COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“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 15, 2009

Buy a gun, get a permit and buy a murse (man purse)


"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win"
.

Sun-tzu - The Art of War

An editorial in this morning's times discusses and warns about the recent (since 911 actually) intensifying trend of terrorists striking civilian targets in teams. The author predicts that it will happen in the US..."Nightmare possibilities include synchronized assaults on several shopping malls, high-rise office buildings or other places that have lots of people and relatively few exits. Another option would be to set loose half a dozen two-man sniper teams in some metropolitan area..."

The author, not surprisingly, sees only governmental solutions and preventions. Mr. Arquilla fails to contemplate the lethal and sensible use of an armed citizenry.

Gentleman, get a permit, carry a man purse so you have adequate ammunition, and shop.
_____________________

The Coming Swarm

By JOHN ARQUILLA NY Times
Published: February 14, 2009
Monterey, Calif.

Oliver Munday and Ramell Ross


WITH three Afghan government ministries in Kabul hit by simultaneous suicide attacks this week, by a total of just eight terrorists, it seems that a new “Mumbai model” of swarming, smaller-scale terrorist violence is emerging.

The basic concept is that hitting several targets at once, even with just a few fighters at each site, can cause fits for elite counterterrorist forces that are often manpower-heavy, far away and organized to deal with only one crisis at a time. This approach certainly worked in Mumbai, India, last November, where five two-man teams of Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives held the city hostage for two days, killing 179 people. The Indian security forces, many of which had to be flown in from New Delhi, simply had little ability to strike back at more than one site at a time.

While it’s true that the assaults in Kabul seem to be echoes of Mumbai, the fact is that Al Qaeda and its affiliates have been using these sorts of swarm tactics for several years. Jemaah Islamiyah — the group responsible for the Bali nightclub attack that killed 202 people in 2002 — mounted simultaneous attacks on 16 Christian churches in Indonesia on Christmas Eve in 2000, befuddling security forces.

Even 9/11 itself had swarm-like characteristics, as four small teams of Qaeda operatives simultaneously seized commercial aircraft and turned them into missiles, flummoxing all our defensive responses. In the years since, Al Qaeda has coordinated swarm attacks in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen and elsewhere. And at the height of the insurgency in Iraq, terrorists repeatedly used swarms on targets as small as truck convoys and as large as whole cities.

This pattern suggests that Americans should brace for a coming swarm. Right now, most of our cities would be as hard-pressed as Mumbai was to deal with several simultaneous attacks. Our elite federal and military counterterrorist units would most likely find their responses slowed, to varying degrees, by distance and the need to clarify jurisdiction.

While the specifics of the federal counterterrorism strategy are classified, what is in the public record indicates that the plan contemplates having to deal with as many as three sites being simultaneously hit and using “overwhelming force” against the terrorists, which probably means mustering as many as 3,000 ground troops to the site. If that’s an accurate picture, it doesn’t bode well. We would most likely have far too few such elite units for dealing with a large number of small terrorist teams carrying out simultaneous attacks across a region or even a single city.

Nightmare possibilities include synchronized assaults on several shopping malls, high-rise office buildings or other places that have lots of people and relatively few exits. Another option would be to set loose half a dozen two-man sniper teams in some metropolitan area — you only have to recall the havoc caused by the Washington sniper in 2002 to imagine how huge a panic a slightly larger version of that form of terrorism would cause.

So how are swarms to be countered? The simplest way is to create many more units able to respond to simultaneous, small-scale attacks and spread them around the country. This means jettisoning the idea of overwhelming force in favor of small units that are not “elite” but rather “good enough” to tangle with terrorist teams. In dealing with swarms, economizing on force is essential.

We’ve actually had a good test case in Iraq over the past two years. Instead of responding to insurgent attacks by sending out large numbers of troops from distant operating bases, the military strategy is now based on hundreds of smaller outposts in which 40 or 50 American troops are permanently stationed and prepared to act swiftly against attackers. Indeed, their very presence in Iraqi communities is a big deterrent. It’s small surprise that overall violence across Iraq has dropped by about 80 percent in that period.

For the defense of American cities against terrorist swarms, the key would be to use local police officers as the first line of defense instead of relying on the military. The first step would be to create lots of small counterterrorism posts throughout urban areas instead of keeping police officers in large, centralized precinct houses. This is consistent with existing notions of community-based policing, and could even include an element of outreach to residents similar to that undertaken in the Sunni areas of Iraq — even if it were to mean taking the paradoxical turn of negotiating with gangs about security.

At the federal level, we should stop thinking in terms of moving thousands of troops across the country and instead distribute small response units far more widely. Cities, states and Washington should work out clear rules in advance for using military forces in a counterterrorist role, to avoid any bickering or delay during a crisis. Reserve and National Guard units should train and field many more units able to take on small teams of terrorist gunmen and bombers. Think of them as latter-day Minutemen.

Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen all responded to Qaeda attacks with similar “packetizing” initiatives involving the police and armed forces; and while that hasn’t eliminated swarm attacks, the terrorists have been far less effective and many lives have been saved.

As for Afghanistan, where the swarm has just arrived, there is still time to realize the merits of forming lots of small units and sprinkling them about in a countrywide network of outposts. As President Obama looks to send more troops to that war, let’s make sure the Pentagon does it the right way.

Yes, the swarm will be heading our way, too. We need to get smaller, closer and quicker. The sooner the better.

John Arquilla teaches in the special operations program at the Naval Postgraduate School and is the author of “Worst Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of the American Military.




218 comments:

  1. Only thing about a big murse like that is you might look a little like one of the bad guys yourself, and end up getting shot at by two sides, though that is better, all things considered, than getting shot at by one side with no defense.

    Better to be defending against two, than defenseless against one.

    Aesop

    ReplyDelete
  2. That OD Green clashes with my boots

    Amyone that wants to carry, the FN 5.7 or the Taurus 809B in 9mm gives one a 20 or 17 round mag, respectedly.

    No nned for a man bag. Carry locked and cocked, a mag in the weapon and two on your belt. That is 61 if 52 rounds, depending.

    If that is not enough to hold on until the cavalry arrives, you needed mmore than a hand gun.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AMERICA AND ISLAM
    HEADLESS BODY IN GUTLESS PRESS
    [Mark Steyn]
    Just asking, but are beheadings common in western New York? I used to spend a lot of time in that neck of the woods and I don't remember decapitation as a routine form of murder. Yet the killing of Aasiya Hassan seems to have elicited a very muted response.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is 61 OR 52 rounds, depending.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Carry locked and cocked, a mag in the weapon and two on your belt.

    That's just what our guy told us. He confirmed you can walk right down the levee here, without a permit, with a shotgun over your arm. And if you're out in the county you can basically do anything you want, no permit required, you won't be hassled.

    Do you know, is that trigger safety on the Glocks basically good or bad? I can't understand what it's really there for.

    These guns you showed don't seem to have that feature, which seems a little toofangled to me.

