Free Republic

Chavez and his goofy little soldier clowns better think twice before they start anything with Colombia. Colombian forces have been battle-hardened by several decades of their war against these terrorist groups.

Not only that, the last time I was in Cartagena, I noticed quite a few tough-looking and very serious gringos with military haircuts around the hotel me and a buddy were staying at, who kept to themselves and didn’t have much to say when I was silly enough to ask’em - “So hey, what kinda work y’all do?”

Parenthetically, the haircuts were a definite give-away. I remember when I was in the Air Force and had to visit an important tracking station in a Soviet-aligned nation (yeah, strange but true). I was told to go low-profile in civies but got no relief from the blatantly sore-thumb AFR 35-10 mandated haircut - back in the early 80’s, when nobody sported those. Also strange but true. Bureaucracies are not subject to common sense.

I agree. As much as I would like to have them slug it out into the summer, dividing the ‘Rats into implacably hostile “race versus gender” camps all the way to Denver, then have a really hot, muggy stretch of days with an air-conditioning failure in the convention center - with full color coverage of the carnage, maybe with Jerry Springer narrating between the flying chairs and ashtrays - I think that if Obama can finish off the Clintons once and for all, with major malice, then Shrillary and the Sinkmeister will help us send Obama to the trash heap of history, or better yet - to the defendant’s chair of a Chicago courtroom.

Silver just broke $20 over here in Asian markets. Current time here in Shanghai is 4:50 in the afternoon. Let’s see if it holds over for US market opening...

Might I add, these guys were in the Physics Department, as opposed to the more utilitarian engineering departments.

When you photograph an electron, don’t you then know the spped and location of the particle. What about Heisenberg?

Excellent brilliant comment. I always had difficulty understanding the rationale behind Heisenberg's thesis - that because you can't measure one without affecting the other - with the theoretical tools at hand at his time - therefore both were indeterminate. This struck me as the supreme of human arrogance.

However, the brilliant (and unusually patient and friendly PHD candidates I was lucky to work with at MIT, as a lowly Astro-Engineering student working on a summer term goof-off tech job), convinced me that perhaps the Universe is indeed Indeterminate. These guys are indeed the creative, exploring artists of the technocracy.

it's time for Hillary Clinton to give up her futile quest for the U.S. presidency. She needs to get out soon, putting a united Democratic party ahead of personal ambition before her reputation in a sometimes-ugly campaign is further sullied.

I wish these defeatists would shut up. I've got some better advice...

Hillary:

Don't listen to negativity like the above. Stay in the race. Fight to the end. Go scorched Earth. Drag your husband's legacy into the toilet where it belongs. Fully expose the Democrats' entire election quandary for what it is - "Who is more entitled to the Presidency - African-Americans or Wymin?"

Don't let your tired old NOW hags down. They're counting on you. Reach for some of those 900 files you got in that grubby witches bag of yours, and let fly those bats out of hell into the ether and airwaves.

Above all, you can't give up now, the show's just beginning, and my popcorn's still in the microwave.

Even the Indians are outsourcing. I occasionally work with some software companies out here in Shanghai, Mphasis for example, that are coding for Indian headquarters companies back in Mumbai, on software development projects from the US and Europe. The English language skills of local Shanghainese are too low for them to interface directly with US clients - but they’re cheaper than Indian coders, and the Indian project managers can make bigger profits.

But lower costs are only part of the reason, as the Indian managers at these Shanghai branch companies tell me that competition in India for key IT skilled personnel in certain disciplines is so intense that they are forced to outsource to China.

Consider changes in career. Certain seemingly negative developments can be a blessing in disguise. After the manufacturing automation company I worked for went belly-up in the Carolinas, due to our client base vastly shrinking due to offshoring - I took off elsewhere to get my job back.

However, I ended up playing music for a living doing classic rock gigs, a lifelong dream, for all the very well-paid engineers and execs from these previous clients - as well as from other companies, in this fast-growing region, where one can actually make a living being a musician. Full Disclosure: I live in Shanghai, and the above is said with a bit of sarcasm, but only just a bit. I do like what I do for a living.

I understand Henry Paulsen was on CNBC at 8am. Anybody catch that? If so, what did he say?

Or, you could buy one of these off some aliens. They might want to upgrade to one of the more compact and gravity-wave-efficient saucers. Contact George Noory at "Coast to Coast". I gather that he's trying to sell this to the public.

