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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:50 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 You can do it, Ken!!  

Posted by: Marina at Tue Jan 15 19:20:32 2008 (MpYXu)

2 BTW why is it saying my website is banned?  I had to remove the link to my blog to get it to post

Posted by: Marina at Tue Jan 15 19:21:29 2008 (MpYXu)

3

I dunno...I'll ask Pixy. Thanks for pointing it out!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jan 15 19:28:37 2008 (Hrqgp)

4

It wasn't so much that the manager was scared of you congratulating him, it was that he was probably burned out and exhausted.  He wasn't so much scared as hallucinating.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Jan 16 18:51:24 2008 (gwUM9)

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....tranzlaitin ur Biblz.

ZOMG1!!1
(Zliterally)

via

<sub>UPDATE: Cieling Cat loves the visually impaired too. There is an audio version.

UPDATE 2: ahem...</sub>
         

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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   Surprisingly bad news from Kanukistan.
   Brickmuppeteers  have probably heard about how Mark Steyn has been brought up on charges by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for publishing a book critical of Islam.

Well, now Ezra Levant,  a Canadian journalist, has been brought before the same perniciously PC pinheads. His crime? He published the controversial Danish Mohammad cartoons.   Little Green Footballs has video. Here is an excerpt.



I must say the fellow comports himself quite well. The little Parsonette...not so much. Mark Steyn himself weighs in here and there is a good roundup by Steven Den Beste here.

This is terribly worrisome, but not nearly as worrisome as the fact the commission reportedly has a 100% conviction rate.

 

  I didn't think Kangaroos were even FROM Canada.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:52 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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In an age where many of my fellow countrymen balk at the "intimidation" of having to show an ID to vote, I find myself in awe of the raw courage of people who vote and fight genuine tyranny under threat of death with nothing but a ballot and a bit of ink to mark them for all to see.



The guts required to stand up to what these people do during every election cycle is truly inspiring.


Iraq was shattered, brutalized and impoverished by 35 years of Communism. It has been occupied by us, and now has been invaded by murderous religious fanatics who bomb, shoot and behead citizens who do not submit to their tyranny. And yet, the citizens of that nation stand up to these monsters. They are true heroes and we share a common enemy.

Michael Totten reports on the progress Iraq is making in slowly removing itself from the tar-pit of corruption it has found itself in as a result of centuries of tribalism and decades of communism. His dispatch pulls no punches. It is brutal really, but it includes the sort of story that doesn't get covered much. (Via this blurb at  Hot Air.)

Despite cultural difficulties, our own clumsy and tragic missteps and the brutal tactics of a sadistic and fanatical adversary, they are making progress. Not as fast as some would like to be sure, but progress nonetheless.
Despite everything, it seems that Iraqis have hope for the first time in living memory.
We gave them that hope.
We made them promises.

To renege on those promises as we did in the early 90's (or in the '70s) would be the very definition of evil.

Jerry Pournelle, no fan of the war, says it well  here.

There is such a thing as national honor. Dr. Paul seems to believe that once the nation and the Legions have given their pledged word, it is of no consequence if a later Commander in Chief abandons it on the grounds that the pledge should not have been made. No, it should not have been made; but it was made, and I for one do not want to see another slaughter of those whose crime was believing that America's word was worth something.

We now have a large number of American and British officers who can pick up a phone from Washington or London and call an Iraqi officer that he knows well—an Iraqi he has fought along side of—and talk. Same with untold numbers of Sheiks and government officials, most of whom do not deserve the caricatural disdain they get most often from pundits who have never set foot in Iraq. British and American forces have a personal relationship with Iraqi leaders of many stripes. The long-term intangible implications of the betrayal of that trust through the precipitous withdrawal of our troops could be enormous, because they would be the certain first casualties of renewed violence, and selling out the Iraqis who are making an honest-go would make the Bay of Pigs sell-out seem inconsequential. The United States and Great Britain would hang their heads in shame for a century.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm off this evening and despite what looks like a busy day of Coast Guarding tomorrow, I'm staying up and watching the debate.

As I suck at liveblogging, here are a couple of  links to those who don't.

