter such situations reluctantly. In his words, “It’s an imposition of a level of wisdom and maturity on soldiers that doesn’t apply to 19-year-olds anywhere, ever.”
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/movies/20tillman.html?8dpc
Police are questioning two young teenagers about the cold-blooded murder of an elderly man, which shook-up one Philadelphia neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Greaves was gunned down outside his West Oak Lane home Wednesday afternoon, police say. Though police say Greaves may have been shot during a possible robbery, the actual motive has not been confirmed.
The World War II veteran and former Navy Seal was found dead in front of his garage Tuesday on the 7900 block of Pickering Avenue, police say.
Sources tell NBC Philadelphia Greaves pulled up to his home and was about to enter his garage when he was shot in the chest.
A woman dressed in Muslim garb and a man in street clothing were seen running from the shooting scene, according to investigators.
Stan Goff is also a raving lunatic. The genuine article.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd throw that in.
Wonder if Ms. Tillman found him, or he found her.
Seabreacher
ReplyDeleteThe author of a book on Tillman says Tillman's unit was involved in the Jessica Lynch affair.
ReplyDeleteTillman was disgusted, and reportedly said that if he was killed, they'd give him the same treatment.
"Amir Bar-Lev"
ReplyDeleteCorrection:
ReplyDeleteDirector of the movie.
Another blast from the past: the Jessica Lynch story. Created out of whole cloth.
ReplyDeleteA dark moment in a long string of them.
Stan Goff at Wiki:
ReplyDeleteGoff became politically active almost immediately, and took up the study of Marxism. He joined the Communist Party USA for a brief period, but left the party in response to what he describes as the demand for "ideological conformity," and his belief that the party was hostile to feminism that did not confine itself to economistic analysis of women's conditions. This is a criticism he levels frequently at the entire left, which he describes as "male-dominated, and tokenizing of women." Mr. Goff freely admits that he suffers from a "goddess-complex disorder".
In 1996, Goff secured a job as organizing director for Democracy South, a non-profit organization which did research and advocacy on money-and-politics in the South, and stayed there for the next five and a half years.
In 2001, he did a short stint as the military technical adviser for the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Collateral Damage, which he describes as one of the most miserable jobs in his life, and for which he publicly apologized after the film was altered, in the wake of 9-11, into what Goff called "yet another guns and fire-balls, macho death-cult, fascist film-myth."
Throughout this post-military period, he remained in touch with Haitian political issues, and developed a close working relationship with Katharine Kean, a film maker who has worked in Haiti for decades, and the political cadres of the National Popular Party , a left party in Haiti with a peasant popular base. He has returned to Haiti dozens of times since then, and has written extensively on the political developments there.
After the September 11 attacks and the resulting "war hysteria", Goff was in demand as a public speaker, as his military career and his powerful opposition to the coming war gave him a degree of immunity from many criticisms made against anti-war forces. Goff was also involved in the "9-11 Truth Movement", which questions the official account of the 9/11 commission.
He also became involved with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization around the same time, drawn primarily by the organization's analysis of Black nationalism, and the organization's stated goal of the "refoundation" of the American left. In the process of writing a column called "Military Matters" for the organization, he began his second book, Full Spectrum Disorder - The Military in the New American Century, (Soft Skull Press, 2004).
"Mr. Goff freely admits that he suffers from a 'goddess-complex disorder'."
ReplyDeleteWTH?
The Barack Hussein Obama Mosque
ReplyDeleteI certainly understand why Barack Obama’s initial instinct was to back the building of the mosque, and it certainly wasn’t just because he was addressing a group of Muslims at a Ramadan dinner. That was certainly the venue, and Obama, like most people, enjoys applause, which is why we always get to see him addressing union members and deep-pocket Democrats at fund-raising events. But the main reason he backed the mosque is because, no matter where he may have been born, there is a basic disconnect between him and this nation.
That may sound far-fetched, considering that he was elected president of the United States less than two years ago, garnering about 63 million votes. But that was after he and the MSM had successfully pulled the wool over a great many eyes. He has now had time to show his true colors in his America-bashing speeches; by his banishing the little statue of Churchill, while kowtowing to Saudi royalty; by his assuming with no facts at hand that a white Cambridge police officer was stupid and clearly in the wrong; by refusing to connect the Fort Hood assassin or any of the other terrorists with Islam; declining even to prosecute the New Black Panthers for intimidating white voters. Heck, this clown won’t even cross his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.
I used to be so naïve that I assumed the reason that Obama attended Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racist church for 20 years was merely a means to worm his way into Chicago’s black community so that he could pursue a career in politics. I have since come to believe that Obama shares Wright’s disgusting beliefs. I believe the reason that he, unlike most Americans, Democrats included, think it’s a swell idea for the 13-story mosque to be erected is because, like his religious mentor, he is convinced that 9/11 was a case of America’s chickens coming home to roost.
----
(this was apparent to me from day 1:
We would never think twice about some white scumbag who regularly took his young children to KKK meetings, would we?)
Dennis Miller still clings to the begnign explanation.
This man's entire life consists of begnign coverups of who he really is.
