Taiwan hailed on Monday the bravery of five Vietnamese war vets who launched a surprise assault on six armed pirates and successfully took back their vessel after it had been hijacked off East Africa.
The former Vietnam war fighters had been recruited by Taiwan to be part of a 28-man crew on the “Chin Yi Wen”, a 290-tonne vessel, along with nine Chinese, eight Filipinos and six Indonesians.
Probably had to speak English to communicate with one another. Heh.
The crew, who had been out of contact with the ship since Friday according to the foreign ministry, forced the six armed Somali pirates to jump overboard, and successfully took back control of the ship.
Liu Wan-tien, the owner of the vessel based in the southern Taiwanese city Kaohsiung, said the five Vietnamese sailors launched the surprise assault on the pirates as they were having a meal, the state Central News Agency reported.
Heh. Got 'em right between the fish course and another fish course.
If those little Viet shits can do that, every nation in the world ought to be able to. Better yet, prevent the pirates from taking the ship in the first place.
Look who is giving the Libyans advice on transitioning to a stable democracy: L. Paul Bremer, the administrator of the US-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004.
That's the clown who replaced General Garner at the CPA, who almost knew what he was doing, and a) only hired loyal Busheviks, none of whom had a fucking clue what they were doing, b) shitcanned the Iraqi army and sent thousands of pissed-off and armed unemployed men into the streets, and c) fired all the civil servants who ran the joint because they were Baathists so they could get a job.
Note to Libya: He'll do for you what he did to them. Probably still got Iraqi shit on his dick. Throw his worse-than-worthless ass out or you're screwed.
... I'm sick and tired of wasting all this money on so many wars, but I don't know how we can just ignore this.
You don't ignore it, you do prudent intelligence and, along with law enforcement, you keep it from spilling out.
That said, let me ask a question or five. Do you think Iran would take the chance of letting a nuke, or radioactive material, fall into the wrong hands? Seriously?
Don't you think if, heaven forbid, some mentally challenged goat-fucker set off a nuke or dirty bomb somewhere, it could be traced back to Iran? Easily. Don't you think, heaven forbid, there would be a retaliation against them that would make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like a kid playing with a firecracker? It would happen within seconds. Do you think the state of Iran would continue to exist? Maybe as a parking lot. Don't you think their leaders know that and if they didn't before, don't you think we told them? I'm sure most of them like the fact some mentally challenged goat fuckers are looking forward to meeting Allah (useful idiots) and want to rush the process, but I'm pretty sure they aren't (for the same reasons bin Laden was hiding in a compound in Pak instead of out there fighting with his goat fuckers). They might even survive, but they wouldn't have a country to run.
"We will continue on this path [sanctions] because a military intervention could create a situation which completely destabilises the whole region and beyond. We have to do everything we can to avoid irreparable harm," [French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe] explained.
...
Russia:
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For his part, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Rossia 24 TV on Monday that a military strike would be "a grave error, with unforseeable consequences."
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They are, of course, talking about Israel's plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Like I said before, Israel is a sovereign nation and they can do what they want, and deal with the consequences of their actions. My problem is with us going along with it.
And just a thing. According to Dr. Krugman, solar energy (regardless of the propaganda against it) is now viable and cost effective. Maybe, just maybe, if the OPEC members saw their cash cow's "milk" dry up, we wouldn't have to give a shit about what anyone in the Middle East thinks of us. Until then, it would be prudent to distance ourselves from this folly as quickly as possible. If the powers-that-be think the Occupy protests are a pain in their collective ass, think about what their lives would be like if the American people not only couldn't afford the energy they need to survive, but actually had no way to obtain it. (See: Strait of Hormuz)
Notorious former lobbyist Jack Abramoff is a free man again, after serving three and a half years in prison for corruption and fraud. In an interview aired by CBS on Sunday, he told correspondent Leslie Stahl about the tricks of his former trade.
...
“When we would become friendly with an office,” he explained, “and they were important to us, and the chief of staff was a competent person, I would say or my staff would say to him or her at some point, ‘You know, when you’re done working on the Hill, we’d very much like you to consider coming to work for us.’ Now the moment I said that to them or any of our staff said that to ‘em, that was it. We owned them.”
...
