America is officially a battlefield. Arm up. Es ist ein Klaüsterfökken.

Common sense.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:34:56 -0800

The US wants to be the 'FIRST' in everything - but it is failing miserably. We have the best nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines because we have almost the ONLY nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines. But we don't make the best military equipment - not even close. We probably make better jet engines, but the Russians make better jet fighters. We can't put anything in the air that will match a Suhhoi PAK FA. Buy 'em. Same with small arms. Our M-60 light Machine gun is a modified WWII German machine gun. Russia makes better ones. Buy 'em. Want to save money? Buy the best products on the market whenever they are demonstrably superior and a tenth the price of what we can make.

The best trucks in the world aren't Kenworth/Peterbilt (now the same company). They are MAN, KAMAZ, Mercedes and Volvo. Jeep has a nice retro concept vehicle called a Nukizer 715. It's geared a bit low, but I'd take one.

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The Post Office is going away. EVERYTHING will be next. Welcome to Western Greece.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:32:11 -0800

Feb 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service announced plans on Thursday to close or consolidate 223 mail processing centers and eliminate up to 35,000 jobs as part of its strategy to cut costs by reducing its network of facilities.

The Postal Service has been losing billions of dollars each year as email chips away at mail volumes and as it faces massive annual payments to the federal government.

Postal officials said in September they would study more than 250 of the 461 processing sites for possible consolidation with other facilities as part of a series of cost-cutting steps. They also announced plans to end next-day delivery to cut back on overnight work.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has said the agency needs to reduce $20 billion in annual costs by 2015. Moving processing away from the 223 centers would reduce operating costs by $2.6 billion annually, according to the Postal Service's website.

That includes eliminating as many as 30,000 full-time jobs and 5,000 non-career positions, USPS spokesman Sue Brennan said. The agency has gotten rid of about 140,000 jobs in the last five years, mainly through attrition, but still had about 650,000 workers at the end of 2011, according to its first-quarter financial statement.

None of the facilities would close before mid-May due to a temporary moratorium announced in December that is intended to give Congress time to pass legislation to help overhaul the mail agency.

The Postal Service, which does not receive taxpayer funds, wants Congress to eliminate an annual payment to prefund retiree health benefits and let it end Saturday mail delivery.

The agency also wants to take over its health benefits from the federal government and to close thousands of post offices.

Lawmakers have been deeply divided on whether to allow facility closures, end the prefunding payment and other measures. Some lawmakers have praised the Postal Service for "rightsizing" its network, while others say the planned closings will hurt the agency's business model.

"At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue," said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in a statement on Thursday.

Donahoe told lawmakers last week, in a letter announcing the agency's five-year turnaround plan, that failing to take all of its planned cost-cutting actions could lead to annual losses of $18.2 billion by 2015.

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Watch these clips.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:10:13 -0800

http://www.newson6.com/story/16661085/oklahomas-maverick-us-senator-dr-tom-coburn

http://www.firstbusinessnews.com/videos.php?video=fbc680d72f3148eb91170ab6b011a52a

Want some financial advice? SHORT TESLA MOTORS!

I'll believe corporations are people when owning one is considered slavery.

-T

90% of success is showing up. Getting the math right is the other 50%.

-T

Aut viam inveniam aut faciamaut viam inveniam aut faciam.

-Hannibal

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The Physics Research Center and Iran’s Parallel Military Nuclear Program

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:49:30 -0800

I have known this since the early 90s and so has everyone else. That pimp professor Juan Cole has been pooh-poohing the idea all these years, but he's an idiot. Even the US government, as recently as YESTERDAY still says that Iran hasn't decided whether or not to make nuclear weapons. They are lying - but that's what they do.

We have nor reached a crossroads. We are making war noise at Iran BECAUSE someone finally discovered they have a stockpile of nuclear weapons just like Pakistan, India, Israel and, potentially, Syria.

February 23, 2012

The Washington Post has published an article on the unanswered nuclear weaponization issues of the Iranian nuclear program. The summary below is part of a major ISIS report referenced by the Washington Post looking into the possibility of an Iranian military nuclear program parallel to the civilian one conducted by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

The Physics Research Center and Iran’s Parallel Military Nuclear Program

A key issue for the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) is whether Iran has a parallel military nuclear program that can provide nuclear weapons if the regime decides to build them. Understanding that issue depends critically on what Iran’s military nuclear entities have achieved already. Newly aquired information sheds light on one of Iran’s most important and least understood military nuclear organizations, the Physics Research Center, which operated in the 1990s and was later consolidated into successive military nuclear organizations. The new information also demonstrates the incompleteness and inadequacy of Iran’s declarations to the IAEA about its past and possibly on-going military nuclear efforts

