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News Roundup

Haven’t done one of these in a while, so let’s have some fun:

From the “Fashion Police” Section – A leader of an Afghan terrorist organization was caught recently while dressed as a woman.  Reports are that this is a common occurrence.  My guess is that he was captured because no woman would wear a navy blue burqa with tan boots.  Guys, our fashion sense just isn’t good enough to pull this off.
From the “Animal Commerce” Section – A group of scientists at Yale University are studying whether pictures of a female monkey or an alpha male attracts them more from one type of food or another.  I’d love to see the write-up for that grant.  “We would like to see if male monkeys would rather eat food that’s advertised using pictures of sexy females or the food that’s advertised with pictures of the monkey Marlboro man.”
From the “That’s Funny, Ours Can Reach Tehran from Minot” Department – An Iranian official has admitted that Iran’s missile forces, including the Shahab-3 and Sajjil, can reach Israel and U.S. assets in the Middle East, and they have the ability to build missiles that go much further.  Dude, you don’t want to get into a pissing-for-distance contest with the U.S. over whose missiles have the longest reach.  SAC had perfected ways to hit targets in that neck of the woods before this guy was a twinkle in his father’s goat’s eye.
From the “Need More Bullets” Department – The latest in a rash of smash and grab mob attacks struck a store in Atlanta on Tuesday morning.  My guess is that the store was closed in this occurrence, but other attacks have happened while stores are manned and taking care of customers.  My recipe for taking care of this problem is a castle doctrine, steady firing position, good sight picture and alignment, breath control, and trigger squeeze.  You can’t tell me that this kind of crap would go on when people started getting shot while flash-mob-robbing the Banana Republic.  Some will argue that a shirt isn’t worth killing someone over, but I’ll retort by saying that a shirt isn’t worth dieing over.
Finally, from the “Need More Crazy Glue” Department – A hotel in Austin, Texas, has announced that it will be replacing over 1000 glass panels after several of the existing panels fell and broke on Monday.  My guess is that they need to move their adhesive up from chewing gum and duct tape to Gorilla Glue.

Been a lot of these lately

UPI is reporting yet another prank where electronic roadside information signs are being hacked to show warnings about zombies.  The latest is in Newfoundland, but it seems a week can’t go by without a similar story.

What if these aren’t pranks?

What if this is the last desperate act of a technician as the undead are beating down his door?  What if all he has to live for is to warn the rest of us through his network of roadside billboards?

What if TBolt is right, and the outbreaks he chronicles in his Romero Operation reports are becoming more widespread and the government is trying to prevent panic by portraying this as electronic vandalism?

Y’all excuse me while I go get boards ready to close up all of my first floor windows and doors.

Dear Chrysler

Just for kicks and grins, I opened up the slick sales brochure you sent to me for your new sedan.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’d rather buy a used 1972 VW Bug that’s been rusting in a Florida swamp, but that’s another story.

I wondered why the brochure came in a sealed plastic envelope, but after flipping through the first few pages, I realized why.  Your brochure had been sprayed with something that emulates the “new car smell”.

That’s pretty innovative, like a bakery that has fans to send the smell of baking bread out to the sidewalk.  I have to give you points for that.

Feel free to keep sending me more brochures, though.  I find they make good weed barriers.  It’s probably something to do with the shiny coating you spray on them.

Does that haircut go well with stripes?

Former Illinois governor Blagojevich was convicted Monday on 17 of 20 counts related to shady dealings to sell the vacant Senate seat created when President Obama was elected.

Leaving a trail of mucous behind him as he left the courtoom, Blagojovich claimed to be stunned, which pretty much demonstrates how utterly stupid you have to be to look for out and out bribes to fill a Senate seat.

I know that all politicians are suspect where honesty is considered, but shameless corruption is despicable.  Hopefully it’s also rare.  Bad policies we can withstand; incompetent leaders we can tolerate.  But rot from the inside is the quickest way for our Republic to fall.

What’s the range and CEP on a Minuteman III?

For those of you playing along at home, the circular error probability of a Minuteman III ICBM is 120m, and its range is 13,000km.  We would also have accepted 200m for those of you with older reference material.  Not bad for an upgraded 1960’s design.  To put it in gun-person terms, that’s sub-MOA at a stationary target located halfway across the world.

In related news, Iran has unveiled underground silos for their missile force.  I guess they hope that deep holes make for untouchable missiles or something.  My guess is that hitting within 120m of a missile silo with a 400-500 kiloton payload would do enough damage to make it inoperable.  You don’t have to destroy the bullets, you just have to disable the gun.

