The Police State Cometh?

My time online is limited, as I'm meeting Colonel Schoutter in an hour for a goodbye breakfast. He was promoted up from major to short colonel last summer, and they gave him the second year,but now it's time for him to take his elevated rank and go serve as a battalion operations officer in Okinawa. The point: this post will be short.

Yesterday in my local newspaper there was a front page article about the LPD (Local Police Department) and how they've increased patrols in town after criticism from the community over an increase in property theft and damage in recent weeks. Just what we need on the streets, right? More cops?

Well, here's the thing: they're not really enforcing property laws. They've got a bunch of bike cops out on the streets (in addition to patrol cars), and they're writing tickets to seat belt violators and such. In case you weren't aware, there are enough rarely enforced laws and ordinances on the books that the police can basically ticket you at any time. These cops apparently aren't ticketing everyone, but you get the idea. It's a rarity that, in two hours of working in my shop outside down at work, I see more than maybe one police patrol pass by. Yesterday I saw at least four, maybe five, including two bike cops.

Now, let's review. The department gets criticized for poor enforcement of property law. Solution? Send bike cops to write seat belt tickets. Does this make sense to anyone else? It sure doesn't make sense to me.

The other issue you have to consider in all of this is the issue of conflicting interests. Here in my home state, there have been a series of statewide budget cuts since about 1992. Recently (about two years ago) the state government tried to pass a special ballot measure that would have the net effect of increasing taxes to pay for the legislature's complete inability to practice any modicum of financial responsibility and accountability; it was soundly defeated, and this resulted in "budget cuts" (which is to say, a budget restructuring) which led to the elimination of more education and law enforcement positions.

I'm all for police presence when the laws are reasonable, and when the sole motivation of police is to enforce the laws to keep people safe. Unfortunately, there are two major problems: legislatures and city governments, in an effort to look productive for their constituents, continue to pass asinine legislation and ordinances, which are then enforced by police. Also, with "budget cuts" to the various police and sheriff departments, police of all stripes are given a conflict of interest in the form of ticket quotas (no matter how the police try to spin it, that's what they are); let's not forget that police departments get a cut from every ticket they write, and some counties in the South have even openly told their police to write tickets (often setting up highway speed traps to catch out-of-towners) to fund their counties.

Do I think it's a conspiracy? No. I just think it's what's happening, and I don't think it's right.

Right then, I have twenty minutes to be ready and out of the house. Have a great day, folks. More tonight.

Europe Gone Wild!

The next three stories just go to show you that Europe's a great place to visit, but you probably wouldn't want to live there.

First, we go to Finland, where universal socialist health care and European moral superiority have led to a strike in Finland's booming paper industry over pay, among other things. Am I surprised? Not in the least.

Next, we go to France, that Utopia of liberal thought, and a veritable Mecca for American expatriates who aren't intelligent enough to understand the Bush Administration's policies. The French government and the European Union are campaigning to "sell" the European Union concept to the French people, who soundly defeated the E.U. Constitution referendum last month. The goal is to "explain Europe to the French", who see Europe as "a 'constraint'... and at worse (sic) a "threat" to their way of life." The French see themselves as French, and not European? Go figure!

And finally, we go to beautiful Latvia (or at least, I assume it's beautiful; I know nothing about it, other than its former status as a Soviet bloc country), where the tourist industry has a downside. The Latvians want the tourism money... But they can't be bothered with all the tourists! Says Sandra Inkena, Director of Riga's tourism office:

"At the moment we have about one and a half million tourists a year visiting Riga, but the vice mayor says he wants that to increase to 10 million visitors a year[...] I don't think we could cope with that. I personally wouldn't like to see Riga so overcrowded."

That's right, folks, visit lovely Europe this Summer, but don't get too attached; especially if you go to Latvia, where the director of tourism doesn't want to see you in the first place! They just want your money!

Ladies and gentlemen, the jokes write themselves.

The Real Terminal

Remember that film from last year, The Terminal? Well, have a look at this!

A man who has been living in Nairobi's international airport for a year has been told his application for full British citizenship has been approved.

Sanjay Shah, holder of a UK overseas citizen passport, has spent the past 13 months living in the duty free section of the Jomo Kenyatta airport.

He said he was protesting at the refusal of the British government to give him full citizenship.

Maybe the Nairobi airport is nicer than the rest of Nairobi, but I sure wouldn't want to spend more than a year living in the Duty Free section. I didn't even particularly enjoy the Duty Free section at Gatwick or Heathrow!

Chinook Crash Update

Here's another article about the crash of a CH-4[6/7?] Chinook chopper in Afghanistan. They apparently haven't been able to reach the crash site yet, and they don't know whether there were any survivors. Listening to a news brief on the radio this afternoon, it was announced that this could be a big blow to American Special Forces operators, as eight of the personnel onboard were U.S. Navy SEALs en route to reinforce personnel involved in Operation Red Wing.

Here's another blurb.

Censorship in Jordan

It's a quagmire! Er, what, wait... What's the story? Oh, let me rewrite this sign, then... *rewrites sign* It's a censorship conspiracy!

AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) -- Jordan has banned Saddam Hussein's new novel on the grounds the tale of an Arab tribesman who defeats a foreign intruder could hurt relations between the two countries, censors and the publisher said on Sunday.

"Get out of here, curse you!," believed to have been penned by the ousted Iraqi leader before the U.S.-led war, was set to be released in Jordan and other Arab countries on Thursday by a Jordanian company with the permission of Saddam's family.

"Publishing this novel will harm the Iraqi-Jordanian relationship and we are keen to have the best relations with Iraq. Jordan will not approve its publication. If they want to publish it they have to do it abroad," Ahmad al-Qudah, head of the government's Press and Publication Department, told Reuters.

And what could the story be about?

His latest book tells the story of Salem, a noble Arab tribesman who represents righteousness and Arab nationalism, and defeats his American and Jewish enemies. Illegal copies of the book have circulated in Amman.

The tale describes how Salem unites divided Arab tribes in Iraq to defeat Hisquel, a foreign intruder who represents evil.

Apparently "Salem" represents Saddam/Iraq, "Hisquel" represents the United States, and there's a romantic connection with some evil woman who tries to sell "Salem" out, and that woman represents Israel. The whole thing sounds like an absolute page turner to me, I'm shocked that nobody wants to publish it!

Could It Be?

Looking at this headline, is anyone else reminded of this?

Tom Cruise: Celebrity Lunatic

In my continuing coverage of Tom Cruise going off the deep end, I'd like to quote just a couple of paragraphs from this article.

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood actor Tom Cruise not only battles creatures from outer space in his latest film "War of the Worlds", he also believes aliens exist, he told a German newspaper on Wednesday.

Asked in an interview with the tabloid daily Bild if he believed in aliens, Cruise said: "Yes, of course. Are you really so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe?["]

Oh, so the interviewer is the arrogant one. Good to know, Mr. Cruise.

Astonishing

Prime Minister Tony Blair is 'astonished'!

LONDON — Prime Minister Tony Blair firmly denied Wednesday that the Bush administration signaled just months after Sept. 11 that a decision was made to invade Iraq, saying he was "astonished" by claims that leaked secret memos suggested the U.S. was rushing to war.

In an interview with The Associated Press a day after President Bush delivered a televised defense of the war in Iraq, Blair said defeating the insurgency was crucial to protecting security worldwide, and joined Bush in linking the war with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"What happened for me after Sept. 11 is that the balance of risk changed," said Blair, interviewed on the stone terrace overlooking the garden of his No. 10 Downing Street offices, where policy meetings on Iraq were held before the invasion.

After Sept. 11, it was necessary to "draw a line in the sand here, and the country to do it with was Iraq because they were in breach of U.N. resolutions going back over many years," he said. "I took the view that if these people ever got hold of nuclear, chemical or biological capability, they would probably use it."

Prime Minister Blair is exactly right in this, and I've written about this before. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, there was no politically expedient way to go about removing the Hussein Regime from power. To do so would have required widespread international support, which was impossible (as we saw) because the United Nations is controlled by status quo bureaucrats, and the General Assembly is dominated by dictators who don't want to set a precedent for enforcing international law lest they be held accountable for their own flagrant violations. In spite of numerous Security Council resolutions issuing strong language and clear threats of intervention, we now know that the French and the Russians had no intention of holding Hussein accountable due to the overwhelming extent of their financial involvement with that regime.

After 9/11, the entire situation changed. Because America, and indeed the entire free world, had been attacked in such a large and horrendous manner, we no longer needed the consent of the United Nations to defend ourselves. The United Nations, a body inaugurated for the sole purpose of maintaining freedom, fundamental human rights, and peace, had ignored its mission one too many times. Because that organization had literally looked the other way, and had made no effort to enforce international law, their legitimacy as the world's de facto governing body took a massive hit, and that left the duty of defending freedom to the United States (at that time and to this day the world's only military superpower) and its allies.

