AMF: Postponement!

Hey, folks! So, I stayed up later than I really wanted to on Wednesday night to finish up Thursday's post. And I was up pretty late on Tuesday night, too. So, in lieu of finishing Catch-Up Week today, I'll leave the last items for Monday (they're a tad involved, far beyond what I wanted to get into last night). So, here's the news to close out this week.

AP: Obama Calls for $250 Payments to Seniors - Is there anyone that President Obama doesn't want to give a government-funded hand-out to?

AP: Groups Question $7B China-Guinea Mining Deal

CNN: Finland makes fast Internet access a legal right - A legal right? The next thing you know, people will be manufacturing a "legal right" to free health care. Oh, wait...

BBC: California sees the return of gold fortune-seekers - Ha. I'm so glad I got out of California. Unlike states like Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, which were all founded by folks who wanted to make a new life for themselves through hard work and rugged individualism, California was founded by a bunch of bums who wanted to make a fortune out of little or no real work. That culture persists to this day, and as far as I'm concerned, California can have it.

BBC: MoD equipment plan 'unaffordable' - It appears that with an ongoing fiasco with Chinook helicopters, and no effort to buy life-saving surplus MRAP vehicles, Britain's military procurement system may be even more screwed up than America's.

BBC: Australia 'open' to atomic energy - Now if we could only get American hippies to realize the benefits of emissions-free nuclear energy...

BBC: Will 'Hotel of Doom' ever be finished? - North Korea has been trying to build this obnoxiously tacky hotel for decades, and they've apparently restarted work on it. And nuclear weapons. Even though the North Korean populace is all starving. This, ladies and gentlemen, is yet another example of communism sucking.

BBC: US dismisses Afghan surge report - Apparently the DoD isn't planning to send 13,000 additional troops.

BBC: Egypt groups target Mubarak son - Very, very interesting. Hosni Mubarak has been large and in charge in Egypt since the early 1980's, and he's not getting any younger. His succession, like that of neighboring countries like Libya and Syria, could become very interesting in the coming years, or sooner if something were to happen to him.

BBC: In pictures: Romance in a Tehran park - Iranians deserve to be free. Don't believe me? Just look at these pictures of young Iranian people being herded off for questioning by police for enjoying each other's company in a public park. Oh, and they're executing people who were involved in the riots a couple of months ago, now that the attention has died down. Ali Khamenei, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and their entire filthy regime deserve to be utterly laid waste to by the Iranian people, and if it happens, I hope the West offers to help. I want to see a free Iran in my lifetime, and so do the Iranians.

BBC: Once-heretic Galileo given exhibition at the Vatican

Guardian: Geert Wilders, the 'pre-criminal' - Home Office attempts to deny UK entry to extremists are both authoritarian and inept. Pre-emptive gagging is a bad precedent

Guardian: Why I celebrate the Tel Aviv centenary

Times: 'Islam is violent' Obama's new pastor says

Times: French troops died when Italy stopped 'bribes'; Times: Victims' parents criticise French army

Michael Totten: Hezbollah Isn't a Model for Afghanistan - The idea of "bringing the Taliban into the political system" is deeply and fatally flawed. Michael Totten explains why.

Washington Post: David Ignatius - President Obama's Crucial Afghanistan Decision

Small Wars Journal: China's Preoccupation with Asymmetric Warfare

That's it, folks. Have a great Friday, have a great weekend, and check back Monday for the conclusion of Catch-Up Week.

UPDATE: Oh, wow. YouTube was generous this morning.



Awesome. Don't get murdered! I love Spricket24, even though she's a total hippy and/or hippie.