"Oh for Pete's sake, woman, get up off your fat ass and make me a sammich!"

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to the AoSHQ Sunday Morning Book Thread.

I don't have much this week, so I'll just flap my lips for awhile about a couple of books I'm reading.

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

So in a previous book thread, I mentioned first hearing about the Victorian adventure novel King Solomon's Mines in an essay C.S. Lewis wrote on the subject of what makes a good story. So I downloaded a Kindle edition of KSM and finished it last week. It's OK, but nothing spectacular. What I found interesting was that the part of the story Lewis said he liked so much didn't happen. At least, if I understood him correctly WARNING, spoilers ahead. Lewis cited the end of the novel where the good guys were trapped in a mausoleum/crypt, surrounded by the mummified corpses of dead kings. Lewis' point was that the suspense was heightened by this creepy "entombment" threat and that's what made the story good, that is, it just wasn't impending death, but that the location of the impending death greatly added to it. However, when I got to that part, I was surprised to find out that the events didn't transpire in the manner Lewis described. Yes, they went into the crypt with the dead kings, but then they passed through into another room, an inner room where all the treasure was kept, and that's where a giant stone door was suddenly shut behind them, trapping them inside. The corpses of the kings were on the other side of the door. So I'm thinking maybe Lewis based his essay on a misremembered fact. Either that, or there's something I've just missed. That's always possible.

And as I said, as an adventure novel, I found King Solomon's Mines just OK.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:55 AM | Comments (267)
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Happy Saturday! Today I hope to add a new feature to this award-winning smart military blog, called “Living Conservatively”.

The idea is to nudge the culture closer to a conservative ideal that will enable a conservative political party to win more elections. Now, we are never going to be able to have any measurable impact in changing the broader culture to start embracing conservative ideals via boycotts or complaints, even as worthy and justified as they are. So, another strategy for beginning this long process, in tandem with the boycotts, is to focus more of our energy into changing that which is within our power to change, our personal situations. Just like the red state of Texas stands as an example of a successful conservative model of governance, in contrast to the failed blue state model, our personal stories can serve as individual examples of success that stand out. Those in our circle of influence will take note of the success and attempt to emulate the success by adjusting their behavior accordingly. Hence, the culture is nudged just a wee bit. And if more people live a more conservative lifestyle, they are less likely to tolerate unconservative behavior by their politicians.

So for today's edition of Living Conservatively, let's focus on ways that the culture may be nudged in the area of personal finance. (Excluding taxes – that is a topic worthy of its own separate post.) How are ways that we can change our lifestyles to be more in tune with conservative values, that will serve to nudge the culture towards a state of greater conservatism? A few thoughts are presented below.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:14 AM | Comments (569)
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Something tells me that the White House and democrats will squash the Congressional Medal Proposed For Ex-SEALs Killed In Benghazi. These men deserve this award. It stinks that the media has largely ignored this story and We Still Can't Talk To The Survivors. Most transparent administration my ass. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:30 PM | Comments (793)
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Of course.

I asked LauraW and DrewM for their analysis of this bold move to save the Cypriot government from bankruptcy.

What could go wrong?RT: @laurww: Ho-lee-shit. businessinsider.com/cyprus-bailoutÂ… There are going to be riots.

— DrewM (@DrewMTips) March 16, 2013

That's pretty good analysis right there. DrewM noted everybody with money in a bank gets an immediate 10% haircut over the weekend (well, those with less than 100,000 euros, and no I'm not looking up that stupid symbol, they only get hammered for 6.75%) but public sector workers are shielded from any cuts to salaries or pensions). His quote "We're to the point where 'the people exist' simply to support the chosen few who selflessly devote themselves to public service."

Yup.

This blogging thing is pretty much a snap when all I do is write what other people say. Easy peasy!

UPDATE: A late Friday announcement after the markets were closed was an attempt to avoid a run on the banks. FAIL.

Course the joke's on them, the funds to pay for the levy were immediately frozen.

HAHAHA. Stupid bank runners.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:34 AM | Comments (377)
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New and improved: now with award-winning lack of content.

Posted by: andy at 04:06 AM | Comments (523)
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Via Cuffy:

In 2009, Obama gutted Bush plans to expand the missile field at Ft. Greely, Alaska from 30 to 44 interceptors. Now guess what?

