Beer did you say?!?

So I like beer, and Nicks has beer, somehow i seemed to forget this till lately. Don't ask me how as i don't know. Anyway, i am coming back to there more and more often. Went last nite and had a pair of delicous pints. First was a black and tan, expertly poured by Andy who had the guiness come out of the tap so slowly that there was no mixing at all. Awesome pour. Then i had a Highland Oatmeal Porter that was more than slightly delicious. Havn't had it in a while for sure. Then me and Jamie tried to decide what beer we would drink if we could only drink one kind forever more. I didn't think that hard as i pick the Yeungling as its the best all purpose beer. You can drink it anyway and at any time. I think that its going to be likely that next beer there will be the red hook, i am becoming more a bitter man lately, as far as beer goes at least.

Okay, i have a winner here

If you ever played starcraft, got pissed off at the media, think armchair pundits suck dick for money, think that people who talk about the military and have no idea how big a platoon or division is, think congress is stupid, thought torture isn't always bad, or agreed with Col Jessup (Jack Nickolson) from A few good men...go here. Its freaking awesome and worth it.

The MSM suck, and here is why...

Here is an article that was actually published on the washington post's website. It does a pretty good job of knocking out the failures. I will attempt to go a bit farther.

If we look at the last few weeks, the press has covered in different ways many stories but several of the them, the main ones, leave me a little flabberghasted. The cartoon one is the easiest so lets knock on that some more. The reasons were stated very well up front. The MSM cowered when confronted with showing images that caused the rioting in dozens of countries and even deaths. Shit, even the storming the embassies and the withdrawing of several diplomats. This is pretty big news, so doesn't it makes sense to show the reason this is happening? I mean thats what all the protests are supposedly about. And if you don't believe its really about the cartoons, thats great, but thats what is on the placcards and signs. So now we have a mommy media that is going to decide not only what is important but what we are allowed to see. Oh but of course, we area allowed to see images of Mary covered in shit, Sharon as a nazi etc. Whats the purpose of the news again, keep me informed? Great job, nothing like keeping me informed by telling me i cannot see things and make up my own mind.

Next wonderful story we have is the Cheney incident. How is this so big a story that it dominates news coverage for days. The man was shot by the vice president on a private hunting trip, and was in a stable condition the whole time. And in addition, it was even put forth by the man who was shot that he was at least partly if not mostly at fault. And the biggest story wasn't the shooting even, it was that nobody informed the press until 18 hours later. I mean wow, they followed the law by informing the local hunting regulation board and the owner of the ranch put it out 18 hours later, after Mr. Whittington was in the hospital and doing well. Apperently thats not fast enough for some reason I still don't understand. God forbid, the press needs to find out about stuff themselves. Also, lets also point out that the media couldn't get all the facts or have some of them right. We heard all kinds of wonderful statements like "shot him with BBs" (not even close since it was 6 shot, a BB is much closer to 0 or 1 shot). We heard that for a while the shooting was close range (30 yards is not close range for a shotgun). We also heard that it was a powerful shotgun (it was a 28 gauge, a very small shotgun with little power). We heard about the number one rule of hunting, to be sure of what you are shooting (good point but much less applicable in a quail hunt as the coveies are gone in about 1-2 seconds so maintaining position is paramount, this comes from my shooting instructor that hunts quail). All types of wonderful assertations but alot of them are made up or just wrong, all in a story that really has no real significance.

And then we have the wonderful idea of the new Abu Gharib photos. Even most of the people in Iraq are sick of this as it was A) 2 years ago roughly B) Already been fully investigated C) Sentences and punishments were already handed out. Yet this was a leading story, about stuff that happened 2 years ago. Now really "News" as much as "Inflaming hatred Olds." Oh but lets not forget, these images were widely shown and offending Muslims and inciting hatred be damned. Of course it makes the US look bad so we will keep rolling with it. Ridiculous. Totally freaking ridiculous.

I know its like beating a dead horse to show that the media is worthless at this point, but still, its crazy lately even more than usual.

