Sunday, 26 June 2011
Marines with Battery K fire 120 mm mortars June 21. The battery provides artillery and indirect fire for Battalion Landing Team 3/1, the ground-combat element of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The unit is training with the Expeditionary Fire Support System for an upcoming deployment later this year. Photo by Cpl. Gene A. Ainsworth III
H/T Marc
Stealth QE3 is here!!.............from Rico
While Benny the Bernank dazzled us at the conclusion of the last 2-day FOMC meeting by putting lipstick on our economic pig, he also kinda-sorta 'told' us that QE3 was already in place and how it would work.
It is a "stealth" QE3, without being 'called' QE anything. Here's how it works:
- The FED will use money and principal payments from the maturing bonds it already holds to buy MORE bonds! The purchasing system/mechanism is nearly identical to their Treasury Bond purchase program (a.k.a. QE2).
This is really 'slick' because instead of 'printing more money' the 'reinvestment' of maturing debt (1) does not reduce the government's bloated, indebted, balance sheet, but (2) 'changes' the composition of that balance sheet, and [for Keynesians and Dem's (C)] (3) not for the better.
Reinvesting maturing debt does NOT retire that debt, but expands it with even more debt. it is a continuation of our current fiscal and monetary policies and will be ruinous for our economy.
Look for rising inflation to result from this....say 20% to 50%.
- But not to worry....you can TRUST the Government and our private Central Bank!!!
The Sunday Best......
Al Sadr’s Mahdi Army Vows to Launch Suicide Attacks Against US Troops
Rule 5 Saturday Night: Ana Beatriz Barros
Pride 2011
NGO Urges UN Chief to Retract Blessing for Cynical Iranian Conference on Terrorism
Illegal Aliens Set Arizona on Fire
Propaganda & Hedonic Adjusting 101
Thousands of foreigners snap up Olympics tickets meant for Brits
Election season trumps fighting season as United States retreats from the world
Swearing at police not an offence
Alarm for Syrian President Assad as protesters close in on Damascus
Eurozone relief as China pledges debt bailout
The end of an era for Zimbabwe's last white farmers?
US military leaders fear Afghanistan withdrawal will increase soldier deaths
National Trust fences off cows over fears of risk to public
Israelis mark fifth year of Gilad Shalit's capture
and finally.......
How one American male cooks when the family is away
Losing Patience with Counterinsurgency
At the video is the fascinating exchange where General Petraeus endorses torture in the case of the ticking time bomb. Keith Olbermann, whose "Countdown" program has been resurrected, smeared Petraeus on this in a recent segment, with quotes from other top officials who essentially impugn the general's reputation.
More video from the testimony at Gateway Pundit, "American Hero General David Petraeus: “I Disagree With Barack Obama… I’m No Quitter”."
Yeah. A hero. Not to Keith Olbermann.
Anyway, on the implosion of counterinsurgency, see National Journal, "Washington Losing Patience with Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan."
John Nagl is the kind of guy who brings to mind F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wicked line in The Great Gatsby about people who succeed at such an early age that “everything afterward savors of anticlimax.” A star at West Point and a Rhodes scholar, the native Nebraskan was only 37 when he landed on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in January 2004. In that article, Nagl offered an inside-the-Sunni-Triangle tutorial on what he came to call “graduate-level war.” Nagl’s mantra: “We have to outthink the enemy, not just outfight him.” In an era when small but wily bands of nonuniformed insurgents could stymie America’s mighty military machine with stealthy guerrilla attacks and roadside bombs planted in the night, the U.S. had to figure out how to hunt down the bad guys and cut off their support from the local population. Nagl, after studying the British and French colonial experience, as well as America’s handling of the Vietnam War, helped to develop what has since become famous as U.S. “counterinsurgency doctrine,” or COIN. As his celebrity grew, Nagl proselytized about it everywhere, even on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.RTWT.
By the late 2000s, the precocious Army major had become part of a brain trust around America’s uber-general, David Petraeus, the commander who implemented the Iraq troop surge. Commissioned by Petraeus, Nagl helped to author the official counterinsurgency manual that has since reoriented American military doctrine, shifting the center of gravity from rough-and-ready conventional war fighters to cerebral specialists in irregular warfare and targeted response. After retiring from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in early 2008—even though he seemed to be on the fast track to four-star fame—Nagl took over a little-known think tank, the Center for a New American Security, and turned it into what journalist Tara McKelvey called “counterinsurgency central in Washington.”
