Fraters Libertas asks, "Who's Laughing Now" regarding the election of Al Franken as a the senator from Minnesota. Regarding this point, "Firstly, Franken's victory was hardly a ringing endorsement from the people of Minnesota on his candidacy," I can only say that no one went wrong overestimating the stupidity of Minnesota voters. Sorry to be an harsh, but they voted for him and deserve the rebuke.
The irony of Perez Hilton getting punched out for a gay slur is thick and delicious like a piece of rich chocolate cake. Got milk?
The State Department will be hosting Iranian diplomats for a 4th of July BBQ. If you think that the current killings, beatings and oppression of protesters gave them pause, think again,
The view from the American Tobacco Trail. Today's ride is awesome!
On this day 65 years ago, the Allies invaded Normandy and it was the beginning of the end for Hitler and Nazi Germany. The heroism and sacrifice shown that day stands as an example for all time. The US Army has a video here. Go watch it and reflect on those great men that stormed a hostile shore for freedom.
Ace of Spades now has the distinction of having the funniest comment section I have ever seen. Go here and scroll down to #104 where troll Palin Steele conflates Captain America and Barack Obama. Hilarity ensues! You do not want to have a beverage in hand while reading this and you should be warned that there are plenty of bad words but...it is still one of th efunniest things I have read recently. Ace's commenters are a group of profane PJ O'Rourkes!
The US Navy engaged the Japanese from June 4-7, 1942 in what was a decisive victory over the Japanese that put them on defensive for the rest of the war. In short, it was a battle that changed the course of the war and one of the great naval triumphs in history. The US had great intelligence, excellent commanders and the unbelievable heroism of her fighting men. In the end, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk against the loss of the USS Yorktown. And the Japanese were turned back. From that point onward, it was the allies, primarily the US, that had the initiative. Hard fighting remained but the Battle of Midway was a decisive blow from which the Japanese never recovered.
An excerpt from the excellent post at the USNI blog,
Until 1019 on the morning of 4/5 June 1942, things had gone badly for the US and its allies. With few exceptions, the Allies were fighting a losing battle in the Pacific. Indeed, as events unfolded that morning, it appeared as if the rout was on. The attacks by land-based air forces from Midway had utterly failed culminating in the loss of many aircraft. The strikes by the torpedo aircraft were decimated - an entire squadron of TBDs shot down with only a sole survivor to claim witness. An entire air group missed the Japanese carriers and the battle altogether and of the remaining forces, they were scattered and disorganized. The future was looking grim. At 1019, Hiryu’s senior lookout shouted he had spotted dive bombers attacking Kaga from overhead. Despite being thrown into a hard turn, Kaga was struck by a 500 lb bomb and then successive strikes utterly crushed her…
Be sure to go to their blog and read their entry and follow throughout the series on the battle. (H/T: Ace)
67th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway: 4/5 June - Forces Engaged | USNI Blog
The one thing that comes to mind in the wake of President Obama speaking at Notre Dame's commencement at receiving an honorary degree is this: If Catholics will not defend the central tenets of their faith, they cannot ask us to do so on their behalf. Either they believe abortion is wrong and are serious about it or they are not. So says the fallen Catholic.
Hot Air has more on this and the disappointing follow up by the Vatican. This student protesters at Notre Dame showed more courage than the Pope. So much for conviction.
There has been much written about the boom created by Netbooks and why people are using them. This is mainly because they are small, light, have a keyboard you can type on and are inexpensive. They also accomplish most of the basic computer functions that most of us really need a computer for; web surfing, blogging and email. However, one place that I have noticed the Netbook phenomenon taking off is in the adventure space. With the coming of warm weather, bike tourers are starting off on their journeys. Many of them keep online journals at places like Crazyguyonabike or blogs. A common thread is the use of the Netbook. When you are carrying everything on a bicycle, small size and light weight is vital. And here the small size and light weight of the Netbook shines. With the on-board WiFi, it is also fairly easy to find a place to connect whether it is a library, campground or home of a host. The low price means that if something happens to the Netbook, it is much less traumatic than if it were a $1,300 Mac Book.
In the past few days, I have read at least six cycling journals and all of them post using a Netbook. One can easily imagine that this will also be the case with hikers, vacationers and other travelers that want to keep in touch with the outside world and post to blogs and journals.
Do you use a Netbook? How? Cross-posted at Giving You The Business.
This Reuters story is titled, "Obama revelling in U.S. power unseen in decades". It goes on to detail the ways in President Obama has been able to exercise power in his first 100-something days on the job: complete control of both houses of Congress, the federal bailout and the opportunity to appoint a new justice to the Supreme Court. Imagine my relief knowing that we have handed the most power in recent memory to the least experienced and unqualified person to hold the office in that time. It is going to be a long four years and will take a long time for us to clean up the mess afterwards.
In the estimation of your humble author, anyone shedding tears because we waterboarded KSM loses much of my respect. First, there is still a debate as to whether waterboarding and other more aggressive interrogation techniques are torture at all. It is important that those of us who do not think they are do not concede the point. Yet that is exactly what is happening. If anti-war nitwits can waterboard each other at a protest with no ill effects, it is not torture!
Second, when KSM hints darkly that something is on the horizon, our government has a duty to find out what is being planned. Anyone who thinks that the Obama administration would not do the same is a fool. President Obama is only able to release documents and explore prosecutions related to interrogations because the Bush administration did the dirty and hard work of combatting Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism.
It is only under pressure from former VP Cheney that the administration and their media accomplices have had to acknowledge that the techniques resulted in actionable intel and resulted in preventing an attack on Los Angeles among others. Cheney is correct, if you are going to release the details of our efforts without the results you lose the context to determine their effectiveness and whether we should have used them. So release the results. I am confident that even many Obama voters will agree that we did the right thing. Those that still cry over the waterboarding of KSM and company are crying the tears of a clown.
The Washington Post has a nice puff piece on why President Obama has been sitting on his ass eating pizza while the pirates embarrass the hell out of us and expose the new administration as being ineffective. The last paragraph of the story says it all,
Sure. Bush has nothing to do with this and we were not targeted by pirates like this because the previous administration was respected and feared. the inability to make a decision and the weakness shown by Team Obama puts us all in danger. Blaming President Bush for all our troubles is the classless way that our new President has dealt with domestic issues. President Obama does not have that luxury in this instance. Eventually, he has to take ownership of his Presidency and make a decision. The buck stops with him and from I can see so far, that is not a good thing. Let the weakening of America proceed!
Pejman Yousefzadeh does a great analysis of the President's performance in his press conference last night. Be sure to read it.
While in NYC on business, I had the opportunity to stop by Ground Zero. This picture is what remains of the WTC. I used to ride the PATH train into the WTC station on my way to visit clients on Wall Street or to work at the IBM office at 33 Maiden Lane. This was the first time I have returned to that area of the city and felt compelled to visit the site. Tourists like myself are lined up across the street taking pictures and silently reflecting. The residents are going about their daily business with nary a look. In our lives it is hard to keep up with today let alone to remember 9/11/01. I urge you to think about it. The power of standing near a spot where nearly 3,000 perished at the hands of madmen driven by a befouled faith is humbling.
