What the hell is in the water down there?

Seems some guy named Larry Richter is given to wondering aloud about exactly whether or not his opponent, Bill Connor, actually served in combat or not.

"I don't know whether Bill had combat experience or not," Richter said. "There's a lot of talk about that, but I defer to his account of that."

Not sure what "talk about that" there is but if you follow the link above to Blackfive, you'll see there's ample evidence that Connor did in fact serve in combat and was apparently damn good at his job.

This isn't a one time thing with Richter either.

Keep in mind, Richter is the same guy who mocked Connor’s combat service weeks ago at a meeting of the West Metro Republican Women in Lexington, when he suggested his life-and-death decisions sending five people to the electric chair where “deliberate,” as opposed to a combat-commander’s decision-making which he (Richter ) said is only “abstract,” “reflexive,” and “reactionary” – a clear belittling and a gross misunderstanding of combat leadership which enraged combat veterans around the state.

I hope you're sitting down for this last tidbit of information about Larry Richter, he's been endorsed by Jake "Raghead" Knotts. When you think about it that makes perfect sense. How could Connor have served in combat if hadn't been in India fighting off the Sikh menace?

Seriously South Carolina Republicans...What the hell?

Lindsey Graham emails to say, "I'm not looking so bad now, am I?"

Posted by: DrewM at 01:41 PM | Comments (70)
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It was pretty much mandatory for every guy my age to have this cassette in his car. "Flirtin' With Disaster" called the tune to many a drunken rampage.

[UPDATE: YouTube video of "Flirtin' With Disaster" after the jump.] more...

Posted by: Monty at 12:55 PM | Comments (281)
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The PRC calls it "The June 4th Incident". We call it "the Tiananmen Square Massacre".

There is no (available to the world) record of the number of protesters killed, but the Soviets estimated 3,000. At the time there was widespread international condemnation expressed against the People's Republic of China for their brutal response to the protests.

You know. The kind of widespread international condemnation that Israel gets a couple of times a week now.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:38 AM | Comments (550)
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A few days ago, my old coffee-maker joined the Choir Invisible. It had done yeoman service and so I was not unduly put out, but I was still left with no way to make fresh coffee. I found this intolerable, and immediately went out and bought this coffeepot (a plain-jane Mister Coffee) model on sale for $19.99.

So I sit here, a steaming-hot cup of strong brew on the table next to me, and ponder: I live in a world where a complex piece of technology like this costs twenty dollars.

Forget computers and video games and flat-panel televisions and all the rest. Just think of the humble coffee-maker. When I was very young, my family still relied on the old cowboy-style coffee-making apparatus: a pot, some grounds, and a cooking fire. You boil the coffee, wait for the grounds to settle, and drink up. If you're late, your coffee will contain about 30% grounds. You sip carefully, drink maybe half of it, and then dump the dregs. That's how coffee was done in my youth. Then, in the early 1970's, the drip-style coffee makers hit the market and my mother (mére as well as fils a coffee-hound) spent a good part of our weekly income on one. I don't remember how much it cost, but it had to have been seventy or eighty dollars -- and this was in the 1970's, remember. Eighty dollars was a good chunk of my mom's weekly income.

Fast-forward forty years and I can pick up the same basic thing for twenty dollars. The money I spent is far less in relative terms than the money my mother spent: my twenty dollars today was worth about five dollars or so back in 1970. My mom's coffee pot represented a major investment. Mine is a minor concern, the merest kind of disposable income.

This is what the modern world of international competition and trade has brought us. Somehow we have convinced the Chinese to make this coffee pot, package it, ship it to a wholesaler in the US, who then sells it at retail for twenty dollars...and everyone makes enough profit on the deal to keep doing it, year after year. Technology makes it possible -- containerized shipping, international trade agreements, credit and securities markets, modern supply-chain management, CNC machines, CAD/CAM, "no hands" fabrication techniques, all the rest. A coffeepot costs, in real terms, less than a fifth of what it did forty years ago.

There is a price to be paid for this, of course. My mom's coffeepot was manufactured somewhere back east: Ohio or Pennsylvania. Mine was probably cranked out of some massive factory in Shenzen, China. The American coffeepot factory, and the company that made it, is long gone. Only the company name remains, a trademark owned by some multinational conglomerate. The price people are willing to pay for a coffeepot is not sufficient to make it profitable for Americans to build them, and so the production moved elsewhere. The old comfortable name is kept to soothe us into thinking that it's still an American coffeepot -- "Mister Coffee" sounds so much more comfortable than "Xi Lu Shin Heavy Industries Coffee-Maker Model #243".