    Turns out, you'd don't even have to take a class in Washington, and the forms are a little simpler, though the costs are higher.

    My Llama jammed once, so he took it apart, and found the spring had a tiny bit of the tip broke off.

    Those lazer sights are good, though the one he had seemed hard to get used to turning it on or off with the pressure of your palm.

    He offered me $400 for the Llama which was a bit more than I paid, so either the pawn shop guy didn't know what he was doing, or knew about the spring, which I doubt, and is easy to fix, cause I didn't know what I was doing when I bought it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's why they call it that neck of the woods, Doug, cause they lopped the tops off all the trees. No biggie in that neck of the woods.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ASH wants your medical records.

    Take control of your medical records now.

    Duty To Die

    ReplyDelete
  8. Concealed Carry Class $150 in March...

    All I will need now is the man-bag...

    I am ready....

    I will be armed....

    I will be alert...

    Yep it's a whole new world...

    I feel so LUCKY

    I just think of my ancestors waiting for the Nazis, Romans, Crusaders, Kossacks, Arabs to come and terrorize our weddings, brunches, temples, schools, nurseries, shops & homes...

    and think, "WHAT if at any time during the last 2400 years Jews were armed" How would have history have changed?

    Yep NEVER AGAIN by friends...

    I, as a citizen of the great nation of the USA shall uphold my rights to freedom and life....

    I make this threat, no promise.... Dont come shooting up my shopping center, school, home, theater, pizza shop, disco or resturant, if you do?

    I will shoot you and pee in your skull, with my man-purse hanging on my hip...

    ReplyDelete
  9. By taking the law into your own hands you've already admitted defeat. What's really needed is increased consciousness of the problem. Once mass awareness occurs, it should be a simple task to institute proper law and proceed with proper application of the law.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

    Seems to me we might argue some about the meaning of the last one, and Liberty, what the content of that is, but Life, we know, or think we do, what that is. It's not a 'life worth living' as declared by somebody(s) else. The relationship of a man, and his family with his doctor is going to be interfered with here, by Obama and Company. Don't let it happen. You don't put those decisions up to a bunch of bureaucrats. Tis a slippery slope. We know the human heart is 'evil beyond all things'.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think we're just basically talking about defending the mall, Mat:) Not to mention our lives.

    Nightmare possibilities include synchronized assaults on several shopping malls

    I think that's a real possibility.

    Everyone in Israel is armed aren't they? And Switzerland. Works for them.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think we're just basically talking about defending the mall, Mat:)
    ==

    Why stop at the mall? Why is the mall special? I think the whole country deserves protection, and laws should be instituted against Jihadists gaining access to the country.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Everyone in Israel is armed aren't they? And Switzerland. Works for them.
    ==

    Does it?

    I think Israel has a very poor record. Switzerland has a much better record, and this is because Switzerland more or less follows my suggestion and Israel does not.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The only one taking the LAW into their own hands are the Jihadists...

    It's an American RIGHT to defend one'sself

    That is not taking the law into one's hands

    We the PEOPLE have the right to be able to defend ourselves...

    If we TOOK the LAW into our hands we'd be rounding up suspected jihadists and hanging them

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  15. It's an American RIGHT to defend one'sself
    ==

    No doubt. And it is the responsibility of the State to protect its citizens from known enemies.

    Jihadist attacks are not simple criminal attacks. These are political paramilitary attacks. The Jihadist ideology is an organized and evolved ideology which has declared war on the world. As such, Jihadi followers need to be routed out using the full force, organs and institutions, of the state.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Jihadist attacks are not simple criminal attacks. These are political paramilitary attacks. The Jihadist ideology is an organized and evolved ideology which has declared war on the world. As such, Jihadi followers need to be routed out using the full force, organs and institutions, of the state.


    Sadly the entire western world has not perceived the jihadist threat as war but rather has choose to ignore it's wider stance...

    So as the state fails in it's responsibility to protect it's citizens the citizens must protect themselves..

    That's not taking the law into one's hands, that's protecting ourselves as citizens...

    Now it's you wish us to take the law into our own hands we'd be holding hangings and be putting a bounty on burka's with heads inside...

    No one that advocate's CCP* is advocating that, we are advocating not being easy victims

    *concealed carry permit

    ReplyDelete
  17. So as the state fails in it's responsibility to protect it's citizens the citizens must protect themselves..
    ==

    I think citizens should insist that the State reflect their political views. I think it is the responsibility of citizens to increase awareness and consciousness of their political views, and hold responsible intransigent politicians and institutions that refuse to accommodate this increase awareness and consciousness.

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  18. ..increased awareness and consciousness..

    ReplyDelete
  19. by Michael Ferraresi and JJ Hensley - Feb. 15, 2009 12:00 AM

    The Arizona Republic

    Phoenix police are aggressively trying to reduce the number of near-daily home invasions and kidnappings, which helped earn the city the title of "kidnap-for-ransom capital" of the U.S.

    Generally characterized as drug-related violence driven by gangs ripping off competitors, many of the kidnapping cases assigned to the city's robbery detectives involved masked gunmen armed with high-powered assault rifles and bulletproof vests, emulating tactical strike-team maneuvers to force others to forfeit drugs or cash.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Europe turns to protectionism as industry plummets

    Protectionism will get things worse delaying market forces in their action. I am afraid there is very little that can stop this process. We will see also the social and political consequences of this as governments try to obtain short term internal policy results and public opinion support. Where are the anti-globalization protests of a some time ago? They must be happy now.

    In Europe in the meantime, especially from France, there are clear warnings of future political direction. Could you expect anything different?

    "the French automaker Peugeot announced it was shedding at least 11,000 jobs, and one day later, Renault announced its own plans to cut its workforce by 9,000. These job cuts have been agreed to by the French government and trade unions and are bound up with the announcement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he plans to subsidise domestic automakers with the sum of €6 billion".

    "Sarkozy declared that, in his opinion, it was irresponsible "to continue to manufacture French cars in the Czech Republic." He demanded a halt to the transfer of production to other countries. "If we give financial aid to the automotive industry," he said, "we do not want them to set up a factory in the Czech Republic again."

    And actually this view puts in danger also the future of the European Union and the Euro.

    http://short-termtrading.blogspot.com/2009/02/europe-turns-to-protectionism.html

    http://snipurl.com/bxke1
    ==

    This is as it should be. You want government help and money, provide jobs at home.

    ReplyDelete
  21. It is not the States' responsibility to provide for each citizens safety.

    The threat from jihadis is much much less than the general threat from the common criminal element.
    Or from the threat of an actual nuclear attack, from a non-State aggressor.

