Hiatis

Well, I’m taking a self-imposed break from darting.  I ain’t sure what the hell is going on, so I need to take some time and get my head right.  At this point I’ve lost all confidence in my game and I’m not doing myself or my teammates any favors.

 

When it rains on the planes in Spain

Actually, no Spanish airport is included on this list of the world’s 18 strangest airports.  There is Gibraltar, but to Spain’s chagrin, that’s UK territory.   The only airport on the list I’ve actually visited is Denver.

Not on the list is Washington’s Reagan National Airport which is the hairiest place I’ve landed–lots of twists and turns on the way in and a relatively short runway.  But there is a little park on the bike path where you can experience watching a landing almost like this.   But for a freakout scary landing it would be hard to top this.  Unless you were landing here.

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Yikes!

Jesus Christ

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Althouse links to this story about the above drawing depicting Jesus smoking and drinking beer that appeared in a handwriting textbook in India.

Although I agree the picture has no place in a schoolchild’s textbook, I don’t find it otherwise offensive.  Truth be told, joining the Savior for a smoke and brew should I pass through the Pearly Gates (unlikely as that may be) sounds like my idea of heaven.

If the depiction offends you as a Christian may I suggest turning the other cheek.  Lord knows (heh) I ain’t above posting unflattering images of Muhammad.

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Have a beer with JC or a blast with the pedophile.  You choose.

UPDATE:  This just in–Elton John says Jesus was gay.  Yeah, right.  And Mary was a virgin…

The results are in…

…and it looks like I may live.

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It’s all right here in this handy bound report.  Some of which is even in English!

Bottom line: I’m obese.  And I have “fat liver” disease.  And other than a “relaxation abnormality” with the heart and some “benign granuloma” in the lungs, I am as right as rain, thank you very much.  Well, except for borderline high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol.  But really, given my lifestyle I count myself amongst the lucky…

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So, for the next 100 days my task is to lose 17kgs (or die trying).  And I’m taking three new (for me) meds.  Xenical, Lipilou and Cozaar.

Let’s rock and roll!

Historical perspective

It has oft been said that those who fail to remember history are destined to repeat it.  Or something like that.  So, I’ve been thinking of that bromide recently in the context of appeasement and the treatment of terrorism as a crime rather than an act of war.  Part of what triggered these thoughts was reading comments from Obama’s national security advisor John Brennan regarding the terrorist threat having nothing to do with Islam.  At best, this amounts to pandering, at worst it is willful ignorance.  Given that Brennan supports giving enemy combatants access to US criminal courts and Constitutional rights, I’m inclined to believe it is ignorance.

I challenge anyone to cite even one instance in the history of mankind where appeasement has paid any dividend or did more than prolong the inevitable conflict that must ultimately be resolved between two competing and irreconcilable ideologies.  And we all saw where the Clinton administration’s treatment of terrorism as a crime led us.  So, why are repeating these mistakes now?

I was reading about the first Barbary War and found this factoid fascinating:

In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli’s envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring “concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury”, the ambassador replied:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.

Sounds pretty damn familiar, doesn’t it?   The point is, our enemies don’t want to kill us because of any wrong we have done them.  It is not about Israel and the Palestinians.  This war has be going on since the 13th century, pretty much like a volcano–sometimes hot and active, sometimes more or less dormant.

Since we’ve been destined to live during an active period, we must once again be prepared to defend Western values like liberty and equality.  Is there anyone who sincerely believes those values are compatible with Islam?

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How can you run when you know?

Yoja of the week

I am pleased to  present to you this week’s Yoja, Ms. Chae Eun Jung:

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Ms. Chae is a model, singer and actress.  She is the star of “Sexy Mong Returns” (promo here) a Korean “Charlie’s Angels” as I understand it. I discovered her over at Koreaninsider.com which has several additional videos and her bio if you are wanting to learn (and see) more about her.

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Sexy Korean woman is the caption for this photo because that is the popular Google search term and I am a whore for traffic.  Sue me.

If you are health conscious (like me) and want to learn about good exercise technique, here’s a video of Ms. Chae showing how it’s done.

Bangapsuebneeda!

The Big Ride

So I mentioned in an earlier post that my kids had dubbed my 1966 Pontiac Grand Prix “the big ride”.

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Well, speaking of big rides, how about this?

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So, you didn’t think all that crap from China just appeared like magic on the shelves of your neighborhood Wal-Mart, did you?

The crew-size: 13 people on a ship longer than a US aircraft carrier (which
        Has a crew of 5,000).

        Notice that 207′ beam means it cannot fit through the Panama or Suez Canals .

                     It is strictly transpacific. Cruise speed: 31 knots.

