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."

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

If Dick Cheney is against deflating the bloated Pentagon machine, it must be a good idea



Name the last major US military adventure that was anything less than a disaster and a total waste of money and lives. Take your Pick:


  • United States Intervention in Greek Election, 1947-1949 
  • Operation PBFORTUNE, Guatemala, 1952 
  • Operation Ajax, US overthrow of Iranian Government, 1953 
  • Operation PBSUCCESS, Guatemala, 1954 
  • Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuba, 1961 
  • Operation Powerpack, Dominican Republic, 1965 - 1966 
  • Korean War, 1950 - 1953 
  • United States overthrow of Guatemalan Government, 1907-1933 
  • Operation Blue Bat, Lebanon, 1958 
  • United States Intervention at Panama Canal, 1958 
  • Vietnam War, 1962 - 1973 
  • United States Occupation of Laos, 1962 - 1973 
  • United States Intervention at Panama Canal, 1964 
  • Cambodian Civil War, 1969 - 1970 
  • United States Overthrow of Chilean Government, 1964 
  • Turkish invasion of Cyprus, 1974 
  • Operation Eagle Claw, Iran hostage crisis, 1980 
  • First Gulf of Sidra Incident, Libya, 1981 
  • Contra War, El Salvador, 1981-1990 
  • Occupation of Beirut, Lebanon, 1982-1984 
  • Invasion of Grenada, Grenada, 1983-1984 
  • Operation El Dorado Canyon, Libya, 1986 
  • Iran-Iraq War, 1987 - 1989 
  • Operation Just Cause, Panama 1989 - 1990 
  • Second Gulf of Sidra Incident, Libya, 1989 
  • Persian Gulf War, Iraq, 1991 
  • Operation Desert Shield, 1991 
  • Operation Desert Storm, 1991 
  • Somali Civil War, 1992 - 1994 
  • Operation Provide Relief, 1992 
  • Operation Restore Hope, 1992 - 1994 
  • Yugoslav wars, 1994 - 1999 
  • Bosnian Conflict, 1994 - 1995 
  • Kosovo Conflict, 1997 - 1999 
  • War on Terrorism, 2001 - present 
  • Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan 2001 - present 
  • Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines 2002 - present 
  • Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa 2002 - present 
  • Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003 - present 
  • Waziristan War, 2004 - present 
  • War in Somalia, 2006 - present 
  • Operation Iraqi Freedom - Trans Sahara 2007 - present
  • 2010-11 - War in Iraq: Operation New Dawn, On February 17, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that as of September 1, 2010, the name "Operation Iraqi Freedom" would be replaced by "Operation New Dawn"
  • 2011 - Libya: Operation Odyssey Dawn, Coalition forces enforcing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 with bombings of Libyan forces
  • 2011 - Osama Bin Laden is killed by U.S. military forces in Pakistan as part of Operation Neptune Spear
  • 2011 - Drone strikes on al-Shabab militants begin in Somalia.This marks the 6th nation in which such strikes have been carried out, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Libya
  • 2011 - Uganda: US Combat troops sent in as advisers to Uganda
  • 2012 - Jordan: 150 US troops deployed to Jordan to help it contain the Syrian Civil War within Syria's borders
  • 2012 - Turkey: 400 troops and two batteries of Patriot missiles sent to Turkey to prevent any missile strikes from Syria
  • 2012 - Chad: 50 U.S. troops have deployed to the African country of Chad to help evacuate U.S. citizens and embassy personnel from the neighboring Central African Republic's capital of Bangui in the face of rebel advances toward the city
  • 2013 - Mali: US forces assisted the French in Operation Serval with air refueling and transport aircraft
  • 2013 - Somalia: US Air Force planes supported the French in the Bulo Marer hostage rescue attempt
  • 2013 - 2013 Korean crisis
  • 2013 - Navy SEALS conducted a raid in Somalia and possibly killed a senior Al-Shabaab official, simultaneously another raid took place in Tripoli, Libya, where Special Forces captured Abu Anas al Libi (also known as Anas al-Libi)
  •  

200 comments:

  1. Minding your own business should not be mistaken for weakness. Be stingy. Choose your conflicts carefully.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think it goes too far. Soon we will be only 'minding our own business' because we can do no other, and shall find someone else minding our business for us.

    I think I would have Joe Campbell on my side. "Life is, after all, finally, a serious business." "Strive for peace, but keep those arrows over there sharp." And a dozen other quotes in the same vein.

    It's certainly not about the money.

    And, think of the jobs !

    Just another Obama effort, long in the making, to weaken the United States, which he hates.


    See: Dinesh d'Souza analysis.

    The chances of conflict will go up, not down.

    I like the idea of having lots of options. I like the idea of peace through strength.

    Just one man's opinion.

    Now go ahead and call me a warmonger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Disappointed you have not yet fleshed out Q's 1937 Olympic Fantasy in the previous thread.

      Delete
    2. Must of missed it. I recall he was always bragging about 'drinking everyone under the table' back in Germany in the thirties, tho. And then throwing javelins.......

      Delete
    3. Well go the Hell back and do your duty, Soldier!

      Delete
    4. Jews and Blacks can't hold their liquor.

      Delete
    5. Quirk told me once he actually brought down the FuehrerBlimp with a javelin after an all day drunk at a skeller, early spring 1938, but The Leader wasn't in it.

      Delete
    6. Up Hearst Avenue from where we lived in Beserkley was a place call "The Rathskeller" neat little old-fashioned courtyard surrounded by eateries, and plenty of Pitchers of Beer, and a little theater that showed whatever those little weird European Films were called.
      ...those were the days.

      Delete
    7. Guess it was probly named something else:

      The Rathskeller Closes

      February 8, 2011

      "Larry Blake's, the funky Telegraph Avenue watering hole beloved for its beer, salad dressing and sawdust-covered basement, closed for good last week after a long financial illness. It was 71.

      "Larry Blake's was an icon. We're all sad," said Bonnie Hazarabedian, a teacher in Moraga who attended UC Berkeley in the 1980s and was a regular at the nightspot. "I killed a lot of brain cells in the rathskeller."

      The "rathskeller" was Larry Blake's trademark, a subterranean beer hall where some of the Bay Area's best blues, jazz and R&B bands performed over the decades. The whole Berkeley clan gathered there, from Abbie Hoffman to Joe Kapp, from graduate students to campus janitors.

      "You could always get a feeling of what Berkeley was like," said Max Cady, nephew of founder Larry Blake, in a 1992 obituary for the restaurateur. "It was liberal and it was conservative. It was political. It was sports-oriented. It was the city. It was the campus. Larry Blake found Berkeley and Berkeley found Larry Blake. How can you say it better than that?"

      After Blake died in 1992, the restaurant changed hands but mostly stayed the same. In recent years, the rathskeller hosted fewer live bands and more DJ and hip-hop music, attracting a new crowd.

