…provided by “embed” “Bill Ardolino,” who will do anything, it seems, to prop up our imperialist war machine, including the penning of hamhanded “essays” (complete with “pictures”) clearly intended to rehabilitate and “humanize” Iraqis (who we all know by now are simply Mesopotamian barbarians for whom it is fashionable these days to show our liberal “concern” by suggesting we let them tear at each other’s throats like the wild curs they are).
Call it geopolitical tough love. Or the new Hagelianism. Or Murthanthropy. But whatever you do, don’t call it “realism.”
Because too many folks are on record as staunch critics of such a self-interested foreign policy posture—and there’s no need to embarrass anyone just because of a teensy little hiccup in their consistency.
Incidentally, I stopped by the statehouse this morning and tried to introduce a non-binding resolution that would have made it clear to the President that the people of Colorado are not at all happy with the way he pronounces “nuclear.” I thought I might have a hard time finding a sponsor, but a few Democrats and at least one Republican were actually quite excited by the idea.
We can expect a vote later this week, I’m told. Wish us luck!
I nonbindingly resolved to quit smoking again this New Year’s. On the plus side, I’m down to a pack a day.
Mmmm…ham.
I need to run into the city to do some errands. If anybody still reads this stupid site, just imagine I wrote something that is destined to go largely unnoticed, then complained about it bitterly.
Only when you’re doing so, you really should be wearing bicycle shorts and suffering from the kind of paranoia that can only come about when you wake up to find the Sea Monkey king has left his tank and has gotten into your stash of prunes.
Dan- Good luck on quitting. I’ve tried 3 times tis year. Good news. . . I’m down to a pack and a half a day. Addiction sucks.
No. I should not be wearing bicycle shorts.
Ever.
Trust me on this.
There is gonna be sea-monkey crap everywhere. Still, I guess it’s organic.
MCPO,
Amen, and keep trying.
Not only “nucular”, but –
If Bush were to be impeached (and I am not an anti-Bushite, in case no one has noticed), it should be for signing the McCain-Feingold act. Don’t ever leave anything up to the Supreme Court if you have any say in the matter. “Veto” might be good.
How cool is it to have a Supreme Court that considers what they “feel” more important than the Constitution?
It’s hard for me to believe that in 1967 I was into SDS. Raging hormones can make anyone quite irrational. I really didn’t like walking around with my hands in my pockets all the time.
Yes. It was hard to carry my books. I could only carry one or two underneath each arm. This was before backpacks, in case you are wondering. We’re talking the age of “pop-overs”.
Go home, Lost Dog.
According to one of those history channel programs, nicotine is one of the most physically addictive drugs there is. Supposedly 95% (IIRC) of people who use it become hooked.
Herion is around 50%.
Heroin.
G-d I’m dumb.
Don’t know as I would recommend this to anyone else, but what worked for me was to try to keep smoking three packs a day while you have the flu- then nearly passing out in a coughing attack after walking up a flight of stairs, I was literally on the ground in a fetal position trying to punch 911 into my cell phone when I finally started to catch my breath. That was two years ago, the cigs went in the trash and I haven’t smoke since.
Gained about 80 fucking pounds, but I’m smoke-free.
KILL! KILL!! KILL!!!11!!
…
Oops. Sorry. Happened again. My bad.
Carry on…
Is any of this Ardolino stuff getting any MSM play outside of the Examiner? Michael Yon? Anywhere? Anybody?
If you’re quitting smoking, this stuff actually works pretty well, particularly for getting through the first few weeks without murdering anyone. I recommend giving it a shot.
cranky-d, I agree. I could quit doing smack anytime I felt like it!
Silly Pablo! I’m a Neo-Con!
I meant without murdering any white people, Dan. Sorry.
Quit smoking 01/01/07, went from a pack and half to nothing… Going on 36 days.. I want to kill someone or something. My wife states the obvious, “You are not nice to be around lately”. My response,yeah, but I’ll be around” , that is what counts. Now to get that colon thing checked out………
This is really weird, but I quit smoking about 6 years ago now.
Took me 2 weeks, I was on the patch for that time.
Never looked back, never wanted to smoke again.
And this is someone in his [mumble-mumble-mumble s], who started by stealing Dad’s Salems when I was in grade school.
I actually shocked myself.
Same here TODD. Had my last one shortly before midnight, and haven’t had one since.
I had been smoking for close to 2 decades, but I’ve decided I don’t want to be nicotine’s bitch anymore.
N. O’Brain, don’t tell me you had to wire yourself to a car battery to quit?
Hey, no fair talking about my sex li….errrrrr….why, no, I didn’t.
One more chime in here.
I smoked for a bit over 20 years, quit any number of times but finally made it November 2001.
Keep trying, eventually it’ll work out.
