Month: December 2012

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A Football Fantasy

Suppose that, instead of the traditional blimp circling the stadium providing aerial views of the football game, instead you had a Predator drone prowling above. Broadcasters could marvel at the quality and detail of the pictures, and discount the fact that the picture contained a crosshair. “Why, you can count the fillings of their teeth!”

For halftime, small Toyota pickup trucks, called ‘technicals’ the world over, would be brought out on the field to serve as targets for the Predator. For authenticity actors dressed as terrorists would be riding in the trucks carrying AK-47s. We could then demonstrate the swiftness and accuracy of the strikes.

Any craters that could not be leveled by the end of halftime would serve as natural hazards a la golf for the second half of the game.

What could go wrong?

N.B. In cities with particularly rowdy fans such as Philadelphia and Oakland the Predators could serve as crowd control.

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Pictures from this year- and a little background on one…

Buzzfeed has put up a really nice selection of beautiful and in some cases heart-wrenching photographs from the last year. Here are some I liked:

A Syrian refugee boy points a plastic toy pistol at a man in a Mickey Mouse costume on the first day of Eid al-Adha at a park in Beirut.

I’m sure one of the signs of a failed society is when your children point a gun at Mickey…

A Tibetan exile runs through a street during a protest against the upcoming visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

A scene from a land being stolen and a people being slowly exterminated. Somehow not sexy enough to make the news much- I guess we need that Chinese stuff too badly.

A Palestinian girl tries to punch an Israeli soldier during a protest against the expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Halamish.

(as always, click pics to embiggen, they’re worth it)

Just another day outside of Gaza- actually, maybe more of ‘just another day’ than you might think. American Digest linked this video which somehow casts that image in a wholly different light:

[jwplayer mediaid=”1320″]

Pictures can lie, and also deceive. It all depends on your agenda, and some agendas are more obvious than others. Dang devious Jews.

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Gawd love the Brits

It appears that not everyone is totally enamored with the creeping socialism afflicting Great Britain, and resistance against it can take some, er, charming forms. First, a little background from S. Weasel:

The Brits are a contradictory lot. In some ways, privacy obsessed. In others, right up in each others’ bidness.

Take the Planning Notice. If you want to make changes to your property, you have to file an application. That info then goes into the local paper, and on a printed notice, which is stuck up on a light pole or something near the scene of the proposed change. And then your neighbors can complain about it and try to get it blocked, if they like.

It’s more intrusive than building permits in the States. You see Planning Notices for things like replacing a broken gate or changing the sign over a shop. And the process applies to rural areas, too. I’m not entirely agin’ it — a lot of the charm of this charming place we live depends on keeping things just exactly the way they are forever — but it does make my libertarian bone itch.

So a right creative fella decides to have a bit of fun with it-

(click to embiggen)

More of his efforts are documented here. Passive resistance at its best.

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All politics, all the time

Watched a football game on NBC last night- a pretty good one, as a matter of fact. I genuinely like the game broadcasters (Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth), they often make a mediocre game enjoyable. Then again, last night, we had Bob Costas. I won’t quote him or link what he said. I will admit he caused me to become somewhat perturbed and I used harsh language. There’s a pic circulating all over the ‘net that pretty much sums up my thoughts on this:

Nicole Simpson could not be reached for comment.

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America the Beautiful

From Kuriositas:

The Grand Circle is a stunning, immense expanse of land located in the South-western United States. It encompasses parts of five states – Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Not surprisingly it also holds the largest concentration of national parks and monuments in the country. It takes in Arches National Park, Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Antelope Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Mesa Verde, Natural Bridges, Canyonlands, and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Breathtaking.

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Bad tactical decisions, part XXXIII

You know, there are some things a normal human with a decent self-preservation instinct just doesn’t do- poke a nest of pit vipers with a stick, confront a man with a gun when you have none, or mess with a bunch of bikers while they’re partying. Apparently this group didn’t get that memo:

Johnstown, PA (GlossyNews) – Local and state police scoured the hills outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside fast food restaurant dumpsters,” according to police officials.

“Something just went wrong,” said a still visibly shaken organizer of the protest. “Something just went horribly, horribly, wrong.”The organizer said a group of concerned animal rights activists, “growing tired of throwing fake blood and shouting profanities at older women wearing leather or fur coats,” decided to protest the annual motorcycle club event “in a hope to show them our outrage at their wanton use of leather in their clothing and motor bike seats.”

Things did not go well for them.

“They peed on me!!!” charged one activist. “They grabbed me, said I looked like I was French, started calling me ‘La Trene’ and duct taped me to a tree so they could pee on me all day!”

Still others claimed they were forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs under duress. Those who resisted were allegedly held down while several bikers “farted on their heads.”

The bikers, however, claimed there was no conflict-

“That’s preposterous,”said one high-ranking member of the biker organizing committee. “We were having a party, and these people showed up and were very rude to us. They threw things at us, called us names, and tried to ruin the entire event. So, what did we do? We invited them to the party!

What could be more friendly than that? You know, just because we are all members of motorcycle clubs does not mean we do not care about inclusiveness.”

As to the alleged ‘mistreatment’-

When confronted with the allegations of force-feeding the activist’s meat, using them as ad hoc latrines, leaving them incapacitated in fast food restaurant dumpsters, and ‘farting on their heads,’ the organizer declined to comment in detail. “That’s just our secret hand shake,” assured the organizer.

We report- you decide.

via Adam Baldwin (@adamsbaldwin) on Twitter