Because a war against terrorism had been inaugurated, Iraq was the appropriate nation to make an example of. Nebulous ties with al Qaeda (an intentionally nebulous organization) aside, Saddam Hussein had publically supported terrorist groups for years. He was in violation of (I believe) sixteen UNSC resolutions at the time of 9/11, seventeen by the time Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced. Hussein's Iraq was the quintessential terrorist regime, and it was the quintessential violator of international law. It was a crucial safe haven for terrorists then, and it is a crucial front in the international war against terrorism now.

Furthermore, there was no "rush to war", and neither President Bush nor Prime Minister blair "lied" about the details. A lie is an intentional statement of falsehood, preceded by knowledge to the contrary. If President Bush didn't believe that the Iraqi government had illegal weapons (which have actually been found, but not in the numbers expected), then why did American troops go into combat fully trained and fully equipped for the possibility of biological and chemical attacks? If President Bush lied (meaning, if he knew beforehand that there were no illegal weapons, and went in anyway), then why did Coalition forces spend two years looking for those same illegal weapons? You know, the ones that Saddam Hussein never demonstrated that he'd completely eradicated? (By the way, full and public disclosure and supervision was a requirement of the treaty that ended Gulf War I, and several of the following UNSC resolutions.)

If President Bush "rushed to war" on his own accord, then why was there extensive debate in the House and Senate? Why was there extensive debate, lasting from October or November of 2002 until March of 2003, in the United Nations? And if it was obvious that Saddam Hussein didn't have these illegal weapons, then why wasn't anyone saying that at the time, not even the intelligence services of dissenting nations such as France, Russia, and China?

The answer, of course, is that the charges made by leftists against President Bush are false, uninformed, or downright intellectually dishonest, just like the demands for a "time table" or a "plan to win the peace" or an "exit strategy". Some of Bush's detractors are unable, through lack of education on the subject, to comprehend the situation; others are unwilling to do so; others comprehend the situation, and make up the same lies anyway.

Kudos to Prime Minister Blair for having the intestinal fortitude to stand up to this Downing Street Memoranda hoopla, and kudos to the Honorable Mr. Bush, President of the finest nation on the planet and leader of the free world, for once again explaining the situation last night to the American people.

Death in Fresno

Do you remember hearing about this guy?

FRESNO, Calif. — A jury decided Wednesday that Marcus Wesson, the domineering patriarch of a large clan he bred through incest, should get the death penalty for the murders of nine of his children.

Wesson, 58, was convicted earlier this month, more than a year after the bodies were found in a bloody pile at his home at the end of a police standoff.

All the victims — ages 1 to 25 — had been shot once in the eye. Wesson had fathered some of them with his own daughters and nieces.

Prosecutors said he had the children killed for fear authorities were about to break up the clan and take the youngsters away. The standoff began after two Wesson nieces who had escaped from the home went back to try to get their children.

I remember when this story broke last March. I hadn't heard about it since then, but I'd wondered several times. I'm glad that they're going to execute this guy. Can you imagine a man so heinous that he would rape his daughters and nieces, and then develop an elaborate murder/suicide pact in case the situation was ever found out. Simply stunning.

A Message to Poosh

And speaking of Poosh, our favorite Brit, he said yesterday:

Five pieces of gold for the man who can give me the name of the Fly!

To which I give my answer.

I'll qualify my answer by mentioning that there are several people who I've gotten to know well enough to trust with my name, my location, and various other pieces of information about myself. There are several people who post occasionally or regularly here who know me in real life, and several others who I've known through the Internet, telephone conversations, and the mail since before I started blogging. So, my friend, there is hope for you. Plus, I'll likely be in England at some point over the summer, and not that far from where you are. A TSTF meeting? Stranger things have happened.

New Buddies

There's a new addition to the Buddy Blogroll, and that addition is Somebody Stop Me, owned and operated by everyone's favorite accountant, Sara. I'm also going to put Junebug's Life's Highway on the pending list. Both of these ladies are drop dead gorgeous, Texan, and sweet as sugar. Go check out their stuff.

In fact, Sara posted this yesterday about me. To most of you, it will make next to no sense (particularly since she deleted several of her comments from the mix), and that's okay.

Let it not be said that the Fly doesn't have a sense of humor. Or, for Poosh's benefit, "humour".

Never Stop Moving

I've just returned from the gym, where I did twenty minutes of laps. I could have gone longer, but that's what next week is for. This is my tentative workout program. I'm not doing the running up to specs, but eventually I hope to do so. I've never been a good runner, so part of the goal of this workout program is to finally get me up to snuff. My ultimate goal is to be able to run a mile and a half in about ten minutes, but that's a long way off.

The nasty wannabe-French girl wasn't in class today, and wouldn't you know it, everybody had a chance to air their annoyance at her (save for one or two people). There were frequent jokes about "how they do it in France" or "how it's said in French" and such. Good, good times. And those who had travelled abroad, and the instructor (who's a Yemeni, who's now an American citizen, who also lived in Egypt at one point) dispelled the absolute myth that Americans are disliked abroad.

Anyway, I have a lot to accomplish down at work. I'm positive that you folks aren't so busy that you can't answer the poll question; thanks to Billy D and the lovely and talented Manda for responding.

I'm at work tonight, so I'll post an update on the news. Stay tuned.

Your Life's Soundtrack

It'll be this afternoon or maybe even this evening before I have an opportunity to put up another post. Your assignment for today is to post the following:

What is your favorite album, or an album that's the soundtrack to your life?

Why is it your favorite album, or the soundtrack to your life?

I'm not looking for "that one Britney Spears album, because it has that song I really like". I'm looking for an entire, cohesive album, one that tells a story from beginning to end, one that contains songs that would be incomplete if not locked together on one album. You have you work cut out for you.

Me? Achtung Baby by U2. It's a chronicle of rebellion and betrayal, reconciliation, and the start of a new era in human history. It was designed and brought to fruition revolving around the following events:

The collapse of The Edge's marriage. (He's the guitarist.)

Reunification of Germany.

The explosion of the AIDS issue in world culture.

Gulf War I, live on television.

It's the story of two lovers rent apart, and reunited in a fragile reconciliation that reveals the inherent weakness that was unrealized in the original incarnation. It's amazing.

Post it up, folks. Have a great day.

Screaming for Mercy

On the Fourth on July
You took my only true life
You feel my heart isn't going right
You shoot me down like a mole rat
I think you're gonna shine on bright
Shine bright, love!

- U2001

War.Wire Update

Two more AFP Spacewar stories, then it's time for me to get ready for class.

First, "analysts" (I love how the French news agency is so nebulous about everyone they quote) are saying, and I think correctly, that India is an integral part of the American strategic plan for Asia. Are you at all surprised? India is a developing nation, but it has a record as being moderate, pursuing peace and globalization, and encouraging warm ties with the United States. Who else is in Asia? You have Pakistan, a sometimes uneasy ally; Afghanistan, blessed with freedom but still in rough shape; the former Soviet republics, that tend to be messy themselves; the nations of Southeast Asia, which are only now becoming even remotely stable; Nepal, a nation that is currently experiencing political unrest; Tibet, a wholly owned subsidiary of China; China, a strategic and economic competitor; Mongolia, a stable republic, but a relatively minor player in world affairs; the Koreas, one a strong democratic ally, the other a brutal terrorist regime that occupies the majority of the former's attention; Japan, a strong ally, but one with other priorities with respect to foreign policy; and Taiwan, whose entire foreign policy goal is avoidance of a Chinese takeover. So of course India is important.

The other news, this time unfortunate, is that an American Chinook (most of these are the H-46 model, but I've heard talk of H-47's regarding this, so it could be either) has crashed in Afghanistan, likely due to hostile fire. Rescuers are attempting to reach the aircraft, which rolled into a ravine; the fate of the seventeen personnel onboard is currently unknown.

Stupid Biased Brits

Is anyone surprised to read this nonsense?

A British think tank opposed Wednesday what it said were draft plans by the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations to expand the use of nuclear energy as a way to fight global warming.

Issuing its report before next week's G8 summit in Scotland, the New Economics Foundation said nuclear power was an uneconomical and inefficient way to deal with climate change and would increase the risks from terrorists.

Andrew Simms, author of the report, "Mirage and Oasis," told AFP that nuclear power would be too costly and too slow to develop in time to deal with the urgency of reducing the carbon emissions that cause global warming.

First off, has any one even ever heard of the New Economics Foundation? As far as I'm concerned, this is probably a bunch of pseudo-intellectual wankers who pass themselves off nebulously as a "think tank", and the Agence France Presse makes it news.

This Andrew Simms character claims that "nuclear power would be too costly and too slow to develop in time". How does that work, exactly? I don't know which countries constitute the entirety of the Group of Eight, but I know that three of them are the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, all of whom have had nuclear power now for decades. There's no development left: you just build the damn thing. So his argument really doesn't wash.

As for the group's claims about terrorism, yes, there's a concern. However, to the best of my knowledge the security at these facilities is tight enough to preclude most chances of terrorism for one simple reason: the stuff is dangerous enough that you have to take care of it, just like the waste is so nasty that you have to properly dispose of it.

There has been a risk that has, in some cases, come true: people will use "terrorism" to whine about anything. The fear from liberal hippies is that the evil fascists of the Bush Administration would use the excuse of "terrorism" to deprive Americans of our civil rights. As far as I'm concerned, this fear hasn't really come to fruition; the claim of a "culture of fear" is, I think, largely false. Unfortunately, it can blow the other way, as it has in this case where a non-issue has been turned into an issue by a "think tank" group of rabidly anti-nuclear hippies.

Those of us who have been paying attention here in the Northwest would have seen or heard a report on the local news a couple of weeks ago that served as another example of this. The Northwest's only fighter wing is being shifted to another location as part of the Department of Defense base closures and restructuring plan. The result? The governors of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington criticized the plans, saying that it made those states more susceptible to terrorism. Has anyone ever attacked the Northwest from the air (or at all)? Nope. Is the Pacific Northwest a worthwhile terrorist target? Not really; there aren't as many people here, there's a lot more rural area, and the Northwest wouldn't be the propaganda target that other areas would be. To these governors, it amounts to two things: politics, and economic conditions. The solution? Use the rhetoric of the times and criticize the evil fascist Bush administration by using that nebulous term, "terrorism".

This "think tank", the one that wants to reduce emissions, but doesn't want to do it through the use of the safest, most effective, and least polluting method of power production ever devised, reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons...

Agnes: [to her grocery store bag boy] And you, start over! I want everything in one bag.
Bag Boy 2: Yes, ma'am.
Agnes: But I don't want the bag to be heavy.
Bag Boy 2: I don't think that's possible.
Agnes: What are you, the Possible Police? Just do it.

Indeed.

Thus Saith the Fly.

Justification for Turning In

When I ran last Wednesday at the gym, I did two minutes, walked one, three minutes, walked one, four minutes, walked two, three minutes, walked two, two minutes, walked one, and one minute of running. I wasn't terribly pleased, and my body really, really wanted me to stop.

Today it was clockwork: two, three, four, three, two, one, none of them separated by more than sixty seconds. From there I hit the stationary bike for about twelve minutes, and though I wasn't pedaling hard (it was my cool-down), sweat was still dripping from my eyelashes and hair and face and whatnot. Once I'd finished my chapter in "Moonraker", I went downstairs: eighty situps (in four sets of twenty), sixty pushups (in four sets of fifteen), nine pullups (in three sets of three), no pauses mid-set. I was a machine.

Tomorrow (and possibly Thursday due to certain unforeseen circumstances) I hit the pool. I stretched out before the run and after the muscle PT, so hopefully I won't be as sore and stiff tomorrow as I was last week. Overall, though, I feel like I was an absolute machine today, and it gives me hope that this might finally be the end of my streak of unfulfilled workout plans.

I'm going to bed. G'night, folks.

The Chosen Book

Because I didn't have a chance to read scripture this morning before I left the house, I had to throw my Gideons New Testament in my satchel and read from it once I got to campus. Because of that, I chose the Book of James. I'll finish it Saturday, and then move on to Daniel. Thanks for the input, folks.

Remarks on the Bush Speech

I caught the end of President Bush's speech to the 82nd Airborne on my way home from work. I have to say, I love hearing President Bush speak; except for his pronunciation of the word "nuclear" (and I can get over that; if that's the best his opponents can come up with, then he must be a pretty sharp guy), his speeches are, I think, nearly flawless, and extremely genuine. As far as I'm concerned, these are the most important points of the speech.

The Iraq Campaign is a difficult one, but it is a crucial campaign in the War on Terror, and we are winning. The Iraqi security forces are slowly coming into their own, and they have every bit as much courage as their American allies. We are winning: the American military, the Coalition of the Willing, and our Iraqi allies.

We will not set an artificial time table for our campaign in Iraq. To do so would be irresponsible. We will be in Iraq as long as we are needed, and no longer; to send more troops would undermine the mission of transferring responsibility for security and administration to the Iraqi government and security forces, and it would send the message that we intend to stay forever. Neither of these are true.

Early withdrawal would send the wrong message to our Iraqi allies. It would infer that our support for them is contingent upon timelines and political considerations. It would imply that we will not go the distance; it implies that we will not finish the job that we started. This is not the truth, and it's not the way Americans do things.

Early withdrawal would send the wrong message to our troops. It would infer that their brethren have died, and they have sacrificed their blood, sweat, and tears for a mission that was not worth finishing in the first place. It would send the message that America embarks upon missions that are not worth accomplishing. It would devalue their accomplishments and their sacrifices to pull out before the job is done. That may have been good enough for other administrations, but this administration will not negate the sacrifices of America's finest individuals by withdrawing from Iraq early on the basis of political concerns.

Early withdrawal would send the wrong message to our enemies. Saddam Hussein violated international laws for decades because he didn't believe that anyone would hold him accountable. Usama bin Laden got bolder and more aggressive because President Clinton all but ignored al Qaeda's attacks against America; bin Laden called us a "paper tiger". To withdraw from Iraq would be a flat out admission to our enemies that they just have to wait us out, and then go on with their campaigns of repression and violence against the innocent. It would say that we don't feel our ideals, our freedoms, our culture, are worth fighting to protect. This is categorically false, and because it is categorically false, we will not withdraw our forces from Iraq until the mission has been accomplished.

As President Bush spoke of the importance of codifying an Iraqi Constitution, my mind wandered a bit, and I had a fairly profound thought.

There are two forms of ultimate power in the world: a weapon, and a vote. A vote gives you the power to influence the policy of the community, the county, the state, the nation, and the world. The ability to carry and use a weapon gives you the power to defend your God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The profound part? If you take away the right to bear arms, it becomes that much easier to deny men the right and duty of voting. Take away the right to vote, and it becomes that much easier to deny men their right and duty of defending their property, their liberty, and their lives.

If an individual advocates the surrender of your arms, that individual has no business in a position of power. If an individual advocates the surrender of your vote, that individual has no business in a position of power.

Thus Saith the Fly.

Midday Update

A few things.

First, Manda's payment for my old (which is to say, completely unused) pullup bar arrived. She's just as surly and sexy on paper as she is online, and if I had any chance whatsoever, Jeff would have some competition to worry about. For those of you who may be interested, I still have all sorts of old crap, most of it unused or barely used, available.

Second, Annoying Girl (all of your code names are completely unacceptable; I don't even know what "Felt" is supposed to mean) didn't talk quite as much today, but there was one thing worth noting. She wears trousers low enough that when she sits down, you can see her panties. We could be wrong, but it sure looked to my Marine buddies and I as if she was wearing precisely the same thong that she wore yesterday. That's just nasty.

Third, I hit the gym today, and I hit it hard. Fifteen total minutes of running, and not a single set interrupted by walking; and during the walking breaks in between sets, I never took more than sixty seconds, as opposed to last Wednesday when I took two minutes several times. I think I'm improving, and it's only my second running workout. After that I hit the stationary bike for about twelve minutes, long enough to cool down and read one chapter of "Moonraker". Then I went downstairs to the weight room and did eighty situps, sixty pushups, and nine machine-assisted pullups, in four sets (except for the pullups, which were in three sets). After that, I stretched back out, since not doing so last week was a bad, bad move.

Anyway, I'm off to work. More later.

Yeah, Right!

Apparently some Russian dude is claiming that Gitmo guards put a Quran in the toilet while he was an inmate there.

I guess the Russian media is a little slow on the uptake, because this was so three weeks ago. We also already know that al Qaeda terrorist vermin don't just lie about "abuse" when they're captured, they're trained to lie and allege abuse.

Bottom line? This Russian's about as believable as Putin.

Another Quick Note

A lot of you posted comments today, and I greatly appreciate that. What I don't greatly appreciate is that two of you, two, made the unfortunate mistake of posting my real name.

Hear me now and believe me later: IF YOU KNOW MY FIRST NAME, PLEASE DON'T POST IT. I go by "Fly" without fail for a reason, so please substitute "Fly" for my real name.

I fully intend to be in bed in half an hour, so this is most likely the last post for the evening. However, I've given you plenty else to read and comment on. More tomorrow morning.

Arabic Girl

This post is best introduced by a classic line from a popular situation comedy, which will remain nameless in case Bane is reading.

"I know, I know, I know!"
"[Generic female situation comedy character], you asked the question!"

Okay, so there's this girl in my Arabic class, and she's the girl everybody dreads. She breaks into conversations that have nothing to do with her, she asks the instructor questions and then argues with her about the answers, she asks extremely outlandish questions... For example:

"I'm going to Tunisia in a year, and I was wondering, would it offend anyone if I were to take light scarves? Because I'm not a Muslim, I just don't want to offend people."

To which I feel like saying:

"Let me guess... You're an only child? Ohh-hoh-kay, so let's get back to actually discussing Arabic language, and you can deal with your little attention issues after class."

I'm in there with a couple of my mates, and we are constantly making fun of her behind her back. To top it all off, she's minoring in French (and Spanish, and Philosophy... ), and lived there for three months... Which fully qualifies her to say during an in-class exercise that she's from France. And not just France... From a town that nobody else can pronounce! (I can't complain too much, though; I got sick enough of hearing the name of my own state during said exercise that today I said that I was from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and Kandahar, Afghanistan during the same exercise. I rule.) She talked to my two Marine buddies, who were chatting just to be polite, about how the French people were really nice, they were just curious, they didn't like the American government, and she'd just explained that she doesn't like the current government, blah blah blah blah blah.

Today one of the other girls in the class and I were walking to the library, where there's a coffee shop (tea, baby!), to get something to drink during the short recess from class. Annoying Girl (I need to come up with a better name) eventually caught up with us. Her line?

"Gee, guys, thanks for waiting for me!

If I had to guess, I'd say that Annoying Girl would start humping my leg if I ever got bored enough to make fun of her to her face. We already had this conversation...

(To [Marine Buddy]) "**** you!"
Annoying Girl: "No thanks."
Me: "I wasn't talking to you."
Annoying Girl: "I know. I just don't believe in that."
Me: "So... Beejays?"
Annoying Girl: *silence for a glorious minute, then... * "Blah blah blah about something Fly doesn't care about."

I know each and every one of you has had to deal with someone like this. Post your suggestions for a drosophilic code name for her, and I'll keep posting Annoying Girl stories over the next month or so.

A Posted Response

I don't generally like posting a long response in the comments section when I can do it as an actual post. The lovely and talented Manda, who is an absolute peach for buying my pull-up bar, wrote the following:

You keep mentioning that she was a "party girl".

Would it matter more to you if she was a pretty honor student who went missing after going to Aruba for a scholastic bowl championship?

The fact that you repeatedly mention her as a "party girl" almost makes you sound like, "The drunken slut deserved to get kidnapped. Worthless party girls."

Just saying.

I think you're looking at it differently than I am, Manda. Obviously this girl's death (probably a foregone conclusion at this point) was unfortunate and tragic, and I can feel for her family. I can hope that her death was accidental, though the possibility of foul play seems very likely.

It's not that I think "she deserved it". No woman deserves to get raped, and no one but child molesters, rapists, and murderers (and maybe a few others) deserve to be killed by another human being.

On the other hand, people sometimes make extremely poor choices that contribute greatly to their problems, and I think anyone who's being honest with themselves has to take that into consideration. Recent high school grads don't go to Aruba to study Aruban history and visit the Oranjestad Public Library. They go to places like Aruba, or Cabo San Lucas, or Tijuana, to put more alcohol through their digestive systems in one night than I do in a month. They go to these places to listen to loud music, bump and grind against each other, and in some cases have anonymous or near-anonymous sex. These activities have consequences, and while we all hope that the most severe of these consequences is a nasty hangover, the unfortunate truth is that sometimes characters are unsavory and undeserved things happen.

As for my bias, the difference between me and the news media is that I acknowledge my bias. I subscribe to an absolute morality, I state quite frankly that I am fiscally and socially a conservative, and I don't pretend that I'm something I'm not. I don't have sex, I've never been drunk, I don't do illicit (thank you, anachronism, for the spelling correction) drugs; I could go on, but you get the idea. I think that people should follow the same moral compass that I follow; if I didn't think that, I wouldn't follow it myself. However, I can understand that I'm somewhere in the middle of the scale that runs from Puritan to Hedonist, and some people are going to be more conservative, and some more liberal, than me. I don't expect people to follow my moral compass, but I tend to comment on moral issues according to what I think is okay, not what society thinks is okay.

People's cars get stolen constantly; if someone locks their doors, alarms their car, takes the face off of their stereo, and puts their car in the garage, they eliminate many of the risk factors of car theft, and it's less likely that their car will be stolen than if they left their car unlocked out on the street with the face on their stereo, a case full of CDs on the visor and/or seat, and no car alarm. Does one situation "deserve" to have their car stolen more than the other? Of course not. Does one make it more likely? I think that you have to admit that yes, the latter situation makes it more likely.

Does anyone deserve to get cancer? Of course not. It's particularly difficult to watch a child suffer through cancer. It's somewhat less soul-wrenching when a chain smoker of thirty years contracts lung or throat cancer; neither deserve it, but once again, one party has chosen to increase their risk, and you have to acknowledge that.

This is the position I take on cases like the Natalee Holloway case. Assuming Natalee is no longer living, did she deserve to die? Did she deserve to be raped, if that happened? Of course not, on both counts. Did her actions increase her risk of meeting with unfortunate circumstances? I think that's likely, and I think it's dishonest to write that off based solely on whether or not such circumstances were deserved.

The unfortunate truth is that doing things just because we should be able to do them is a very dangerous policy. Whether you think that bad things happen by random chance, or that we're tempted by little demons with horns and pitchforks who give us bad ideas that some people choose to act upon, the forces of evil are at work in the world. When we let our guard down, the likelihood of undeserved evil happening in our lives increases.

I know I've rambled on and on and on about this, but there's one final thing I want to note. Some of you will remember January, when my grandfather was killed in a car accident. It was sudden, it was brutal, it was undeserved, and it shouldn't have happened. I have to acknowledge the truth, though: my grandfather was notorious for driving like a bat out of hell, and he didn't know the meaning of the term "seat belt". The car accident wasn't his fault, per se; a dump truck pulled out in front of him. However, if he'd been wearing his seat belt and travelling at a reasonable speed, he probably would have been at my graduation party a couple of weeks ago. Did he deserve what happened to him? No. Did his actions even directly cause the collision? No. Did his somewhat irresponsible driving drastically increase the risk of an unsurvivable collision? Yes, it did.

I see the Natalee Holloway disappearance in much the same way; if anyone can disagree with that, they're welcome to post and explain. I've said my peace, I'm willing to let you have the last word.

You're Kidding, Right?

Today had to have been the day from hell. Honestly. All that "Fly" and "Lord of the Flies" and "devil rock star" and "mock the devil and he will flee from you" business? I think it came to bite me today.

Most of the really horrible part was work related, so I probably shouldn't go into details. Suffice to say, there are both benefits and drawbacks to working with your family. Today was a definite lesson in those drawbacks.

I should really go back to College City and hit the gym; I don't think I'm going to. I'll probably try to do pushups and situps and such here... We'll see. I think that I'm going to have to be out of the house early tomorrow, which means that I'll probably have to get up early tomorrow, which means that I shouldn't get home late tonight. Decisions, decisions. We'll see what happens.

Check back through the comments, because I'll have responded to several by the time you folks read this post.

The Next Book

Any long-term followers of this comedy of errors knows that I try to read one chapter of scripture a day. Today I'm going to read a proverb. I just finished the book of Acts, in which Saint Luke describes the early ministries of Saint Paul, Saint Peter, and several of the other Apostles.

For you Bible folks out there, what should I read next? Give me your thoughts, keeping in mind that I've now read (in recent months) Job, Joshua, and Acts.

The Supreme Court

It's the end of the Supreme Court's judicial term. There's speculation that Chief Justice Rehnquist may step down, and there are even rumblings that Sandra Day O'Connor may step down. Any speculation? Any thoughts? Post them here.

Live from the Abyss

You walk out into the sports hall
Lights go down, it's a whole different scene
Light in motion, light in motion
Lights up the motion, and the sound
It's hard to walk away
But you can't have it all
We can't have it all
Can't have it all soon

But, love...
We'll shine like a burning star
Fallen from the sky...
Tonight

And, love...
We'll fall like a burning star
Falling from the sky...
Tonight
- U2001

A Deficiency of Compassion

During the autumn of 2003, I was getting to know a hippy girl down in Hippy Central, mainly over the Internet. We wound up meeting for one date, that went fairly well, but seeing as how Hippy Central is a bit of a drive, and I can scarcely find time to make it across College City sometimes, it was pretty much doomed to failure.

The reason I bring that whole episode up is that one of the things she really hit the nail on the head about when we were getting to know each other over E-Mail and Instant Messenger. She asked me where compassion fit into my life, because she felt as if she was unable to detect any of it. I don't have much compassion, for myself or for most others, except under special circumstances.

Why am I mentioning this? Simple: I don't cover some instances of "news" because I honestly don't care. The best example of this is the girl who disappeared in Aruba a month ago. She's a reasonably attractive honor student... Who went to Aruba to get piss steaming drunk as a senior trip from high school. Sorry, big news media. Not interested.

Paul Van der Sloot? Joran van der Sloot? Aruban investigators not following American-style justice procedures? I absolutely don't care. All of the news time that's been wasted on this party girl is time that could have been devoted to the Azeri military buildup that's fueled by high oil prices. It's time that could be devoted to investigating Indonesia's counter-productive legal stance on terrorism. It's time that could be devoted to how much ass American forces are kicking lately in Afghanistan and Iraq. Have I seen any coverage of last week's extremely successful Afghan campaign? Nope, but I know that some party boat DJ got arrested because he's friends with one of the Aruban suspects.

Maybe I'm cold-hearted; maybe I'm an uncaring jerk; but some party girl disappearing in Aruba isn't news, and I've been ready to move on for four weeks now. Maybe the news agencies are trying to get enough coverage to cover their expense at sending news crews down to the island, but as far as I'm concerned, they can do it on their own time.

Thus Saith the Fly.

