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."

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Assassins and Criminals



There is a very dark and disturbing side to this story. It goes way beyond the use of the word "assassins" to describe the killers. It goes to the government that planned and executed this operation.

The more you read about this, the more outrageous it becomes.

Any government has a right to protect its citizens. It has a right to reach out and strike and kill its enemies.

It can send its soldiers in uniform or dressed to look like civilians or in the uniforms of others. It does not have the right to take the real identities of non-beligerant civilians and try and frame them for a crime.

An assassination is not necessarily a crime. Trying to make a killing appear to be the work of a specific person is criminal by anyone's definition.

It would be irresponsible for any ethical government to target innocent British and Irish citizens, clone their ID, use their real names and fake passports to put them at risk and peril in an assassination operation where the possibility of retaliation against them is high.

That is a criminal act and unjustifiable if done by a government.

What kind of government is so cynical and contemptuous of the rights of ordinary people?

What level of arrogance that so disregards the potential consequences to the future safety of the people whose identity was stolen?

These pictures are clearly of people with Middle Eastern roots. Are they Israeli or rival Palestinians?

If Israeli, and according to the procedures attributed to be used by Mossad, this type of operation must be signed off by the highest authority in Israel.

If it is proven that this is an Israeli operation, then Israel has a problem.

If this is not an Israeli operation, then we all have a problem because this group and those behind it can do just about anything anywhere.





142 comments:

  1. Well. Loathe as I am to begin OT when the T is as gravely controversial as a good old fashioned international mystery killing, I am going to do just that.

    On this last trip down to DC, my dear son sprung it on my dear husband that he intends on going to university in Bogota.

    And I do mean "sprung." This is the child who has insisted for fully eighteen months that he would sooner stick his head in the oven than promptly proceed with four more years of school - and who accordingly had been preparing himself for a stint with the Rangers, which he deemed in all ways the more pleasant of the two courses.

    ("Is this about Maria?"

    "I am insulted! Whatever would give you that idea?!"

    "Do you have a well thought out plan?"

    "I have a plan.")

    Ah. The joys of parenthood. They are never-ending. Neeeeeeeeever-ending.

    ("Like you're some cup of tea, Mom..."

    "Haha! I love you, too, sweetheart.")

    ReplyDelete
  2. And it doesn't at all strike me as an Israeli operation.

    So there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haaretz


    Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday said that there was no proof Israel's Mossad spy agency was behind the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month, after it emerged that some members of the hit squad involved in the killing had used the identities of foreign-born Israelis.

    Lieberman did not deny outright Israeli involvement in the killing of Hamas's Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel, saying only that Israel has a "policy of ambiguity" on intelligence matters and there was no proof it was behind the assassination.

    "There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief," Lieberman said when asked about the operation and the identity-theft.

    Rafi Eitan, a former government minister and high-ranking Mossad official, denied Israel's involvement flat-out.

    "The Mossad was not behind the assassination of Mahmoud el- Mabhouh, but rather a foreign organization that is trying to frame Israel," he told the radio station.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If Israel did it, it was stupid, criminal and sloppy. If done by the Palestinians, they are a lot more sophisticated than I thought.

    The Iranians trying to set up the Israelis?If so, their reach and audacity is shocking.

    ReplyDelete
  5. OT, What would I rather do at 18, go to Colombia with all those Latin beauties, one in particular, or go to Afghanistan?

    ReplyDelete
  6. "If Israel did it, it was stupid, criminal and sloppy."

    Emphasis on the sloppy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It *would* seem rather obvious, wouldn't it?

    I'll add that you can take your eighteen-year-old son out of a Latin American capitol city. You may never take the Latin American capitol city out of your son.

    We did have some inkling of this about a year before we left. As did he, surveying the comparatively dull landscape back in the States.






    If it's not one damn thing, it's another.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, it is the same Israel that could not get over the Litani River, in Lebanon.

    The Israeli have a criminal culture, by design, and have also gotten sloppy, over the past decade or two. As exemplified on the ground, in Lebanon.

    They maintain that any crime is mitigated by their "right" to occupy the property of others. They already operate, on a daily basis, in violation of the Geneva Accords.

    The Israeli government is already criminal, with this murder attack in Dubai, they may have just extended their global reach.

    It may be, though, that some other criminal conspiracy is a foot and responsible for the crime.

    ReplyDelete
  9. considering european support for hamas and its contempt for israel, who cares. those "innocent" euros should thank there government for its undying support for entities like hamas.

    ReplyDelete
  10. She moves like she don't care
    Smooth as silk, cool as air
    Ooh, it makes you wanna cry

    She doesn't know your name
    And your heart beats like a subway train
    Ooh, it makes you wanna die

    Ooh, don't you wanna take her
    Wanna make her all your own?

    Maria, you've gotta see her
    Go insane and out of your mind
    Latina, Ave Maria
    A million and one candlelights

    I've seen this thing before
    In my best friend and the boy next door
    Fool for love and full of fire

    Won't come in from the rain
    She's oceans running down the drain
    Blue as ice and desire

    Don't you wanna make her?
    Ooh, don't you wanna take her home?

    Maria, you've gotta see her
    Go insane and out of your mind
    Latina, Ave Maria
    A million and one candlelights

    Ooh, don't you wanna break her?
    Ooh, don't you wanna take her home?

    She walks like she don't care
    You wanna take her everywhere
    Ooh, it makes you wanna cry

    She's like a millionaire
    Walking on imported air
    Ooh it makes you wanna die

    Maria, you've gotta see her
    Go insane and out of your mind
    Latina, Ave Maria
    A million and one candlelights

    Maria, you've gotta see her
    Go insane and out of your mind
    Latina, Ave Maria
    A million and one candlelights

    Maria, you've gotta see her
    Go insane and out of your mind
    Latina, Ave Maria
    A million and one candlelights

    Maria, you've gotta see her
    Go insane and out of your mind
    Latina, Ave Maria
    A million and one candlelights

    ReplyDelete
  11. Amy Dearest - The Pancake House Puncher

    While living on Birch Lane in Ipswich, the couple called the police 14 times from 1999 to 2003.

    The gripes ranged from fearing that two of their daughters were missing, to a neighbor “creating a disturbance” by smoothing out hot top on his driveway.

    On June 25, 2000, Bishop went so far as to warn police her beef with local kids would “come to blows” if they didn’t stop playing basketball in front of her house.

    Bishop was charged with assault and battery for a March 2002 incident, in which an enraged Bishop unleashed a profanity-laced tirade against a mother whose child got the last booster seat at the Peabody International House of Pancakes, according to a Peabody police report.