Brilliant and brash as ever at the advanced age of 45, Nagl delivers a sober endorsement of the military’s current COIN strategy in Afghanistan, which, because it was adapted from Iraq, is partly his brainchild. It is a strategy that many experts believe is not working—and the skeptics may now include President Obama himself. “I think any sane person would be disillusioned,” Nagl says over a lunch of mussels and mozzarella salad at Finemondo, a lushly decorated restaurant around the corner from his office. Even some of those around Petraeus (who is retiring from the military to run the CIA) are losing heart. But Nagl says that the Janus-faced core of COIN strategy—winning over the Afghan population with kindness, aid, and a multibillion-dollar policy to “clear, hold, and build” towns and villages while ruthlessly killing off insurgents—is just starting to succeed. He laments that the debate in Washington is dominated by critics who complain that the war is almost 10 years long and already more hopeless than Vietnam.
Yet another reason I'm unhappy with the president. Cut-and-run is one thing, but running when the tide is turning is another. George W. Bush refused to abandon Iraq, and that's when the consensus from all quarters was that the war was a "fiasco." We persevered in Iraq, and it's a stable emerging democracy today. In Afghanistan, I'm not confident we'll be able to say the same thing a fews years from now.
Cross-posted: "The Implosion of Counterinsurgency."
On Allison Benedikt's 'Life After Zionist Summer Camp'
A lot of this is Jewish inside baseball, so I'm only partly competent to weigh in authoritatively, but my first impression while reading is that Allison Benedikt is, to be frank, a monstrously ignorant, enormously indecisive groupie/wannabe hipster. The essay's written in a kind of droll childish style. It reminds me of someone you might see walking down the street but looks like they don't have the slightest clue where they're going. Benedikt, a Jew from the Midwest, lived her entire life thinking she was going to make aliyah, only to decide that, nah, Zionism wasn't so cool after all. The clincher is that she met, and then later married, a "progressive" non-Jewish dude named Mark (not Marc, to the horror of her parents). Mark had been duly programmed as a zombified anti-Semite by some sections of the modern Jew-hating left. He obviously liked Allison, despite religious differences, and thus quickly went to work destroying her faith in Israel, and since she'd spent an entire life refusing to really learn about the country of her faith --- and her parents' enduring commitment --- she basically melted into a Hamas-defending self-hating American Jew who would be perfectly at home in the comment threads at Daily Kos. It's a long read, so find a few minutes before diving in. The main takeaway is how the piece is like catnip for the neo-communists now cheering the next Gaza flotilla.
Anyway, I saw this when it came out, and then William Jacobson wrote a pithy post, so I was reminded: "Least Shocking Blog Post Title Ever: “Village Voice Editor discovers she hates Israel, curses when challenged”." Check that entry, but the preview is that she told Israeli historian Yaacov Lozowick to f**k off on Twitter. Not surprising, I know. And check the Memeorandum link as well. Benedikt gave a cryptic citation to the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, and he felt obligated to comment, and at considerable length as well. And the debate devolved to include Andrew Sullivan, but I don't read him so you'll just have to check it out.
Cross-posted: "Allison Benedikt's 'Life After Zionist Summer Camp'; or, The Mysterious Evolution of a Dumb Hadassah Youth Activist to Hip Progressive Israel-Basher."
Kate Upton Jenna Leigh Photo Shoot
This young woman is becoming a superstar virtually overnight.
See: "Kate Upton, Jenna Leigh Lingerie Photoshoot, Spring/Summer 2011."
Bonus: At Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Vanessa Marcil."
Extra: At Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 Saturday: Caterina Murino."
Saturday, 25 June 2011
New York Legislature Passes Gay Marriage Bill
And from my analysis:
... the progressive sensationalism on this is deeply offensive, for example, "The arc of history bends towards justice in N.Y." Actually, gay marriage is not a civil right. Gay Americans are not an oppressed minority, but one of the most affluent and powerful interest groups in American politics. That's why a federal solution to the gay marriage issue remains vital. The gay radical lobby will browbeat kind and reasonable Americans, folks who don't want to put up with the fuss of being hammered over the head or dragged before Stalinist show trials. It's pretty bad, but it's the way things are going around here.Check the essay for all the links.
