Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The 2021 net migration rate for Iraq is 0.359 per 1,000 population. That means net more people are moving into Iraq than into California or New York. Think about that for a minute... What will history recognize as the worse fashion fad? Pussy Hats or bell-bottom corduroy's?... Seems unfair that people remember Wally Pipp as the man who was replaced by Lou Gehrig but hardly anyone remembers Babe Dahlgren. He was the man who replaced Lou Gehrig... Salt (NaCl) is the only family of rocks eaten by humans... There were a lot of happy New England Patriots fans last night as Bill Belichick selected Alabama QB Mac Jones with the 15th pick. Belichick wasted no time submitting the pick either an indication they were really happy that the QB dropped to them. I hope the second-guessers at least give us a day to enjoy the pick... Would love to see a reporter ask a confused Joe Biden if he owns a pussy hat. How do you think Kamala Harris would react to such a question? Please someone make this happen...  

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Enjoying the new Marvel series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier but one small thing keeps bothering me. It's a super hero series so you're supposed to suspend disbelief going in but all of the action seems to happen outside the US and I keep asking myself, "Why are we interfering in this foreign country?"  I mean we even had "agents" outside a Swiss bank that was being robbed. Pretty sure the Swiss didn't authorize us to be on their sovereign soil... This made me laugh. We live in the crazy years... Prior to the US invasion of Iraq - UNICEF had estimated that between the UN sanctions that created shortages and the outright brutality and cruelty of Saddam Hussein - roughly 5,000 Iraqi babies (children under 5-years of age) died or were killed every month. That's 60,000 plus children every year that were saved by our actions... You may seriously need to update your iPhone right away... Heh heh - now even Lindsey Graham is making the Baghdad Bob on the Southern border comparisons. I just might have been first in this trend... 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris featured a live pigeon-shooting event. It never appeared in the Games again. If the Olympics ever come to NYC maybe they could bring that back... Just a reminder but 9-years ago yesterday the Rapture was supposed to have happened. It didn't... HBO should reboot the show Entourage but just make it a pseudo documentary (The Office style) about Charlie Sheen's every day life... The "current net migration rate for Iraq in 2020 is 0.308 per 1000 population." That means more people are moving to Iraq than leaving it. That's something the States of California and New York can't claim. Think about that for a minute... Just a reminder but 10-years ago Vice President Joe Biden promised a growing economy with 250,000 to 500,000 new jobs each month. That never happened (well at least not under President Obama). Maybe those jobs were Raptured?...  The 1982 Grammy nominees for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance were Wendy O Williams (of the Plasmatics), Lita Ford and Pia Zadora. I would love to watch a documentary about how that came about and the lasting damage done by it to women in Rock... Of all the Thompson gunners, Roland was the best...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Dear Men's Health or Dr. Fauci - will seeing naked pictures of Bette Midler kill the coronavirus? Asking for a friend... So at least self-quarantining has given us this...  PSA - Jack Daniels is not just for breakfast anymore... Joke from the past - Pay Your Bills!... Something to think about - prior to the US invasion of Iraq, UNICEF estimated that between UN sanctions that created shortages and the brutality of Saddam Hussein roughly 5,000 Iraqi babies (children under 5-years of age) died or were killed every month. That's 60,000 babies every year...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting look at the repercussions of Soleimani's death

-  IBM and Microsoft - how to lose a monopoly. Interesting perspective for folks (like me) alarmed by Google and Facebook. HT Stephen Landry

- Heh Heh - Iran declines to sign Colin Kaepernick after viewing his workout video.

- Interesting - Stanford researchers develop a particle accelerator that fits on a chip. The design was via a form of AI and the first application for the particle accelerator on a chip is to fight cancer.

- When "Einstein 2.0" met "Freud's successor". Going to add this book to my wish list.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- MAD Magazine is shutting down. An end of an era.

- Steep decline in nuclear power would threaten energy security and climate change goals. You can't be for fighting carbon emissions and trying to curb "climate change" and yet still be against nuclear power.