Well, if Helicopter Ben believes in his own monetarist philosophy - the North Koreans are actually doing him a favor by saving him the trouble of having to print more money and drop it from choppers.

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Sometimes they seem to enjoy the thrill of the chase. I saw a 20+ car chase in Boston over a purse snatching (I think the driver may have then stolen a car). He crashed it into an apartment building and got away on foot on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Wow! Maybe that was the same one I witnessed in 1980. A couple of thieves from Roxbury looted a house in - I don't know - Somerville or somewhere'sville, stole the car at the house and went on a wild chase through several different towns - each of which picked up jurisdiction.

The whole line of 20 squad cars from several towns came screaming and wailing down Beacon street and ended up in a crash right in front of my frat house. The stolen car had run a red light (not that anyone pays attention to red lights in Boston) and smashed into a crossing car. The next several squad cars then smashed into it and each other - bam - bam - bam. Cops jumped out the windows of their cruisers and quickly nailed the driver. The other guy escaped on foot and ran into one of the BU dorms across the street.

Boston PD surrounded the neighborhood and used a bullhorn to tell the escaped robber that he was surrounded. I came out of my frat house to see what was going on. Apparently, the robber saw from the second floor across the street that the inner foyer door that I'd come out of had caught on the welcome mat and was stuck open. He came barreling across the street at full speed, straight for me - waving a big long screwdriver in his hand, closely followed by three cops with guns pointed in the air and all of them looking at their shoes. The robber was wearing sneakers - the cops were wearing slick-soled and slippery dress shoes. Go figure.

I stepped aside at the last minute - thinking that I'd get a big phillips-head through the heart if I blocked him. They all ran right past me and right into the foyer of our frat - where I thought he'd be collared against the locked door. But, as mentioned before - it was ajar. The robber ran in - closed the door behind him - waved his screwdriver at some frat mates and made a beeline for the stairway to the back parking lot. A frat bro ran to the front door to let the cops in - who immediately ran straight into the soft drink storage closet. They had to be pulled out and redirected to the back staircase.

Meanwhile, the robber had exited our back door then broke through the back door of the adjacent frat and was making his way up their back staircase to their front door. From my later perspective, it was an absolute keystone comedy, since after what seemed like only seconds after they had all bounded past me - like a Bugs Bunny cartoon they came bounding out of the front door of the neighboring frat house - thief still leading the way on sneaks - cops still focused on their shoes.

The thief then had open road to press his advantage on foot - and was making use of it. He was halfway down Beacon street headed towards Mass Ave and widening his lead when one of the cops yelled to a big grizzly adams-looking guy, who was in the thiefs path, to stop him. Grizzly stuck out one big arm and clotheslined him - then started to wail on him. The cops finally got to the scene and proceeded to wail on poor ol'good citizen Grizzly, since he was having too much fun going to town on the robber.

The cops finally cuffed the thief and led him down the middle of the street like conquering heroes - to the cheers of all of us frat guys and the other out-of-town cops milling around in the street. All of the frat houses brought out cases of soft drinks - and it was a moment straight out of a Coca-Cola commercial. It turned into an impromptu social pow-wow for all these neighboring police departments. The only thing missing was a barbecue.

A statement he shoulda made - if we weren’t so PC:

“We know that you - Al-Qaeda, or any one of a number of our enemies, is going to strike us in a big way some time in the near future. But I must say, you’ve totally discounted the retaliatory fire that awaits you. Because even though I know that our people are PC idiots, as you obviously do, I also know that they are supremely vengeful people that will not hesitate to wipe you out, in a systemmatic and on-high way - as well as every last bit of civilization you supposedly bring with you, if you dare to wake them up from their childish delusions.

Your move...”

Gramnesty is no conservative. I think he is in trouble in his next primary in SC. He has pissed off most conservatitives. He is very bright but I cannot undersatnd why he would support amnesty when 80% of republican were against it.

His selfishness is pretty clear to me. McCain approached Graham and asked him if he would like to be VP. McCain needed Graham for the South Carolina primary and the rest of the South - which McCain has been smoldering over ever since 2000. Goober - thinking swiftly - answered "Wull, golly-gee whilikkers! Whaddya want me to throw overboard?" McCain just told him to sit tight until he was needed for whatever roadblock McCain threw in front of the Republicans.

The Shamnesty thing probably looked like a godsend. McCain and Graham could both look like they were backing the Republican President while pandering to the Hispanic vote. But it blew up in their faces, since their strategy essentially dumped all over the Republican base, as well as every honorable citizen in this country.

