Brave New World

This is the future. It isn't pretty. It is about "security zones" and metropolitan evacuations. It is about heavily armed patrols and closures of major business centers. It is about potential violence, terrorism and concurrent government repression. It is the future and the land of the free.

NATO Conference Portends "Inconvenience"

There is a lot in that news item. Why is SEIU making public statements regarding such an event? Why is the Secret Service doing anything more than Presidential security? Why is a non-profit agency like the Red Cross dealing with evacuations of Chicago residents to Milwaukee? Why is a protest group conducting press releases regarding security issues before the conference?

And where is Abby Hoffman in all of this?

In Case You Were Wondering

Get up, read the paper, pour the second cuppa coffee and then face the....Noooooo! Not.....

Even Maher and Pelosi Notice

Sometimes we don't listen to people because they don't agree with us politically. We hear their name and then we tune them out or turn them off. Sort of a reverse Timothy Leary.

You wouldn't think Nancy Pelosi's daughter doing a regular gig on Bill Maher's show would be very noteworthy, but this is worth watching. This is America. This is what we've become and this is a tribute to the President who is accelerating us on this path. These folks know it.

Keeping Score

Longtime online junkies will remember Usenet. It was a network of hundreds of groups of common or exotic topics which supported threaded discussions. Many of the groups sprang up and never drew an audience so they languished as a blank space in cyber-land. Others were active and vigorous areas that fostered exchange of lots of information. Some were polite, courteous and valuable resources while others were cesspools of trolls and flamers.

Usenet is pretty much history now. The fools have gone to YouTube comments and anonymous commenting on blogs. Serious trolls spend their days tweeting their every flatulence certain that the world awaits eagerly. Social networking is Usenet with color graphics. It can be a valuable tool or a pustule on the butt of the Internet.

Isn't it inevitable that people would keep score?

How do you know if you truly have value in the grand scheme of things? You must be rated and you must grow your score so you can exchange high-fives with the other dweebs in your Google+ circles. That's where Klout comes in.

Likes, Comments, Retweets & Shares

Can you imagine the shattering of the fragile psyche as you discover you are virtually without influence? What could you do to get the world to take notice? How could you generate value to yourself. Maybe fire up Foursquare so everyone can know where you are. Check in and then you can LinkIn with all of your buddies. But, what if they take your location and use it to avoid you? How would you know?

Maybe this is the better solution. Evaluate your "asshattery" quotient.

Klouchebag Measures Your Worthlessness

Yep, there is something to aspire to. I've got somebody in mind and I think they would really knock it out of the park, score-wise.

Here's the criteria:

To pinpoint your score, Klouchebag judges your tweets based on four criteria:

• Anger: “profanity and rage.”
• Retweets: “‘please RT’s, no or constant retweeting, and old-style.”
• Social Apps: “every useless checkin on foursquare or its horrible brethren.”
• English Usage: “if you use EXCLAMATION MARKS OMG!!! or no capitals at all, this’ll be quite high.”

Go for it!

Never, Well Hardly Ever

Hoist upon a petard, we find Jay Carney with a conspicuously elongating proboscis. It's very Pinocchio-ish.

I Never Lie--Except These Examples

Would we call this application of situational ethics? His rationale that he often knows things which he is not free to comment upon is totally reasonable. But the examples go well beyond that sort of national security justification.

Show and Tell

This is going to get good...

Raptors Nesting

Oh it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh. The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three-wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder. Oh, it was wonder of wonders. And then, a bird of like rarest spun heavenmetal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now, came the violin solo above all the other strings, and those strings were like a cage of silk round my bed. Then flute and oboe bored, like worms of like platinum, into the thick thick toffee gold and silver. I was in such bliss, my brothers.

Saturday Morning Rocker

There had to be some recreational pharmaceuticals involved in this:

Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Frankly I don't see the President as a great military tactician. I don't see him as a grand strategist either. He's a lot more Machiavelli than Sun-Tzu or Von Clauswitz. The closest he's come to the military is a neato leather jacket with his name on it when he rides around in the big jet. But, as Harry Truman so eloquently advised us, "the buck stops in or around my office if my press secretary can't deflect it or Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has the weekend off."

But this is a bit over the top:

Bamster Acted Where Mittens Wouldn't

That is a bit disingenuous to say the least. Can Obama take credit for authorizing the DevGru raid that got Osama? Sure! That level of action is going to have presidential awareness and approval.

Was Romney right in his comments in '07?

"It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person."

Yes again. The focus on a single individual was never reasonable except in the minds of the media. Wars, whether international conflicts or clashes of civilizations are not dependent upon a single person. Bin Laden was symbolic, but not pivotal. The post 9/11 reaction of the Bush administration in Afghanistan drove Bin Laden to ground and the following campaign slowly emasculated the al-Qaeda network. Killing Osama Bin Laden would have certainly been satisfying at any point, but focusing of our resources on simply finding the individual would not have been productive.