---
In poker, when a player unconsciously tips his mitt it’s called a “tell”. With Obama, his tell is when he says, “Let me be perfectly clear.” Another sure way to recognize that he’s lying is to see if his mouth is moving.
---
Speaking of non-Islamic theologies reminds me that Barack Obama, when he was addressing wealthy San Franciscans at a fund-raiser in 2008, dismissed millions upon millions of American Christians as “those people clinging to their religion and their guns,” but has never once described Islamics as
those people clinging to their religion and their suicide bombs.
"benign"
ReplyDeleteI can't locate the article but a Sullivan intern noted today:
ReplyDelete"The Economist reports China is now the world's biggest beer market, grossly surpassing the United States."
Let's do our part to reverse this sad decline of America's standing.
China has over a hundred cities with a population of a million or more.
ReplyDeleteI didn't say it would be easy.
ReplyDeletefunny!
ReplyDeleteThis might be the first time in my life I've ever envied anyone being in the Tropics enjoying "cool, steady rain."
ReplyDeleteBut, Bubba, if I didn't have some pressing stuff going on right now, we'd be sharing the enjoyment of said rains,
tomorrow.
You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone
ReplyDeleteI'm on Ciproflaxin, 500mg, twice daily, for 14 days, and a bunch of other stuff,too.
Feel like shit, but no cancer of the kidneys, or the bladder, and I ain't afeared of no anthrax attack.
What happened last night?
ReplyDeleteI got some sleep last night!
ReplyDeleteSo did I until sometime after midnight. Up for a couple of hours and back to bed.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's certainly bad news/good news, bob. I hope you feel better very soon.
You've been missed.
Jeez, Sam. That thing is something else.
ReplyDeleteGive that thing a coating of rubberized paint, and it might be hard to "pick up." Awesome.
The Japanese, I do believe, used more religiously motivated suicide bombers against US than the Islamoids have.
ReplyDeleteYet today, merely sixty years later, we are firmly allied with the Japanese.
Obviously suicide bombers are part of the human condition, but not one that a cultural deprograming cannot remedy.
Catholics once deserted the US military, in large numbers, and then took up arms and fought against that same US Army.
Catholics in the United States, have since been reprogrammed, too. Though at the time of the Catholic desertions, that was thought to be impossible, as all real Catholics first loyalty is to the Pope, as every Protestant in the US knew to be the case.
Thankee. I had white blood cells in my urine, and red cells too, she couldn't figure it out, gave me the cancer scare, this is just a quess that I've got some kind of infection around the prostate. Nice doc, though, a fan of near death literature, that always helps.
ReplyDeleteI'm retiring for the night.
My wife by the way has no horror of widowhood.
ReplyDeleteNotice that all the Seabreacher dealers are in Arabia?
ReplyDeleteAuthorized distributor for the country of KUWAIT
Authorized distributor for the country of SAUDI ARABIA
Authorized distributor for the Emirate of DUBAI ...
Those Semites, they are on the cutting edge of the whirled's economic development, no doubt of that.
"My wife by the way has no horror of widowhood."
ReplyDeleteLife with you sucks THAT bad?
You gotta improve your game, bob.
Ah, did the old "prostate biopsy," did we? Them things are fun.
ReplyDeleteI had one; it came back clean. The snitty little Doc took one look at me, said "That's gotta be a mistake," and made me take another. Clean again. I got the feeling I ruined his day. :)
Then he made me take a colonoscopy - clean again.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm testing his "Christian Faith."
Instead of giving me the usual lecture on "drinking," I think he slipped out early to happy hour.
But, only after I came up good on my stress test.
You let some crazy asshole fill one of those with C4, and ram it into an oil tanker, and our lives are going to get a whole lot "interestin'er."
ReplyDeleteNice doc, though, a fan of near death literature, that always helps.
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily.
Especially if she works for a research hospital.
.
Good to see you back Bob.
ReplyDeleteRufus and I were just ruminatin about where you might be.
He said you probably hit it big at the casino. Maybe even $100. And that you were out on some wild bender celebrating.
I speculated that your daughter finally got you that new computer and that it would be at least the end of the month before you got it up and running.
Glad to hear it was only an infection.
.
What you talkin', rufus, those three countries are all our good allies. We arm up each and every one of them.
ReplyDeleteF-15s, Apaches, Blackhawks.
As many as they want.
Any bets that the nuclear capability in Pakistan has Saudi fingers prints on the title?
Who matched US, dollar for dollar in Charlie Wilson's War, but then did not abandon the region?
Other than those Semitic Saudis.
Little submarines, way behind the threat assessment curve. But yeah, if one, or a flotilla, did a kamikaze run on a Super Tanker that'd be a mess.
A lot like the damage a row boat did to a US destroyer, while in Yeman.
Those little submarines could go a long way towards creating a hectic and target rich enviorment the Persians are counting on as their naval battle plan in their Gulf. Those along with the mini-PT boats they are using.
Friday night funnies.
ReplyDeleteThat and the anti-ship cruise missiles that the Persians have, similar to the one that disabled that Israeli "Man o War" off the coast of Lebanon, few years back.