It's not like we (the politically informed) didn't know this. There's a reason my dad had a box at Shea Stadium. He was a subcontractor to a lot of defense firms (Grumman, Republic Aircraft, Boeing) and he was always handing out tickets to potential customers (corporate execs and elected reps). He even was responsible for introducing a lot of Brits (Hawker-Siddeley) to baseball. Brought him a lot of business.
Hopefully, a lot of the politcally uninformed watched 60 Minutes (especially this week thanks to Andy Rooney's passing and their tribute to him) and got some inkling about what actually goes on in D.C.
The snow's here a few weeks early this year and looks like it's gonna stay.
My garage in winter mode
Click to embiggen
The bike batteries are under the house where it's warm and on a trickle charger. The snowblower is at battle stations.
To get the snowblower ready for its 2d season, I figured it probably needed its valve clearances adjusted. I was right. In the process I took off the spark arrester/snow-keeper-outer (like on a boat, it goes where an air filter would on a car) and a buncha associated tin to ease access for getting the rocker cover off. Valves adjusted, tin back on, it still ran...
The first time I used the machine it ran rich like the choke wasn't coming all the way off. I've been at this long enough to know that since I'd just been working in the area I better check my work and see if after 40 years I'd finally erred (cough). I started in by taking the snow-keeper-outer off and if I hadn'ta been looking right at it I'da missed it - just when I pulled the s-k-o away from its rubber gasket, all the tin I'd had off went 'erk' and moved almost imperceptibly. Just enough to remove the bind on the choke lever that I had inadvertently installed (no extra charge. Heh.). Runs like a scalded dog now.
What, you may well ask, is a bottle of Pine-Sol doing in the picture? There's not enough Pine-Sol in the world to make that garage germ-free.
It's bear repellent. Bears won't go near that stuff, so I put some in a container and put it in the back of the pickup the night before trash pick-up day. With the bed cap unlatched even though our bear figured out how to open it. I'm not relying on her memory if she gets hungry and goes hunting.
I'm sure there'll be more winter-related stuff. Stay warm, my friends.
Sen. Jim DeMint tells Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen he does not plan to endorse any candidate in the GOP presidential primary contest — an endorsement that would be a big prize in the critical South Carolina primary early next year. “I want to announce that I am very unlikely to endorse a candidate in the presidential race."
What? None of 'em stoopid enough for ya?
Note to Jimmy DumbMint: Lower the bar of stupidity to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Jesus saw you coming and dug it 6000 years ago just for that purpose. If that ain't low enough, try the Marianas Trench.
You've heard all the buzz phrases: "Washington is not the answer, it is the problem." "The devil made both Washington and hell, but chooses to live in hell." "Washington is a cesspool." Sure, that's what they say, but once elected, they treat it like a hot tub.
[...] At least now we know what happens when the inmates take over the asylum. And the most venally ambitious of the criminally insane manage to scramble to the top.
JFK said DC combined all the charm of the North with the efficiency of the South. Not to mention the scruples of a turkey vulture overlooking a yard full of wounded bunnies. It's a town where you always have to worry that your best friend is wearing a wire. Where "cynical" has been raised to an art form. Imagine the Kardashians as elderly white guys with double the sense of entitlement.
But get ready for more of this. The shape shifting right can switch from swashbuckling macho superheroes to fainting Aunt Pittypats trembling in fear for their lives without even stopping to switch undies. It's their special gift.
Because they really are "Aunt Pittypats". Ain't a superhero in the bunch.
Hopefully, you understand that the reference is to the Battle of Gettysburg, and the scene is the moment before Maj. Gen. George Pickett launched his doomed charge up Cemetery Ridge. Many scholars consider it the turning point in the Civil War. Mr. Faulkner is saying that every Southern boy has a moment when they fantasize about what would have happened if the war had not been lost. Why does a New York-raised, Harvard-educated, son of Jewish intellectuals self-identify with a Southern army which fought for the institution of slavery? Honestly, that's hard to explain, but he says it's because Ronald Reagan was fighting the same battle.
U.S. officials are concerned that Israel will not warn them before taking military action against Iran's nuclear facilities, a senior U.S. military official said Friday.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, told the CNN network that although in the past, U.S. officials thought they would receive warning from Israel if it did take military action against Iran, "now that doesn't seem so ironclad."
...
At least, we seem to be smarter than I gave us credit for:
...
