“In a front-page interview published on Nov. 12 by the Financial Times, Admiral William Fallon, who heads the U.S. Central Command, spoke in diplomatic tones, as top military officers usually tend to do when they make strong political statements. Yet there was no mistaking the admiral’s message. While Iran certainly poses a “challenge,” he said, U.S. policymakers must engage Tehran to encourage changes in the regime’s behavior. But the Iranians won’t “come to their senses” while under threat of bombardment, invasion or worse.
“None of this is helped by the stories that just keep going around and around and around that any day now there will be another war, which is just not where we want to go,” he said with a degree of exasperation. “It seems to me that we don’t need more problems. It astounds me that so many pundits and others are spending so much time yakking about this topic [of war against Iran].””
I am amazed and grateful there are people in the military who are willing to act as diplomats against the insane cock-slobbering assholerly of Dick Cheney. I thought all of the people who disagreed with their course of action were fired resigned.
So a year ago I got this little nightlight, it had a photoelectric eye and two tiny incandescent bulbs. I thought it looked nice, it was inexpensive, so I purchased it. About six months later both bulbs were burned out. On the back it says (besides Made in China) “Do Not Open. No User Serviceable Parts Inside”.
It had four Phillips head screws, looked like two normal flashlight bulbs, ‘bullshit’ I said and grabbed a screwdriver. Inside were the eye, a couple basic discrete components, and the two bulbs. A closer look reveals the reason for the message on the back. The wires were soldered directly to the bulb. The plastic was molded to retain a bulb holder, the back was easily removeable with a simple hand tool, and the bulbs themselves were basic and readily attainable…and then some jackass in a suit said “Why are we throwing away the baby with the bathwater”?
Yes, why build something that could be used indefinately, when instead the consumer could be forced to shell out another three bucks every year or so? So what if it is a completely absurd waste of resources? Everything is throw away, we won’t stand out in the crowd! Perfect money making scam!!!
Well, you know what “AmerTac”? FUCK YOU.
I went out and bought a pile of LED based nightlights. Got two per pack, use like 2/10 of a Watt per hour each instead of 5 Watts, have an automatic eye and rudimentary aiming, are the perfect brightness for the dead of night, and they ought to last a decade.
Don’t feel too bad “AmerTac”, likely if the LEDs do burn out I’ll crack that case open too, and solder some new ones on at that far distant point. Assuming I’m not in some Haliburton detention center getting waterboarded…
The continual ignorance and willful disregard for the citizens of the United States of America by her elected representatives endlessly amazes and disgusts me.
From the unrelenting aggressive stance towards Iran in the same exact fashion as was perpetrated illegally against Iraq, to the complete failure to act as a check and balance against the executive branch, to not raising a peep as basic freedoms stripped from ‘the land of the free’, to standing by idly while the United States tortures people in a fashion that guaranteed War Criminal status during World War 2, and now completely caving to big business and dropping the ball when it comes to renewable energy.
The energy bill MUST include renewable energy.
But no, Reid and Pelosi apparently think that massive fossil fuel subsidies are vitally essential, and renewable energy subsidies are pointless pork. THE EXACT OPPOSITE MUST HAPPEN, TODAY! Subsidies must be stripped from fossil fuels to help disclose their true cost to the public, while massive subsidies must be put in place (from manufacturing to local generation assistance like tax credits for homeowners) to make it a ‘no brainer’ to the people: renewable energy IS the answer.
This is not rocket science.
Do we really want the legacy of fiddling while Rome burns? Because this is not the United States she was ten years ago. Everything is coming apart at the seams (from the continued disregard for the environment, to global instability, to continued governmental fiscal irresponsibility (goodbye dollar once China decides it has had enough), to easy to access energy reserves, to global freedom, to the distribution of wealth into the hands of very few, to the continued pointless war on Drugs, to the completely fictional War on Terror, to the restriction of the media down to a few mega-conglomerate sources…Rome is burning right now.
Ask yourself, what have you done lately to improve the future? Is this the future I want to leave for my friends and family?
I’ve superficially mentally-mocked the iPhone for a while now, but deeper in my scarred and twisted psyche I’ve been secretly coveting its sexy technological smoothness the entire time. So, when my brother in law ordered a locked 1.1.1 iPhone off eBay, I immediately offered to unlock it for him.
Got it in today, took about 5 minutes of fooling to unlock it, oh my god is it sexy. No, not just sexy, DROP DEAD sexy. One in a million, oh my fucking god, I can’t believe I am touching this thing sexy. The interface makes me drool, so pretty, so easy, so intuitive. The on screen keyboard is amazingly fast and easy to use. The display is bright, crisp, responsive to the slightest gentle caress.
I cannot believe that Apple ever intended for people to NOT unlock these little fuckers. It is a very powerful and well executed little platform. 8GB of internal storage ain’t bad either. I so totally, completely, to the depths of my soul ache for one. But I thought spending $50 for a Razr was excessive, no fucking way I’m paying $400 for a damn cell phone off eBay…Except it has built-in wifi. And it plays music. And takes notes. And has tons of third party apps (well, once unlocked) like instant messengers and games (care to ‘c frotz book’ anyone?). And surfs the internet. And plays YouTube videos. And you can SSH into it (don’t forget to change the default password from alpine after you’ve unlocked it!!). I mean, the thing screams ostentatious display of technological orgasmic delight. So, as fucking hot and sexy and insane it makes me, I’m never going to own one…
It really is as crazy sexy in real life as it looks in this random video…
