Flashback: The Onion Point-Counterpoint Sept. 26, 2001

Probably my favorite The Onion piece ever.

"We must retaliate with blind rage" vs. "We must retaliate with measured, focused rage."

Both sides make great points.

Weird Science

Salt water is apparently flammable.

Thanks to Hot Air Headlines for making me wonder what reality truly is.

Never Forget.

Don't Count Him Out Yet! Okay, I Did, and Still Do, But You're Not Me

Senator John McCain isn't the most popular Republican candidate (and has been having various campaign troubles), and for a lot of good reasons. Still:

Having breakfast in the Courtyard by Marriott in Concord with CNN's Candy Crowley when who should walk in the door but McCain himself, arriving to get ready for the afternoon speech in the hotel's ballroom. He walked over to the table to chat.

"Are you all alone?" [Washington bureau chief Susan Page] asked.

"I fired 'em all," McCain joked. (Not really. An aide who had been parking the car then arrived.)

Via USAToday and HotAir. The man laughs in the face of adversity, instead of avoidng the press or sulking or anything. I like that.

Would that he had better positions, but hey. He's better than the Democratic nominees, anyway. (I know, I know. Low bar.)

Movie reviews: Die Hard 4, Transformers

Both were good. Transformers was better.

Transformers was really, really good.

The end.

I'm back.

Yeah, well, I actually got back on Tuesday. Of last week.

Anyway, here's an article about how Things Might've Been if we had never invaded Iraq, from Opinion Journal:

Given the problems and U.S. casualties in Iraq, polls show a large majority of the American people believe the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Yet if we imagine what the world would look like today if Saddam Hussein had not been deposed, it seems clear that almost no outcome in Iraq would be as adverse to the interests of the United States as today's world with Saddam still in power.

It's a good article, and certainly something to keep in mind when you hear of politicians say the War was a mistake.

I'd like those selfsame politicians (mostly, but not exclusively Democrats) to tell us, on the record, what alternative strategy and tactics they'd've used, and how it would be better. Perhaps, in some sort of forensic debate.

Return to Tunguska

The mysterious event in 1908 has been mysterious for a hundred years. There was some apparent impact, burned trees, and other strangeness. But now, a new lead:

In late June of 1908, a fireball exploded above the remote Russian forests of Tunguska, Siberia, flattening more than 800 square miles of trees. Researchers think a meteor was responsible for the devastation, but neither its fragments nor any impact craters have been discovered.

Astronomers have been left to guess whether the object was an asteroid or a comet, and figuring out what it was would allow better modeling of potential future calamities.

Italian researchers now think they've found a smoking gun: The 164-foot-deep Lake Cheko, located just 5 miles northwest of the epicenter of destruction.

The Tunguska Event has intrigued me for a long time. I never bought the ideas that it was a UFO crash, or a miniature black hole, or a small bit of antimatter, but none of the less esoteric explanations really seemed to explain everything. I'm looking forward to further reports.

Blogging Will Be Light(er)

My vacation starts on Wednesday. I have a lot to do before then, I won't be using any computer much during, and I'll have a lot to do after-- so there won't be much going on here for a while.

Just, you know, FYI.

Open thread, if anyone wants one.

Big Trouble in Red China

Via Sachi at Big Lizards:

Recently, we have started to hear one disturbing story after another coming out of China:
Poisonous pet food;
Toxic toothpaste;
Dangerous toys, and so on.
All of a sudden, we started to notice that one of our largest trading partners was not living up to the standard we demand. But in fact, China’s sloppy business practice has been noticed by many businessmen all over the world who have dealt with them over the years. Only recently, however -- when their products started to kill us (and especially our pets!) -- have we started to pay attention.

China's a big deal. Between these problems, their enormous population, their increasing military spending, and their support of Iran and North Korea, they may not be a global superpower, but we need to be careful. (I guess I'd label them a regional superpower.) As Sachi says, they're a major trading partner, so Sino-American relationships are... Complex. And I didn't mention Taiwan, which squares that complexity.

Read the whole post-- China's got a a lot of enviomental problems that it doesn't need to have. I wish the American Left would try to help clean China up as much as it tries to clean up America, but for some reason, The People's Republic gets a pass. It shouldn't.

Forget the cats- bring in the robots.

Funny stuff here.

Probably older than Time Itself, but new to me and funny.

(And, yes, that's an Optimus Prime Mr. Potato Head on June 19th. In stores now.)

Robots. Lol. Yeah.

New Element: Moronblogroll

I'm compiling a list of Official Ace of Spades Moronbloggers, so that we can all harass each other on all our blogs.

I'm sure I've only scratched the surface, but I'll be adding more as I see them and are suggested to me.

Other questions and comments? Um, comment.

Tag, I'm It; No Tagbacks

Since Nice Deb (whose blog is much better than mine; go read it), tagged me, apparently Internet Honor requires me to answer some questions forsooth. (And I guess I get to change them and add my own, right?)

Yay, verily:

1) What book(s) is/are you reading now?

I'm currently reading Mickey Spillane's Micke Hammer novels. They're fun, see?

2) Favorite historical event (domestic)?

I'm going to go with the War of 1812. The Limeys wanted a rematch, but got pwn3d!