— Cuffé (@CuffyMeh) March 15, 2013

Go ahead. Guess.

The Pentagon is beefing up the nationÂ’s missile defense in the wake of provocative nuclear threats from North Korea and is set to deploy 14 additional ground-based interceptors at missile silos in Alaska and California, congressional and U.S. officials tell Fox News.

The extra interceptors on the West Coast, designed to counter attacks from an intercontinental ballistic missile, would bring the total number of interceptors to 44, a plan originally proposed by the Bush administration. President Obama stopped the deployment of the additional interceptors when he took office in 2009, leaving the total number at 30.

Congressional sources claim that by stalling the original plan and forcing the military to bring back on line silos that otherwise would have been operational, the Obama administration has effectively wasted millions in taxpayerÂ’s dollars.

Here's the little Nork gem that caught his attention between the front and back nine. The KN-08. It's a dandy little truck rollaroundable missile that has people in the know asking the question "If they stop blowing them up and figure out their shit (and they will figure out their shit, see NASA Project Vanguard) just how far can that little sumbitch carry a nuclear warhead?"

Remember how much fun it was back in the day to find SCUDS on trucks in Iraq and blow them up on the ground before they launched? Yeah. Good times man, good times.

Cuffy also mentioned the TEL that's carrying the missile (whatever the hell a TEL is, he's the rocket surgeon not me) is a Chinese vehicle.

Newly installed SecDef Chuck Hagel, announced today "We will spend a billion dollars, that's billion with a B to defend the United States against North Korean Cyber Missiles from space." Give that man a pudding cup, he's on it.

You could follow @CuffyMeh at Twitter for more. He weaponizes space, it just takes Jr. Kim sabre-rattling to let him do his damn job in this stupid administration.

UPDATE: commenter ARL puts me some f'n knowledge

TEL=transporter/erector/launcher. It carries the missle around, raises it up into the firing position and launches it.

Posted by: ARL at March 15, 2013 08:13 PM (X4Pz

Well hell, I got one of those and I din't even know it.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 03:36 PM | Comments (218)
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Sorry, just totally out of it.

Posted by: Ace at 02:21 PM | Comments (397)
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Now this actually is a dog whistle.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (361)
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This is what he claimed in the mediation over his termination from Current TV. Of course he'll now start putting it out there that this was just a ploy to PWN CurrentTV, and was just a bit of harmless perjury.

But two sources familiar with the negotiations now tell POLITICO that during the mediation stage, Olbermann’s legal representatives cited his inability to get a job at another network — a move one source close to the negotiations interpreted as an effort to gain sympathy for Olbermann.

“One of the cards his people played was hardship,” the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told POLITICO. “He spent last fall talking to all the major networks, and he couldn’t get a job. The idea was, this could be the last money he ever earned.”…

Oops, looks like he's already putting it out there. Note that the sourcing here seems designed to lead you to believe this is someone in Current TV's, not Olbermann's camp... and yet it doesn't explicitly say that, does it?

One thing I've learned about journalism is that the sourcing for anonymous sources is often cooked up to be technically true but completely and deliberately misleading.

Posted by: Ace at 10:15 AM | Comments (405)
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Gabriel Malor accepted the award on Ace's behalf.

Ace prepared a speech for Gabriel to read at the ceremony. It is short, but very moving. Really shows the depth of Ace's character and his gratitude for the recognition.

Gabe read this to a room of CPAC attendees:

Gabriel Malor is an asshole. He jumped ship to the New York Daily News without ever acknowledging that I am his intellectual and philosophical father, and that I made him, as a baker would make a loaf of Ungrateful Bread.

I have chosen him to accept this award on my behalf out of spite.

Thank you, John, and anyone else for this award. I appreciate it. It is a validation that I, and not the human ventriloquist doll reading this statement, am a true force in the online media.

Thank you again, and please makes sure that that your thunderous applause is directed solely towards me and not this sad puppet that stands before you in all his shame.

Wow. Very emotional. Very, very tough. It cannot have been easy for Gabriel to get through that without blubbering his lines.

Related: Ace is kind of a funny jackass.

Posted by: LauraW at 08:54 AM | Comments (476)
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