Let the Chaos Begin
Well, here we are. First, the news.
First, we go to North Africa. Due to the recent actions of various fundamentalist extremist groups, an Algerian newspaper has published an article under the headline 'Taliban are among us'. Next door, the Libyans have been meeting with the Russians (BBC, AFP, Jerusalem Post). Crazy Uncle Muammar has agreed to host a Russian naval station, and the Russians are trying to get the Libyans to sign on to the OPEC-style gas cartel that I discussed last week. It would be frustrating, to say the least, if the imense diplomatic work that the West has put in over the last several years in bringing Libya in from the cold were to be repaid by Libya sidling up to Russia. Semi-related, while he was in the neighborhood, Qaddhafi also met with the Chechen president.
Speaking of Russia, Chechnya, and the Caucasus region in general, Moscow has presided over a preliminary agreement regarding Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that's disputed by Azerbaijan and Armenia. I've made a point of linking to pertinent articles by Michael Yon and Michael Totten. Totten did a recent piece on Nagorno-Karabakh. Remember how everyone was shocked when Russia "intervened" South Ossetia, except for me? Nagorno-Karabakh's on their "Top Five Places to Do it Next" list.
The BBC has an interesting article about a parade in Northern Ireland that was "tense" due to the presence of both Nationalists (who favor reunification with the Republic of Ireland) and Unionists (who favor the current union with the United Kingdom). Any interest in Ireland? Have a read.
Spacewar has a couple of interesting articles today. The first is an AFP piece on Japanese military recruiting; the Japanese desperately want a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, so they've stepped up their participation in multi-lateral military operations by providing support in Iraq and refueling to ships in support of ISAF in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Japanese society is aging quickly, and the military isn't seen as "cool" by the younger set. The methods that the Japanese are using to recruit folks are... Interesting. There's also a UPI article on security contractors and the SOFA - the Status Of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government.
And finally, King of the Hill is being cancelled at some point before 2010. Very sad, particularly when it's so much better than what The Simpsons has become. We'll miss you, Hank, Bobby, Khan, Khannie, Minh, Boomhauer, Dale, Bill, Nancy, Joseph... Peggy, not so much.
Windows Media Player is a fascinating and finicky program. This weekend, I learned how to use WMP to rip music off of CDs. Actually, it didn't take much - the program basically tries to do it for you if you don't stop it. I did some experimenting and pulled a few songs off of some U2 CDs, plus a couple from a couple of the Star Wars soundtracks. So, having figured out how easy it was, I looked through the songs that I have on my computer. Prior to learning how to pull songs, I spent a total of $201.96 on songs that I already owned the CDs for. Wonderful. Those of you who know me know that finding out that I've spent that kind of money for something I could have gotten for free drives me absolutely crazy.
I've also been experiencing what one of my bosses refers to as "queertrons" - a computer misbehaving for no discernible reason. The various tracks have been moving themselves to and fro, and I think it may have to do with my new mp3 player. I'm seeing songs that were formerly grouped together separating themselves. For example, if I had songs by the Corrs, the songs would divide into two entries instead of one: "The Corrs", and "Corrs, The". The other example I'm seeing has to do with "ands" - for example, I now have entries for both "Hootie and the Blowfish" and "Hootie & the Blowfish". Very frustrating. Those of you who know me in person also know that I'm anal retentive/OCD with respect to stuff like that - and it's driving me particularly crazy that one album in particular keeps doing it even though I've fixed it twice now. Very odd.
Alright, the Obama commercial that I just saw on Hulu while watching a 1990's cartoon aside, today is election day. If I had the time and the inclination, I'd be tempted to go into a lengthy argument as to why you should vote for Senator McCain instead of Senator Obama. I think I've made myself fairly clear on that by now. Instead, I'd like to post the link to a site that came to some prominence four years ago: Votergasm. If you can't figure out what it is from the name, I sure as sugar hope you're not voting. If you're not at work, go have a look. Hilarious.
I don't know about you, but I'll be waiting until Wednesday morning to see what happens. Tonight will be spent doing anything but paying attention to politics. I hope everyone else out there in blogland has a diversion to fall back on.