        The goods arrive 4 days before the typical container ship (18-20 knots) on
        a China -to- California run. So this behemoth is hugely competitive when
                                     Carrying perishable goods.

                The ship was built in five sections. The sections floated together and
                Then  welded.

                The command bridge is higher than a 10-story building and has 11
                Cargo crane rigs that can operate simultaneously.

Of course, getting the goods across the wide Pacific is only half the battle.  To take things the rest of the way, you need this:

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That’s not just any train, that’s a 3.5 mile long “megatrain”.

Earlier this year, Union Pacific quietly ran a record-setting “monster” freight train over its Sunset Route, from Dallas to Long Beach, using the 3.5-mile-long behemoth during a one-time test of new distributed-power configurations that may help make long trains even longer. Distributed-power units (DPUs) are extra locomotives that are placed between or behind freight cars on very long trains to help them haul long, heavy loads without derailing.

Can you imagine being stuck at a crossing waiting for that puppy to pass?  Hell, you don’t have to imagine it, just check out his video–impressive!

Chicken Little changes his tune

Interesting news on the Global Warming (blessed by thy name) front:

There has been no warming since 1995.

The Earth may have indeed been warmer in the Medieval Warm Period.

Those “admissions” will be seized on by skeptics

Althouse:

Everyone should perceive flaws! To talk about “sceptics” as the ones who will “seize” upon “evidence” of flaws is unwittingly to make global warming into a matter of religion and not science. It’s not the skeptics who look bad. “Seize” sounds willful, but science should motivate us to grab at evidence. It’s the nonskeptics who look bad. It’s not science to be a true believer who wants to ignore new evidence. It’s not science to support a man who has the job of being a scientist but doesn’t adhere to the methods of science.

It’s a freakin’ house of cards…

UPDATEHigh Priest admits Mary no virgin…

Seollal, VD and Presidents

Ah, it’s a trifecta!  Lunar New Year, Valentines Day, and Presidents Day all in one jam packed weekend.  WooHoo!

So, Seolnal is a three day celebration for Koreans that began yesterday.  Many Koreans mark their birth from the Lunar calendar, so they all just got a year older.  It’s a funny phenomenon to ask a Korean’s age and hear “32, but 30 American”.  Hmm, that makes me 56 now, so can I go ahead and retire?

USFK grants two Korean holidays to its US employees–Chuesok and Seolnal.  So, this year the Seolnal holiday coincides with Presidents day.  Which means I’m getting screwed out of an extra day off.  Ah well.

Anyway, Happy New Year and for all you lovers Happy Valentines Day.  Especially for you sassy girls all over the world.

China says Stimulus bill successful…

Just as intended, the much criticized Stimulus bill has in fact created jobs.  Unfortunately, not American jobs.

According to the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Investment Act has been spent on wind power. The goal was to further energy independence while creating American jobs. It has done neither.

Of the money spent, according to the report, nearly 80% has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.

The only good thing one can say is that at least China is a real place, as opposed to the phantom ZIP codes and congressional districts in which the administration has claimed to have created jobs.

But how does buying wind turbines made in China create energy independence or create jobs?

Last October, on the day the workshop first reported on this story, a consortium of U.S. and Chinese companies announced a deal to build a $1.5 billion wind farm in Texas, using imported Chinese turbines.

The project is expected to create some temporary construction jobs in America. Some 2,000 manufacturing jobs will be created in China. In a message posted on his Facebook page, Secretary Chu wrote that the point of the grant program was “ensuring America leads the world in creating jobs in manufacturing the parts that go into wind farms” and even export components to foreign wind farms. It hasn’t worked out that way.

Of the 1,807 turbines erected on 28 wind farms receiving grants, foreign-owned manufacturers built 1,219, according to the workshop report. The installation of these turbines may have created as many as 6,838 manufacturing jobs overseas.

Seriously, WTF?

Or as they said over at PowerLine: “If the Obama administration were actually trying to damage our economy, it is not clear that it could do a better job.”

My favorite from 2005

Scrolled through my old posts from 2005.  It was shocking to see just how crappy the crap I posted truly was.  Over the course of 12 months this little ditty about my first haircut in Korea was the best I could come up with…

In the photo essay category I’m going with my commute to work (back when I actually walked).  Oddly enough, I was thinner back then.

It was a pretty sorry year blog posting-wise (who knew it would be a continuing trend, eh?).  Still, it’s kinda cute how jazzed I got when things were all new and different with my life here in Korea.

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ok, that was technically taken in December 2004 in Istanbul.  But I posted it in 2005.  So sue me.

Stay tuned for the “best” of 2006.  As soon as I can stomach reading through them….