Posts from — September 2007

It’ll be double rations of grog all around in the galley as ye throw the pasta and pesto down your gullet for the final day of Pasta Week, on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Arr…
Belay that! ‘T’would be better done by swilling lambrusco directly from the flask!
Arr…

At 11:44AM EDT we celebrate 25 Years Of 🙂.

[Carnegie Mellon professor Scott E.] Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.

“I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-),” wrote Fahlman. “Read it sideways.”

Because it was such a momentous event, Wikipedia notes that someone actually scanned old back-up tapes for the event, which also included the debut of 🙁

And some opine that IT people leave shallow, unproductive lives 😉

CNN has a new story about the arrest at the Kerry event on the University of Florida campus, Cops on leave after Taser incident, student’s behavior under scrutiny, asks more questions than it answers. The two officers on paid leave is standard when there’s a use of force, but they have called in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct the investigation, which is the University covering itself.

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Because you can find anything in ‘Net, there is a group at Columbia University called the Gulf Project 2000, which is headed by Gary Sick. [You’ve seen him on talk shows so he must know his stuff, right?] They have gone to the trouble of preparing maps on a number of different subjects [available here].

They comment on the correlation of Shi’ia & Oil:

“There is a very strong correlation between the distribution of the Shias in the Greater Middle East and the those of oil and natural gas resources. This is true from Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. Even the Saudi oil deposits are primarily found under the Shia-inhabited provinces of Hasa, Qatif, and Hofuf (reconfigured into “Eastern Province” in modern Saudi Arabia) and the continental shelf extending from there into the Gulf . The same is true of Iraq. Three-quarters of all oil deposits in that state are within the Shia areas, with the rest largely in the Kurdish north.”

And provide a Shi’ia-Oil map of the Persian Gulf Region in 2006. It is a very large map and covers the Caspian Sea to the Gulf of Arabia.

Look at the map and ask yourself: do we really want to attack the only officially Shi’ia nation around?

Thers at Whiskey Fire asked an important question in the post, Remains a Mystery:

Why is Regional Instability a consideration when we’re discussing getting out of Iraq, but not even remotely considered when the subject is Teaching Iran a Lesson?

This becomes relevant when addressing Kevin Drum’s post, Greenspan Elaborates, with Mr. Greenspan offering more context to his statement about Iraq and oil:

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The Pensacola Beach Blog has the main story, Local U.S. Prosecutor Nabbed on Child Sex Charges about John David R. Atchison, 53, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., an assistant U.S. Attorney in Florida’s northern district being arrested in Detroit.

The Pensacola Independent News adds local details in its article, GBSA pres arrested in Child Sex sting. Atchison is the president of the Gulf Breeze Sports Association, a youth athletics organization and his wife is a teacher.

Why does it seems that they all end up in the same party? I’m assuming the party because of the area, and because of recent DOJ hiring practices. I assume he knows better than to come home if he gets bail.

It’s not serious if you’re a corporation: Chiquita Fined $25M For Funding Terrorists

(AP) A federal court on Monday accepted a plea agreement between the Justice Department and Chiquita Brands International Inc. that imposes a $25 million fine on the company for payments it made to Colombian narcoterrorist groups.

Not simply the War on Terror™, but the War on Drugs™ – a double hit in the War on Nouns™ series, and they get a fine…A FREAKING FINE‽

Think Progress reports that the numbers are in and Sen. Reed’s Democratic Response Beats Bush Speech In Cable Ratings On Fox And CNN. The Defeatocrat response beat the War President™ ON FOX‽

Apparently skippy the bush kangaroo is tied up with politics and missed this blatant discrimination again wallabies: Wichita may ban wallabies

…The development is the latest in the adventures of Skippy, a 10-month-old wallaby who bolted last month from owner Joe Freed’s home. His escape prompted news stories and a brief, intense search. He was found 20 hours later a half-block away, where he was trying to get some bread people were tossing to ducks.
…

Freed said he knows of eight other people who own wallabies and contends the animals should not be a problem for the city.

“It’s not like we’re going to be … overpopulated with them,” he said.

“A lot of things are exotic to Kansas people,” he said. “I can’t have a wallaby — but I can have a teenage son?”

I don’t know, Joe, does your son have all his shots?  He doesn’t have sagging pants and listen to loud music does he?

The BBC is reporting that the Saudis buy Eurofighters from UK: “Saudi Arabia is to buy 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets BAE Systems, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.”

Why? The Saudis have never bothered to defend themselves, depending on others to come to their rescue. The Saudi Air Force pretty much follows the Shrubbery’s model for showing up for work. I can’t believe they have 72 princes hanging around who want to fly jet fighters. They should have spent the money on air conditioned tennis courts, something the Saudi military might use.

These things are going to show up someplace that no one is going to like to cover Monaco gambling debts.  Imagine the new Taliban air force.

This is piling on, someone should blow a whistle or throw a flag! This time it’s General John Abizaid, USA retired, a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the longest serving Commander of Central Command. This is the fluent Arabic speaker, who was replaced by Admiral Fallon, after taking over from General Tommy Franks. He’s at the Hoover Institution; he’s supposed to be a conservative! He has more “fruit salad” on his uniform than a church picnic!

It’s those commies at Associated Press again: Abizaid: World Could Abide Nuclear Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran, a recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday.

John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them.

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Come on, don’t these guys know anything but facts and history. What, they think just because they were right, people should listen to common sense‽

The Associated Press reports” U.N. Nuke Chief Criticizes Iran “Hype”

(AP) Invoking the war in Iraq, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector criticized talk of attacking Iran as “hype” Monday, saying such options should only be considered as a last resort and only if authorized by the U.N. Security Council.

“I would not talk about any use of force,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an indirect response to French warnings that the world had to be prepared for the possibility of war in the event that Iran obtains atomic weapons.

Saying only the U.N. Security Council could authorize the use of force, ElBaradei urged the world to remember Iraq before considering any similar action against Tehran.

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Constitution Day, the 220^th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

The first three words and the largest letters on the document make it plain that all power flows from the People. Then, the Congress is described, then the President, and finally, the Court. It is clear that this was the order of power in the minds of the men who wrote the document.

Every Presidential power may be checked by the Congress – vetoes, appointments, decisions – and the Congress may remove a President through impeachment. The President is junior to Congress by the design of the Constitution.

I took oaths to support and defend the Constitution when I entered military service, when I entered law enforcement, and when I entered teaching. I take those oaths seriously. It is past time we again had a government that took their oaths seriously.

Yesterday on All Things Considered they ran a piece, Cancer Society’s Ad Dollars Focus on Insurance , that highlights the problem for those without health insurance.

American Cancer Society CEO John Seffrin talked to Noah Adams about the decision to spend all of its advertising dollars to draw attention to the plight of Americans who lack health insurance. The Cancer Society realized that there was no point in trying to get people to have check-ups, when they can’t afford them, and all the expensive testing would tell people is how soon they were going to die, because if they can’t really afford the tests, they sure can’t afford the treatment.

As Jane Hamsher of Fire Dog Lake has written, having insurance is no guarantee of anything.

This is not a sane way of providing health care.

The Pensacola Beach Blog remembers that three years ago we were all hunkered down for the arrival of “Ivan the Terrible.” We still aren’t “whole” and are still screwing around with the moving targets of FEMA and insurance companies.

Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof is another year older. Happy birthday, MB, and keep an eye on the Weather Channel.