That does not equate with making a decision when intelligence offers a high probability of  locating the target. With Bin Laden located even Jimmy Carter would have found testicular residuals to approve the raid.

If we want to talk about decisive military action maybe we should be looking at "leading from behind" in Libya. Or possibly the waffling as thousands die in Syria. Could we take a glance at policy in Iran as Israel twirls slowly in the wind? Should we point at keeping a leash on the 25-year-old kid with a nuclear toy in North Korea?

Veep Biden told us yesterday that the Bamster's got a big stick. Apparently Joe forgot the other part of Teddy Roosevelt's advice, "speak softly." It's the application of the stick, not the blustering about it, Joe.

About the War

Another turn on JetHead Live, this time talking about the air war over North Vietnam. The focus is on contrasting the early days in the F-105 as a petrified young lieutenant with the end days and being unleashed for Linebacker as an experienced flight lead. Along the way we get to talk about the political issues and the constraints of trying to keep a conventional conflict from escalating into a major power nuclear confrontation.

Listen here:

JetHead Live Podcast

Signature Legislation Smeared?

In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Van Winkle...and good morning to you, sir...this is an election year. That means one party is trying to regain power and they will do that through proposals for doing things better while simultaneously pointing to failures of the incumbent.

The incumbent administration will make promises for an even better future while pointing with pride at what they have achieved in their first term in office.

OK, it won't be as exciting as end-of-season episodes of Real Housewives of Wichita Falls, but there is still potential for drama.

We already know how proud the Bamster is for shepherding the Affordable Health Care Act through Congress. That's is the one which we have been funding for two years now and which promises to start doing some healthcare stuff in another two years. Along the way it has taken college loans out of the hands of private banks which doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do with cancers, heart attacks or contraceptives for Ms Fluke. That is already working out well as interest rates bump up against non-payment, bad-investment reality in a few months. It's sort of Fannie Mae meets transgender central African studies major with debts.

That pride-and-joy seems destined for a collision with the Constitution over the individual mandate. The power of our vaunted "limited" government to compel us to buy products we don't want from third parties, who may or may not be supporters of the incumbent party looks as though it will be flushed from the body politic.

Now, we've got this pending decision:

Enforcing Federal Law May Be Within Authority of Federalism

Wouldn't that be amazing if the Supreme Court found that when a federal law exists and the federal government blatantly refuses to enforce it, that a state suffering damage through that malfeasance may act to protect itself?

Do you suppose the American people are foolish enough to re-elect a President who despite asserted but undemonstrated credentials as a Constitutional scholar touts policies regularly demonstrated as beyond the authority of our core document?

Knowing Who is Real

There are some things which real people know and understand. I grew up in Chicago and I know them and understand them. I lived there when Chicago had two NFL teams. I presented the colors on opening day for two baseball seasons. I went to stock car races in Soldier Field where there was a half-mile track around the football field. The Black Hawks played in Chicago Stadium and there were only six teams total in the NHL.

That is why I hear the clinkers when the President expresses his Chicago fan credentials. I know that the baseball stadium on the north side of town has always been Wrigley FIELD and the ball park on the south side was Comiskey PARK. The terminology establishes our credentials. The Bamster probably doesn't know about the curse and he's never been to the Billy Goat Inn.

But, I know and understand what these guys are talking about:

Business is Too Good For Some

Hard to believe in these tough economic times that a bank would be arbitrarily turning away old customers who are dealing in legal products guaranteed and supported by the Constitution of the United States:

“We have to assess the risk of doing business with a firearms related industry.”

I've got your risk right here, buddy. It's the risk of losing business across the nation from people who value their rights.

Appreciation For the Game

Knowing the rules of a game can increase one's appreciation. I've never really been cognizant of the nuances of rugby and I'm sure many of my readers aren't either. So here is a summary of the important points of the game:

Remember

You can remember the Alamo if you choose, but today is the anniversary of San Jacinto. That is what folks need to remember when they think of Texas history:

Lifting Another Rock

These people proliferate and we expose them. Something flawed in their character leads them to make these claims but that is not an excuse. They take something precious from those who earned it and such theft cannot be tolerated.

Non-POW Runs Into NamPOWs and Loses

What is most despicable about this episode is that the Veteran's Administration "honors" this slug despite lack of documentation to substantiate his claims with the Department of Defense. How ignorant or malicious are those bureaucrats? Gen Shinseki, would you like to comment?

Conspiracy?

How does one get on the mailing list to get invited to conferences like this one? University professors from major American schools gather to discuss the gross injustice of a free market capitalist system in a nation which is conspicuously hostile to the United States and our erstwhile ally, Israel:

Occupy the Corporations Planning in Iran

Pathetically, this will go unnoticed in the US and parents will continue to eagerly write those checks for $35,000 a year to educate little Biff and Buffy regarding how vile America is. And alumni will continue to endow the festering cistern of our demise.

Saturday Morning Rocker

From deep in the archives:

Maybe Some Real Evidence?

