The Lady With the Spinning Head
Woo. It's cold at Van Diemen's Station, and the Fly loves it. Maybe this year, I'll try to use my fireplace!
Okay, it's Tuesday, and I'm going to take this opportunity to finally catch up on a handful of news stories that I've been wanting to share with you folks.
First to Afghanistan and the War on Terrorism. The general who will take over as the head of the British armed services next year is calling for an Afghan surge. We're already seeing some of this in the deployment of three thousand Marines to Helmand Province, but the war is still chronically under-resourced by the NATO team that's fighting it. This isn't helped by limitations put on most of the NATO countries; for example, the one hundred members of the German Kommando Spezialkrafte who haven't left their base in the last three years, despite the chronic shortage of special forces personnel in the country. The Danger Room blog has an interesting piece on the coalition units that tend to adopt stray dogs and cats while in country - worth the read for animal lovers like Mighty Mo. Meanwhile, analysts claim that al Qaeda isn't feeling the pain of the global economic crisis. I'm not sure how reliable that is, given that the Gulf states' markets are in just as much turmoil as the markets in any other area of the world. I'm not saying that al Qaeda has a ton of investments, but just as legitimate charities suffer in lean times, I would assume that charities that serve as clandestine fundraising arms for al Qaeda and other groups would probably suffer eventually as well. My latest article discusses the present strength and weakness of al Qaeda, so stay tuned for that in the next week or so.
As if they didn't have more important things to tackle, the European Union is almost as distracted as our own Congress. They've made the decision that global economic turmoil (which is being felt particularly hard in Europe) won't eliminate their top priority: climate change! As discouraging as it is to see Europeans convinced that the world is coming to an end in the first place, the fact that they can't see the forest for the trees with respect to their priorities is annoying. Their other major task at the moment, or at least in the near future, will quite possibly consist of cutting the maximum volume level on mp3 players to keep people from damaging their hearing. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you usher in an era of enlightened socialized medicine: the government gets all up in your life, to the point that they dictate how loud you can listen to music.
Last week, I mentioned that they found the tomb of the historical figure who inspired General Maximus' character in Gladiator. Here's a BBC story about it. It appears that the tomb is part of a larger excavation that features a number of other major archaeological sites, like the place were Caligula was killed and a number of others. (Times, Guardian) Very cool.
There are a couple of stories out of Iran that I'm following. In recent weeks, Iran has shown signs that it might be willing to compromise on its nuclear program - it's very possibly just more deception, but conciliatory deception is better than just plain deception, and the possibility of progress is a good sign. This follows a story from a couple of weeks ago that I'm not sure whether or not I reported on here, that the Iranians might be willing to compromise if the West guaranteed to supply Iran with nuclear fuel for the reactors. I've said it elsewhere, but I'll make it clear here: I have no problem with Iran having a nuclear reactor. The Iranians are great people, and I empathize with them. The problem is this regime, which almost certainly has ulterior motives for any nuclear program. On the topic of the regime, their choice of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad (let's not be mistaken and believe that the 2005 Iranian election had anything to do with the people) has been a complete and total disaster. Why do I mention this? Because the moderate former president, Mohammad Khatami, may be considering the possibility of running for his old seat. Despite the oil windfall of the last three or four years, Iran's economy is in shambles, its infrastructure hasn't been rebuilt or even really maintained since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Ahmedinejad's excuse for all of this is to blame "mobsters" of various types. If Khatami were to run, and if he were to be "elected", it would be a good sign, because it would be a sort of admission by the mullahs behind the curtain that the hardline system represented by Ahmedinejad has failed Iran during the last several years.
For the last few days, I've been listening to a BBC documentary podcast series about private security contractors. The other day, when digging around, I came across an article about Tim Spicer, who I've referred to previously on this blog. If you have any interest in the subject of private security/military companies, a la Blackwater, I recommend the podcast series (despite the hippy leanings of the BBC) and recommend the article on Spicer.
Today's video is a fan-made video for the U2 song "Lady With the Spinning Head". You can read more about the song at the appropriate page at U2MOL, which has apparently moved. If you'll give me a moment... Okay, my sidebar links are updated. Anyway, no clue why, but the musical scheme for this song is actually derivative of my own theme song, The Fly. You can check the lyrics out here.
