This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Teh Stoopid”

  • Tinfoil Hattery – Not Just for the Veterans Today Crowd

    Hey, remember those Charlie Hebdo attacks? You thought they were perpetrated by radical Islamic terrorists?

    Well, the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity says you could be wrong. Here’s what one of their website’s articles has to say:

    The Charlie Hebdo affair has many of the characteristics of a false flag operation. The attack on the cartoonists’ office was a disciplined professional attack of the kind associated with highly trained special forces; yet the suspects who were later corralled and killed seemed bumbling and unprofessional. It is like two different sets of people.

    The article’s author – Paul Craig Roberts – also appears to be somewhat . . . interesting.  He seems to be a bit of a ”9/11 Truther” who in November 2012 held al Qaeda’s link to 9/11 to be “unsubstantiated”. He also IMO seems to hold some other, er, interesting and decidedly non-traditional opinions – like saying in May 2011 that “there is probably more democracy in China than in the West.”

    Predictably, Ron Paul is already doing damage control to head off blowback from Roberts’ article. He says he doesn’t think that even Roberts believes his own article – he just “wanted a discussion”.

    Yeah, right. We’ve seen this kind of ridiculous, self-serving tap-dance before from Ron Paul.  Specifically, we saw the same regarding those the racist materials in his 1990s newsletters that he seems to have approved, then later blamed on “staff”. Yet colleagues of Paul’s from that time say Paul routinely proofed those letters and personally approved their content.

    The institute has your name, Paul – just like those newsletters did. And given your past actions, I’m not buying the obvious attempt at damage control this time around either.

    Sheesh. I guess that figures. I suppose it’s too much to expect the Left to have all the      fools      individuals who see the world through “alternate perspectives of reality”.

  • Yer Sunday Oddity: Mac Sabbath

    For better or worse, McDonalds is an American cultural icon.  So is heavy metal music.

    And when the two meet, the result is . . . well, just plain weird.  In a kinda-creepy-but-it-works-anyway way.

    Enjoy – I think.  (smile)

    If you’re still “hungry” after that, here’s a second helping.

    Hey, I warned ya it was both kinda creepy and weird. (smile)

     

     

  • At Last – A Shovel-Ready Stimulus Project

    Remember that vaunted “economic stimulus” package from several years ago? You know, that one rammed through Congress by the      naive DC clown krewe      current Administration that was going to lassez les bontemps rouler again, economy-wise? And which hasn’t exactly worked out all that well?

    The 2009 economic stimulus program has been widely derided as ineffective. Many of those “shovel-ready” projects you heard about were anything but. Critics called many of the projects funded by the program “make work”, “pork”, or “crap”. And it looks like they were dead on target.

    However, in spite of the ineffectiveness of the program those stimulus funds apparently are still around (and we wonder why we’ve been having budget deficits approaching or over $1 trillion annually). And today we have a new stimulus-funded project that’s truly shovel-ready.

    It’s a contract issued by the Bureau of Land Management to haul off horse and burro manure.

    The contract has one base year and four option years. It will likely be in effect until 2019.

    I’m not joking.

    What a load of horsesh!t. Literally.

    And we’re the ones paying for it.

  • I Think Vets and Active Duty Personnel Will Just Love This Guy

    Metropolitan State University is in Denver, CO. It promotes itself as “a top choice for active-duty military and veterans to pursue higher education”.

    It also has one each Charles Angeletti as a professor. He teaches at least one class – American Civilization.

    Angeletti seems somewhat opinionated. Here are some of Angeletti’s thoughts on the USA:   “We’re very racist, we’re very repressive, we’re very Christian oriented, we don’t tolerate other kinds of thinking in this country.”

    As you might have guessed, Angeletti isn’t exactly conservative in his political leanings.  That’s reportedly apparent in the way he teaches his classes, too.

    Here’s a sample of how Angeletti teaches his American Civilization class. It’s something he reportedly has his students memorize and recite – his modified version of the Pledge of Allegiance.

    “I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States Against Anything Un-American. And to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions, Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants, children of illegal immigrants, and you, if you don’t watch your step.”

    (Apparently Angeletti also isn’t particularly bright either, notwithstanding the fact that he’s a college professor.  In particular, Angeletti apparently isn’t bright enough to figure out that if America really was as intolerant as he claims he’d not be allowed to spew his brand of idiocy in publicl.)

    I’m thinking that Angeletti’s moronic screed above – which is so poorly written that it isn’t even internally consistent regarding the point Angeletti’s attempting, abysmally badly, to make – is going to resonate with those active duty personnel and veterans that Metropolitan State University claims to want as students.  But I’m also thinking it won’t resonate in precisely the way that Dr. Ivory Tower Numbnuts here wants.

    Look, I’m all for academic freedom. But I do have a problem seeing public taxes pay someone to advocate blatantly false political propaganda as truth, and for teaching monumental idiocy.  And make no mistake about it:  if Metropolitan State students are getting any Pell grants or Federally guaranteed student loans – or are using VA benefits to attend the school – you and I are helping pay for this idiocy.

