A classic from the late, great Warren Zevon

It surprised me a few months back to turn up this video clip of Warren Zevon performing Lawyers, Guns And Money in a guitar solo because his performances were almost exclusively (as far as I know) piano performances. This is from his Excitable Boy album, and it helps to remember that the album came out around 1977, and so the song was written some time prior to that, hence the lyrical references to Russians, Cuba and Honduras.

It's my favorite Zevon song and I've been trying to get it right on the guitar, but the chord changes (D-D-D-A-D-D-D-A-D-D-D-A-E) are a bit fast for my aging fingers.

Mumbai trutherism...already

The situation in Mumbai hasn't even finished playing out yet, and already there are people wondering if the attack might have been an American plot. The screen shot above is from my SiteMeter referral log where some douchebag in India googled the words "mumbai attack is an american conspiracy".

I wonder if these lunatic conspiracy theories will stop once Obama takes office. Eh, probably not even then.

Mumbai attack: New and improved terrorism

The situation in Mumbai hasn't yet wrapped up, with hostages being still held at the Oberoi Hotel. I've been watching streaming video from CNN/IBN, so hit the link if you want to track the situation.

It seems that several terrorist teams arrived on small Zodiac-type boats which may have been launched from a cargo ship anchored off Mumbai. All signs point to an operation by the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is responsible for a long string of terror attacks in India. The main axe they have to grind is India's sovereignty over parts of the disputed Kashmir region, yet the terrorists are reported to have specifically targeted American and British hotel guests for capture.

In any event, this style of terrorism truly represents a shift in tactics from the usual random bombing attacks and is unlike anything we've seen in recent years.

Update: Fixed the cargo ship link...it now links to a longer article, but the mention of Indian navy boarding a cargo ship is further into the article.

Euphemism of the day

Today's euphemism is brought to you by a spokesman for Amy Winehouse:

Amy Winehouse's spokesman says the troubled singer is being treated at a clinic following a reaction to medication.

I guess that's less of a mouthful than "overdose brought on by consuming a 55-gallon drum full of whisky, valium, oxycontin, heroin, beer, Palmolive dishwashing liquid and Drano".

'A nation of men, not laws'

Ace links to another great article by Victor Davis Hanson, in which Hanson says:

For years now we have been preached to that Guantanamo is a gulag where Korans are stomped and flushed (not laptops provided to the chief architect of 9/11), that we waged a foolhardy, amoral, and hopelessly 'lost' war against the Iraqi people, that the rich plundered the economy on the backs of the poor, and that the Constitution was burned so that covert agencies could play James Bond. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Given all that, are we now suddenly — in 1984-fashion — around late January either to be told all that was not quite so, or will we simply hear no more about how these Bush legacies have ruined America — or what exactly is the party line to be? There is still such a thing, after all, as Google.

Ace's closing remark - "A nation of men, not laws" - sums things up perfectly, for this is what we've become. This was evidenced in part by the sudden love among the left for the American flag immediately following the election. Their 'patriotism' seems to be conditioned on who's wielding power.

The more Obama walks back from his campaign positions, the more the Left's objections to George Bush become exposed as objections to the man and not his policies.

And now for some XTC

In which I continue with my 80s & 90s music video motif.

XTC is pure pop in style, but with far more musical complexity than your average pop act, and more clever lyrics. This was one of my favorites by XTC.

In their own words

Lifted shamelessly from Uncommon Sense. I'd heard about Rep. Jim Moran (D- (natch) VA) preaching some good ol' down home Marxism, but I hadn't seen the video clip until today.

Random boat parade not as popular as Christmas boat parade

So as not to exclude those who don't observe Christmas, the eggheads in Patchogue, NY changed the name of their annual Christmas Boat Parade to more inclusive "Boat Parade of Lights". Not everyone was enthused about the change.

About 1,000 people showed up Sunday for the Patchogue (PACH'-awg) Boat Parade of Lights. That's 500 fewer than usually showed up when it was called the Patchogue Christmas Boat Parade.

[ ... ]

Organizers say the parade still was a success.

Well, of course they said that, and it was successful in the sense that a parade actually took place. But driving off a third of your usual audience is hardly a "success".

Cart before the horse

If it's not too early to start naming schools after Barack Obama, I guess it's not too soon to declare his presidency a failure? Or to start impeachment hearings?

If I were Barack Obama, I'd be embarrassed, not honored. But then again, I don't have an ego the size of Mount Rushmore.

Project Valour-IT

Thanks to my sister's prodding, I've finally gotten around to getting on the Project Valour-IT bandwagon - Team Air Force, of course. This is a charity drive that provides voice-enabled laptops and other tech items to wounded veterans to help them in their recovery. The donation button will be on the sidebar for the duration of the campaign. Meanwhile, you can hit the button below and give it up, suckah!

Washington state regulators: Is blogging lobbying?

AoS HQ had this article from Seattle Times up last night.

Blogger beware? State regulators are wondering whether online political activism amounts to lobbying, which could force Web-based activists to file public reports detailing their finances.

In a collision of 21st century media and 1970s political reforms, the inquiry hints at a showdown over press freedoms for bloggers, whose self-published journals can shift between news reporting, opinion writing, political organizing and campaign fundraising.

Not bloody likely, methinks. How is most blogging significantly different from, say, writing editorial columns or hosting an opinion-oriented radio show? Or for that matter, from writing a letter to the editor of your local paper? None of that is regulated as lobbying activity. As for campaign fundraising, what I've seen on blogs is generally limited to having a link to a candidate's campaign website donations page.

Not gonna happen. That's one idea that's DOA.

VI Day

VI - Victory in Iraq Day - is an initiative of the venerable photo-blogger Zombie. The date Zombie chose was actually yesterday, 22 November, 2008. Zombie's rationale:

By every measure, The United States and coalition forces have conclusively defeated all enemies in Iraq, pacified the country, deposed the previous regime, successfully helped to establish a new functioning democratic government, and suppressed any lingering insurgencies. The war has come to an end. And we won.

What more indication do you need? An announcement from the outgoing Bush administration? It's not gonna happen. An announcement from the incoming Obama administration? That's really not gonna happen. A declaration of victory by the media? Please. Don't make me laugh. A concession of surrender by what few remaining insurgents remain in hiding? Forget about it.

I was initially skeptical about this, as evidenced by my being a day late with this. Not because I don't think we won - we clearly did - but because of my fears that the incoming Obama administration might negate that victory. But I see a certain logic in identifying a specific day now on which we mark the successful end of the Iraq war.

As things stand now, a mostly stable Iraq with a functioning government will be turned over to the Obama administration in less than two months. A failure in Iraq after that will fall squarely on the shoulders of Barack Obama.

So, yes. Let's mark 11/22/2008 as Victory in Iraq Day, with a clear message to Obama not to fuck it up.

Globalization

I landed in Richmond last night after my flight back home from the west coast and was standing outside the terminal having a smoke while waiting for the baggage claim belt to start disgorging bags. There was a manhole cover stamped "Made in India", and it occurred to me that I've seen a whole lot of manhole covers lately made there. So this morning I searched Google images for "manhole covers made in india" and for some reason, there are scads of pictures there from various places in the US with Indian-made manhole covers. That's where I grabbed the picture above.

Are Indians really making making cast iron products so cheap that it's worth the shipping costs of importing them? I mean, we're not talking marshmallows here...cast iron is pretty damned heavy. I guess it's another thing we can thank the unions for.