As much as all of us at the Burg love the Warthog, this writer makes a compelling case that its time has come and gone. Worth the read.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2015 07:54 ||
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#1
Compelling? Ask the end user.
More than a compelling case has been made to move the whole operation back to the Army (note well that the Marines have their own air arm). Even less compelling is the justification for the next generation attack helicopter who's profile isn't going to be much different than an A-10 after all the bugs and trades offs are made in procurement.
#2
Something to be said for cheap and dumb, versus fast, sleek, sexy and spendy. Otherwise we could have had the full complement of B-2s; instead we have only a handful of silver bullets that are used reluctantly. Don't want to expose them to risk cuz they might get hurt.
sort of like the old navy free bin joke about not being able to issue the last itme in the bin because we might need it; well if somebody has a hole they 'might need it,' and if the slow and cheap A-10 fills a hole, despite ists logistic tail cost, do ya really think the F-35 Edsel is going to be any cheaper??????
Posted by: USN, Ret ||
03/03/2015 14:40 Comments ||
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#3
OK, so we don't need the A-10 to stop Russian tanks streaming thru the Fulda Gap. (voice from the peanut gallery: care to bet on that?)
The argument that the USMC doesn't use it is a tad specious given there is no navalized version of the A-10 and the Marine's habit of tooling around in boats.
[DAWN] POLICE in the capital city recently removed graffiti glorifying the self-styled Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... from the walls of buildings in an area where schools are located. Patrols will now be enhanced to ensure that the wall-chalking does not reappear in the vicinity. In fact, the menace of graffiti is very widespread and a big problem in Pak cities and a more energetic approach is required to tackle it.
Political graffiti appears on the walls of historical buildings, while posters of electoral candidates are pasted on national monuments too. More insidiously, hate messages are scribbled on walls in large localities in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , and towns across Punjab. The seeming impunity with which these messages are scribbled on the walls shows that they are not considered a big enough menace by law-enforcement or the local administration. Quite apart from desecrating national monuments and historic sites, hate messages along sectarian lines or glorifying groups involved in large-scale atrocities should be a special target for erasure.
Yet thus far we have not witnessed any systematic effort to discourage those who insist on scribbling these messages in public places. The police in Sector H-9 of Islamabad have done the right thing in promptly painting over the graffiti and enhancing patrols in the area to ensure that it does not recur. But much more needs to be done in towns across Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... -- and in Karachi where last year the Sindh Assembly passed a law against the defacement of public and private property, stipulating punishment for the offenders. The local authorities, including the police and city administration, must play a more vigilant role to erase graffiti promptly, and apprehend those responsible for putting up these messages. The political parties can lead the way by mounting a strong campaign internally to dissuade electoral hopefuls and other political players from using public walls and national monuments as display areas for their messages and slogans. Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible... keeping hate off our walls will help keep it out of our minds.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] AMONGST the predicament of minorities in Pakistain is the fact that youngsters belonging to faiths other than Islam either have to study the religion of the majority, or learn about Islamic themes that are included in the textbooks of unrelated subjects. As some scholars have pointed out, forcibly teaching non-Moslem students Islam -- either because of the lack of alternatives or through inducement -- violates their constitutional rights. In this regard, it is welcome that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Textbook Board has begun developing ethics books for the province's minority students.
While ethics is being taught in other provinces, it is shocking that it took KP so long to offer an alternative to non-Moslem students. Even the ANP, which ruled the province before the PTI's rise to power, did not rectify this anomaly. As reported in this paper, many non-Moslem students in KP are forced to study Islamiat due to the lack of ethics textbooks and instructors who could teach them the subject. This brings us to another major problem: while the province has done well to formulate an ethics textbook, who will teach the subject? As our report indicates there is a shortage of qualified ethics teachers in KP. This problem also exists in other provinces.
