07:55 – Three days down, two to go until Barbara returns home tomorrow evening. I think Colin just figures she’ll be home when she gets here and there’s no use worrying about when that will be.
I see that Obama has F-18’s flying “recon” over Iraq but has ruled out airstrikes. That’s a shame. Airstrikes would be nice, but they should be even-handed so that the US can’t be accused of taking sides. I’m thinking napalm and FAE’s. Lots and lots of napalm and FAE’s. If we obliterate both sides, no one could later claim that we were showing favoritism.
14:51 – Building more forensic science kits has become a high priority. Normally, forensic science kits make up roughly a tenth of total kit sales, so we typically keep only a dozen or so in stock. In the last week, we’ve sold four forensic science kits, which is at least double what I’d expect, particularly with June being a slow month. What’s very odd is that three of those four have gone to Austin, Texas. I wonder if someone is doing a co-op summer science forensics program. Fortunately, Barbara has already labeled 60 sets of bottles for the FK01A kits, and I have most of the solutions already made up. Now I need to make up the four or five solutions I’m short of and get a PO done for some hardware items.
Roger that…..also prevents the mistake of “…killed by friendly fire.”
Kill them all and let
GodAllah sort them out.F-18’s. Geez. Where are the A-10’s?
Make profligate use of cluster bombs, too. And use Sympathy For The Devil as your soundtrack – I watched with glee as your Kings & Queens fought for ten decades over the Gods they made.
“ten decades”? More like ten centuries.
How ’bout if we just leave and do not get involved ever again in the Sandbox countries? There is zero percentage for us staying any longer and yes, the veterans will realize, as we did, that it was all for nothing. Again.
The group of decorated combat vets I was with yesterday were *unanimous* on this issue. None of us gets any kick from yet more mass slaughter of whoever it is down there on the ground from air strikes. And several of us, at least, would probably advocate those air strikes be moved to Mordor and the VA HQ there.
Well, let’s be realistic. Killing muslims is okay. Killing democrats and republicans is a no-no.
Actually, I was kind of kidding. I don’t want to see any of our people at risk over there. I’d have no objection to cruise missiles or other remote-delivery mechanisms. But if Obama is going to get our forces involved, he should at least have a specific goal, which I suggest should be killing as many of them as possible and destroying infrastructure.
But if Obama is going to get our forces involved, he should at least have a specific goal, which I suggest should be killing as many of them as possible and destroying infrastructure.
Exactly. Stop trying to finesse this. Our military is supposed to kill people and blow shit up. Get all personnel out of Iraq. There is no way democracy will take hold. Obummer is constantly blaming Bush for going into Iraq. Get out and say fuck it. Obuttwad now owns Iraq. But what do you expect from a President whose priority is Climate Ejaculation.
We’ve destroyed the infrastructure already and then rebuilt it. This is getting really old.
And let them slaughter each other, which they actually appear to enjoy doing and have done for many centuries now. As brutally and savagely as possible, too. Let them have at it! And good riddance.
If there is a country or political entity out there that we have certain intel on that they’re an imminent lethal threat to this country and its people, via WMD of some sort, then sure, light their asses up with missiles or drones or whatever. Wipe them off the planet if need be, but otherwise let’s give up Empire once and for all and fix things back here.
I refuse to countenance more industrialized murder on the basis that this regime has already decided to commit our forces to it and so we should thus cheer it on and call for its enhancement by orders of magnitude.
Especially when the very strong suspicion arises that the whole exercise is yet another cynical political maneuver of some sort and once again, cui bono? Who benefits from us getting back into it there? Or killing more tens or hundreds of thousands of hajdis?
Not our troops, I can attest to that in spades.
Who benefits from us getting back into it there?
The military contractors that make things that go boom. The generals who go over for 30 days, get a combat ribbon, then retire at a much higher pay grade. The military contractors that supply infastructure supplies such as vehicles, uniforms, tents, food etc. The unions at the ship building yards that now get to build more ships which ultimately benefits the congress critters as they now get more votes from the unions.
