Author: Fuzzy Curmudgeon

People who are speculating that Shock And Awe is just a fancy phrase for nervenkrieg, and that we don’t really plan to drop all that fancy weaponry at all, are — in my opinion, and I could be wrong — whistling in the dark.
The main reason? It will only work once.
I read Sun Tzu, too. I just don’t buy that we won’t try out all our shiny new weapons. Especially given a target like ol’ Fat Fuck.

I suspect because our Congress is far too staid and proper. This from the Australian, describing today’s question time in the Aussie Parliament:

Alexander Downer sought to detail the humanitarian aid being offered to Iraq by Australia. This was always going to be provocative – given bombing had just begun – and the Foreign Minister was peppered with abuse.
Downer has for months held his tongue, refusing to allow his churlish streak to be exposed by Labor’s taunting. But the Foreign Minister, who appeared drawn and could barely speak for a sore throat, eventually cracked.
“You’re supposed to be the leader of a political party,” he screamed at Simon Crean. “You’re behaving like a child in primary school.” The outburst provoked further mayhem in the House, and Downer taunted: “I’m shaking my head in desperate sorrow for you, you pitiful creature.”

Can you just imagine someone like, oh, I don’t know, John McCain, blowing off at Tom Daschle like this? (I can imagine it…but it will never happen.) Oh, and editorially, the Australian is offended:

It might have been mildly amusing, until you reflected on what was at stake. Neither side was blameless but the dearth of grace and decorum in the federal parliament at such a historical moment was stomach-churning.

Not hardly. It is such things of which history is made. Nobody remembers milquetoasts.
(Via Pej.)

I noticed in referrals that someone from IndyStar.com hit the site about seven times yesterday.
You guys writing an article on blogging? Better late than never, I suppose. But you may want to find some blogs that aren’t rated R for language.
BTW, when are you going to put your obituary database back on line, you cheap bastards? (Oh, wait, I forgot…you’re owned by Gannett. So you’re even cheaper now than you used to be when Dan Quayle’s family owned you.) And I don’t mean just back to 1/7/03.

That Jonah:
“I agree with Andrew Sullivan and others when they suggest the Saddam broadcast was authentic. If Saddam was looking to make a show of strength, he wouldn’t wear those glasses. Reading from that pad he looks like an old man trying to figure out why the deli raised the price on the chicken noodle soup.”
Exactly.

this morning has a good point about the possible etymology of “Shock and Awe” (page down, it’s at the bottom…but read the whole thing.)
The only problem is that you don’t pronounce the Hebrew that way. But I’m willing to overlook it.

Democrats don’t understand what their problem is. I do. I think The Prowler does, too.

“We focus-grouped and tested the idea that Bush had failed miserably as a diplomat and most of our respondents agreed,” says a Democratic leadership aide. “It seemed like the perfect approach for us.” Apparently it wasn’t.

Quit applying marketing techniques to politics, boys. You’re way too poll-driven to see the forest for the trees.

[U]nspoken in all of this is that the Bush administration hasn’t been polling or focus grouping its Iraqi policy. “That the Democrats feel the need to poll on this just shows where their minds are,” says a Republican Senate leadership staffer. “You’d think they’d have learned a lesson from the Clinton White House on that.”
Indeed.

It is morally impossible to support the troops and not support their Commander-in-Chief. Anyone who makes this pious pronouncement loses all moral authority with the American people. And if they are legislators, they should immediately surrender their seats to people who have the requisite moral clarity.
Yes. I used the word “moral” three times.

What a maroon. [page down to get to this paragraph]

One anti-war legislator remained defiant even after the war began.
“Tonight, President Bush has commanded U.S. forces to go to war in violation of American traditions of defensive war that have lasted since George Washington. This war is wrong; it violates the Constitution and international law,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.

This statement is so remarkably asinine on its face that it really needs no response. But I will make one point for the Boy Mayor: WE DIDN’T START THIS WAR. Remember the Twin Towers? The Pentagon? Flight 93?

…but I found the “pregame show” attitude that I saw on Fox last night to be, hmm, in relatively poor taste. I assume the other networks did the same thing.
I don’t know what made everybody think the bombs were going to start falling at 8PM sharp. I certainly hope we got something for our money when they mounted that little surgical strike last night (I gather that the response by Saddam might have been given by a double, so you never know…).
God bless our troops.
Death and damnation to Saddam.
Eternal embarassment to those who protest too much.

Michigan Town Bans Live War Coverage in Schools

PLYMOUTH, Mich. — For high school teacher Bill Boyd, television can be a valuable classroom tool.
But if the U.S. goes to war with Iraq, live TV news coverage will be off-limits at his and all other schools in Plymouth, Mich., from kindergarten through 12th grade. Instead, teachers will be limited to showing edited videotaped footage only.
Plymouth-Canton School Superintendent James Ryan said he’s afraid the live war coverage could be too graphic for students. Some parents agree.

I’m sorry, but this is the same attitude that led to 9/11. Pay no attention to the war beyond the border. Pay no attention to what goes on in the rest of the world. Hate America and any good she might do in the world. ASSHOLES!

“To see those people jumping from 80 stories — I won’t ever forget,” said teacher Darrin Silvester. “I was 28, 29 years old, and I won’t forget it.”

I was 41, and my first wedding anniversary was coming up in six days, and I damn sure won’t. But “protecting” the children from war footage isn’t going to keep it from happening again.
Teachers make me sick. And I say that being the son of a good one who unfortunately believes all the crap her union threw at her all those years.