The military official emphasized that the U.S is concerned about the risk a strike against Iran could pose for American troops in Iraq and in the Persian Gulf, according to the CNN report.
The official also said that the U.S. does not intend to follow a military action against Iran, CNN said.
...
Now, it would be nice if they can figure out how to keep the inevitable shitstorm from splattering us when they do.
*And please, before you ream me .060 over, I'm not saying the creation of Israel is monstrous. Letting the Likudniks turn Israel into what she is today is.
In a column at the Weekly Standard website, former New York Times columnist Bill Kristol opines that "assuming that presidential field remains as it is" for the GOP, "2012 won’t be a repeat of 1980". He is referring to the election of Ronald Reagan after Jimmy Carter’s single term in the White House.
But as long as enough of the suckers remain brainwashed by Mr. Frum's former employers into believing that their problems are really the result of sinister conspiracies of unions, uppity women, welfare queens and dirty hippies, they will continue to obediently march this country into an assisted national suicide, listening happily to Sean Hannity until the very end.
On a related note, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) argued yesterday, “I think Arizonans should consider impeaching Jan Brewer.”
A former chief of Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, says that ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel pose more of a threat to the Jewish state than Iran. Ephraim Halevy pooh-poohed the threat from Iran, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were said to be rounding up support for a unilateral attack on Iran. Halevy said Iran is “far from posing an existential threat to Israel.”
I get how the military works, and your mind and convictions are not your own (believe me). So a general who actually tells the truth, of course, will lose his command, but it's refreshing to hear.
Reporting from San Diego — When the recruit staggered out of the Thunderdome pugil-stick arena, he had the early signs of concussion: glassy eyes, confusion, unsteadiness on his feet.
His face had been gashed by a smashing blow from his opponent — another would-be Marine desperate to please drill instructors with a display of unrelenting aggression.
Heh. They say "unrelenting aggression" like they don't understand exactly what it is that Marines do, like it's a bad thing even.
I remember my rifle-butt-and-bayonet training with the pugil stick. Barely. In my first bout I was too slow and got my bell rung like the kid above. I wasn't about to let that happen again. In my next bout, maybe during the same session, maybe not, I took an unauthorized two-handed grip like on a baseball bat and waded in fast and swung for the fence. Smacked my opponent upside the head with all my might and down he went. I didn't want him getting up and coming after me so, with the same grip, I raised that thing up in the air intending to bring it down on his noggin as hard as I could like splitting firewood. I was gonna do him.
I never got the chance, thank you Jesus and two Drill Instructors, one each from his platoon and mine, who grabbed me one to either elbow and lifted me right off the ground and set me down gently (for Drill Instructors) a few feet away with a "good work, Private". I swear they grinned at me, which Drill Instructors generally only do when they're inflicting great discomfort.
They liked my "unrelenting aggression", for that was the whole point of the training.
I got the message this training was meant to impart, other than just plain old knocking your opponent's head off with a simulated 10-pound M-14 before he can do it to you, which was hesitate and die. Get there fustest with the mostest and prevail and live to fight another day.
There are (or were, may not be PC these days) signs all over the Marine Corps that said something like "Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country. We win wars by making the other bastard die for his." Also, particularly in training areas, one that says "Let no man's ghost ever say we failed to do our job".
Aye, aye, sir. Message received and understood. We weren't there to learn how to dance.
In those days, the protective gear was a football helmet. Period. Today the recruits wear all kinds of protective gear we never imagined. "Thunderdome" (two men enter, one man leave) hadn't been invented, but I wouldn't doubt it's the same sand pit we used.
All that said, the article is about the Marine Corps responding more quickly to recruit injuries. I'm glad of that.
Recruit training was and is very physical. Running, calisthenics, obstacle courses, swimming, crawling, lifting things. Did I mention push-ups? Lotsa push-ups. Regular push-ups, knuckle push-ups, knuckle push-ups holding an M-14 which must never touch the ground (those hurt), push-ups with another recruit sitting on your back, push-ups on asphalt, push-ups in sand, push-ups in the chow line, push-ups with yer head in the toilet, push-ups in every clime and place.
There were bone injuries, shinsplints, green stick breaks, the occasional real broken bone. There were dual injuries too, like a black eye on a recruit and a corresponding injured knuckle on a Drill Instructor. There were recruit bruises elsewhere with no damage to the Drill Instructor.