    She yelled “I am Amy Bishop” and then punched the frightened mother in her head. When police questioned Bishop, she claimed to be the victim, the report stated.

    Prosecutors asked that Bishop, who received probation, take anger management classes. It is unclear if she did.

    …those inside the head blows are the unkindest blows of all.

    ReplyDelete
  12. oh dear me...

    Those illegal criminal Israelis....

    killing murderers...

    war crime violators...

    Killing Hamas terrorists that kidnap innocents, murder without fear of international law...

    thousands of rockets called "firecrackers"

    innocent hamas members traveling on fake passports buying weapons from iran to murder israelis...

    a billion dollars of weapons smuggled into gaza, fellow arabs tossed off of rooftops, knees broken, women murdered on a whim....

    and israel is the criminal enterprise for taking out a modern day nazi....


    my opinion?

    the world is telling israel that no matter what they do, they are criminals in the eyes of the world...

    in the end?

    the world will turn on it'sself since it is so full of crap....

    but if your a Hamas terrorist that has blood on his direct hands? Have FEAR, CRANKY old JEWISH MEN are going to get you....

    to the rest of the world?

    up yours.....

    ReplyDelete
  13. your taste is being questioned, now, doug-o.
    That was anything but beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yeah, but he's wearing a Vera Wang. That makes a world of difference.

    ReplyDelete
  15. how comical of rambo rat to call israeli society criminal considering his culture is the historical crime sydicate of all time.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sorry, wrong toots. I guess they all look alike while twirling in the air.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sometimes I wish Israel was as bad as rat says it is...

    The Israelis could in a second vaporize iran...

    Expel the 20% of arabs that live as citizens in israel and drive them into Jordan (the real palestine)

    they could cut off all those thousands of trucks of food & medicine that they deliver weekly to gaza and in fact cut off fuel supplies and water to boot...

    The could simply put in holes in the ground all captured terrorists and allow them to die a nice slow painful starvation death in 106 degrees...

    They could simply target the Lebanese water and power grids (as hezbollah targets israel) and cause a nice man-made disaster to the 1/2 million southern lebanese, take out that illegal dam on the litani (meant to strangle israel's water supply) and without much fanfare hit the ammo dumps located in the center of hundreds of villages all thru-out lebanon (talk about a nice fireworks show)...

    sometimes I wish rat was 2% correct about those criminal jews....

    why hasnt that ugly ass piece of shit dome of the rock not been blown up yet?

    one can only dream of hope and change...

    cranky old jews like me, walking around gaza with a nice german glock, asking the gazan citizen: Hamas or Fatah?

    If they answer Hamas? 3 in the head...

    If they answer Fatah? 3 in the balls....

    ah.... if only rat was correct....

    ReplyDelete
  18. In US culture and history, there is an ample amount of criminal behavior to be found, to be sure.

    But when those crimes occurred, they were often not crimes.

    Progress anon, that is progress.
    Now we see a genicide, and call it that.
    Except in the Congo or Armenia, then it is something else.

    That is the beauty of crimes, there is no single, historical, whirled standard.

    There is only the current US Standard, as articulated by GHW Bush, at the UN in 1972. The Israeli were and are in violation of the Geneva Accords, of 1949.

    Which, in part, creates the current legal standard the US operates under.

    ReplyDelete
  19. rat says:

    There is only the current US Standard, as articulated by GHW Bush, at the UN in 1972. The Israeli were and are in violation of the Geneva Accords, of 1949.



    so in rat's mind, israel is a criminal for violations of Geneva 1949..

    Fine...

    Israel should then just murder every palestinian in one day, and thus...

    would still be in criminal violation of Geneva 1949...

    it's like catholic sin and george carlin (circa 1978)

    i
    'Cause that's what they taught us; it's what's in your mind that counts; your intentions, that's how we'll judge you. What you want to do. Mortal sin had to be a grievous offense, sufficient reflection and full consent of the will. Ya had'ta WANNA! In fact, WANNA was a sin all by itself. "Thou Shalt Not WANNA". If you woke up in the morning and said, "I'm going down to 42nd street and commit a mortal sin!" Save your car fare; you did it, man! Absolutely!
    It was a sin for you to wanna feel up Ellen. It was a sin for you to plan to feel up Ellen. It was a sin for you to figure out a place to feel up Ellen. It was a sin to take Ellen to the place to feel her up. It was a sin to try to feel her up and it was a sin to feel her up. There were six sins in one feel, man!



    So if your guilty already....

    Go for the full fuck...

    you're already convicted by the Rat's of the world away way....

    ReplyDelete
  20. The answers, "misdirection" is that the Israeli cannot even handle Lebanon, or Gaza, let alone take on Iran.

    That is the reality.

    Life is catching up to them, they have lost their "edge".

    To a great extent, so has the US, but in our case, there are no real threats. Not so for the Israelis. They are threaten both internally and externally.

    To many Russians in Israel, now, for it to be anything but a little Kremlin on the Med.

    The Russian culture permeates Israel, what with over a million refugees immigrating from Russia.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Is that blue machine the Hemi?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them

    The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits).

    ReplyDelete
  23. COOL!
    Six speeds?
    Is that a MOPAR Part or outside supplier?

    ReplyDelete
  24. WiO: It was a sin for you to wanna feel up Ellen. It was a sin for you to plan to feel up Ellen. It was a sin for you to figure out a place to feel up Ellen. It was a sin to take Ellen to the place to feel her up. It was a sin to try to feel her up and it was a sin to feel her up. There were six sins in one feel, man!

    Not to mention that Portia de Rossi would kick your ass for feeling Ellen up.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Doug, why are you doing Karaoke with Blondie songs?

    ReplyDelete
  26. I decided to live dangerously.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Rat fails to understand that the Geneva Accords are not a suicide pact. And although Israel ratified Protocol III in 2007, they have not ratified Protocol II against collective punishments, so they are not in violation of anything.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The average teacher’s salary at the high school ranges between $72,000 and $78,000 a year, because most are at the district’s top step, Gallo said.

    Union officials have been pushing for $90 per hour and want the district to pay for more of the additional responsibilities.
    Matter of Principle

    I commend the teachers' union for standing up for their principles. Indeed, I hope all public unions do the same.

    Those teachers now have time to reflect on whether $30 an hour for extra time on top of $90 an hour for regular time was such a bad deal.

    They also get to look for another job that pays $72,000 a year plus benefits. I suggest they look in the private sector so they obtain a much needed education on matters of principle.

    Mike "Mish" Shedlock
    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  29. The British Prime Minister said: ''We are looking at this at this very moment.''