3) Favorite historical event (International)?

It's always amused me how Prussia doesn't exist anymore.

4) You’re giving a Hollywood pitch (25 words or less) about your Blog — GO

It's not updated enough, it's not very good, but it's free.

5) Other than where you live now, what city do you like?

Anywhere, as long as some friends are there. Seriously.

6) Favorite TV series:

Babylon 5. It was intelligent science fiction drama, with good special effects and better writing. (And there's a new DVD due out next month!)

7) Are you a Wilsonian Idealist or Nixonian Realist in foreign policy?

I dunno, man. I'm more of a Reagan Interventionist or Jeffersonian Jihad-Killer. (It's not that I want the U.S. to police the world, it's that for our own safety, the world needs policing. And since there's no international Batman or someone, it falls to us.)

8) Favorite B- movie?

Oh, man, this is a toughie. I think Teenagers From Outer Space has a lot of charm. I mean, yeah, Plan 9 is hilarious, but Teenagers From Outer Space is pretty neat.

9) Chain restaurants and franchises: spawn of the Devil, or necessary for modern life?

The latter. Dave Barry once said that people just want to go to a place where they know the food is mediocre. In my case, it's the familiarity and knowing what you're going to get. Also, there are soem chains that have foods I love love love.

10) What upcoming movie are you most looking forward to?

Transformers. They're- get this- more than meets they eye, right? I mean, they're *robots*. In disguise.

I'll update this later with links. Also, I'll think on who I should be a-taggin'.

Update: Negatory on that last bit- I tag everyone who reads this post, has a blog, hasn't been tagged, and wants to. Change whatever; my blog authority is roughly nil. (Links still be come.)

To Do List

By, uh, Monday?:

Hit counter.

Actual blogroll.

Longer posts about stuff.

Links to things I found myself that aren't on every blog I read or should read.

Other suggestions, Dear Theoretical Reader?

Funniest thing I've read in a while.

I don't know how I've missed it, but Iowahawk is hilarious. The most recent is a noir spoof about Dan Rather, in a continuing series.

Um.

So I kind of forgot my password.

Not that I was goingn to post much, but some.

Me am smart.

R.I.P. Bobby "Boris" Pickett

Via WizBang Pop. Very sad. "Monster Mash" is a fun song, and he did several others in his Karloff voice- "Monster's Holiday," "Monster Rap," "It's Alive."

McCain (Re)Launches Campaign!!!

Well, I commented about this at Ace's blog, and Slublog's got more on it too, so I may as well post about it.

...Okay, I was bluffing. I got nuthin'.

Just this marker, and I've held this view for a long time: Neither Sen. John McCain nor Sen. Hillary Clinton will be their party's Presidential nominee. Too many negatives among their respective bases, for starters.

Who will be the nominees, I really don't know. Right now, I'll guess it'll be Guiliani vs. Obama. Next week, I'll probably guess Romney vs. Edwards or Thompson vs. Gravel. (No, I don't know who Gravel is, either. And note I didn't say *which* Thompson.)

Wednesday Krauthammer!? (x4)

Catch-all catch-up. When I started this blog, I kinda thought I'd have more time and more material, and a regualr weekly feature would just be a small percentage of my postings. (I need a better word for "Whoops.")

Anyhoo. March 30th: He contends that the real War on Terror is being fought in Iraq, not Afghanistan, and he's very convincing.

Thought experiment: Bring in a completely neutral observer — a Martian — and point out to him that the United States is involved in two hot wars against radical Islamic insurgents. One is in Afghanistan, a geographically marginal backwater with no resources and no industrial or technological infrastructure.
The other is in Iraq, one of the three principal Arab states, with untold oil wealth, an educated population, an advanced military and technological infrastructure that, though suffering decay in the later years of Saddam Hussein's rule, could easily be revived if it falls into the right (i.e., wrong) hands.

He's got a lot more, too.

April 6: Iran's seizure of British sailors and Marines.

April 13: Thoughts on the Surge in Iraq.

April 20: The shootingat Virginia Tech, and its coverage.

I really don't have anything to add.

More about Russia

I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but Stratfor.com has a "weekly intelligence briefing" at Bill O'Reilly's website. Yeah, struck me as weird too.

Anyway, the current one is an analysis of Russia's historical cycles, and where it is now, and what's likely to come. Interesting stuff, methinks.

Breaking: Boris Yeltsin, R.I.P.

From MSNBC:

Former President Boris Yeltsin, who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, has died, a Kremlin official said Monday. He was 76.

Obviously, there's more there (apparently, heart failure). Considering his age, I guess it wasn't that unexpected.

Also, I have no real idea how to react to this. I mean, his record (at least from my [American] perspective) was pretty mixed.

Maybe I'll have more later, after it sinks in and I've caught up with what I meant to post yesteday. (I *may* have time later today, dunno. For this piece of breaking news, I made time.)

Update: Not getting a lot of traction in the blogosphere that I see; even with residual VTech and Blue Angels reporting, it's pretty slow news-wise today. Dunno. I mean, yeah, my reaction was kind of a shrug-- and I presume that that's many others' reaction as well-- but it should be at least noted, yes?