There was almost always a Navy Medical Corpsman, "Doc", present, except when the recruits were getting fist-shaped bruises. Their function was to give first-aid, call for a meat wagon, decide if the recruit was faking it, and hand out APCs (All-Purpose Capsules, fancy name for aspirin) for everything from concussions to traumatic amputation, and tell you to suck it up, you'll be OK. If you were really hurt or sick, you got taken care of. A lot of recruits wouldn't report an injury until they were almost dead because they didn't want to be set back to another platoon.
I'm sure things are safer in recruit training these days and that's good. We just didn't know any better way back when.
Update:
Couldn't resist. The funny part is all the civilians watching.
Recruits conduct pugil stick bouts in front of a circle of educators from Chicago and Minnesota
For now, GOP primary voters ... don't believe the accusations of sexual harrassment against Herman Cain. But how long will that last? That depends on the race of the women who accused him. If they are African American or Latina, the base won't care -- but let just one of them be white, and he will be history so fast he'll think he woke up late in the afternoon in a sundown town. You read it here first.
Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.
The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.
...
The Likudniks have been chomping at the bit for a long time and now the nuts here and in the Kingdom are starting to touch themselves at the thought; consequences be damned:
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Iran's forces may not be up to much but, with the help of Hamas and Hezbollah, they could wreak havoc. British and US troops in Afghanistan would be exposed to even greater danger than they are now – their bases in the Gulf, notably in Qatar and Bahrain, would be easy targets. The Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Gulf, the canal through which more than 50% of the world's oil is shipped, would be closed. What would arise from the ashes?
Some may say that is a price worth paying to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The suggestion is that there is a "window" now that would enable Israel on its own to strike Iran's nuclear sites. Next year, the "window" would be left open to the US (and the UK) before Iran's nuclear weapons reached the point of no return.
Such reasoning, if this is what it can be called, is that of the dangerous fool. How crushed and devastated would Iran have to be before it could no longer restart a nuclear programme, even one just involving fissile material as a weapon for terrorists? [my ems]
...
After 10 years of perpetual war, the expense and disaster for our collective economies, the loss of soldiers' and civilian lives in the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, how these people could actually consider an attack on Iran is unconscionable.
If the Israelis want to go, fine. Let them and let them deal with the consequences. We should just sit back and watch.
The manliest man in the blogosphere, "an 11 on the manly scale of absolute gender", the General himself, gets an email from the guy who runs Rentboy.com. What's interesting is one line in it:
... Republican political conventions are always very lucrative for escorts and we would not want to risk a good gig.
Hey, the GOP's money is just as green as yours and mine. It's just a shame that, thanks to their political pursuasion, they can't be true to themselves. I pity these self-loathing people. Thanks to the blatant hypocrisy of the party they belong to, they've denied themselves a life of happiness to follow the GOP's twisted ideology.
Yesterday New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg alleged that Occupy Wall Street participants at Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) are chasing criminals out of the park instead of reporting them to police. In reality, Occupy Wall Street has its own well-trained internal security force, but this team does not substitute for the police when it comes to criminal activity that threatens our community or local residents. Occupy Wall Street participants have called upon police on occasions when people with predatory intentions have come into the park and engaged in illegal and destructive behavior, and have in fact turned over criminals to the NYPD.
“Bloomberg lied yesterday when he claimed that a sexual assault suspect was merely kicked out of the park, when in fact OWS security personnel forcibly removed the individual and handed him directly to the NYPD,” said Andrew Smith, a member of OWS’s overnight Community Watch. “The Mayor should get his facts straight before he calls responsible citizens protecting our community ‘despicable.’”
The NYPD has allegedly come up with an ingenious way to sabotage the Occupy Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan: Just send drunks and homeless people down there!
...
Yes, we should help the homeless, for many of us are just a layoff or a medical issue away from losing their homes, but when the city uses them as pawns to discredit peaceful protesters, that's 'despicable'.
While being on the opposite end of the political spectrum, we will also fight to the death, GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans and other conservative gay rights groups, for your right to be treated fairly and equally, to openly serve in the armed forces without prejudice and recrimination, to love and marry as you see fit. We are not saying you cannot retain your political views, even though we are justifiably baffled by your insistence on artificially attaching yourself to a party that by and large loathes you. At the end of the day, you have to admit you have far more allies on the liberal/progressive side than you do on the conservative side.
