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."

Monday, December 05, 2011

Iran Receives an Early Christmas Present from the US, a Stealthy RQ-170



The US Air Force lost a top secret RQ-170 SENTINEL over Iran, not that long after a secret stealth helicopter was lost. That should be very helpful to Iran, China and Russia. From previous reports, we learn that two of these same RQ-170s were used to get bin Laden.

Mission
The RQ-170 is a low observable unmanned aircraft system (UAS) being developed, tested and fielded by the Air Force. It will provide reconnaissance and surveillance in support of the joint forces commander.

Background
The Air Force's RQ-170 program leverages the Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Programs and government efforts to rapidly develop and produce a low observable UAS. The RQ-170 will directly support combatant commander needs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to locate targets.

The RQ-170 is flown by Air Combat Command's 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., and the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Tonopah Test Range, Nev.

U.S. intelligence officials acknowledge that the stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel drone was used to provide ISR support for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.

The Sentinel did several key variety of tasks during the raid such as providing real-time imagery of the compound to the President and other authorities in DC to monitoring Pakistani military communications, all while orbiting overhead undetected, according to the Washington Post.

It could also have jammed Pakistani radars and beamed its footage of the compound to the SEALs in their inbound choppers.

Intelligence officials acknowledge that the CIA used the Air Force’s RQ-170 in Pakistan for months to monitor bin Laden’s house which lies within Pakistan’s air defense intercept zone that surrounds the capitol city of Islamabad.

The aircraft allowed the CIA to glide undetected beyond the boundaries that Pakistan has long imposed on other U.S. drones, including the Predators and Reapers that routinely carry out strikes against militants near the border with Afghanistan.

All this paints a picture of a raid that was indeed carried out without Pakistani knowledge (or, to give Islamabad plausible deniability with regard to the raid, for you skeptics). The remaining question is; were there really only two stealth helos used in the operation? Why use a stealth drone and two stealth helicopters and then send in two-to-three MH-47s that can be detected by radar deep into Pakistan to retrieve the SEALs and collect evidence? How did they do that without being detected?



Read more:

102 comments:

  1. The more interesting question, how the Iranians shoot one down?

    If it was so "stealthy".

    Learned a lesson of two from their cousins in Europe, that took down that F-117 over Yugoslavia?.

    If the Iranians could track and kill the RQ-170, the F-15s will need to be extra careful.
    They not being so stealthy, at all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Regardless of the insignia painted on the fuselage.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Teresita said...
    If Allen was a US Marine I am shocked that he would forget about the 241 US Marines who died in Beirut, Lebanon helping Israel secure their northern border.


    Notice this amazing diatribe from the Bar's israel hating lesbian, replacement theology, man hating, man wannabe.....

    Newsflash for ya babe...

    The 241 marines that were MURDERED by Hezbollah in Beirut were not there defending Israel.

    But you knew that...

    You just cant help yourself from lying, distorting and being dishonest.

    It must be quite sad, late at night, looking up at your boss, the Jewish Carpenter, KNOWING that he would not approve of your black hearted nature to HIS people Israel.

    tsk tsk...

    ReplyDelete
  4. "FOR BEHOLD, in those days and at that time when I shall reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and there will I deal with and execute judgment upon them for their treatment of My people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and because they have divided My land." [Joel 3:1-2


    Dear Ms T, Teresea and any other names that you claim...

    "FOR BEHOLD, in those days and at that time when I shall reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and there will I deal with and execute judgment upon them for their treatment of My people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and because they have divided My land." [Joel 3:1-2


    If you REALLY believe in that stuff you claim to believe in?

    You are pissing on your own soul...

    Please continue to do so as you are QUITE worthy of Hell....

    That is IF you actually have a soul.....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hell hath no fury like a PR man for Allah, scorned.

    ReplyDelete




  6. Asked whether the United States, in cooperation with Israel, was now engaged in a covert war against Iran's nuclear program that may include the Stuxnet virus, the blowing-up of facilities and the assassination or kidnapping of scientists, one recently retired U.S. official privy to up-to-date intelligence would not deny it.

    "It's safe to say the Israelis are very active," the official said, adding about U.S. efforts:

    "Everything that [GOP presidential candidate] Mitt Romney said we should be doing--tough sanctions, covert action and pressuring the international community -- are all of the things we are actually doing."