Thompson is doing pretty good this evening...More of this please!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A people's car designed under a rather more benign regime than the most famous one....It's nearly as cute and given its price it may well be as successful.

Of course there is another "peoples car" that it might also emulate.

Time will tell.

I'm rooting for the Tata's.
Wait...that's not what I meant!..er..to say out loud.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:26 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Not quite but close...
Pixy blogs on a perfectly wretched example of nanygasms.

BROADBAND Minister Stephen Conroy faces an uphill struggle in his plans to increase internet censorship by boosting the official blacklist from a puny 1000 web pages to many millions of banned websites.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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 Via Warships 1 comes this Navy Times article interviewing the last of the survivors of the USS Panay, a US Gunboat that was sunk by IJN forces as she attempted to evacuate refugees from Nanking...at the time the Japanese were descending upon that unhappy city.

Despite the loss of US life and the unspeakable atrocities being committed the US ultimately let the incident drop, accepting a monetary settlement for the lives of the US sailors. This figured heavily in Japanese (mis)calculations of Americas willingness to fight some years later.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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January 1944, a US destroyer lay at anchor in  a  a fierce blizzard off Long Island. Suddenly the USS Turner was wracked by a massive explosion....


With the ship sinking rapidly, the weather worsening, visibility terrible and water so cold that survival time was measured in minutes the only thing standing between the survivors and a frigid watery death were 2 Coast Guard patrol boats, the courage and skill of their crews and an experimental contraption held together with canvas, steel tubes and a prayer.

Read the whole story in this excellent post at SteelJaw Scribe.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:48 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Baldilocks is back from hiatus and has been posting for several days on an emerging calamity that I had missed.

A disputed election in Kenya has exploded into violence. Baldilocks has roundups here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. On a related note Captain Ed brings word of a possible resolution, facilitated by the intervention of US Assistant Secretary of State Jendai E. Frazer who seems to have gotten a tentative power sharing agreement on the table.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Republican debate was the best thus far, much more substantive than past ones.

I still like Thompson the best by far.

I think he did very well in the debate despite (and in a way because of) the fact that he seemed to say the fewest words. He was to the point, direct and intelligent.

OTOH, Romney had his best night ever. He came off very well when the others pounced on him. Paul also gave his best performance yet though it served to underscored his problems on foreign policy.

Various other views here here and here.


I liked the bit at the end where the Dems and Republicans schmoozed for a bit.

Thus far the Dem debate seems to be rather less substantive

Note though that Edwards is doing the best by far (10:33pm) ...I disagree with him on most every substantive point but he is making the most substantive and specific arguments. Edwards is making the best populist arguments since the '30s. He most accurately and sincerely extols the vengeance and resentment based policies of the Democrats. He makes very good, often heartwrenching observations (IMHO judiciously avoiding any correct conclusions). He is quite likable.

Obama is likable, persuasive and seems to have large well hidden blank spots that are alarming.

Peron Clinton is still an amazing synthesis of rage, a sense of entitlement and disdain. She is no less an advocate of intrusive nannyism than Edwards but comes off as more elitist...imperious in her disdain for...pretty much all of us.


Richardson is the biggest disappointment of the lot. I'd thought he would be the most reasonable of the group.  He's pandering to the nutroots.
His comment about the Russian nukes being confirmed to be in terrorists hands is the bombshell (!) of the night if true.

It is ending as I type this...None of the Dems on stage was willing to admit the surge had had any beneficial effect. Reality based community my ass.

UPDATE:
Big roundup of links to roundups here.
UPDATE2: Rand Simberg has more here.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So..I'm watching the debates and Richardson says that terrorists ALREADY have nukes?!!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This program has had several problems ranging from the lead ship being damaged by Hurricane Katrina to nigh unbelievable cost overruns to serious design issues. However many of the problems  have reportedly been corrected and those lessons are to be well applied to the later ships of the class.  I sincerely hope this is the case.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of the most respected of the actual MilBloggers, Major Andrew Olmstead, was killed in the line of duty yesterday. His final post is here.

The Major led from the front.

Via everybody....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is the first of two weeks of active duty.