Divorced Father Thomas Ball Commits Suicide on Steps of New Hampshire Courthouse
An intense story that's generated great controversy, albeit largely out of the MSM spotlight, which is too bad: "'Pure Feminist Evil' — Amanda Marcotte's Response to Thomas Ball's Courthouse Self-Immolation."
Be sure to follow the links at the post, where there's lots of background information.
Peter Falk a.k.a. Columbo
London, England
Was terribly sad to hear about the passing of Peter Falk. For years he was on the small screen as Columbo in that wonderful American television series. As a child of the television age, I would spend far too many hours watching Batman, The Man From UNCLE and repeats of Top Cat. Although I remember these programmes well and it brings back wonderful childhood memories,, could I have been a better student without them? Probably. How many of us can recollect a television programme from 25 or 30 years ago? You're more likely to remember a great Hollywood blockbuster like The Godfather. Wasted years - maybe.
Take a look at some great British television from the 1960's and early 70's
JOINT PACIFIC ALASKAN RANGE COMPLEX, Alaska (June 21, 2011) An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to the Bounty Hunters of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 2 based at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., takes on fuel from a KC-130T Hercules assigned to the Yankees of Marine Aerial Transport Squadron (VMGR) 452, based at Stewart Air National Guard Base, N.Y., while other Super Hornet strike fighters fly in formation waiting to refuel. The refueling is part of Northern Edge Premier Joint Training Exercise 2011. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j.g. Joe Painter)
H/T Marc
Bleedin' impressive lads!...........from Rico
Remember when the "recovery plan" was rammed up our....er, down our throats? Full speed ahead. Jobs must be SAVED.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
Wow.
What a great recovery plan THAT was. Sure worked a treat, Barry & Co
Limerick.........
There once was a liberal named Weiner
Who had a perverted demeanor
Forced from the Hill
For acting like Bill
Now Congress is one Weiner leaner
H/T Shelly
News............
Coke Conundrum
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Information Dissemination: On the War Powers Act
Americans Most Confident in Military, Least in Congress
Lost lessons of 1941
First unit of expanded Combined Security Force graduates training
BLACKFIVE: Just not good enough for their neighborhood
bin Laden wanted to “rebrand” al-Qaida?
Experts: Drawdown plans leave an ambiguous military mission
Alstom in deal to build high-speed rail in Iraq
In Defense of 'Hurtful' Speech by Geert Wilders
New simulators prepare pilots and mechanics for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
The GOP's War Powers Opportunism
Freshen GOP Rep. rips into Congress
Liberal American Jewish suckers
"How to avoid getting hit by a train."
When You Lose The Black Vote
Real Men in Black Target a Resident?
Fear is turning to anger, but the EU bureaucrats will still screw us
Nato lacks firepower to ensure collapse of Gaddafi regime
£10bn 'black hole' means new defence cuts loom
China and Britain locked in cyber war
A Greek tragedy long in the making
Syrian forces open fire on protesters on day 101
Hizbollah members 'confess to spying for CIA'
China opens string of spy schools
US 'could withdraw funding from UN if Palestine state is recognised'
Anti-Virus Pioneer Evgeny Kaspersky: 'I Fear the Net Will Soon Become a War Zone'
Army admits shooting, driving problems
Spanish troops to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014
and finally.........
The Every Guy’s Guide: The most manly beach drinks
The Best Grumpy Old Men in Movies
Keeping up "appearances".............from Rico
While everyone is 'distracted' by the ongoing kabuki theater (a.k.a. manipulation nation) on the national level, no one is noticing the fact that while the USG has the FED to print all the money it wants to spend (errr....borrow), our States do not have this option. States are laying off employees, cutting back on services, and are underfunded in their pension plans.
So, while the US "appears" to have 50 States, the financial reality is there are:
- 20 Portugals
- 15 Italys
- 10 Irelands
- 3 Greeces
and
- 2 Spains
Obama Misspeaks at Fort Drum
Background at Blackfive, "PRESIDENT OBAMA'S TERRIBLE MISTAKE."
And additional links, "President Obama Misspeaks at Ft. Drum (VIDEO)." Scroll to 3:30 minutes at the clip:
Friday, 24 June 2011
Michele Bachmann Statement on Israel
This video is getting huge kudos from across the conservative blogosphere, and Bachmann once again makes me proud to be a supporter.
See: "Michele Bachmann: 'I Stand With Israel'."
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011 - Esti Ginzburg
The usual bikini loveliness: "Esti Ginzburg Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011."
Great video at the link.
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