We believe in telling the truth and sticking to the facts without resorting to thuggery, dirty tricks and character assassination. Your African Americans are no better than others nor do we say "our" to imply ownership ideological or otherwise. Slavery ended during the Civil War.
We do not champion one religion or another for supremacy. That mindset was studiously avoided by our Founding Fathers when they wrote the Constitution of the United States of America and, once again, the first amendment does not give supremacy to Baptists, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindis, Lutherans, Methodists, Unitarians or any other denomination. Freedom of religion was one of the biggest reasons our ancestors came to the New World.
When a non-violent protest becomes violent, thanks to the idiot who got himself run over by a car and the other idiots who had to break windows and go nuts with spray paint, you get news stories like this.
The minions of the 1%ers are using all their clout to marginalize the protests as it is, they don't need to be given ammunition from our side. Somebody needs to get a hold of the Oakland folks and get them to clean up their own house. Graffiti and vandalism of innocent people's businesses and property can do nothing but hurt us in the PR battle. It also gives the cops an excuse to bust heads preemptively.
[NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) November 2, 2011 – The following letter was sent today by Bank of America to all of its debit card customers:
Dear Valued Customer:
As most of you probably know by now, last month we instituted a $5 monthly fee for all of our debit card users. To say that what followed this decision was a shitstorm would be a massive understatement.
Considering that just three years earlier taxpayers had bailed us out with billions of their hard-earned dollars, it's understandable that Bank of America was compared to a person who, as he is pulled from a burning building, turns and kicks the fireman in the nuts.
That's why we are writing to you today with a simple message: "Our bad." And to tell you that we are refunding the $5 to you, effective immediately. All you have to do is pay a simple, one-time $10 refund fee.
You can receive your refund online, or pick it up at your nearest Bank of America branch, where a teller will hand the money directly to you for a simple, one-time $15 handling fee.
If you do visit your branch, feel free to use any of our services, including our state of the art ballpoint pens and deposit slips. (Prices on request.)
Again, accept our apologies for instituting the debit card fee. We have learned our lesson, and we make this solemn promise: next time we squeeze money from you, we'll do it in a way you won't notice.
Sincerely,
Bank of America]
I cancelled two BofA credit card accounts last week. I hadn't used them in years and they were expired but they tried to charge me for a McAfee anti-virus "subscription" which I no longer wanted. When the gal asked me why I was closing them out, I told her I didn't like BofA. Her reply was "absolutely!".
I don't care who you are or whether I support your cause or not. If I were in the same position, I'da run your ass over too. All the asshole had to do was move. The minute he started slamming on the car's hood, he was roadkill in my book.
Update:
And, I see a lot of bloggers making a big deal this guy was driving a Mercedes Benz. So what. I know a lot of people who aren't rich who drive a Benz. A lot of them can barely afford to keep it running but that's the car they have for whatever reason. I'm pretty well off and I drive Fords. What's that say? (Shut up, Chevy guys. Heh ...)
I support ($$$) these protests wholeheartedly. I stand with Scott Olsen and the other vets. But let's pick our "poster children" a little more carefully. If this is supposed to be a non-violent protest, be non-violent. This guy was just an idiot and got what he deserved, let's not glorify him.
Teachers, auto workers, nurses and more have had their chance to show their support for the ideals of the Occupy movement.
Today, veterans had their turn.
There is no perfect way to describe what it looked like, we can only say that their demonstration was serious and somber unlike any other.
This was not a party with music and cheering, their signs were not funny either, this was a true march in protest. After all, these men and women are soldiers.
As they made their way to Zuccotti Park, the feeling was tense. People who watched from their offices did not smile or laugh, they stared and whispered quietly to each other.
And then the veterans took the human microphone. Like their steps, their voices rang in perfect time. The occupiers stood in shttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifilence, only opening their mouths to repeat what the soldiers said.
When one Navy veteran addressed Zuccotti Park he put it very simply: "If you continue to assemble in peace and solidarity, justice will come to pass. We are the 99%."
Gotta take the little red beast for shots this morning. Should be fun; she's a real drama queen when it comes to the vet. Before Dr. Grove even gives her the shot, she's wailing like someone is killing her.