By David Albright, Paul Brannan, and Andrea Stricker

Summary

Evidence obtained by the IAEA indicates that the Iranian revolutionary regime probably first made a decision to build nuclear weapons in the mid-to-late 1980s. According to information received by the IAEA and included in its November 2011 report, the Physics Research Center (PHRC) appears to have been created in 1989 as part of an effort to create an undeclared nuclear program, likely aimed at the development of a nuclear weapon. PHRC in turn may have evolved from a project at Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG) in the late 1980s that may have sought to research a nuclear warhead for a ballistic missile. In 2003, under intense international pressure, Iran agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment programs. Based on the IAEA’s findings, Iran sought to keep its nuclear weaponization programs secret from the inspectors and took steps to better hide this program’s existence. The razing of the Lavisan Shian in 2004 site that formerly housed the PHRC was likely an attempt to prevent the IAEA from carrying out environmental sampling, a technique that had uncovered other secret Iranian nuclear activities in 2003.

Although Iran has admitted that the PHRC was related to the military and had a nuclear purpose in the area of defense preparedness and radiation detection, its actual nuclear role appears much more extensive. ISIS has accumulated from multiple sources a range of procurement information related to the PHRC. ISIS has obtained supplier companies’ information, a set of over 1,600 telexes between PHRC or Sharif University and overseas suppliers, and other information obtained from governments, IAEA reports, and the media. The information provides an extensive picture of PHRC’s wide-ranging procurement efforts in the early 1990s. Several experts retained by ISIS have assessed the information in the telexes. About 50 telexes referenced in the report’s text are found in a supplement.

The information and documents assembled by ISIS suggest that the PHRC had departments focused on a wide range of nuclear technology, including gas centrifuges and laser enrichment, radiation protection, uranium conversion, uranium exploration and possibly mining, and heavy water production. This finding supports the allegation that Iran’s Ministry of Defense was involved in many aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and the research and development of nuclear weapons.

In the early 1990s, the Physics Research Center engaged in an extensive procurement effort that included using Sharif University of Technology and other entities to assist in outfitting a nuclear program. In many cases, Sharif University appears to have been used as a front for purchases made by PHRC. Some goods could have gone to Sharif University, but the bulk of the procurements appear destined for the PHRC or its sponsors. Sharif University also housed significant relevant expertise on nuclear technology, and there may have been cooperation between Sharif University and PHRC on undeclared nuclear activities that went beyond procurement.

Iran has failed to declare all of PHRC’s activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has stated to the IAEA that the PHRC procurements were not related to a nuclear program. The information assembled in this ISIS report, however, contradicts this claim. Iran has created a cover story for the PHRC involving Sharif University that attempts to hide its true activities, including a vast number of both successful and attempted procurements for ostensibly undeclared nuclear programs.

Whatever nuclear activities PHRC pursued in the early 1990s, they appear independent of those of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) in the area of gas centrifuges, uranium exploration and possibly mining, and uranium conversion. Iran should explain to the IAEA why there appears to have been a parallel, organized nuclear program.

The telexes, which mainly date to 1990-1993, do not reveal an extensive effort to research or develop nuclear weapons, commonly called nuclear weaponization. However, some procurements or attempted procurements appear aimed at equipment or technology that would be a prerequisite for such work.

What did the PHRC accomplish and was it closed in 1998, as Iran declared to the IAEA? The IAEA has suggested in its November 2011 report that PHRC instead was consolidated under the AMAD Plan. Where are the goods procured by the PHRC, and where are all the hundreds of engineers, scientists, and administrators who worked there?

Prior to Iran’s suspension of its centrifuge program in late 2003, military contractors at the 7th of Tir Facility made the most sensitive centrifuge components, namely the rotating ones, for the P1 centrifuges. In about 2001, the AEOI had ordered enough of these parts from 7th of Tir for 10,000 P1 centrifuges, slated for eventual installation at the then secret Natanz enrichment site, according to the IAEA. Perhaps, Iran’s Ministry of Defense originally intended to use this same manufacturing site and others to make 3,000 P1 centrifuges for a parallel military centrifuge plant that would use uranium hexafluoride produced by another project of this parallel effort. Many questions remain about the origin and purpose of the Gchine mine and the original intended function of the deeply buried Qom centrifuge plant discovered in 2009 by Western intelligence. Was the Qom site, now called the Fordow site, to be a military-controlled site dedicated to the production of weapon-grade uranium? With the end of the suspension in 2006, did the Ministry of Defense also resume its centrifuge plans as well and plan to install centrifuges at the Qom plant?

PHRC may have aimed to ensure that the military had a strong hand and competence in the nuclear fuel cycle and weaponization. Although the bulk of the nuclear fuel cycle competence would remain in the AEOI, the military would have gained enough to ensure that it could build a highly secretive parallel program aimed at obtaining both weapon-grade uranium and the weapon itself.

