2014 archive
Legacy, Bushie Style (Updated) 0
Addendum, after Lunch:
From Southern Beale–click to read the rest:
One quibble: It wasn’t a mistake.
It was a con, a scam, a fraud, right from the git-go.
Garbage In, Garbage Out 0
At Asia Times, Spengler considers why American adventurism in the Middle East was doomed. I can’t say that I agree with all his “they should have done this instead” retrospections; I do think the article contains many accurate observations about what went wrong and why. It is worth a read. Here’s a bit from the introduction:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
If you must play with your phallic doppelganger, it’s polite to do so only when you are not behind the wheel.
(snip)
The bullet ripped through the gun owner’s hand before it passed through the driver’s right leg and lodged in his left leg, police said.
Hijacking 0
Farron Cousins and Howard Nations explore how the Second Amendment was hijacked by gun nuts and wingnuts. It’s worth a listen.
War and Mongers of War 0
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The neocons and their symps, dupes, and fellow travelers who made policy for George the Worst*, upon what appears to be the final crumbling of their fever dream of American conquest in the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq, have resurfaced to call for yet more war.
Dick Polman is disgusted (as, indeed, must be any thinking person outside the Beltway-Wingnut Bubble).
Do I have a magic elixir for the raging Iraqi fire? Nope. Nobody does. But here’s a fanciful idea: Let’s dispatch the dogs of war to Iraq, and compel them to clean up their mess. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, McCain and his fellow congressional hawks, Kristol and his fellow cheerleaders…they should all stay until they forge a solution. And if they argue for a new U.S war, young members of their own families should fight it.
Do please follow the link.
Image via Job’s Anger.
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*Was George the Worst a dupe or a symp? Inquiring minds want to know.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy, Sauce for the Goose Dept. 0
Heh.
(snip)
According to court documents, however, Geaney and his partners didn’t pay the rent they owed under the pre-existing lease either, racking up over $88,000 in unpaid rent. The firm allegedly has been bouncing checks. Amanda Lundergan, a lawyer from Florida, claimed that the firm never responded to inquiries as to why the checks she had been sent bounced.
Crazy Cat People 0
You can’t make this stuff up.
Both Sides Not 0
Both sides don’t do it. Until the punditocracy addresses this honestly and the polity becomes aware, we will continue to be waist deep in the Big Muddy.
Via Zandar.
Misdirection Play: The Psychology of Suicide Shooters Dept. 0
It’s not what sets them off that matters, as David Atkins explains. A nugget (emphasis added):
It’s not the motive. It’s never about the motive. It’s always about the gun.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite when you potty.
So, the peeing guy take offense at being told where the hell he can pee so he pulls a gun and . . .
The gun jammed and no one was killed, but the homeowner caught three slugs.
QOTD Reprise 0
Speaking of “poisoned by its own waste products” . . . .
Microplastics range from the decayed remains of monofilament fishing line to the microbeads that are now being used in some facial cleansers to unrecognizable debris that could come from any plastic product that has come apart.
Biologists have begun raising concerns about microplastics because they can collect and even concentrate toxins that can sicken any marine life that consumes the material. A 2010 study by Tokyo University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tested plastic pieces from 140 beaches in 40 countries. Researchers found chemical toxins such as PCBs in every sample.
Read the rest.
Script Kiddies, but with Money 0
From Bruce Schneier, pre-eminent computer security expert:
Read the rest.
Windows XP, Zombie OS 0
XP is on life-support in the Navy. So is the ability to plan.
That necessitated a deal with Microsoft to continue getting support for a while.
“Given the scale and scope of Windows XP’s use, the Department has a Custom Support Agreement with Microsoft that provides support for all critical security hotfixes and helps maintain our security posture for both ashore and afloat networks,” the Navy said in an emailed response to a query from The Pilot.
The agreement is good for the next three years and is expected to cost about $3.6 million for the first year, according to the Navy.
Microsoft’s pulling support from XP was hardly a surprise. Indeed, it’s been coming for half a decade.
The article goes on to point out that the Navy isn’t the only outfit that couldn’t see the bus barreling towards it under clear skies in the bright light of the noonday sun. Much of private industry has similar planning skills.
H/T to Susan for calling the article to my attention.
Legacy, Bushie Style 0
Dan Simpson contemplates the collapse of Iraq and argues persuasively that America not only cannot stop it, but has facilitated and exacerbated it through the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq. It’s a must-read.
He goes on to say that the least harmful thing we can do is to stay the hell out.
The violence there now must not be allowed to re-engage America in Iraq’s internal conflicts and how it balances its competing elements — Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. We have already done far too much damage to the Iraqis and to ourselves through our efforts to shape Iraq’s future.
“Frankenstein Politics” and Cantor Can’t 0
Via Delaware Liberal, where cassandra_m quotes this bit:
Carol Leifer: “Vote, and get a free bobblehead!”
Richard Clarke: “We do!”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite at the old ball game.
National Collegiate Cartel Athletic Association
0
Bob Molinaro, sportswriter extraordinaire*:
Certainly it would “change the fabric.” The fabric is rotten and corrupt; it allows old men, like CBS Sports presidents, NCAA executives, and college presidents and coaches, to profit from the uncompensated labor of the young by labeling them as “amateurs,” when they are in fact professionals.
(You do know what a “professional” is, do you not? A “professional” is someone who takes money for it. An “athletic scholarship” is money. Q. E. D.)
Our society has become based on theft of labor.
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*I’m pretty much fed up with professional sports (this includes college sports, for reasons made clear above), with the possible exception of major league baseball, but I always read Bob Molinaro’s columns because he is one damned fine writer. You should too.
The Negotiation Dance 0
I spent almost a quarter of a century in the railroad industry.
I never saw a strike last more than a day or two. This sort of stuff is routine. It’s part of the dance.
It’s called “regulation.”
“Regulation” helps make stuff work in an orderly fashion.