BTW, for me the nicotine was just a bad week or two. The tough part was breaking thousands of little habit patterns that drive you back into smoking. Things like playing cards, after meals, etc. I still have these reactions from time to time when I do something that I haven’t done for a long time and used to smoke while doing. Latest was I started programming again. Used to chain smoke like a frigging steel mill when I wrote code. First time I sat down in front of a compiler and my hand reflexively went for the cigarette. I can tell you it gets easier to deal with over time. For the last few years each of these episodes have been about 30 seconds of being amused at old habits and then forgetting about it.
Good luck!
Back to Jeff’s snerring at realism…I assume the next time you go down to the State House, you will try to talk any number of people into sending the Colorado National Guard to Uzbekistan, Chechnya, the Sudan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, China, Burma, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo….
There’s a lot on the plate of the world’s police chief, bravely stomping out injustice all over the world, so you need to skip those trips to the market and get recruiting.
Otherwise, perhaps you can, just maybe possibly, agree that you can’t solve everyone’s problems. When you make that leap, I will help away from Kissenger’s Realism and toward a principled realism. Who knows, it may help you make it through the day.
As a side note, you can still abuse the feel good folks on the left who disdain everything American.
Are you the guy who plays Timmy on “South Park”?
Uh, timmy, removing Saddam and trying to put a free nation in his place is a key element to quelling jihadi terrorism. All those other places aren’t that critical because they’re not part of that strategy.
I dunno if it’ll work, but it’s worth a try. The only alternative I’ve heard so far is “give them everything they ask for (and a few things they didn’t, but we want for ourselves) and they’ll leave us alone”.
Hey, Jeff,
Did you notice that Michael Yon said there are 39 embeds in Iraq now? Good weather, surge and all that, but wow!
I’ve noticed a wee bit more positive press about Iraq and attributed it to the Democrat win–Unicorns, lollipops and rainbows. Or, I thought that they just like being contrarian now that everyone agrees that Iraq Is A Bad Thing. Maybe the slightly more positive tone is because there are more reporters.
Gee, Timmy. What an original paradox! Why, here it is, a half-decade on after the Iraq operation began, and I haven’t yet even once come across that!
I confess, it stumps me! I mean, how can we possible presume to liberate one country if we aren’t going to simultaneously—through force of arms—liberate them all? While curing AIDS in Africa!
Seriously. I’m dumbfounded. Caught in a logical dilemma from which there is no escape.
…Oh, wait, how about this: we argue that the nexus of our interests in fighting global terrorism, combined with a resolution for regime change alkready on the books (passed by Clinton) against a dictator who was hostile to international resolutions and who was a prime candidate to supply terrorists with weapons and money—all in the wake of a couple of giant towers crumbling to the ground—made the gamble worth it, given that the status quo was not holding (remember all the children dying because of our sanctions? Remember the Duelfer report saying Iraq was poised, under a lifting of sanctions, to renew his weapons program?), and that, in addition to keeping al Qaeda occupied in fighting democracy in the heart of the Arab world, any success could provide both the template and the impetus for a sea change in the greater middle east.
Admittedly I haven’t given it much thought—your brilliant rhetorical sally has left me wheeling—but for now, go ahead and chew that over.
is it a full moon again? timmyb’s taken a turn for the worse. again.
Robert, there are no jihadists in Pakistan? That must be a relief to Osama and Mullah Omar
I said it in the later thread so I’ll say it here, too.
Since we can’t do everything at once, since we can’t fix every problem at once, we shouldn’t try to fix any problems, timmy? Simply a stunning isdlay of logic.
So, since we can’t fix every domestic social problem at once we shouldn’t fix any of them? Is that what you’re arguing?
Game, set, match Jeff…..
Sorry timmy, thanks for coming….
So, Jeff, the fact that the almanac says the sun is coming up tomorrow and has said it for a few hundred years makes it less true? Anticipating an argument doesn’t make it less true.
Frankly, I am uninterested that you’ve heard the truth before, since you persist in “pie-in-the sky we’re promotin’ democracy” sort of thinking. That means you should hear it a few more times. One of these time, its essential truth may seep through the snark and you’d realize actively defending your country doesn’t mean invading randomly chosen countries.
By your logic, we STILL invaded the wrong country, since the majority of the money and recruits came from Saudi Arabia. Where’s your morality play about promoting democracy in SA?
Point is, you don’t like Realism because the realists have been against Iraq from Day one. There’s no high-minded dedication to human rights in your disdain of Relaism. It’s all about supporting the President and the little group of ankle biters (Kristol, Krauthammer, Brit Hume, Kagan family, Rumsfeld, Cheney and his circle of fools). It’s a position you take today because, ironically for such a well-read guy, you hitched the wagon to a dim star and can’t find a way to back out of it.
