American troops are surely the most capable military force in history. They just need to be given the right orders.

Sad News

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today. Time will tell how this event plays out. There are so many implications, so one of my first thoughts was what type of contingency planning had been done by this administration for the event which Mark Steyn described as a horrible inevitability.

AP seems to think there was no plan, althought the story doesn't give any evidence of the scrambling they report.

I surely hope we've been planning for this. Basic risk management. If (event) Bhutto is killed, then (impact)... Our risk response strategy is to ...

That brings up an interesting question. What would have happened if the news leaked out that intelligence officials in the Bush administration were "planning" for the response to her assassination? Would it be seen through the lens of "good, they've learned what happens when you fail to consider the what ifs" or through a darker, conspiratorial lens. I think I know the answer to that, but you can bet that if they really are "scrambling" they will (should) be pilloried for failing to foresee it.

A Bias to iGoogle Politics?

I'm not a regular Google user, but I just found this iGoogle
homepage options. I listed one of my options as "politics" and take a look at what comes up...


NPR
Daily Kos
MSNBC.com
Democracy Now!
Yahoo! News
CNN.com
Drudge Report
NPR Topics
Washtington Post

I don't see a single right of center or libertarian site there.
NPR, Daily Kos, Democracy Now!, and CNN all have a decidely leftish editorial bias.

I guess Google does too.

UK Troops or Iraqi?

A story in the Guardian, linked from Hotair, titled "UK has left behind murder and chaos, says Basra police chief"

Contains this image just below the headline



Original Caption: "British troops parade as the control of Basra province is handed back to the Iraqis. Photograph: MoD/Getty Images"

Pardon me, but unless there's a holdover Ghurka regiment that's been issued AKs, those don't look like British troops to me. How can you trust reporters to accurately report on military affairs when they can't get something as basic as a country's uniform?

The link to the original photo is here.

Say Thank You!

Worthless Piece of Shit

I was thinking today what a worthless piece of shit the Nebraska mall shooter was. Turns out I'm not the only one.

Here you had a guy who people tried and tried to help, for five years they tried to help. Well intentioned people tried to show him that he wasn't a loser. That he could make something positive out of his life. They were wrong. He was a total loser. He proved that by his final actions. What a worthless piece of shit.

He had friends? Yeh, I bet they're winners.

Veterans Not Survivors

Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. A day that will live in infamy.

Instapundit linked to a USAToday article on some of the veterans at an event. It's titled Five survivors keep history alive at Pearl Harbor.

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when veterans are referred to as survivors? I can understand Holocaust survivor, World Trade Center survivor, etc. "Survivor" brings the connotation of being a victim of events beyond ones control.

Calling Veterans survivors seems to cheapen their participation to mere presence at an event.

Veterans weren't just present at an event - they were part of the struggle, they were the targets of the attack, and they fought back, fought to save their ships, fought to save their shipmates, and where they had the means, fought to destroy the enemy. Yes, they survived the battle, as most did. But they are not merely survivors. They are Veterans.

Some Sad Stuff at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Okay, I'll admit to engaging in a bit of pop culture entertainment this week. I'm sorry I did.

I left after watching about half the Victoria's Secret fashion show. It was after the Spice Girls thing. That was painful and sad. They are certainly not girls anymore. 30-something skanks singing mediocre pop tunes.
Who are these women trying to appeal to?
Younger people don't remember them, and their music isn't good enough to attract the ipod generation.
Middle aged people do remember, but may also remember how tiresome they became as they quickly faded. (I remember how they got booed in Spain in the mid 90's)
Older people probably never cared.
I'm not sure what the deal was with the military - Andrews Sisteresque costume theme either. Will they going on a USO tour? Maybe they'll find an audience there among 30-something Chiefs, First Sergeants, and Majors. Then again, maybe not. Many of the guys I know that age are beyond the sleaze already.
Maybe the Spice girls should just grow up.