September 22, 2004
It's about a 5 minute read. Felt like 30 seconds. But it's great while it lasts.
Links to the first 4 parts are available at the top of the part 5 post. Parts 1 & 2 are about 20 minutes, parts 3 & 4 about 15.
Hurry up with part 6, J. A man's got NEEDS, ya know.
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11:32 PM
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This was love at first sight, love everlasting: a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected - in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness; it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life.
(CAUTION: Romantics beware - comments may contain naughtiness)
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11:28 PM
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[Ray 204]
From the "IMAO Space Laser Instruction Book, Chapter 10: The 250 Settings of S.M.I.T.E."
Ray 204 - causes a dark patch to form on the front of a hippy's pants, resulting in much pointing and laughing from non-stupid protest bystanders."
(hat tip to Dana of Eat the Lettuce for finding this one for me)
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11:24 PM
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:.
Bogged down in Rathergate? All this talk of fonts, superscripts and proportional spacing giving you a headache? Me too. How about we strip all of this big story of the last couple of weeks of the technicalities and look at the nub.
There's two main parts of this story, first why it's a load of horsesh, um, fertilizer, second, what See BS or at least Rather and Mapes wanted to accomplish. Ignore all the problems with the alleged documents, also ignore the problems with the use of Army, rather than Air Force, lingo and concentrate on whether LTC Killian would have given a rat's patootie if LT. Bush had taken a flight physical. The answer is a clear no. No for several reasons.
Bush was leaving the unit, going to another unit that had no airplanes for him to fly. If you aren't going to fly, there's no reason to take a flight physical. This one simple fact kills the story. No one is going to waste the time of the Docs and Med Techs on a physical that takes TWO WHOLE DAYS for a pilot that will be flying a desk. Period.
Even if Bush were staying with the Texas Squadron, it's role was changing, going from a single seat interceptor aircraft to a two seat training aircraft that Bush was unqualified to fly. Bush had not enough time left on his enlistment to be retrained.
There was also the fact that the war in Viet Nam was winding down, the Air Guard, Air Force Reserve and Regular Air Force had a glut of pilots.
Killian would not have been complaining that Bush wanted out of the cockpit, he would have been glad that he had one less pilot to disappoint because he had to take his cockpit seat away.
All we really need to remember about this story is that Bush was going to a unit that had no airplanes he could fly.
So, what were Rather and Mapes trying to accomplish? This story is on it's fifth incarnation, it was trotted out in every election Bush ran in, that failed Congressional election back in the '70s, both gubernatorial elections, his presidential election and now his reelection bid. Each time the voters yawned. Nobody that doesn't already suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome (thank you, Charles Krauthammer) cares about that physical. If Bush's flight status and squadron commander's opinion was all there was to it I doubt that Mapes and Rather, much less the rest of See BS would have staked their credibility on this story. Even had they gotten away with it, nobody cares.
What else is going on? Did they want to take attention away from the Swiftees? Maybe, I think it had more to do with Kitty Kelly, though. If they could somehow later insinuate that Bush skipped that physical because of a raging cocaine addiction they could rely on the fact that most people neither know nor care that drug screens were not a part of military physicals of any kind until several years after Bush was out.
It's the only scenario that makes sense, nobody cares what Bush did or didn't do in 1971-72 as far as the Air National Guard. People might care if the President of the United States of America is a raving cokehead. I believe this story was either going to be tied with Kelly's book to start a whispering campaign about Bush being a cokehead or an October Surprise with a bunch of 'witnesses' to Bush hoovering up half of Columbia, three days before the election.
That's what I think this is about.
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11:15 PM
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All Bad Example readers are eligible to vote, and gratuitous ballot-box stuffing is encouraged. Potential adoptees should plug themselves shamelessly and con their friends & readers into voting for them.
Since Kyla has expressed no particular interest in being adopted, I'm dropping her from consideration. Nice girl & all, however, her butt-kissing skills leave something to be desired.
Choices are as follows, and listing order is more or less random:
Jeff of Au Fait
Wacky Hermit of Organic Baby Farm
Anita of Fighting Inertia
An inanimate carbon rod - just because I like Simpsons references.
Kudos to the fine folks at Bravenet for hosting the poll.
Posted by: Harvey at
11:09 PM
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Precision Guided Humor Round-up: Secrets of the New Memos
New PGH Assignment: What question would you ask at the Presidential debates?
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10:17 PM
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At great risk to life and limb, I wiretapped a certain Kinko's fax machine in Abilene, so I know all about the new memos that CBS has gotten in. Over the next week or so, you can probably expect to hear the following unquestionable truths about George W. Bush, since the new memos will clearly show that:
Bush once received preferential treatment after giving an apple to his third grade teacher.
Which also raises questions about whether W. is secretly in the pocket of Big Fruit.
Bob Dole was obviously in league with Big Pineapple, and he was ALSO a Republican, which raises questions about whether America is actually controlled by a three-pronged Fruit-Pepsi-Viagra cabal.