    ''We have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care,'' he told London's LBC Radio.

    ''The evidence has got to be assembled about what has actually happened and how it happened and why it happened and it is necessary for us to accumulate that evidence before we can make statements.''

    Mr Brown spoke amid demands for the Israeli ambassador to be summoned to the Foreign Office to answer allegations that its security services were behind the assassination.
    Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, who is also a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Government should demand an urgent explanation.

    ''If the Israeli government was party to behaviour of this kind it would be a serious violation of trust between nations,'' he said.
    ''If legitimate British passport holders were put at risk it would be a disgrace."

    ''Given the current speculation, the Israeli government has some explaining to do and the ambassador should be summoned to the Foreign Office to do so in double-quick time.''

    ReplyDelete
  30. desert rat said...
    The answers, "misdirection" is that the Israeli cannot even handle Lebanon, or Gaza, let alone take on Iran.

    That is the reality.


    Notice rat's using rules for radical?

    Rat, can't stop himself attacking me and stay on issue...

    It's his jew hatred....


    as for what Israel can or can't do?

    They did fine in Lebanon, until AMERICA told them to stop... Hezbollah was shocked and admitted they would NEVER had kidnapped the Israelis if they knew Israel would have reacted the way they did... Did Israel remove Hezbollah? nope... was that the goal? nope....

    It's always great to read arm-chair monday morning quarterbacks that really are looking any ngle to trash Israel...

    Then look at Gaza...

    go ahead...

    Israel did just fine there as well....

    Could israel have caused more misery?

    yep...

    Did they get credit for trying not to cause misery?

    nope...

    Did the hamas fighters fight like a bunch of pussies?

    yep...

    Did the rockets stop?

    99% yep...

    Who does Hamas hurt the most? Israel or Arabs?

    ARABS

    As for Iran...

    Just how do you know how many set backs iran has had that are not reported in the news...

    Sure Iran is a major threat, and the world has chosen appeasement...

    But in the end, Israel can handle Iran, it just wont be pretty...

    Or maybe Israel already is handling Iran and we just dont know it...



    If you study the gaza and lebanese wars, coupled with the syrian issue you will find that the Israelis have been quite good at taking out long range missiles in the 1st 24 hours of these conflicts..

    Notice the nice history of israeli messages sent to syria via it's fighter jets (cutting thru-syria's NEW and improved anti-aircraft ((cost 1.2 billion)) to take out the iranian/nkor/syrian plutonium plant), the nice take out of hezbollah's #2 in damascus moments after he left an Iranian embassy in a secure area of damascus?)

    Rat you under estimate the IDF and the state of Israel...

    But nothing Israel will do will please you, so really I doubt they loose sleep trying....

    I will say this...

    as rat's pov takes hold in the world (and it has), criminal nations will use the UN to point fingers at Israel all in the name of democracy...

    One day soon, America will be in the docket when those same criminal nations will be pointing at us...

    ReplyDelete
  31. Megan McArdle

    What bankrupted Greece?
    It was the crippling cost of putting on the 2004 Summer Olympics.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Mopar. He had to order it special. He wanted just the basic six speed and six weeks after he ordered it they called him to tell him that the plant was shut down for four months. He went and looked at a Camaro but it didn't compare. They found this one but it's loaded. They gave him a good deal. There's definitely a difference between an automatic and a manual.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi am asasin i kill criminals

      Delete
  33. "misdirection" says that the Geneva Accords are not a suicide pact, and he is right.

    Israel existed within the pre-1967 borders, and could again.

    To return those lands stolen, is not suicide for Israel, just an inconvenience.

    A looter returning the loot.
    That is not suicide, but justice.

    ReplyDelete
  34. By "misdirection's" own definition, as he applied to MLD, the entire immigrant population of Israel are just looters.

    ReplyDelete
  35. There is the "Standard" he does not apply, evenly.

    ReplyDelete
  36. WiO

    I have an honest question and you can answer it or not. I was always told why do you keep going back for more but I just want your opinion.

    My neighbor at work is Jewish. Kosher, if that's of any significance. I do know what kosher means, though. He's a dark man with a heavy accent. So I asked him one day where he was from and he answered, Iran, but the good part of Iran.

    While, I don't contribute anything on geopolitics, I do read every one's comments. And it doesn't sound like there's any good part of Iran. Yeah, I could look it up and I do know there are Iranian Jews but I just wanted to hear your opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  37. New Camaro is ugly.
    Anyone over 18 should be embarassed to be seen in it.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Barrington doctor details life of curious cat
    BARRINGTON —

    Barrington resident Dr. David Dosa, 37, has written a book entitled “Making Rounds with Oscar.” Oscar looks like an ordinary cat, but the feline has shown an extraordinary ability to predict when residents at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center are close to death. Dr. Dosa, a geriatrician, works at the Steere House and is also a health services researcher at Brown University. According to Dr. Dosa, Oscar spends very little time with the residents of Steere House until they are approaching the last hours of life, then he maintains a vigil at the bedside, offering feline comfort to patients and caregivers.

    The book is about Oscar, but it is also about the challenges of caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Dr. Dosa’s book tells the story of several patients who were under his care at Steere House and the interactions between himself and the residents, their families, the staff, and Oscar. Oscar’s ability received international media attention after Dr. Dosa wrote an article published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007.


    Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat

    ReplyDelete
  39. its like a comic strip called rambo rat. i was not refering to American culture but was referring to your culture. dont misdirect and hide (much like what is being claimed israel just did). apparently a crime is not a crime unless its an official law. in the pretzel logic mind of capone rat, the law came before the crime.

    ReplyDelete
  40. That's what he said. And besides everyone and their grandma has one. He wanted something that wasn't around too much. We've seen a few around here but all automatics.

    Some one pulled up along side of him with same exact car and color and said why doesn't my car sound like that. Because it's an automatic.


    It does nothing for me unless I can drive it and we know that ain't happening in my life time.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Fact of the matter, anon, is that I do not encompass a culture of my very own.

    I am but a small part of America.
    Born and bred.

    Crimes are both cultural and legal constructions.

    Slavery is a crime, here and now.
    But the God of Abraham certainly found it acceptable, back in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  42. MLD While, I don't contribute anything on geopolitics, I do read every one's comments. And it doesn't sound like there's any good part of Iran. Yeah, I could look it up and I do know there are Iranian Jews but I just wanted to hear your opinion.

    Great question....

    Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran and dates back to the late biblical times. The biblical books of Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Esther contain some references to the experiences of Jews in Persia. Some material has been validated by Biblical scholars.
    Today, the largest group of Persian Jews is found in Israel. As of 2007, Israel is home to just over 47,000 Iranian-born Jews and roughly 87,000 Israeli-born Jews with fathers born in Iran.[6] While these numbers add up to about 135,000, when Israelis with more distant or solely maternal Iranian roots are included the total number of Persian Jews in Israel is estimated to be between 200,000[7]-250,000.[8]
    The United States is home to 60,000-80,000 Iranian Jews, who have settled especially in the Los Angeles area and Great Neck, New York. Those in Los Angeles have settled mostly in the Westside upper-class cities of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica and the Los Angeles Westside neighborhoods of Brentwood, Westwood, and West L.A., as well as the San Fernando Valley communities of Tarzana and Encino. According to the former mayor of Beverly Hills, Iranians make up at least a fifth of the resident population of Beverly Hills (the large majority of them Jewish),[12] and a third of the student body at the local high school.[9][10] Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, tens of thousands of Persian Jews migrated from Iran, forming one of the wealthiest waves of immigrants to ever come to the United States.[13]
    The current Jewish population of Iran is estimated by most sources to be 25,000,[11][12][13][14] though estimates vary, as low as 11,000 [15] and as high as 40,000.[16] Notable population centers include Tehran, Isfahan (1,200)[14], and Shiraz. Historically, Jews maintained a presence in many more Iranian cities. Jews are protected in the Iranian constitution.[12] Iran hosts the largest Jewish population of any Muslim-majority country.[17] After Israel, it is home to the second-largest Jewish population in the Middle East.[11]

    ReplyDelete
  43. Sadie Scores! Scottish Terrier Takes Best in Show at Westminster

    Sadie, a Scottish terrier, best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden...
    ---
    Scotts don't need no f..... Palis.

    ReplyDelete
  44. the dirty secret is that the REMAING Jews of Iran lead highly repressive lives...

    The Iranian government has arrested and executed Jews as part of their repressive programs..

    It is true that Iran doesnt single out the Jews for special treatment as Iran melts out death and torture for all it's minorities....

    ReplyDelete
  45. "It does nothing for me unless I can drive it and we know that ain't happening in my life time."

    I'd take that to the United Nations!
    ...or Steinem

    OR T!

    What an outrage!!!

    ReplyDelete
  46. Don't forget mass rapes in the prisons, WIO.
    Not that that compares with the atrocities of the JOOS.

    ReplyDelete
  47. The first comment is what I have already read.

    The second comment is what I wanted to hear, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  48. First off, I've been in the "killing" business, and this isn't how I would have done it. Too complex. Too many things that can go awry.

    Second off, I don't think my limited experiance is relevant to what these people were trying to accomplish.

    Even if identities were stolen, it seems unlikely that the owners of these identities are going to be too inconvenienced by the proceedings.

    I could write pages on what I think about this, but the bottom line is, "I'm not really very interested." A bit intrigued. Bemused, perhaps. Just not really interested.

    Too much interesting stuff going on in the world, I suppose.

    ReplyDelete
  49. "Second off, I don't think my limited experience is relevant to what these people were trying to accomplish."
    ---
    Dittos
    In spades.

    ReplyDelete
  50. rambo rat sounds like he's embarrassed from whence he came.
    he shouldn't throw stones. (he shouldn't be because from whence he came has a good side also).

    ReplyDelete
  51. Rufus,
    The latest ruse for the Jihadis that know our ROE's better than you or me:

    They throw down their weapons and walk out empty handed.

    ROE's not only stipulate that they cannot be shot, they cannot even be detained!!!

    Helmetless Warriors!
    The Future is Now!

    ReplyDelete
  52. Not at all embarassed, anon, not at all.

    In fact I embrace our history, warts and all. I definitely do not try to revise historical realities to suit my ideological perspective.

    In fact those realities help to shape my perspective. Often leading to more pragmatic than ideological ideas on how to solve, or at least move forward on, many of the challenges that face US in the whirled today.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Treasury Receipts, and Outlays for Jan are due out at 2:00 Eastern.

    This will give us some idea how tax receipts are coming in. Whether we're going to have that Huge projected Deficit, or something a little more modest as I have predicted.

    It was, I believe, minus $91 Billion last year. If it comes in at minus $50, or less, I'd say there's a good chance I might be on the right track. If it's $90 Billion, or more? Well, that's a whole nother deal.

    ReplyDelete
  54. not embarressed?? i call bs. whence you came?? why dance around the subject. Advice to rambo rat: be proud of what you are. also dont claim to be the true perciever of reality, to believe this is a true mark of ignorance.

    ReplyDelete
  55. It sure wasn't the first time Mossad has used innocent foreign nationals passports to try to assassinate someone. They used the passports of Canadians back in '98 in a botched attempted to assassinate a Hamas leader in Jordan.

    http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0198/9801026.htm




    I heard an interview this morning with a former Mossad agent where he was saying that it is really hard to forge passports and given border controls skills at detecting forgeries it was better to use doctored passports.




    trish, it is amazing how 'romance' influences ones life decisions. Kids growing up though and not much you can do but yank about the purse strings if you choose. Personally I'd rather a kid of mine attend University as opposed to enlisting.

    ReplyDelete
  56. A Surge in Medical Schools

    Finally, something that makes sense. An 18% increase in new doctors could make a lot of difference.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Isn't, by far, the major proportion of health care cost not doctors?

    ReplyDelete
  58. No clue on that one, Ash.

    Meanwhile:

    We're down to about 115 Million Barrels of OIl in "floating" storage, and we seem to be going through it at close to a million barrels/day.

    As I've been saying, sometimes around June, or July we'll cap that 1 million bbl/day well.

    Meanwhile, the Saudis are planning a very expensive CO2 injection scheme for Ghawar, and are exploring deep sub-salt areas of the Red Sea.

    This deal is going to look a lot different in six months, to a year.

    You might want to consider a flexfuel.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Nothing I have written about Judaism or the Torah gives anyone the right to attempt the slander of WiO through the misappropriation of "Jewish".

    Those who attempt what was attempted last evening are either petulantly immature and/or bigots.

    And trish is correct: It really isn't worth the effort.

    ReplyDelete
  60. "California's sorry state a major threat to U.S.

    Think Greece is a drag on Europe? That's nothing

    California is to the United States what Greece is to Europe - and not just because of its abundance of sun and sea.

    Busted budgets and dysfunctional politics have also made them kindred spirits.

    And just as Europe is reluctantly looking at coming to Greece's financial rescue, the day may soon come when California's financial woes become a problem for all Americans.