My hair is smoking. I was on another forum where US involvement and military bases were being discussed. I proposed that the US should really just go home. They broke Iraq, making a lousy situation even worse. As far as I can see, any further involvement at this point makes no sense at all – there is nothing that could realistically be accomplished. While I was at it, I also suggested that the US military bases in Western Europe really don’t make a lot of sense any more either.
Apparently I blasphemed. The rah-rah patriots came out, the ad hominems flew, it wasn’t far to Godwin’s law. Being Swiss, I am apparently a Jew hater and all the rest.
I guess I’m spoiled by forums like this one, where even disagreements are reasonably civil.
“The military contractors that make things that go boom.”
Exactly. And I’m tired of supporting all these dependents when we have our own here still.
We essentially have three choices:
1.) Continue as we have been doing, i.e. running a half-ass empire with half-ass military adventures that are always unsuccessful, in the long run, if not right away, and being ruled by a corporate fascist oligarchy, which apparently sees fit to let a de facto Bolshevik and crypto-muslim run the country. As our infrastructure crumbles, the economy tanks and our liberties keep slip-sliding away.
2.) Run a real empire; take over all the fossil energy resources and allocate them exclusively to ourselves and our right-thinking allies and friends. Shit-can entirely what liberties we have left as citizens and go straight into becoming subjects and serfs, in ye days of old. When another country irritates and annoys the neocon cabals which rule us, in conjunction with the mandates of Tel Aviv and Likud, why, capture their ringleaders and bring them to Washington to be paraded down Penn Ave before they are crucified and left to hang there. Then turn their countries to molten glass.
3.) Or we can reformat and reboot this system back to the constitutional Federal republic it was meant to be, under the old Articles of Confederation (my preference) or break up into a loose confederacy anyway of like-minded regions along the lines of Joel Garreau’s Nine Nations of North American or the Renaissance Party of North America’s breakdown into ethnonationalist regions like Novacadia and Cascadia, etc. Treat with other nations who wish to do so on a fair and level playing field basis and keep our nefarious mitts out of their internal affairs once and for all. As above, utterly destroy enemies who genuinely threaten our extinction and otherwise mind our own business.
But I have little doubt we will continue along the path of Choice Number One until we can’t anymore.
As they say, an armed society is a polite society. I know there are more than a couple people who hang out here that I would never want to be really angry with me. Not that I let that stop me, as I’m one of the people whom I’d never want to be really angry with me.
The other thing is, most un-civil people have something to prove, and few around here have anything to prove to anyone.
“Being Swiss, I am apparently a Jew hater and all the rest.”
Don’t feel bad. Whenever I mentioned, or Pat Buchanan ages ago mentioned, that our foreign and military policies seem to be predicated on whatever Israel wants to do, we became anti-Semites, of course. Bill Buckley said so on the cover of his magazine back in the day. They excommunicated Buchanan, and also the late Joe Sobran and the late Sam Francis. And I’ve been excoriated numerous times as a fascist and Nazi. Not to mention racist, homophobe, etc., blah, blah, blah.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist; one look at the list of surnames of the neocons who got us into all these messes over the past twenty-five years. And their connections with Israel.
The death-knell comes when you mention that Stalin and Mao, both of the Left, of course, imprisoned and murdered more of their own people by orders of magnitude than Hitler. Das ist verboten. And the publik skool systems still teach this 20th-C history without bringing it up. So now multiple generations have internalized it all.
Have you all seen the Dennis Miller’s “America 180” special? Entertaining in a uniquely Dennis Miller sort of way (he’s not for everyone). For those not familiar with him, he’s a comedian and a libertarian-leaning Republican.
You can catch some clips here: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ayoutube.com+%22Dennis+Miller%22+America+180&tbm=vid
I especially like some of his comparisons. Like, how the left wing got all enraged when a bearded Christian from Louisiana (Duck Dynasty guy) expressed his opinion on homosexuals, but they don’t seem to care about all the bearded Muslims and their outright hatred of gays. Similarly, why are they so up in arms about Bible-thumpers (aka “the religious right” or “Christian conservatives”) and their obsession with guns, but they want to turn a blind eye to Islamists with AK-47s and RPGs. It’s amusing how he points out the absurdity of what the left chooses to see and chooses not to see.