George W Bush used to be an oil-man. Vaseline is a petroleum-baseed product. This implies yet another possible Viagra connection.
For national security reasons, immediately after 9/11, Bush was replaced for all public appearances with a particularly bright, mostly housebroken, shaved chimp named Bobo.
The OLD memos were written by W. himself, as proven by the fact that they included the words "nucular" and "misunderestimated".
Bush once rampaged through a synagogue, flogging moneychangers.
In college, Bush once neglected to tip a pizza delivery guy, thus causing him to miss a mortgage payment and become homeless.
The homeless pizza guy was later murdered by Glenn Reynolds.
Bush receives twice-monthly Botox injections to keep his ears sticking out so far.
The real reason we invaded Iraq is that Bush beat Rumsfeld at a game of rock-paper-scissors.
If Rumsfeld had chosen scissors, we would've just nuked Baghdad.
I wish Rumsfeld would've chosen scissors.
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07:56 PM
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Posted by: Harvey at
10:08 AM
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September 21, 2004
Love you... It's funny how two words can take up so little space on a piece of paper, but fill up ALL of the space in my heart.
(CAUTION: Romantics beware - comments may contain naughtiness)
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10:30 PM
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And unlike SOME people who've been out of uniform for a few years, he still knows how to execute a hand-salute.
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12:48 PM
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Blogdaughter Tammi of Road Warrior Survival paid off her losing football bet with a little belly action.
It's shaping up to be a VERY good day at Castle Example.
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09:36 AM
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That may SOUND disgusting, but it's actually a thing of beauty:
Dan Rather running from his car to the C-BS building, being chased by an intrepid zealous reporter and cameraman. The camera shot zooms up close, the reporter shoving the mike in Dan's face and saying... "Who came up with the original memos Dan?"Dan - shoves the reporter aside in a mad dash for the door... sweating... yelling "Didn't I tell you NO COMMENT?" "Leave me alone!" As he sprints through the door, trying to slam it behind him. The reporter catches the door and pulls it open, the camera shots are jumping all over. Dan dashes behind the security guard. The guard tries desperately to hold off the reporter and cameraman as Dan dashes away down the hall. They drag the guard along as the camera continues to follow at Dan's heels in hot pursuit. The guard is calling into his walkie talkie for reinforcements. Another guard appears to help, they shove the reporter and cameraman back toward the door... with the reporter yelling "Tell us about the memo Dan!!!" "What are you trying to hide?"
The only way to top that is if the guy with the microphone were wearing pajamas.
Mheh.
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08:57 AM
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By which I mean that he left a comment so good that I'm putting it on the front page.
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To understand what is going on in Iraq you need two things, an apreciation of the nature of this as a long shot gamble and a good map.
First, the gamble.
The only way to avoid an all out War of Civilisations between Islam and the West is to change the dynamic in the Mideast, the source of the toxins that have made Islam the home of modern day terrorism. The three strains of Islamic Terror are Wahabbism, centered in Saudi Arabia, the Shia'ites, centered in Iran and Baathism, the ungodly meld of Islam and Stalinism, centered in Iraq and Syria. There was never a question that we would eventually be forced into a war, the only question was all at once or one at a time. Barring a WW2 style mobilisation, one at a time is the only answer, we simply don't have the manpower for all at once.
Afghanistan was never the center of any of these movements, it was simply taken over by one or more as a target of opportunity. Still, taking it away from Osama and Mullah Omar was a good idea which shall, as we shall see, have strategic ramifications.
There is a small chance that we can grow a Western-style constitutional republic and thrive so well that the populations of neighboring countries demand their own. The theory being that constitutional republics don't export terrorism. Given the realities of the size of our military there is no downside to this gamble, if it works we don't have to fight Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria plus whatever other Muslim countries come to their aid. I am convinced that everyone over the rank of Corporal has considered the likelihood of complete success as small. Small chance, though, is not no chance. Further there is already partial success. Lybia, at least is out of the fight, Pakistan is making an effort, even Saudi Arabia is taking it's first small steps toward joining the fight on our side.
Any partial success is fighting we won't have to do ourselves. Still, complete success means we won't have to fight Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia and whoever comes to their aid. So let's say it doesn't work.
Time to look at the map.
Iran, with it's nuke program is probably next in the fight. We have large troop formations and air bases in both Iraq and Afghanistan, each with long land borders with Iran. We also own the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, our Carrier Battle Groups roam where they will, unchallenged and unchallengable. We have also got troops and bases in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. There is not one square inch of Iran that isn't within easy range of our fighterbombers, most of Iran is within range of our attack helos. We can, if we must, completely destroy Iran's military capability with the use of air and sea power. Put a few boots on the ground and we can eliminate Iran as a problem for the next couple of generations. That's not as good as Iran becoming a Western style constitutional republic but it will do.