ReplyDeleteWith all that capacity, held by the States that are sponsors of terrorism, I do not think that there should be much concern about little submarines being built in New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteAny of the sponsors can step well beyond that threshold.
I think that the anti-ship missile is a Chinese design, which could be funny stuff.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as how the Chinese are one of the biggest buyers of Israeli military technology. Which is then incorporated into the weapons used successfully against the Israeli military.
Sunny and 91 here all day it couldn't be more perfect.
ReplyDeleteSupercharged rotary engines, in those little submarines.
ReplyDeleteClever fellas, those New Zealanders.
"Friday night funnies."
ReplyDeleteYou mean Rat, right?
You should re-post "Rain" tomorrow morning.
I bitched about the rainy season down there like nobody's business. A little different at almost 9K ft. though, especially when mind and body are quite naturally desperately craving some semblance of summer.
That first year? Wettest fucking year on record.
I could rehash some old woe-is-me.
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun.
The floor is all yours.
ReplyDeleteTo refresh the memory, of futures past, let's revisit 2007:
ReplyDeleteFeb 16, 2007 ... Due to all of the above, the US will use nuclear weapon against Iran. .... Aznar and Bolton in Paris against Iran, U.S. ships and Israeli nuclear submarines in the Persian (. ... An Israeli military base in Saudi Arabia? ...
Seems to be election season.
Iran Must Get Ready to Repel a Nuclear Attack
ReplyDeleteby General Leonid Ivashov*
I'm sitting here putting myself in Iran's shoes. Those sanctions against my gasoline imports are starting to hurt. I'd sink a couple of tankers.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost a "no-brainer."
Oil would go to $200.00/barrel, and the economy of the rest of the world would go, immediately, into the shitter. Bigtime.
The only country on earth with the capacity to do anything about it is sick of War in the Mideast, and is in the process of leaving the region. And is being led by Barack Hussein Obamaa.
It's a no-brainer.
Same old story, rehashed again, for this year's election fodder.
ReplyDeleteThis time with the added twist of "The US President is a Muslim".
Low drama, high comedy.
No one's going to "Nuke" Iran. Whether the Israelis will bomb their centrifuges is a little more open to guesswork.
ReplyDeleteThe disaster will be if the most unlikeliest scenario in the world actually works. If we really are successful in "cutting off their gasoline" they will start sinking tankers. It's the only response that makes a modicum of sense.
It's the exact same thing that each, and every commenter on this blog would do.
And, Bubbas, and Bubbettes, that brings the transport of half of the world's exportable oil to a dead halt.
And, that, chilluns, is going to make for one shitty week over here.
Okay.
ReplyDeleteDays and days and days and days of rain...
Weeks, months, of rain.
If the morning was nice, the wind and cold and rain rolled in shortly after noon. Depressingly predictable.
And it became a joke - funny because true - that every Friday night, when most social functions are scheduled, it would rain like a motherfucker. And traffic being what it normally is, would be that much worse. The flashing lights and get-out-of-my-way siren not helping one bit.
We had the rainy season. And the somewhat less rainy season.
And it's a miracle we all survived.
Antarctica vets get the Wintered Over badge.
US Embassy Bogota needs its own Didn't Go Into A Homocidal Rage badge.
Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI think that's HOMICIDE.
Could be "Homocide." :)
ReplyDeleteThe Iranians commit Homocide on a fairly regular basis.
ReplyDelete: )
ReplyDeleteIt's a no-brainer.
ReplyDeleteIt sure is.
But hell that's what we love about you Ruf.
No big deal.
Have another brewski.
:)
Saw this fellow of the Cobert Show, says that "Stan the Man" was in on the Tillman cover-up, to include the awarding of the Silver Star, up to his eyeballs.
ReplyDeleteWhere Men Win Glory
by Jon Krakauer
Pat Tillman walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to join the Army and became an icon of post-9/11 patriotism. When he was killed in Afghanistan two years later, a legend was born. But the real Pat Tillman was much more remarkable, and considerably more complicated than the public knew…
A stunning account of a remarkable young man’s heroic life and death, from the bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven.
This Jon Krakauer, a fella well ahead of the curve.
ReplyDeleteWriting about the problems posed by Mormon Fundamentalists, back in 2004.
Under the Banner of Heaven
A Story of Violent Faith
Written by Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. He now shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders, taking readers inside isolated American communities where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.
At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.
Figures.
ReplyDeleteObama goes to Martha's Vineyard. Water Turns to Sh .. . . . er, Fecal Matter.
". . . . . . . . , when you're not, you're not."
Also during government week, the production lines of two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj (Lamp) and Zolfaqar (named after Shiite Imam Ali’s sword) are due to be inaugurated, while a long-range drone, Karar, is expected to be unveiled.
ReplyDeleteThe firing of Qiam comes days after a top commander from the Revolutionary Guards said Iran will mass produce replicas of the Bladerunner 51, often described as the world’s fastest boat, and equip them with weapons to be deployed in the Gulf.
On August 8, Iran took delivery of four new mini-submarines of the home-produced Ghadir class. Weighing 120 tonnes, the “stealth” submarines are aimed at operations in shallow waters, notably in the Gulf.
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