The only real difference between what Mr. Brooks does and what Rush Limbaugh does is that Our Mr. Brooks works his ass-for-rent/tell-you-any-lie-you-wanna-hear end of the business for high-income-bracket-types and with a courtesan's blush, while Limbaugh grinds out his living giving fast, unromantic ten-dollar political handjobs to white trash.
Ever since I did the big remodel in the house, I've been in conservation/green mode. Every bulb in the house is either a CFC or LED, even the yard floods. I've insulated to R-49 to save on oil too. Worth every penny when the oil company we've been with for 45 years calls up and asks if we're using someone else because we use less than 100 gallons/quarter.
The thing that was bugging me was the old toilet in the "guest wing" bathroom. It is 50 years old, original to the house, and it's like unleashing Niagara Falls every time someone flushes. When I built the master suite downstairs, I put in a 1/2 gallon/flush unit, but the guest bathroom is the only room I haven't done any work to aside from paint and a new sink. I've been waiting to replace the toilet until I redid the room (next spring or summer), but the waste of water was getting to me.
So today I got after it. I overhauled the old "throne" with a dual flush system from these people, along with a new fill valve. Seriously easy installation and only minor adjustments to calibrate. Took me less than an hour and it works amazingly well. Can't wait for Suffolk Water to call and ask if I've dug a well. Heh ...
The debates between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger will take place Oct. 3 at the University of Denver, Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., and Oct. 22 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. The vice presidential debate is set for Oct. 11 at Centre College in Danville, Ky.
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We got kids trying to learn there. Fuck up somebody else's children.
“Yes, they’re a military threat, they’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capabilities, so yes, we have to consider them a military threat,” he said.
China has had nuclear weapons since 1964.
He's really, really trying to get out of the mess he got into by underestimating the stupidity of the GOP base. If he'da said that on F**Noise they'd have just nodded their heads and drooled like they do and popped wood over the thought of nuking 1.3 billion little brown people.
This time he's not playing to them. He's getting serious. He said it on PBS, which they don't watch because it's a buncha godless commies, worse, Liberals, and made himself look the fool in front of folks with brains. He's serious about wanting out.
Someone should tell him he's wasting our time and just get the hell out.
If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford going on about 7 billion human beings.
Seven billion eager souls later, you'd think we'd have it sort of figured out. ...
"I don't quite know how it happened. One day I was sipping some Maker's and blowing some hot love into this sweet Ocarina app Moloch gifted me, and the next, boom, seven billion ravenous little fleshbombs running around like they own the place. I gotta back off the mushrooms." -God
Why bother? That ship done sailed, Dude. We're about to fuck ourselves out of a place to sit at the dinner table.
I get all dry when I talk about the European economy and people's eyes glaze over. Well, I'm still giving you a post about the European economy but all I'm doing is pointing you to a little Q & A with Kevin Drum. Not as dry as me and gets to the point of the problem facing Greece and the Eurozone and, eventually, us. A snippet:
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Hmmm. Given that choice, they might decide they'd rather give their money to German banks than to Greek civil servants. What happens then?
Greece defaults. And that almost certainly means that Greece exits the euro.
Why?
It's the growth thing again. If Greece defaults, nobody will loan them any money. That means huge cutbacks, which means the economy will tank, which means even more cutbacks, etc. The traditional way out of this spiral is a massive devaluation of your currency. But Greece doesn't have a currency. It has the euro*.
So if they want their economy to grow again, they have to (a) default, (b) exit the euro and re-adopt the drachma, and (c) devalue the drachma. This will cause massive amounts of pain, but it will also make Greek exports super cheap, which will eventually revive their economy.
So why not just let that happen?
It's just too catastrophic to consider. German banks, of course, would collapse and have to be bailed out. Ditto for banks in other countries that have lots of exposure to Greek debt. But that's not the worst of it. If Greece exits the euro, it will become terrifyingly obvious that other weak countries might exit too. Portugal, Spain, and Italy are the obvious candidates. Investors, spooked at the thought of their money being stuck in a country that might exit the euro and devalue all its bank deposits, would start huge runs on banks in those countries. The ECB would have to intervene and provide liquidity without limit. It would be a disaster.