Despite all the new information, the PHRC remains difficult to fully understand. Iran should clarify PHRC’s exact purpose and accomplishments and its relationship to the IAEA’s broader question of the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear effort.

Read the full report at: The Physics Research Center and Iran’s Parallel Military Nuclear Program

The supplemental appendix of the telexes mentioned in the report can be found at: Appendix of PHRC telexes

*****************************************************************************************************************************

The NSN seems to agree.

NSN Daily Update: Rhetoric vs. Reality on Iran Policy

2/23/12

Amid a web of misstatements, GOP presidential candidates made several surprising assertions on Iran policy last night - offering interpretations and policy choices that were not merely factually wrong but run counter to the assessments of the military leaders the candidates have said time and again they would listen to in forming national security policy. The heated rhetoric on an issue that calls for cool thinking fails to capture what experts from across different across disciplines and political lines have said: diplomacy remains the most effective way to end Iran's nuclear program.

Conservative politicians: Iran is a madman, war is the best option; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Iran is a rational actor, current path is most prudent. Just this weekend, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former CENTCOM Commander General Martin Dempsey was asked by CNN's Fareed Zakaria whether Iran behaves irrationally or pursues its national interests. Dempsey responded, "That is a great question, and I'll tell you that I've been confronting that question since I commanded Central Command in 2008. And we are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor. And it's for that reason, I think, that we think the current path we're on is the most prudent path at this point." Regarding a military strike, General Dempsey said, "that a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn't achieve their [Israel's] long-term objectives." As Clyde Prestowitz, a senior Commerce Department official in the Reagan administration and President of the Economic Strategy Institute, simply said: "A strike is a really dumb idea."

Yet last night Newt Gingrich explicitly, and Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney implicitly, questioned Dempsey's judgment - surprising statements from men who have repeatedly advocated "listening to the commanders in the field" on national security. Santorum said, "When they are going up against a dangerous theocratic regime that wants to wipe out the state of Israel, that wants to dominate the radical Islamic world and take on the 'Great Satan', the United States, we do nothing. That is a president who must go and you want a leader who will take them on. I will do that." Meanwhile, Gingrich said, "If you think a madman is about to have nuclear weapons and you think that madman is going to use those nuclear weapons, then you have an absolute moral obligation to defend the lives of your people by eliminating the capacity to get nuclear weapons." [VOA, 2/22/12. Martin Dempsey, 2/19/12. Clyde Prestowitz, 2/21/12]

"The choice between 'war now' or 'containment later' is a false one." Colin Kahl, of Georgetown University and the Center for a New American Security, and formerly the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, explains, "paradoxically, the most likely road to containment is the very course war proponents advocate: a near-term preventive strike on Iran's nuclear program. There are two pathways to containment. The one administration critics emphasize-that president Obama would somehow choose to 'live with' a nuclear-armed Iran-is actually the least likely. Obama has made clear that an Iranian nuclear weapon is 'unacceptable,' his Secretary of Defense has described an Iranian nuclear weapon as a 'red line,' and the administration has put in place unprecedented sanctions to pressure the regime to accept a diplomatic solution... In short, the least likely road to containment is the one being pursued by the administration."

Kahl further explains, "A second, and far more likely, path to containment is to rush into war before all other options have been exhausted. A near-term U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program would knock it back, at most, a few years. Meanwhile it would motivate Iran's hardliners to kick out International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, incentivize the regime to rapidly rebuild a clandestine nuclear program, and rally the Iranian people around that cause to deter future attacks. Consequently, in the aftermath of an Israeli or American strike, Washington would have to encircle Iran with a costly containment regime-much like twelve-year effort to bottle up Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War-and be prepared to re-attack at a moment's notice to prevent Iran from reconstituting its program. And with inspectors gone, it would be much more difficult to detect and prevent Iran's clandestine rebuilding efforts. The net result would be a decades-long requirement to contain an even more implacable nuclear foe... The result would be the worst of all worlds: an Iran emboldened to go for a bomb and a requirement for post-war containment without the international cooperation required to actually implement such a policy."

He concludes: "In short, the choice between 'war now' or 'containment later' is a false one. The war hawks want would likely be a prelude to failed containment, not a substitute for it. Fortunately, there are other options and we still have time to pursue them." [Colin Kahl, 2/22/12]

Diplomacy is the key to ending Iran's nuclear program. In a recent piece discussing the anniversary of President Nixon's historic trip to China, Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Winston Lord, Henry Kissinger's closest aide and former ambassador to China, explain, "One can imagine present applications of this diplomatic tour de force, most usefully with Iran." Similarly, Hans Blix, former IAEA director general and chief weapons inspector for the UN, said this week the priority must be "to diffuse the most acute things and prepare the road for further talks," and that the international community must convey "all our offers are on the table, not just the threats."

