Drone Ownward
The future is still here — “the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV.” (Illustration of General Atomics Predator UAV found here). This morning another report of yet another unmanned aerial vehicle — UAV, or “drone” — attack on a suspected insurgent hideout in Pakistan. From the New…
Timing the ‘Shadow Army’
Wednesday’s seemingly-fearless, intricate attacks in Kabul by a way-over-resurgent Taliban should be very much a sign-post of an eye-opener on the bad road ahead in Afghanistan. Apparently, a near-identical Mumbai operation with its seemingly random assaults and a kind of scatter-brained detail to its movements — The old, time-tested “shooting as they went” scenario. Fifty-six…
News Bytes Dog
Today has been what’s most-definitely called a big news-event day, from all things financial — the ongoing stimulus package finally passed Congress, bank CEOs were grilled on Capitol Hill, more fallout came from yesterday’s unveiling of Bank Bailout Two and Bernie Madoff’s old lady snatched $10 million from a brokerage firm the day before the…
‘Nobody Knows Anything’
“When it comes to backs, nobody knows anything.” — Peter Paul ‘Paulie Walnuts’ Gualtieri, The Sopranos One of the most-frightful aspects of this extremely-current financial meltdown is its seemingly incoherent complexities, made worse by dumbfounded, clueless financial people: “I don’t, in all candor, understand a lot of it,” conceded Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Northern…
Requiem for the Graves
Dying in Iraq is down: In January, 138 civilians were killed in violence across the country, compared with 238 in December, according to the figures, based on data collected by Iraq’s Health, Defense and Interior ministries. Who’s keeping tab? And those doing so, can they be trusted? (Illustration found here). Despite all the ha-ha-ha-ha about…
Words and the Looneytune GOP
This morning a note on words misplaced by right-wing, wingnuts suffering intently from schizophasia in a most non-oblique fashion. An ex-Detroit Lions coach had to apologize for being nasty and petulent last month after saying “Good-bye, ladies,” to three male Detroit sports writers. Reminds one of California’s Governator proclaiming members of the state legislature as…
Lonely Afghan Dilemma — Obama’s Daymare
daymare Pronunciation: \ˈdÄ-ËŒma(É™)r, -ËŒme(É™)r\ Function: noun : a nightmarish fantasy experienced while awake (Illustration of the Darul Aman palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, found here). Afghanistan is one lonely country, and apparently so, becoming more lonely with each passing day. Down through history, the Afghan motif has been the graveyard of empires, and right now it’s…
Killin’ Themselves
“Suicide is painless,” and yes indeed it does bring on many changes, but with the game of life hard to play, since it’s gonna be lost anyway, to win is to cheat, lay it down before gettin’ beat… Paraphrasing a description of a definite blowback from two ugly wars grinding this country into dust. (Illustration…
Nuts-and-Bolts-and-Circuits Of Modern War
One thing is certain in history: Weapons of war have become more advanced as a civilization seemingly progresses, always and continually getting more bang for the buck, and in turn, becoming less humane, more indiscriminate in the killing. Modern war machines attempt to eliminate the human element altogether. (Illustration of a two-man Gaelic battle chariot…