Now, what do they have? The red-hot hatred of every red-blooded, red-state American. The Media can't save them on this one, so they've already chucked them under the wheels of their own Railroading Express - but tagging them in self-serving fashion as losers due to their support for the Iraq war.

However, Olmert said talks would be contingent on Syria ending support for Hezbollah, Hamas and other Islamic militant groups and scaling back ties with Iran.

Yeah, like that's gonna happen. This overture is probably in response to pressure from the Kumbuya clowns at the State Department, so that Olmert can legitimately tell these bozos that he tried it their way, before all hell breaks loose in the region.

NAW! or should I say NAU! No way. The American people would never go for such a union. The only way it could happen would be by forcing it on the American people, maybe by somehow getting half of all Mexicans into the US by some unfathomable means, in which case it wouldn’t matter much whether we merged or not. After that, the rest would indeed be easy. But no American President would ever try such a connivingly traitorous thing.

Oh, wait...

I agree.

Syria re-invades Lebanon, citing the turmoil between Hezbollah and Lebanese forces as the ostensible reason, but for a host of unstated reasons. Among them - hampering the Lebanese army’s attempt to reign in Hezbollah, putting an end to the UN tribunal trying Syria in essence for the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, and the desire to act as Iran’s proxy in instigating a general war involving Israel, the US and Iran.

In response, the US, which has been aiding Lebanese forces in regaining control of their country, recognizes that Lebanon is too weak to repel a full Syrian assault and invades Syria from Iraq. It’s actually a two-fer, since we can also take out their insurgent training camps and their cross-border weapons transfer infrastructure.

Iran then launches a surprise retaliatory attack on US forces in Iraq - citing their obligations under the recently signed Iran-Syria Mutual Defense Pact. The US and Iran then get what both have been itching for, for years. An overt war. We then have justification to take out their nuke sites. Iran gets their apocalyptic war to bring back the 12th Mahdi. We launch air attacks on nuke sites. Iran retaliates with WMD bio attacks in the US. Global jihad is instigated by Iran, and breaks out in Europe, Asia and the US.

It’s coming sooner or later, and this might be the start.

Syrian maneuver in Lebtucky doesn’t have to mean the end of the world.

The way I see it, it could be at least TEOTWAKI, the end of the world as we know it. Here's how I see it could play out:

Syria re-invades Lebanon, citing the turmoil between Hezbollah and Lebanese forces as the ostensible reason, but for a host of unstated reasons. Among them - hampering the Lebanese army's attempt to reign in Hezbollah, putting an end to the UN tribunal trying Syria in essence for the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister, and the desire to act as Iran's proxy in instigating a general war involving Israel, the US and Iran.

In response, the US, which has been aiding Lebanese forces in regaining control of their country, recognizes that Lebanon is too weak to repel a full Syrian assault and invades Syria from Iraq. It's actually a two-fer, since we can also take out their insurgent training camps and their cross-border weapons transfer infrastructure.

Iran launches a surprise retaliatory attack on US forces in Iraq - citing their obligations under the recently signed Iran-Syria Mutual Defense Pact. The US and Iran then get what both have been itching for, for years. Total war. We then have justification to take out their nuke sites. Iran gets their apocalyptic war to bring back the 12th Mahdi. We launch air attacks on nuke sites. Iran retaliates with WMD bio attacks in the US. Global jihad is instigated by Iran. Full religious war breaks out in Europe, Asia and the US.

TEOTWAKI, in any literal sense of the term.

I am just guessing, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the accommodations our two different nations have made to their most prominent immigrant groups.

Our two governments have made implicit decisions to cater and kowtow to two different groups. In our case - to illegal Mexicans, in their case - legal muslims. Why? Perhaps because neither of our countries are repopulating to the satisfaction of these imperious bastards. They don’t deign to explain their defacto decisions to us Plebes.

Muslims in England are actively trying to muscle arm the UK into accepting their Sharia law. They wouldn’t have a prayer of having their way here, since that spot has already been taken by Mexicans mass-infiltrating the US, aided and abetted by traitorously self-serving ‘Rat politicos and a would-be Royal and his RINO running dogs.

At least we can point and laugh at the UK, “Ha ha - our illegals are marginally less hostile to our culture than your legals are to yours.”

Future historians will have a hard time explaining this Twilight Zone era, since they always assume rationality and sanity in the motives and decisions of nation-states.