    Now, perhaps in the case of Jewish religious sites, the jihadi threat is amplified, but attacks upon Jewish centers are few and far between, as compared to attacks upon Christian Churches. At least on the face of it. That church in Alaska being on of the latest to make national headlines, but there are many instances where church fires do not make it above the fold

    Fire that destroyed Mesa church called 'suspicious'
    by Gary Nelson - Feb. 13, 2009 11:57 AM
    The Arizona Republic

    ReplyDelete
  22. The threat from jihadis is much much less than the general threat from the common criminal element.
    ==

    I disagree. It's a different type of threat, and the consequences are different. And anyway, you've yet to clarify whether you're just a troll or racist. So which is?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Now, perhaps in the case of Jewish religious sites, the jihadi threat is amplified, but attacks upon Jewish centers are few and far between, as compared to attacks upon Christian Churches.
    ==

    You got something to substantiate this?

    ReplyDelete
  24. There are a lot more christian churches than jewish religious sites yet I still bet more attacks have occured at jewish sites. Besides jews have been pushed out of places christian haven't and so are not attacked, they're not there.(I mean in other places like Egypt,etc) Anyway there are too many attackes. Zero is the proper number.

    Why stop at the mall? Why is the mall special? I think the whole country deserves protection, and laws should be instituted against Jihadists gaining access to the country.

    Didn't mean to imply that malls are special, and agree with the rest.

    If there is a widespread mall attack, it would do wonders to end the gun right 'debate' if some happened in no carry states, where the killing went on like Mumbai, and others took place in carry states, and were stopped in their tracks.

    If say, hundreds died in San Francisco and Berkeley and a few in Boise, Salt Lake City, Dallas , and Phoenix, and Miami.

    That would end the debate.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I'm pro guns, Bob. But a more effective path to achieving political goals is using the political arena. Make politicians and institutions accountable. Use your power to organize, power of speech, purchasing power, to affect your political aspirations into reality. Don't underestimate your cause and your individual power, by resorting to violence or a wishing for violence.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Yes bob, hope that the politician and institutions, or their representatives, will take action on your behalf to stop the threat.


    some action has to be taken, it should be the representative of the state?
    and if the response time lag results in your demise?

    ReplyDelete
  27. the approach worked so well in Mumbai and Kabul.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Maybe I'm ignorant of the facts, but is there a state where hand guns are not allowed?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Not supporting or wishing for violence.



    However, if there were mall attacks it would do wonders to further the items above we both agree on. How are more moslems let in the country possibly to be justified if they're shooting up The Local Mall?

    I've got a couple letters I'm writing to my state and local politicians next week on a couple of matters. I'm more 'politically active' than I've ever been:)

    ReplyDelete
  30. The gun laws are different in most states, and then some cities too.

    There are places where it is a lot harder, maybe impossible to get concealed carry.

    Have to get one of those gun law charts and look it up.

    Some places are basically disarmed, I believe. I'm no expert.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Mat's gone permanently wacko.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Please bring your healing crystals, Mat, my stomach hurts.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Concealed Carry Map

    Heh, Chicago, might be the murder capital of the country.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Sorry, my mistake:
    "I'm pro guns, Bob. But a more effective path to achieving political goals is using the political arena. Make politicians and institutions accountable. Use your power to organize, power of speech, purchasing power, to affect your political aspirations into reality. Don't underestimate your cause and your individual power, by resorting to violence or a wishing for violence."
    ---
    I just didn't realize he's running for Prom Queen.

    ReplyDelete
  35. If you ever had kids, Mat, you would have learned that your local school district is immune to your methods, much less THE MACHINE.

    ReplyDelete
  36. I'm no expert.
    ==

    Ah, and there it is. We need to educate ourselves and educate others. Otherwise, we'll have Doug running around calling everyone and everything permanently wacko. :)

    ReplyDelete
  37. Vermont is the only lower 48 state 'unrestricted'. That surprises me.

    ReplyDelete
  38. "but attacks upon Jewish centers are few and far between"
    ---
    But the victims are still dead.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Hey, you can argue as well ash Ash:
    Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  40. If you ever had kids, Mat, you would have learned that your local school district is immune to your methods, much less THE MACHINE.
    ==

    Nothing is impossible. You can grow rock and you can dissolve rock, given enough persistance.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Stimulus Details
    Michael Ledeen
    I certainly haven't read everything (let alone the terrifying thousand-plus pages themselves), but the wonderful Veronique de Rugy (who reads a lot faster than I do, and is far better with numbers) seems to have done an excellent job here.

    $1.2 billion for "youth activities" (for "youth" up to 24 years old)

    $1 billion for Head Start Program

    $8 billion for high-speed railways (This amount is 4 times higher than the one voted on Tuesday in the Senate bill)

    $1.3 billion for Amtrak

    ReplyDelete
  42. Maybe we can grow rocks for free green energy?

    ReplyDelete
  43. I've always maintained it's ok to be a little bit wacko, once in a while, wacko once if no one is hurt, but not totally wacko, ever.

    Depending on the definition of wacko, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Nothing is free, Doug. That's just the Law Of Nature. :)

    ReplyDelete
  45. !!!!

    Millions Of Hawaiis Found In Galaxy

    Think of the galactic laughter!

    Cheer up boys, smile, and say 'cheese'.

    Aloha, till later.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Suspension of disbelief redux
    [Victor Davis Hanson]

    On her initial tour abroad, Sec. Clinton announced that she would follow an approach that "values what others have to say":
    "Too often in the recent past, our government has acted reflexively before considering available facts and evidence or hearing the perspectives of others." And then she promised a policy "neither impulsive nor ideological."

    At some point the unifying, bipartisan Obama team should cease all this ad nauseam "Bush did it" since this perpetual campaign mode, when taken abroad, is not healthy for the country in all too many ways:

    1) it assures enemies that their past problems with the U.S. were largely of our own making due to our impulsiveness or ideology, not the fault of their own, or intrinsic differences;

    2) it assures allies that there are not so much honest differences in our relationship as much as agreement that Bush et al were toxic (as if Germany otherwise would have fought well in Afghanistan, and now of course will);

    3) it has a short shelf life: we are into the second month of the Obama administration and have seen really nothing new abroad other than the "we're not Bush";

    4) it only sets up more of the same hypocrisy of what we have seen—hubris leading to nemesis—as inevitably in the bad/worse choices to come, Ms. Clinton will find herself often simply continuing existing (Bush) policy, and so like Obama on rendition, FISA the Patriot Act, Iraq, etc. adopt what she trashed;

    5) very quickly Team Obama is using up their good will, as the American people are now quite aware of the tired modus operandi—talk of unity, togetherness, bipartisanship, and then trash your predecessor to lower expectations and magnify your own agenda.

    ReplyDelete
  47. We could grow our beef with all their farts out there, al-Bob, and gorge ourselves in Pristine
    Greenness free of Greenhouse Gases.tm

    An Intergalactic Meat Farm,
    as it were.

    ReplyDelete
  48. In the second half of this Radio Ecoshock Show: guest host KMO (host of C-Realm Podcast) interviews Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of "The Upside of Down" & now "Carbon Shift".

    I think this is a really important interview. Homer-Dixon explains how collapse is part of Nature, and how that might apply to our current economic collapse. It's something I hadn't thought of - although I'm not sure I agree with Homer-Dixon's apparent conclusions. What do you think?