So, stick with “the left is a bunch of traitors” theme and “the AP gets info and footage from terrorists” and stop throwing stones at good ideas, especially vindicated ones. As Maggie’s husband like to point out, we’ll be there for the lext 8 years or so. You’re gonna need to pace yourself.
P.S. Maggie, I’ve learned to respect the opinion and efforts of your husband, but he and I will always disagree on the Realist point. He is a crusader (not in the 11th century sense, but in the moral sense) and I am more of a cynic. We will never agree on US intervention in Iraq.
So, yeah, whenever this topic is discussed, and I decide to contribute (and aren’t we all richer for it?) you can be pretty sure you and I will disagree.
I’d respond more in length but, honestly, I stopped reading after this shit. “Random” countries? You really believe this shit?
Can we at least invade the countries whose dictators broke the multilateral deals that let them stay in power?
Can we at least invade the countries that we have been occuping by air for 10 years? Or do we have to wait until they actually kill us?
Yes…I am indeed FOR invading Saudi Arabia. That is my stance. Because, as I like to say, they were far more connected to the perps of 9/11 than Saddam. I want justice. And neo-con heads! Now, off to Arabia!!!!
tw: usually97
I am usually a blathering idiot. I am glad to make your day.
and don’t forget THE TRUTH â„¢, kelly.
I don’t understand this leftist trope. Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries in the ME that plays ball with us, extradites terrorists to us and provides material intelligence assistance.
They have as much to lose from Al Qaeda as we do.
Hell, most of the actual 9/11 planning was done in Germany ‘cuz they couldn’t do it under the scrutiny of the SA intell apparatus. Better to bomb Germany, or Florida, that’s where they did the planning.
Why do leftists like to bring up invading Saudi Arabia? They keep their radical elements on a tighter leash than the Euro-peons do….
Shit–we could forestall another attack by bombing Birmingham rather than SA….
Repeating it ad nauseum doesn’t make it true, either.
Because invading the land of Mecca and Medina wouldn’t cause ANY friction with the Muslim world.
Jesus, you are completely insane. Do you really have no idea what a world wide blood bath a US invasion of Saudi Arabia would result in?
This is the single most retarded thing I’ve read in days. Timmah, please do the world a favor and permanently reduce your carbon footprint to say, zero? Thanks. You could try auto-erotic asphyxiation while jacking off to an image of Paul Wolfowitz in handcuffs and leg-irons.
Hey, Timmah! Now that we know Iran is clearly involved in destabilizing Iraq and killing Americans, what do you think about whacking them?
The shoe bomber Reid was British… and now I have to deal with dumbasses in airports who can’t tie their shoes… and little old ladies who have to sit on the floor to even have a fighting chance at removing a shoe.
I say invade the UK because they have done more verifiable damage to American morale and commerce than all the damn iraqis combined.
Then there is Indonesia…. we can play whack a jihadi mole from island to island. That’ll be fruitful. Or we could work with the governments of these countries and put our muscle to other tasks.
Partners are often not as well rounded as we’d like. But certain metrics are being met. The Saudi government is working on things in their own way within a complicated family and tribal structure. The wahabis are dying and being marginalized. Not fast enough for me, but better than the previously mentioned blood bath that would happen if a stray Tomahawk hit Mecca
tw: idea82… for timmyb it was a bad one.
Dan. I quit smoking nearly 30 years ago. It was the simply complicated matter of putting the pack in the trash aand saying to myself. Lets see if I can go the rest of the day without one. I literally did it in 12 hour stages. The first two weeks are the hardest. After that not so much.
Downside is, food will taste really good and you’ll be tempted to eat a lot of it.You will have dreams that you are smoking.
Ya know, folks, I never started smoking. I helped raise tobacco, and after years of seeing tobacco worms, I swore to never touch the crap.
OT but may be interesting to someone here.
Iraq’s shadow widens Sunni-Shiite split in U.S.
I went from 3 packs a day to nil in 2002. Just stopped.
I am going to give timmy up the same way, and it isn’t going to trouble me one iota.
My mother smoked for 40 years without ever trying to quit. Then her employer offered every smoker on the payroll $500 if they could quit smoking for one whole year. She collected, and never smoked again.
Quitting cigarettes was easy for my dad, he did it dozens of times. The last time, I think the oxygen tank he was having to drag around with him served as a disincentive to start up again.
So, I grew up breathing secondhand smoke. I believe I have bought all of two packs of cigarettes for myself in my lifetime, and both went into the trash with no fewer than 17 cigarettes still inside.
For future reference for the Bmoe set. I am agaisnt invading Saudi Arabia, as my original post made clear. Someone used my log in for a genius attempt as humor.
Just thought I’d mention it. the email addresses are even different….sometimes you people just aren’t right