The Morning After

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. As usual, mine was tolerable; and to be painfully honest, it's more tolerable with people who are near-complete strangers than it used to be at home. I do miss the food we used to have on the family farm, even if I miss basically none of the actual people I had to eat it with, or waiting two or three hours for it to be ready when we (my immediate family and I) were told it would be ready at a certain time. Basically, Thanksgiving is one of those holidays with a lot of potential that often gets botched because there are too many variables to coordinate. However, like I said, yesterday went fine for me, plus I pushed through what had turned into a tough chapter/sequence in my first spy novel (I think I'll just start calling them Mukh1 and Mukh2 on here), and now I can get back into the mix.

In lieu of a full and formal news post, I'm going to post bulleted links with short commentary.

IRA Rebels Raid Northern Ireland Gun Shop - Article claims that they stole handguns, but you can't own handguns in the UK, so someone needs to clarify the article. Interesting nonetheless, since the IRA is theoretically out of the violence business now.

Oil rises as Russia threatens cut - Russia's threatening to cut its oil output due to falling prices. Sorry, Russia, but the bubble's burst, and nobody has any sympathy because it was partly your fault in the first place.

Nato refuses to play Russian roulette with alliance enlargement - The article says that NATO won't let Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance due to events in August and September with Russia. Probably true, but this will further demonstrate NATO's growing impotence, and it's a disgrace.

The Biggest Boondoggle - The author thinks that American aircraft carriers are a waste of money, and that the Obama administration can save a ton of money by eliminating plans to build the next class of them. I disagree wholeheartedly with this, both with the guy's flawed appraisal of carriers' combat utility, and also because I've heard more than one Navy expert say that our fleets are underresourced as it is.

Today's video is "Fireside(!)" by Barats and Bereta.



Alright, folks, have a great weekend, and check back Monday for more wild action and exciting chaos from The Fly.