    In some ways, California may prove to be the bigger headache. Were it a country, the state's economy would rank eighth in the world - roughly the size of France and much larger than any of the so-called PIIGS of Europe: Portugal (No. 50), Ireland (No. 56), Italy (No. 11), Greece (No. 34) and Spain (No. 13).

    California also makes up a larger relative share of the U.S. economy, at 13 per cent of U.S. gross domestic product. Greece accounts for just 2 per cent of Europe's GDP.

    Mired in partisan bickering, the state has shown itself incapable of managing its finances in recent years. It's now facing a $20-billion (U.S.) budget shortfall in the current fiscal year, and another big gap in 2011. Even with brutal planned cuts to government services and dramatic tax hikes, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked for nearly $7-billion from Washington to fill the gap - a sum he is unlikely to get.

    The shortfall equals a whopping 22 per cent of the state's GDP. That compares with a projected 10.6 per cent of GDP this year for the U.S. federal government's record deficit."

    snip

    "The truly alarming part of this picture is that California, while the biggest budget buster among U.S. states, isn't alone. More than 40 states are headed for shortfalls this year, leaving them, cumulatively, with a record $194-billion hole to fill, equal to 28 per cent of total state budgets, according to a recent estimate by the Washington-based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. And it's forecasting another $180-billion gap in 2011."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/californias-sorry-state-a-major-threat-to-us/article1469347/








    Added to the debt the (aging) demographics of the US (and many other countries) do not suggest an easy solution in the long term.











    Sorry to spray on your rosy looking glasses rufus...

    ReplyDelete
  61. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  62. jeausussss christ allen. You and WiO continually wear your Jewishness with pride, blazing pride, yet you get your knickers in a terrible knot over someone referring to him as a Jewish old man. keeeerist, look in the mirror and get life old boy, or should we simply refer to you two as poor pitiful slandered victims who really really need a break in life?

    ReplyDelete
  63. Ash said...
    jeausussss christ allen. You and WiO continually wear your Jewishness with pride, blazing pride, yet you get your knickers in a terrible knot over someone referring to him as a Jewish old man. keeeerist, look in the mirror and get life old boy, or should we simply refer to you two as poor pitiful slandered victims who really really need a break in life?


    you are speaking without context....

    I do not object to being called cranky....

    I do object to be labeled because of my tribe and or gender...

    my jewish background and nicely shaped nuts do not shape my crankiness....

    so leave my balls and faith out of it...

    I am cranky.....

    ReplyDelete
  64. U.S. Manufacturing Output per Worker $300,000.00

    ReplyDelete
  65. Heard it all before, Ash.

    California is like that "bumblebee that can't fly," but it does.

    ReplyDelete
  66. History is rife with money/power extreme changes and a fundamental factor in those changes is debt. Once you can't float your bonds, or it is gets very expensive to float them, then, well, shit happens - bad shit.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Ash, I called this recession before ANYBODY. I'm on record.

    I'm, also, predicting several years of "troubles." But, I do try to put everything, as much as possible, in historic, and realistic, context.

    You can't take one, or maybe two, years of sky-high "one-off" spending, combined with huge reductions of tax receipts for those years, and extrapolate it out into infinity.

    The Deficit is going to be higher than it should. Some things have to be done. And, after considerable wrangling, and blustering most of those things Will get done.

    Don't get your "Economics" from TV Talking Heads, or Politicians. One's trying to "sell a book," and the other one's trying to "get a vote."

    ReplyDelete
  68. rufus, I'm not talking about simply taking the deficits of the current two years and projecting them forward but rather these debt problems were apparent prior to the recent 'troubles'. The aging of the workforce isn't new, nor is deficit spending 'new'. There were a few years of surpluses with dreams of eventually paying off the debt but that didn't last long and the pile of bonds floating keeps piling up. Take a look at the little wiki graph which estimates Ownership of US securities as of June 2008

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Estimated_ownership_of_US_Treasury_securities_by_category_0608.jpg

    I was struck by how much of that is actually held by the US government and Federal Reserve. I don't usually concern myself with who owns debt (unlike some) because I think it would be bad to default on US citizens as well as foreigners. Anyway I'd be interested to see how the proportion of ownership of US Treasury securities has changed with the last couple of years of "quantitative easing".

    In short,the combination of the aging demographic, the dysfunctional political system, the deficits (government spending and current account) and the existing need to roll over previously issued bonds suggests to me that change will be more likely to be sudden, central, and painful as opposed to gradual and on the periphery. I wish incremental change to occur but...




    ...'the change' won't necessarily occur in the near term but over the course of the next 2 decades or so ...?

    ReplyDelete
  69. Times Online - ‎18 minutes ago‎
    Britain has summoned Israel's ambassador to a meeting at the Foreign Office to discuss the use of fake UK passports by suspected assassins of a top Hamas figure in Dubai, it emerged tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Please don't ask Rufus to document that claim, Ash.
    The attempt to construct that whopper might wash us all out the door of the bar on a tidal wave of BS.
    More than a piddle in a pond, that is to say.

    ReplyDelete
  71. ... Record low temperature set at Kahului Hawaii

    A record low temperature of 55 degrees was set at Kahului Hawaii today.
    This ties the old record of 55 set in 1993.

    Pray for my cold tootsies.

    ReplyDelete
  72. 55.erc rodson:
    Mr. X @ 39:

    Pretty good article about the Mountain Pass Mine. It is really in the middle of nowhere on the run out of Barstow to Las Vegas. There was a story, which I cannot verify, but which does not prevent me from spreading, that Senator Feinstein was instrumental in getting the mine closed under the Desert Tortoise Protection Act, which put a lot of the Mojave Desert off limits to mining. Her husband, Mr. Blum is a major player in the China investment world, and allegedly involved with the rare earth mining there.

    http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=289955&ac=Business&hcode=pph

    Not necessarily a conspiracy, but maybe just doing well while doing good.
    Anyway, if China drives up the price of the rare earth elements, other places will start production.

    ---
    56. Mad Fiddler:

    55.erc rodson
    you said “just doing well while dong[sic] good.”

    Recalls the congressional testimony attempting to torpedo the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas… especially in the context of mined precious metals.

    ReplyDelete
  73. "you are speaking without context....

    I do not object to being called cranky...."


    Come on Ash, get with the program. Adjectives are ok. Nouns? Not so much.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  74. So Quirk are you old and cranky or young and spunky?

    ReplyDelete
  75. Young and old are relative terms. However, I am definately cranky (in a lovable sort of way).