    Homer-Dixon is one of the few thinkers to really draw Peak Oil, climate change, and economic collapse together in a coherent way. I'm happy that Kay Emmo does such a good job with the interview, sitting back when it counts, to get answers to deep questions. That's one of the things I enjoy about "KMO's" podcasts. He gets great guests - and manages to get them enthused about their topic on air. Most of them thank HIM for the interview! Me too.

    KMO's efforts also show what a group effort Radio Ecoshock has become. I've had so many great tips from listeners - and I'm pleasantly suprised at what a talented bunch of communicators listen to the show. We have enviro journalists, politicians, scientists, activists, bloggers, radio people, a whole gang of people. I recognize that many of my listeners have more expertise, or talent, than I do. Thanks for the tips people send by email. The address is in the show.

    http://www.ecoshock.org/2009/02/economy-of-climate-burn.html

    http://snipurl.com/bxr4v
    ==

    Very interesting interview indeed. Highly recommended listening.

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  49. Bob, when you find that gun legislation information, I'd be glad to learn it.

    ReplyDelete
  50. “People of the world,”

    But what happens when there’s no default setting? Rick Salutin is certainly right that the young Obamatrons do not identify with “the West.” On the other hand, they seem unaware that the multicultural frisson they get such a kick out of is a unicultural phenomenon. To discard “the West” with nary a thought is to reject not race but the civilization that built the modern world, and the even smaller group of countries within it that have demonstrated any sustained tradition of liberty. Like Ignatieff, Lee, and Gandhi, Obama is a product of that relatively narrow tradition, whether his squealing Obammysoxers know it or not.

    Mr. Salutin is insouciant about a planet in which “Western civilization” is an archaism. Lee Kuan Yew thinks we are merely restoring the Euro-Asian balance of power as it existed before the rise of the European empires. And gloomier fellows like yours truly think that in the twilight of the West all kinds of malevolent forces will arise. Asked what he thought of “Western civilization,” Gandhi supposedly replied it would be a good idea. Ha ha. Wonder if it’ll sound as funny a few decades hence.

    ReplyDelete
  51. "Homer-Dixon is one of the few thinkers to really draw Peak Oil, climate change, and economic collapse together in a coherent way"
    ----
    How do you tie something together that does not exist?
    (Climate Change)

    ReplyDelete
  52. How do you tie something together that does not exist?
    (Climate Change)
    ==

    Hmm,.. When was the last time 200 Ozzies got incinerated in a mega fire storm?

    ReplyDelete
  53. All the climate-killed pine forests of British Columbia will also burn. Vast valleys of dead trees await the heat and the spark.

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  54. "Once mass awareness occurs,"
    ---
    How long shall we wait?

    ReplyDelete
  55. "Hmm,.. When was the last time 200 Ozzies got incinerated in a mega fire storm?"
    ---
    MORON!

    ReplyDelete
  56. MORON!
    ==

    I was asking a question. Is it common? I don't know.

    ReplyDelete
  57. How long shall we wait?
    ==

    That depends on you.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Sam has said they're calling these fires 'crime scenes', implying the fires were purposefully set.

    ReplyDelete
  59. "I was asking a question. Is it common? I don't know."
    ---
    I could ask how many Chinamen live in Vancouver.
    That is a question, also.

    ...What does it have to do with "Climate Change?"

    ReplyDelete
  60. What does it have to do with "Climate Change?"
    ==

    That's another good question. We need more awareness and greater consciousness of these issues.

    ReplyDelete
  61. A Chamberlain Moment
    Geert Wilders is deported from England for daring to tell the truth about radical Islam.
    More>

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  62. That's why I asked for your healing Crystals, Mat!
    What's the hangup?
    My Conciousness is waiting...

    "Conciousness on Hold"
    A Victim's Account

    ReplyDelete
  63. Awareness and Conciousness
    WTF?

    ReplyDelete
  64. And Doug, my healing crystals are mine. Go get your own. This isn't communist Russia here!

    ReplyDelete
  65. 54. blert:

    The cultural inflection point seems to be Ras Tanura… 1968…

    Is it Peak Oil or Peak Islam…?

    BTW Ras Tanura seems maxxed out as an export terminal: not enough room and the Ultra Large Crude Carriers have too much draft for the Gulf.

    The typical American well gets a life extension via water flood. But it has to be pretty much fresh water: salt screws up the bearing layer.

    Aramco does not have access to cheap fresh water, and never will. So her production curves are unlikely to track with conventional experience.

    Don’t be shocked to find out that Iraq completely displaces KSA within one generation as the world’s swing producer.

    Iran at least can drain the Shat to flood her fields. But that is an expensive proposition and so Iran is destined to have profit margins as impaired as Venezuela.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Now, perhaps in the case of Jewish religious sites, the jihadi threat is amplified, but attacks upon Jewish centers are few and far between, as compared to attacks upon Christian Churches. At least on the face of it. That church in Alaska being on of the latest to make national headlines, but there are many instances where church fires do not make it above the fold


    Not to say my "victimhoodness" is greater than yours...

    The NUMBER of Churches in the USA is staggering, the number of Jewish Centers (all from worship to workout) is at most a rounding error as compared to the number of churches...

    In our city, churches do not have armed guards as typical security on a daily basis, every jewish center in my city does...

    As for criminal activity being more likely than jihadists as the reason for owning a gun?

    Each citizen has it's own (pardon the pun) cross to bear...

    In LA you have gangs, in AZ and TX you have illegals, so it's not to say what is the crime/jihadist/klan that provokes the self arming...

    It's the fact that it's the right of all citizens, who are not felons, to protect themselves from harm....

    that is WHY i support the concept that colleges, churches, schools & day cares all have the right to have personal that be trained and armed in quiet ways

    ReplyDelete
  67. That proportionality may get beyond 'the face of it', wi"o", but other than the Community Center in CA, a few years back, I cannot think of an attack on a Jewish center that's made it above the fold. Perhaps the El-Al ticket counter, but the authorities said that was not a terrorist incident, no jihadi, there.

    I am speaking of the US, not Egypt, Argentina, England or Israel.

    That the Jewish folk live in fear, that may be justified or it may be just be fear for the sake of fearing fear, itself.

    But certainly, take my advice, arm up, be prepared. But do not think that posting a sign gives one a license to shoot trespassers and miscreants.

    If there is evidence of attacks on Jewish centers in the US, that be a different set of facts than anyone has presented, yet.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Two weeks ago, there was an arson attempt on a synagogue in Amsterdam’s southern district. Since Operation ‘Cast Lead’, security on Jewish community property has been stepped up.

    "In the last month, there were as many anti-Semitic incidents as there were throughout 2007 and what worries me the most is that they are of a much more serious nature," says Ronny Naftaniel, director of Centre Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI). Naftaniel, who is currently in Israel, added, "If anti-Semites have a gun, that goes a step further than an arson attempt.

    That is bad, but anyone can."