So exiting the euro can't be allowed?
Right.
But if there's no exit, there's no devaluation, and Greece is pretty much screwed forever.
Right.
...
Basically, ain't nobody, here or there, ever thought the good times would end. Surprise!
*And just to add, this is the reason I've been saying all along that the EU will eventually turn out to be a failure and was doomed to be so from the beginning. If you have a single currency being used by 20-odd different countries without strong central control, even the smallest of economies among them can bring the whole house of cards down.
ATLANTA - Four suspected members of a fringe north Georgia militia group were arrested Tuesday by federal authorities and charged with plotting to buy explosives and trying to make a deadly toxin in a bizarre plot to attack unnamed government officials.
Being most in Western Europe don't much like Muslims, and many states have enacted some seriously anti-Muslim laws, it might behoove you to develop a thicker skin:
The office of Charlie Hebdo, one of France’s leading satirical magazines, has been attacked over its decision to use a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed as its guest editor.
The Paris-based publication was petrol bombed overnight and its offices partially gutted.
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Now, I'll be the first to admit the French have been complete idiots toward their Muslim community and so have the Swiss, but you can't go blowing shit up because someone makes fun of your religion.
Demonstrate, bitch and moan, but all you're doing by destroying private property is giving the nationalist assholes more ammunition with which to run you off the continent. Get mad at the ridiculous head cover and minaret bans, stuff that takes away your rights. Bombing the French equivalent of Mad Magazine is gonna turn your supporters against you quicker'n shit.
Muslims better grow up and fight the fights worth fighting. Fight for your rights, not over a stupid cartoon or a classless newspaper article.
Another who can take Bobo Brooks down and evicerate him is Charles Pierce. His opening line sets the tone:
I don't think it's too strident to demand at this point that David Brooks be hauled up before a jury consisting of everyone else in America and forced to defend himself against several million counts of being an insufferable twat in a public place ...
Personally, I think, at this point, that Brooks just writes his crap so folks like Mr. Pierce and Driftglass can make a living because his columns remind me of a 15 year old who's just discovered high school scoiology. He lobs these pop psych meatballs up there like a major league pitcher who's lost his stuff and those two, among others, hit it out of the park every time. Continuing the graph:
... In today's episode of Missing the Point So I Don't Miss a Meal, Our Mr. Brooks informs us that he once again has placed us all under close inspection beneath his monocle and discovered that some of us are very angry, not because some thieves in nice suits pillaged the national economy and then held the scraps for ransom. Oh, no, that isn't it at all, and he's got some wholly arbitrary ad hoc sociological categories to prove it.
...
Living here in NY, 40 miles east of New York City, we get bombarded by commercials for The New York Times constantly. One line says that "The Times has the best writers in the world and there's no disputing it". I'll give 'em this, they still have Krugman.
He comes off like a pissed off little kid and I can't sit through an interview with him, yet I love his films and his message:
...
Moore said Obama’s problem was not liberals like himself, who would still vote for Obama. The problem was that liberals wouldn’t be able to convince others to turn out for the 2012 elections because Obama did not clean up George W. Bush’s mess.
...
He's dead on and I hope Barry gets it. Ain't no Republicans voting for him and as long as he panders to them, he's gonna alienate the people who'll actually consider getting out and pulling the lever under his name. He promised change but that ain't happened. The corporations still run the show and our war criminals still run free. Had he done what he'd promised, there would be no Occupy movement now. I hope he realizes that.
Coulter on black liberals: ‘Our blacks are better than their blacks’
Heh. The beauty of that remark is she has no idea how condescending that sounded. Might as well have said "our blacks are blacker than their blacks".
She doesn't care. She's got her washed-up ass back on TV for the moment. Whee!
Update:
I must admit that the Skankogeist actually got part of a sentence right not long ago when she was trying to get Secaucus Fats to run, and I paraphrase, to wit:
You know on thing that's really hilarious about conservatives? How they preach the "personal responsibility" dogma and then, when they're caught doing something wrong or fucking up, it's always someone else's fault. Asked something in a debate that makes 'em give an answer that reveals how batshit or stupid they are? It's a "gotcha" question. It's discovered that a leading presidential candidate settled a pair of sexual harassment claims against him? He's now "a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics."
