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Today's Fortune: |
   
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Saturday, April 05, 2003
All of the Baghdad cams appear to be down, and the CNN and CBS links have disappeared. The last time I saw live video from one, it looked like there was a fire burning within camera range.
.: posted by andy 4/5/2003
Here's a pic of an Israeli special operator removing a pet rabbit from a Palestinian home before his unit destroys the building.
.: posted by andy 4/5/2003
There's a link to the CBS webcam in downtown Baghdad on this page. There's smoke in the background, but the city seems surprisingly busy this morning. Supposedly American troops are in the city, now.
.: posted by andy 4/5/2003
I would think Albania would be the poorest in Europe, what with their economy collapsing after a giant pyramid scheme, and the government collapsing along with it. But directly following the bombings, Serbia was the poorest. That was several years ago, though. Things are probably different, now.
.: posted by andy 4/5/2003
I thought Moldova was the poorest state in Europe.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/5/2003
Friday, April 04, 2003
I don't think you're thinking like a marketer, mr. cassidy. That's the reason why you haven't seen any ads for military recruitment. Turn it over to MTV, you'll notice just about every third ad is for the military. It's probably not going to do the military much good to advertise on the food network, or on the history channel.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/4/2003
I agree that "Mohammad" is pretty heroic, given his circumstances. I hope he can make a good life in America.
I also agree that getting captured does not automatically make you a hero. Nor does evading capture. When we were bombing the hell out of Serbia (do you remember that we did that? Most Americans don't, even though our efforts made Serbia the poorest state in Europe), Scott Grady (is that his name?) got shot down. He evaded capture for several days until he was rescued. When he got back, everyone said he was a hero, even though he was the only American shot down in the whole conflagration. It used to be that rescuing your comrades or single-handedly charging a machine-gun nest made you a hero. Now you're typically made a hero if you get wounded or taken prisoner. Also, there's a pretty strong sentiment that you're a hero just for being a soldier in these troubled times, but I disagree with that. It's not that I don't respect our armed forces, and it's not that I'm ungrateful for what they're trying to accomplish, it's just that you don't get to be a hero entirely by a set of circumstances beyond your control. And military life can be pretty concisely summed up as a set of circumstances beyond your control. The only choice most of these men and women get to make was to join the military to begin with. I don't think that can even really be described as brave, necessarily. Many of these folks joined before 9/11, when the military was portrayed as a good way to earn some money for college or learn a trade, and NOT as a way to go to Iraq and get shot at.
I don't know. I guess I'll go get a beer, put on some music, turn up the radio, and make more snide remarks about the American armed forces and leadership.
Here's a question: Do you think there's a surge of enlistments in times of war, or do you think that enlistment rates drop? I haven't seen any ads for the Marines or Army lately. I wonder if they've decided CNN does the same job for free...
.: posted by andy 4/4/2003
The trouble with dating the hottest girl in the office is that every guy in the office wants to stick his face into your business. If she comes to your cube and sits on your desk to talk to you, you always have to deal with mr. stomach-staple in the next cube poking his face into your conversation. if you go to her cube to talk, everytime some wanker walks by, he has to stop and give his two cents about the racquetball game you just played with her. Don't even try to make plans for the weekend while you're in the office, unless you feel like announcing on the PA that you're dating. Also, if you like to play racquetball with the girl, you can expect every other guy in the office to suddenly become avid racquetball players.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/4/2003
I don't know if Jessica Lynch qualifies as a hero. She took a wrong turn, supposedly fired her weapon until she was out of ammo to prevent being captured, and then supposedly "acted bravely" after she was captured. They sound like very respectable actions for a soldier in that situation, but I'm not sure those actions qualify as heroism. I think this does qualify as heroism, though.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/4/2003
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
I personally recommend the original Redline/Whiteline version, from the single. Sure, it's $8, but that's only a dollar a minute, and well worth the investment.
Listen, get this. Nobody with a good car needs to worry about nothing. You understand?
Yeah, I think I do.
Listen, get this. Nobody with a good car needs to be justified.
And I'll tell you why. And I'll tell you why.
I've come a long way since I'd believe in anything, and I'd come half way around the world.
