Posts Tagged ‘reality’

About as well put as you can get

Posted: February 1, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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Michael Yon is a man who has spent most of the last few years in the middle east in general and in Iraq in particular. No other single reporter has seen what is going on closer. He called in when the strategy in Iraq was failing and he called it when the strategy was working. His reporting has proved to be the most accurate out there and it isn’t even close.

Today he tackles Israel and Iran and wonders why people don’t see what is there:

It is amazing to me, as an American who travels the world on a near-constant basis, that there is so much confusion over who the terrorists are. Hamas is a terrorist organization that condones and facilitates suicide bombings and will kill every Jew on the planet if they have the chance. Meanwhile, Israel is an energetic democracy with a vibrant press. I could sit right here in Jerusalem and write bad things about Israel and Jews, and nothing would happen. Maybe I wouldn’t get invited somewhere or would be called an anti-Semite, but that would be it. Neither the Jews nor the Israelis would harm me, though they likely would write bad things about me. I came to Israel with no press accreditation and at the airport they knew that I was a writer. Yet they let me in and have allowed me to freely roam the country. Today I was in very close proximity to Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu talked about how, in this very hotel, Rehavam Ze’evi had been murdered just a few floors above our heads. The security seemed incredibly lax by American standards. Bernard Lewis and other extremely smart people were there.

Israel is a free country that abides by the rule of law. By contrast, if a writer were to go to Gaza or Iran, for instance, and start writing bad words, he might wind up on the news, dead. Israel allows Christians and Arab Muslims to worship freely, while Hamas wants to see us all at the bottom of the sea. Hamas, supported by Iran, is clear about their goals: they want to wipe out Israel completely, utterly, with finality. But it’s not just Israel that Hamas wants to kill; they want to kill all Jews everywhere. Complete genocide.

Read the whole thing. Via Glenn who answers the title of the piece with “because they don’t care what happens to Israel.” Given what I’ve seen over the last several weeks I am forced to agree.

Updates continue at Israellycool.

UPDATE: The Captain comments:

Yes, Europe has come a long way since the Holocaust, but unfortunately, it’s in a circle

I wonder if they protest chemical engineers?

Posted: January 31, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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You know every now and then you read something that is so mindbogglingly absurd that you can’t believe it is real.

Major PSH from a group that is, and I am not making this up, protesting that ROTC offers arms training. Two things leap out at me here. One is that they really think military training is equal to criminal activity. And two that they don’t seem to think learning about arms is educational. Familiarity with arms is a skill that can save lives, in more ways than one.

Via Glenn. I wonder if these guys protest professers who teach chemical engineers since they teach kids about dangerous chemicals or civil engineers since they build thing like oil rigs that polute, or mechanical engineers who might get you a job in a defense plant etc etc etc.

I think that Don in comments has a fine idea:

Let’s take a page from their book. Download the word doc from the link just below “WRITE, PHONE, FAX THE SCHOOL BOARD BEFORE FEB. 10″; it’s all of 2 pages. It gives the names and addresses of the Board on the first page. Write the Board and tell them you support the weapons training program within JROTC.

Even though they say email is less effective, perhaps flooding email with support will be a good thing. In fact, here’s the email addr: board@sandi.net .

Do take note that it is a group and not the city itself that is advocating this, so e-mail should be sent accordingly.

How soon they forget

Posted: January 30, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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John McCain is a great American but has a liberal streak that drives many conservatives nuts. He is however rock solid on two important issues.

#1 The War. His support for the war particularly when everyone else was running away is the 2nd of two debts that this country can never repay to him.

#2 Earmarks. When it comes to Pork McCain is very serious and not shy about his hatred of it.

This being the case why are people on the right surprised by this:

Too good to check? Maybe, but I don’t think Maverick’s bluffing this time. So craptastic is this crap sandwich that Democrat Ben Nelson felt obliged to warn The One this morning that he can’t count on a straight party-line yes from his own side, hint hint.

McCain is like Bush in one respect. When he thinks he is right no power on earth will move him elsewhere. He believes earmarks and wasteful spending are a curse on the country no amount of Obama worship is going to change him on it any more than the One is going to change him on the war.

There are many issues that the left will love him on but this isn’t one of them.

Idiocy on a more local scale

Posted: January 30, 2009 by datechguy in fun, local stuff, opinion/news
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At the same time that the federal government is making a dumb move here in Massachusetts Gov Patrick, (David Axelrod’s dry run for President Obama) is doing it as well on a smaller scale:

The good news is that Deval Patrick has been declared “America’s Best Governor” by the state’s taxpayers and small business owners.

The bad news? That state is New Hampshire.

If you own a convenience store, restaurant or packie north of Massachusetts, you’ve got to have a man crush on Patrick. Just months after packing your store with Bay State smokers saving $20 a carton on cigs, Patrick wants higher state taxes on beer, booze, candy bars and soda, too. Not to mention meals and hotel rooms.

Now Massachusetts is a small state physically. No part of it is more than 40 min from the border of another state, and no part of it is more than 90 minutes from New Hampshire.

But lets say you don’t smoke or drink very little as I do. I’m not likely to take a 20 min drive to save 4 bucks on a fill-up. So instead lets make a day of it:

After Mass we’ll stop at Parker’s Maple Barn (they re-open Feb 11th) and have a big breakfast, maybe pick up a Yankee Candle or a hat at the shop there. Once done we can hit a mall and the wife can do some shopping. My boys are into Comics, games and Doctor Who. There are some really good hobby shops in Nashua, we can catch a movie once we are done or in warmer weather play some mini golf and perhaps we’ll even hit a restaurant before filling up the tank and heading home.

Now instead of just the gas station , coffee shop, the local mall, comic store, movie theater and maybe the restaurant have all lost my business. Multiply this by hundreds and it adds up.

Well they never learn?

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