The image I have when I think of Iran is the little dog that keeps nipping at a bigger dog because he doesn’t believe the big dog will ever take the time to bite back.  Someday, that big dog chews the little dog in half, and I think that someday with Iran is not far off.

Someone needs to tell the Iranian government that any use of a Shahab-3 from one of these silos against any of the countries we care about will be considered an act of war against the United States.  Heaven help them if they mate an atomic weapon up to one and give it a whirl.  Nothing says “Regional Stabilization” like a set of mushroom clouds over Iranian launch sites.

Mission Creep

Our pretty little war in Libya just got a bit more complicated.  The International Criminal Court has indicted Qaddafi, his son, and his security chief for war crimes.  Good luck getting him to negotiate a peaceful end to the war now.  I expect that in the next few days or so, President Obama will start using that to justify his not-really-a-war-because-we-don’t-use-the-W-word war against Qaddafi and his regime.

For those of you old enough to remember, this is exactly what happened under President Bush the First in Somalia.  First we were going in to provide security for humanitarian aid, then we were there to stabilize the situation and protect civilians from bands of thugs, then we started hunting for local warlords.

I would not be surprised if Obama didn’t use this as an excuse to escalate the conflict a bit, seeing as now his moves are legitimized by the UN, NATO, and the ICC.  Of course, he hasn’t gotten authorization from the U.S. Congress.  Details, details.  Who am I to object? There’s a kinetic action going on, after all.

Pop Quiz

I know, I know, the syllabus says nothing about quizzes.  Add/Drop forms are available from the TA.

Captain TightPants pointed me over to this civics quiz, and unlike a lot of other quizzes I’ve taken, this one is actually about civics, not the latest topics in the headlines.

I got a 96.97% when I missed one.  How did y’all do?

This is who we fight

On Sunday, a beautiful little 8 year old girl walked up to a police car carrying a bag.  She had been asked to carry the bag to the policemen by someone she trusts.  When she approached the car, a remote receiver in the bag caused the explosives in it to detonate, killing her.

This is our enemy.  Whether they are in Kabul, or Riyadh, or London, or Detroit, the enemies of liberal Western democracy are prepared to kill anyone and use any means to hurt us.  They will use our freedoms, our openness, our trust, and even our children to kill us.

If you’re a parent, a grandparent, or an uncle or aunt, think about the small children you love.  What madness would it take for you to hand one of them a satchel charge?  We are not dealing with a rational foe.  Negotiation is nothing but a delaying tactic.  Mercy is seen as weakness.  While the president of Afghanistan rails against the accidental deaths of civilians in combat, nothing will be said about using children or other helpless members of society as weapon delivery systems.

I advocate leaving the Dar al-Islam to its own ends.  If they want democracy, theocracy, or anarchy, let them have it.  But we should never forget their stated goal of forcing us to believe and behave in the same way they do, and that they will use whatever means they can find to accomplish that goal.

Thought for the Day

Somewhere on this dirtball, at this exact moment, someone is reading “Starship Troopers” for the first time.

I first read it in the overcab sleeping area of my step-dad’s RV on a very stormy Minnesota night in 1985.  I read it from cover to cover by flashlight.  I re-read it so many times that when I went to join the Army and the sergeant at the processing station asked me if I wanted to be “MI”, I thought he meant Mobile Infantry.  You can imagine my disappointment.

What was your first ‘adult’ science fiction?  Any good stories of how you discovered it?

Quotes of the Day

Two of these today, dealing with the community response to flooding in my hometown:

“For the rest of the country, that is kind of mind boggling. But … that’s how we are in North Dakota,” –Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota

“It’s one thing to go and visit somebody and stay in their house and enjoy their hospitality for a couple of days. It’s another thing to move in indefinitely and wonder, have we overstayed our welcome?” — Pancoast, Minot North Dakota

The people I grew up with and around are reaching out to one another and helping.  It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s family, friend, or total stranger.  Growing up, the mantra I had pounded into me was “Never ask for help, but never fail to give it without being asked”.

Contrast that to the denizens of New Orleans after Katrina who also had days to prepare, had to be rescued by a massive operation after failing to either leave or provide for themselves, and in some cases had to be removed from ‘temporary’ shelters by court order.


Now imagine what a different picture we would have seen if people from the parts of New Orleans that were not flooded had opened up their homes, garages, trailers, and hearts to the citizens of the flooded portions of the Crescent City.