American Taliban

It's been a while since the American Taliban has done something that rates getting posted. But, they just made up for lost time.

And, as usual, the farkers have the right take on this.

More Japanese wackiness

A DVD made up of clips like this has sold 80,000 copies in Japan, with sales expected to hit 100,000!.

Update to Kill them with Connectivity

I saw more Chinese today at the Exchange. They were in working uniforms (coveralls..some of them Dickie's!), they all had name tags with their rate like OS (operations specialist, which is what I did in Navy), or RM (radio man), their name in Chinese and then under that, their rank like E2 and their name spelled out.

I saw some of the Chinese sailors using their cellphones. Think about it. Chinese sailors on a US Navy base, basically unescorted. Chinese sailors using cellphones. In the US!

Update/correction
It turns out that the Chinese left on Wed and the Taiwanese Navy came in on Wed. So, I saw Taiwanese sailors with their cellphones. That makes it even more crazy - Chinese one day, Taiwanese the next. Maybe they saw each other's ships transiting the San Diego bay?

What happens when a city dies?

Or is dying? It goes back to nature

Kill them with Connectivity

Thomas PM Barnett (Pentagon's New Map, Blueprint For Action, see link on the side) said that the way to erode a statist government is through connectivity. We saw a huge example of this when the Soviet Union fell - faxes, satellite TV and early email provided singnificant (and instant!) communication for those behind the Iron Curtain. It wasn't long before the USSR fell and most of it's client states collapsed. Sure, there was/is lots of rubble, like the mess the Germans incorporating the anemic East German economy, but the West won the Cold War without having T72s vs M1s in the Fulda Gap.

Yesterday, 2 ships from the Chinese Navy docked at Naval Station San Diego (32nd Street). The sailors are doing the usual tourist stuff (San Diego zoo), but they're also visiting the base Exchange and Commissary. Can you imagine what it must be like for a peasant from the hinterlands of China, serving as a junior enlisted man seeing an Exchange or Commissary? Seeing men & women in uniform, all ranks, all shopping at the same place. The parking lot filled with the cars of all of these sailors! Even the juniorest (is that a word?) of sailors has a car. If this is how sailors live, can you imagine how the rest of America lives? Now, imagine the message they take back to their families.

If we want Castro to collapse, we should open the floodgates of trade. Let his people see how Americans live.

And, if we want Iranians to choose a government that is pro-Western, we should connect as much as we can at the lowest levels. Spread the word of American dynamism, growth and freedom. Teach the Iranian people about the U.S. Bring an Iranian military delegation to Fort Irwin and put on a dog and pony show to show them the might of the US Army - and the vastness of the Fort Irwin PX.

Do the Republicans get donations from key makers?

WTF is going on here? Why are we even still considering the use of Diebold electronic voting machines? Especially in light of the security of their "lock and key" security system?

Do stores have "personality?"

Without a doubt. I buy the donuts for the group of guys that join us at the Cigar Grotto to watch football. I usually buy the donuts at Leucadia Donuts. Last week, Leucadia was closed (they were on vacation). So, I had to go to another donut shop. The ladies that were working behind the counter were sullen and so were the other people in the donut shop. This Sunday, I hit Leucadia. Tom (the owner) and his wife were happy, the customers were happy and it was overall more pleasant.

Which donut shop would YOU frequent?

One Line Movie Reviews

Snakes on a Plane: Silly fun, best with a crowd.
Crank: Ridiculously fun action picture
Hollywoodland: Oh, yeah, I saw that.
Black Dalhia: There's great, good, mediocre, bad and the Black Dalhia.

Videos from Japan

I finally got around to uploading my first batch of videos taken while in Japan. The page is here.

They're big videos, so give it time to download them.

More as I get them pushed up.

Sept 11

1297. The battle of Stirling Bridge. It's William Wallace's (Braveheart's) best known battle.

Current Reading List

I'm reading 3 books right now:
"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand - I re-read this every year or so. In fact, the copy I had (an old, fat paperbook) FINALLY bit the dust after about 20 years.
Prince Of The Marshes. A great book (so far) by a British civilian that goes to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Liberally dosed with appropriate quotes from Machiavelli, it's an awesome read and a bleak look into how things are going in Iraq.
Identity Crisis. A book published by the Cato Institute (libertarian thinktank) about identity and it's uses/abuses. Kind of a deep read, but very, very interesting.

Coming Up:
The Fall Of Rome
Disaster In Dearborn (The Story of the Edsel)

Have the terrorists won?

Yes. Without a doubt. We're now so damn afraid of our own shadow, that we can't get anything done. Today, for example, there are stories that O'Hare is prohibiting ALL CARRYONS.

A mere threat (like the dudes in London who were going to manufacture a bomb from liquids, nevermind the fact that they didn't have tickets and there's no evidence it would have worked, either) is enough to get us to run around and panic.

Manamana

Dootdoododo. The classic Muppets song put to Star Wars.

Funny stuff!