    Though the activities are classified, a senior Obama administration official also would not deny that such a program was under way. He indicated that the U.S. was not involved in every action, referring to recent alleged explosions at Isfahan and elsewhere. But, he added: "I wouldn't assume that everything we do is coordinated."


    Seems as if the President of the United States is in agreement.

    Sanctions and Sabotage are Sufficient

    ReplyDelete
  7. Perhaps the RQ-170 was not shot down.

    The US claims if just got lost.

    Responding to the Iranian report, NATO command in Afghanistan released a terse statement Sunday:

    "The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."

    ReplyDelete



  8. Mark Hibbs, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment in Germany, says the intensity of the covert war indicates that this is where the U.S. and Israel are putting their energy for now. "If the U.S. or Israel were determined to take Iran's nuclear installations out they wouldn't be wasting time pinpointing individual scientists like this," he says. Still, he points out, that Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak reactor was also preceded by assassination attempts on Iraqi scientists.

    ReplyDelete
  9. .

    However, I suspect that Q just might be antiseptic.


    Deuce, I apologize to the bar for my part in the little dustup yesterday.

    I tend to get carried away at times (most times?)

    At any rate, I had hoped to see Whit back at the old EB and after yesterday, as Melody pointed out, it may be another six months or a year before he wanders in again.

    Sorry.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  10. The Obama Administration is getting US policy in the "War on Terror" right.

    After 6 or 7 years of gross mismanagement the US is finally rid of providing Iranian missiles a static US target portfolio, in Iraq.

    Using covert operations and the indigenous people instead of US troops.

    Drawing down direct US exposure on the ground in the Islamic Arc.

    While promoting and prompting political instability throughout the whirled of Islam.

    As evidenced by the reality of that instability in every report from their part of the whirled.

    Three cheers for success!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Here, too, Team Obama is getting US allies to carry a greater part of their own load.


    n a move expected as soon as this month, Japan's Defense Ministry will pick a replacement for its aging squadrons of Vietnam-era F-4 fighters from among three finalists, two American and one European. The order for a new fighter is expected to total 40 to 60 planes valued at an estimated $4 billion. It is Japan's biggest fighter contract yet and one of the world's largest military contracts this year.

    The decision comes as China is overshadowing Japan on many fronts, including overtaking it last year as the world's second-largest economy. Beijing has also ratcheted up its military spending, which is rising 12.7% this year to 601.1 billion yuan ($94.3 billion). Meanwhile, Japan's defense budget—at 4.6 trillion yen ($59 billion) this year—has declined for nearly a decade
    ...
    Of Japan's fighter-jet options, the pricey, cutting-edge choice—Lockheed Martin Corp.'s new F-35 Lightning II JSF—is seen as the favorite because it incorporates the latest, so-called fifth-generation, stealth technology, providing radar-evading capability both in front of and behind the aircraft.

    But a pair of lower-cost, combat-tested fighters—Boeing Co.'s F-18 Super Hornet and the European consortium Eurofighter GmbH's Typhoon fighter—are getting serious consideration.

    ReplyDelete




  12. Ahead of the meeting, a thorny issue separating France and Germany centered on how to enforce fiscal discipline within the currency bloc in the event of a country breaching rules.

    Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Merkel said sanctions would be applied automatically and that only a weighted majority of European countries would have the authority to reverse the punishment.

    "We need structural changes," said Ms. Merkel. "Structural changes that go beyond agreements, and that also means that we need treaty changes in the sense of binding debt brakes that are standardized in Europe and whose form can also be verified by the European Court (of justice) to make sure that every country will be obliged to keep those deficit criteria and keeps the stability and growth pact as a whole. It's not possible to do this in the framework of the current treaties."

    Germany has long spoken in favor of fully automatic sanctions with national budgets being submitted for review by a supranational technocrat as a means of restoring confidence in the currency bloc. France has favored a more politically-governed approach.

    ReplyDelete
  13. WiO,

    Re: T

    yawn... :-)

    O, and WiO, I apologize for everything I said yesterday! And I mean that in a 17th Century way.

    ReplyDelete



  14. Brent crude climbed above USD 110 on Monday, extending gains from last week, as rising tensions between Iran and the West increased the risk of disruptions to crude shipments by the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

    Iran is also unlikely to support production hikes when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna next week, increasing the risk the grouping will fail to raise output at a time when high energy prices threaten to push the global economy into recession.