Hear, hear! I concur wholeheartedly.
Dennis has been very funny most of the time for years, but the Left’s hypocrisy is all too well-known by most of us here already. They live in a whole different dimension of reality, apparently.
A typical Left approach a while back: all the multiple instances of hadji terrorism, whether here, in Europe, or other countries around the world, including among their own and their atrocious treatment of women. Yet the lefties could only harp about Timothy McVeigh for the longest time. Our own homegrown terrorist, of course; which in its most contemporary guise was the Bundy Ranch fiasco and the regime telling us that their greatest fears revolve around this country’s right-wing outlaws.
They couldn’t detect or stop 9/11 by they sure can, by Jeezum, send a military task force to Nevada over a herd of fucking cows.
I wish Miller would develop a harder edge, but then he wouldn’t get tee-vee time, of course. He probably just barely skirts being bounced, the way things are now.
Dennis Miller’s closing on the “America 180” special is something along the lines of things are already out of control and it’s too late to really do anything about Washington right now, but as always, it will correct itself. Whether that is a 1929 or an 1861 type of correction remains to be seen. There is a tiny glimmer of hope that the politicians and the left will see they’re killing their host organism (what a nice way of calling them parasites) and fix things before it’s too late.
Hopefully, I didn’t paraphrase that too poorly. That’s the general gist of it, but there was a 6-pack of high-ABV IPA calling my name last night when I was watching it.
Just got myself fingerprinted and photoed in the name of public safety since I am a licensed Professional Engineer in the Great State of Texas. If I did not get this done (part of a criminal background check) then my license will be canceled. The fingerprint dude used a scanner attached to a PC (no ink). I have been assured that in no way will the scans be kept permanently by the Texas DPS or the FBI. Yeah, right.
Now I read that all of our homeless shelters in Texas are full with illegal aliens:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/perry-feds-gobble-up-available-rooms-for-illegal-children-nothing-left-for-texans/article/2549947
And that the illegal aliens have all kinds of diseases that we do not allow regular immigrants or even people getting off intercontinental airplanes to have without sending them back:
http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/deadly-diseases-crossing-border-with-illegals/
But, the government (and I) are spending a lot of time and money making sure that I am a good citizen. I’ve been working hard all my life since age 15, pay lots of taxes and raised more tax paying citizens.
This really sucks.
My sister is one of those that gets back way more than she pays in. Every February when she gets her return she’s on a spending spree for a month (until she’s broke again). So, when she says stuff like “I just booked and paid for my family’s trip to Disney Land with our tax return money!” I give her an unamused look and say, “You’re welcome.”
My sister has also worked the system for many years; never ever seriously tried to hold a regular job for very long. But has a late-model Jeep and manages to go out to restaurants and day trips to the MA shore, etc. And has sponged off one of my brothers for about a quarter-century now so not much I can do or say about it. He goes with the flow and enables the whole thing and has never married. Just worked his ass off his whole life.
@Lynn; the news we’re getting is that the illegals are literally swarming over the border into TX and immediately being hooked up with their illegal relatives already here. And the border law enforcement organizations are basically doing medical/disease triage. This invasion was allowed to occur deliberately and with malice aforethought by our criminally felonious and treasonous regime. The consequences will be felt for many generations to come.
You gotta get all wired up with yer ID, fingerprints, background check, etc. for your livelihood; all they gotta do is climb over a fence, or, simply walk or wade across. The Feds just stuck a gigantic middle finger in your face.
OFD, it’s a quote. Specifically, it’s song lyrics. Sheesh, I thought you were supposed to be an old fart so that this is the music of your generation. (Me, I never liked the Stones. Or the Beetles. Partly that’s because they were the music of my mother’s generation and partly because they weren’t really that good.)