In order to create a more tolerant and inclusive society, it is essential that non-Moslem students are not forced to study the religion of the majority. With the addition of KP, ethics will now be taught nationwide, hence there needs to be a trained cadre of instructors in all provinces that can teach the subject to non-Moslem pupils. Moreover, minorities must be consulted so that their respective religious beliefs are taught to youngsters instead of ethics should they so choose. Then there is the issue of including Islamic topics in subjects as varied as general knowledge, social studies and English. Of course, this infusion of religious material across the academic spectrum is mostly the work of Zia ul Haq ...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988... 's 'Islamisation' project. It must be realised that Islamiat is a compulsory subject in Pakistain, hence there is little reason to include religious teachings in other subjects. Doing so poses two major problems: it forces non-Moslem students to study Islam and where Moslem pupils are concerned, this approach can result in diluting the focus of the lesson. Both the issues of non-Moslem students and the inclusion of religious topics in unrelated subjects must be considered in future curriculum reform efforts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#2
It is uncertain how many Democratic law-makers will boycott Netanyahu's speech before Congress but the latest number of those committed is 42. Democrats boycotting Netanyahu's speech.
It is a big mistake and on the wrong side of history--all for a petulant, vindictive, anti-semitic, childish man-boy in the WH.
Apparently each Congresscritter has one pass to give away for such things. So many have expressed interest in seeing this speech in the flesh that the drama of empty seats simply isn't going to happen. On the contrary, the chamber will be packed to the rafters, and if yesterday's response to him at AIPAC
is any indication, President Obama is already feeling quite bilious.
He is better known as the hapless, doughnut-obsessed safety officer at Springfield nuclear power plant, but it appears that Homer Simpson may have outwitted some of the brightest minds on the planet. In 'The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace', Homer becomes an inventor in an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Thomas Edison.
The author of a book looking at the maths hidden within episodes of the Simpsons has discovered that Homer may have predicted the mass of the Higgs boson 14 years before physicists discovered the particle at the Large Hadron Collider in Cern.
Dr Simon Singh, a physicist and author, found the solution written on a blackboard in front of Homer during a 1998 episode of the long running cartoon.
#8
JosephMendiola, you are an international treasure, only a man like you would innately grasp the meaning of donuts and their relationship to Quantum Physics vis-à-vis Homer Simpson
Posted by: Jack Grumble2753 ||
03/03/2015 21:24 Comments ||
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#9
and Duff Beer™
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2015 21:49 Comments ||
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[Kunuk Free Press] Numerous conversations I have with folks have shown me that there are a number of people out there that not only believe that President Champ is an anti-American President, but that he is a Muslim. In the end, it is all speculation, for Champ has never given anyone indisputable evidence regarding his faith, which is why Scott Walker accurately indicated he had no idea what Champ's faith is.
However, regardless of if you believe that Champ owns a Muslim prayer rug, or if you think he's a Christian with a "Reverend Jeremiah Wright" G-Damn America splash of crazy in his religious thinking, or if you support the idea that Obama is a Godless Communist that rejects faith but appeases Islam because it serves his purpose, his actions and words tell a very interesting story that suggests he personally feels hostility towards Christianity, and is sympathetic to the followers of the false prophet Muhammad.
In a recent speech, after slamming Christianity with his Crusades remark, saying that "terrible deeds also committed in the name of Christ" during a National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama also went so far as to say, "Here in America, Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding." Woven into the fabric? I prefer to use the word metastasized.
The statement was delivered during one of his speeches at the White House's Extremism Summit, suggesting that not only were Muslims not enemies of America, and are not terrorists, but that they played a crucial role in America's founding.
#2
Numerous conversations I have with folks have shown me that there are a number of people out there that not only believe that President Champ is an anti-American President, but that he is a Muslim.
Count me in that number.
It is true that Thomas Jefferson owned a Koran. He believed it to be important to understand the enemy.
But then, Thomas Jefferson was a smart man. Moreover, he didn't engage in taqiyya.
#4
Lying for any cause is a concept embedded in our politicians (most of them). Actually, it is a mark of a real sociopath. Tell them what they want to hear.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/03/2015 18:17 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] AMONGST the predicament of minorities in Pakistain is the fact that youngsters belonging to faiths other than Islam either have to study the religion of the majority, or learn about Islamic themes that are included in the textbooks of unrelated subjects. As some scholars have pointed out, forcibly teaching non-
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
[NationalReview] It exposes the Iran deal as indefensible -- and Obama's politics as bankrupt.
[Kunuk Free Press] Numerous conversations I have with folks have shown me that there are a number of people out there that not only believe that President Champ is an anti-American President, but that he is a Muslim. In the end, it is all speculation, for Champ has never given anyone indisputable evidence regarding his faith, which is why Scott Walker accurately indicated he had no idea what Champ's faith is.