    Brent crude rose 44 cents to USD 110.38 a barrel by 0554 GMT, after posting a weekly gain of more than 3%, in its best weekly percentage gain since mid-October.

    US crude climbed 37 cents to USD 101.33 a barrel. The benchmark posted a 4.3% gain last week.

    "Oil traders are pricing in a 20% chance of a military conflict with Iran, which could push prices above USD 200, so they're buying insurance now," said Gordon Kwan, head of energy research at Mirae Asset Management in Hong Kong.

    ReplyDelete
  15. CNN reports


    Toyota will soon begin exporting U.S.-built Camry sedans to South Korea, the automaker announced Monday.

    Initially, about 6,000 cars a year will be shipped from Toyota's U.S. factories to South Korea.

    ReplyDelete
  16. That Korea Free Trade Pact was important.

    ReplyDelete
  17. We're starting to triangulate on China, and Japans' asses. Free Trade Pacts with Singapore on the South, S. Korea on the North, and Australia to the Southeast.

    Add the Philipines, Malaysia, and New Zealand into the mix, and the ties start to bind.

    Also, how long before Indonesia throws in the towel, and decides to "talk?"

    Of course, Vietnam would be the one that drives China batshit crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  18. George Bush gets a Ton of Credit for this one.

    He might have screwed up the Iraq deal, but his contributions to Trade, and Renewable Energy will stand out in the years ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I would have sworn Allen the Superman (head and shoulders above us all) had told us his son was going into the Israeli Defense Forces. I may be wrong but I think I remember crticizing this on the grounds Allen had propagandized his own son into one of the cults, not allowing him to make up his own mind. Now I read he is really going into the US Marines. Sired by such a SuperFather as Allen (head and shoulders above us all) perhaps he is joining both.

    b

    ReplyDelete
  20. Let's just try to keep All of our kids, and grandkids as safe as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Madonna to perform at halftime of Super Bowl


    Dec 5, 1:15 AM (ET)



    NEW YORK (AP) - The Material Girl will be taking the stage on football's biggest night.

    Madonna, who has sold more than 300 million records, will perform at halftime of the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. The NFL and NBC announced Sunday during the Detroit-New Orleans game that the Grammy Award-winning singer will highlight the show at Lucas Oil Stadium on Feb. 5.

    The show is the most-watched musical event of the year, with more than 162 million in the U.S. tuning in to see The Black Eyed Peas' performance with Slash and Usher in Dallas at halftime of Green Bay's Super Bowl win over Pittsburgh last February.

    Madonna, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, will join such acts as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Prince, U2, Paul McCartney, The Who and the Rolling Stones to perform during recent Super Bowls. She will collaborate with a team from Cirque du Soleil, choreographer Jamie King, and artists from Moment Factory.

    Madonna, currently in the studio working on a new album, has a new film "W.E." which she directed, wrote and produced and will open nationally two days before the NFL's signature event.

    The Super Bowl and halftime show, sponsored by Bridgestone Americas, will be broadcast worldwide on NBC.


    yippee

    b

    ReplyDelete
  22. Madonna? Mathuselah's wife wasn't available?

    Damn!

    ReplyDelete
  23. In the Nancy to neuter Newt department -

    Pelosi: I’ve Got Dirt on Newt

    Nancy Pelosi is downright gleeful that Newt Gingrich is surging in the polls, promising to reveal some damaging information about him if he clinches the Republican presidential nomination. “I know a lot about him,” the House Minority Leader told Talking Points Memo. “I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.” Pelosi promised to dump the information “when the time’s right.” Gingrich, meanwhile, is heading to Donald Trump’s Manhattan home to curry favor with the future debate moderator.
    Read it at Talking Points Memo


    A thousand pages!!

    I swear to God, the Republicans are going to blow this election.

    b

    ReplyDelete
  24. Well, as I was posting all last week, Wall St. is suddenly waking up to the fact that

    Italy is running a significant "Budget SURPLUS," and

    Spain has a BETTER DEBT TO GDP RATIO THAN GERMANY."

    Italian, and Spanish Bond Yields are Plunging.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous said...
    I would have sworn Allen the Superman (head and shoulders above us all) had told us his son was going into the Israeli Defense Forces. I may be wrong but I think I remember crticizing this on the grounds Allen had propagandized his own son into one of the cults, not allowing him to make up his own mind. Now I read he is really going into the US Marines. Sired by such a SuperFather as Allen (head and shoulders above us all) perhaps he is joining both.

    b



    Maybe you are correct, after enlisting and serving his nation maybe Allen's son will go and enlist in the IDF.

