:: Netmarcos' Notes ::

:: Thursday, June 30, 2005 ::

Some brilliant by some of the scrapplers today. They're getting almost as clever as Scott!
ScrappleFace: Bush: U.S.-Mexico 'Border' Renamed 'Junction'

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that the US government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington & they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around the country. Maybe we should give them all a cow.

:: Mark 2:53 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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It’s All About 9/11

:: Mark 4:17 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A good post over at JustOneMinute entitled Reality Comes To The Times with a great response in the comment section from Will Allen:

The sanctions regime was going to collapse, because too many actors, some on the U.N. Security Council, wanted the sanctions regime to collapse. Hussein was not going to be contained well into the future. It really came down to whether one wanted the Tikrit Mafia to run Iraq for the next several decades, with all that meant to the rest of the region, which means likely locking in place the system of despotism which has held sway for 70 years. It was that system of despotism which led to 9/11.
This was always a risky venture, in the superficial sense. In the deeper sense, given the rotten nature of the status quo, it wans't all that risky. I would most fault the Bush Administration for failing to explain this well in public, and I think this error stems from a fear of seeming to cold-blooded in explaining the strategic situation.
The most important mineral resource in the world is located in the Persian Gulf, vital to the well-being of nearly every human on earth. Thus, the U.S., as the world's most powerful nation, is inevitably forced to be involved with the extraction of that resource, and as much as other nations may decry U.S. power, they desperately want the U.S. to be involved in that extraction. If the U.S. Navy didn't exist, Japan, Europe, India, China, and other nations would have to invent it.
The model for extraction which has been employed for the past 70 years or so, slavery by proxy, in which we pay tribute to, and protect, despots in return for access to oil, while they tyrannnize the populations which sit atop of the oil, is what led to 9/11. The model, if left intact, will eventually lead to an older model of resource extraction, after the Jihadis become more tactically and technologically proficient, and are thus able to replicate 9/11 on a on a larger scale.

That older model, which goes back to pre-historic man, is simple mass annhilation of groups which impede extraction of the desired resource. The rest of the world desperately desires the oil in the Persian Gulf every bit as much as Americans do, and, when push comes to shove, they aren't going to be willing to let it stay in the ground, nor are they goung to be willing to have jihadis engage in mass attacks around the globe. The oil is coming out, and the only open question is how many people get slaughtered in the process. If the populations of the Persian Gulf do not achieve self-government, including governing their mineral wealth, and then trade peacably and profitably with the rest of the world, a conflict every bit as bloody, if not bloodier, than WWII looms, except this conflict will be decidedly one sided.

If we leave Iraq without it's population having achieved self-government (and it was always an iffy thing), we'll be back in the region in force within 20 years, perhaps on the sooner end of that scale. When that happens, however, nation-building is not even going to be on the to-do list, at least not until after the region has been turned into a gigantic abattior.

Exactly!

:: Mark 1:20 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Buttered Cat Array a solution to energy woes.

:: Mark 5:02 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Maybe this article in the Harvard Gazette can explain the Red/Blue divide in american politics.

Half of us suffer from mental illness, survey finds

The real question is which half...

:: Mark 9:23 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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I am just speachless...Traverse City psychologist sued; Woman alleges she was billed for sex sessions

TRAVERSE CITY - A local woman is suing a Traverse City psychologist for negligence after he allegedly had sex with her as a part of a 'love therapy,' and billed her for it.
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For over 10 years, the woman said Halsted - a state-licensed psychologist - recommended regular therapy sessions, which included traveling together to "secluded places," where they allegedly engaged in intimate contact and sexual intercourse.
The suit alleges Halsted told the woman sex sessions were "an integral part of his therapy" practices and he billed her for them.

Update: I got my voice back. Just how STUPID can this woman be?! Either she is one of the most gullible fools ever to seek "professional" help, or she thinks the the rest of us are as dumb as she appears to be. And just why is she suing for only half the amount billed over the course of 10 years of groping and poking therapy? Was the sex only half bad?

Sheesh!

:: Mark 10:22 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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That Lileks does have a way with words.: "I know a little bit about modern journalism, and we tend to emphasis the splintery plunger up the butt over the mocking puppet show. In any case, this detail makes you almost want to weep in frustration; domestic politicians are posturing for the camera, huffing about then horrors of Gitmo, insisting that the rest of the world won?t forgive us until we close the joint down and pave it. Over what? A Punch and Judy show? If we gang-mimed the guy and had 17 men in striped shirts with white makeup pantomime falling out of a burning skyscraper, would the critics demand we not only let the guy go but pay him a per diem for his troubles? I?ve read the story twice, and I keep wondering if I missed the part where the suspected 20th hijacker spits teeth into a chamberpot rimming with own bloody urine while massaging the welts the jumper cables left on his groinal division. I mean, I take all that for granted, because our soldiers are all killbot brutes - except for the lower-class ones who got drafted against their will and can only hope Bruce Springsteen sings a monotonal account of their disaffection. "

:: Mark 11:16 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Woohoo.Kerry allows Navy release of military, medical records - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Washington - News: "Kerry allows Navy release of military, medical records"

:: Mark 1:39 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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We must never take lightly and never forget the Death of a Marine.:

The gunfire was deafening. To the sound of the terrorists' AK-47s was added the din of the Marines' M16 rifles and Squad Automatic Weapon, a machine gun. The battle was raging, with Peralta down and bleeding heavily and the other Marines firing into the back room at the enemy, when, in Kaemmerer's words, ''a yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade bounced into the room, rolling to a stop close to Peralta's nearly lifeless body."

As the other Marines tried to flee, Peralta reached for the grenade and tucked it into his gut. Seconds later, it exploded with such force that when his remains were returned to his family for burial, they were able to identify him only by the tattoo on his shoulder. But his five comrades-in-arms, shielded from the worst of the blast by Peralta's last act as a Marine, survived.

Please read the entire article and search out more like it...and then share them with your family.

:: Mark 11:50 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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