      The building owner, John Lineweaver of Diablo Holdings in Alamo, said the restaurant's change in focus - from "loyal, Cal-centric customers" to a younger clientele - was not successful.

      Lineweaver slashed the restaurant's rent 30 percent and invested $350,000 in building improvements, but the business still faltered, he said.

      Delete
    8. Reminds me, though: The Courtyard on Hearst was a Semi-Subterranean step down affair, with a charming old brick floor.
      Beer spills were not a problem.

      Delete
    9. Clientele and place look kinda phony compared to our funky hang out.

      Delete
  3. Korean War, 1950 - 1953

    South Korea is a bit different than North Korea.
    If the whole thing was Commie, that part of the World would be quite a bit different, esp Taiwan and Japan.

    If we coulda done it all over with hindsight in 1955, erasing all the deaths of the first run through, deaths would have been drastically lower.

    If we could do it all over today, it would be a REALLY massive clusterfuck, with some much more half-assed outcome, with us paying lil kim or whoever up there really big bucks, and the conflict would stretch on for four years longer than Afghanistan, if that's ever "over."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "esp Taiwan and Japan and, esp FOR Taiwan and Japan"

      ...the second of which is what I intended to write, but both work for me.

      Delete
    2. The list by Deuce is mostly non sense.

      Delete
    3. More War-Mongering, this time a local skirmish.

      Delete
    4. We were lucky in WWII.

      If Japan had attacked Russia, as Hitler wished, instead of us, we'd probably be speaking German now.

      And I would have never met my niece.

      It was a close thing.

      Delete
    5. Yeah, but you mighta missed out on a Flaxen Haired Fraulein of mixed Scandanavian/German Ancestry.

      Delete
    6. My German teacher in college was a handsome young German lady with Jet Black hair that made a 2-1/2 inch wide braid at here head, stretching down to her butt.

      Good thing she was married (I thought, at least, from how she acted) and I was half-married to a lady with beautiful Strawberry Blonde locks.

      Delete
    7. "her head"
      ...guess I got a little carried away there, since I'm missing the Jet Black German and my Strawberry Haired Wife...

      Looked identical the day she died as it did in college!

      ...I've been Silver forever.

      Delete
  4. "2012 - Jordan: 150 US troops deployed to Jordan to help it contain the Syrian Civil War within Syria's borders

    2012 - Turkey: 400 troops and two batteries of Patriot missiles sent to Turkey to prevent any missile strikes from Syria"

    I could use some Cliff Notes on those two:

    1. Have we lost any guys in Jordan?

    2. Why the Hell did we think Syria was gonna send some Scuds toward Turkey?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The secret to successful gambling is to play the electronic slot machines directly after undergoing an external beam radiation treatment.

    I've killed them 5 times in a row out there, all right after treatments.

    I'm surprised Quirk has not been in on this secret by now. One would think he would have picked up this esoteric knowledge 'on the street' somewhere by this time.

    Unless I'm the very first to have discovered it. Perhaps I am.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Didn't they ever have self-powered pellets that just sat in their and burned the shit out of everything?

      Maybe "everything" is the key to why they use focused external beams?

      Delete
    2. They do. I considered that first, but a intrusive operation was required, with its own risks. 38 pellets. And pain too, when pissing. And possible difficulties in recovery.

      I read my Aristotle and decided to avoid the pain, there being no compelling reason not to do so.

      "Always avoid pain, unless there is a compelling reason not to do so."

      Like was against the city/state, I imagine, something along that line.

      Delete
  6. The reply dealy didn't seem to work this time.

    How much radiation are us victims getting from you over the Internets and Wi-Fi's?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you start to see Lucky Sevens rolling past your eyes, become worried, become very very worried.

      Delete
  7. Help is finally on the way for people like me -

    New Islamophobia vaccine to be ready by 2015!

    Robert Spencer Feb 24, 2014 at 3:34pm "Islamophobia" 19 Comments

    AwadSaylorWASHINGTON, DC PARODY CENTRAL, February 23 — Researchers at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding announced Monday that they had perfected a new vaccine for Islamophobia and submitted it for FDA approval. After that approval is granted, the vaccine is expected to be mass-marketed in early 2015.

    John Esposito, director of the Saudi-funded Center, announced at a press conference unveiling the vaccine: “The vaccine comes in handy sugar cube form. So when your bigoted, hateful uncle starts mouthing off at Christmas dinner about the need to resist Islamic jihad, just offer to sweeten up his tea — and presto! In no time he’ll be subscribing to Aslan Media!”

    Nihad Awad, Director of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement: “CAIR applauds the new Islamophobia vaccine. We have tested it in a clinical trial on some of the nation’s greasiest Islamophobes. We gave the subjects the vaccine, then showed them footage of Islamic jihad attacks, complete with the jihadis brandishing Qur’ans and rifles and screaming ‘Allahu akbar’ as they torched churches and beheaded non-Muslims. The results were immediate and immensely gratifying.”

    Corey Saylor, Hamas-linked CAIR’s Director of Hounding Counter-Jihadists and Stirring Up “Islamophobia” Hysteria, elaborated: “Instead of calling for resistance to jihad terror, and the monitoring of mosques, and programs in those mosques to teach against jihad violence and the interpretation of Islamic texts and teachings that jihadis use to justify that violence, once the vaccine kicked in these former greasy Islamophobes began saying very different things. They’d see these jihad attacks and say things like, ‘I fear there will be a backlash against innocent Muslims,’ and ‘We need to address the poverty and inequality that gives rise to the resentments that fuel attacks like these.’ Best of all, some of them even started saying, ‘We need to send money to CAIR so they can buy more billboards saying that jihad is romping through the daisies. That’s the Islamic reform we need!’”

    Reza Aslan of Aslan Media declared: “I’m an expert on the new Islamophobia drug. I have a Ph.D. in it. I had a big hand in its development, in fact. I was present when we made participants at clinical trials, all seriously greasy Islamophobes, spit at and trample upon photos of those Islamophobic f**ks Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. I knew then that the vaccine was a success.”

    Ibrahim Hooper, Hamas-linked CAIR’s Director of Taqiyya Advancement, added: “The big breakthrough came when CAIR researchers discovered that we could equate honest investigation of how jihadis use Islamic teachings to justify violence and supremacism with attacks on innocent Muslims, and classify both as ‘Islamophobia,’ a clinical disorder. After that, it was only a matter of time before our researchers would develop an antidote. Part LSD, part valium, part cannibis sativa, our new Islamophobia vaccine’s full recipe is as closely guarded secret as the recipe for Coca-Cola. But one thing we can reveal: this vaccine makes you feel very, very good. We think it could challenge Ecstasy as the new party drug. After all, what other drug makes you stop worrying and love the jihad?”
    ********

    Think how this along with the Vodka would hollow out old Quirk !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Part LSD, part valium, part cannibis sativa, our new Islamophobia vaccine’s full recipe is as closely guarded secret as the recipe for Coca-Cola."

