'King of Pop' Converting to Islam?

Maybe, according to Daniel Pipes. Just between you and me, they can have him.

Why Jimmy Carter Needs To Shut Up

Jimmy Carter's surveillance/wire tapping comment, made while addressing the attendees of the Coretta Scott King memorial service, was surely a left-handed (pun appropriate, but not intended) shot at the Bush administration. Tossing protocol to the wind, Carter's game for taking cheap shots at a sitting president, but he seems to forget his own role in the turmoil we now find ourselves in. You will recall that one of the high profile events of the Carter administration was the Iran Hostage affair. If Carter was one third the president he should have been (or the left claims he was), Iran would have been dealt with summarily and conclusively for taking US diplomats and military personnel hostage (an act of war). If the situation was addressed as it should have been, with the full weight of the US military, something tells me we wouldn't be groping around in a post 9-11 world worrying about dirty bombs, an 'addiction' to Middle East oil or the cartoon-hedeen. If I were Jimmy Carter, I'd keep my big mouth shut about wire taps and hope that history didn't catch up with me until after Alzheimer's did.

The American Indian ... arsonist?

Hmmm.

Ok this is pretty funny. One of the most enduring myths in America is that the Native American Indian lived in beatific harmony with nature. In reality the American Indian used fire to reshape the land and burn forests down to the ground to support the vast herds of wild buffalo.

Jonah Goldberg at NationalReview.com Link

An interesting article covering this subject. Link

Excuse me while I laugh.

Carter's Revenge

Hmmm.

Seems that Jimmy "What hostages?" Carter's son, Jack Carter, is now going to enter into Congressional politics.

I'd add some humorous and sarcastic comments but frankly I don't think I can top that statement.

“to hell with them hawks”

Hmmm.

Rich Lowry of NationalReview.com has an interesting angle on what might become the post-Bush foreign policy.

Link

Essentially what he describes are hawks that no longer believe that Arab or muslim democracy is really something that can be implemented on a wide scale. Either a lack of belief or perhaps a lack of zeal. I think it's clear that Iraq has sapped the will of many pro-Invasion Americans. Not because of the terrorism that still happens in Iraq but because even after all of the sacrifices and the incredible amounts of money spent much of Iraq and the muslim world continues to be a pustulant cesspit.

Frankly it's clear that the next two years will determine the post-Bush foreign policy. If Iraq can be turned around then perhaps there won't be a complete abandonment of a foreign policy based on creating democracies in the muslim world. But my estimate is that most people are just sick and tired of bleeding for muslims.

It's time that either muslims stood up and started acting like adults and dealing with their problems or it's becoming clear that it's time to stop the nation-building and being the nation-destroying.

An interesting military weapons concept

Hmmm.

1. Electromagnetic railguns are the projectile weapons of the future.

Normal chemical propellant based weapons are limited to the maximum expansion rate of the burning propellant. This can be increase by injection of plasma and other artifices, but the upper limit on velocity isn't all that much higher than what we've achieved already.

2. Rockets are very useful, but very very expensive in many ways.

One major expense is the propellant which not only has to accelerate the warhead but also the propellant itself.

3. Railguns can scale upwards pretty effectively.

This upwards scaling can either be in terms of the weight of the projectile or the maximum velocity/energy of the projectile. So the railgun could scale upwards in the diameter of the gun bore or in the overall length of the gun itself.

4. GPS and inertial guidance systems already allow projectiles to achieve incredible accuracy.

5. A large fixed installation based in Montana or Colorado would be easier to build, maintain and use than ad hoc installations all over the world.

6. There is a push in the military to reduce potential casualties by replacing humans with robotics.

...

Frankly I think the next major weapons system is going to be an intercontinental railgun. By building a large-scale railgun with a very long gun tube it would be possible to launch 250lb SDB GPS guided munitions across intercontinental distances.

The advantage of this kind of system is that it's extremely efficient. Rather than expending an enormous amount of energy to move an aircraft, manned or UAV, to a drop point, only the munition itself is sent. With this sort of system a massive rate of fire could be achieved and highly disparate bombing missions could be completed simultaneously. Another interesting factor is a ToT (Time on Target) mission utilising such an intercontinental railgun system. By launching GPS guided munitions on specific trajectories and at specific velocities, it would be possible to time the impacts so that a multitude of such munitions would either impact simultaneously or in specifically timed pattern.

Another important factor is that such a weapons system wouldn't require the permission of potentially hostile nations to the emplacement and use of local airfields. While airfields will continue to be necessary in the future, by implementing one or more intercontinental railguns it would be possible to have both the advantages of bomb laden aircraft and artillery, yet without many of the disadvantages of both.

It's an interesting concept.

Iran. What to do. What to do.

Hmmm.

Iran is in the news lately because the combination of a fruitcake pro-apocalypse nuke wielding madman and .... well. You don't really need to combine that with anything to really make for bad news. So far the substantial number of possible solutions haven't really thrilled me. Most involve either lying supine and waiting for the inevitable attack or doing something even more silly.

But there actually *is* a solution. The key point is to look back at history to the Iran-Iraq War, and the nearly non-existant Iranian domestic economy and just where the oil is in Iran.

To address each point. The Iran-Iraq War came about because Saddam Hussein want to take over the Iranian oil fields and consolidate his control over the more significant sources of Middle East oil. Saddam was also of the opinion, right or wrong, that the Iranian oil fields were actually drawing oil from underneath Iraq. So Saddam instigated a terrible decades long war between Iran and Iraq that saw huge population losses and the widespread use of chemical warfare and human wave attacks. At the end of the War, which was a draw, the Iraqi economy and military was a shambles and the Iranians were fielding "soldiers" who were as young as 13 years old.