As Gelb has previously written, "As Western leaders back Iran into a corner and as they are locking themselves into a war policy they haven't seriously contemplated and don't really want, now is the time to offer a deal. The peace package is simple: Iran keeps its uranium facilities but with capabilities to enrich reduced to levels fit only for civilian use. Tehran also agrees to the tightest international verification procedures. The West lifts sanctions gradually as Iran complies with both reconfiguring its nuclear plants and accepts the necessary verification. For sure, President Obama has tried similar proposals before. This time, however, Iran may find that the biting economic pressures make the deal more palatable. For sure, neither I nor anyone else knows whether Iran will accept this time. But I do know this: if we don't at least try the negotiating track, a war of untold uncertainties and dangers can come upon us." [Les Gelb and Winston Lord, 2/20/12. Hans Blix, 2/22/12. Les Gelb, 1/30/12]

What We're Reading

The U.S. and North Korea resumed talks regarding the country's nuclear weapons program.

Blasts in predominantly Shiite areas killed more than 50 in Baghdad.

The UN released a report that accuses Syria of crimes against humanity.

An Afghan soldier killed two NATO soldiers amid growing protests over the burning of Korans.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that global security hinges on Somalia's future.

Gunmen killed four policemen in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke to a crowd of about 100,000 supporters ahead of the March 4 presidential election.

Former Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pleaded not guilty to election fraud charges.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called a leadership ballot as she finds her party engulfed in an internal battle.

U.S. military prosecutors reached a tentative plea deal with a Pakistani man accused of having worked with Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Commentary of the Day

Luke Hunt sees Asia as the battleground between Iran and Western powers.

Clive Cook thinks Europe is on the road to disaster.

The popular Syrian blogger BSyria asks whether Aleppo, Syria's economic capital, will rise up as the bloodbath continues around other parts of the country.

The National Security Network's (NSN) mission is to revitalize America's national security policy, and bring cohesion and strategic focus to the progressive national security community. NSN works with a broad network of experts to identify, develop and communicate progressive national security policy solutions.

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The greatest gun salesman in America for a reason.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:37:55 -0800

Americans aren't stupid - and we aren't helpless. If there is food in the stores and we feel safe, firearm ownership goes down. As soon as we realize that we will have to defend our homes and families from the TSA thugs and, in many cases hunt our own food, we prepare to do that. It isn't a difficult transition.

I don't like ANY of the Presidential candidates except Ron Paul and I don't think America ought to be in the business of making every sovereign nation in the world do what we tell them. Every country that has EVER tried that has eventually fallen out of their leadership position and we are no different. People just get tired of it. We didn't 'Win' in Korea, Viet-Nam, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else since WWII. We merely wasted our national treasure, our national will, and our most patriotic and brave people in various meat-grinders for no reason but politicians' egos. I'm tired of that and so ids everyone else that doesn't make billions from the waste of our lives.

I am prepared, insofar as possible, to be self-sufficient and not rely on the largesse of a government which doesn't care about me or my Constitutional rights. I am, in fact, prepared to actively resist mandatory military imprisonment for suggesting that those rights even exist. The people who believe in 'peace at the price of liberty' are enslaving themselves voluntarily. Go ahead. While you are being herded off to the camps, I will slip through the cracks. The low-hanging fruit is always picked first.

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The Necessity of Revisionism - how we are being led into another war.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:17:04 -0800

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Necessity of Revisionism
John Denson on WWI and WWII.

Ron Paul: 'The US Is Slipping into a Fascist System'
Lew talks to RT about why Ron is right.

Pat Buchanan, Crusader?
John Derbyshire on Pat's life and tumultuous times.

The Truth About James Madison
And the making of the American State. Article by Tom Woods.

Paranoid Police
Will Grigg on a very strange case in modern copland.

End Government's Aggressive Violence
Eric Peters on getting to peaceful anarchy in a voluntarist society.

Social Collapse
Bob Wenzel on the chains the banksters are forging for the Greeks, and you.

Terrorism Lesson #1
Governments are the terrorists. Article by Gary Kinghorn.

All You Need To G.O.O.D.
You can carry on your back.

The Functional Illiteracy Boom
Sam Blumenfeld on a massive public educational disaster.

How Much Gold Remains in Ft. Knox?
Like Houdini's elephant, is this now the world's greatest vanishing act? Article by Kal Kotecha.

Try These for 90 Days and See the Difference
Margaret Durst on basic nutritional supplements for everyone.