      ---

      The crappy thing is how fast stuff like that starts losing it's kick, and you have to start looking for something new.

      ...or just keep doubling down while waiting for the inevitable.

      It's either that or the Bridge.

      Delete
    2. Golden Gate Bridge suicides hit record high - 46

      On Aug. 29, 17-year-old Gabri Aparicio drove to the Golden Gate Bridge and jumped to her death.

      She became one of 46 people who took their lives at the landmark span last year, according to figures released Monday by a group advocating for more suicide barriers on the bridge. The group said the deaths were the most since the bridge opened in 1937.

      The Larkspur high schooler, known as a caring overachiever, had sent out a questionnaire for a story she was working on for the school newspaper 30 minutes before her suicide, said her father, Nicolas Aparicio.

      Though Gabri struggled with depression, he believes the questionnaire was proof that the teen wanted to live - and could have been saved. But she acted on an impulse, he said.

      "If it wasn't for the easy access at the bridge, I still believe my daughter would be alive today," Aparicio said.

      http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Golden-Gate-Bridge-suicides-hit-record-high-46-5263870.php

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Damn Bridge reached out and grabbed her, drove her from Larkspur (which I thought took more than 30 Minutes, but maybe she sent out her query by cellphone) and threw her over the edge.

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Reminds me of my encounter with Coccidioidomycosis, aka, Valley Fever.

      That was one miserable mofo, plus I got the mumps!

      The fever had my legs all broken out with big lumps and rash.

      The mumps were mumps. I was in the dumps.

      Delete

    2. Possible mumps outbreak on Fordham campus - NY Daily News


      Fordham University in the Bronx is dealing with thirteen reported cases of the viral disease mumps

      Fordham University in the Bronx is working to contain a possible outbreak of mumps that has now spread to the school’s Lincoln Center Campus.

      One case was reported Thursday at the school’s Midtown location, and four new cases at Rose Hill, for a total of 13 suspected cases of the viral disease, officials said.

      “Fordham does not yet have laboratory confirmation that the illness is mumps, but that is the most likely diagnosis,” a University spokeswoman said in a statement.

      All of the students with suspected infections have either returned home or have been isolated from other residents.

      Delete
    3. Girl appears to be sporting black pedal-pushers under a pinkish skirt, with a green top.

      Thank God mini-skirts were big back in the day.

      Delete
  9. Girl pictured walking down the steps appears to have a case of the dumps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They both look kinda like Zombies, but maybe that's just today's risk-averse youth approaching the first step.

      Delete
    2. Maybe Fordham is simply fucked.

      Delete
  10. Pentagon budget slashes benefits

    Benefits for active­ duty personnel and their families would be slashed under a budget proposal released Monday by the Pentagon.

    The budget would dramatically reduce the Army’s size and trigger a new round of controversial base closures while cutting healthcare copays and deductibles and reducing the subsidies military families get for housing and low-cost goods.

    ---

    Food Stamps forever, yay!

    Benefits for the Military, Nyet!

    That's the ticket!

    ...for our Nigerian.

    Puke

    http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/budget-appropriations/199050-hagel-unveils-basics-of-2015-defense-budget-request

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Correction:

      "Our Nigerian Puke"

      Delete
    2. "The group said those figures doesn’t account for other costs that would affect military families, such as increased prices at military commissaries because of another budget proposal and an increase in healthcare fees for military family members.

      Hagel cast the cuts as unavoidable and necessary to avoid steeper cuts to military personnel.

      He said payroll costs have risen 40 percent more than in the private sector.

      While he said those hikes were the “right thing to do” during war, “today DOD faces a vastly different fiscal situation … We must now consider fair and responsible adjustments to our overall military compensation package.”"

      Meanwhile Our Nigerian Puke INCREASES THE BUDGET BY ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!

      Electronically "Printed" by The Fed.

      Delete
    3. Hagel, genius, Cheney, moron.

      (The guy who with Rumsfeld was for a quick in and out.)

      ...but the State Dept/General Garner plan was discarded by the new, enlightened Powell State Department nightmare.

      "You break the teacups, you fix the teacups" Worry about that first, win later. Bremmer would go.

      W's Compassionate Warfare.

      Delete
    4. "“Sequestration requires cuts so deep, so quickly, that we cannot shrink the size of our military fast enough,” Hagel said."

      LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!

      A 1 Trillion Dollar increased budget is not "Sequestration."

      Delete
    5. "Congressional negotiators unveiled a $1.1 trillion funding bill late Monday that would ease sharp spending cuts known as the sequester while providing fresh cash for new priorities, including President Obama’s push to expand early-childhood education.

      The 1,582-page bill would fully restore cuts to Head Start, partially restore cuts to medical research and job training programs, and finance new programs to combat sexual assault in the military. It would also give all federal workers a 1 percent raise."

      Raises for Federal Pukes, cuts for the Military.

      That's the ticket!

      Delete
    6. Last time I checked, "early-childhood education" produced ZERO results.

      ...but a lot more dependence on Big Government.

      Our Nigerian's Wetdream.

      Delete
    7. Head Start...

      I could go on...

      Delete
    8. It takes a 1,582-page bill to figure out ways to give away more of the taxpayer's hard-earned income.

      Delete
  11. Deuce has found some new sources for additional military adventures.

    Care to name the source (s) Deuce?

    ReplyDelete
  12. To be clear, Hagel's budget is More than what is coming under the sequester. It is, actually, an attempt to claw some money back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Military libel for the Sequester.

      Welfare State, eligible for "Fresh Cash" around Sequester.

      BS is still BS

      Delete
    2. .

      Come on Ruf, don't try to confuse Doug with the difference between a real budget and a budget fabricated in OZ, the land of snake oil, euphemisms, and the Three-card Monte.

      .

      Delete
  13. Eisenhower, when he wanted to put hundreds of thousands to work on a public works project (the interstate highway system,) didn't call it a "jobs/infrastructure" bill; he shrouded it in "Defense."

    Obama's administration should have done the same thing with Renewable Energy.

    Air Force scores biggest-ever Military Solar Plant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ike also got rid of virtually all illegals.

      Too easy.

      Then again, maybe he was not just another corrupt DC Pig.

      Delete
    2. Ike didn't mince words either, he called it, get this -

      "OPERATION WETBACK"

      Delete
  14. In the last Fiscal Year attributed to Bush, Spending was $3,521,734 Million.

    It looks like Obama's spending, this year, will be about $100 Billion Less than that.

    Treas Statement

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And, that's NOT taking into account Inflation.

      Delete
  15. Better to get no comments on an interesting subject than to garner 56 empty pieces of bombastic bromides from of a couple of old fools.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Speaking of the drug trade, it seems like Colorado is upping its expectations to around $150 Million off of their newly legalized Pot.