    I see nothing wrong with that.

    Israel does not want others to protect it. However if people are jewish CHOOSE to move to Israel (from all over the world) military service is a great asset.

    I know personally how well the IDF trains it's sons and daughters in the IDF.

    Couple that with a Semper fidelis mentality? One ass killer Jew...

    A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a 3 hours training by someone over there, trust me he taught me more in 20 minutes than the entire amount of training I have ever taken in the states...

    That being said, the training that I have received in the states was a GREAT basis point to start from...

    ReplyDelete
  26. Is Newt a tax cheat?

    Why, of course.

    oppo dump coming

    TPMDC
    Democrats Gleeful At Prospect Of Running Against Gingrich

    Brian Beutler December 5, 2011, 5:05 AM 16191 396

    There’s no better illustration of how ecstatic Democrats are about Newt Gingrich leading the GOP primary pack than Nancy Pelosi’s strategic silence.


    Pelosi knows more about Gingrich than perhaps any other major national political figure. She was a senior Democrat when Gingrich was House Speaker, served on the ethics committee that investigated Gingrich for tax cheating and campaign finance violations, and even cut a 2008 ad with him on the importance of addressing global climate change.

    But when TPM asked her to talk a bit about his recent ascent and the possibility that he’ll be the GOP nominee, she mostly demurred.

    “I like Barney Frank’s quote the best, where he said ‘I never thought I’d live such a good life that I would see Newt Gingrich be the nominee of the Republican party,’” Pelosi said in an exclusive interview Friday. “That quote I think spoke for a lot of us.”

    Pelosi didn’t go into detail about Gingrich’s past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. “One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich,” Pelosi said. “I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”

    Pressed for more detail she wouldn’t go further.

    “Not right here,” Pelosi joked. “When the time’s right.”

    Which is to say that if Gingrich somehow clinches the nomination, there’s one hell of an oppo dump coming.


    A lot of you are going to rue the day you didn't insist that Sarah run, like a big rolling wave, sweeping her into the White House.


    b

    ReplyDelete
  27. WiO: It must be quite sad, late at night, looking up at your boss, the Jewish Carpenter, KNOWING that he would not approve of your black hearted nature to HIS people Israel.

    Jesus told a parable about God's rejection of the Jews and his acceptance of Gentiles. It was a story about a wedding feast where the invited ones (chosen people, aka the Jews) refused to come to the wedding of the king's son, even going so far as to slay the servants the king sent to announce the wedding (aka the prophets). So the king sent his armies (aka the Romans) to burn up their city and invited everyone on the highway to come instead (the Gentiles).

    So that's what the Jewish Carpenter thinks.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Enough already. :)

    Deuce had it right in his comment on the last thread.

    Why would we want to argue over fairy tales, and creation myths when the real world is so interesting?

    And, Important.

    ReplyDelete
  29. The idea of Nancy Pelosi investigating Newt Gingrich is really really funny, once you think about it a bit.


    b

    ReplyDelete
  30. It's entertaining Rufus!

    Why I get more enjoyment out of Theological & Theoretical arguments than any of the dry "Facts" of the world.
    I try to be in the world, without being of the "whirled."

    ReplyDelete
  31. I guess you're right, Doug.

    I'll try to relax. :)

    ReplyDelete
  32. .

    Don't worry Doug, it's a bit ironic, but politics and religion, the things we don't talk about in polite conversation, are staples here at the EB.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  33. Returning to the Iranians, a view from those we have sent our Marines to defend, down Australia way.

    Make no mistake, Iranians will have their nuclear way

    ReplyDelete
  34. That is wonderful news Quirk!

    I have a question for Miss T.
    I Cursed God and Moses and Jesus. Would I then be blessed?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Teresita said...
    WiO: It must be quite sad, late at night, looking up at your boss, the Jewish Carpenter, KNOWING that he would not approve of your black hearted nature to HIS people Israel.

    Jesus told a parable about God's rejection of the Jews and his acceptance of Gentiles. It was a story about a wedding feast where the invited ones (chosen people, aka the Jews) refused to come to the wedding of the king's son, even going so far as to slay the servants the king sent to announce the wedding (aka the prophets). So the king sent his armies (aka the Romans) to burn up their city and invited everyone on the highway to come instead (the Gentiles).