    No Injuries

    ReplyDelete
  69. Many Venezuelans got up early on Sunday for the referendum, and President Chavez's supporters roamed the streets in cars and motorcycles loaded with loudspeakers and fireworks.

    Nearly 17 million people are expected to cast their votes on Sunday. If the constitutional amendment proposed by President Chavez was approved, he would be able to run for another presidential term in 2012.

    Chavez was first elected in 1998 and reelected in 2006. The constitution was amended one year after his first election to allow him to run for a second term.


    Referendum Begins

    ReplyDelete
  70. ISLAMABAD – Pakistani officials reached a peace deal with a Taliban-linked group Sunday that could lead to the enforcement of Islamic law in a part of the country that is supposed to be fully under government control.

    Militants in the Swat Valley responded by declaring a 10-day cease-fire as a goodwill gesture.

    The agreement is expected to be formally announced Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Deteriorating security in the nuclear-armed country has included a string of attacks on foreigners.

    U.N. officials said Sunday they were still trying to establish contact with the kidnappers of an American employee seized Feb. 2 in the southwest city of Quetta. On Friday, John Solecki's kidnappers threatened to kill him within 72 hours and issued a 20-second video of the blindfolded captive.

    It was unclear exactly when the deadline would expire, and U.N. officials said Sunday they were still trying to establish contact with the kidnappers, who identify themselves as the previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front. The name indicates the group is more likely linked to separatists than to Islamists.


    Islamic Law

    ReplyDelete
  72. I said before that eventually we would make a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Let's see how this goes in Pakistan. It will be a miracle given:
    The Swat Taliban's version of Islamic law is especially harsh. They have declared a ban on female education, forced women to stay mostly indoors and clamped down on many forms of entertainment.

    Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the militants would adhere to any deal reached with the group if Islamic law is implemented in the region.

    He also announced the 10-day cease-fire.

    "We reserve the right to retaliate if we are fired upon," he said. "Once Islamic law is imposed, there will be no problems in Swat. The Taliban will lay down their arms."


    Somehow I doubt it.
    Pakistan truce includes enforcement of Islamic law

    ReplyDelete
  73. I believe I recall an attack on a Jewis center in Seattle some time ago. But maybe I don't.
    ------

    If forest fires were caused by global warming, we here led the wave in 1910 when damn near half the state burned:)

    So this warming stuff was going on before the auto got going good.


    The Great Palouse Earthworm has obviously gone deep deep undercover in the soils to escape warming, which is why no one I know has ever seen one, even some of the folks that broke out original Palouse Prairie.

    None of my views are ever accepted by the other scientists. We need a 'paradign change'.

    ReplyDelete
  74. You recall correctly, Bob. I think it was in Ballard.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Some of the guns were purposely rigged to suddenly fire blanks — a signal to the officers to practice dropping a jammed weapon and immediately draw their semiautomatic pistols and keep shooting. When the shooting stopped, the range was littered with shell casings and empty magazines.

    The exercise was another sign of a new era in policing, said Assistant Chief George Anderson, commanding officer of the police academy.

    "We've always been prepared to deal with criminals, not terrorists," Anderson said. "Now we have to go to the next level."


    Training Program

    ReplyDelete
  76. That the Israeli have killed 1.7million not yet born Jews, just another piece of info on a link from Sam's link.

    You'd think that a country fighting a demographic battle with the jihadi would want every baby born, if the Israeli were patriotic to their City-State and not worried of their own economic position, fearful of raising their own children because of the costs involved.

    1.7 million, out of a population of 7 million, that's 20% or so. Gotta discount the 1.5 million Arabs from that 7 million. No wonder the demographics shape up so poorly, for the Israeli.

    They have killed so many of their own.

    Immigration is not making up the difference, for the Israeli,they had better gets those babies on the ground, they will need to outlaw abortion to save their City-State.

    ReplyDelete
  77. How do you tie something together that does not exist?
    (Climate Change)


    With green ribbon, Doug.

    ReplyDelete
  78. la jewish center..

    seattle jewish center

    shooting attacks in NYC...

    el al counter...

    chicago schuls last week firebombed

    and as for your "above the fold" ref.. most attacks, firebombings, spraypainting, death threats are handled quietly...

    The number of actual jihadist threats are real..

    regardless of my liking the idea of posting no trespassing on 22k acre ranches in texas, i am armed as are everyone of our jewish centers...

    I just wish i could get MORE weapons and training for our staff...

    LA & Seattle were wake up calls...

    I like the idea of citizens trained and legally ready to protect ourselves...

    IF a jihadi comes a shooting I will shoot back..

    that is LEGAL i am sure...

    ReplyDelete
  79. The couple who live in New York have been visiting Mumbai ever since the tragedy in an effort to gather funds to restore the Nariman house building as a memorial for their son and his wife. The Chabad Lubavitch movement is expected to cost over 2 million dollars.

    But despite the overwhelming number of emails and support for the family, pouring in from across the world, Rabbi Nachman feels India needs to play a more active role in helping them in their mission.

    “We need help from India because my son stayed here and offered his services,” said the grieving father.


    Baby Moshe's Grandparents

    ReplyDelete
  80. That was the attack I was referring to, thought it was in CA, not WA.
    So one attack, in 2006, have there been others, in the United States?

    No jihadi terrorist conspiracy, just a wacko with a gun.

    ReplyDelete
  81. There was one in CA, San Francisco, about two years ago. Began close to downtown, and the rampage moved out California St to the Richmond District. Ended very near a Jewish Community Center. The whole of the area of the violence seemed to be within Jewish neighborhoods, as I recall. Authorities quickly squelched any links to muslims, and the muslim perp was described as a "troubled" person. He was from across the bay, so perhaps it was just civic rivalry?

    ReplyDelete
  82. No jihadi terrorist conspiracy, just a wacko with a gun.


    no if you add in all the arrests of the failed plots it shows that they are not just wackos with a gun but community supported wackos some sent on international missions, some sent on domestic...

    so many that you never heard of in the mainstream press that it's scary..

    just google the key words...

    ReplyDelete
  83. Another "disturbed muslim youth" terrorized a regional shopping mall in Rockford, Illinois a little after the San Francisco incident. Just another wacko, nothing to see, keep moving along...

    ReplyDelete
  84. Mohammed and Malvo, just two more wackos. No conspiracy there, either, just uncommon extortionists, not jihadi, despite the USArmy veterans namesake.
    Or so the Federals tells us.

    Those two miscreants, no Glock would have made a difference, they were shooting from cover, at distance.

    If the Sauds or any of the monied Arab jihadi sponsors were really working at striking the US, it'd have been done. Using the Muslim network that has been developed in the Federal prisons there is ample access to the manpower and the viciousness required. $500,000 to a million USD would buy a heck of a lot a havoc.

    The Gangs of America have over a million members, so there are a plentiful number of recruits, and have been.

    Does not seem to be the desire.
    Truth be known, or there'd have been visible action.
    If it really were a War and not criminal crossborder raids.

    ReplyDelete
  85. LT:


    Researchers shed new light on connection between brain and loneliness

    By BJS
    Created 02/15/2009 - 08:59

    Social isolation affects how people behave as well as how their brains operate, a study at the University of Chicago shows.

    The research, presented Sunday at a symposium, "Social Emotion and the Brain," at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the first to use fMRI scans to study the connections between perceived social isolation (or loneliness) and activity in the brain. Combining fMRI scans with data relevant to social behavior is part of an emerging field examining brain mechanisms—an approach to psychology being pioneered at the University of Chicago.

    Researchers found that the ventral striatum—a region of the brain associated with rewards—is much more activated in non-lonely people than in the lonely when they view pictures of people in pleasant settings. In contrast, the temporoparietal junction—a region associated with taking the perspective of another person—is much less activated among lonely than in the non-lonely when viewing pictures of people in unpleasant settings.

    "Given their feelings of social isolation, lonely individuals may be left to find relative comfort in nonsocial rewards," said John Cacioppo, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Professor in Psychology at the University. He spoke at the briefing along with Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the University.

    The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region.

    Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said. Decety is one of the nation's leading researchers to use fMRI scans to explore empathy.

    They were among five co-authors of a paper, "In the Eye of the Beholder: Individual Differences in Perceived Social Isolation Predict Regional Brain Activation to Social Stimuli," published in the current issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

    In the study, 23 female undergraduates were tested to determine their level of loneliness. While in an fMRI scanner, the subjects were shown unpleasant pictures and human conflict as well as pleasant things such as money and happy people.

    The subjects who rated as lonely were least likely to have strong activity in their ventral striata when shown pictures of people enjoying themselves.

    Although loneliness may be influence brain activity, the research also suggests that activity in the ventral striatum may prompt feelings of loneliness, Decety said. "The study raises the intriguing possibility that loneliness may result from reduced reward-related activity in the ventral striatum in response to social rewards."

    In addition to differing responses in the ventral striatum, the subjects also recorded differing responses in parts of the brain that indicated loneliness played a role in how their brain operates.

    Joining Decety and Cacioppo in writing the Journal of Cognitive Science paper were Catherine Norris, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Dartmouth College; George Monteleone, a graduate student at the University of Chicago; and Howard Nusbaum, Chair of Psychology at the University of Chicago.

    Decety and Cacioppo discussed the new field of brain mechanism in a paper in the current issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, "What Are the Brain Mechanisms on Which Psychological Processes are Based?" The new field extends the work of Charles Darwin, who "regarded the brain as a product of evolution and the science of psychology as concerned with these foundations," they wrote.

    By studying brain mechanisms, researchers hope to gain new insights by examining mental activities surrounding consciousness, perception and thought through an understanding of how columns of neurons stacked next to each other form elementary circuits to function as a unit, they wrote.

    New visualization tools such as three-dimensional imaging will help scholars develop a new way of studying psychology, they said.

    "Psychological science in the 21st century can, and should, become not only the science of overt behavior, and not only the science of the mind, but also the science of the brain," they concluded.


    http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/print/18647

    http://snipurl.com/by7tn

    ReplyDelete
  86. The Coming Swarm...We need to get smaller, closer and quicker

    the individual is the smallest, closest, and quickest

    this article could very well describe Hezbollah operations during an Iranian confrontation with the U.S.

    Interesting that it is in the NY Times

    ReplyDelete
  87. obviously,the author disagrees with the analysis provided by some in this thread

    ReplyDelete
  88. The folks in most of the "failed plots" were not competent players, wi"o".

    Not the same caliber as the boys running drug convoys from Sinola, I'll guarantee that.

    Headlines for show trials, most of those fellows. Even the first Twin Towers bombers, going back for the deposit on the truck ...
    Bunch of incompetent idiots

    Just plain poor tradecraft.
    Not military or covert action by trained personnel.

    Was the kid in the Mall a practicing muslim? Even if he was, he was acting alone. Not even a as gaudy or as organized as the Goth conspiracy at Columbine.
    The kid at Virgina Tech, another instance of a wacko, that was not Muslim, but deadlier.

    There is ample reason to take precautions, to be prepared against assualt, but the source of the danger is not Muslims, but criminals of all stripes.

    Matter of statistical fact.
    Mexicans are a bigger threat to public safety in the US than Muslims, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

    Muslims have not made Phoenix the "kidnap-for-ransom capital" of the U.S., Mexicans have.

    Muslims are not cruising the streets of the US, shooting Blacks, in an effort to ethnicly cleanse their neighborhoods.
    Mexicans are.

    They are, for the most part, Catholics.

    ReplyDelete
  89. elijah, that NYTimes piece is the topic of the thread.
    From the get go.

    Should we be arming every Afghan and Iraqi, then?

    Is that the solution or the source of the problem?

    ReplyDelete
  90. In a speech before the International Association of Chief of Police in November 2008, FBI Director Robert Mueller described the problem gangs pose in Chicago.

    "We are working closely with law enforcement in Chicago to combat gang violence," he said. "Chicago law enforcement estimates there are at least 60,000 gang members in the community -- far outnumbering police officers. There are hundreds of homicides each year, the majority of which are gang-related."

    ReplyDelete
  91. it is well known that the U.S. arms those viewed as allies

    if the U.S. was the only supplier of arms the question would be more appropriate, both regions are flush with weapons

    i think it is somewhat common sense that an individual would rather be armed than weaponless when being confronted by an armed attacker

    perhaps some of you may disagree

    ReplyDelete
  92. Ket's look to the success in Anbar as an example. When the goal the US was working towards was the displacement of tribal power centers with an series of nationally elected ones there was an inssurection.

    But when the US changed course and decided to ally with those existing local power centers, the tide turned.

    But those policies are subject to review, now, by the elected Iraqi Federals. Whether the government of Mr Maliki continues to ally with the "Awakened" Sunni remains to be seen.

    In Afghanistan the US sponsored an Islamic Republic, so our de facto position is that Islam is not the problem. It is a tribal, not religious conflict in both Iraq and to an even greater extent Afghanistan

    ReplyDelete
  93. Loneliness might be good for you, a search for God--

    "Beauregard's research involved using funtional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and qualitative electroencephalography(QEEG) to observe what was happening in the brains of Carmelite nuns while they were in a state of contemplation or meditation. Contemplation is a major part of Carmelite nuns' activity, as they often live in cloisters with little contact with the outside world. Because many of them said they previously had mystival experiences, he asked them to try to reach that state or imagine what it was like while in that state. The control or baseline for comparison was asking them to imagine an intense state of union with another human being. Previous research had shown that the brain often activates the same areas when thinking about any past experience as when going through the original experience. Beauregard found that, by comparison, with controls, multiple areas of the nuns' brains were activated and that no specific spot in the brain was activated. (Some materialists have suggested a singular "God Spot" that supposedly is "responsible" for mystical experiences, although they have contradicted themselves as to exactly where the "God Spot" is located) Although these nuns were cloistered contemplatives, the authors noted thet "people who have Religious, Spiritual or Mystical Experiences, far from being out of touch, are typically mentally and physically healthy" and score high on scales of psychological well-being. They noted that Abraham Maslow spoke of mystical experiences as "perfectly normal human peak experiences".

