Fox News Sends Hamas Message

Fox news on the 12noon Eastern broadcast today showed footage of the fighting in Gaza. Israeli aircraft flying low and firing rockets against Hamas positions... then as the reporter discussed the overflowing hospitals and shortage of medical supplies, the footage shows people in uniforms taking measurements around craters and shrapnel scarred building in a residential area.

One problem though... the images were of Israeli security forces. I must assume that those houses were in Israel and the damage was from Hamas rockets.

Images of Israeli aircraft and residential damage are combined with a voiceover of overflowing hospitals. Whose message is that I wonder?

I know that answer, it's Hamas.

The unanswered question is whether what I just saw on TV was intentional or incompetent.

The difference is important... Israelis target Hamas sites; damage and casualties in residential areas is collateral. Hamas targets Israel; damage and casualties in residential areas is intended.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas eve dinner then went to midnight Mass last night, as we do every year. Awesome. Just awesome.

All the family opened gifts this morning. (Round robin)

Christus natus est

(Link to chant at www.christusrex.org

The WARLOCK JAMMER Leak

There's a great story and debate over at the Wired Defense blog about the wikileak's publication of a classified report on the WARLOCK IED jamming system. I've written before about my view on publishing classified information, (it's wrong) so I won't go much into that here.

I would like to address the argument that Wikileak's editor, Julian Assange, makes in justifying his disclosure of classified information.

As for this document, U.S. Soldiers are not happy that literally billions have gone on these jammers, with apparently little thought going into how soldiers are going to communicate, after they have been turned on.

Unlike IED's, jamming and communications are something I do have some experience in. I can tell the editor, that a great deal of thought goes into the balance between jamming and communications. But the answer is simple, and almost always the same.

The position that the temporary advantage of communicating (or collecting intelligence from communications) outweighs advantages gained by jamming reflects a lack of mature thinking. Jamming jams weapons systems. That means jamming make the weapons systems unable to function. When weapons systems are unable to function, they can't kill you or your team.

Yes, for someone whose job it is to communicate it's frustrating as hell when the jammers are doing their work. Communications are important. But you can't communicate or complete the mission if you're dead.

Lots of good discussion in the Wired Blog comments

By the way, I could not bring myself to download and read the actual report. The wikileaks article says that it's classified SECRET. Publication does not make it unclassified. My home computer is not authorized to process classified information.

2008 Hot Chicks with Douchebags Final

A great final this year.

While Metaphysical Hooligan is a Douche supreme, the hotness of his hott Carly is nowhere near the level of the other two hotts, Surfer Kelly or Quartasian Mia Sara. Maybe with a hotter hott, the Hooligan would clinch it.

Quartasian Mia Sara is the hottest of the hotts, a bit young, but exquisite in her tolerance of Deathtongue Douche. But alas, DeathTongue doesn't rise to the level of douchiness of either the Metaphysical Hooligan or Droopey McScrote. Deathtongue is really just more of a dick than a Douche of the Year. He is minor league.

Now we Compare the Hooligan/Carly Hott and Deathtongue/Mia Sara to Surfer Kelly and Droopy McScrote. Kelly is undeniably hot. Gawd, her boob is touching the soft paleness of the droop. Ugh. Droop outdouches them all. He is so f*cking cool he doesn't need to work out, spike his hair, shower, or buy designer clothes. Yet he is the essence of self absorbed douche. Clueless. Empty.

A winner.

I vote Droopy McScrote for Douche of the Year

We Remember



Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

Army Navy Game

Navy 34 - Army 0

Anchors Aweigh my boys, anchors aweigh.

Hats Off to You - Nameless Old Guy

When describing my Navy career, I often tell people that I didn't join intending to make a career of it. It's just that I was always having too much fun to get out.

That's true, but another thought occasionally came across my mind.

As a young Sailor on liberty, I often found myself sitting at a bar somewhere. (Surprise!). When that happened in the States, every now and then I'd wind up talking to some old guy at the bar too. These old guys probably weren't really that old, 40's maybe, looking like they've had tough lives, and were still working their tough jobs. They often made the comment, "Yeah, if I had stayed in, I woulda been retired by now..."

I don't think I ever wanted to be one of those guys. Of course I lucked out, and stayed in because I liked it, but every now and then I think of those nameless old guys who regretted not staying in.

Their stories had an effect on me. So thanks old guys. I stayed in.

The Power of Words

War poetry.

It will touch you when you least expect it.

Even when you think that words are not enough.

Sometimes they are.

Mumbai Gunmen Spared Some Hostages

"On the 20th floor, the gunmen shoved the group out of the stairwell. They lined up the 13 men and three women and lifted their weapons. "Why are you doing this to us?" a man called out. "We haven't done anything to you."

"Remember Babri Masjid?" one of the gunmen shouted, referring to a 16th-century mosque built by India's first Mughal Muslim emperor and destroyed by Hindu radicals in 1992.

"Remember Godhra?" the second attacker asked, a reference to the town in the Indian state of Gujarat where religious rioting that evolved into an anti-Muslim pogrom began in 2002.

"We are Turkish. We are Muslim," someone in the group screamed. One of the gunmen motioned for two Turks in the group to step aside.

Then they pointed their weapons at the rest and squeezed the triggers.

From the WSJ timeline.

These guys have rules. They have a morality. But it is not ours.