“My mother said violence never solves anything.” “So?” Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. “I’m sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that.” – Starship Troopers
My Take –
Violence should be our last problem solving tool, if we can help it. And we have to recognize that, like all solutions to problems, there are unintended consequences to using violence, a lot of which are less than optimal. But violence, if properly applied at the correct place, at the correct time, and in the correct amount is a valid tool to solve problems.
30 Days of Heinlein – Day 18
Posted by daddybear71 on December 21, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/21/30-days-of-heinlein-day-18/
TSA Christmas Carol
Members of the TSA tried to bring a bit of holiday cheer to travellers at Los Angeles International Airport the other day. They have been practicing on their own time, and sang patriotic and inspirational songs.
I thought I’d suggest a new Christmas carol for them:
Wow! Man this sucks
I spent 600 bucks
All they can say
Is throw shampoo away
Still standing here
Kids shedding tears
Harassing the old
Pissing off the bold
Bad Touch, Bad Touch
That is their job
Agents two by two
With hands of blue
Please spread your legs
Are these your bags?
Searching your hair
Groping a pair
Daily they work
Acting like jerks
Take off your shoes
Start to sing the blues:
Gonna gonna gonna gonna miss my flight!
Gonna gonna gonna gonna miss my flight!
Posted by daddybear71 on December 21, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/21/tsa-christmas-carol/
Huh?
The White House today re-affirmed its support for Vice-President Agnew’s assertion that the “Viet Cong are not our enemies per se”. Even though most attacks against American forces in the Republic of Vietnam are carried out by the VC, administration spokesmen assert that the United States got involved in South Vietnam because of an attack against American vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin, not to fight the Viet Cong or to protect the Saigon government against them.
Agnew further asserted that the United States is working towards two goals in South Vietnam: First, to root out international communists who can damage American interests in the region, and to help the government in Saigon become strong enough to either negotiate with or defeat the Viet Cong on their own terms.
Newspapers are reporting that the United States is trying to conclude a set of secret negotiations with Viet Cong leadership, with the aim of being able to leave South Vietnam by the target date of 1973. American negotiators are reportedly offering to release VC prisoners for a promise to renounce violence and refrain from Communist agitation, both in Vietnam and in other countries in Southeast Asia.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 20, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/20/huh/
30 Days of Heinlein – Day 17
Premenstrual Syndrome: Just before their periods women behave the way men do all the time. – The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
Posted by daddybear71 on December 20, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/20/30-days-of-heinlein-day-17/
Memorial to Kim Jong Il
Kim Jong Il, supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, died on December 17. I can find no better way to eulogize him than this:
Posted by daddybear71 on December 20, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/20/memorial-to-kim-jong-il/
That Was Quick
The last U.S. truck to leave Iraq hasn’t even been to the wash rack yet, and the opening political salvos of the Iraqi civil war have been fired.
Iraq’s Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant Monday for Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the country’s highest ranking Sunni official, on terrorism charges.
al-Hashemi’s Sunni Iraqiya faction has threatened to leave the coalition government, so I guess the next logical step is to neutralize, either politically or physically, its leadership.
Here are my prognostications:
- Continued political wrangling, including arrests and forced defections, over the next month or so
- Targeted assassinations of Sunni and Shiite leadership by spring
- Terrorist attacks against religious demonstrations and significant monuments (mosques) by April
- Full on civil war by June
I also think the Kurds will use the fighting between the Shiite and Sunni sectors to finally make their defacto independence official, which will go a long way to piss off Turkey. Saudi Arabia won’t stand by and watch their Sunni brothers get the snot kicked out of them by a numerically superior Shiite population. If the Saudis send in troops, then Iran will go from covert support of the Shiites to actually sending in their own troops. Whether the fighting stays in Iraq or not will depend on whether or not Iran wants to try to bite off the Shiite area of Saudi Arabia. Riyadh isn’t equipped to stand up to Tehran in any form, so we would probably get dragged in if Iran actually invades Saudi Arabia.
Who’s going to win the Iraqi Civil War of 2012? In Iraq, it’ll be the Shiite and the Kurds. The Shiites are too numerous and well-supported by Iran for the Sunnis to prevail. Iran and the Shiite factions have been working together for years to plan and prepare for the day after we left. I don’t think the Sunnis have really ever recovered from losing power in 2003. They certainly don’t have as active an international sponsor as the Shiites. The Kurds will probably stay out of the fighting and if they’re smart will go dormant when it comes to Iran and Turkey until the dust settles to their south.
