AMF: Qaddhafi Dreamin' and the '04 EuroTrip

I absolutely love AMF posts, because they mean that it's Friday. First, the news.

Belgian arrested in alleged Iran arms deal (CNN, BBC); Wired Danger Room: Note to Gunrunners: Don't Use Gmail - Belgian arms dealer Jacques "the Field Marshall" Monsieur made his name selling arms to Bosnia and Croatia (in contravention of UN embargoes), claiming all the while to be a CIA/French DST operative. He then makes an attempt to sell jet engines for the F-5 fighter to Iran by claiming they're heading for Colombia, then rerouting them to the UAE and on to Iran. And to do all of this, he uses a Gmail account. No matter what you may think of black market arms dealers, this guy deserved to get caught.

Fox: Glenn Beck: Why Are We Still Listening to Progressives About the Environment? - You know, Glenn Beck may be kind of a twerp, but in this one, he makes some pretty good points. We've been listening to environmentalists, at the cost of both legitimate profits and human lives for years, without any of their dire predictions (or even most of their pseudo-scientific claims) coming true. Maybe it's time to reconsider their credibility, starting with Father Time.

BBC: NHS workforce cuts plan rejected - And yet, President Obama wants to copy it. No thanks.

BBC: I was in Hitler's bunker of death - The last survivor of Hitler's inner circle recounts his experiences as one of Hitler's bodyguards. I'm amazed that this guy survived multiple years in a Russian labor camp.

BBC: Ancient wall found in Jerusalem

BBC: Nigerian 'trained in Afghanistan'

Guardian: Getting local to defeat the Taliban - Hmmmmm.

Times: US Senate asked to probe Lockerbie 'oil deal'

Times: (British) Army is 'repeating the same old mistakes' - This one's very much worth the read.

Times: Wounded medic Sally Clarke stayed to treat injured soldiers in Afghan ambush - This proves the Law School Goddess/Triathlon Goddess/Themis Theory: even skirts/dames can be totally badass.

New York Times: Chafing After 40 Years, Qaddafi Baffles the West - I really hate that I'm citing the New York Times, but the article's at least interesting.

It's been an interesting and largely productive week. Here are just a few of the things that I did this week.

I watched Ocean's Twelve for the first and second times.

I did three swim workouts, and two push-up/sit-up workouts. The fourth and third, respectively, are scheduled for this afternoon/evening. I may yomp this weekend. I may not.

I ate a pomegranate for the same time - not bad, but not worth spending three dollars on - at least, not on a regular basis.

On Monday night, I dreamed that I met Moammar Qaddhafi, but couldn't get him to pose for a picture with me. On Tuesday night, I had a similar dream about his son, Saif al Qaddhafi. I fully expected to dream myself up a fight with Hannibal Qaddhafi on Wednesday night, but this did not come to pass.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the holiday weekend, but I want to use the time to work on a couple of things that I've needed to do for a while, such as continuing work on the Grand Unified Theory of Awesome, and cleaning extraneous crap out of my flat.

The best two weeks of my life were when I was backpacking through Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and France in September of 2004. Generally speaking, I try to revisit that period of time on the blog each year. The first day of the trip was Monday, 06th September, at which point I flew from London Gatwick to Inverness Airport, took a bus to the Inverness Railway Station, then took a train to the Aberdeen Railway Station. That night, I stayed at SYHA Aberdeen (website), because the ferry to Orkney didn't run until the next day.

I'll pick this up again on Monday. In the mean time, have a fantastic weekend.