Might the story George Zimmerman has been telling and which seemed to satisfy the Sanford police for a month before the race-baiters got into the picture actually be true? He claimed he was departing the area as instructed by the 9-1-1 operator when Trayvon Martin attacked, knocked him to the ground and was beating his head against the pavement. Up to this point we've only seen a surveillance video at the police station taken several hours after the events and after emergency medical personnel have treated Mr. Zimmerman.

Is this corroborating evidence? I won't say definitively. The blood looks too red and I don't see a prominent wound, however the source is major news media so that would seriously reduce the probability of some wild-eyed right-wing blogger PhotoShopping a smoking gun item. 

Here is the ABC news story and a video clip:

Evidence Begins to Emerge

GPS locating on the photo verifies it comes from the scene and the date/time stamp indicate it was taken three minutes after the shooting. Sounds pretty valid at this point. 

Letter of Explanation

I have it on good authority that this letter is moving up the chain of command among those who were involved in the Cartagena events. Clearly we may not have understood exactly how events transpired there:

Sir,

In your icy, indeed hostile, telephone call of yesterday, you requested
a report about the alleged proceedings involving my soldiers. As the
reports from the local authorities and the head of the Australian
legation were undoubtedly a complete fabrication, I welcome the
opportunity to put the truth of the matter forward. .

Your kind offer to "buy a round of drinks" for the troops at the end
of the deployment was taken and the CSM ensured that appropriate
quantities of libation and food were purchased against your credit card
, with festivities being held in my hotel suite. An enjoyable evening
ensued but insufficient supplies had been obtained, so several members
of the company left for further purchases at a local bar.

In a truly magnanimous gesture, ten bar girls from that establishment
helped carry the beer back to the hotel. To demonstrate our
appreciation of their assistance, we served them some cool drink. They
then offered to show us some local culture, and, in order not to
offend, we allowed them to dance.

The banging on the walls of my room had, by now, quite honestly, become
invasive, and it was disturbing the dancers, so we arranged an amusing
little deterrent. LT Brown's impersonation of a Police Officer was
quite clever as he goose-stepped to each room and harangued the
occupants with a very witty diatribe about disturbing hotel guests. I
personally heard nothing of his alleged threats to life or limb in as
claimed by the sister of the local Police Chief whose room was,
unluckily, next door.

I suspect that this woman was the sneak who called security and hotel
management but I absolutely refute that the shout "Stand To, enemy
approaching!" was made. The simple coincidence of security arriving
just as we stood the double bed on its side across the door to make the
dance floor bigger is obvious. The major damage to the room occurred
when a group of gatecrashers, whom we could not know were hotel
security, forced their way in just as most of us happened to be leaning
against the bed watching the dancing.

The subsequent events in the foyer of the hotel are an equally vicious
distortion of the facts. I was explaining the importance of the post
activity celebrations to the General Manager of the hotel, and stating
that other guests were obviously fabricating their stories of the noise
and drinking, when CPL Smith and several others from HQ Coy (in keeping
with their pursuit of physical fitness) organised the race up the drapes
which hang along the foyer wall. It says little for the workmanship that
the fittings were torn from the wall before most of the company was
even halfway up.

At this stage SGT Williams, our Orderley Room SGT attempted to rescue
the situation with her depth of knowledge of local culture. Her
rendition of the Fertility Dancing Maiden in the foyer's 'Pool of
Remembrance' was nothing short of breathtaking. Normally this dance is
performed wearing just a sarong skirt but SGT Williams' extra step to "
Au Natural" was a bold step forward. Unfortunately, during one
intricate step, SGT Williams slipped and fell beneath the fountain, but
we were lucky that SSGT Johnson had the great presence of mind to strip
to avoid getting his uniform wet, leapt in to help.

The tiles of the pool were very slippery and it took nearly ten minutes
of threshing about before he could actually complete his rescue. Such
concern was there for these two exemplary member's safety, that the
many of company jumped in to assist, and I deny that this massed rescue
attempt could be construed as a 'Water Polo' game!

Order had nearly been restored when the fire started. I prefer CPL
White's version of events that the drapes had caught fire from being
against a light fitting, and that he dropped his cigarette lighter
whilst trying to escape the flames. Had hotel management fulfilled
their responsibilities and used fire retardant material instead of
velvet, the fire would not have spread to the rest of the hotel.

The responsible attitude shown by my soldiers in assisting the bar
staff to carry out drinks from the cocktail party is to be commended,
not condemned, and the attempt by many male members to extinguish
pockets of fire using natural means has been totally misrepresented in
some quarters.

I made an official protest about these matters when the head of the
Australian Legation visited us at the Police Station the next morning.
However, not only did Ambassador Downey not attempt to refute the
preposterous allegations made against me and my soldiers crew, but also
failed to secure our release immediately.

I trust that now I have outlined the correct version of events, we may
allow ourselves a discreet smile as to the lack of social
sophistication of some of these developing nations and put all this
behind us. In my opinion my soldiers and the agents in question behaved in accordance with the
finest US military traditions.

Woof Woof

H/T to Joan of Argghh: