FlyDecision 2008: Shaved or just Buzzed?

Hey folks! As usual, a few news items, and then the tragically hilarious foibles of the Fly's life.

First and foremost, there's a story that involves - have you waited long enough for this one? - Somali pirates! The French army has carried out an operation to free some hostages held by the Somali pirates. (BBC, Times) In addition to American naval forces, other naval forces to include elements of the Malaysian navy have been deploying to Somali waters in order to protect shipping. Somalia has become a tragic and fascinating laboratory, which showcases the failure, chaos, and pain that comes from both anarchy and Islamist extremism. Afghanistan was a similar case until late 2001. You'd think that all of those anarchists and Islamist apologists out there would clue in to the fact that places like Somalia and pre-war Afghanistan suck, but not so much.

The big news today is the collapse of the Lehman Bros. banking giant. Given that I'm only an amateur economic analyst, I'm not going to opine on it, except to say that while the economy absolutely has problems, this isn't the worst we've seen, the tide is already started to turn, and unless you're stupid with credit, you shouldn't be too worried about it. That having been said, I saw an interesting article today about how Lehman Bros. has been famous for sharing the wealth among its employees. One of the big left wing talking points during this election revolves around the evil greed of big business, but this is yet another example of good business practices within American industry that help the so-called "little guy" out. My company is another great example of companies that do good things to help their employees succeed. It's a good business model because if your employees succeed and are happy, they're going to work harder for you. It's unfortunate that so many people are so fully indoctrinated so as to ignore the fact that this wealth-sharing system (sometimes referred to as Reaganomics or "Trickle Down Economics", although the latter is a pejorative title) is not only practiced by big business, but that it actually works. (Yes, I know that Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy, but that had to do with making too many high risk loans, not with sharing their earnings among their employees.)

SpaceWar has an excellent AFP article about yesterday's attack on Mauritania, most likely carried out by AQIM. The article discusses the attack itself in greater detail than the articles I linked to yesterday, and goes into detail about the political fallout from the attack and how it ties into last month's coup. Very much worth the read.

One of my favorite books, and one that I've cited a number of times here at TSTF, is An Unorthodox Soldier by Tim Spicer, a retired British Army lieutenant colonel who went on to found a mercenary organization, and followed its limited success with a highly successful private security company called Aegis that won't give me a job interview. At any rate, in his book, he notes that one of the reasons why some veterans choose employment with firms like Aegis and Blackwater Worldwide is that they A) have spent their career developing skills that are really only lucrative and in demand in conflict zones, and B) they chose that career in the first place, and subsequent contract employment in the second place, because they genuinely enjoy and are good at that type of work. In David Isenberg's latest Dogs of War piece from UPI, he discusses this phenomenon in a piece that's a bit shorter than Spicer's book... Although Spicer's book is still definitely worth reading.

A few months ago, I posted a video by YouTube comedienne Etta Devine titled "Girl's Night Out". She's posted a couple of hilarious new videos lately in continuation of the series, and today's video is the first of the two.



I think I've dated several girls who are the poster child for the stereotype that Etta ("Mary Olson") is poking fun at. Very funny stuff.

You'll probably notice that I posted a picture of myself... Or rather, two pictures of myself. So, the deal is that I'm trying to figure out how I want to wear my hair. I go pretty nuts when it gets very long, so don't count on any two foot dreadlocks from The Fly any time soon. That having been said, I was shaving it for a while, and I love that look (as evidenced in the top photo, where I'm actually smiling), but it's a lot of work to maintain it. A number of my adoptive moms from church have encouraged me to keep it longer, like it is in the bottom picture (that's actually from April, but it looks similar at the moment). So, what do you folks think?

The other big news from today is that I finally used the gym at work. Yeah, I know, I'm as surprised as you are. Nothing special, twenty-five minutes on the bike, and about ten minutes of stretching. I'm also going to head to one of the local YMCA locations with Young David this evening and get a membership, since they have a pool, the membership will be good at any YMCA in the area, and Young David can give me some accountability. I'm ready to be really serious about getting my fat ass in shape, because I'm sick of feeling like I'm disgusting and decrepit, even if I'm not really. I'll have more on that as it develops. The last time that I tried to get in shape, and blogged about it, was the summer of 2005. Those were so much simpler times, before I had to worry about things like car payments, rent, insurance, and humidity. In the coming days, I'll put together a table (I taught myself how to make them last month for a project at work) explaining what I want to do as far as a long-term fitness plan. So, stay tuned.

Tomorrow, in addition to any news stories that are worth passing on, I'll be showing off pictures of my cleaned, decorated, and fully guest-ready place. Excellent! In the mean time, opine about The Fly's hair in the comments, and have yourself a fantastic day.

UPDATE: Holy shit! I mean, uh, hachi machi! David Isenberg commented on my blog!