The Iranian domestic economy is largely non-existant due to massive corruption, overregulation and mis-management. Additionally the Iranian economy couldn't recover from the debacle of the Iran-Iraq War because so many men had died or were maimed, there simply weren't enough workers available. In essence what domestic economy exists does so either because of corruption that allows it to flourish or because it's a Black Market economy. In some reports the unemployment rate hovers somewhere around 35%-45% though it's probable that nobody, even the Iranian government, doesn't really know how many aren't working. In an economy with high corruption or very strict government regulations many people will prefer to work on a cash basis and thus elude government tracking.

The major Iranian oil fields, production equipment, refineries and export facilities are located in southwest Iran, right next to Iraq. This was one of the reasons why Saddam invaded Iran; to capture the Iranian oil fields and take over their income. And this is the Achilles Heel of Iran.

If the US military were to invade Iran one strategy could be to simply take and control the oil fields. Continue to operate the oil fields at market prices but deposit all funds into a *non-UN* controlled fund to be turned over to the *new* Iranian government once one comes into being. In the meantime it won't matter how deep or how many nuclear facilities Iran has. Without a steady infow of money from oil sales Iran will have to shut them down. Even if Iran is able to survive for a time on financial reserves continuing to fund these nucelar research operations will simply drain their reserves even faster. And with no domestic or international economy, apart from oil sales, to speak of, there aren't any other sources for Iran to tap.

Take the oil, deposit the revenues, put Iran on an allowance.

The only reason that Iran has the ability to fund this sort of nonsense is because of oil, and nothing else. Remove oil from the equation and Iran will either collapse of it's own accord or it will have to acommodate a serious resolution to this issue. And the Iranian government collapsing is entirely possible. Much of the government's domestic control comes from paid thugs who keep locals in order. The key word is "paid". With significantly reduced income the Iranian government will find it harder and harder to continue operating as it has been. The reduction in income will also severely impact Iran's ability to purchase foreign help, political or military.

All in all it sounds workable. Just as long as we don't turn it into Oil-For-Food2.

Gun Rights Round-Up ~ New Years Edition

Happy New Year everybody! Let's start things off by having a look at one of my favorite glaring examples of gun control stupidity: Canada

As Canadian liberal pols are poised to waste more money on advancing their failed gun control state, they've also adopted a new and novel slogan: Blame America

Gosh, I really hope they didn't have to pay Mike Moore a consulting fee for that one.

OK, moving from one freak show to another... MTV: Is MTV fair to gun owners?? Apparently not without the liberal sub-text.
MTV is banned in my house, so I didn't see the show (personally, I blame MTV for the fact that American youth culture resembles the 8th Circle of Hell and IMHO, the sooner this 'network' is forced into chapter 11, the better).

Paul McCartney's source for animal activism: Bambi!?!?
OK, so you predicate your activism on a cartoon? Too many drugs, Paul... too many drugs.

Back to reality, here is a very interesting concealed carry dialogue. It illustrates how the rank-and-file lack a substantive grasp of the concepts of self-protection and self -empowerment. Who needs Tony Robbins when we have Sam Colt???

Since I understand the modus operandi of the Bolshevik mainstream media, it never surprises me when the isolated school or place-of-employment shooting grabs national headlines while at the same time, the common occurrence of armed citizens acting in their own self-defense isn't worth mentioning outside the local scope. So, for the troglodytes who still don't get it, for the liberal social-istas who want to disarm us and for the simple-minded 'centerists' who think shotguns for trap & skeet are OK, but handguns should be outlawed, there are these real news headlines:

Robbery Victim Shoots Suspect

Gas Station Clerk Shoots, Kills Robbery Suspect

Man Held in Burglary

Homeowner Shoots Suspect in Home Invasion

Homeowner Fires Shots, Foiling Burglary Attempt

Citizens Help Catch Bank Robber

Police Say Homeowner Shot One, Others Scatter

Shootout Kills Man, Wounds Two Deputies

Two Men Wounded in Home Invasion

A Case of Life or Self-Defense

(hat-tip, Evan Nappen)

As you read these articles, you begin to realize the logical conclusion: the ability to arm ourselves results in the ability to protect ourselves. The underlying message being that while citizens are rightfully able to bear arms, we then become law enforcement resources when we chose to do so.

meanwhile, stuff like this is never reported.

Finally, lets check in with the second amendment for a little perspective.

Weekend Gun Rights Round-Up

Hunters & Anti-Hunters: While Canadian Enviro-weenies are busy buying up huge tracts of land in order to deny resources to hunters, American hunters are credited with helping save what was thought to be an extinct species.

In other Great White North news: Rank-and-file Canadians know gun control BS when they hear it.

More-on New Orleans: Crimestoppers Inc. has offered a reward for any of the 600 odd firearms looted during the hurricanes. We all know how effective buy-back schemes are, but here's a suggestion – how about offering a reward for the looters??

Tin Foil Hat Alert: Seattle Chief-of-Police really likes gun-control, but can't control his own piece. Read the whole thing.

and what the heck is Bush thinking???

MSM Misleads on Australian Confrontations??

Big-lib-media would have you believe the recent public troubles in Australia were caused by skin heads or neo-Nazis, but Tim Blair (page down to 'FARE ENOUGH') provides a very interesting perspective on the Australian 'race attacks'. Could it be that it was only a matter of time before Australians responded?

Time To Turn Up The Heat

Publish the Barrett report now.

Now This Is What We Need To See More Of...

Iraqi voter Betty Dawisha has some travel suggestions for the leftist lemming lobby. Good advice. In fact, she would make an excellent replacement for one of the worthless RINOs who do nothing but bring the party down (McCain, Bloomberg, etc...).