      Delete
    2. Poor baby feels bad. Nobody gave a shit about his shit.

      Delete
    3. .

      Bob, you are an as.

      You keep baiting and baiting and then whine like a little baby when you get smacked down.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      Well, as you can see, you are merely half-assed.

      .

      Delete
    5. You really screwed that one up.

      "rat, you are an ass.

      You keep baiting and baiting and then whine like a little baby when you get smacked down."

      There.

      Delete
  16. As regards the Pentagon "cutbacks:"

    We have 6,000 Tanks sitting in a field, somewhere, out there, and we're going to add another 2,000 to them in the next year, or so.

    Oh, they're manufactured in Boehner's district.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meanwhile, half of our troops qualify for Food Stamps (which, Cheney, of course, wants to cut.)

      Delete
    2. At least, we're going (proposing) to give the troops a 1% raise. whoopee.

      Delete
  17. .

    FLASH!! NEWS ALERT!!!

    Snowden files reveal last of secret ingredients in new Islamaphobia vaccine.

    Ingredients not listed previously include:

    Ground alfalfa
    A stick of cinnamon
    Rose Hips
    Extract of white tea
    A phytotoxin mixture of monkshood, locoweed (redundant when used on Swedes and haoles), and belladonna
    Ground pepper
    And a little bit of sugar to help the medicine go down.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The really necessary secret ingredient is that ground alfalfa.

      You can get high smoking shit alone.

      Delete
  18. .

    You can't fight the MIC. Even if benefits for troops are cut the MIC with get theirs. Base closings, current contracts for old, failed, or redundant equipment, every item that has a constituency behind it will be lobbying for their cut of the pie.

    Maybe the GI's need a union to lobby for them. Heck, half the military is made up of contract workers anyway.

    :o)

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      With no draft, most people in the US have no dog in the race, they view snippets of wars in bits on the nightly news, sanitized for their viewing enjoyment.

      We should probably just cut to the chase and hire mercenaries to do our fighting for us. Contract it out and let Xe Services or G4S worry about pay and benefits. It would likely go unnoticed by the sheeple here in the US.

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      Interesting factoid (at least to me).

      Speaking of Xe Services, they provide their intel services to Farmer Bob's favorite plutocrats over at Monsanto so as to infiltrate activist groups organizing against that multinational octopus.

      .

      Delete
    3. Them plutocrats know how to kill weeds while you still using a hoe, and prolly a ho to do the hoeing.

      Delete
    4. .

      Weeds?

      Sure, I give them that. They can kill weeds.

      And everything else they touch.

      .

      Delete
    5. More misanthropist bullshit from the Soylent Green contingent.

      Delete
  19. This chart explains it all.

    Dubya took us from $400 B in military spending to $740 Billion (2013 Dollars.)

    Chart

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And, "How Good" was the military that that $400 Billion was buying us?

      Well, while we were "out shopping" (tm GWB,) our military conquered Iraq, and the 4th largest military on earth, in 14 days.

      Delete
    2. .

      I can see it in D.C.. I mean, that's what they do. However, it amazes me that the ordinary Joe (obviously not speaking of Bob and Doug) could believe we still need the same military expenditures we needed while conducting two full scale wars.

      .

      Delete
    3. Television has turned War into a "sporting event."

      They want "the very best team that money can buy."

      In short, they're "FANatics."

      Delete
    4. I was just going to post something along those lines Rufus...

      Delete
    5. :) Well, don't let my puny effort stop ye. :)

      Delete
    6. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    7. A dollar today doesn't buy as many bullets as a dollar yesterday, keep that in mind.

      Soon we will be spending more on "homeland security" than on the military. Like The One said, he wants a domestic security force equal to or greater than the military. Remember that, smart ones?

      What possibly could be the use for that? The enemy is us, now?

      "Use your brains, Quirk, before Homeland Security knocks them out."

      Q: "My brains? I ain't got any. Somebody already knocked 'em out. Hahahahahaha."

      Delete
    8. Read much, you dumb fuck? The $400 Billion is in 2013 DOLLARS.

      Delete
    9. I don't know where you come up with your weird shit, but These are the ACTUAL Expenditures:

      CLASSIFICATION THIS MONTH THIS FY TO DATE PRIOR PERIOD FULL FY
      + _________________________________________________________________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________
      BUDGET RECEIPTS

      INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAXES 169,388 475,814 468,365 1,395,844
      CORPORATION INCOME TAXES 8,147 77,407 70,260 333,444

      SOCIAL INSURANCE AND RETIREMENT RECEIPTS:

      EMPLOYMENT AND GENERAL RETIREMENT (OFF-BUDGET) 69,769 228,611 187,193 739,217
      EMPLOYMENT AND GENERAL RETIREMENT (ON-BUDGET) 21,119 78,493 69,396 229,265
      UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 5,497 13,899 13,272 57,191
      OTHER RETIREMENT 266 1,105 1,197 4,533
      EXCISE TAXES 6,540 25,748 26,421 105,169
      ESTATE AND GIFT TAXES 1,248 6,534 4,345 15,243
      CUSTOMS DUTIES 3,000 11,847 10,863 36,481
      MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS 11,024 41,140 36,466 106,617
      ALLOWANCES ...... ...... ...... ......

      ;BTOTAL RECEIPTS 295,997 960,598 887,778 3,023,004

      ;C(ON-BUDGET) 226,228 731,987 700,585 2,283,787
      ;C(OFF-BUDGET) 69,769 228,611 187,193 739,217

      ;CBUDGET OUTLAYS

      LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 340 1,370 1,548 4,894
      JUDICIAL BRANCH 677 2,315 2,321 7,621
      DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 12,424 58,076 68,022 149,080
      DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 615 2,421 3,294 9,327
      DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE-MILITARY PROGRAMS 50,472 204,961 217,357 585,950
      DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 760 14,740 14,597 74,352
      DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 1,783 8,115 9,160 29,426
      DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 93,187 317,324 294,510 962,354
      DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 3,573 14,439 21,689 53,666

      Delete
    10. As you probably can't figure out, "Homeland Security" Expenditures for year-to-date are 14.439 Billion.

      For the same period last year they were 21.689 Billion.

      We're looking at the total for the year being $53.665 Billion.

      If he's trying to overtake the military budget with homeland security he's going the wrong way.

      Delete
    11. .

      Thanks for the explanation.

      Couldn't figure out what the numbers were trying to say.

      I assume that means Defense has spent $204 billion?

      .

      Delete
    12. A fuckin' 2013 dollar don't buy as many potato chips as 1993 dollar, I know that fer shur.

      And you can ask Quirk about the rise in the price of Vodka, you dumb fuck.

      ;)

      Delete
    13. Have you tried to buy an F-22 or F-35 lately?

      Shit.