    So that's what the Jewish Carpenter thinks.



    Nonsense....

    But keep thinking that the genocide of the Jews is what Jesus wanted...

    What a poor excuse for a human you are.

    ReplyDelete
  36. For Ms T... You are a little dog....

    For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him [Jesus—KB], and she came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed (7:25-30; see also Matthew 15:21-28).


    Yep your BOSS, the Jewish Carpenter thought that you were a DOG...

    Insulting? YEP...

    Think I am misreading the passage?

    Maybe...

    But for you to claim that Jesus wanted the Jews to be destroyed?

    Even worse of a stretch.

    But since you are "replacement theology" asswipe (just as the Nazis and other intolerant genocidal creeps) used the very nonsense you posted to murder Jews by the 100,000 of thousands for centuries...

    To which I reply...

    Why should your opinion matter? You are just a DOG, according to your own LORD...

    ReplyDelete
  37. …and no one needs to apologize for the dust-ups. A sudden cloud burts or prarie fire is cleasing and renewing. At least everyone has given up trying to have me ban anyone. Hell, I wouldn’t know where to start.

    ReplyDelete
  38. WiO, you read it, but you did not understand it.

    Yeshua: “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

    Gentile woman: “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”

    Yeshua: “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

    Even the Law of Moses says the stranger (non-Jew) is entitled to something.

    DEUT 24:21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

    ReplyDelete
  39. The dust-up was fun from my perspective. I quite enjoyed the rants of allen the blowhard marine and it was instructive the revelation of what it takes to be an anti-Semite in his view.

    On a related note I've often mused at how folk like WiO rant about Muslims much as Germans did about Jews back in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  40. :0

    :)

    At least everyone has given up trying to have me ban anyone. Hell, I wouldn’t know where to start.

    At home???


    :):)

    Then, without Whit, the inmates really would be running the asylum.




    b

    ReplyDelete
  41. That's the trouble with writing things down and putting a name to it, and calling it sacred.

    No one, but no one, really has a clue exactly what Jesus said or didn't say, and here we are 2,000 years later arguing about the same old shit.

    I swear to God, G-d, it's better to spend one's time reading Walt Whitman, good old Walt, who I think mentioned the Jews and Christians not at all, but was the most spiritual of men, and knew whereof he spoke.

    Walt, by the way, simply didn't have any anger in him. His friend Trauble, when he first noticed this, remarked on it, saying how odd and unusual it really was.

    b

    ReplyDelete
  42. Trippers and askers surround me,
    People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,
    The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new,
    My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,
    The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
    The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill-doing or loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations,
    Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events;
    These come to me days and nights and go from me again,
    But they are not the Me myself.
    Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,
    Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary,
    Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,
    Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next,
    Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.
    Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,
    I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait.


    Song of Myself


    I think the Bushnell Trailcam for $150 at Radio Shack might do a good job. Takes both still and movie pictures, 24/7, motion activated. Small and compact, battery powered, easily put in a tree.....


    b

    ReplyDelete
  43. heh, I read this as the Gingrich being quite worried - (the truth won't set you free)


    Gingrich fires back at Pelosi over threat
    By Justin Sink - 12/05/11 02:50 PM ET

    Newt Gingrich said that a threat from ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to disclose information she learned while serving on an ethics committee investigating him during his time as Speaker of the House would "totally abuse the ethics process" and violate rules of the House of Representatives.

    "I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift," Gingrich said at a press conference in Manhattan Monday.

    Gingrich denounced the threat from Pelosi, who is now the minority leader in the House, as "a fundamental violation of the rules of the House," and said that if Pelosi were to disclose details of the investigation, it would expose the "tainted ethics process the House was engaged in." He also called for the House to condemn Pelosi if she were to reveal anything from the ethics probe.


    b

    ReplyDelete
  44. Rufus and Quirk are spinning their own Creation Myth by refering to Dougman as "Doug"

    Monotheism is the way, and don't you forget it.

    ReplyDelete
  45. How any Pub could be surprised at the Shitstorm that will be raised around a Newt candidacy is beyond me.

    Same kind of wishful thinking us Cainanites once entertained.

    Know thyself, Deuce!

    ReplyDelete
  46. Why not fit 170's with incendiary devices when flying deep into enemy territory?

    Too late now, of course.

    Not that the Muzzies will ever tell the Ruskies and Chi-Coms.

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

    ReplyDelete
  48. .