Internationally, I see Iran benefiting the most from all this, unless they invade Saudi Arabia. If they can keep the fighting local to Iraq, especially if they can keep their support covert, then the Obama administration will have no credible reason to get involved. If they publicly send in their military, or if they and Saudi Arabia lock horns, even Obama will have to sit up and take notice. In the end, Iran will own Iraq in the same way that they own Syria. Maybe they don’t claim the territory outright, but they’ll definitely be the ones pulling the strings.
Any way this plays out, Iraq is about to get at least as chaotic and bloody as it was before the surge in 2007. I hope I’m wrong.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 20, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/20/that-was-quick/
Quote of the Day
1% OF THE HOLIDAYS GET 99% OF THE EGG NOG.
— Larry Correia, The Christmas Noun 4: Occupy Christmas Noun
Posted by daddybear71 on December 19, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/19/quote-of-the-day-31/
Blog Roundup
- Firehand links to a great story about people standing up and defending themselves. The image I have of the Jewish guy taking on 20 Nazis is more Bruce Lee than Indiana Jones.
- Borepatch tries to explain to the Republicans that we’re tired of voting for people just because it’s their turn.
- Jeff Knox makes a good point. The groups that are called the “Gun Lobby” are nothing more than an aggregate of the millions of us who own, shoot, and enjoy guns and shooting.
- BRM points us to an article that pretty much convinces me that Newt just isn’t the one for me.
- George Smiley sums up the situation on the Korean peninsula quite nicely, and points to some of the things that the new Dear Leader is going to have to do in order to keep power.
- Shepherd seems to be fitting right into the dad department. Yeah, we all get mushy about our kids, no matter how macho we are.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 19, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/19/blog-roundup-2/
Pardon My Skepticism
North Korea is pledging to stop enriching uranium, and the United States is pledging to supply the communist paradise with 240,000 tons of food over the next year. One smart thing the U.S. is doing is not giving the North Koreans rice, which could be easily diverted to feed the military.
I see a few reasons why North Korea is making this deal
- They have no plans whatsoever to follow through on this pledge. Maybe they’ll shut down their enrichment program for a few months so they can get some food out of the Americans. Maybe they’ve opened up new facilities we don’t know about and won’t even shut down at all.
- They have enough enriched uranium to fulfill their weapons needs for a while, and are taking advantage of that by suckering the U.S. out of a quarter of a million tons of food.
- They have another source of enriched uranium, such as Pakistan. No, that couldn’t happen. There’s no way that Pakistan would provide help to North Korea when it comes to nuclear weapons. It’s not like there’s a large country between them that’s friendly to both of them and could allow a railcar full of uranium to travel to Pyongyang without being on a plane or boat that could be intercepted or something.
- I don’t know. Maybe Kim Jong Il gets religion and starts being a smart statesman instead of a bugnuts crazy dictator. Maybe in this season of peace he’s truly starting down the road to nuclear disarmament and international cooperation.
Guess which one I don’t think is likely.
The other three I’d say are a toss-up. I’m not sure how easy it would be for them to create a new enrichment program without us finding out about it, but it could be done. I think it’s a good bet that the North Koreans have a big pile of weapons grade uranium buried deep and quiet, or that the Pakistanis are continuing their stellar non-proliferation work by keeping them supplied in U-235.
I see exactly one reason the U.S. is making this deal:
- We’re a bunch of suckers and President Obama and his crew need something to point at during the campaign to say they have an achievement in getting North Korea to stop making nuclear weapons. I shouldn’t give the president too much crap for this, though. The last three presidents have been just as moronic when dealing with North Korea.
Remember, they’re halting enrichment, not dismantling anything. Either when we piss them off or they have a need for more home-grown uranium goodness, they’ll crank it up. I’ll give them style points if they use a little waste heat from the centrifuges to heat up some food with “A gift from the American people” printed on the box.
Update – Fox News is reporting that Kim Jong Il has died. No details yet, but my guess is that right about now every swinging Richard in I Corps is putting on his battle rattle and doing a quick PMCS of his vehicle and weapons. As for what this means, if true, for this deal is anyone’s call.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 19, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/19/pardon-my-skepticism/
Literary Anniversary
Today is the anniversary of the first publishing of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in 1843. I’m not a Christmasy guy, but I do like the story and message of this classic. I’ve read the book and seen several movie adaptations of it, and I have to say it gets the Christmas theme across without being too saccharine.
Coincidentally, Girlie Bear, Boo, and I watched the 2009 adaptation starring Jim Carrey on Sunday afternoon. I’m not a big fan of Jim Carrey, but he definitely hit the mark with this one. The animation and voice work by Carrey reminded me a lot of The Polar Express, but without all of the annoying singing and dancing. I’d definitely recommend this one, and it’s available on Netflix streaming.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 19, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/19/literary-anniversary/
DaddyBear