    I guess you could say I'm a cranky Polish hillbilly.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  76. Old and spunky here.
    I don't get cranky, I go Biological like our gal Bishop.

    ReplyDelete
  77. I think the problem is less Fed. monetary policy but rather US government policy.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Re: "sloppy"

    "Sloppy" is such a relative term.

    Hmm...a murderer has been executed...there was no collateral damage...He will not be tried in New York...Hmm...

    ReplyDelete
  79. If you are going to the lawyer's office, and particularily if the lawyer is a young woman who has just had a baby, try not to take the wife with you. Particularily if your wife is a blabbermouth, like mine is.

    It will drive you nuts, plus cost you money.

    Blah blah blah, two hours of shit.

    She, the lawyer lady, and I could have done the legal shit in about 15 minutes.

    But, the wife had to be there today.

    Blah blah blah.

    My new lawyer lady had an elk head you wouldn't believe. I feel like I've hired Sarah Palin, with a law degree. But, she didn't gut the elk out herself.

    You can't have everything in most women, Melody excepted.

    I'm glad I missed most of this today.

    My hunch, the Jews did it, but fundamentally, it's all mohammed's fault.

    Melody did not 'slander' anyone. By calling WiO a Jew, she reflected what is prominently displayed in WiO's profile.

    Thanks for the books by Weiss, Allen, I loved them, and plan to comment on them when I get the time.

    You can call me a cranky old Swede anytime, the worst part of that is the old.

    We should have bombed Iran, with Israeli help, a couple of years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  80. If I bought a new super Dodge Charger, and said, wife you can't drive it, my wife would just take the keys to it, and leave with the car. Go wherever she wanted.

    On my credit cards too :)

    Melody, spunk up!

    ReplyDelete
  81. She would also call me a fool for buying the damn thing.

    :)

    What do you want a speedometer that goes to 140 when the top speed is 65? she'd say.

    Are you trying to recapture your youth?


    Be some kinda superhero?

    ReplyDelete
  82. Here is the quote:

    MeLoDy said...
    Whit, since he's not going to answer you I'll tell why he's so hard on me. He doesn't like the fact that I come into a political bar and not contribute one thing, not one thing, about politics.

    Why that bothers him so, is beyond me because I really can't think of a time when I interrupted a serious discussion. I always wait until there is no one around or the conversation is geared to something other than politics.

    He's a cranky old Jewish man with so much hatred and trying to change something he can't that he feels I'm the only one he can take it out on. He knows I'm the only one here he can feel superior to.



    Read it in it's entirety.

    ReplyDelete
  83. He's a cranky old Jewish man with so much hatred and trying to change something he can't that he feels I'm the only one he can take it out on. He knows I'm the only one here he can feel superior to.


    to which i responded...

    fuck you...

    ReplyDelete
  84. If you are going to the lawyer's office

    lawyers home, actually, which was very nice

    I was impressed with the small pond with the trout in it, but not by much else.

    Damn place was so neat, it didn't look like it had ever been lived in.

    ReplyDelete
  85. You are cranky, old I have no way of knowing other than your say so, Jewish, welp you've made that abundantly clear on numerous occasions and full of hate - that's for certain! MLD sure didn't get much wrong in that post WiO.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Well, you are--

    cranky, in a way Allen, say, isn't

    old, a relative definition

    Jewish, you advertise that yourself

    with much hatred--that's for sure, and much no doubt justified

    and trying to change something he can't--here I think is where you do your cause a diservice

    especially with

    fuck you--and you're a dumb bitch, or whatever it was you said

    Her description is basically correct, and by your coarse, and uncomprehension of her situation, as a female who has suffered as much as you personally, begins to turn even me against you

    Get off her back.

    I think maybe Allen should do the talking for you both.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Ash, can you believe it, we agree on something.

    By my count, that is twice now.

    ReplyDelete
  88. We have a guy in Moscow, used to be a county commissioner, Jewish, he lost most of his family in the holocaust.

    He wouldn't ever use that language to a woman.

    Particularily one who is by definition

    NOT POLITICAL.

    According to one of the Jewish historians, the Christian committed, and gyps, and others, lost just as many. Less by percentage of course.

    I have an idea that she may have come here to just slap our stupid males faces around a bit, stir us up.

    She certainly did that to me.

    The place is better for it.

    One of her relatives is in the USA armed forces, for Christ sake!

    A cousin, I think, if I recall aright.

    Defending--YOU

    ReplyDelete
  89. Bob & Ash...

    Your amazing slant of bias is so far tipped am surprised how you can even type straight...

    ReplyDelete
  90. ...when "sloppy" starts looking better and better...

    Taliban fighters holding out in Marjah are increasingly using civilians as human shields, firing from compounds where U.S. and Afghan forces can clearly see women and children...

    ...meanwhile, with due tidiness - "Two more NATO service members were killed in the Marjah operation Wednesday..."

    ReplyDelete
  91. Who and What a "melody" is, is UP for debate...

    Woman, Man? Invention of someone other?

    no clue...

    but woman or man, anyone that SPEAKS to ME the way the construct "MLD" spoke deserves a hardy fuck you.

    I believe in equal rights. She offended ME, and I told her to pound it...

    I am not impressed that MLD is supposed to be a woman...

    Nor was impressed that she found my gender and tribe to attack...

    AGAIN, if you cant stand the heat? get the fuck out the kitchen and certainly dont touch MY pots on the stove...

    ReplyDelete
  92. But, I am not biased.

    I have told you, my father's life long partner was Jewish.

    He was almost my uncle.

    My lawyer for years, was Jewish, as was his wife.

    I love that guy, he literally saved my life, financially, and probably physically as well.

    I am not biased.

    Pin that on Rat, I will agree with you.

    You are wrong in this one instance.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Well, I have done my best.

    I quit for today.

    It doesn't really matter in this instance whether or not 'Melody' is a fantasy or a real person.

    I've always been for Israel, and the Jewish people.



    Just never take you blabbermouth wife to a lawyer that has just given birth.

    Cute kid, but I don't want to buy diapers.

    ReplyDelete
  94. I actually thought, WiO, was younger until he said he opened a business 50 years ago and then everything kind of fell together.

    But, "fuck you" is the absolute exact response I was looking for.

    Mission accomplished.

    ReplyDelete
  95. MLD - I actually thought, WiO, was younger until he said he opened a business 50 years ago and then everything kind of fell together.



    I never said that...

    I said I was 50...

    see what happens when you dont pay attention...

    as for the rest of your line...

    mld: But, "fuck you" is the absolute exact response I was looking for.
    Mission accomplished


    well congrats...

    and another fuck you...

