Category: 40yrs

Rule Number One of Writing About Things Military

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For Some Reason, I Imagine Her Singing Wagner Opera

Always include the picture of the blond Swedish hottie in uniform whenever you can.

In this case, it appears that the Swedish Conscription Council (Värnplikstrådet) is complaining that the brassieres offered to women conscripts are not up to the rigors of combat (also here):

The poor quality of the standard-issue sports bras prompted a group by female soldiers at the LV 6 military base in Halmstad to voice their displeasure to representatives from the Council recently.

The women complained that the bras’ fasteners have a tendency to come undone when the women performed rigorous exercise, forcing the female soldiers to take off all of their equipment in order to refasten the brassieres.

In addition, the bras aren’t flame resistant and, once lit, can melt onto conscripts’ skin, the Göteborgs-Posten (GP) newspaper reports.

I would think that this is something where little research would be necessary, since it must have been addressed in armies with high numbers of women serving (the number is only about 5% in Sweden).

Just email the Israelis, and you will have an answer in about an hour.

Went to a Funeral

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I went to MSgt Wade’s funeral this afternoon.

Wade led a life in which he made many friends, and helped a lot of people, and made even more people laugh. As his son noted, in the most positive way possible, he was a “goofy bastard,” and a lot of that was because of his sense of deep abiding honesty.

He was a military Chinese linguist, and among other things, lobbied the chain of command or immersion training to be a part of military foreign language training. (Which it now is)

He is also the one who told me that the name I gave one of my cats, Tudza, not only meant “Rabbit,” but was also Chinese slang for gay, which might explain why my fixed since age one cat has a serious catnip problem. (Not really, if cats cared about their names, they would come when called).

One thing that I still have a problem with in non-Jewish funerals is the open casket bit.

I’ve been to about a dozen funerals, with about ¾ being Jewish, and hence closed casket, and I still don’t get the open casket funeral. It gives me the serious willies.

Oh My God!

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KFC’s Double Down Sandwich:

Contents:

  • 1 fried chicken patty
  • 2 slices of cheese
  • 2 slices of bacon
  • Yet another fried chicken patty.

Yep, the fried chicken fillets are in place of the bread, which means, I guess, that it is cool for Atkins folks.

According to the KFC PR flaks, the nutritive…..Value? Is as follows:

  • Calories: 590
  • Calories from fat: 280
  • Total fat: 31g
  • Saturated fat: 10g
  • Trans fat: 0g
  • Cholesterol: 190mg

Great googly moogly. If I ever get one, I will have to wash it down with a can of Jolt Cola.

Obama to Switch Parties*

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President Obama stunned the political world today by announcing he will switch political parties, and soon become a Republican. “It seems the only way we’re going to get bipartisanship in this town is if I lead the way,” he said, in brief remarks before leaving for vacation. “The Republicans have refused to work with me because I’m a Democrat, and Republicans’ biggest strength has always been the ability to fall into line with whatever their leaders tell them, unlike other certain unnamed political parties in America…” (the president appeared to cough several times at this point, although one of his coughs sounded suspiciously like the word “Democrats,” if truth be told…). The president, clear-throated now, continued, “So I will now be the leader of the Republican Party, and they will fall in line with what I tell them to we’re going to do. The Democrats who are interested in bipartisanship can join us to pass Medicare-for-all, instead of the Rube Goldberg machine which they have been attempting to construct.”

…

link

*For the humor impaired, this is satire.

I May Have Been an Optimist on eBay

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4 Months ago, I posted a rather waggishly titled, “Ebay Discovered to Have Socially Redeeming Value,” citing an investigation in Archeology magazine that suggested that the explosion in counterfeits was actually driving real (stolen) antiquities from the market, because manufacturing frauds was more profitable.

Well, a collector of such objects, and a frequent purchaser on eBay, one Bill Stelzer, disputes this in the letters section (scroll down to Cheaper by the Millions).

He says that eBay aggressively monitors and vets such sales, and as a result, there is very little, if any fraud in this area.

Personally, I have no clue as to where the truth is, but when someone says that, “The eBay sites that auction antiquities are among the most vetted sites on the Internet,” my bullsh%$ meter spikes to 11.

I have had good luck on eBay, but what I tend to purchase are things like toner cartridges from stores with addresses and phone numbers, and I verify both before purchases.

The output of pot hunters being “vetted” sounds a bit strange, but I am speaking from a position of profound ignorance here, so YMMV.

Remember When I Said that George W. Bush Was Forming a Think Tank?

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Well, it gets better, because the person that he has charged with running this august institution is one James K. Glassman, a fact that I did not pay much attention to when I made the initial snark.