Saudi Arabia is in a worse strategic position than Iran, if such a thing is possible. We have troops and bases in Iraq, we have a major air base in Qatar, we still own the Gulf and Arabian Sea, plus we can go where we will in the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has only a tiny military, the Royal Family can't trust their population enough to have a real army.
This leaves Syria, probably the last on the list. Again, our Navy. The Mediterranean Sea is another American lake. Again our troops and bases in Iraq. Add Israel at their back door, just for a little extra flavor. Syria is so much smaller than Iran and Saudi Arabia that our helos can hit everything there, much less our Strike Eagles and F16 mud movers.
If Iran is screwed, Saudi Arabia is screwed and blued and Syria is screwed, blued and tatooed, if it comes to a series of fights.
Meanwhile we lose nothing while we are trying to install this constitutional republic. We need time to restock our cruise missiles and smart bombs, not to mention Hellfire missiles and tank cannon rounds and rifle and machine gun rounds. We need time to repair equipment and rest men.
We'd be taking near the same number of casualties just supplying and securing these bases.
So, we needed Iraq for a base to take the next step. Having Iraq makes for the possibility to finess one or more of the next three targets without a fight. How well the finess works is problematic but, to a large extent irrelevent. We may as well try since we are in a resupply pause anyway.
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07:15 AM
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September 20, 2004
The four most important words in any marriage... "I'll do the dishes."
(CAUTION: Romantics beware - comments may contain naughtiness)
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11:06 PM
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Unfortunately, I didn't keep the link to the post, and I was off my blogroll at the time, so I don't remember how I got there. If anyone thinks they know the post I'm talking about, drop a link in the comments.
Now, discussing the right-wrong, good-bad of this situation is difficult without a specific example to work off, so I'll keep this fairly general.
I think this is about DEGREES of courtesy.
The highest degree one can show is to assume that any e-mail sent to you is completely private, and not to be referenced on one's blog in any way without getting specific permission from the e-mail's author. Sometimes that permission is granted in the original e-mail. If it's not, then the recipient should ask the author for explicit permission.
A lesser degree is to quote the e-mail, but keep the identity of the writer hidden. Something like "a friend of mine said in a recent e-mail..."
Below that is to assume that anything in an e-mail may be quoted unless the writer states otherwise.
The lowest - or "Michael Moore" - degree is for the recipient to presume that anything that's put into writing is blogfodder. Period. Very few people are this callous, but they do exist.
Any one of these is, technically, fine, as long as that person makes publicly known what their e-mail policy is. For example, Lynn of Reflections in d minor has her policy on the sidebar of her blog as follows: "FAIR WARNING: Any hate mail that is sufficiently entertaining will be published."
So in the original example the blogger probably breached ettiquette by not letting the e-mailer know ahead of time that he/she considered the e-mail postable.
The victim should feel free to spend as much time as he/she wants being mad about that.
Or he/she can be gracious and chalk it up to a failure to communicate clearly. Their life, their choice.
But now that the e-mailer is aware of the potential problem, they need to play a stronger defense in the future.
If you're not sure which level the recipient regularly adheres to, your should assume it's the second-lowest level (unless you're e-mailing Michael Moore), and include a line specifically stating whether and how much your private e-mail may be quoted. Most folks have a good sense of decency and fair play, so you can expect your wishes to be followed.
On the other hand, ANY time you put something in writing, stop to consider the worst-case scenario: if what you wrote were to show up on the front page of the New York Times, could you live with having those words associated with your name? If the answer is "no", hit delete. The internet is a leaky bucket, and can't be trusted to hold secrets.
Myself, I'm just glad that everyone I've e-mailed naked pictures of myself to is a rock-solid level 1.
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10:49 PM
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Posted by: Harvey at
10:24 PM
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Over at her place you can see what she wears when she's feeling frisky and when she's feeling *AHEM* more disciplined.
Since Michele's having a little visit from her carpal tunnel demons, she's asked me to help her out with this project. So here's what I'd like you to do:
Post a picture of yourself (or a professional model whose picture you copied off some web page - like I'd know the difference anyway) in your favorite blogging attire. Leave a permalink in the comments to this post, send a trackback, or e-mail the link directly to me at harvolson@charter.net.
If you have trouble hosting images, you can send me the picture, and I'll post it for you, along with your description.
If you don't have a blog, but you're feeling particularly creative, same as above.
Entries due by 9pm CDT Thursday, September 23rd, and I'll post the round-up Thursday night.
If you aren't entering, please at least consider spreading the word.
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10:33 AM
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September 19, 2004
(hat tip to American Digest)
Posted by: Harvey at
09:52 PM
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I have no use for one, but it's cool-looking and I want it.
Thank you, Gerard of American Digest.
Thank you.
Posted by: Harvey at
09:46 PM
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If you can't giggle, tickle, scream, laugh, run around the room naked, pour liqueur on each other and lick it off, tie each other down, have whipped cream fights, and dance and sing with each other, then you are having sex with the person too soon.
(CAUTION: Romantics beware - comments may contain naughtiness)
Posted by: Harvey at
09:35 PM
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