      Well I have, and it's beginning to stretch my bank account I can tell you.

      Delete
    14. Yep, $204, down slightly from $217 last year, and projected to be $585 for the year.

      Delete
    15. .

      The F-35, in the pipeline for 20 years, costs double its initial cost estimate, and still doesn't work.

      Great example.

      From Amazon: Those who bought the F-35 were also interested in the

      AMC Pacer

      Pet Rocks

      Cat Armor

      .

      Delete
    16. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    17. Our own Soylent Green contingent wants to replay 1965, he hasn't learned a thing since then.

      He keeps repeating the bombastic bromides of that era, which have all worn thin, as if they were gospel.

      The people of the US have sent $300,000 in the past twelve months, piecing Farmer Bob together. He'd have never passed a 'Death Panel' examination, the return on the public investment, just terrible...

      The Government wasted the money, he'll be dead and, if all goes to his plan, pig food by this time next year.
      For $300,000, we could have bought a lot of corn, instead.

      Socialist medicine, the only kind of health care that Doug or Farmer Bob can afford.
      It' paid for by other people.

      If it was not for Federal interference in the Health Care marketplace, Doug would be unable to buy Health Insurance, anywhere, at any price. Must be why he is so adamantly in favor of socialized medicine for him, but not for 'Them".

      Delete
    18. Is that true Bob - do you want the government to keep their hands off of your medicare?

      Delete
    19. No cuts in the costs of feeding captured and contained horses, no cut in Federal 'ownership' of Western lands, no cuts in Medicare, that is where Farmer Bob stands.

      He supports cuts in Medicaid.
      Denounces cuts in Farm Subsidies, but applauds proposed cuts in Food Stamps.

      As long as Federal spending supports what Farmer Bob supports, it's all good.
      If Federal spending goes for what he opposes, why that's Socialism unleashed!

      He is a foolish, old, worn out husk of inhumanity.

      Delete
  20. As detached as the Soylent Green contingent is ...

    Illustrated by a lack of interest in the capture of El Capo, in Mexico.
    A sea-change is occuring, down there and Farmer Bob's only concern ...

    Blood Avocados.

    At BorderlandBeat.com

    BTW over 700k views in 2.5 days on chapo coverage.

    No time for Farmers
    Which is what El Chapo claims to be ... a Farmer.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anybody here that won't suck my Dick will no longer be my friend nor will they henceforth be able to watch the Superbowl.

    ReplyDelete
  22. rat is following me around again. Repeating the lie that someone other than my own private health insurance paid for my hip.

    rat is an internet bully

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also mis states what I've said on issues.

      He is an internet bully, not fit for polite company.

      Doug, you're the guy to start an alternative site.

      I hope you give it some real thought.

      Delete
    2. I could open the last straight bar in America.

      ...and get shut down within a week.

      Delete
    3. Farmer Bob threaten the people of Arizona with being shot and their meat sold off to foreigners.

      He is the Inet bully, then claims to be the victim.

      An Israeli at heart, Farmer Bob lies and dissembles with the worst of 'em.
      But as a paid up member of the Soylent Green Society, he does not care.

      He will threaten us with some other devious, divisive and diabolical diatribe, duly declaring disaster when his deviant demeanor is disrespected.

      Delete
    4. $300,000 in government funding for Farmer Bob's health care subsidy, in the past year.

      Let's talk about looters!

      Why not means test Medicare and Social Security ...

      Why should the Federals pay a monthly stipend to real estate moguls and developers, folks with multiple homes?
      Why should the working poor pay for a retired millionaire's health care coverage?

      Delete
  23. STUDY: Fatal Car Crashes by Pot Smokers up 300% over Last Decade...

    CO Launches Media Blitz: 'Drive High, Get DUI'........drudge

    Time to drive into the The Faucet.

    Probably get killed by a pot smoker on the way.

    tata

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Truckers must suck a Doobie before they get behind the wheel.

      Delete
    2. I have a faucet on my Hookah.

      I draw on that for my mid-morning tea.

      Heat's up in the Microwave in a Jiffy.

      Delete

    3. About one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of drunk driving are repeat offenders.


      (Fell, Jim. “Repeat DWI Offenders in the United States.” Washington, DC: National Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Traffic Tech No. 85, February 1995.)

      Over 1.2 million drivers were arrested in 2011 for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.

      (Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States: 2011”)

      Males were more likely than females (15.1 vs. 7.9 percent) to drive drunk.

      (Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States: 2011”)
      - See more at: http://www.madd.org/statistics/#sthash.60og6Uow.dpuf

      Delete
  24. Jeezus Fuck, I think she bought an electric!

    Dumb C...!

    ReplyDelete
  25. It turns out that by limiting the talking point to "Army," the headline news turns out to be grossly misleading. Pre-World War II, there was no separate Air Force. Pre-World-War II, the Marines were a small fraction of the size of the Army and Navy. You don't have to get into arguments over whether military forces are more capable now even in smaller numbers, or the relative efficiency of bayonets vs. cruise missiles or any of the rest of it. The combined personnel of the modern armed forces is about three times the size of the pre-1940s military, and even the steeper end of proposed cuts are in no danger of changing that:

    In terms of manpower, if you'd totally eliminated the Army and the Navy on December 31, 2013, the combined total of the Marine Corps and the Air Force alone—523,425 people—would still be significantly bigger than the whole military circa 1940.

    ReplyDelete
  26. "My wife works for jumpstart at MEDB. She can help you get the passes to charge at the different locations around the island. Congrats on the great new car."

    I wonder if she'll have to first sign the pledge to never fail to pick up all Gay Hitchhikers?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Food Stamp use grew 63% under Bush.

    48% under Obama.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The American Flag is planted on Mars.

      My Congressperson tells me so.

      Delete
    2. .

      First,

      Hmmm, statistics again...


      Bush:

      Base = 100
      Increase % = 63%
      Total Increase = 63

      Obama:

      Base = 163
      Increase % = 48%
      Total Increase = 78

      Second,

      Percentages don't mean shit. It's the total number of people that we have on food stamps that is crazy.

      .

      Delete
    3. .

      Hmmm, statistics again.

      Obama has 3 years to go.

      .

      Delete
    4. Actually, it's the fact that so many Americans QUALIFY for food stamps that is crazy (including half of our Armed Forces.

      An increase in the Minimum Wage will kick a LOT of folks Off of food stamps.

      Delete
    5. With no lose of Jobs or Hours.

      Just like Obamacare.

      1.6 percent make the minimum wage, that is a LOT in my book too.

      I made the minimum wage for 4 years in highschool.

      One reason why I chose to be a Busboy.

      TIPS

      (Before that was a Govt Insured Program)

      Delete
    6. "Obama has 3 years to go."

      He's only just begun.

      That's one of the few of his promises I Believe, Big Time.