The Great Salman Khan on the Phillips Curve

Life in the TSA-USA

Die, Foreigners

Father of Murderer Protests Whitney Houston Tribute

The Fascist USA

C-SPAN Callers Smack Down Homeland Security Stooge

A Modest Proposal for IP

The Thomas Jefferson of Our Time

The Best Ticket for America and the World

Ron's Billionaire

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From Greece with love.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:31:34 -0800

http://9gag.com/gag/2681884

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You are doing it wrong...+ 2013 Tacoma LOOOOngbed.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:52:53 -0800

http://jalopnik.com/5866981/10-wheel-custom-buick-must-be-seen-to-be-believed/gallery/2

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Big Island car dealership Asshats and Good Guys.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:58:00 -0800

Asshats:

This fool: http://jalopnik.com/5886160/this-is-why-you-dont-drive-your-porsche-into-wet-cement

The Big Island Ford dealers: Asshats. They will sell you a 2011 demo (that means USED) for the full 2012 retail price minus incentives - about $4,000 over what it was worth in 2010 and about $22,000 over what it will be worth the SECOND you drive it off the lot. And the '13s are coming out. Who is kidding whom?

The Big Island Honda dealers. Asshats: They kept me there for THREE hours and then offered to sell me a car for ONLY $500 OVER FULL RETAIL!

The Big Island Chrysler dealers. Asshats: I don't even want to talk about it.

The salesman at Kia was so tweaked on ice, I had to walk off the lot.

I WENT TO EVERY ONE OF THEM, JUST TO CHECK. IF YOUR RELATIVE WORKS AT ANY OF THE ASSHAT dealerships, he is going to rip you off even more because you trust him. Then YOU are an asshat too.

*********************************************************

Not asshats, but gone to hell in a handbasket: Aiona car sales. Still really nice people, but the cars aren't that great. Look at them closely. VERY closely.

********************************************************

GOOD GUYS:

Where to buy cars and trucks on the Big Island, get treated well, and not get ripped off:

Deluz Toyota, Chevrolet or Mazda.

SERIOUSLY. Go to Big Island Toyota and ask for Kurt or Deluz Chevrolet and ask for Albert Watanabe.

Otherwise, you have more money than brains.

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The end of freedom begins with the end of free information.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:21:08 -0800

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/02/20/silencing-the-critics/

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Down With the Presidency

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:58:00 -0800

Read ALL of these!

http://lewrockwell.com/

Monday, February 20, 2012

Down With the Presidency

(How we need Ron Paul to take it apart.)

Article by Lew Rockwell.

Hard-Boiled Self-Publishing

Fred Reed on how to circumvent – easily – the

dying dinosaurs of books.

A Nutcase History of Libertarianism

Invented by a Greenbacker. Article by Gary North.

Pay Up or Die

Laurence Vance on taxes and the laughable

excuses for them.

Jim Rogers: Pay No Attention to Governments

They're your deadly enemies as an investor (and otherwise).

Article by Bob Wenzel.

Chained and Naked

Bill Rounds on how taking out a loan exposes you

to pecuniary predators.

Cricket Scampi?

Justin Rohrlich of the future of bug-eating.

Don't Look at These Ads

They're too politically incorrect.

From Riches to Rags

Lessons learned from surviving the real estate boom,

bust, foreclosures, and bankruptcy.

Know What You Believe and Have the Guts To Live It

How and why every man should write a personal manifesto.

Article by Zack Sumner.

The Imminent Neocon War

And it's not Iran. Article by Taki.

Lost Fat, Avoided Knee Surgery, Wore a Bikini Again

That and so much more happened when Pamela Matthews

and family went primal.

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But that was yesterday - and yesterdays gone.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:55:54 -0800

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl4/un-pc-ads.html

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Musta lost his belt.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:39:19 -0800

POLICE FIND CRACK IN SUSPECT'S BUTT.

Do tell.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/17/police-find-crack-in-butt_n_1285604.html?ref=crime&ir=Crime

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I dare anyone to eat this and live.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:12:28 -0800

Grilled cheese on a donut. From the famous kitchen of Joseppi Roma the gastronomic mass murderer.

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The 99% in action

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:41:55 -0800

H/T Joseppi-the-gypsie

Very clever ad/commercial - rare as that is!

Click on the pictures

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It's a rainy Sunday. What shall we do?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:23:14 -0800

"Oh, I dunno. What about crucifying Jesus? Sort of 'lift His Spirit' so to speak."

I'll believe corporations are people when owning one is considered slavery.

-T

90% of success is showing up. Getting the math right is the other 50%.

-T

Aut viam inveniam aut faciamaut viam inveniam aut faciam.

-Hannibal

"The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy."
— George Washington

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A unique perspective on trans-vaginal. :-)

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:47:00 -0800

"Virginia has passed a law requiring women to have a trans-vaginal ultrasound before having an abortion. Don't get me wrong. I love Trans-Vaginal. It's my favorite airline. I have so many miles on Trans-Vaginal that I always get upgraded to lady-business."

-Amy Poehler

SNL

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I shall now make some more friends.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:17:10 -0800

When the going gets tough, the tough get going and solve problems. Weak, cowardly and ineffective people don't. Instead, they beg their invisible pal in the sky to nullify all of the physical laws of the universe and help them at the expense of every other entity. Naturally, it never happens. WHY doesn't it happen?

