West Vs. Islam?

It's looking that way. Read this and the links contained in the article.

(it might be Islam vs. liberal Europe...but that doesn't change the horror of what's going on)

USS McCampbell hits a merch in the UAE

The USS McCampbell (DDG-85, an Arleigh Burke) hit a merch in the UAE.

This will end the career of the CO. A guy I served with, CDR McBeth. He was just a LTJG when I served with him on the Antietam - he was a great officer. It's a shame to see his career effectively over because of this.

Update to the Afghanistan Christian trial

It appears that Germany and Italy aren't too impressed with the trial, including this from the German Development minister:
saying her government would do everything possible to save the life of Abdul Rahman.

The Bush administration is surprisingly weak-kneed on this, what with their being run by the Christian-right and all.

The story from the World Nut Daily

Madeline Albright

"I am somebody who finds a lot of fun in the possibility of being able to make decisions that have an effect on Americans."

- Madeleine Albright as reported by the Yale Daily News

This should scare the crap out of you.

PS: The link to the YDN article is busted, otherwise I'd post it.

Allergies, asthma & stuff

I came up on my own (so I thought, anyway) with a theory about allergies like peanuts & stuff. My theory was that more kids are developing allergies to peanuts because their bodies aren't developing the allergens that lots of adults have because of a super-clean environment. No dust in the house, no pets, bla bla. Turns out I wasn't wrong.

1975

In 1975:

• Gerald Ford was President
  
• Gas cost 63.5c/gal
  
• Saigon was evacuated (end of the Viet Nam war)
  
• Jimmy Hoffa disappeared
  
• The sitcom "Welcome Back Kotter" premiered
  
• The L.A. Clippers (then known as the Baltimore Braves) started on the 75-76 basketball season where they would go over .500. That's the last time they've done it until this (05-06) season.
  

Townsville and Cyclone "Larry"

Townsville was the first city in Australia I visited with the Navy. I like Townsville. Now, it's going to get blown away by Larry, a Force 5 Cyclone.

Afghanistan and democracy/freedom

How is that whole thing in Afghanistan with democracy, freedom, etc. working out? not so well.

Law Professor 1, American Taliban 0

An American Univ. law prof slams the door hard on an American Taliban (Sen Jacobs-MA). goodness here.

What's worn under the kilt?

Nothing!. It's all in perfect working order. And a Scotsman on a German train was more than happy to demonstrate what's worn under the kilt.

The NYT and Bush bashing

I'm no fan of Bush. I'm even less of a fan of the MSM because of crap like this:

NYT reports they've "found" the guy in the hood from the Abu Ghraib pix on page 1. Turns out they haven't, so they run the story about their doubts on page 17. See "Torturing The News -- II" here.

Reporter asks Dan Rather a hard question

And gets booed. And their mike shut off.

If Dan Rather wasn't so busy being the Democrat's watercarrier during the '04 election, he wouldn't have put himself in this mess.

Religious nutjobs go crazy over a book

That has incest, murder and mayhem. And no, it's not The Bible.

Moussauoi's death penalty phase on hold

The geniuses on the prosecution side have dorked this up. Again.

And now for something completely different

Visit the DPRK!

http://www.korea-dpr.com/kfa2006/kfadelegation05.wmv

You'll need to cut & paste the URL, they seem to reject lots of different websites "referring" to their URL.

Citibank Confirms Hack

Citibank has confirmed the hack that I posted last week.

Losing stuff in Japan

People lose stuff in Japan (and everywhere else). In Japan, they actually return the stuff. There are zillions of stories of people leaving backpacks on subways and getting them returned, contents intact. But, what happens when stuff isn't claimed? Apparently, there's lots of it and they're fixing the laws on lost/unclaimed stuff.

Umbrellas get lost/forgotten all the time; but since you can get them for Y100 or Y200 at a 7-11 or 100 Yen store, no one cares...

The March continues....

The march to fascism continues. While I will admit that the government has a need to keep classified material classified, they DO NOT have the need/right to intimidate journalists.

The 40 year fire

In 1962, in Centralia, PA, an underground coal fire started. It's still burning today. Story

Oregon State Univ Student paper caves

They've caved into the Muslims so they don't offend anyone Muslims. Story.

Citibank hacked. Hardcore.

Know someone with a Citibank card? Give them this information. Especially if they travel overseas and expect to use their ATM or credit card. They might get the fun called "INELEGIBLE_ACCOUNT".

The Death of James Bond

When a REAL MAN played James Bond (Connery, Moore, Brosnan), he drove a REAL CAR (Aston Martin, BMW).

We now have a weenie playing James Bond (Daniel Craig), who is an affirmed gun-fearing weenie, a lame-ass excuse for a Bond girl (Eva Green) and now Bond will be driving a fucking FORD MONDEO. A family sedan. Yes, it will be souped up to do 224kph/135mph, according to the story, but an Aston-Martin or a BMW can do that out of the box. What's next? Is Bond going to sit around a campfire with Blofeld, sing Kumbaya and drink some nice herbal tea? (can't have him drinking alcohol, you know, since that would glamourize alcohol and scar the kiddies for life).

Here's my offering to the Bond producers on what this sad-sap should carry in his shoulder holster:

Wings game yesterday

8 of us from LetsGoWings.com here in Socal made a group get-together of the Ducks/Wings game on Mar 1 at the Arrowhead Pond. I carpooled it up with a guy and his wife (guy orig. from the Detroit area, wife a Boston-area refugee and Red Wings convert) to the game. We first rendezvous'ed at a bar across the street from the Pond. When we got there around 5pm (face off at 7:30) the place was pretty packed and there must have been 50-60 RW jerseys in the place and maybe a couple of Ducks jerseys. That ratio didn't change at all while we were in the bar. We had dinner & a few beers at the bar and then headed over for the pre-game skate and then broke up to go to our seats. I was in section 406, which put me in the Wings attack zone for the 1st & 3rd period, in the left corner. The seat was really good. The Wings won the game 2-0!

The Arrowhead Pond is a great venue. Parking is a bit disorganized and when I went for a beer run after the 1st period, the concession stands were mobbed and they weren't going very fast at all, but they were OK otherwise. Prices weren't TOO high (beer was $6.25, pretzels $3, churro was $3).

I had a blast and I'm glad I got to meet some of the other Wing Nuts here in Socal.

Another pic

 

Another snap of the pre-game skate with the Wings lined up. I forgot to upload this at the same time as the other 4. 

Pics from the hockey game

These pics were taken with my cellphone camera, so they're not great....

The warmup with Osgood in net.



More of the pre-game skate.


The Zambonis before the game. This was taken from my seat.
A faceoff to the Ducks's goalie's right side.