      Delete
  28. WASHINGTON - A Senate subcommittee investigation accused Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse of using elaborate “cloak-and-dagger” methods to hide the accounts of 22,000 wealthy American citizens with a total of up to $12 billion in assets from U.S.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I accuse DC to be the biggest Con Job on Earth.

      Delete
  29. 40 percent of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains.

    Link

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now figure out the figures if everybody goes back to using slide rules to figure, and their backs to hoist bales.

      You are a genuine Assclown, Rufus.

      Ass are your sources.

      Delete
    2. Thanks again for the link.

      Not

      Delete
    3. "40% of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage"

      Nice Headline

      For Liars

      Delete
    4. Obama has done nothing to increase the Wealth Gap.

      Like giving Free Money to Wall Street.

      ...and encouraging young blacks to shoot hoops and watch TV.

      Like he does.

      Delete
    5. C'mon Doug,

      You put your foot in your mouth by missing the provided link and it looks like you are all set to swallow, hard, by not offering a cogent argument against Rufus. You sound like a petulant Rush acolyte.

      Delete
  30. "Socialist medicine, the only kind of health care that Doug or Farmer Bob can afford.
    It' paid for by other people."

    Yep, all those years we bought our own insurance and paid SS Taxes don't mean shit.

    Should get rid of Medicare, and employ Obamacare Everywhere.

    That's the ticket in our Worker's Paradise.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Let's say that, as a minimum wage worker, you suffer a 3% loss of hours due to the minimum wage being increased to $10.10.

    Okay, instead of having 100 hrs at $7.25 ($725.00,)

    you get 97 hrs at $10.10 ($979.70)

    Which would YOU choose?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You gave a link other than the one to the Assclown Times?

      Delete
    2. Let's say you loose your job.

      Go Figure.

      Delete
    3. Let's say I offer you Shit or Shinola.

      Which would YOU choose?

      Heavy

      Delete
    4. Minimum wage workers are, almost entirely, part-time workers (think McDonalds, Walmart, Burger King, etc.)

      These workers don't "lose their jobs," they lose "hours."

      Delete
    5. So you stand by your Assclown Headline as being accurate.

      Delete
    6. It's figured that a little over 26 Million will be affected by an increase in the minimum wage. That's almost 20% of the workforce.

      Delete
    7. I reply to you.

      You ignore my points.

      Later.

      Delete
    8. It's figured that your BS is just that, BS.

      "will be affected"

      I just don't know

      Delete
  32. "40% of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage"

    Honest

    Ask Rufus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was the headline.

      "had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains"

      An addendum.

      Truth in headlines.

      For the dum.

      Delete
    2. I just trashed my computer to get my productivity back in line with my theoretical current earnings.

      Delete
  33. .

    AshTue Feb 25, 08:40:00 PM EST

    C'mon Doug,

    You put your foot in your mouth by missing the provided link and it looks like you are all set to swallow, hard, by not offering a cogent argument against Rufus. You sound like a petulant Rush acolyte.


    Gee, Ash, I'm a little slow myself. Help me out here. You have obviously read the link yourself. Why don't you break down the article for us, explain the jist of it, it's salient points so to speak, and point out the ones you agree with and that you think Doug should be cogently responding to?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  34. Rufus is doing 'numbers' again.

    Dash for the bunker !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Being nice about it tho. So far, no social 'invitations'.

      ;)

      Delete
    2. I so want to suck.

      Like Rufie's numbers.

      Delete
    3. You gotta love a site with a headline like:

      "40% of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage"

      Then there's the graph: Source: Authors Analysis...

      Even though I found a possibly more credible site with the same chart claiming the same thing.

      ...enough going through the Internet Weeds of Ruf's Daily Reads!

      I'd take the NY Times and WaPo if those were my only other sources.

      Jeeze.

      Delete
    4. Just rely on the death count at The Golden Gate Bridge, it's easier.

      By the way, is there some unintended irony in that name?

      Delete
  35. Michelle Obama says ObamaCare is for "knuckleheads".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obama: Supporters Doing 'God's Work'.......drudge


      It may come as a shock to Rufus to find out he 'is doing God's work'.

      Which only goes to show God works in miraculous ways, hard to fathom, and that there's a place somewhere for every old sinful coot in the Kingdom.

      Delete
    2. Meanwhile, in the Land of Free Needles -

      Golden Gate Bridge hits milestone in 2013 with 46 suicides......drudge

      'It's the economy, stupid'

      Delete
    3. Damn you!
      You're not reading my posts!

      I put a lot of work into that suicide comedy last nite!

      "The Bridge made her do it"

      Said her father.

      Delete
  36. I just sold Rufus a Million dollars worth of Bitcoin!

    ReplyDelete
  37. "By the way, is there some unintended irony in that name?"

    The Golden Gate?

    Gotta be: It's Red!

    You go for the gold after you hit water.

    Or not.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I've got some Pokemon Cards for sale, too, Rufus Too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How much for the Pokemon?

      I know a guy from Detroit, if the price is right, who might be interested.

      Delete
  39. Good interview with John Bolton on Fox News just now.

    When pressed - "Do you think Obama is *intentionally* trying to weaken the United States?" he finally broke out of his ambassadorial role and said hell yes how else do you explain all this non sense.

    He is a peace through strength, weakness invites conflict kind of guy.

    That is to say, he knows what he is talking about. Like Joseph Campbell, for instance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jimmy Carter is heading to Venezuela, so at least that situation will soon be fixed.

      Delete
  40. The Insiders: Another day, another Obamacare disaster
    BY ED ROGERS
    February 25 at 3:38 pm

    In a colossal “oh by the way” revelation, last Friday afternoon the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency under the United States Department of Health and Human Services (that would be the executive branch run by President Obama), quietly released a report exposing the fact that under Obamacare, two-thirds of Americans who work at small businesses will see their insurance premiums increase. So this report – which is more than two years late – says over 11 million American workers will have higher health insurance premiums because of Obamacare. Despite the administration’s attempts to, as House Speaker John Boehner put it, “delay and deemphasize” the report, we now have it straight from the Obama administration that Obamacare will raise health-insurance premiums for American workers. That is a far cry from Obama’s 2008 campaign promise that families would see lower health insurance premiums – $2,500 lower, to be exact – under Obamacare.
    President Obama (Charles Dharapak/Associated Press)
    President Obama (Charles Dharapak/Associated Press)

    When you want to hide something in Washington, you release it on a Friday afternoon – but this latest Obamacare revelation is too big to ignore. Remarkably, there have been so many horrific disclosures of the deceit, inaccuracies, inadequacies and flaws in Obamacare that this latest report hasn’t stirred much outrage. On its face, the fact that the CMS says 11 million workers will see their health-insurance premiums increase should be a banner headline. But in the Obamacare narrative, disclosures like this have pretty much become routine. And that’s what the White House wants the media to think – that there’s no more juice in reporting another Obamacare lie or providing details about how this law is coming apart, undermining health care, killing jobs, decreasing American household income, leaving the uninsured uninsured, etc.