    ;)

    i won't assume that your evil nature has anything to do with your ovaries or your imagined nationality....

    your just an empty headed nitwit...

    no gender or race slur...

    ReplyDelete
  96. The whirled is quick to assume that the Israelis offed the terrorist after the Arabs in Dubai scoured the hotel video tapes and fingered a group of kufars.

    The Israelis should tell the British government to go take a hike. British passports sound like a British problem.

    Getting your panties in a wad over being called a "Cranky Jewish man" sounds like a crank's problem.

    ReplyDelete
  97. With apologies to General Larry Platt

    Panties in a wad, panties in a wad.
    Lookin' like a fool with your panties in a wad.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Getting your panties in a wad over being called a "Cranky Jewish man" sounds like a crank's problem.


    yeah really. bigger fish to fry.

    ReplyDelete
  99. bob,

    In part, MeLoDy wrote:

    "He's a cranky old Jewish man with so much hatred and trying to change something he can't that he feels I'm the only one he can take it out on."

    What is the "something" that MeLoDy thinks WiO is trying to "change" but "can't"?

    Once I have an answer to the question Melody's comment raised, I will be more than happy to share my opinion of the exchange.

    Since MeLoDy made the comment, I am sure she has an answer. While she is thinking of that, she may also consider defining the "crusade" she mentioned in an unaddressed post.

    Indeed, "if a face could launch a thousand ships..."

    ReplyDelete
  100. My ovaries are at war right now trying to figure out which day it is, so let's keep them out of it. As far as my imagined nationality someone once told me that my evil nature comes from being a hot headed Italian/Irish woman. I think it just comes natural, though. And the empty headed nitwit you're talking about...there are some good days and there are bad days.

    ReplyDelete
  101. "Nothing I have written about Judaism or the Torah gives anyone the right to attempt the slander of WiO through the misappropriation of "Jewish".

    Gee, Allen, I thought you already gave us your opinion.

    I'm, evidently like a number of others here, still trying to figure out where there is any slur in calling anyone a Jew or a man.

    Misappropriation?




    .

    ReplyDelete
  102. Quirk,

    You'll figure it out, despite being a Pole.

    ReplyDelete
  103. OMG!

    Quirk is T, who is MLD...

    ReplyDelete
  104. "...when 'sloppy' starts looking better and better..."

    Don't get all tedious on me, allen.

    The world is an imperfect place; the realm of human action is shot through with stupefying hazards and terrific flaws; many are the days one wonders how civilization manages to put on a pair of pants without some horrible injury to itself.



    In the parallel universe of peachy keen, all is eminently satisfactory to the fussiest of souls.

    We have the misfortune not to reside there.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Having heard from the usual suspects in the usual way, I'm off to a good meal and a movie.

    Goodnight, Dear Mahmoud, wherever you are.

    ReplyDelete
  106. "Quirk,

    You'll figure it out, despite being a Pole."


    Translation: "I don't have an answer so I will throw out some inane comment and hope some one (WiO help me out here) thinks it's clever."


    .

    ReplyDelete
  107. Fred Burton at Stratfor thinks the hit was a well oiled operation displaying a high degree of tradecraft.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Burton says that he sees "a high degree of professionalism...a well practiced operation... that could only come out of an intelligence service."

    ReplyDelete
  109. to change something

    The best answer I have for you Allen right now, is, a hated for Jews that I cannot understand.

    I think it is a misunderstanding of myth.


    For instance, in the old north myth, which I need much more understanding of, damn you
    Chrisians and Jews!, you wiped it out, you are both guilty! with the grail, which was taken over by the Christians, for reasons I cannot understand, how that happened, I do not know, maybe we fought too much, got tired, in the old pagan myth, the grail, which the knights went aquesting for, in myth, that was the cornuopia of the everlasting, that is to say, enlightment, the symbol of Love, Reality, as
    Weiss would say, or whatever you want to call it, the best, as anyone alive should want, and the woman, in the seekers case, in the north, represents the first step to attainging that entlightment.

    It's just a myth.

    Containging reality.

    Woman--grail--reality.

    I do not know enough of Jewish thought to speak of the terms.

    But I think, in those great three books by
    Weiss that I have read, forget the stuff about incarntion, I have no thought about that (tho the stories are beautiful), and maybe true,
    I think the two myths, which I think really are truth, I hope, come together.


    The grail, originally an image of cornupia, and it was a plate, not the cup of the last supper so called, or the cup that caught Christ's last blood, when the spear went in, it was the everlasting sign of all that we should be, always brought by the pure, usually virgins, only virgins could hadle it, those of pure intent, there is the secret, taken over and insisted upon by the Christians as an image of their Christ, a steal, in my view, a kinda theolocal swindle, it represented an image to human understanding of an experience of human beings in their fulfillment. That is to say, in Weiss terms, fulfillment. Union with love. Not by a savior, but in the school of your works. Tough, to put it in Christian terms. Fucking damn tough. For me, as an American, in Whitman and
    Roethke, a universal experience, which I hope we will all have I have someday.

    Not that I've had it, I just want to have it.

    The hope, in old myth, expressed through the grail, is that throuht the quest, we will all get there.

    Those were great books thank you for that.
    That is what Weiss books meant to me.

    Goddmanit don't think I've fallen for Melody just to find reality.

    But by god maybe I have.

    God judges the pure heart.

    But, will I meet my grandfather when I die?

    I have no idea.

    I'd rather meet Melody, and that is the truth.

    I cannot stroke grandpappa's hair.

    And speak to him on intiment terms.

    We don't have much to argue about but Melody, do we?

    Mayb more. But in reaity much less.

    In civil terms, I believe in legaslated law, like pappa taught.

    And in small farms.

    ReplyDelete
  110. In a way, WiO, is right. I have no interest in politics so I really shouldn't be here. But how I got here and why I stayed is irrelevant. I'm here and that's all there is to it whether you like it or not.

    The "something" really isn't a specific something and I'm sorry if it came off that way. It really applies to everyone. And by that, I mean, everyone has their vice and they constantly talk about it. The post at hand isn't just discussed and debated but I find that many of the discussions seem like your trying to create solutions. Maybe you are and maybe that's the part I don't get, but this isn't The Wizard of Oz and if you say it three times it isn't going to come true. If you want your views to become reality then run for senate or congress or presidency for that matter.

    I was really referring to a couple of months ago when WiO and Rat had that month long argument about Israel and Gaza and Palestine. I felt like he was on a mission to save a country. WiO said, I have an obsession with colored panties and shaving legs, he's the one with the obsession. And that's what I meant by "change something."

