“Sir, I am deeply concerned about Iraq. The task you have given me is becoming really impossible ... if they (Sunni and Shiite) are not prepared to urge us to stay and to co-operate in every manner I would actually clear out. ... At present we are paying eight millions a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having.” Winston Churchill to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Sept. 1, 1922 What do...
I just returned from a trip to Cuba not too long ago. It's a beautiful country with all of the sorrows and triumphs of a small island nation. Is it a utopian paradise? Not by a long shot. But it ain't half bad either. If anything, it was far more relaxed than I thought it would be. I saw plenty of the country and got out and about with no difficulties or restrictions. I had a bit of trouble seeing the "evil communist" regime that we've been indoctrinated t...
Hello Fellow Joeusers. I'm going to be offline for awhile, so I thought I'd leave you with a rather interesting article from one of my favorite sites which I highly encourage you all to go and check out; http://www.truthdig.com/ I see that Obama's been in office for what, 3 months? And, apparently everything is his fault. As I've said earlier, many times, I was pro-Bush for the first year of his presidency until I realized what a tool he really was. So, I'll leave you with this little di...
-Warning- This article is just about as nerdy as it gets. If you are offended by or allergic to nerds, please turn back now. The last little while I've been completely nocturnal... projects in which work can only be done in the wee hours of the morning when most folks are sleeping. This has had an unforeseen consequence- I've been playing a lot more games than normal. As anyone who's ever had to work during off-times knows (midnight to 8 am for examp...
The following words are from a Republican Congressman in Texas- Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of “keeping us safe” or “promoting democracy” or “protecting their strategic interests.” Imagine that the...
Sunday night, 8 pm. I've gotta couple of free hours to fart around. Girlfriend's sick and doped up on anti-histamines on the couch, watching her shows (well only sort of watching as she's drifting in and outta la-la land) So I figure I'm gonna do something I haven't done in a looooong time. I'm gonna nerd it up and play some computer games! Back in January I got a new PC. Nothing fancy, an off the shelf deal that's got better processor, memory, RAM, video card than my old ri...
Well folks, it looks like things are going to get a whole lot worse before they start getting any better- Today the largest corporate loss in U.S history was reported by AIG. In 4th quarter of 2008 (that's only three months!) they lost over 62 billion dollars. The Dow Jones dropped below 7000 today. In just a little over a year it has lost more than 50% of it's value. Big corp. USA stocks appear to be in a race to the bottom with Citigroup and Bank of America stocks in...
We've all heard an endless amount of rhetoric about the economy. An infininite number of well-paid pompous talking heads have poured forth from the media machine to pontificate, analyze, scold, and explain to us the sheeple about why exactly it is that we're being kicked in the teeth, and why exactly it's really all our fault. "Gol' dang poor people borrowed more money than they could from the well to do banks and now everything's in the crapper because of it" At least that...
Run for the hills, the world is coming to an end!!!! The sky is falling and Obama's to blame for everything!!! ZOMG look at the stock markets, clearly 2 days in office and Obama's the sole reason why everything's tanking!! ahem. Let's take a moment to calm down (just a bit) and look at the "radical" leftist policies Obama has enacted in his first couple of days- 1) Treatment of prisoners- Obama has made it clear that prisoners are to be treated in accordance with the regulations set out...
Methinks '09 is going to be a terrible year for the economy. Recent items of interest in the news: Circuit City has officially gone tits up. They're closing all their stores and firing all 30,000 employees lock stock and barrel. No restructuring, or re-branding or what have you. Just going out of business, remember to get the lights and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. On the plus side, since it's a complete liquidation I'm sure some of the newly unemployed will manage to swi...
I would like to take a moment to congratulate Al Franken for getting elected to the senate, and beating his republican incumbent opponent Norm Coleman. Considering that Franken started his campaign WAAAAY behind the incumbent and was pretty much written off as a goofball no-chance candidate I think he's done pretty durn' gud if ya ask me. But anywho. Let's take a step back and take a look at the fellow. Noted books he wrote: "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and other Observation...
“I am more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money.” – Mark Twain Our current brand of capitalism is kaput. I am not saying that the concept as a whole is flawed, but rather the particular flavor we are using today. On what do I base this assertion? Nevermind that Enron was an omen of things to come that we casually dismissed as "a few bad apples" and allowed to replicate on a massive scale in the name of free markets. ...
The following was written by Samuel Clemens at the turn of the 20th century. L W's article about Christianity and it's current fear/love dynamic got me thinking on this tangent... considering it's getting awfully close to Christmas and all.... you know.... The War Prayer It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bun...
Have you ever seen the classic zombie movie "Dawn of the Dead" by George A. Romero? If not, I highly recommend it. A few years back they did a remake which was ok, but not nearly as good as the first. So go out, find the original made in 1978 and give it a whirl. There's a much deeper reason why you should watch this movie besides cheesy 1970's special effects gore. George Romero made it a point to use his zombie movies as social commentary and if one is able to look past the hollyw...
"Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies" (Thomas Jefferson) "The TARP is the most expensive boondoggle in history. No one even knows what the banks are doing with the money. There's neither accountability nor transparency. As a result, investor confidence has deteriorated and stocks have continued to fall. No one trusts Paulson to do the right thing anymore; it's that simple." (Mike Whitney) There's a funny lesson most folks learn at some point...