    Per the linked Fox News story, “Officials at Metropolitan State University of Denver did not immediately return requests for comment.”

  • Foreign-Born Civilian Navy Engineer . . . and Apparent Spy

    Seems that a foreign-born, 35-year-old engineer has been arrested by the FBI. The charge; attempting to provide design and vulnerability information concerning the Navy’s most advanced carrier currently under construction to a foreign government.

    It gets even better. The guy apparently immigrated and became a citizen fairly recently – he appears to have begun the process of attaining US citizenship in 2007. But it looks like he must have worked fast; he apparently was granted a security clearance fairly recently.

    Luckily, the “foreign agent” to whom the guy provided the info he’d obtained was an FBI undercover agent. So perhaps we dodged a proverbial bullet here.

    Unfortunately, the bastard isn’t facing the death penalty. He’s facing two charges, each of which have a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison. That’s . . . unfortunate. IMO, he should be looking at hanging – but I’d have settled for a needle instead.

    Both Fox News and the Washington Times have articles giving more details. They’re IMO worth reading.

    Interestingly, I’m not finding much else about this in the rest of the media. I wonder if the fact that the guy was born in Saudi Arabia – and was trying to provide the information to the government of Egypt – might have something to do with that?

    I guess spying on behalf of an Islamic nation must not be news. And that a recently-naturalized individual from a country with a huge Islamic extremist population applying for a security clearance during a time when we’re at war with Islamic extremists doesn’t merit enhanced scrutiny. Even if he’s from the country that, well, provided almost all of the terrorist bastards that perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.

    I swear, at times I think some folks working for the Five Sided Asylum really are crazy. Or perhaps simply have the intellect of a rock with lips.

  • Just When You Thought the Army’s Uniform Games Had Ended . . .

    . . . it turns out that’s not the case.

    According to the Army Times, the Army has announced that, because of adoption of the new Operational Camouflage Pattern, additional new uniform items will be required. Specifically, soldiers will need new boots, t-shirts, and belts to go with the new camouflage uniforms.

    Now, maybe new boots make sense; the desert tan boots used with the ACU were somewhat lighter than the new OCP.  The new boots are coyote brown.

    But new T-shirts and belts are just stupid, at least if they’re going to be mass-issued gratis.  What, has RIT quit making freaking dye?  And a new belt?  C’mon, folks – the belt isn’t even freaking visible.  The only time it’s seen is when you take off the jacket.  And if you’re taking off the jacket in combat, well, I think that means you’ve got worse problems than a mismatched belt.

    But I guess the DA part of the Five-Sided Asylum had to find something for some of its staff to work on.  This must have been really important.

    The Army Times article has more details.  It’s worth reading – unless you are having high blood pressure problems today.  Then maybe you might want to wait a while.

    One of those details:  the new OCP isn’t designed to be “universal”.   Jungle and desert variants will soon be announced.  I bet at least one of those will need “new boots, t-shirts, and belts” too.

    Sheesh.  GMAFB.

  • “C’mon, Helga – From Now On, We Do It In the Dark!”

    Be glad you’re not in Germany, folks. Let’s just say that the Environmental minister has some, um, interesting ideas about how to “save the planet”. Oh, and in case you’re wondering: yeah, she’s a Socialist.

    The comments to the linked article make good reading.


    (Hat tip to Drudge for an indirect link to the source.)

  • TSO’s Magical Mystery Tour of Classic Rock Concerts

    As most know I got more death threats this weekend, which is always fun. So to take my mind off it I was constructing a list of the top 10 classic rock concerts I ever went to. It actually became 11, because I couldn’t find anyone of these I would drop from the list. They aren’t in any particular order, just as they came to my mind I tossed them up. This is basically an open thread for you foggies like me. I used to listen to nothing but classic rock, now I only listen to angry Irish music, and books on audio tape. And Mike and Mike.

    Nonetheless, little-known TSO fact #245,128: my job in High School was ticket scalper. Yup. At Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York. We devised this plan where you pay like $500 and become an endower or somesuch of the center. Most the people with that kind of cash wanted to see Barbra Streisand or the Boston Pops and shit. So we would get tickets the day before the general unwashed public and then sell them. Like tickets to then virtually unknown Guns and Roses opening for Aerosmith. We made a killing on those tickets. Likewise Heart, believe it or not. Two obese women singing about sex, but damned if they didn’t pay for beer money for a week or three.

    Anyway, again, in no order, here’s the best 11 concerts I ever saw, although none of the videos are from shows I actually saw.

    1) Grateful Dead, Box of Rain.

    I went to 54 Grateful Dead shows between 1987 and about 1997*.  (Make that 1995.  Jerry died in 1995.  Let us not forget, a US Army Veteran.) My most vivid memory was getting stuck in Syracuse going from a show somewhere in Canada to New York City. Like 3 days I was stuck there, with no food but what they had in vending machines. The only concert I ever inhaled at, albeit it was a balloon was at Rich Stadium in Buffalo. That was the day I almost lost a testicle on a picket fence too, as we had General Admission seats, and if you were the first to get to the front, you stayed at the front. I got stuck on the damn fence, tore my pants, but still made it front row. Thankfully I had a ton of liquid pain killer. My buddy passed out during the 6 hour wait and ended up with one half of his face so sunburned he looked like Janus the two faced God.