I know from song lyrics of the Glorious Sixties, Grasshopper. But the ref was to the hadji bastids murdering each other for however long and lest anyone think it’s only been decades, I hastened in my pedantic mode to spread the word that it’s been a bit longer than that.
I like some Stones song, some Beatles songs, some Who Songs, some Grateful Dead songs, but I don’t slaver over their whole catalogs. I’ve seen all but the Beatles live at one time or another and I gotta say the Who killed it when they played. The Dead began to suck after their “Workingman’s Dead” album and their New Riders of the Purple Sage phase. The Stones can still kick it, amazingly, in concert, and occasionally still with a new song. Check out their live version from a few years ago of “Gimme Shelter” that they did with Lisa Fischer. Lisa would raise the dead.
Other than that my main interest from 8th-grade to the present with modern popular music has been the British blues, from John Mayall’s various incarnations through Cream, Spooky Tooth, Alvin Lee and Ten Years After, Rory Gallagher, etc., etc.
Modern music for me mostly died after 1975, including rock, jazz and country-western.
So I’ve gone back to the classical world, mainly organ and choral music from England, Germany and France.
If there are any other pipe organ enthusiasts here, check out NPR’s program “PipeDreams” which you can stream at any time during any week’s scheduled program:
http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/
I read a history of Babylon not long ago. Among other things, it was fascinating to read of the waves of migrations of the Semites thataway, heading either northward toward Babylon or northwest toward Assyria. And the constant wars between different waves and the different settled groups. And the difficulty that the settled peoples had with their still-nomadic cousins — I’d known that was a problem for all of history, but apparently it was a problem going well into prehistory.
Prior to that I’d read the Code of Hammurabi. (Translated into modern English, of course — I’m awesome, but not so awesome as to be able to read Akkadian in cuneiform.) Parts were amusing and parts were simply dumbfounding, in that they gave a view on a manner of thinking very foreign to anything you’d expect to see today. (But then I think of some of the magical thinking — in the sense of believing that the world doesn’t follow investigable rules — I’ve seen both abroad and at home. And then I get depressed. 4000 years and even in the heart of US cities we still have primitives.)
The other thing that both the Code of Hammurabi and the history book pointed up is that humans were just as intelligent 4000 years ago as they are now.* And just as crafty in business and politics. (The Code showed that with business — else there would have been no need for several items on fraud — and the history showed that with politics, in one canny king playing off his enemies and having a long reign which extended his borders or another king being punked by the Assyrians or Egyptians.)
“…that humans were just as intelligent 4000 years ago as they are now.”
Indeed. And just as stupid, as crazy, as sinful, as saintly. Human nature does not change.
But it has long been a project of the Left that it does, and that it can be changed by us, and made better. Which is patently untrue and known to be untrue. Yet still they try. On mountains and mountains of corpses. Until they get it right, I guess.
We just have bigger and more expensive toyz and the ability to wipe out all life on the planet.
Anyone seen “Noah” yet? I gather that he is portrayed as a genocidal maniac who does God’s bidding and makes sure the rest of the human race is eradicated. I may watch it just to groove on the Watchers, meant, I guess, to be angels who disobeyed God (sound familiar yet?) and were abandoned here on earth. The chief Watcher’s voice is done by the great Nick Nolte.
humans were just as intelligent 4000 years ago as they are now
Ever been to a college campus recently? Doing so would provide evidence to contradict that statement as the dumbing down of the school system continues.
I read a theory that people of European descent are less intelligent now than a thousand or two years ago. The intelligent tended to go to the cities or the monestaries for the scholarship and other intellectual stimulation, and the cities were more subject to plague and other widely lethal epidemics. Men in the monestaries, in theory, at least, didn’t reproduce. In both cases, the genes of some fraction of the intelligent would not have made it down to the next generation.
I have no idea if that was a serious theory that someone has looked into, or just a bullshitting-over-beers “theory”.
Geez, I thought everyone could do that.