    When challenged on the negative impacts of Obamacare, the White House Obamacare media strategy appears to be either to just deny the accuracy of obvious facts or to shrug and assure the compliant media that there is nothing new here. They are counting on the media watchdogs becoming bored with the Obamacare debacle.

    There is no evidence that the Obama administration has any intention of rebooting its health-care policy or actually trying to fix the damage done by Obamacare. Instead, it’s decided to go with a strategy that my old boss, Lee Atwater, would love: “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.” No matter what the truth is, or what harm is done, it seems like this administration is dealing with the fallout from Obamacare by stiff-arming Congress and the press and giving the voters the finger.

    They are making a bet that this approach will yield better 2014 election results than telling the truth, admitting mistakes and fixing problems

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/02/25/the-insiders-another-day-another-obamacare-disaster/


      And, by the way, as one of the legal minds on Fox pointed out this evening, Obama does not have the authority to delay mandates.

      The Supreme Court, in an act of folly, ruled ObamaCare a tax.

      The President does not have the authority to abolish or delay a tax.

      And especially so for selected groups.

      Delete
    2. IRS Warns: Obamacare Tax Must Be Paid with Tax Return

      Agency employs Orwellian term “Shared Responsibility Payment” to describe Obamacare individual mandate tax.

      Delete
    3. We can put the 'domestic security force' to work rounding up the non payers.

      Delete
  41. FBI had human source in contact with bin Laden as far back as 1993

    In a revelation missing from the official investigations of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FBI placed a human source in direct contact with Osama bin Laden in 1993 and ascertained that the al Qaeda leader was looking to finance terrorist attacks in the United States, according to court testimony in a little-noticed employment dispute case.

    The information the FBI gleaned back then was so specific that it helped thwart a terrorist plot against a Masonic lodge in Los Angeles, the court records reviewed by The Washington Times show.

    “It was the only source I know in the bureau where we had a source right in al Qaeda, directly involved,” Edward J. Curran, a former top official in the FBI’s Los Angeles office, told the court in support of a discrimination lawsuit filed against the bureau by his former agent Bassem Youssef.

    Mr. Curran gave the testimony in 2010 to an essentially empty courtroom, and thus it escaped notice from the media or terrorism specialists. The Times was recently alerted to the existence of the testimony while working on a broader report about al Qaeda’s origins.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Some defense expert on Fox said if we do the military cutbacks we'll have a little over 100,000 folks who are actually fighters.

    The rest......paper pushers, support, etc etc etc

    I do believe I heard that right...... 100K.

    If I heard it right, the question remains of course as to whether his estimate is correct.

    If Homeland Security keeps buying bullets and armored cars Obama may well have his domestic security force as strong as the army.

    Does anyone but me......and Doug.......see a 'problematic' here?

    ReplyDelete
  43. Focus on Nigeria....con't.

    DAMATURU, Nigeria, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school in northeast Nigeria overnight and killed 29 pupils, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground, police and the military said on Tuesday.

    "Some of the students bodies were burned to ashes," Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai said of the attack on the Federal Government college of Buni Yadi, a secondary school in Yobe state, near the state's capital city of Damaturu.

    All those killed were boys. No girls were touched, Rufai said.

    The Islamists, whose struggle for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands and made them the biggest threat to security in Africa's top oil producer, increasingly are preying on the civilian population.

    Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the northern Hausa language, have frequently attacked schools in the past. A similar attack in June in the village of Mamudo left 22 students dead.

    More than 200 people were killed in two attacks last week, one in which militants razed a whole village and shot panicked residents as they tried to flee.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/boko-haram-boarding-school-attack_n_4852306.html

    ReplyDelete
  44. Focus on Nigeria...con't

    Nigerian students trying to escape college attack were “slaughtered like sheep” by Islamic jihadists who slit their throats

    Robert Spencer Feb 25, 2014 at 4:41pm Nigeria 19 Comments

    NIGERIA-UNREST-FILESRemember: when you hear Leftists and Islamic supremacists going on about “Islamophobia,” demonizing those who call attention to atrocities like this, this is what they are enabling: students burned alive, and having their throats slit when they tried to escape. This is, apparently, what the “Islamophobia” industry — the real one that pushes the concept, not the counter-jihad one that Hamas-linked CAIR imagines to exist — wants to see: heaps of dead Infidel bodies. An update on this story. “Nigerian students trying to escape college attack were ‘slaughtered like sheep by the terrorists who slit their throats,’” by Adamu Adamu for the Associated Press, February 25:


    DAMATURU, Nigeria — Suspected Islamic militants killed dozens of students in a pre-dawn attack Tuesday on a northeast Nigerian college, survivors said, setting ablaze a locked hostel and shooting and slitting the throats of those who escaped through windows. Some were burned alive.

    Adamu Garba said he and other teachers who ran away through the bush estimate 40 students died in the assault that began around 2 a.m. Tuesday at the Federal Government College at Buni Yadi. It is a co-ed school about 70 kilometres south of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and difficult to communicate with because extremists last year destroyed the cellphone tower there.

    Soldiers still are gathering corpses so he could not give an exact number of dead, said military spokesman Capt. Eli Lazarus.

    Garba, who teaches at a secondary school attached to the college, said the attackers first set ablaze the college administrative block, then moved to the hostels, where they locked students in and started firebombing the buildings.

    At one hostel, he said, “students were trying to climb out of the windows and they were slaughtered like sheep by the terrorists who slit their throats. Others who ran were gunned down.” He said students who could not escape were burned alive.

    He spoke to The Associated Press in Damaturu, where he and several other teachers had made their way.

    Tuesday’s attack brings the toll from attacks blamed on Boko Haram to more than 300 civilians killed this month alone.

    It is the first reported in Yobe state and the first school attack reported this year by suspected fighters of the terrorist network of Boko Haram — the nickname that means Western education is forbidden.
    JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GettyImages
    JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GettyImagesThis file picture taken on April 19, 2012 shows Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. President Goodluck Jonathan told a news conference Monday night that the Boko Haram attacks were “quite worrisome” but that he was sure “We will get over it.”

      Thousands of Nigerians have lost family members, houses, businesses, their belongings and livelihoods in the 4-year-old rebellion.

      And it likely will anger regional officials who charge the military is losing its war to halt the Islamic uprising in the northeast of Africa’s biggest oil producer. The military has said recent attacks are being perpetrated by militants who have escaped a sustained aerial bombardment and ground assaults on forest hideouts along the border with Cameroon.

      U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday condemned the “unspeakable violence and acts of terror” and said the United States is helping Nigerian authorities to develop a comprehensive approach “to combat the threat posed by Boko Haram while protecting civilians and ensuring respect for human rights.”