    I’m picking Box of Rain because every time Phil sang it he screwed up the lyrics. Of his own song.

    2) The Band, The Weight

    That same friend and I were driving by the “Big E” in Springfield Mass one time and saw a marquee that said only “The Band, tonight.” I didn’t know if it was some random band, or the actual The Band. Thankfully, it turned out the latter. There couldn’t have been 50 people there. They played on the back of a truck bed, and were so fricken hammered that the drummer (Rick Danko) fell off the back. He remounted the truck and no one even said anything. They were fricken PLOWED. SO was I.

    3) Lynyrd Skynyrd, Simple Man

    Again, same friend, once again, wasted. One of the guys from the band, seeing that we were sobering up actually handed us the fifth of whiskey he was drinking DURING THE SHOW, and we gulped it down like a man dying in the desert. Just wasted, great show.

    4) Carlos Santana, Evil Ways

    A nice man in the parking lot gave me a mushroom pizza. I’m guessing that they weren’t portabello, because I ended up talking to a dumpster later that night. Hell of a philosopher that dumpster. Only time I ever took a drug, and I thought it was pizza. (No lie.) Lake Compounce, or something like that in rural Connecticut. It was about 100 that day, and pouring rain. I was doing belly slides down this hill during the show when I crashed into this chick. I helped her up, and then said “Holy shit, you look exactly like my ex-girlfriend, it is uncanny.” And she replied, “probably because we dated for 3 years jackass.” Great show. Steel Pulse Band opened for them. Dude playing Bongos had to have been 116 years old.

    5) Jethro Tull, This as a brick

    Tull is amazing, and my favorite band. But my favorite story is about the night I didn’t see them. A buddy from the NRA and I decided to go and get scalper tickets at Meriwhether Post Pavilion outside DC. As we pulled up, some blue haired lady was there with a sign that said “Tickets and back stage passes, for face value.” I almost wept in joy. I pulled up, grabbed the tickets and handed her the money. As we parked I looked at the tickets, which read “Tom Jones.” I asked my buddy, “Who the F is Tom Jones”? Turned out, we came a night too late. So I sold someone else the tickets. I still have no clue who Tom Jones is.

    6) Zeppelin (actually Robert Plant), Tangerine

    To be honest, I don’t remember much about this show. There may have been alcohol involved. I just remember it being awesome. SuperTramp opened for him. Why? I still don’t know. But dude, it was Robert Plant, gotta be Top 11.

    7) Mark Knopfler, Brothers in Arms

    Still think this is one of the more haunting songs of all time. Saw it at the Hartford Coliseum I believe. Just amazing dude in concert.

    8) John Kay (and Steppenwolf), Magic Carpet Ride

    Another little known TSO fact is that while I was at UMASS (1990-1991) I was the wrestling coach for North Hampton High School. Less impressive is that I only had 1 wrestler. We practiced with Amhearst High, but they were a different division. So basically my kid would wrestle for them, with it not counting, and then he wrestled in the Division 2 Western Mass Tourney, which he won. Anyway, his Dad owned a dive bar in North Hampton and I got a call from him one night that said “Dad says come down now, and he won’t tell me what he wants you for.” So down I go, and they let me in the back door. His Dad starts ordering shots for me and these 4 or 5 dudes sitting there. We got plowed. Turned out, I was actually drinking with John Kay and Steppenwolf. My boss said I should have stabbed him because he hates this tune, but they were a lot of fun. (I had the same chance to do the same with Molly Hatchet, but to my undying shame, I didn’t go because my exam in Poli Sci was the next day.)

    9) Eric Clapton, Can’t Find My Way Home

    I saw this one at SPAC also. Now, the video is Winwood singing, which is awesome. But when I saw Clapton, he actually had some African American guy singing, and his voice was uncanny. He had Winwood down cold. Just an amazing concert.

    10) David Gilmour/Pink Floyd: Wish you were here.

    To say I was a Floyd fan is to understate it. I lived Floyd. In fact, mutual love of Floyd is what got me the aforementioned ex-girlfriend. I even used to celebrate Gilmour’s birthday (March 6). I had a 6 foot concert picture of him on my wall. (The celebrating his birthday thing was a little weird, in that I also celebrated the yearly anniversary of Frodo destroying the Ring of Power, which is likely why aforementioned girlfriend dumped me, and didn’t let me play her cymbals so to speak.)

    11) Roger McGuinn, Turn, Turn, Turn

    I saw this one at some tiny venue, I think in Stockbridge Mass, but it wasn’t Tanglewood. It was in doors. All I know is that he stuck around and talked to us afterwards and I ran out the next day and bought a twelve string guitar. I learned how to play about 10 seconds of Wish You Were Here (see above) and then never used it again, because I have fingers like Vienna sausages. Not my favorite song, but just the way it sounded was amazing. And he really was a nice dude.

    OK, have at it, let’s hear your concert stories.