    I think the Bushnell Trailcam for $150 at Radio Shack might do a good job.


    You continue to think small bobbo. While you are looking for a camera you can set up on lover's lane, I am investigating the purchase of an 8" telescope to view and take photos of the stars.

    Of course, thinking small is relative of course. I'm also thinking of getting another dog from the shelter to keep old Red (my dog not...well) company while we are away.

    I thought that was a pretty big decision and then ol Ruf goes and has a baby.

    As I said, it's relative.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  49. Weather Forecast - massive shit storm ahead


    b

    ReplyDelete
  50. Well, old Ruf Ruf is out of his post partum depression, and looking to the Holidays, and rum.


    b

    ReplyDelete
  51. .

    I thought this Trump debate set for Dec. 27 was set up by the RNC. Thank god it's not.

    With Trump hosting it it should look like an extended version of the Apprentice.

    Haven't heard any sound or video but evidently Paul and Huntsman called it a farce and have indicated they won't participate.

    Newt, on the other hand, jumped in with both feet.

    Telling.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  52. Trump claims to be worth 7 billion!

    ...doubt if Forbes carries that tally.

    ReplyDelete
  53. ...no doubt due to extreme appreciation of his Real Estates assets lately.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Yep, I'm thinking it's about time to go buy my bottle of holiday hootch.

    Normally go with Jim Beam, but this has been kind of a tough year; maybe I'll treat myself to a quart of Wild Turkey this go-round.

    ReplyDelete
  55. I'm not sure Trump is such a great businessman.

    Isn't he about the only man ever to lose money on a Casino?

    b

    ReplyDelete
  56. .

    Why not fit 170's with incendiary devices when flying deep into enemy territory?


    The same thought occurred to me. A literal 'kill switch'.

    Seems obvious.

    Especially, since there is precedent. They destroyed that alien spaceship buried in the artic ice with just a couple of thermite charges in the movie The Thing From Another World.

    And that was back in the 50's.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  57. While Quirk can make it on a phoney enterprise like SoulsRUs that got him run out of savvy Tennessee to the gullibility of the big city.....from hillbilly to gullibility....


    b

    ReplyDelete
  58. .

    Rufus and Quirk are spinning their own Creation Myth by refering to Dougman as "Doug"

    Nonsense Doug.

    We could never mix you guys up. Take a look at the picture on his post.

    He appears to be relatively young.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  59. How'd they get the thermite charges in the spaceship from the other world, Quirk?

    Think about it.

    jeez

    A man can be many things. A genius at marketing, a fool at strategic defense.

    b

    ReplyDelete
  60. He appears to be able to blog and play music at the same time.

    Our Doug can't do that.

    b

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  61. The thing could have been a "plant" for all we (or the Iranians) know. I think the whole thing smells just a tad bit fishy.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Melody can do that.

    b

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  63. Smells like catfish, to me. Rotting from the head.

    b

    ReplyDelete
  64. Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said there were no plans to endorse another candidate despite reports that a nod for Gingrich was imminent.

    Gingrich, meanwhile, seemed unworried that he was the flavor of the month for GOP voters dissatisfied with Romney, saying, "The American people will decide" whether he's a candidate for the long term.

    Gingrich's Midtown meeting makes him the fifth GOP contender to make the pilgrimage to Trump Tower in search of an endorsement.

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  65. Current European regulation requires credit-rating firms to let issuers know of any rating action 12 hours before that change is reported to the broader market. European regulators last month proposed that rating firms notify issuers "a full working day" before publication of a rating action "to leave the rated entity sufficient time to verify the correctness of data underlying the rating."

    The rating firms have expressed concerns that 12 hours is already too generous and heightens the possibility that a government could leak an impending downgrade or outlook change.

    David H. Levey, who was a sovereign-debt analyst at Moody's Investors Service from 1985 until 2004, said rating firms typically used to notify countries of a downgrade or outlook change one to two hours ahead of time because of concerns about leaks to the media and the potential for insider trading by government officials. "The longer the period of pre-announcement, the greater are both of those risks," he said.

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  66. Mr Cameron insisted that he had no intention of holding a referendum. “As prime minister, I am not intending to pass any powers from Britain to Brussels.

    ...

    Even if Mr Cameron could beat back a Tory call for a referendum after a 27-nation treaty, he would still face intense pressure to regain British control over social and employment legislation.