I am a strong advocate of the free market, and not just in our own borders. Much of the world's prosperity and wealth depends on robust trade between nations, and competition in the marketplace to drive efficiency and fair prices. What we have now is not perfect by any means, but it sure beats a world where it takes a week's pay to buy a coffee-maker.

Still...I do feel a pang. Americans still make things (more things than most of her citizens realize), but fewer things that people come into contact with on a day-to-day basis.

I'll think about this as I drink my coffee.

Posted by: Monty at 04:25 AM | Comments (235)
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Created by Slublog.

Sigh. More of the terrorist armada attempts to break the blockade. This one, the Rachel Corrie.

No, really.

Saturday Morning Update[DiT]: Israeli Soldiers commandeer the ship without incident. No armed thugs on board waiting to stab and beat soldiers this time.

Posted by: Ace at 07:55 PM | Comments (107)
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A giant.

Most of us have seen this video, a tribute to his love for his wife Nellie. A beautiful story.

His coaching legacy, and his accomplishments, well. They speak for themselves.

The Wizard of Westwood is going to be remembered fondly, by his players and associates, far better than anything I could offer.

RIP. He was quick, but he didn't hurry.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:37 PM | Comments (50)
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Friday, Friday, Friday - let the partay begin! And may the blessings of Dennis be upon you!

Sad News GGE's wife died yesterday. Please send your condolences. Details to follow.

What It's Like To Be Blown Up: A Stadium Implosion From the Inside

Here's some slow motion video from the controlled implosion of the Texas Stadium. It's an immersive video so you can pan and tilt to see everywhere within the stadium and watch as each charge goes off and the building begins to collapse.

One summer back in my wayward youth I worked on a blasting crew and spent 10 hour days 70+ feet deep in a pit, wiring up charges, setting delays and blasting our way through solid rock. It was one of the hardest jobs I've ever had but also one of the most satisfying - there's something positively orgasmic about blowing shit up and shaping the earth to your will.

And trust me there's also quite a bit of science to blasting a perfectly square hole through 10 feet of rock. Making an entire stadium collapse in on itself within a few seconds without destroying anything else around it is an entire order of magnitude more difficult.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:12 PM | Comments (906)
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Do aliens live on Saturn's earth-ish moon Titan?

The spectacular decay of the abandoned city of Battleship Island, once the most densely populated urban area in the world, now a crumbling ruin.

I never heard of that before. All I can do is wonder why Hollywood doesn't make a lot of post-apocalytpic B-movies and cut down on expenses by just photographing the city as it is actually is, no special effects or set-dressing required.

I guess the answer is: Because most of the buildings there look like they're one 3-on-the-Richter-scale foot-tickler from toppling over.

Thanks to ArthurK (who posted the Titan item in the sidebar) and EdwardR.

And... "The Expendables," a movie which actually doesn't look all that interesting -- except I need to see The Expendables to appreciate The Making of The Expendables featurette that'll be on the DVD, which should be really interesting.

Thanks to rdbrewer for that.

Now It Can Be Revealed: Everyone in TV shows and movies reads the exact same edition of the exact same newspaper.

EdwardR. suggests a RedEye "Pinch" joke... but I can't think of one.

Posted by: Ace at 04:34 PM | Comments (174)
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The Blackhawks lead the series 2 games to 1 but the Flyers are up 1 nothing in the middle of the first.

Unfortunately, tonight's game is on VS so hopefully you can find it.

What's the atmosphere like in Philly? From TSN's Darren Drager.

Lunatic Fan Award goes to a Flyers fan who during warm up prior to game 3 yelled, "Burish I'm going to effin kill your mother!"

You stay classy Philly.

Added: Jake Knotts emails to say, "Don't no nothing about this hockey thing but I doubt those damn Sikhs play it so it can't be that bad."

Helen Thomas emails, "Gaza would be a hockey hotbed but those damn Jews won't let them have skates".

Posted by: DrewM at 04:34 PM | Comments (60)
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The real sort of Washington gaffe, where you accidentally say what you think.

Helen Thomas issued the following statement today: “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

Drudge's pic means that the MFM will have to deal with their Jew-hating crazy great-aunt at some point:

You can only pretend a racist or anti-semite isn't a racist/anti-semite so long as they're playing along too, and pretending themselves.

Like Reverend God-Damn America Wright, Helen Thomas dropped the mask.

Hmmm... Jim in San Diego points out I misread "Jake" as "Jackie" -- it's Jake Knotts. Not Jackie.

But Jackie fits!

I knida want to keep calling him that.

Posted by: Ace at 03:55 PM | Comments (482)
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