technology meets creativity in a disaster-prone world. confident enough to try; humble enough to learn.
Linking to InstaPundit referenced articles is often pointless, but one’s worth it… and it’s best if you go through his link rather than directly. I strongly urge you to spend a minute considering the geopolitics involved and the possible common enemy of which Glenn speaks before proceeding on… see if you get it right…
Defeats France in World Cup Opener
As Nelson would say:
ha-HA!
This is especially delicious since apparently the entire starting line up of Senegal’s team actually play professionally on French league teams. Which, I would assume, makes them — let’s say it together boys and girls — immigrants.
(Hey, I’ve refrained from the obligatory blogospheric French-bashing up until now; a guy’s allowed to have a little fun now and then.)
Glenn Reynolds has challenged my masculinity!
This will not stand! He may think he can run forensic rings around certain fools who shall not be named, but we shall see how he stacks up against a Real Bear! Have at you!
Actually, I think he was just polite and not making assumptions. And good for him. Or, er, should that be “good for it”?
In my case, regardless, it’s “he” Glenn, honest. Ask my fianc
Happy Fun Pundit his razor-sharp analytical skills on the Bill of Rights.
(it’s been linked to elsewhere, but it actually made me laugh out loud, so that’s pretty much a gotta-link-to in my book).
On a lighter note:
Patio Pundit his finger on what’s been bugging me about the new Slate-supercharged Kausfiles:
“…is it me or does it suck now? Not the kausfiles content, that’s smoking. But it doesn’t feel right. There’s no archives, no link list. I understand that there are some tradeoffs “working for the man.” But they don’t even give Mickey that day tab thingamajiggy.”
Yeah. Mickey’s still cruisin’, but he needs to smack those Microsoft weenies slinging the HTML upside the head. The layout is killin’ us.
Is this where we’re supposed to start a petition or something?
“Free Mickey’s Prose! “
“What do we want?”
“PERMALINKS!”
“When do we want ’em?”
“NOW!”
SAM Missile Update: If you read nothing else, read this.
Well, had my moment in the sun, now back to work. And unpleasant work it is this morning.
The Washington Times (found via Corner) has a report today that goes beyond yesterday’s CNN piece indicating that al Qaeda might have surface-to-air missiles that could be used against U.S. airliners and says that “new intelligence indicates that Islamic terrorists have smuggled shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles into the United States.” (emphasis mine).
The CNN report, which I mentioned here, contained no indication that these weapons might already be in the country.
This is very, very not good. I’m going to keep thinking long and hard about what I would do, if I were Bush or Ashcroft or Ridge right now, to stop what I fear is going to be another terrible loss of life. I will confess to you that right now, I just don’t have an answer. But please, if you’ve got an idea — send it to me. This is not an idle intellectual exercise: this is for real, and as intelligent, informed citizens of this country we damn well better be doing our part to think creatively about how to stop these monsters — because our diversity of mind and thought is our greatest strength. Let’s not squander it.
Update: VodkaGuy has a more reasoned assessment of the threat over at his place. He points out that modern airliners are pretty stable craft, and as such, might be able to withstand losing an engine to a SAM strike.
I’d like to believe that, but I question whether a SA-7 (which apparently is the type of missile most likely to be used) would outright destroy the wing of the plane, as well as the engine. Anybody with a better military background than VP and myself care to chime in here?
Update Again: VodkaGuy got back to me in email near instantaneously, and indicates that a SA-7 warhead is much too small to wreck the wing. This is good news.