    An aide to Owen Paterson, the eurosceptic Northern Ireland Secretary, said a new treaty was “a major opportunity” for Mr Cameron to begin a repatriation of powers to the UK.

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  67. GOP strategists acknowledge that Gingrich could well self-destruct before winning the nomination. But if he survives, they say, he may be more formidable than some predict.

    “If he’s able to leverage his authenticity and unpredictability to be a real person in the eyes of the voters, he could be a good general-election candidate,” said Erik Smith, a prominent Democratic consultant. “But you also have to have some discipline.

    Anytime that Newt Gingrich has been under a long period of sustained scrutiny, he hasn’t held up, and certainly a general-election campaign is the most thorough scrutiny any candidate gets.”

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  68. In describing their compromise, the two leaders did not make clear what kind of sanctions they envision. Other officials have talked about fines.

    Sarkozy made it clear that the court would have no powers beyond pointing out the violations.

    ...

    Similar limits have been imposed in previous E.U. agreements. But countries — including France and Germany — have routinely violated them.

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  69. Tomorrow's crucial European Summit, like the last crucial European summit, is the crucial European Summit to end all crucial European Summits.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Re: armed service in the USMC and the IDF

    For those physically and mentally fit, it is possible to serve in both services, albeit on separate occasions. There is no penalty for such service, unless one finds duty taxing.

    So, bob, there are people in the real world who have had the chance to take shots at both Communists and Muslims.

    Aren't the United States and Israel great countries, or what?

    ReplyDelete
  71. Gingrich, for his part, has insisted that “I’m not a Washington figure” but rather “an American whose ties are across the country and is interested in how you change Washington, not how you make Washington happy.”

    The reality is that neither Romney nor Gingrich is a natural fit as an outsider to the political process. Which is exactly why they find themselves as the last two men standing in the primary fight.

    “Over time, politicians tend to make the best politicians,” said longtime Republican strategist Ed Rogers. “The best politicians are rising to the top.”

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  72. sam said...

    Gingrich, for his part, has insisted that “I’m not a Washington figure” but rather “an American whose ties are across the country and is interested in how you change Washington, not how you make Washington happy.”

    Sure, Sam, that's the ticket. It's not about making Washington happy. That's why he shut the government down when he didn't get the seat he wanted on Air Force One.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Let it go, Allen. We all recognize you are head and shoulders above us all, above us all, and you are the moral arbitrator of the universe, and a super sire. So, sober up, and let go.


    b

    ReplyDelete
  74. Nice posts Sam. Surely that Mastiff burped the little dog out, later?

    b

    ReplyDelete
  75. bob of Idaho

    Re: the corporate nature of Judaism and the United States Marine Corps

    As a Jew, I must identify with a body of at least nine other men in order to read the Torah. So, bob, despite the fact that within a group of ten Jewish men all manner of ill-will may exist, for close to eight hours each week they must get along well enough to worship…no showie, no prayie…

    This forced religious comity explains why healthy Jews rarely see themselves as merely loosely wired entities. Instead, we are compelled to think and act as a family. The fact that there are so few of us in the world, today, makes the use of "family" very often literally true.

    As an example, a dear lady in my synagogue died five hours before Passover preparations (11:00am). Under Jewish law, her body had to be prepared (washed and wrapped in a simple linen shroud), placed in a simple, unfinished pine box, and buried by 15:00, so that her family and the congregation could prepare for this holiest of times. By 14:00, several hundred Jews met her at the cemetery and buried her, as required. Most of these were people like me, who was at Costco at 12:15 when my wife called, asking me to represent our family.

    Oh, and, bob, every Jew at that funeral, young or old, was required to throw/drop at least three shovels-full of dirt into the grave.

    Do you get the picture, now?

    In the Marine Corps, bob, every man understands that he is an indispensable member of a TEAM. If you screw-up, your friends die.

    Bob, I once saw three perfectly healthy young men die within minutes of breaking cover at a dead run. Do you have any idea what they were doing that would cause almost instant death from bunkered machine-guns. Well, bob, they died trying to get to their wounded buddies. See, Idaho spud-hopper, we don't EVER, freaking EVER leave anybody behind.

    You get the picture, Pal?

    Whatever good my son does with his life will make me proud. If he joins either the USMC or the IDF, that will be just fine. If he does neither, but instead goes on to graduate school, hey, good on him.

    But, bob, I do have one serious reservation. If my boy fights with the IDF, he will be fighting for family. However, if he fights with the Corps, he might die for pukes like you!

