Hi,
Just caught your speech about Syria. You're probably right that President Assad gassed a few thousand of his fellow Syrians and it was horrible.
Sorry to say that after that part, you got a little gassy yourself. Part that I had the toughest time understanding is that Assad is the guy who did it but
you and your boss want to bomb somebody or something else. If you said who or what, I missed it.
I figure Bashir needs punishing, but it seems to me that since he gassed Syrians, Syrians ought to do the punishing. I listened to you say it was really our job (this was your gassy part I mentioned a sec ago), but I didn't hear anything more than about Saddam Hussein's old Weapons of Mass Destruction that will be shot at us pretty soon. You remember. Bush and those guys.
Seems to me if your boss reallly needs attention that bad, you might just go ahead and have somebody shoot Assad. Geez, with all the money we give you guys, how hard can it be to keep another Matt Helm on the payroll? Or maybe Nicolai Hel if you don't mind working with foreigners.
The CIA could pay a pretty handsome hit fee out of its petty cash drawer. 'course, you'd want to find a different bunch of guys to actually find Bashir.
And you'd have to make your staff write a speech for your boss full of plausible dunnowhodunnitability, but with a wink and a nudge everyone will know he's the hero. You too.
Anyway, just my 2 cents. Have a nice day.
Jim
Aug 30, 2013
Aug 28, 2013
Introducing Audra J. Wolfe
I suppose some readers already know of this young scholar, but she is new to me. I found her on my electric teevee a few minutes ago, on C-Span's American History channel.
She is mentioned here for one reason only. In discussing pre-Vietnam Pentagon funding for basic academic research, she said usually anti-militarist universities rationalized taking defense money because (a) they assumed military goals and general state goals to be one and the same and (b) they assumed state goals to be proper.
I read into her comment that she has vast doubts about a goal being proper simply because it is a policy result desired by the high federal establishment.
Her book on the subject, Competing with the Soviets, will be my next serious read. She says of it:
"... a short, accessible introduction to the special role that science and technology played in maintaining state power during the Cold War, from the atomic bomb to the Human Genome Project."
Maybe I'll find us another credentialed libertarian thinker who does her home work. Hope so.
She is mentioned here for one reason only. In discussing pre-Vietnam Pentagon funding for basic academic research, she said usually anti-militarist universities rationalized taking defense money because (a) they assumed military goals and general state goals to be one and the same and (b) they assumed state goals to be proper.
I read into her comment that she has vast doubts about a goal being proper simply because it is a policy result desired by the high federal establishment.
Her book on the subject, Competing with the Soviets, will be my next serious read. She says of it:
"... a short, accessible introduction to the special role that science and technology played in maintaining state power during the Cold War, from the atomic bomb to the Human Genome Project."
Maybe I'll find us another credentialed libertarian thinker who does her home work. Hope so.
The Innkeeper's Daughter
(Lest anyone think I snicker at all the French.)
Inspired by brief channel surfing trying to evade the 50th rerun of the annual canonization of MLK.
"What Price Glory" flashed by and triggered a memory.
Inspired by brief channel surfing trying to evade the 50th rerun of the annual canonization of MLK.
"What Price Glory" flashed by and triggered a memory.
Aug 27, 2013
Squeaky's 1911
Other than the locals reporting that I'll be hot today, only three electric teevee news flashes stirred my parts this morning. Miley's undies, of course, followed by Team Obama's decision to Cruise missilize those Syrian Islamists whom we currently dislike. War is fun, so let's make something go bang.
Like -- and this is story three -- Squeaky Fromme. Thirty-eight years ago she tried and failed to kill Jerry Ford in a pique of annoyance that he was polluting things and killing all the redwood trees.
Poor little Squeaky idiot, no better at making guns discharge than anything else in her incompetent life. "Fromme managed to say a few sentences to the on-scene cameras, emphasizing that the gun "didn't go off." That often happens when would-be assassins neglect to chamber a round.
Now, to quickly dispose of the moral issues, a guy shouldn't pollute or chop down redwoods unless he needs to make some nice patio furniture or something like that. And, in general, one should avoid pointing pistols at people, even politicians.
Forget all that. Assuming that this is the actual Fromme pistol,* "Gee, what a nice piece."
It appears to be an honest 1911, unbubbaed, unarsenaled, never converted to to A1. Grips, mainspring housing, grip safety, and long trigger point to an as-issued 1911, issued to (and quite possibly stolen by) a Yank officer who went Over There in 1917. The magazine catch looks newer, but that could be an honest repair
The Colt has lived actively and shows bluing wear and freckles. Nevertheless, it would be a pricey item without any historical significance at all. Given that Lynette Fromme made it famous, I wonder if it might be the world's most valuable 1911? When I finish my new kitchen window treatment, I think I'll scrabble around for its provenance since 1975.
Edit to add: Nothing complicated on provenance. The prosecutors gave it to the Ford library where it is still on display.
---
*Historiography note: To claim the pictured gun is the actual Fromme weapon puts a certain amount of faith in a number of people and agencies -- cops, Secret Service, the news and image archive industries, and Wikipedia. It rings true to me, but I leave open the chance that some frenzied breaking-news editor screamed to his staff, "Hey, I need a picture of an Army gun!", and things just went on from there.
Like -- and this is story three -- Squeaky Fromme. Thirty-eight years ago she tried and failed to kill Jerry Ford in a pique of annoyance that he was polluting things and killing all the redwood trees.
Poor little Squeaky idiot, no better at making guns discharge than anything else in her incompetent life. "Fromme managed to say a few sentences to the on-scene cameras, emphasizing that the gun "didn't go off." That often happens when would-be assassins neglect to chamber a round.
Now, to quickly dispose of the moral issues, a guy shouldn't pollute or chop down redwoods unless he needs to make some nice patio furniture or something like that. And, in general, one should avoid pointing pistols at people, even politicians.
Forget all that. Assuming that this is the actual Fromme pistol,* "Gee, what a nice piece."
It appears to be an honest 1911, unbubbaed, unarsenaled, never converted to to A1. Grips, mainspring housing, grip safety, and long trigger point to an as-issued 1911, issued to (and quite possibly stolen by) a Yank officer who went Over There in 1917. The magazine catch looks newer, but that could be an honest repair
The Colt has lived actively and shows bluing wear and freckles. Nevertheless, it would be a pricey item without any historical significance at all. Given that Lynette Fromme made it famous, I wonder if it might be the world's most valuable 1911? When I finish my new kitchen window treatment, I think I'll scrabble around for its provenance since 1975.
Edit to add: Nothing complicated on provenance. The prosecutors gave it to the Ford library where it is still on display.
---
*Historiography note: To claim the pictured gun is the actual Fromme weapon puts a certain amount of faith in a number of people and agencies -- cops, Secret Service, the news and image archive industries, and Wikipedia. It rings true to me, but I leave open the chance that some frenzied breaking-news editor screamed to his staff, "Hey, I need a picture of an Army gun!", and things just went on from there.
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