Slow news day today. pl
RSS- Trump tells Putin: end war in Ukraine or face huge sanctions
- Open Thread – Inauguration Day 2025
- On December 19, 2024 Congress tried to suspend the federal debt limit until 2027 but the vote failed. The January 2 limit is full. What now?
- Dave Chappelle’s SNL Monologue
- Aurimas Mockus and his grueling quest to row from San Diego to Brisbane – mostly naked
- Drone Industry: American Style
- What really happened with the Pacific Palisades water hydrants?
- Two big launches scheduled for this week
- DeSantis Pitches Moving NASA Headquarters to Florida
- A renewed Ukrainian offensive in Kursk?
New Dexter bull calf, Pepper.
http://i.imgur.com/8dY8gVD.jpg
Personable little guy.
Report: Kerry offered to free Pollard as part of Palestinian prisoner release. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.565880
I am simply speechless.
What are the thoughts of the readers about the Duck
Dynasty blow up?
congrats.
it’s that time of year again…
http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-to-offer-the-release-of-jonathan-pollard/
fred
The “duckies” are ridiculous but the latent power of “fly over” America is demonstrated. pl
Duck what?
I’ve studiously avoided all references to this thing and am happy to say I still don’t have a clue what it’s all about!
My thought too. it seems only my liberal friends were offended, though none of them have actually seen the show or lived in the South. Lots of others, however, we’re quite pissed at the ‘suspension’. Most of them pointed out that the press made no mention of the multiple biblical quotes or religious references.
I think they are ridiculous too but it isn’t just the fly over America who likes them. My brother and sister in law and my niece and nephew and his wife love the duckies and were very upset that they had been so discriminated against, and they live in Southern CA. My son in law and his family, who have lived in NC for generations can not stand the show. Go figure.
Fred,
My guess is A&E both appreciated the free publicity, but felt a need to immediately bring something to the cast’s attention. In the Big Time you get besieged by “reporters”. Some of which have mastered of the art of presenting themselves as your friend. Beware.
NancyK
The duckies are an insult to Southerners. pl
The duckies aren’t the biggest insult on TV. You should see Porter Ridge. Those people make the clowns on Jersey Shore look like wise and cultured geniuses.
All:
I am looking for the title of a science-fiction novel.
In that story, aliens have conquered Earth but the artificially intelligent computer in SAC is still operational but inactive and a group of friends attempt to find SAC, break into it, and reactivate that A.I.-enabled computer.
Does anyone know the title?
“Southerners”?
North Carolinians can recognize a phony a lot easier than the people from the land of Hollywood.
tv
“Southerners?”
What?
– Southerners do not exist? They are merely ignorant inbred Northerners? That is an old idea.
-Immigrants to North Carolina are not Southerners? People become assimilated to surrounding culture. You seem very like a Vermonter.
– The appeal of the duckies is far wider than the South? Agreed.
– What? pl
IMO reality TV has become a pox on our collective civic discourse & good will . Meanwhile my friend David was quite offended by Rev Robertson’s view on race relations prior to the Civil Rights movement in These United States . David’s maternal grandfather was lynched and killed in SW Louisiana ~ somewhere near Yellow Pine. The murder was never reported nor killers brought to justice.
Any thoughts on the NYT Benghazi article?
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=0
To me this looks more plausible than the other renditions we have heard.
Babak
Is it Vampire earth?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_Earth
John
To survive in a chaos like Benghazi at that time, you have to be a “hard hearted empath” not someone who believes in the goodness of people generally. I have worked with enemies who have been “turned” against their former friends, but their cooperation was always subject to safeguards to keep the Americans in the arrangement alive. In this case, all concerned in Benghazi, Tripoli and main state acted as tough they were actors in a Disney movie. pl
Agreed! My wife and I sat dumbstruck after running across this show. It’s a whole new low. You can’t pin this one on the South though. These clowns are from Indiana.
Actually, the case can be made that those who run corporate Hollywood not only recognize phonies but immediately figure out the very best ways to utilize them to make a tidy profit.
And yes, “the duckies,” as Pat calls them are a truckload of phonies (before/after photos of the family available on the internet show their clean shaven yuppies to bearded swampers transformation) whose show we could all happily do without. Southerners & all the rest of us are insulted, maligned by such a caricature of the southern inhabitants of our nation. But Duck Dynasty is making a lot of dough for A&E, so they will remain….until the last bit of dough has been had. Then the show will be gone from our tv screens, not a moment before.
correction North West Louisiana
May Pollard rot in jail ..amen
No that was an older book; possibly from 1960s.
Sounds somewhat like the plot of “The Alien Years” by Robert Silverberg:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/390359.The_Alien_Years
If it isn’t “The Alien Years” it might be one of Silverberg’s earlier works (prolific author, many novels written in the 1960s). I’ve not read a lot of him, but a little Googling reveals he’s re-worked this sort of alien occupation plot several times.
I think Robertson’s view was that blacks were generally more family oriented before the government started giving them money hand over fist, which isn’t really that controversial.
Happy New Year Tyler to you and your family .
Pepper is a good looking calf . One of our neighbors down the road is also raising Bison . Apparently ‘buffalo ‘ put on weight faster , and can forage better on native flora. Might be something for y’all to consider raising …
Tyler
Hand over fists ? Citations ?
Col. Lang,
I have a couple of questions for you.
Military memoirs can be akin to clearing a mine field. I recently read “The Crossing of the Suez”. How would you rate the book on accuracy and your view of LtG. El Shazly as am officer, please?
I personally was impressed with this book as it was one of the most readable and interesting of its type I’ve read. Shazly comes across to me as a competent officer despite one glaring omission in this book, how the situation concerning the gap between the Great Bitter lake and the Chinese Farm came about in the first place. I personally find the claim that the “gap” came about from a failure to tie in the flanks of the two Egyptian armies a stretch considering that the Bitter lakes represent roughly a 20 mile distance between both armies. I don’t think that the Egyptians had the forces to cover this distance adequately. What happened to that armored brigade trapped against the lakes reinforces my opinion.
I’d also been interested in where they rehearsed on the mock ups, but I suppose revealing that would have gotten him into even more trouble with the authorities.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thanks but I think this is not it.
The salient feature of that novel was the Artificial Intelligence machine at SAC which was dormant and these juveniles were going to (re-)activate.
ryan
I have not read the book and have no real opinion of Shazly. pl
Nuts…
Thank you for the reply, colonel.
I would have bet that money you had seen the book. Anyway, if you run across it I recommend it. Shazly left me impressed with his military ability and candor. He served his nation well.
I’ll leave you with this quote of his.
“‘For security reasons:’ The alibi of any autocratic regime for any repressive act.”
Sound familiar?
Alleged that the US Ambassador to Libya sodomized to death! If so why?
Why not just kill your enemies?