Hey, whatever works...(smiley face)
Now, a liberal could get pretty goddamn upset and sputter, "No..fuck you...After what you did to Bill Clinton? And you're gonna accuse us of anything? Blow a rhino dick, you fuckers."
But screw it. The jig is up. They caught us. Again. You're right, you smart smarty conservatives. This is totally the work of the same liberal cabal that faked Obama's birth certificate and made Larry Craig like to get his cock sucked in men's rooms.
Here's how we did it:
Go. Oh, one more:
Oh, how we thought we had enough layers for plausible deniability, not to mention the obvious alibi that it was either the Romney or Perry campaigns, but Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh were just too damn smart for us.
I think it was Pizza Guy's own campaign that tipped off Politico. He wants outta this so bad without just up and quitting and he's getting desperate. Every time he says something stupid enough that it oughta sink him like the Titanic it just makes him more popular with the Dead End Quarter morons. What's a guy to do?
The DEQ probly thinks, "What's the big deal? They were only women."
To deal with the bureaucracy of New York State. I have to renew Da Chooch's license and clear up some misunderstandings about my dog. Namely asking one question: "Does this look like a Chihuahua to you?"
I'm taking pictures and documentation, the vet's and breeder's phone numbers as well. Hopefully I'll be able to provide enough proof for the bureaucrats. This should take the better part of the day, I'm sure.
Update:
Oy. How it went at the Town of Islip Animal Shelter.
Me: I'd like to renew my dog's license and edit her information.
Nice Lady: Sure, Mr. F, what seems to be the problem?
Me: Seems you guys think one of my dogs is a Chihuahua. She's not. (I hold up the pic above that I printed out.)
Nice Lady: So your other dog is a Chihuahua then?
Me: No. They're sisters. Purebred Australian Cattle Dogs both. (I take out Da Chooch's AKC registration papers)
Nice Lady: So you used to have a Chihuahua?
Me: Never had a Chihuahua, don't want a Chihuahua.
Nice Lady: Well, we can't change the breed of dog on file.
Me: I'd rather not take the chance, should she get lost, that there would be some confusion if you found her. I'd like my Cattle Dog back, not a Chihuahua.
Nice Lady: Well, then we'll have to do a new license application.
Me: That's fine. Gimmie the form.
Nice Lady: I'll have to call over to Town Hall and Albany first to make sure I can do it and cancel the original license.
Me: Fine, say hi to the Governor for me. (She didn't think that was funny.)
After 20 minutes she comes back and gives me the form. I fill it out and hand her my $6.
Nice Lady: Do you have her rabies certification?
Me: No. It's the same one I submitted last year. It's good for 3 years.
Nice Lady: But this is a new license. I need to submit a new certification.
Me: Can't you just rip it off the old file and put it on the new one?
Nice lady: Unfortunately not, all the hard copies get shipped up to Albany.
Me: Would there be any way you could call her vet and have them fax one over? (I slide the paper with the number on it across the desk)
Nice Lady: I guess I can.
She goes to call and I play with the cat that has decided I'm one of her staff. 20 minutes later, she comes back with the fax.
Nice Lady: You're all set, Mr. F. Sorry for the delay but earlier this year, the State of New York decided it would be cheaper for them to give the authority for administering the dog licensing program over to the towns.
Me: Is it?
Nice Lady: Not for us. Expect a property tax increase this year.
Me: Darlin', I expect a property tax increase every year.
So, now Da Chooch is a Cattle Dog again. I'll never get that hour back.
If they really cared about babies, all their energy would be spent correcting that abysmal infant mortality rate. But they don’t. They care about god and public piety, nothing more.
People are only going to get more and more angry until they start to see some justice. Remarkably, though, our elites don't even seem to get the idea that there were even misdeeds that require any accountability. That's a recipe for increased acrimony and conflict. If bipartisan fetishists and various pearl clutchers want more public unity and less fractious political discourse, they should start looking into how to satisfy the public's yearning to see justice done to those who continue profit at their expense.
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Tuesday on a resolution to affirm the phrase “In God We Trust” as the nation’s official motto, according to Politico.
Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), the founder and chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, sponsored the legislation. It would encourage the public display of the motto in all public buildings, public schools and government institutions.
Forbes said he introduced the bill in January because he was troubled by a pattern of omitting God from the nation’s heritage.