(1) No one is listening.

(2) Your puny life isn't more important than anyone else's and certainly not worth stopping the universe.

(3) If God existed at all, His own rules say He can't have your soul until you are dead. He wouldn't be very interested in saving your life if you were one of His flock, because you might change you mind later. He'd grab you while he had the chance. He'd only have a motive to save you if you were a Satanic twit - and then only if there was a chance of converting you at some future date - at which point he'd kill you immediately for your soul - unless you have a tattoo.

No one bothers to think about it but Satan, if He (or She) existed would have the only motive to SAVE you if you were a good, God-fearing person - so He (or She) could try to convert you - at which point you'd be a goner.

Going to church every week and telling God how much you love Him is just asking for it. Or it would be - but I think most people are screwed no matter what they do. See, Jesus wasn't a Christian. He was a Jew. And what HE said was that Jews and ONLY JEWS who followed Him could go to Heaven and, of those, only 144,000 virgin boys would make it. No women or dogs allowed. No gentiles. No one but Jews. Are you still a virgin boy if your Catholic Priest pokes you in the butt? Maybe Rick Santorum knows.

That's why Muslims and Latter Day Saints and whatnot had to make up saints who supposedly came after Jesus and changed HIS rules. But Jesus didn't make a covenant with any of these people. He SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED THEM ALL! So either Jesus was a liar, or your Christian beliefs are bullshit and you are a dumbass for believing any of it.

All I can tell you is that if God exists and you are a good, God-fearing person, all your prayers are being answered by Satan.
Have a nice day!

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Las Vegas is your Big Brother, too!

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:26:00 -0800

I have to mention this. In the distant past you could walk into a casino in Las Vegas and play a mechanical slot machine - and get paid in money if you won. Same with table games. You could just pick up and walk away at any time with your winnings - if you won. Not anymore. Now you don't play for money, except on the tables where they still use chips. ALL the slots in ALL the casinos are connected to a databank. You put money in and play for POINTS - which are paid out on a printed slip you can redeem for cash in another machine or use to get 40% off your meals. Basically, you are playing video games, not gambling. The house can change the odds on any machine at any time, electronically. And the odds aren't posted anymore.

But here is the kicker. In order to play, you have to register at the casino and get a card - which you then put in the machine while you are playing - or hand to the dealer at the card table, who checks you in and out. Meals, too. So the casino knows where you are. ALL the casinos know where you are and exactly how much you have lost or won, at which table or which slot machine at which casino, at what time on what day. When you go into a casino and insert your card, the machine greets you by name. Sometimes it takes a second or two to identify you in the database. When that happens, the machine tells you to re-insert your card a few times. It SEEMS as though the machine simply isn't reading the card, but it's actually connecting you to the database. It knows who you are. Just like a gas station. And, just like a gas station, the databases are connected. Your Vegas card will work in Atlantic City. You are PWNED.

What's next? I can guess. Very soon, your card will also unlock your hotel room door - they will know when you enter and leave your room. After that, your 'National identity card' will probably be the only card you need to do anything. Or maybe the chip implanted in your forehead will do it.

Hawaiian charges about $200 round trip from the outer islands. It costs them $7600 in fuel for a round trip Honolulu/Hilo in a 717. A 717 holds about 117 passengers, of which 12 are First Class...Add $50 per leg if you want to fly First Class. $24,600. Add $17 per checked bag or $100 per checked bag over 100 pounds. Maybe thirty people check bags per leg. Another thousand. They gross $25,600 per round trip.

It costs Omni ~$82,000 in fuel alone to fly round-trio Vegas/Honolulu. They get $14,500 for baggage if each passenger checks one bag. They get another $282,000 in airfare. That puts their gross around $296,000. 3 times what it costs them in fuel. Twice what it costs them if you add salaries, maintenance, freebies and insurance. They are already making money - even if they give away half the seats. A hundred grand a day pays for the airplane pretty quickly.

All of the airlines charge for baggage. Omni charges $20 per item or $100 per item over 40 pounds. The airfare which should be cheap since the casinos subsidize it - or in the case of Omni, Boyd gaming OWNS the airline, are about $1,500 round trip Honolulu - Las Vegas. Figure another $1,000 per person to fly first class, plus at least $80 round trip if everyone has one checked item. Then you have to tip everyone in Vegas. Foodservers, bus drivers, dealers, everyone.

So by the time you GET to Vegas, if two of you go and you expect to come home, you are already down $3,600.