    Beauregard and O'Leary's conclusion was that the mind is separate from the brain...."

    Journal of Near-Death Studies Fall 2008

    Be careful who you don't hang out with:)

    ReplyDelete
  94. There are also ways to minimize long-term destabilizing effects of these policies. Arming tribes does not mean weapons will be distributed chaotically.

    As the Sons of Iraq program progressed, the United States did a decent job of keeping track of armaments that were distributed - that made it easier to later incorporate participants into the Iraqi security forces, or send them to vocational schools as an alternative to militia activity.

    There is no guarantee that an Awakening will work in Afghanistan. Nor would it be implemented uniformly, as there are great variations among the country's regions.


    Afghan Awakening

    ReplyDelete
  95. In Afghanistan the US sponsored an Islamic Republic, so our de facto position is that Islam is not the problem. It is a tribal, not religious conflict in both Iraq and to an even greater extent Afghanistan

    Sure, but what were we to do--sponsor a Mormon Temple Movement?

    Unless you're going to kill them all you got to work with what's there, and it's tribal, islamic and complex, and gears get shifted. Maliki seems to have come out something ahead in the recent elections running as a kind of secularist.

    ReplyDelete
  96. North Korea's going to test O by shooting a missile our way, a British and a French nuclear submarine crash into one another, and the Chavez vote is close....


    Britain had just launched a really advanced nuclear submarine a year or so ago, I was talking to a naval guy that rents from me about it, supposed to track the Queen Mary into New York Harbor from England, leave's a signiture the size of a dolphin, has some kind of stealth covering....hope it's not that one.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Forgot the link--

    Collision Under The Sea

    That picture of the front of the Vanguard looks like what I remember seeing, sort of.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Maybe that isn't the one, that's called the Astute, I'm confused.

    ReplyDelete
  99. The long-range missile, called the Taepodong-2 outside North Korea, is designed for military purposes and has a potential 6,700 km (4,200 mile) range that could take it as far as Alaska, experts have said. It was last tested in 2006 and blew apart seconds after launch.

    The North has been assembling a Taepodong-2 and could test-fire it as early as Feb. 25, South Korea's largest newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, reported last week quoting intelligence sources. The possible test will likely be high on the agenda of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who starts a trip to Asia on Monday.

    North Korea has rejected the term Taepodong, which is the name of the area known as its missile launch site, and instead refers to its longer-range missiles, including the one launched in 2006, as Kwangmyongsong.


    Launching Missiles

    ReplyDelete
  100. No, bob, you transplant the Federalist Papers to Afghanistan, and Iraq and create secular Republics, not Islamic ones.

    Transplant the first amendment to our own Constitution, bob.

    We are spending blood and treasure but not extending the revolution, we are not expanding or subsidizing American values.

    So we will fail, pretty much regardless of the tactics, because our strategy is fundementally flawed, especially in a "Battle of Ideas" where we cede the center of the intellectual field.

    As far as the Sons of Iraq go, my how the marketing of the 1920 Revolution Brigades has evolved ...
    Anyway, Mr Maliki is going to cut them off the gravy train and we are leaving. Both the links are from Sep and Oct 08, latest available copy I could find on the subject.

    The alliance of the U.S. military with Sunni sheikhs who had formerly opposed the U.S. occupation saw tens of thousands of fighting-age Sunni males organized into groups of "Concerned Local Citizens." These militiamen, later renamed "Sons of Iraq" by the U.S. military, have acted at the local level to protect villages and neighborhoods against AQI infiltration.

    However, with AQI ranks now decimated, the Sunni insurgency on the wane, and the Iraqi government aiming to gain a monopoly on the use of force in the country, members of the 100,000-strong Sons of Iraq, who are now paid $300 a month by the Defense Department, must be gainfully employed elsewhere.

    Last year, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, agreed to integrate 20 percent of the Sons of Iraq into the Iraqi army and police. U.S. policy calls for providing jobs or at least vocational training to the rest of the Sons of Iraq.

    However, Colin Kahl, an Iraq analyst with the Center for a New American Security who traveled to Iraq in early August at the invitation of U.S. commanders, says Prime Minister Maliki's government is "slow-rolling" the integration of Sunni Sons of Iraq into the Iraqi Security Forces. Of the 16,000 Sons of Iraq who have been approved for integration by U.S. officials, the Maliki administration had integrated just 600 as of early last month, Kahl told reporters Aug. 13.

    "Maliki has no interest in integrating these guys -- none," Kahl said. "He thinks they're thugs; he thinks they're hooligans. . . . In fact, there's some evidence that he's trying to pick fights with them, hoping that they will start a fight that he can then turn around and finish them."


    That assessment of Maliki's intentions is seconded by Wayne White, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute, a former State Department intelligence analyst, and an adviser to the congressionally chartered Iraq Study Group. White said this week that Maliki's government views most of the Sons of Iraq as criminals opposed to the Iraq government, and has little interest in reconciling with them, much less allowing them to be part of the Iraqi Security Forces.

    White pointed to recent reports of Awakening militias rejoining the insurgency, as well as reports that Prime Minister Maliki has directed the arrest of some Sons of Iraq leaders, as reasons to worry that the tenuous deal between Sunni fighters and the American government -- which, he noted, Maliki's government bitterly opposed from the beginning -- may not hold.


    The above citation and a similar analysis

    Risky business, a strong Maliki Federal government, in Iraq.

    Alleviate that problem in Afghanistan if we begin to ignore the government we emplaced, there.

    ReplyDelete
  101. I'm too tired, I misread the article, both made it to port..

    Goodnight.

    ReplyDelete
  102. In 1659 the first known British cheque (for £10) was written by Nicholas Vanacker.

    in 1959 Fidel Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba.

    in 1960 the American nuclear submarine USS Triton set off on an underwater round-the-world voyage.


    2/16

    ReplyDelete
  103. While the SOP for Conflict Resolution calls for imposing a cease fire and disarming the combatants.

    Not further arming the militias.

    It'll be something to watch, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Why the Stimulus Plan won't Work
    "Take the New Deal. According to the economists Christina Romer, chair of Mr. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, and David Romer, New Deal spending did not pull the economy out of recession. In a 1992 Journal of Economic History paper, the Romers examined the role that aggregate demand stimulus played in ending the Great Depression. They concluded: "A simple calculation indicates that nearly all of the observed recovery of the U.S. economy prior to 1942 was due to monetary expansion. Huge gold inflows in the mid- and late-1930s swelled the U.S. money stock and appear to have stimulated the economy by lowering real interest rates and encouraging investment spending and purchases of durable goods.""