What are you talking about?
Where you come from is gone. Where you thought you were going weren't never there, and where you are ain't no good unless you can get away from it.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/2/2003
.: posted by andy 4/2/2003
.: posted by Jeremy 4/2/2003
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
So if we wait patiently this will fix itself, right?
I guess as long as we don't run out of tobacco, we can persevere.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/1/2003
More on how wrong Rumsfeld is about Iraq. I've been saying this since the beginning of the Afghan pseudo-war--Rumsfeld is too impressed with technology and so-called Special Forces, and doesn't understand that you eventually have to put regular soldiers on the ground if you're going to hold onto it.
Comparisons to McNamara probably aren't that far off. In Vietnam, American forces won most of their engagements, but as soon as the combat was over, the units would move onto the next objective or back to base, allowing the enemy to fill in behind them. Because of this, there was never any secure territory.
Here's another article.
And here's a collection of soundbytes from Donald Rumsfeld. The last three are the best ones I listened to.
.: posted by andy 4/1/2003
Update: Serious hardware failure with publishing server. I guess that explains why we have someone else's crappy blog floating around in our navigation...
.: posted by andy 4/1/2003
Well, there's evidently some kind of problem with the fortune template. I can't access any of the templates (the page loads, but the HTML field is blank), so I'm not very inclined to tinker too much. There's no news on the Blogger site about a mixup or repair, so I guess we just ride it out and hope it gets fixed...
.: posted by andy 4/1/2003
.: posted by andy 4/1/2003
what kind of miserable 2 dollar whore would do this to us? why is there a "DA LINKS!" section on our site? where do i aim my mossberg? I'm pissed off.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/1/2003
Monday, March 31, 2003
So anyway, I have a new recipe, for a family on a budget in Sanger, Texas:
1 Boneless Boston Butt Roast 3 lbs @ .79/lb
$2.37
1 lb Carrots
$ .69
2.5 lbs White Potatoes @ .79/lb
$1.98
2 small White Onions .6 lbs @ .69/lb
$ .41
4 Jalapeno Peppers .3 lbs @ .79/lb
$ .24
For a grand total of: $5.69
Seasoning(Any of the following three can be used):
1)garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper
2)Cajun seasoning
3)Iron Grill Southwest style BBQ Seasoning
I recommend option 3, because it is sweet, and compliments the pork well.
You will also need one can beer, which is not available in Sanger, Texas.
Place meat in 6 quart glass baking dish, fat side up. Chunk potatoes and onions and add. Slice jalapenos and carrots and add. Add spice. Pour beer over combination. Bake covered in Moderate Oven for 2 hours.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 3/31/2003
Dear God. Why would the universe do this to me? How could this happen? I come to my beloved little blog and find a link to Ain't It Cool News at the top of the page. I would kill myself, but it's too late. I'm already in Hell, and that fat fucker is my own personal Lucifer.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 3/31/2003
Sunday, March 30, 2003
How about we're running out of Tomahawks and precision-guided munitions? I thought the goal of our armed forces was to be capable of waging war in two separate theaters at the same time, as well as carrying out multiple "peace-keeping missions". What happens if we have to fry the Norte Koreans? What kind of idiot does Rumsfeld have to be to think we could beat the Iraqis by bombing them? Just goes to show you how infatuated the current administration is with technology and so-called Special Forces.
Then again, I read that we're in control of 40% of Iraq, and that's pretty remarkable for an 11 day old war. I guess you couldn't say the war is going badly, it's just not going as well as propagandists expected. Still, I think it was crazy to start the war without the 4th Infantry Division in a staging area somewhere, instead of still in Texas. Franks is lying when he says he got all the troops he asked for, since the plan was obviously for the 4th to open a northern front from Turkey. And if they couldn't get into Turkey, I don't understand why they didn't use Special Forces, the 101st, and the Peshmerga to open airfields in Kurdistan right off the bat. Instead, it seems like an after-thought, and it seems like they were totally unprepared for that aspect of the war.
Will there ever be a real declaration of war ever again? Has Congress become obsolete in that respect? The last three major conflicts we've been engaged in have been police actions...
.: posted by andy 3/30/2003
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