I Can't Translate Portuguese

Yeah, Pearl Jam consists of a bunch of liberal asshats with no clue about anything. After they released Binaural (great album, by the way), they went on a really huge world tour. Every single concert was recorded, and they released them as double compact disc sets. I doubt anyone bought all of them, but I bought three (this being while I was working at the CD store). From the European tour I purchased the Lisbon and Salzburg shows, and from the American tour I purchased the Cincinnati show.

The one I listen to most often (which is to say, "at all") is the Lisbon show, and during one of the interludes between songs Eddie Vedder talks about how friendly the Portuguese people were. He mentions a word, and I'm not sure how it's spelled, but it sounds something like "hoobiejesus", and it means "meeting new people".

One of the great things about blogging has been that I've had the opportunity to meet some great folks. Tonight I got to chat on Instant Messenger with two of them: The Wife and Sara, a couple of friendly Texan ladies with great senses of humor. Anyone who reads TSTF (how many times can I use that acronym in one week, I wonder?) knows that I love comedy, and I love being mad about political stuff. I've got Billy D, Lycan, Bane, Harley, King Sipidation, and The Mad Alchemist for getting pisses, so it's nice to have the ladies (plus April, Sarah Canuck, and Fyffe for Fighting) to help me enjoy comedy.

G'night, folks, have a great week!

Because I Can

Thus Saith the Fly is my blog, so I can do whatever I want with it. Just because I want to, I'd like to say...

Hey, Sara... How you doin'?

That is all. Thank you.

The Snipet Chimes In

Jack Mercer over at the News Snipet Blog has a great post about the difference between Senator Durbin's comments about Gitmo and Karl Rove's comments about filthy "pacifist" hippy vermin. Go look!

Blaming the Florist

Those of you who have been able to figure out what my current line of work is know that my office has a great deal of professional interaction with florists. Most florists are a dime a dozen, and I have few reservations about proclaiming that it doesn't take that much talent to be a florist.

Of course, that would require me to exclude Bob, the florist across the street. As Bob's florist shop is directly across the road from us, we tend to get a lot of floral arrangements from him.

Unfortunately, Bob is a pretty lousy florist. He and his brother used to run a flower shop, but they had a falling out long before I was around, and now they run two different shops on opposite sides of town. Bob's brother does pretty good work. Bob, on the other hand...

Bob is frequently late. Today I got a call five minutes after we opened asking when we were open; he didn't identify himself, but I think he mentioned that he had flowers to bring over, and I figured it out.

Bob frequently overwaters flowers. With regard to the flowers he delivered today (within thirty minutes of when they were needed, mind you), each and every glass vase was completely full of water, and I had to dump half or more of the water out of several just to be able to carry them. One time he delivered this monstrosity shaped like a tractor, and the thing was so badly overwatered that it dripped (as in, shower partially running) for about half an hour, and then continued to drip well into the evening.

Bob expects us to do maintenance on his flowers, moving them to and fro to keep them cool, transporting them when they're clearly beyond our capacity to deal with, et cetera. To the best of my knowledge, Bob is the only florist in the area who engineers such completely outlandish creations, and he's the only one who makes arrangements so large that we have trouble handling them.

So that's my sob story for the day: the little florist who can't, but does anyway.

Steven Seagal Sucks

How's that for alliteration? My dad would probably throttle me for saying this but Steven Seagal has got to be the most overrated action star in the world. Right now they're playing Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, and it's a movie so bad that I can't even bring myself to link to it. The characters he plays are completely two-dimensional, and he spends as mcuh time as possible trying to use his lousy movies to convince people to live in peace and harmony, in a utopian society where the birds sing your name, and the squirrels press your pants for you.

Jackie Chan, on the other hand, is wacky, friendly, does all of his own stunts, and said the following line:

"Don't try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie.... Study computers instead."

So, let's recap. Steven Seagal sucks. Jackie Chan is wicked cool. Dig?

Sources and Purpose

One of my newest commenters, Sara, posted the following comments:

you know, i have a feeling that if i really read all these articles you post, i would be so very informed. an informed right-wing, but informed just the same. sensory overload. must try harder.

There are a couple of things worth noting here, so I want to address Sara's comment.

First, it's important to note that I don't restrict myself to right wing sources. True, one of my big sources is Fox News, and another is Tech Central Station. But my others are CNN, BBC News, and AFP Spacewar. I obviously comment on things with a conservative perspective, but most of the actual articles don't have an inherently conservative bias; in fact, considering the overwhelming left wing media bias, anyone who read all of the articles I posted would most likely begin to see things from a leftist perspective.

So why hasn't the liberal indoctrination fest worked on me? Well, there are three reasons. First, I tend to be stubborn, so I'm not easily convinced of anything I don't believe already. Second, I, like Khan Noonien Singh, have a superior intellect (Ha!) that allows me to sift through the crap and find the facts. Third, I've been garnering solid journalistic experience in various roles since I was a freshman in high school, nine years ago.

I also figure that it's worth explaining my purpose. I refused to read blogs (I still hate the word) for a long time, until finally stumbling upon Right Thinking while looking up some stuff about Michael Moore. I was hooked instantly, long before I even figured out that Lee was running a "blog". I started reading more blogs, including Free Will. Particularly at Right Thinking, I often spent a lot of time writing up comments to various posts, and fisking trolls who didn't have the sense to keep their fingers off of their keyboards and actually read what was being written.

Eventually, in December of 2004, I broke down and started TSTF. I started it for two reasons. First and foremost, it helps me keep myself accountable for checking the news every day; I post the articles that interest me, and try to put eight to fifteen posts up per day. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. TSTF also gives me an outlet for whining and bragging and such; really, this is half of what blogging is. Right?

I must be doing something right, because over the last six months I've picked up a handful of regular readers, and been linked by most of them. That's better than most bloggers can say after half a year, and I've seen bloggers who have been at it a lot longer than me who don't have nearly the number of readers. Maybe someday I'll even start making money from blogging, but I'm not holding my breath.

Life Sentence

What's almost as bad as being an Algerian and serving a life sentence in a German prison? Being an Algerian and serving a life sentence in an Algerian prison.

A leading Algerian militant, wanted in Germany for the 2003 kidnapping of 32 European tourists, has been sentenced to life in prison by an Algiers court.

Amari Saifi, deputy head of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), was found guilty of forming an terrorist group.

He is thought to have masterminded the tourists' abduction. A German woman died of exhaustion during the ordeal.

The GSPC has declared it has links to al-Qaeda.

Saifi - a former paratrooper - was captured by Chadian rebels in mysterious circumstances.

He was passed to the Libyans, who in turn handed him over to Algeria, AP news agency reports.

I remember reading about this incident, though not at the time that it happened. There are still travel warnings from the U.S. State Department directed at American citizens attempting to travel to Algeria.

I'm glad they caught the guy. Hopefully they can get some information out of him and catch his buddies.

On a side note, how would you like to have been captured by Chadian rebels, and then handed over to the Libyans, and then handed over to Algeria? Talk about your unsavory characters.

Pot Calls Kettle Black... Again!

The United Nations is warning about possible instability in Afghanistan. Because if anyone knows instability, it's the U.N.

Election Manipulating Mullahs? Decide For Yourself

Okay, let's review. A popular former president runs for the presidency in Iran. He's widely favored to win. He's a moderate. A couple of weeks before the election, the ultra conservative mayor of Tehran jumps in the race. Seemingly against all odds, the ultra conservative guy wins in a nation that we all know for a fact to be pro-American, and favoring a moderate democracy.

Rigged election? I can't say it for a fact, but you can see from the article that "our" candidate, Akbar Rafsanjani, is calling it an illegally rigged election. All things being equal, I'm going to have to agree with him. Reader, if you aren't extremely skeptical about this development, you've not been paying enough attention.

Pay Attention, Class

Ladies and gentlemen, this article is worth paying copious attention to.

Azerbaijan is using revenue from record-high oil prices to fund a massive increase in military spending, President Ilham Aliyev said Saturday, warning that the army would be prepared to reconquer the ethnic-Armenian separatist region of Nagorno Karabakh.

Read the entire article. This is just the kind of low level conflict and development that can have massive implications for the former Soviet republics and the Middle East in general.

The Cold War Continues

The AFP's got an interesting story about a Russian general who has somewhat unfriendly things to say about Washington. Let's read on...

Russian air force commander General Vladimir Mikhailov accused Washington on Saturday of still fighting the Cold War against Moscow, the Ria-Novosti news agency reported.

"The Cold War is finished on our side, we have a very peaceful stance," Mikhailov said in a speech at Engles in southwestern Russia.

"But as far as the Americans are concerned it seems that given what they are producing and planning in the way of weapons the so-called Cold War is not over."

Mikhailov was speaking at the beginning of joint exercises with the armed forces of Russia and the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Russian political and military leaders frequently warn Washington against reviving the Cold War, the 40-year conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union until the collapse of the latter at the beginning of the 1990s.

Mikhailov also said that Russia's Tu-160 strategic bombers would begin testing long-range cruise missiles by the end of August, and that Moscow was prepared to attack "terrorist bases" abroad.

That's right, the Cold War is finished on their side. That's why the Putin government is continually consolidating power. That's why the Russian military is holding military exercises with its former member nations. That's why Russia is dusting off their old Tu-160 bombers and testing long-range cruise missiles.

The Cold War isn't over, my friends. The Cold War has just shifted. Don't forget that. The Russians may not be enemies anymore, but they continue to be rivals.

Fear and Loathing in Zimbabwe

Apparently the African Union has declined to intervene in Zimbabwe. I'm going to admit that I have no clue what's going on down there, but I keep hearing and reading snipets about this guy Mugabe. I'm under the impression that there's more going on here than just evicting poor people from their homes.

If anyone (anachronism? Billy D?) has any clue what the rest of the story is, please feel free to give me a link or something, because I'm pretty sure that I don't have the full score on the situation.

Socialist Takeover

Knowing that Bulgaria is a European country, are you really surprised that the socialists have won their election? I'm not. It's rather unfortunate, because socialist policies are not what European countries, and especially former communist countries, need to make themselves economically solvent.

Afghan Campaign Update

Remember the past couple of days, when I've posted about the large campaign that went on in Afghanistan this week? Well, they found more bodies of terrorists, and the total body count is now around one hundred seventy-eight, with fifty-six captured.

Gitmo: Not So Bad!

Apparently the Democrats are finally admitting that they didn't have a clue about the conditions at Gitmo. Of course, they're not coming out and sayign just that; to do so would be to admit that they were trying to play politics with America's national security!

Looking Out for Number One

Is there any bandwagon that Bill Clinton won't jump on in order to get attention? For a Rhodes Scholar (sp?), he seems to have trouble figuring out the meaning of the word "retirement".

A Lazy Saturday

Here's the score, folks. Twitley arrived home last night a little after 01:15. Right now we're over at our recently completed vacation home. We'll probably be here for another half hour, then head back to hometown.

Twitley hasn't changed much. Actually, he hasn't changed at all. He's sort of like Lycan, except without any class. A few days ago he and his buddies rode dirt bikes; he was in nothing but shorts, a helmet, and boots. The sunburn has peeled partially, so there are two different layers to his back, and it looks absolutely disgusting. His skin is peeling and he can flake it off by rubbing his back; he did so on the love seat next to the window. Disgusting.

I'm being summoned for a brotherly photograph. I'll post more later. I hope everybody's having a great weekend; stay out of trouble.

(By the way, I still have a brand new graphing calculator and a DVD copy of "The Mexican" for sale, if anyone's interested.)

Americans Aren't Buffoons

Go look at this post over at Ultima Thule.

And with that, I bid you all a fond farewell for the evening.

Asylum Leadership

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, M.D., was apparently on last night's Daily Show, and it's rerunning tonight. Excuse my language, but what a fucking tool.

There are plenty of respectable Democrats: Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman, for instance. Howard Dean is not one of them. Neither is Ted Kennedy. Neither are Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Charlie Rangel, Hillary Clinton, or most of the other democratic legislators in Congress.

The Democratic Party is out of touch, they have no vision, they have no integrity, they have no ideas, and as long as they have Howard Dean making an ass out of himself, accusing Republicans of being a "white, Christian party" composed of people who have never had a "real job", they're going to continue to be a marginal fringe party with ever decreasing legitimacy in American society and politics.

For No Good Reason

And now it's time for the Fly to fill out one of those silly little E-Mail surveys, and be aggravatingly vague on certain items.

1. What time is it: 18:45 PST, 01:45 GMT
2. Name as it appears on your birth certificate: Cnaevs Ivlivs Drosophilvs
3. Current Name: The Fly
4. Parents names: Mom and Old Man
5. Age: 22
6. Birthday: 5th July 1982
7. Any pets: None currently; formerly a black lab, and I used to have some house geckos
8. Hair color: brown
9. Piercing: none
10. Tattoos: none
11. How much do you love your job: Which job?
12. Favorite color: grey
13. Hometown: CLASSIFIED
14. Current Residence: CLASSIFIED
15. Favorite food: Death Burgers
16. Been to Africa: negative
17. Been toilet papering: twice
18. Loved somebody so much it made you cry: affirmative (if you call it love)
19. Been in a car accident: affirmative
20. Croutons or bacon bits: bacon bits
21. Sprite or 7 UP: affirmative
22. Favorite Movie(s): Gladiator, 2001, American Beauty
23. Favorite Holiday: Independence Day
24. Favorite day of the week: Saturday
25. Favorite Toothpaste: Crest
26. Favorite Restaurant: undisclosed
27. Favorite Flowers: roses
29. Football Is: a sport for little girls
30. Preferred type of ice cream: vanilla
31. Favorite Sesame Street Character: negative
32. Disney or Warner Bros: Warner Bros.
33. Favorite Fast Food Restaurant: Quiznos
34. Who is the last person you got email from: LtCol Schoutter
35. Have you ever been convicted of a crime: negative
36. Which single store would you choose to max your credit card at: military surplus store
37. What do you do most often when you are bored: blog; read; watch television
38. Name the person that you are friends with that is the farthest away: Doug the Embalmer
39. Most annoying thing people ask me: undisclosed
40. Bedtime: currently about 22:00
41. Who will respond the quickest: N/A
42. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond: N/A
43. Favorite all time TV show: Space Above and Beyond
44. Last person you went out to dinner with: Maybe that nineteen year old girl who was such a prude, and looked so young, that she may as well have been twelve? I honestly don't remember.
45. Last movie you saw: In the theater? Star Wars Episode III
46. Time when you finished: 18:57 PST, 01:57 GMT

Feel free to post your own answers on your own blogs; if you do, leave a link so I can check it out.. Thanks to Britalin, who sent me this survey years ago. It was still sitting in my Hotmail inbox.

New Additions

I've added a couple of links to the Buddy Blogroll. There are some folks that I've come into contact with in the last few months, and I recently found out that they have a blog. They call it the Veritas Forum, and it's worth checking out. The primary proprietor, a bit of a word-monger who goes by the name "anachronism", has started posting here intermittently.

The other link is to one of their compatriots, Ariadne, and her co-blogger Squeaky. They call their site Squeaky and Ariadne's Random Bloggings. Go check them out.

TCS Alert

There are some great articles for you to check out over at Tech Central Station.

First, there's an article by Iain Murray. Why should you check it out? Aside from behind profound and giving you a good analysis of the political climate of this week's anti-poverty campaign, and how it's just the same old socialist claptrap with new packaging, it has a picture of Ginger Spice in her Union Jack minidress.

Hans Labohm has a great article about why Kyoto should be cancelled immediately. He looks very strange, but then again, so do many great conservative thinkers. Krauthammer, anyone?

Rory Miller has an article about the European Union's baseless support of the "Palestinian" Authority. Very much worth reading.

Ariel Cohen calls out Senator Durbin and Amnesty International for their baseless and irresponsible comparison of the Gitmo detention center to a Soviet gulag.

Comparing Guantanamo's tropical Caribbean detention center with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's hellish frozen concentration camps makes about as much sense as calling the London police "Nazis." My grandfather perished in the Gulag, as did tens of millions of others, and I am incensed at Amnesty's gall in trivializing their suffering for political purposes.

Go check it out. And, saving the best for last, Lee Harris has an absolutely outstanding piece on why Mormonism is better than Marxism. It's short and poignant. Here's a great excerpt:

The American philosophy known as pragmatism should best be understood as a method by which intellectuals can try to come to terms with the religions of hard work. It looks at a figure like Brigham Young and it says, "I grant you that there is much that is frankly silly and absurd about Mormonism. Yet look at what the Mormons were able to do. They took a desert and transformed it into a garden."

It makes the point, and it's absolutely correct, that intellectuals want to talk and think and accomplish little or nothing; they want the world handed to them. Regular workers, particularly workers motivated by the Protestant work ethic, want to honor God by working hard and accomplishing something, that they might be rewarded by continued survival on Earth and the reward of Heaven. Read this article, folks.

On Fly's Good Side

The president of El Salvador just got one of the highest honors any politician can earn for himself: a thumb's up from me.

PARIS, France (AP) -- The president of the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq said Friday he will not pull them out until democracy is in place there.

"Why should we leave Iraq now when the basic conditions have not been met?" El Salvador's president, Tony Saca, said in an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, where he met with President Jacques Chirac at the end of a three-nation European tour.

Saca said a president, a constitution and a public police force need to be in place in Iraq before his troops will leave.

"I believe that what we begin, we have to finish correctly," Saca said.

This brings me to an important point. A lot of liberal idiots who have absolutely no clue about warfare, military history, or pretty much anything to do with armed conflict have looked at the Iraq War as if it were a repeat of Vietnam. They haven't looked at it that way since the beginning of the terrorist insurgency; they've looked at it that way since before we invaded. They've used phrases like "exit strategy" and "time table". Have you read about any "time tables" or "exit strategies" during the Korean War? World War II? The American Revolution.

The truth, gentle reader, is that there is no such thing as an exit strategy in a successful war. The moment you initiate an exit strategy, you acknowledge that you are unable to complete your objectives, you are unable to successfully achieve victory, and you must pull your forces out. Iraq is not a failure, and people like President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld understand that. Career politicians like Senator Kennedy, Senator Kerry, and individuals of their ilk don't.

Do you honestly think that Ted Kennedy sees Iraq as a crucial mission, integral to America's fight against terrorism? Of course he doesn't. He sees it as a political issue that he can attempt to use against his rivals. This "progressive" is only interested in maintaining the status quo, and continuing a campaign against people who are trying to kill us doesn't help to maintain a status quo.

President Saca of El Salvador understands the issue, and he's not afraid to say it, even in France: you don't quit until you've finished what you started. Kudos to him.

Tom Cruise: Lunatic

Apparently Tom Cruise made an ass of himself on the Today Show. Are you surprised? Neither am I.

When asked if he could be with someone at this stage in his life who doesn't have an interest in the Church of Scientology -- Holmes has said she's embracing the religion -- Cruise told interviewer Matt Lauer: "Scientology is something that you don't understand. It's like you could be a Christian and be a Scientologist.

"It is a religion. Because it's dealing with the spirit. You as a spiritual being." When Lauer mentioned Cruise's earlier criticism of Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants, Cruise told the "Today" show co-host he didn't know what he was talking about.

"You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do," Cruise said.

The interview became more heated when Lauer, who said he knew people who had been helped by the attention-deficit disorder drug Ritalin, asked Cruise about the effects of the drug.

"Matt, Matt, you don't even -- you're glib," Cruise responded. "You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That's what I've done."

Now, I'm no fan of Matt Lauer, but honestly. Who does Tom Cruise think he is? I'd love to see his Master of Arts in the History of Science, awarded for his tireless research into the history of psychiatry.

What a jackass.

News or Not?

Years of promoting social programs and stifling businesses with overregulation have left the European economy in a pretty sad state. That's not news. However, they're considering tweaking Europe's central bank interest rates. That's news.

Fundamentalist Electing Mullahs

It looks like the mayor of Tehran will likely win the Iranian presidential election.

I wouldn't be surprised if the mullahs had something to do with this, but I don't have any evidence to suggest that that's the case. Of course, the runner-up already served as president a few years back, which means that he must be good enough for the mullahs... And it's not as if the Iranian president is anything more than a figurehead anyway.

Following Up: Anti-Taleban Offensive

Remember yesterday's post detailing an attack on a Taleban stronghold? Well, the two senior Taleban commanders apparently escaped, but over a hundred Taleban fighters were killed.

A China Update

Alan Greenspan and British Treasury Secretary John Snow have warned against trade sanctions against China. I'm not sure that I agree with them; China's currency manipulation is bad news for everyone, it's a direct threat to the American economy and government, and needs to be stopped.

Also, the Pew Research Center did an "international poll" that indicates that most people around the world like China better than they like the United States. Riiiiight. Go read it for yourself, folks.

New Navy Gear

Have you heard about the DD(X)? Well, the DD(X) development team just fired a round fifty-nine miles from a test facility at Point Magu, California.

Suh-weet.

Changing Hands

Last Summer the British government announced the elimination of funding for a number of cutting edge warships. It looks like three of them have found a new lease on life... In Chile.

Learning the Ropes

It appears that the "Palestinian" security forces are getting a taste of what Israeli security forces have been dealing with for years.

An Arrested Development

Hmmm. This is peculiar.

ROME — An Italian judge on Friday ordered the arrests of 13 CIA officers for secretly transporting a Muslim preacher from Italy to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts — a rare public objection to the practice by a close American ally.

The Egyptian was spirited away in 2003, purportedly as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.

The arrest warrants were announced Friday by the Milan prosecutor's office, which has called the disappearance a kidnapping and a blow to a terrorism investigation in Italy. The office said the imam was believed to belong to an Islamic terrorist group.

The 13 are accused of seizing Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, and sending him to Egypt, where he reportedly was tortured, Milan prosecutor Manlio Claudio Minale said in a statement.

I think I have a solution to this disagreement, that will satisfy both the American need to deal with the terrorists in an appropriate manner and the Italian government's need to carry out its duties in a manner well fitting its traditions and culture. My solution? This Abu Omar bloke should be forced to fight Abu "Captain Hook" Hamza to the death!

A Question for the Regulars

Hey, TSTF regulars, do you think that Karl Rove should apologize over his remarks the other day?

Yeah, neither do I.

Fly, Not Elephant

I was all set to hit the gym and do a little running today, and cut out of that a bit early if my legs weren't up for the same running regimen I subjected them to on Wednesday. I even took my book so that I could hit the stationary bike in case of extensive leg fatigue.

Only one problem: I forgot a PT shirt. As comfortable as I am in UDT trunks, athletic shorts, and shoes, such an outfit is generally frowned upon when one is using public equipment. The solution? Twenty minute in the pool, followed by stretching. My legs feel okay; at this point, I've got the fatigue and dull pain that you actually enjoy.

That's why I'm the Fly, and not the Elephant: sometimes I forget things.

One thing I've been intending to mention is the remarkable similarity of some elements of languages, even if they're in different language groups. For example, I'm familiar with two language groups: Indo-European (English, German, French, Latin) and Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic). All of these use variants of the original alphabet, which was developed and exported by the Phoenicians. It's simply amazing how versatile and durable this system has been.

More on that later. Back to work!

Speaking Of...

One more quick thing before I leave half an hour later than I'd intended...

Somebody mentioned "Baghdad Bob" in the comments to a previous post. I figured it would be a great opportunity to recommend We Love the Iraqi Information Minister.com. Particularly hilarious is the "MSS Through History" section. Simply outstanding.

Have a great day, oflks!

When Fly Runs Late

I probably shouldn't be writing this right now. I intended to get up at 05:45, and wound up staying in bed until 07:00. Bollocks. At least tomorrow morning I can sleep in, get caught up on some things during the day, and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Look at me. I'm not done with college for two weeks and I'm already turning into an old man.

What's on the agenda for today?

Finishing a letter I started a week and a half ago that should have been mailed Monday

Putting in an hour and a half at work

Making another deposit in the bank

Making a to-do list for next week.

What's on the agenda for tomorrow?

Polishing my combat boots and dress shoes

Synchronizing my clocks

Getting started on thank you notes for all of the generous graduation gifts

Finally watching the rest of blade runner

My little brother, Twitley, also arrives home this evening after nearly six months at diesel mechanic school in Wyoming. I'll be attempting to spend some quality time with him, since he's only back for a week.

Right then, time to get my ass in gear. More later.

End of Shift

Just one quick story before I head home. My uncle has been down here for about an hour while I've been at work. While I was on the phone with La Bouche for a few minutes, he sent me the following text message on my mobile phone:

You have a tiny one

To which I laughed, and promptly yelled a hearty expletive. I then answered his text message with one of my own:

Okay pot (signed kettle)

Thus saith the Fly. G'night folks!

Tony Blair Cleans House

I knew there were reasons for liking Tony Blair, in spite of his party affiliation. This is one of them.

The European Union faces a "crisis in political leadership" and must change to win back public support, Prime Minister Tony Blair has told Euro MPs.

Mr Blair, outlining plans for the UK's six-month EU presidency, argued the EU would fail "on a grand scale" if it did not face up to globalisation.

"Only by change will Europe recover its strength, its relevance, its idealism" and therefore public support, he said.

Prime Minister Blair is absolutely correct on this one. The French, the Germans, the Spanish, all of them refuse to change. They enact tariff after tariff, and heavy taxes on their own people, in order to preserve their house of cards economic system. They refuse to embrace concepts like outsourcing and globalization. The only sensible government in Europe is the United Kingdom, and even the British citizens aren't pleased with the situation most of the time.

The European Union doesn't offer European citizens much in the way of incentive to support it, and the leadership cares more about lining their own pockets than they do about helping their constituency. The E.U. will be interesting to watch in the next year or two. Personally, I don't see it having much viability as things stand now, and I'm guessing it will continue to lose support unless there are drastic changes to the format and leadership of the organization.

Stalling the Investigators

Apparently the United Nations, and their BBC mouthpiece, are claiming that the American government is "stalling" on their request to visit the detainees at Guantanamo bay. The American government has issued the appropriately diplomatic statement, saying that they're continuing to consider the U.N.'s request. Where do I stand on the issue? Well, let's first consider the money shot:

The UN says it has evidence that torture has taken at the prison amid reports that 520 inmates have had mental breakdowns.

I don't know about you, folks, but it seems to me that the U.N. has already made up its mind what's happening at Gitmo, and no amount of evidence or investigation will change their minds. If it were me in charge, I'd tell the U.N. to get bent.

Maybe when I'm older and wiser, I'll be more diplomatic in such situations. Only time will tell.

Sold Out

Did any of you gents check out last year's Maxim Hometown Hotties contest? I did, and there were some really gorgeous girls next door, there for the ogling.

If you ask me, this year's contest has sold out. Just a tip to all of the Maxim editors who are obviously reading this in an effort to get the Fly's informed and educated opinion: if someone puts "model" as their occupation, they shouldn't qualify for a "Hometown Hotties" contest. Dig?

"We have you surrounded!"

It looks like the boys in beige are still kicking ass in Afghanistan!