    ReplyDelete
  105. Loneliness might be good for you, a search for God-
    ==

    There'll be plenty of time to search for God when we're dead. No need to rot our brains on that when we're alive.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Most of the analysis of the Iraqi election puts Maliki in command of the Shia areas of Iraq, but still requiring the support of either Sadr or the Supreme Council.

    The Sunni areas have not chosen a frontman, yet. There the electoral results leave them leaderless.

    Though Maliki won a plurality of votes in the Shiite provinces, in most of those his share of the vote was eclipsed by those who voted either for the Sadrists or the Supreme Council, the two Shiite parties most closely associated with sectarian violence. Maliki's group likely will have to form coalitions with those groups in order to govern.

    The secularist Iraqiya list of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi did poorly, coming a distant fourth in Baghdad and seventh in Basra. The Sunni Islamic Party, also blamed by many Iraqis for fomenting sectarian violence, led the field in two of the four mostly Sunni provinces where Allawi had hoped to do well, Salahuddin and Diyala.

    But in two other Sunni provinces, secularists dominated:

    •In Nineveh, a newly formed local group, al Hadba, made up mostly of Sunni nationalists, won with 48 percent of the vote, affirming the province's Sunni identity over the Kurds who had previously controlled the local legislature because Sunnis boycotted in 2005.

    •In hotly contested Anbar province, where tribal leaders had accused the Islamic Party of fraud, results put the Islamic Party in third place. A secularist group led by Sunni leader Saleh al-Mutlaq came first, with 17.6 percent, followed by the tribal Awakening movement with 17.1 percent, a result that already has eased tensions.

    ReplyDelete
  107. ...it's a shame them drug-running wetbacks caint do the 2,000 mile crawl.
    Damn Shame.

    ReplyDelete
  108. (don'teven have an excuse for a murse!)

    ReplyDelete
  109. Decapitation is not big news, doug.
    Nor is it an Islamic peculurarity, exclusively.

    None of these headlines cover Mexicoor Brazil, where Catholics are choppin' heads off by the score. Or in Kenya, where a journalist was found without his head. No, these are the US stories, from todays' Google News, of decapitations.

    5-year-old murder victim was decapitated
    Daily Press, VA - Feb 12, 2009
    BY MIKE HOLTZCLAW | 757-928-6479 VIRGINIA BEACH - The 5-year-old boy apparently killed by his father in Virginia Beach this week was decapitated, the state ...


    Maybe it is in the water, at VA Tech

    Chinese student decapitated at Virginia Tech
    AFP - Jan 22, 2009
    WASHINGTON (AFP) — A female Chinese graduate student was decapitated by a fellow student in a campus cafe at Virginia Tech, the scene of the worst school ...


    This one dates back, but was carried on todays News search

    Dolowy disappearance marks 24 years
    La Crosse Tribune, WI - Feb 13, 2009
    Her decapitated and burning body was found in a rural northwestern Vernon County ditch four days later. At least 15 investigators worked the homicide over ...


    Out in NJ they are loppin off noggins, too

    Reward offered in case of decapitated swan
    Newsday, NY - Jan 29, 2009
    LITTLE SILVER, NJ - A $500 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of whoever beheaded a swan in Little Silver last December. ...


    Another animal case

    Authorities find tenth decapitated goat
    The Northwest Florida Daily News, FL - Feb 2, 2009
    FORT WALTON BEACH -- A tenth decapitated goat was found Monday morning on a vacant lot on the northwest side of town. The goat was the smallest victim yet ...


    Beheading a victim, is no big thing, happened twice in VA, this past month, alone.
    No big story, above the fold.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Gunmen kill 12 in Mexico, including 5 children
    8 hours ago

    TABASCO, Mexico (AP) — Gunmen have killed a state police officer and 10 members of his family, including five children, authorities said Sunday.

    ...

    In Mexico City, authorities on Saturday found the decomposing bodies of two women in the trunk of a car that had been abandoned for at least a week, the Reforma newspaper reported.

    A city investigator told the newspaper that the women had been decapitated and the heads left inside a cooler in the back seat of the car.


    He said one of the women had been arrested in 1999 for the kidnapping of nine relatives of an alleged drug dealer.

    More than 6,000 people died last year in a wave of drug-related violence.

    ReplyDelete
  111. Catholic head choppers, at it again

    GUADALUPE, CHIHUAHUA -- City employees found the decapitated heads of two men outside City Hall Tuesday morning, according to a spokesman with the Chihuahua State Police.

    At this point, investigators have not identified the victims and are trying to determine if the heads belong to police officers from the nearby town of Praxedis that were kidnapped Saturday.

    State police officials said five Praxedis police officers were kidnapped Saturday along with their newly-instated police chief: 62-year-old Manuel Castro Martinez.

    Monday, Martinez's head was found inside an ice chest at the Praxedis City Hall. The discovery led to the resignation of several police officers in both towns.


    ReplyDelete
  112. Mexican Meltdown: America’s Most Imminent Threat
    Human Events, DC - Feb 9, 2009
    In December, a police chief and eight soldiers were found decapitated in the state of Guerrer.
    Last month in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, ...

    ReplyDelete
  113. Killer dad was depressed, psychiatrist testifies
    Vancouver Sun, Canada - Feb 6, 2009
    A man who strangled and decapitated his 27-month-old daughter last year had been suffering from very severe depression for three years, ...

    ReplyDelete
  114. Long as it don't interrupt my supply of TABASCO, I'll muddle through.
    Man I love that stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  115. Men convicted in slayings of 3 immigrant children get hearing
    Baltimore Sun, United States - Jan 27, 2009
    The children were murdered in a Baltimore apartment in May 2004. One was beheaded, and the other two were nearly decapitated.


    The Associated Press
    5:30 PM EST, January 27, 2009
    A judge who sentenced two illegal Mexican immigrants to life without parole for murdering three young Baltimore children is expected to testify in a fact-finding hearing that defense attorneys hope will lead to a new trial.

    The hearing that began today in Baltimore Circuit Court regards whether all jury notes in the 2006 trial were given to defense attorneys for Adan Canela and Policarpio Espinoza. They were convicted of murdering 8-year-old Lucero Espinoza, her 9-year-old brother Ricardo, and her 10-year-old male cousin, Alexis Espejo Quezada. One child was beheaded and the other two nearly decapitated in their Baltimore apartment in May 2004.

    ReplyDelete
  116. We oughta get Mark Steyn to read your links 'Rat.
    Ya think them Muzzies got into our heads somehow?
    Heads definitely seem to be implicated, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  117. I never felt the urge, myself, no matter what my murderous thots were.
    Must be some sort of deficiency.

    ReplyDelete
  118. Mark Steyn, much as I enjoy reading his work, has an agenda.

    It revolves around Islam.

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  120. Seems to apply in Britain, here he could better put more focus south of the border.

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  124. He just doesn't realise it yet.

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  127. Now I'll be the first to admit there is a bad situation, in Pakistan, but no one can walk from Swat Valley to Phoenix, same cannot be said for Sinola, Mexico.
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