About that $100 Million Budget Cut

You knew BO's budget cut is less than smoke and mirrors - here it is, illustrated in pennies.

The plane, the plane!

I had a few thoughts cobbled together on the Air Force One flies over strafes Manhattan incident. You know, poor communications, bad idea, what if Bush,
etc. But Jon Stewart and the Daily Show do it much better than I ever could:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Mistakes on a Plane
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Unintended Consequences

Whoever said that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" should get royalties from the environmental movement. We have seen that banning DDT (against scientific evidence) has lead to the unnecessary deaths of countless people in malaria and dengue fever plagued areas. In an attempt to reduce carbon monoxide from car emissions the government mandated that methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) be added to gasoline. MTBE reduced fuel economy, resulting in more fuel being burned than was necessary. It was banned because it poisoned ground water if underground tanks leaked.

Now comes word that the Army's "green" training ammunition may be carcinogenic. In the 1990s the Army came up with a lead free round to be used in training. In order for the training to be of any value the round had to have the same ballistic characteristics as the lead rounds used in combat.

Sometimes the devil you know really is better than the devil you don't know.

Girl Talk

My sister in law e-mailed me the following pic...



The caption? "Bill thought he was the President, too."

2013 can't get here fast enough...

Wow.

She's almost 48... and, uh, not a supermodel. As I watched this over at Hot Air I thought I was going to see some nice woman humiliated on British TV and the Internet.

Wrong. She pwns them all:

Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
by dwarthy

My Next Bumpersticker

From American Digest... Full size image suitable for printing:

SkyCar!

Here's a talk from an advocate of 'personal airtravel'. Sorry, not Jetsons music:

Piracy

Somali pirates are holding an American merchant captain hostage. They vow to fight if attacked... I don't really care if these Somali pirates are classified as terrorists or enterprising criminals. The attack is the first on an American ship since 1805 or so. It comes within days of this self-imposed humiliation:



Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I find it significant that the last serious pirate threat faced by our nation was from Muslim pirates in Africa. That the threat was quelled by actions by the Marines and Navy, but resumed shortly after the above bow.

So what do we do now? Obviously, we try to save the life of the American Captain Richard Phillips. There's a report that he's tried to escape on his own. Our nation must send one message: It is suicide to attack an American ship. Period. Regardless if Captain Phillips is rescued, returned or murdered, his captors should be tracked down and killed.

John Keegan, writing in The Telegraph stated in part:

...One of the reasons why the attack on the Maersk was the first to involve American sailors in around 200 years is encapsulated in a well-known line of the US marines' anthem: "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli". This refers to the occasion, in the early 1800s, when the young republic sent a naval expedition to the north-western coast of Africa, den of the Barbary pirates, to deter attacks on their shipping.

Like other countries, America had paid bribes and ransoms, but the pirates' promises were never kept. Military action, in the form of two expeditions separated by a decade, was far more successful, especially when consolidated by the French occupation of Algeria in 1830. Admittedly, piracy did persist in the South China Sea and East Indian Sea, but with the rise of the European empires – and especially of the Royal Navy – it was eventually wiped out. One of the triumphs of Victorian Britain was to rule waves on which piracy had been extinguished.

He prescribes 17th century medicine for this 17th century ailment:

...So our campaign must be ruthless and pitiless: pirate ships must be sunk on sight and the crews left to swim to safety, if it can be reached.

Many would complain about such tactics but, in my opinion, pirates have no rights – indeed, it will be vital to exclude human rights lawyers from the anti-piracy campaign. To bring any captives to Europe or America for trial would probably be to grant them their dearest wish, which is to secure entry to a new life in the First World.

I'm a fan of Mr. Keegan's. He is a noted historian. I'm glad to have read some of his books, and so should you. However his advice doesn't go far enough. In addition to sinking their ships we should be attacking their safe harbors and removing their shore based logistical support. Mr. Keegan is writing for a British audience, which so he also is obliged to write about the need for rearmament for the Royal Navy. How sad.

Arrogant American

The One decries past American arrogance... then publicly tells the EU who they should let in... From Toby Toons:

Rogue Cessna

So a crazed Catholic in Canada steals a Cessna 172 and flies it to the US. F-16s "escort" him until he decides to land... in Missouri. WTF? Why didn't the 16s take him out sooner?

Oh, he's a naturalized Canadian, but surprise, probably not a Catholic - he's a Turk.

The Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights... from a guy in a locker room.

Sort of Lego-looking, isn't he? Except for the blond chest hair. That's like extra teh ghey.