Wow, lots going on...

UAE deal, Iran still being douches even to the Russians, Harvard Prez resigns...

Lets start with the one thats the biggest deal, the United Arab Emerites is supposed to take control of the US ports. Yep, an ARAB country is going to be in charge of security of US ports. Yeah, I think my initial reaction was of disbelief and outrage. How dare Bush even THINK this is a good idea? So I did what i always do, i researched. Check this out,

The critical point is that Dubai Ports World won't be running the port of Baltimore, or any other U.S. port for that matter.

And on whose authority do we find that little nugget? Why a former rep and port authority advisor named Helen Bentley of Baltimore. Seems like a pretty reliable source. Her opinion is its all over nothing. UAE will be conducting the managing of the contracts, but union labor will still be doing all loading and unloading of the docks. Much ado about nothing really.

Whether this is it or not i am not sure. I am concerned with it for the way it looks and what the implication are but then i looked more into the UAE itself. Oddly, they are one of our very good allies in the region. Not only the government but the people like us as well. So we got that going, and perhaps the best way for us to show this isn't a "war on Islam" is that we have a friendly, allied muslim country doing exactly what any other country can do. It just seems to me (and i am guilty of this too) that we claim we need to be more out-reaching and help strengthen ties but then all of a sudden, we turn into a bunch of assholes when the government does just that. UAE has served with the US in many military conflicts and we have permanent military stations there. In addition, they pretty much hate Iran and remember very well that we have defended them before. Perhaps its not to much to ask that this country be treated as an ally and get our trust.

Back to Iran for a bit, their talks with the Russians have concluded with...more talks but in Tehran this time. Progress no?

Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, has resigned. If you remember from about a year ago, he put forth the idea that perhaps men were better suited to math because of scientific reasons (as a study found that men did better in math given all other equal variables). He was practically run out of town on a rail. God forbid ever actually think about even the remotest possibility. Never mind that the same feminists that ran him out will tell you (published works on in fact) that a single father does not have the same instincts and abilities as a single mother. Cause equal means women are at least as good if not better than men at everything...right?

This link here has interesting thoughts. I don't know i agree with it, though the logic is good. There is one point i take from it though.

The U.S., fortunately, is still on a demographic expansion wave and will be till at least 2050. But if the Islamists achieve their dream of nuking “crusader” cities, they’ll make crusaders out of the U.S., too. And this time, a West with a chauvinized America at its head would smite the Saracen with weapons that would destroy entire populations and fuse Mecca into glass. The horror of our victory would echo for a thousand years.

The sad fact is that if this war last long enough that we lose all sense of patience and sympathy for the masses of people in the ME, I could see this plausably happening. Not likely for sure but still there.

Bin Laden and many most of the Muslim world is still seething at the Crusades. Its a justification given not only by him but also the "Joe Sixpack" of the Muslim world. If this is still indeed the case, then is there really anything that we here in the US can change? Cause that means that they have hated the US for 700 years before there was a US, and that shit don't really make sense. If there is a real sense of victimization from the Islamic community and they are looking to take the fight to the West, they really need to look carefully, as even with all the faults and bullshitting we have been doing for years now, if the US military ever gets to take the kid gloves off, cities fall in hours. Its not done now as we don't want to kill thousands and millions of people. We could in minutes, even with conventional weapons. Mosques blowing up whenever militants go in them, fallujah not raided after giving civilians a chance to leave but leveled to the ground with carpet bombing from B-52s or MOABs to demolish everything. We are accused of actively disregarding caution or intentionally targeting civilians, but if we did, there wouldn't be opposition, it wouldn't have survived.

Quickies

Reports are stating that Iraq may be trying to join NATO in the near future. I like it.

Cartoonists are still rioting, perhaps if we are expected to be tolerant of others, they should be tolerant of us?

Is the purpose of the UN to defend rights or to resolve conflict, cause pretty soon its going to have to be one or the other for just about everything.

Drinking it cool, except when you throw up on a cat...