Since your meal coupons are only good at Boyd properties (Main Street, The California and the Fremont downtown - and Sam's, wherever that is), people are going to be there at least a couple hours a day and maybe more. I met one person who played the slots in one casino for twelve hours straight. If you figure that everyone drops $108 a day for their 108 hour trip, that's $540 per person or ~98,000 per plane load. Sure, one person won a $3,000 jackpot while I was there, but most people lost - and a LOT of people lost a lot more than $540. A LOT more. I lost $200 over the five days and I'm not much of a gambler at all. $40 a day was my limit. I spent another $100 on food, a couple of drinks and tips. I ended up with 78 points. When I get to 30,000, Omni will check my bag for free.

So even if you happen to win a free trip, they are STILL making money on you. If you never gamble at all, you still have to eat.

"Oh, you are just grumbling because you didn't win". No. I'm grumbling because it isn't fun anymore. It's mechanical. The people who work there aren't having fun. They smile but they aren't having fun. Blackjack dealers don't deal. They put the cards in a machine, push a button to tell the machine how many players are at the table, and the machine deals two cards per person, at once, not in rotation, and then two to the dealer. I have no clue if the cards the machine deals are the ones the dealer puts in. They disappear into the bowels of the machine. That's not fun.

The streets are dirty and full of panhandlers. The casinos turned off half their ventilation systems to save electricity, so all the casinos smell of stale smoke. The cleaning crews are not working very hard either. The desks, bars, restaurants, cashiers and service areas are staffed at a third capacity - so either they are reading magazines or there are long lines. There are CCTV cameras over every seat at table games and every four or five slot machines.

I think Las Vegas is done-for. It is for me, if for no other reason than the bullshit TSA nazis.

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He's Baaaaaaaaaaack!

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:27:00 -0800

Aloha All!

My blog gets between 250 and 14,000 hits per-post. I hope this is one of the 14,000 ones.

Overall it was fun and the food was generally good. The casinos are WAY different than I remember them - not for the better. I don't remember them being all smoked out. There is no such thing as a non-smoking section in any casino and it's hard enough to get a non-smoking room. I got stuck in a 'smoking' room the first night and couldn't sleep. But here's the thing. Everyone who is smoking is, for the most part 60+ years old - and the ones who aren't are walking around with O2 tubes in their noses. So in ten years there won't be a customer base and Vegas will tank unless they wake up. The nuvo professionals aren't going to tolerate all that second-hand smoke or the smell.

Apparently no one in Vegas has figured out that they could get a fresh crop of affluent players by the simple expedient of opening a non-smoking section in their casinos and loosening the slots a little as an opening promotion. Everyone would go in to play and outside to smoke and a new generation of players might keep the city going. Unless someone does that it's not worth going in my opinion, unless you want to hit the casinos between 3am and 8am. It's still bad, but not AS bad. When I was younger, everyone there was my age. They still are. But they are all going to die within ten years - then what, Vegas?

Let's do the bad stuff first. There isn't much of it. One night in a smoking room, the TSA nazis and the Advantage personnel and cars and automated gambling. It isn't personal anymore and it isn't fun. Here goes:

The counter-person at Advantage rent-a-car was rude and surly. It wasn't a one-off deal. I went to her FIVE times hoping to catch her in a good mood. Never happened. She clearly hates her job, although most of the work I saw her doing was reading a novel. That's probably why she doesn't work at TSA. She might have to get off her duff. Anyway, I can suggest that if you want a rental car, Advantage wouldn't be the place to get it. If anyone from Advantage reads this, and I doubt they care, my rental number was RR179166536. I'll never rent from them again anyway, and if ~you~ do, you won't be pleased.

Sam Boyd must be dead. I didn't check, but no one still breathing would allow their properties to go to hell like that. When you get too rich and don't see to your own business establishments now and then, that's what happens. I guess they don't check too closely about employee qualifications, either. One of the ARMED female security guards at the Main Street Hotel was about 5'5" and 350 pounds. She isn't going to be giving anyone CPR or breaking up a fight. She'd probably have a heart attack from the exertion of going up the escalator. Another security guard was swaggering around the casino wearing a thigh rig. Musta thought he was Wyatt Earp.

OK, so much for Boyd's casinos. There ARE actually a couple of nice casinos in Vegas. The South Point was nice. And then there was...well, after that none of the other places were the least bit impressive. There aren't any big names off the strip except, I suppose, people that own part of the casino. David Copperfield, Louie Anderson, Penn and Teller.

In five days and four nights in seven or eight casinos - looking for one that had ANY winners and didn't smell TOO bad, I heard ONE announcement of a jackpot winner. Some lady won $3,000. That was supposed to be a freakin' HUGE event. I just rolled my eyes and walked away. That was it. No one won shit.

Want to shoot a grease gun or an M249 or a Thompson...or any of about twelve other full autos? I didn't. I've been there and done that in the Marine Corps and my department and the guys who cycle through here. But if you don't deal with special forces and get to play with their toys, let me tell you about The Gun Store at 2900 E. Tropicana in Las Vegas, 89121. (702) 454-1110.