- 3,400-year old palace discovered in Iraq

- How Beautiful We Were by Vanderleun

- A Fine Time to Become an American. Congrats to Niall Ferguson,

- This is great

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

People with "coexist" bumper stickers are usually the worst drivers on the road. How about learning to coexist with other traffic and then you can make your political statements... Heh Heh... "The Democratic Party in power is a standing menace to the prosperity of the country." Republican motto from the 1888 election... Interesting - "at no time in the past 40 years, since Saddam Hussein aquired absolute power... has Baghdad been as free and fun as it is now"... When Albert Einstein first visited America in 1921 the US Senate saw fit to debate the validity of the Theory of Relativity. That's seriously something that happened... I honestly had never heard of the Great Colonial Hurricane (which would also be a cool name for a band)... Are National Dog Day and Womens Equality Day really held on the same day? Really?...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Newhart cast looks back at iconic series finale

- Heh Heh

- Saunas may reduce stroke risk

- Companies reinvesting Trump Tax windfall more than doing stock buy-backs. Good news for the economy.

- The Mueller probe is a joke but the longer it goes on the less funny it is.

- Cool read - nightlife is booming in Baghdad

- Cool read from the past - the dark past of bowling hustlers

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I keep waiting for some MSM reporter to explain where the chemical weapons in Syria came from in the first place. I bet much of the stockpiles came from Saddam but reporting that would ruin the idea that there were never any WMD's in Iraq... Hopefully the Zuckerberg hearings in Europe will be broadcast in the US... Could dark matter simply be the leftover quantum entanglement from the matter and antimatter that was annihilated just after the Big Bang?... Elon Musk might end up being President Trump's biggest supporter if Trump can get Musk a manufacturing plant in China without giving up ownership and if Trump can get the NTSB off Tesla's back... "Tiger" running amok in Manhattan was actually a raccoon.  And the existential threat to the fabric of Western Civilization was actually just a Chick Fil-A franchise... Historically - which rock band was more dysfunctional The Kinks or The Ramones?...  The truth in advertising back cover to James Comey's new book...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The ISIS Files. Fascinating look at how ISIS ran the territory they took over.

- Heh Heh

- Funny how the more an item is responsive to market forces instead of government regulations the more affordable that item becomes.

- Fantastic fitness advice.

- Israel's strength is the key to peace in the Middle East

- Beautiful photos of British Columbia

- Tinder for T Rex

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The Dyatlov incident is fascinating and terrifying. A real life X-Files episode come to life.

- Budweiser wants to be the official beer of Mars.

- This was a very moving piece of writing.

- Heh heh

- Lefsetz wrote an appreciation of Malcolm Young that was so spot on that Brian Johnson wrote a Thank You note.

Something to Think About

Prior to the US invasion of Iraq - UNICEF had estimated that between the UN sanctions that created shortages and the brutality of Saddam Hussein - roughly 5,000 Iraqi babies (children under 5 years of age) died or were killed every month (that's 60,000 per year).

I'm guessing that most Iraqi's are pretty thankful that Saddam Hussein was removed from power (and from his mortal coil).

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Is having a poker room good business for a casino?

- Penn & Teller on freedom and burning the flag

- Heh heh - Ukrainian astronomers name star "Putin is a dickhead" As an aside Putin-Hulio! would be a good name for a fantasy football team.

- Excellent insiders piece on Iraq. Why we stuck with Maliki and lost Iraq.

- Trust us - we're from the UN! Climate change keeps moving further and further from actual science.

- Why were codpieces so large? Surprise answer - herpes!

- Books make me horny!