Alright, folks, things to do, things to do. Have a great day, and check in tomorrow for more.
Okay, it's Tuesday, and I'm going to take this opportunity to finally catch up on a handful of news stories that I've been wanting to share with you folks.
First to Afghanistan and the War on Terrorism. The general who will take over as the head of the British armed services next year is calling for an Afghan surge. We're already seeing some of this in the deployment of three thousand Marines to Helmand Province, but the war is still chronically under-resourced by the NATO team that's fighting it. This isn't helped by limitations put on most of the NATO countries; for example, the one hundred members of the German Kommando Spezialkrafte who haven't left their base in the last three years, despite the chronic shortage of special forces personnel in the country. The Danger Room blog has an interesting piece on the coalition units that tend to adopt stray dogs and cats while in country - worth the read for animal lovers like Mighty Mo. Meanwhile, analysts claim that al Qaeda isn't feeling the pain of the global economic crisis. I'm not sure how reliable that is, given that the Gulf states' markets are in just as much turmoil as the markets in any other area of the world. I'm not saying that al Qaeda has a ton of investments, but just as legitimate charities suffer in lean times, I would assume that charities that serve as clandestine fundraising arms for al Qaeda and other groups would probably suffer eventually as well. My latest article discusses the present strength and weakness of al Qaeda, so stay tuned for that in the next week or so.
As if they didn't have more important things to tackle, the European Union is almost as distracted as our own Congress. They've made the decision that global economic turmoil (which is being felt particularly hard in Europe) won't eliminate their top priority: climate change! As discouraging as it is to see Europeans convinced that the world is coming to an end in the first place, the fact that they can't see the forest for the trees with respect to their priorities is annoying. Their other major task at the moment, or at least in the near future, will quite possibly consist of cutting the maximum volume level on mp3 players to keep people from damaging their hearing. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you usher in an era of enlightened socialized medicine: the government gets all up in your life, to the point that they dictate how loud you can listen to music.
Last week, I mentioned that they found the tomb of the historical figure who inspired General Maximus' character in Gladiator. Here's a BBC story about it. It appears that the tomb is part of a larger excavation that features a number of other major archaeological sites, like the place were Caligula was killed and a number of others. (Times, Guardian) Very cool.
There are a couple of stories out of Iran that I'm following. In recent weeks, Iran has shown signs that it might be willing to compromise on its nuclear program - it's very possibly just more deception, but conciliatory deception is better than just plain deception, and the possibility of progress is a good sign. This follows a story from a couple of weeks ago that I'm not sure whether or not I reported on here, that the Iranians might be willing to compromise if the West guaranteed to supply Iran with nuclear fuel for the reactors. I've said it elsewhere, but I'll make it clear here: I have no problem with Iran having a nuclear reactor. The Iranians are great people, and I empathize with them. The problem is this regime, which almost certainly has ulterior motives for any nuclear program. On the topic of the regime, their choice of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad (let's not be mistaken and believe that the 2005 Iranian election had anything to do with the people) has been a complete and total disaster. Why do I mention this? Because the moderate former president, Mohammad Khatami, may be considering the possibility of running for his old seat. Despite the oil windfall of the last three or four years, Iran's economy is in shambles, its infrastructure hasn't been rebuilt or even really maintained since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Ahmedinejad's excuse for all of this is to blame "mobsters" of various types. If Khatami were to run, and if he were to be "elected", it would be a good sign, because it would be a sort of admission by the mullahs behind the curtain that the hardline system represented by Ahmedinejad has failed Iran during the last several years.
For the last few days, I've been listening to a BBC documentary podcast series about private security contractors. The other day, when digging around, I came across an article about Tim Spicer, who I've referred to previously on this blog. If you have any interest in the subject of private security/military companies, a la Blackwater, I recommend the podcast series (despite the hippy leanings of the BBC) and recommend the article on Spicer.
Today's video is a fan-made video for the U2 song "Lady With the Spinning Head". You can read more about the song at the appropriate page at U2MOL, which has apparently moved. If you'll give me a moment... Okay, my sidebar links are updated. Anyway, no clue why, but the musical scheme for this song is actually derivative of my own theme song, The Fly. You can check the lyrics out here.
Alright, folks, things to do, things to do. Have a great day, and check in tomorrow for more.
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