They were nice and they give the Nevada CCW course FREE. I wanted to get the ticket, but they wouldn't let me go the half-day course, even though I had just re-certed HR-218 (439 out of 440 - I tossed one into the '9' ring, but it's still DX) and am a Utah (now expired) and Florida CCW instructor...and Hawaii County Instructor...and an NRA Instructor...and the other ten certs I have, including my federal instructor contract for special forces.

I have a police CCW for their state anyway and it should have been a simple courtesy for this reason: The course they teach ALSO COVERS UTAH AND FLORIDA. Let me repeat that I am a Utah and Florida CCW instructor.

And a Hawaii County Instructor...and an NRA Instructor...and a bunch of other things including a federal instructor under contract for special forces. They shouldn't have been asses about it. A half-day course covering Nevada law would have been sufficient - considering that I live in a non-reciprocal state anyway, so it wouldn't have hurt them and it might have helped the Second Amendment Foundation with our lawsuit to require Hawaii to issue CCWs. But they wanted to be anal and they will get the same courtesy if they ever want a firearms course in Hawaii.

But if you go to Las Vegas, stop in if you want the three CCWs. Of course you already Have Utah and Florida from me, but you'll still have to sit through 8 hours of firearms 101 and then go on another day with a money order to the LVMPD for prints. I couldn't. I was leaving at 6am the next morning so I had to walk out of the class and call my friend to get it done.

It's like anything else. Cops take care of cops. Civilians cover their asses. These are civilians.

Apart from that, the people in the STORE are really nice and the ladies are prettier than show girls. Don't expect to get any discounted merchandise, though. Buy from Brownells if you want price.

Now let's get to the casinos. Don't bother. They suck. Half the dealers are computer generated screens and the rest don't deal. They put the cards in a machine which deals. They don't use coins in slots anymore. You put in a bill between $1 and $100 and you get to play and listen to bells ring until it's gone. The secret is that in every single game, the odds can be computer controlled (changed) from one hour to the next and the odds aren't posted. Further, the game is decided the second you push a button. The lights and bells are just frosting - and the slots don't actually turn. they just generate the cards or bells or whatever on a computer screen. It's not gambling. It's all show and no go except for the craps tables and I saw an idiot drop $2,000 on a crap table in the Mains Street Casino in ten minutes. The food and drinks used to be free, but no longer. Sure, SOME of it is free, but not the drinks and not MOST of the food.

Vegas used to have a feeling to it. It was fun. The machines and dealers were real, the girls brought you REAL drinks if you were playing, and it was fun enough that you didn't mind dropping some money just to be part of it - and you COULD actually win a million dollars. Now you can't. Now you can play for hours and you'll be lucky to get a watered-down drink. "Real" gamblers aren't down on the floor wandering from penny slot to penny slot. They are up in special rooms being catered to. If you are on the floor, you are a chump - and that's how you are treated.

Boyd Gaming, which owns 18 gaming properties, also owns Vacations Hawaii. They fly six round-trip flights a week to Vegas on Omni Airlines - which they also own.

Their 767s fly 181 passengers and probably burn about a pound of fuel per hour for every 35 pounds of weight at optimum altitude and mach .8. A round-trip between Honolulu and Las Vegas probably costs about $82,000 in fuel. Boyd Gaming makes that run 20 times a month. Hawaiian Airlines does it twice a day. Someone is still dropping money in Vegas.

The TSA: Clowns in federal uniforms. Worse than that. They are the embodiment of the Insane Clown Posse with federal powers. They are still being trained to view every passenger as a potential terrorist and that's just how everyone is treated. Unless, of course, you own your own airplane or can bum a ride on a friend's business jet. There is no TSA for anyone except the public who have to fly commercially.

There is a difference between treating Americans like cattle or, if you prefer, prisoners preparing to board CON-Air for a trip to federal prison. They are incompetent; they aren't well educated; they aren't police officers and don't know what to look for, even though they think they do. Their field trainers are incompetent. I saw one fat, ratty looking slob who couldn't train my dog taking a group of TSA people off to a 'training' session'. I actually laughed. The TSA hierarchy of political appointments is incompetent, led by an incompetent President, and it shows.

During 'Happy Hour', when there are heavy passenger loads, any semblance of security breaks down - it's an act to begin with - and anyone can slide anything through. But they won't. Terrorists are smart enough not to go right to where someone is specifically looking for them. I and everyone I know could beat the TSA security at any airport on any day through the simple expedient of looking for a softer target. If I wanted to take down an airplane, that would be just as easy. They still make you take off your shoes and walk through a disease-laden filth-encrusted entryway to the body scanner.

It's a good thing I'm a counter-terrorist. I could ruins someone's world if I were a bad guy, simply by realizing that the TSA and now the FBI are jokes.

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