Clayton Littlejohn, Wonkette, and Matthew Yglesias caught the obvious irony: Mr. Glassman is the author of Dow 36,000, in which he and Kevin A. Hassett wrote in 1999, which predicted that the index would top thirty-six thousand in the next few years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed today, about a decade later, at 9,441.27.

Mr. Glassman appears uniquely qualified to represent the ideas of George W. Bush.

Original post here.

Can We Please Give Texas Back to Mexico?

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Or maybe Canada, or Belize, or Iran or Myanmar (Burma); I don’t care, who gets Texas.

The latest bit of wankery of the Texas State Board of Education on the curriculum, where they are looking to replace Thurgood Marshall with Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Focus on the Family, Phyllis Schlafly, the Moron Moral Majority, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee, and the National Rifle Association makes it pretty clear that the intersection of Texan and American values is pretty much a null set.

I really cannot add anything to Atrios’ analysis, “I guess what bugs me most of all isn’t that they’re trying ram through a conservative-only version of history, it’s that they’re all obviously really f%$#ing stupid.”

Birthers Want Obama to Drop Trou* On National TV

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Shrek: Do you think he’s maybe compensating for something?

Yep, Jesus’ General, who reads Free Republic so I don’t have to, has noted that the latest meme: If Barack Obama is not circumcised, it would mean that he was not born in the US in 1961, because everyone got circumcised then.

There are some problems here.

It is indeed true that circumcision rates were high, well over 90%, in the US in the early 1960s, it was neither absolutely universal nor mandatory. Additionally, circumcision amongst Muslims is considered Sunnah, or a highly recommended tradition, and as a Muslim Obama would have been circumcised.

So if he were a closet Muslim, he would be circumcised anyway.

In any case let me be the first to say, great googly moogly, someone has issues.

The fascination that the denizens of FR with Democratic presidential penises, which says something about them, probably more about penis size insecurity than anything else.

*Meaning pull down his pants, and show us his penis.

Just When You Thought that Wal-Mart Could Not Get Any More Evil…..

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They have made a corporate decision to attempt to destroy Girl Scout cookie sales:

What could Wal-mart possibly do to harm Girl Scouts?
Wal-mart has copied the Girl Scouts’ two best selling cookie types, Thin Mints and Tagalongs.

Wal-mart is selling Fake Girl Scout Cookies.
Wal-mart has fake Girl Scout cookies in ‘beta’ distribution, on their way to a national rollout. Because the cookies are ‘reasonable facsimiles’ of the authentic Girl Scout cookies (I sampled them myself at BlogHer ‘09 last week) and are being sold at an everyday low price, these cookies are poised to snatch cookie sales right out of the hands of the Girl Scouts themselves.

Remember, the funds from girl scout cookie sales go to their programs, things like camping trips, etc.

It must be the uniforms….It reminds Mal-Mart management of unions, so this organization must be crushed.

But I Bought My PC a Week Ago!!!!!

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Damn

A quad-core, Blu-ray, Windows 7 desktop for $650

by Rick Broida

Update: Sorry, folks, looks like the discount code has expired.

If you’re in the market for a new desktop that’s equally well-suited to games and movies, HP has a ridiculously good deal going. It’s the HP Pavilion Elite e9110t, which you can get for $649.99 shipped after a few configuration tweaks and a coupon code.

The tiger in the tank, Intel’s 2.33GHz Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor, roars along with 6GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and a 512MB GeForce G210 video card. Those are some kick-ass specs.

Other highlights: a Blu-ray drive with LightScribe-DVD capabilities, an 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter, and a 15-month subscription to Norton Internet Security 2009 (aka the good version).

There is, of course, no good version of Norton anything!!

Perhaps best of all, the system comes with Windows Vista Home Premium but is eligible for a free Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade come October 22.

By the way, this is a new Pavilion, not a refurb, so you get HP’s full one-year warranty. Here’s how to put it all together, courtesy of DealNews:

1. Ctrl-click this link to open the product page in a new tab.
2. Click the Customize & Buy button next to the $649.99 option.
3. Click the Memory option and choose the free 6GB upgrade.
4. Click the Primary CD/DVD Drive option and choose the Blu-ray player.
5. Click the Networking option and choose the Wireless-N LAN card and external modem.
6. Click Review & Buy, then apply coupon code DTM4558.

Presto! That should get you out the door for $649.99. In an ideal world, this system would also have a TV tuner (which you can add for $80), but it’s still one of the best desktop deals I’ve ever seen.

HP’s various discounts on this system end Aug. 15, so you’ve got a little time if you want to shop around. I’ll be mighty surprised if you can find a better configuration for the money.

I suppose that this is unavoidable…..But I’m still pissed off.