      But survivors and local officials charge they get no protection. And refugees who have fled to neighbouring states have said that they are fleeing the extremists as much as the fallout from a military campaign in which soldiers are accused of gross human rights abuses including executions of people suspected of helping Boko Haram.

      “Everybody is living in fear,” local government chairman Maina Ularamu told the AP after Izghe village was attacked twice in a week this month — with militants first killing 106 and burning hundreds of thatched huts, then returning to kill another three people and setting ablaze what little remained of the settlement in neighbouring Adamawa state.

      “There is no protection. We cannot predict where and when they are going to attack. People can’t sleep with their eyes closed,” Ularamu said.


      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/nigerian-students-trying-to-escape-college-attack-were-slaughtered-like-sheep-by-islamic-jihadists-who-slit-their-throats



      I need an Islamophobia pill, and some of Quirk's Vodka. How about you?

      And Goodluck, Johnathon

      Delete
  45. BREAKING NEWS FROM FOX

    What city in the whole wide world consumes the most wine per capita?


    Ans: VATICAN CITY

    Of course.

    105 bottles per resident per year.

    This is DOUBLE that of France, and EIGHT TIMES that in the USA.

    No wonder Quirk had so little trouble lifting all those bottles from the Vatican when we freed the butler.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is The Christian Brothers Winery in California.

      105/365 = Less than a third a bottle per day!

      We should be talkin 12 yr olds, at that level.

      Maybe they count baby.

      Then things would start to make sense, almost.

      Delete
    2. Maybe it was 1050 bottles per year/resident

      Delete
    3. 1050 bottles per drinking age resident sounds about right.

      Delete
    4. Christian Brothers
      Brandy


      Dang, reminds me of touring Napa/Sonoma with my best friend and his wife, me, and my wife.

      Too many things are "Those Were the Days" Days, these days.

      Delete
  46. "Another reason I watch very little TV is on “The Five” at the end “Bob” used the usual Demoncrat/Progressive swipe at Guns and reason for the need to Outlaw them was a recent Incident where a Guy got three guns, supposedly emptied them and in front of his girlfriend (wanting to prove how save they where) put each gun up to his head and pulled the trigger, and the last weapon went off blowing his brains out! Bob then said “see that’s why they should be illegal…” What Bob hides from everybody and what makes it even more furious is no one around the Table added to the fact that the Man had been drinking for awhile prior to the incident, so with “Bob’s” analogy “Drinking” kills far more then Guns and it needs to be banned or Swimming and Bathing should also be illegal, numerous people Drink and Drowned each year!"

    ---

    I always like a good blow your brains out story told in bad English.

    The bad cancels out the good, to some degree, but not that much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      There is nothing good about 'The Five'. The program blows every which way to sundown. I've never seen a program that is that bad. The John Steward Show did a segment on it. The only problem? It didn't make it look as stupid as it actually is.

      http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2014/01/the-daily-show-fox-news-the-five-a-story-of-passion-and-intrigue.html

      .

      Delete
    2. I guess you wouldn't like me much, Mr. Quirk, as I watch the "Five" as often as possible. It's good conservative dialog on current events. I like Mr. Bechel, too. He is the token Lib, but makes good points. It is rated as one of the top 5 news programs on cable. Thank you.

      Delete
  47. Or maybe they're on reduced rations lately since Q cleaned the place out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is he claiming all his rations are frozen?

      Delete
    2. Think if the first one had fired.

      The lesson might have been lost on the girlfriend.

      Delete
    3. .

      Careful, boys, you merely provide more ammunition (sorry) to the Ash's of the world and as we have seen it doesn't take much for him to interpret 'anything' as a condemnation of the 'gun culture' in the US.

      From a couple days ago,

      AshMon Feb 24, 04:40:00 PM EST

      There was that recent study tracking homicides in Missouri that contradict the claim that banning guns stops only the good guys from obtaining guns:



      This besides the point that the story he posted

      1. Had nothing to do with banning guns but rather with making it much more easy to get guns (doing away with background checks), and

      2. It says nothing about banning guns resulting in only good guys not getting guns.

      In fact what the story did say was

      Researchers concluded that repealing the permit-to-purchase (PTP) law had given more murderers access to guns.

      “Because many perpetrators of homicide have backgrounds that would prohibit them from possessing firearms under federal law, they seek out private dealers to acquire their weapons,” Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research Deputy Director Jon Vernick explained. “Requiring a background check on all gun sales is a commonsense approach to reducing gun violence that does not infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners.”


      A number of polls show that most Americans and even a majority of gun owners agree with the last statement.

      I can only conclude that this is just one more example of what we have come to know as an 'Ashism' or as some call it 'Canadian Half-baked Potatoes'.

      .



      Delete
    4. ashed potatoes, get it, mashed potatoes, ashed potatoes, ar,ar,ar

      Delete
    5. Quirk with respect to:

      "2. It says nothing about banning guns resulting in only good guys not getting guns."

      How do you figure that? It seems that is precisely what "Researchers concluded that repealing the permit-to-purchase (PTP) law had given more murderers access to guns. "

      If you accept that repealing PTP gave the bad guys more access to guns then the converse is also true the requiring PTP will lessen their access to guns.

      Delete
    6. the = that but more importantly: half baked Canadian potatoes is better than quirky logic.

      Delete
  48. Nearly two-thirds of small businesses will see their health insurance premiums increase under the ACA, according to a new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report. Democrats counter that the report IGNORES SUBSIDIES FOR PREMIUMS!!.

    Well, no shit, Sherlock, since the subsidies are a Major part of the program.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      A major part? They are the pretty much the whole story. They are means by which the transfer of funds take place.

      .

      Delete
  49. If Merkel is worried you should be worried too -

    Germany's Merkel in Jerusalem: Iran Not Just a Threat to Israel - Andreas Rinke

    Speaking about a potential Iranian nuclear bomb, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday in Jerusalem: "We see the threat not just as a threat for the State of Israel but as a general threat for Europe as well."

    At a joint news conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that world powers had "talked about the possibility of some enrichment" continuing in Iran as part of a final deal. "I think it's a mistake," he said. "Every single leader that I've talked to in the Middle East agrees with that position, whether they say so publicly or not. Why? Because if Iran really wants just civilian nuclear energy, then they don't need any enrichment. They don't need centrifuges." (Reuters)

    from Daily Alert

    ReplyDelete
  50. Did you have three parents, Quirk?

    Are you a designer baby?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would explain your name.

      Delete
    2. DAWN OF THE DESIGNER BABIES!

      Dad May Join Two Moms for 'Disease-Free' Kids.......drudge

      Delete
    3. Would explain that 'third eye' Quirk is always bragging about.

      Delete
    4. .

      Are you a designer baby?

      Well, yes. Yes, I am.

      .

      Delete
  51. Hello Everybody,
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    ReplyDelete