LIBRARIANS #107 "Rule of Three" Answer Post
9 years ago
Monday, June 30, 2008
231.93 ºC
For those interested in such things, my 90 day review at Privateer has occurred and I've received a raise and will be training as a caster at least part time. Hooray for liquid metal!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Brand New You're Retro
From cnn.com:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a "significant escalation" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.
White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.
Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program," Hersh said.
"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program," Hersh said.
The new article, "Preparing the Battlefield," is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran. He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.
"As usual with his quarterly pieces, we'll decline to comment," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN.
"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said.
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops.
"I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else," Crocker said.
Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran.
He said the program resulted in "a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people.
The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said "all options" are open in dealing with the issue.
Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.
U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons.
Israel, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers.
The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said.
In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor.
Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would "cost them heavily." In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with "the respect they deserve."
"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations," said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action.
It's gonna be awesome when the Bush administration pushes us into an untenable military position in Iran and then hands the reigns over to Obama so that in 2012 the republicans can point to how bad our situation in Iran is and fault the democrats. :)
But at least I'll be 30 and won't be drafted to stop an IED with my face 3 clicks outside of Teheran. :)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a "significant escalation" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.
White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.
Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program," Hersh said.
"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program," Hersh said.
The new article, "Preparing the Battlefield," is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran. He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.
"As usual with his quarterly pieces, we'll decline to comment," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN.
"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said.
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops.
"I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else," Crocker said.
Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran.
He said the program resulted in "a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people.
The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said "all options" are open in dealing with the issue.
Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.
U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons.
Israel, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers.
The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said.
In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor.
Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would "cost them heavily." In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with "the respect they deserve."
"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations," said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action.
It's gonna be awesome when the Bush administration pushes us into an untenable military position in Iran and then hands the reigns over to Obama so that in 2012 the republicans can point to how bad our situation in Iran is and fault the democrats. :)
But at least I'll be 30 and won't be drafted to stop an IED with my face 3 clicks outside of Teheran. :)
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
On a different note!
My blog continues to be too shitty to post useful links, but anyone looking for an interesting and depressing documentary regarding the Belgian Congo of the 19th century should search google video for BBC's "White King, Red Rubber, Black Death." I know everyone is probably sick to death of hearing about African misery but this is a compelling look at the worst of colonialism.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
These Summer Scum-holes
It's going to be light out for 18 hours here tomorrow. That is fucking crazy. In other news, "Outside" continues to be David Bowie's most underrated album and it still rules the school.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Weather Underground
Between finishing writing test pieces for work and being out all weekend I have (obviously) not posted in almost a week. First let me say "fuck you, fifth-grade-typing-class." It cursed me with a hardwired instinct to double-space after all sentences, a convention that is proscribed by Privateer's style guidelines document. I just did it again and went back and fixed it, god fucking damn it.
That said, I went on the Seattle Underground tour
Here is an underground toilet of mystery.
http://www.undergroundtour.com/
That said, I went on the Seattle Underground tour
Here is an underground toilet of mystery.
http://www.undergroundtour.com/
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
HYPERPOWER!
The html script on this blog totally fucking sucks so I can't link to the news that Trent Reznor is going to be releasing a Year Zero based TV show. Which could be fucking awesome.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Neutral Milk Hotel...
...is really dull indie rock. Sorry. I finally downloaded "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" after years of hype and I am severely disappointed. Admittedly, there is not much in that genre that I find noteworthy but I've become a really big Sufjan Steven fan despite that fact. There are some interesting horn arrangements that start to go somewhere cool but then it dives back into what seems to be standard indie-rock fare. Maybe I just don't have the ear for it but I was underwhelmed. The Veils, on the other hand, are actually kind of cool and I am kind of digging "The Runaway Found."
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Reading Rainbow
A number of people have asked me what else I am reading and the answer is; nothing. I finished "The Terror" last night and am waiting on my Amazon order to arrive. The order consists of:
Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus by Robert Kaplan.
Cold Skin: A Novel by Sanchez Pinol
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
The last entry is the one I am most looking forward to. It's a travelogue of West's trip across Yugoslavia in the early 20th century. It's considered a benchmark of travel writing and is supposedly an illuminating look at the Balkans.
Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus by Robert Kaplan.
Cold Skin: A Novel by Sanchez Pinol
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
The last entry is the one I am most looking forward to. It's a travelogue of West's trip across Yugoslavia in the early 20th century. It's considered a benchmark of travel writing and is supposedly an illuminating look at the Balkans.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Distracted from blog
Because I have to write stuff for real, will post something more substantial tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Squamous Esquimaux
I just want to plug Dan Simmon's novel "The Terror." It's really excellent historical fiction speculating on the final fate of the lost ships Terror and Erebus on their failed search for the Northwest Passage. It's got enough attention to nautical details to be authentic but never gets bogged down in tedium like a lot of tall ship-based books do. It also has esquimaux and a possibly supernatural horror gruesomely murdering dozens of sailors. I'm kind of a big jerk for fiction and non-fiction on sailing in that era but this one is a cut above.
http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316017442
http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316017442
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Where the buffalo roam
It was probably expected that Clinton would not announce her concession immediately but I suppose that I had dared to hope. I wonder if Obama will have to actually cut off her head and drive a stake through her heart. His speech tonight was pretty excellent, although it's sort of odd hearing actual statesman-like speeches from a living politician.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Warum Sprach Zarathustra?
I got less than three hours of sleep last night so this will be briefer than normal. That is all.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Wot's, Uh, The Deal
I downloaded the complete Pink Floyd discography on a whim this morning and am working my way forward from Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I'm starting to feel like I should invest in a heavier beard, a bong, and maybe a van with a sweet airbrushed wizard or something.
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