Blogging will of course be sporadic over the next few days.

In the meantime, here is something to think about.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:43 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I hope  you all have a happy and prosperous 2008! 
UPDATE: Congratulations Brendan Loy!!


more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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More on the COTS story here , here, here and here.

_{Rocket Girls are actually the Rocket Girls.....no endorsement of this editorial opinion by Mook Animation should be inferred from this post.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:05 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 I saw "COTS" and wondered why they were commenting on "Crest of the Stars". Then I saw what it really stood for.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sun Dec 30 10:22:27 2007 (+rSRq)

2 LOL! 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Dec 30 10:24:51 2007 (73lWn)

3

Rocketgirls on cots?  I prefer a nice soft bed, but if they want cots...

It's a terrible world when 17-year olds have to worry about exploding cots.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Dec 30 10:39:45 2007 (Hrqgp)

4 Well, now we know what gutter Mr. Duck's mind is in. (Not that he's unjustified, considering how those girls are built. Yow!)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sun Dec 30 18:35:38 2007 (+rSRq)

5

I understand and sympathize (and would be willing to have my taxes raised if they'd contribute some of their time to my cot...) but if we're ever going to make it to the stars -- for good -- then it will be via the private sector.  I don't deny the gubmint has a role (cf. the myth of "Isabella pawning her jewels for Columbus"), but that's not how to bet.  (and yes, I have given cash to private launch companies, so I'm not just some 'chicken-phoenix.').

Now:  about having those two over for a night... or two....

Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Sun Dec 30 19:51:10 2007 (A0t6U)

6

The COTS program is ...er was an excellent way to help space start-ups. I agree that is space is to have any meaning at all it has to be primarily a private sector endeavor. However, there is a chicken/egg problem as well as dificulty attracting investment from Wall Street types.

COTS allowed start-ups to compete directly with the big boys and often win. A COTS award would give a company the cache' of being aNASA contractor (thereby conveing a sense of'legitimacy' in the eys of investors) without actually mucking the works up the way the cost-plus system does. Also,  big part of the COTS program (initially) was the idea that NASA would contract out  ISS supply to private companies...there was even talk by Griffin of using the program to set up privately run propellant depots!

 This, of course terrified the congresscritters as it bypassed the normal district oriented pork flow. How could you assure the sugar daddies in your distrect that the fix is in for them if some small start up company with no K street connections in Pago Pago (whose congrescritter can't even vote) can  develop a new phased isolinear intertial dampening  graviton remodulation McGuffinator...and win a contract without so much as a bribe?

Oh...dear..this is, er...horrible. 

Hence the programes near demise under the new congress.

And my pique.

Now: Your unhealthy interest in cartoon 17 year olds has been noted....you bad bad man.

Posted by: Brickmuppet at Sun Dec 30 21:29:54 2007 (V5zw/)

7

"Hi, I'm Chris Hansen.  Why don't you have a seat right over there?"

Steven, you meet the most interesting people down in the gutter.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Dec 30 22:47:11 2007 (gwUM9)

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Damn....

Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of any Islamic nation, has been assassinated.

It took 4 tries but the bastards finally got her.

More here, here and here.
She may have been the best chance to pull Pakistan from the brink.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:00 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Don reports that a holiday wish of mine has been answered...(no, not the one about waking up to find Keeley Hazzell in my Christmas stocking ...that other one...)

Strike Witches is going to be a full series!

w00t!

Flying, cyborg, magical. catgirls...

For those who are ignorant of this astounding accomplishment, well, this was a brief  advertisement for a line of toys that is considered by reliable authorities to be the 22nd most baffling in the world...
The 8 1/2 minute commercial was a cornucopia of combat kawaii...



That said I must agree with Don's ambivilance.
The little add is sublime in both its pacing and its ridiculousness...
I'm not sure 8 episodes of exposition will help.
I am sure that I'm going to watch it.

In an entirely different vein is this fan-work that just utterly rocks....

Via Colleen Doran, behold Robin...the Movie!



Awesome awesome bit of fanfic...with a better premise than half the actual Batman movies.

UPDATE: Here is the creators website

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:56 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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