So now, we wait.
First, we go to North Africa. Due to the recent actions of various fundamentalist extremist groups, an Algerian newspaper has published an article under the headline 'Taliban are among us'. Next door, the Libyans have been meeting with the Russians (BBC, AFP, Jerusalem Post). Crazy Uncle Muammar has agreed to host a Russian naval station, and the Russians are trying to get the Libyans to sign on to the OPEC-style gas cartel that I discussed last week. It would be frustrating, to say the least, if the imense diplomatic work that the West has put in over the last several years in bringing Libya in from the cold were to be repaid by Libya sidling up to Russia. Semi-related, while he was in the neighborhood, Qaddhafi also met with the Chechen president.
Speaking of Russia, Chechnya, and the Caucasus region in general, Moscow has presided over a preliminary agreement regarding Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that's disputed by Azerbaijan and Armenia. I've made a point of linking to pertinent articles by Michael Yon and Michael Totten. Totten did a recent piece on Nagorno-Karabakh. Remember how everyone was shocked when Russia "intervened" South Ossetia, except for me? Nagorno-Karabakh's on their "Top Five Places to Do it Next" list.
The BBC has an interesting article about a parade in Northern Ireland that was "tense" due to the presence of both Nationalists (who favor reunification with the Republic of Ireland) and Unionists (who favor the current union with the United Kingdom). Any interest in Ireland? Have a read.
Spacewar has a couple of interesting articles today. The first is an AFP piece on Japanese military recruiting; the Japanese desperately want a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, so they've stepped up their participation in multi-lateral military operations by providing support in Iraq and refueling to ships in support of ISAF in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Japanese society is aging quickly, and the military isn't seen as "cool" by the younger set. The methods that the Japanese are using to recruit folks are... Interesting. There's also a UPI article on security contractors and the SOFA - the Status Of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government.
And finally, King of the Hill is being cancelled at some point before 2010. Very sad, particularly when it's so much better than what The Simpsons has become. We'll miss you, Hank, Bobby, Khan, Khannie, Minh, Boomhauer, Dale, Bill, Nancy, Joseph... Peggy, not so much.
Windows Media Player is a fascinating and finicky program. This weekend, I learned how to use WMP to rip music off of CDs. Actually, it didn't take much - the program basically tries to do it for you if you don't stop it. I did some experimenting and pulled a few songs off of some U2 CDs, plus a couple from a couple of the Star Wars soundtracks. So, having figured out how easy it was, I looked through the songs that I have on my computer. Prior to learning how to pull songs, I spent a total of $201.96 on songs that I already owned the CDs for. Wonderful. Those of you who know me know that finding out that I've spent that kind of money for something I could have gotten for free drives me absolutely crazy.
I've also been experiencing what one of my bosses refers to as "queertrons" - a computer misbehaving for no discernible reason. The various tracks have been moving themselves to and fro, and I think it may have to do with my new mp3 player. I'm seeing songs that were formerly grouped together separating themselves. For example, if I had songs by the Corrs, the songs would divide into two entries instead of one: "The Corrs", and "Corrs, The". The other example I'm seeing has to do with "ands" - for example, I now have entries for both "Hootie and the Blowfish" and "Hootie & the Blowfish". Very frustrating. Those of you who know me in person also know that I'm anal retentive/OCD with respect to stuff like that - and it's driving me particularly crazy that one album in particular keeps doing it even though I've fixed it twice now. Very odd.
Alright, the Obama commercial that I just saw on Hulu while watching a 1990's cartoon aside, today is election day. If I had the time and the inclination, I'd be tempted to go into a lengthy argument as to why you should vote for Senator McCain instead of Senator Obama. I think I've made myself fairly clear on that by now. Instead, I'd like to post the link to a site that came to some prominence four years ago: Votergasm. If you can't figure out what it is from the name, I sure as sugar hope you're not voting. If you're not at work, go have a look. Hilarious.
I don't know about you, but I'll be waiting until Wednesday morning to see what happens. Tonight will be spent doing anything but paying attention to politics. I hope everyone else out there in blogland has a diversion to fall back on.
So now, we wait.
