Ever wonder what'll become of those twentysomething emo kids when they grow up in 15-25 years?

When Emo kids grow up they become Beta Hippies. Beta Hippies are a degenerate urban subspecies of  hippie. Unlike their commune reared relatives, Beta-Hippies are completely dependent on the beneficence of the state and  are utterly incapable of coping with reality outside of their urban environment.

To wit:

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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Oh my stars and garters.

^{Click 4 supah size}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:57 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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TONIGHT! AT 10 PM, NEW EPISODES ON COMEDY CENTRAL. 

If you have no idea what this is about then there is no need for concern.  You have simply learned an important fact about yourself, namely that you are a sad, deprived individual with a tragic void in your soul.

Huzzah!

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In my undergraduate, inactive enlisted puke opinion General McChrystal is largely right. However that can be said with the benefit of hindsight of McArthur as well and he (quite rightly) got sacked.

I can empathize with McChrystals frustration, but we frequently elect presidents who do not have a great deal of military experience, and ALL presidents face a steep learning curve when they assume the office as NO ONE is versed in everything and the bipolar levels of extreme delegation and hands on engagement necessary is startling to even the most experienced executives ( a group Obama is not a member of). It is the duty of the Military to serve the elected executive.

I am no fan of the current President but he IS  the President. He is the CinC, and a one of this nations soldiers does not air this sort of laundry unless one first resigns, or retires.

A friend once asked if I thought it would have been better to let McArthur slide given that the 6-10 million who might die in a war with china would be dwarfed by the 60-80 million who died in the late 50s and early 60s and the real possibility of ending the Cold War early. 
Of course not.
To allow that sort of insubordination is to open the way for a Caesar, something the founders greatly (and rightly) feared. We are fortunate to have an officer corps that is overwhelmingly professional, whose allegiance is to the nation and its Constitution, and who consider it a point of honor that they are guardians and not threats to our republic. This sort of talk can erode that quickly as happened in Rome and all to many times in our sister republics to the south. Occasionally this occurred for patriotic and principled reasons, but those good intentions almost always paved a short road to Hell.

Obama needs to fire McChrystal. It gives me no pleasure to say this but this situation is bigger than either of these men.

UPDATE: More here. Jerry Pournelle has some thoughts here and here CDR Salamander points out the short term  ramifications of NOT firing McChrystal.

Both the CINC and McChrystal will have lost face in a public manner and will be looked at as weaker; McChrystal will have more enemies in the Administration’s National Security Structure; McChrystal has shown support for your only significant Democrat rival, SECSTATE Clinton. Worst part again is the CINC will also lose face to much of the world - especially with our enemies. In most of their cultures, a General Officer saying such things would be shot or have an unfortunate helicopter accident. They will not view keeping McChrystal on as a signal that President Obama is a firm leader.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have found my calling!

I have the credentials for this already.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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They have cake.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not sure that this is real...but I have a nagging fear it is authentic. via

UPDATE: In the comments Jonathan Tappan points out that this is almost certainly a hoax as a Google image search for "Cat Possum" produces several versions....or perhaps the stupid is just that widespread.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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 Well, on the political front anyway.
Nikki Haley has won the Republican nomination for Governor of South Carolina. She won by an impressive margin too.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No..not that one....no nice boat here. This is worse.

It seems that educrats have decided that friendship is at cross purposes to the education process.

......But increasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend? .......

........But the classic best-friend bond — the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school — signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity

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She is gone.

Almost a shame. After all, It's rare indeed  to see someone whose face so closely matches their inner beauty.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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In a world...

...where certain fans believe that anyone who dubs anime is commiting a crime against humanity and anyone who listens to the dubs is a racist, homophobic, troglodyte who hates unicorns.....

 ...one brave man...
 ...has dared to buck the pretentious prima-donnas and give thoughtful, well researched and literate reviews and analysis of the English dubs of the Western Anime releases.

  John Turner is that man.

UPDATE: Actually it appears to be a group blog and John Turner is but one of three brave souls standing in defense of the notion that dubs are legitimate and enjoyable interpretations.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:18 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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They do not belong in my toothpaste.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes takes time out from her S.C.U.B.A. prep to pass along this interesting tale of archeology, marine salvage and atomic science.
^{_{(Link via Jerry Pournelle)}}

Archeologists had been fruitlessly trying to get funds to examine an old Roman shipwreck. Then someone found out that the wrecks ancient cargo was lead ingots. Lead that was smelted before 1945 and kept in a neutron inhibitor (like water) is devoid of certain radionucleides released by the A-bomb tests. This makes such lead exceedingly important for certain physics experiments and more precious than gold for those applications.

Funding problem SOLVED! ( By SCIENCE!)

^{Science-babe art is by Ao Ume}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As is being reported everywhere, a boarding operation by the Israeli Navy went south yesterday.

This was a no win situation for the Israelis and a win-win for the Palestinians.

The operational realities seem to have been as follows.

The ships were carrying supplies of an uncertain nature on behalf of an NGO vehemently hostile to Israels existence to an entity (Gaza) that has been shooting rockets into Israeli schools.

This shipment had to be stopped.

Space on the ship was at a real premium.

There were 3 options to achieve this goal, sanity amongst the crew of the blockade runners, sink the vessels or board them.

Given that #1 was not going to happen, The more humane was #3. #2 is, of course, pretty much unthinkable, especially given the presence of children.

Grapnels were untenable, so the IDF chose to rappell. I've seen it suggested in various comments on this matter that water-cannons and CS gas be used to clear the deck.
Those options are NOT safe (you might end up washing people off the vessel and drown them or start a aresol fire ala' Waco. ) Again this is especially true given the fact that the NGOs had children aboard as part of their PR strategy.

Attacked by civilians with knives, rebar and guns the boarding team returned fire.  Just as I would have were I put in their situation.  Lethal force was justified by any use of force policy or Rules Of Engagement that I'm aware of.

Note that the other ships SEEM (at this time) to have been boarded without loss of life. Note too that video released seems to indicate that prior to the operation at least some of the "activists" were boasting of their willingness to achieve martyrdom if the ships did not make landfall.

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  The Presidents decision to cut short his Memorial Day speech in the face of a violent freak storm has elicited some criticism, but it absolutely was the right one. A prime example of a bad call would have been to simply slog through in utter defiance of God, nature and reason and risk having people in the audience killed by lightning or injured by the wind.

 Sometimes a failure really is due to bad luck or circumstances and not judgment. This is particularly true with regards to the weather.

As to those who complain that he was not at Arlington, give it a rest. He was at a U.S. military cemetery, one that does not get a lot of attention nationally, and its a pretty significant place for those who have loved ones buried there.

There is a lot to criticize about Obama but this is not one of them. He is also our president. Taking cheap shots is petty and does a disservice to those heroes we seek to honor on this day.

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Bojutsu Bear practices his kata.

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Of all the  &#*!ing #*%ed up busybody $#*! I have heard lately this has got to be the %$#*est.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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