    See what I mean?

    ReplyDelete
  76. Give it up, Allen. No one is playing today.

    I'm going to the Mall to exercise my hip.

    Stay sober. Or if not, give the keys to your new wife to drive.



    b

    ReplyDelete
  77. Allen:See, Idaho spud-hopper, we don't EVER, freaking EVER leave anybody behind.

    I saw that movie. Full Metal Jacket. The Marine instinct to go back and get their buddies, well that resulted in a nice little trap for a sniper. Better idea...take the position, then go back and get your buddies. Lower KIA statistics that way.

    ReplyDelete
  78. An angry wife said to her husband on the phone:
    Where the hell are you??

    Husband:
    Darling you remember that Jewellery shop where you saw the
    Diamond Necklace and totally fell in love with it ….
    and I didn't have money at that time and said Baby,
    it'll be yours one day??

    Wife, with a smile blushing:
    Yeah, I remember that my Love.

    Husband:
    Well … I'm in the Pub next to that shop!

    ReplyDelete
  79. Allen was never a marine.

    ReplyDelete
  80. jenny said...

    Allen was never a marine.


    I'm pretty sure he can get a DD214 from the same place Obama got his birth certificate, from Ye Olde Photo Shoppe.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Nadezhda Khromchenko, a pensioner handing out leaflets outside a central Moscow metro station, said she had voted Communist and was pleased United Russia had been given a black eye.

    "Look how poorly we live," she fumed. "They have looted the state but done nothing to help people like me.

    It is not for nothing they are called the party of thieves and swindlers."

    ReplyDelete
  82. Teresita said...
    jenny said...

    Allen was never a marine.

    I'm pretty sure he can get a DD214 from the same place Obama got his birth certificate, from Ye Olde Photo Shoppe.


    And Teresita aint no Christian....

    ReplyDelete
  83. What is "Occupation" said...

    And Teresita aint no Christian....

    And before WiO needs to opine on Jewish history and the Covenant of Sinai again he needs to RTFM.

    Especially the part where El Shaddai says mankind shall not lie with mankind as with womankind, but omits a prohibition of womankind lying with womankind as with mankind.

    ReplyDelete
  84. jenny said...
    Allen was never a marine.

    Mon Dec 05, 09:51:00 PM EST


    When you have $100,000 you would like me to have, call my lawyer Carl Veline at (478) 923-0203.

    I'll instruct Carl to pay you $200,000 if I cannot, at your demand, produce a DD-214.

    By the way, jenny, which pages of the DD-214 would you prefer as evidence?

    PLEASE, Sweet Pea, make my day!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  85. T said...

    Teresita said...
    jenny said...

    Allen was never a marine.

    I'm pretty sure he can get a DD214 from the same place Obama got his birth certificate, from Ye Olde Photo Shoppe.

    Mon Dec 05, 09:57:00 PM EST



    Put you money where your mouth is?
    Check out my response to jenny. I'll make the same wager with you.
    If Carl hasn't heard from you by week's end, I'll assume you are pretty much what I think.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Sorry T, I wasn't trying to sound Oriental - "your"

    ReplyDelete
  87. Rufus II said...
    The thing could have been a "plant" for all we (or the Iranians) know. I think the whole thing smells just a tad bit fishy.

    Mon Dec 05, 05:56:00 PM EST

    ---

    Anonymous said...
    Melody can do that.

    b

    ---


    Melody can smell like Fish?

    You off your meds again, AnonoBob?

    ReplyDelete
  88. :)

    You are f'ing with me Doug. Out of context.

    Melody can blog and do music at the same time, is what I was saying.


    Anonymous said...

    He appears to be able to blog and play music at the same time.

    Our Doug can't do that.

    b

    Mon Dec 05, 05:56:00 PM EST


    Rufus II said...

    The thing could have been a "plant" for all we (or the Iranians) know. I think the whole thing smells just a tad bit fishy.

    Mon Dec 05, 05:56:00 PM EST
    Anonymous said...

    Melody can do that.

    b

    Mon Dec 05, 05:57:00 PM EST
    Anonymous said...

    Smells like catfish, to me. Rotting from the head.

    b

    Mon Dec 05, 05:58:00 PM EST



    b

    ReplyDelete
  89. Allen, just type for us your awards section exactly as it appears on your service data. Nothing more is necessary. :)

    ReplyDelete