US and Afghan forces have surrounded at least two senior Taleban commanders in southern Afghanistan after three days of intense fighting, officials say.

They say more than 100 Taleban fighters have been killed in one of the biggest offensives in two years.

Hundreds of Afghan troops backed by US-led coalition forces have taken part in the clashes in Zabul province that started on Tuesday.

The Taleban deny having lost any of their men.

Of course the Taleban have denied losing any of their men. And of course we're kicking their collective ass. Let's hope that one of these "senior Taleban commanders" is that nut job Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Some Real News

I try make a point of not posting stories that aren't really "news", unless I have some point I want to prove. For example, in yesterday's post about Kofi Annan, I didn't make a big deal out of the following line:

Mr Annan was speaking at the end of a conference in Brussels that issued a declaration of support for Iraq.

I've mentioned at certain times that things like this "declaration of support" are empty gestures, enacted almost solely to make the people feel good. A great example of this phenomenon is pretty much anything that the United Nations ever does. If Ayatollah Abdullah Ahmed of Kerplakistan launches fifteen ballistic missiles carrying warheads full of nerve gas at his peaceful neighbors in the kingdom of Durkadurkastan, the United Nations would issue the same token "condemnation" that they issue every time the Israeli Defense Force retaliates at "Palestinian" terrorists who blow up a bus full of school children.

It's not news, because it happens all the time; so unless I want to make a point, I tend to leave it alone.

This, my friends, is news!

NORFOLK, Va. — Two North Carolina counties have stopped turning over shelter animals to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (search), saying they were surprised the group euthanized cats and dogs instead of trying to find them homes.

The Norfolk-based animal-rights group said it tried to have some of the animals adopted, but the condition of some strays and the availability of homes made it impossible.

The Bertie County Board of Commissioners (search) voted unanimously Monday to cut all ties to PETA, despite a written apology from its president. County Manager Zee Lamb said he believed euthanasia would be only a last resort for cats and dogs that were not adoptable.

Northampton County health director Sue Gay said she assumed the same. The counties learned that most animals instead had been euthanized after two PETA workers were arrested and charged with dumping dead animals in a shopping center's garbage bins.

So, let's recap. In the last couple of months, the goons at PETA have done everything in their power to convince the world that eating fish is evil, because fish are supposedly "intelligent and sensitive animals". It's obviously not working on Lee, who said in the linked post:

I don’t care if fish could sing and dance and speak English, I’d still eat them. Them little critters taste gooder’n shit.

... and I'd have to agree. So, anyway, we've gone from "intelligent and sensitive" to describe fish, to dumping the euthenized remains of unadoptable dogs and cats in the garbage bins at a local shopping center.

Maybe these particular PETA goons are the equivalent of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to mainstream Christians. Somehow, I doubt it; I think it's much more likely that most PETA, ELF, and ALF devotees are just intellectually dishonest hypocrites.

The Rove Effect

Anything Karl Rove says about liberals pisses them off. Why? Because it's all true.

WASHINGTON — Democrats said Thursday that White House adviser Karl Rove should either apologize or resign for accusing liberals of wanting "therapy and understanding" for the Sept. 11 attackers, escalating partisan rancor that threatens to consume Washington.

Rove's comments — and the response from the political opposition — mirrored earlier flaps over Democratic chairman Howard Dean's criticism of Republicans, a House Republican's statement that Democrats demonize Christians and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin's comparison of the Guantanamo prison to Nazi camps and Soviet gulags.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan came to Rove's defense, saying the president's chief political adviser was "simply pointing out the different philosophies and different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism."

"Of course not," McClellan said when asked by reporters whether President Bush will ask Rove to apologize.

Rove, in a speech Wednesday evening to the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, said, "Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Conservatives, he said, "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. What about you folks? It's also worth noting that the Democrats who are demanding an apology from Karl Rove for telling the truth are the exact same Democrats who have been completely silent in response to Senator Durbin's irresponsible lies about Gitmo.

"No Regrets"

Apparently those folks who tried to launch the first solar sail craft have "no regrets". The money shot? Why, it's the opening paragraph!

Though their history-making endeavor has stalled, organizers of a bold attempt to fly the world's first solar sail spacecraft say they have no regrets and that future efforts will benefit from what they learned.

Topping the list? Don't hire the Russian navy to use a converted SLBM for your launch!

An Unacceptable Development

I'm not going to go into a long, drawn-out post about what happened today at the Supreme Court of the United States. I commend Justice Rehnquist, Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, and Justice O'Connor for their scathing dissenting opinion. The rest of the Supreme Court should be ashamed of themselves, and Americans everywhere should be outraged that something like this could ever happen. It is in no way legal, it ignores every legitimate legal precedent with respect to personal property, and it should be soundly condemned.

I think that's all I need to say.

Rumsfeld's Remarks

As promised, here are some poignant remarks from this morning's Senate Armed Services Committee meeting.

One final point. Someone recently asked me about the differences between my current tenure as Secretary of Defense and my previous tenure some thirty years ago. One thing that has remained the same is the tendency in some quarters to blame America for the world's troubles.

Well, I'm not one who wakes up every morning seeking ways to suggest that America is what's wrong with the world. The people who are going on television chopping off people's heads or using disabled children as suicide bombers - they are what's wrong with the world. The violent extremists that killed three thousand innocent men, women, and children on September eleventh are what's wrong with the world.
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

There will always be people around the world who blame America for everything. A lake in Russia disappeared a few weeks ago, and there were people in the village who suspected an American conspiracy to drain their lake. It's going to happen.

The people of the world don't hate the United States, and any American citizen who claims to be a patriot while still blaming Americans for all the ills of the world is intellectually dishonest, and probably completely ignorant to boot. Don't believe them, and don't agree with them, because they're wrong.

I have seen too much of the rest of the world... And it's brutal and cruel and dark. I have to believe that America is the light.
- Russell Crowe, "Gladiator" (2000) (paraphrased)

An appropriate paraphrase, don't you think?

The Lesser of Two Evils

Have a look at this story. Allow me to break it down for you.

Luxury department store in Paris closes for the evening

Oprah Winfrey shows up fifteen minutes later and expects special treatment

A security guard explains to Oprah that they can't accomodate her

Oprah complains to the world, and accuses the store of discriminating against her because she's black

Sorry, folks. It doesn't happen very often, but I'm going to have to side with the French on this. Oprah shows up fifteen minutes after the score closes, and just because everybody bends over backwards for her, she expects these folks to. When they inform her that they can't accomodate her, she pulls the race card and accuses them of not bending over backwards for her because she's black.

This is just another reason why Oprah needs to shut her stupid face.

Achy... Hopefully Not Breaking

I woke up to my alarm at 06:15, and immediately knew that things were not as they should be. I don't notice my shoulder anymore, because for no apparent reason the stiffness has moved to my elbow. In fact, most of my major joints, most notably my right hip ball and socket joint, are stiff from yesterday's run. From now on I will definitely be stretching out after I exercise.

There's a lot to do, and I've got an hour to do it, so this won't be a long post. Later on I'm going to post an excerpt from the transcript of Secretary Rumsfeld's morning testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Secretary Rumsfeld, one of the most maligned political figures of our generation, had some excellent remarks that are worthy of note.

Just a final thought. Katie Holmes isn't much older than me, only four years or so. Right now I'm watching an old episode of Saved by the Bell, and Tiffany Amber-Thiessen just mentioned Tom Cruise. That's right, folks: back when Katie Holmes was in high school (or middle school?), Tom Cruise was already well established. I'm just sayin', something's fishy.

Glorious Rebirth

"I gave it all away, I lost who I am
I threw it all away
With everything to gain
And I'm taking the leap
With dreams of shrinking"
- Switchfoot

Wednesday Evening Recap

What a day. Just like yesterday, I'm pretty much exhausted. I already told you about my workout; once I got to work, I immediately went about washing one of the vehicles, which took most of my time down there. I'm looking forward to next week, when I'll be done taking the office every night, and I'll be able to do my day job with more time and more efficacy than I have the last couple of weeks.

I don't remember exactly how much I've mentioned about my Arabic coursework. I'm sitting in on Arabic classes this Summer, at least for the duration of my time in the area. It's three hours a day, every weekday. The instructor is a friendly little Yemeni woman, married with two kids. She's very patient, and overall it's been a very positive experience so far. We've been working on the Arabic alphabet and a few simple words and phrases, and it's turning out to be easier than I had imagined. If only German had been this enjoyable!

I received two graduation cards in the mail today. One was from our neighbors of many, many years, who lived behind us, then moved a few blocks away, then moved to a house down the street. Their daughter, now married, was a year ahead of me, and we were practically inseparable when we were little. The other was from TSTF commentator April, who graciously sent me twenty dollars worth of movie theater gift certificates. April, if you're reading this, you're wonderful!

I have a few things to get done. I'm going to take a hot bath in order to soothe my lightly aching shoulder, and then I'm going to read from Moonraker for the first time all week. Before I do all of this, though, I need to get my room set up for me to go to bed, and figure out what needs to be done to ensure an efficient and productive day tomorrow.

This is probably the last post for the night. Thanks for reading.