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The Dallas Mavericks were simply the better team - why all the fawning over the Lakers? They lost - get over it. Nobody seems to be giving the Mavericks any credit this morning... In the Sketchers commercial with Wayne Gretzky, I may be wrong but it looks like he misses the open net with his shot. Why would you want guy who can't hit open net to make comeback?... Happy 51st birthday to the classy Tony Gwynn... Never thought of it this way before but Moses may have been the world's first great middleman (in the business sense)... Quote of the Day: "My wife was afraid of the dark - then she saw me naked and now she's afraid of the light." Rodney Dangerfield... For what it's worth - Iraq has a 0 migration rate which means people aren't fleeing or flocking to the country. This is normally an indication of stability. That's something Detroit or the State of Michigan can't claim... As great as Phil Jackson was - he wasn't in the same area code of greatness as Red Auerbach.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

When's the last time you heard anyone describe Iraq as a quagmire? At one point everyone in the MSM was describing it as a quagmire. Now not so much. Don't hold your breathe waiting for anyone to admit they were wrong though... Heh Heh Rachael Maddow teabagged by naked Republican... I agree with Ian O'Connor that the person I most would want to see Hershel Walker pummel next is Jose Canseco... Five years ago the New York Times actually had the headline "Can Angelina Jolie Really Save the World?" And it was in the effing Business section... If they called it the iSegway instead of just Segway - would everyone have felt really cool buying one and being seen in public riding one?... Abe Vigoda is still alive - long live Abe Vigoda...

The Persian Domino Effect?

Christopher Hitchens has a column worth the read. He asks:

Did the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime, and the subsequent holding of competitive elections in which many rival Iraqi Shiite parties took part, have any germinal influence on the astonishing events in Iran?

The answer seems to be absolutely yes. I wonder if George Bush will get credit from the historians for that?

Iraq and Its Costs

An article in The Wall Street Journal by Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham - well worth the read.

Today's antiwar politicians have effectively turned John F. Kennedy's inaugural address on its head, urging Americans to refuse to pay any price, or bear any burden, to assure the survival of liberty. This is wrong. The fact is that America's prosperity at home and security abroad are bound together. We will not fare well in a world in which al Qaeda and Iran can claim that they have defeated us in Iraq and are ascendant.

There is no question the war in Iraq – like the Cold War, World War II and every other conflict we have fought in our history – costs money. But as great as the costs of this struggle have been, so too are the dividends to our national security from a successful outcome, with a functioning, representative Iraqi government and a stabilized Middle East. The costs of abandoning Iraq to our enemies, conversely, would be enormous, not only in dollars, but in human lives and in the security and freedom of our nation.

Iraq and Germany

Interesting comparison between Iraq and post-war Germany:

Self-government did not come until 1949, and Allied troops remained in West Germany as occupiers until 1955, a full decade after the defeat of the Third Reich. Unrepentant Nazis stayed active on the extreme fringes of West German politics for years, and a few ex-Nazis held high positions even in mainstream politics until the 1960s. The Christian Democratic politician Kurt Georg Kiesinger, who had joined the Nazi Party in 1933, was chancellor of the Federal Republic from 1966 to 1969.

Iraq is actually far ahead of Germany when it comes to a self-government timeline.

Wow - Just Wow!

This is a must read story from Iraq.

When tales of bravery are told it is not uncommon to hear the remark - "Where do we find such brave men?" In this case the the question would be "Where do we find such brave women?"

HT Instpundit

I Guess One Man's Reporter Could Be Another's Enemy Combatant

Firefight in New Baghdad; US, Iraqi forces kill 9 insurgents, detain 13. This story contains the line;

One insurgent was wounded and two civilians were killed during the firefight.

The two civilians were reported as employees for the Reuters news service.

If the reporters were embedded with the coalition soldiers then they would have known for sure that they were Reuters employees. Since the matter is unclear - my guess is that they were "traveling" with the insurgents which makes me think that the word "civilians" could be inaccurate. Reuters is, if you recall, the news agency that refused to use the word "terrorists" believing that one man's terrorist could be another's freedom fighter.

Please note that their were no coalition deaths or injuries reported. This seems to be the norm. There is no way that this type of attrition of enemy forces will lead to anything but success if we are willing to stay the course.

It also disturbs me that the last line of the release states; "The incident is under investigation." I know that it is standard procedure to investigate when civilian deaths are involved but this is the sort of thing that screams of "police action" when we are in fact at war. My only hope is that the investigation exposes the duplicity of Reuters and it results in a backlash against the organization which cannot tell the difference between the those who want freedom and those who behead and would suppress all liberty.

HT Little Green Footballs