    That probably didn't help you and I'm probably going to be on the chopping block but you formed your opinions by my comments so I formed my opinions by your comments.

    This is why I don't comment about things like that. That's why I stick to meaningless nonsense comments that have nothing of value. Yeah, say what you mean and mean what you say but it doesn't always work out that way and then the comment is dissected and analyzed under a microscope and then you're attacked because of simple comment that really didn't mean much.

    ReplyDelete
  111. And you ask me, why I might like to go, and live in peace, in a hut, with a girl like Melody, and never talk, and just let the biogical prcesses take them place in a world that is going to blow itself, over a misunstanig of myth?

    A girl like, Melody?

    You're nuts.

    You are fucking insane.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Melody: In a way, WiO, is right. I have no interest in politics so I really shouldn't be here. But how I got here and why I stayed is irrelevant. I'm here and that's all there is to it whether you like it or not.

    Bob and me, me and Bob, we want you here.

    ReplyDelete
  113. I did not express this right.

    Questor-seeks woman-- who now represnts the grail--which represnts Dr. Wesis' ONE

    Damn easy theolocical symbol.
    When you get it.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Allen: Quirk is T, who is MLD...

    I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

    See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly.

    I'm crying.

    ReplyDelete
  115. Bob and me, me and Bob, we want you here.


    Godamn you are totally wrong, you combine theolocially lacking girl.

    The difference here is, Bob wants Her here, not there with You.

    I'd like my friend as a truck driver, not someone I don't know.


    Some of this comes to bite you back in the ass.

    You go harvest somewhere else.

    You got no combine skills, if you get my country meaning, which you won't, city girl.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Thanks, T, I really don't scare easy so, I'm not going anywhere. I really don't care what people think of me. Well, certain things do bother me but we won't get into that.

    You either like me or you don't and if you don't, I guess that's your loss. The way I look at it is, if you're talking about me, then you're leaving someone else alone.

    ReplyDelete
  117. Bob: You go harvest somewhere else.

    That's funny. You really do think the Elephant Bar is just a dating service.

    I already got my good things.

    ReplyDelete
  118. I don't know, T, for some reason he thinks you're always after me could it be that we're one in the same? Nah....

    ReplyDelete
  119. The quake, which occurred at 0113 GMT, was centered midway between the Russian city of Vladivostok and Chongjin, North Korea's third largest city. It struck at a depth of 563 km (350 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

    The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center put the coordinates at 42.7 north and 130.9 east.

    Early estimates put the magnitude at 6.9. The USGS later put the figure at 6.7, a powerful quake but one with effects on the surface likely to be minimized by the extreme depth.


    China-Russia Border

    ReplyDelete
  120. Well, as yet, no one has come up with an explanation as to who did the deed.

    Years ago in the Bayswater Road section of London, the USAF had a hotel and casino called The Douglas House. Sitting with a few friends at the bar during cocktail hour, we were surprised to see three NCO's all staff sergeants, in uniform, running through the club and out through some fire doors.

    Shortly, some English police and AP's arrived in late pursuit. There had been an armed robbery and $55,000 was taken from the casino by the three NCO's.

    They were described as three American GI's dressed in uniform pretending to have British accents, or three Brits dressed in American uniforms ith fake American accents.

    The Douglas House never recovered their $55K and no one was ever arrested. There were no security cameras and the identical uniforms gave the police a worthless identification.

    This caper in Dubai was recorded with passport photos and surveillance videos.

    These images are all over the web. Someone knows someone and someone will be talking soon.

    I want to believe the Israelis are too smart too have done it in the way that it was done and the Palis not smart enough.

    I am inclined to believe it was the Israelis and it was both sloppy and stupid.

    Fake passports are a Russian specialty.

    I doubt the Palestinians could get that many cloned passports and pull this off under the radar of Israeli internal surveillance.

    The Iranians could have done it, but my money is on the Israelis.

    ReplyDelete
  121. You have a bar full of sleuths, I'm sure when they figure it out they will let you know.

    ReplyDelete
  122. MeLoDy: I don't know, T, for some reason he thinks you're always after me could it be that we're one in the same? Nah....

    Sometimes if I see a hottie on TV or something and I'm alone in the house I get after myself, but that's a whole 'nuther subject.

    ReplyDelete
  123. Leonard Leo, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government advisory board, said he hoped that Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama was "not just checking a political box."

    Instead, Obama should seek advice on "how to think creatively" on the thorny issue of Tibet.

    "Beijing's objections to Obama meeting the Dalai Lama should not deter the administration from trying to bridge China's plans to improve the living standards of Tibetans and Tibetan demands for religious freedom and protection of their unique culture and language," Leo said.


    Dalai Lama

    ReplyDelete
  124. At the time of the abduction, the baby's mother was in a courtroom in Newark applying for a restraining order against Mr Abdur-Raheem.

    She has pleaded for her daughter's return.

    "I just want my baby to get back home," she said.


    Thrown From Bridge

    ReplyDelete
  125. Surveillance cameras have enormously complicated things.

    So have retina scans at customs and immigration intakes all over the planet. (And that information is for sale.)

    ReplyDelete
  126. The British government has called in the Israeli ambassador to discuss the use of fake UK passports by the alleged killers of a Hamas commander in Dubai.

    ...

    It is expected that the Israeli Ambassador, Ron Prosor, will meet with Sir Peter Ricketts, head of the diplomatic service, on Thursday.

    ...

    The suspects allegedly trailed Mr Mabhouh when he arrived in Dubai from Syria.


    Hamas Murder

    ReplyDelete
  127. We're mostly ex-military, here. A military operation has "achieving the objective" as its "absolute, primary" goal. That's why this operation looks a little "funny" to us. As I said, "Too Complicated. Too many things that could go wrong."

    HOWEVER, the "Absolute, Primary" objective of this operation was to "NOT GET CAUGHT."

    If they "missed," they could always try again, later. No biggie.

    If they "succeeded," and got caught, it would be a "Diplomatic" Nightmare.

    It was, actually, a Very Well Conceived, and executed mission.

    And, it sent a "Message."

    A+

    ReplyDelete
  128. We're meetin' in Ashland, Kentucky Teusday next 3 pm, can you be there, Sam? For photos?

    I think it was somewheres in Ashland. Kentucky.



    The hell with "Christian" morality.

    Jesus kissed Mary on the cheek, according to the gnostics gospels.

    More seriously, she did reply to me, and was happy we put WiO down so.

    But there is no meeting set, my next project. I love that woman, I tell ya. bob I'
    m still tryin'. your correspondent

    ReplyDelete