AdamSmith

Well, if Snowden had "other motives," he looks to be pursuing them in about the stupidest way imaginable. Been widely noted that he could readily have straight out sold his material to interested parties for considerable sums, used same to vamoose, and saved himself a lot of trouble. My vote: patriot.

On that admitted tangent from the subject of Syria today, but relevant thereto nonetheless, this summary by Chomsky of some recent history showing again what a near-disaster was the Cuban missile episode, and how much the image of JFK as cool master strategist may not (surprise) have been quite the case: http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/15/cuban-missile-crisis-russian-roulette

Shh! The witness protection program has a hard enough time keeping me hidden as it is.

I am looking for the bar code label on the guy himself!

You think? He seems pretty credible when he rattles off things he's done and doing on the conservative side. (Although I confess not being able to recall any right now, and too lazy to Google them. )

Wag the Dog? There is also what Nixon observed, namely that domestic matters frustrate presidents because there is so little they can do about them in many respects, what with Congress to contend with, uncontrollable factors like economic cycles, etc. Whereas in foreign policy the executive has, short of making war (even that now), considerable freedom of action. Nixon's observation (in Monica Crowley's excellent even if sycophantic Nixon Off the Record) was that foreign policy therefore tends to attract the executive's attention more and more as an Administration wears on.

Who first said "like pushing shit uphill with a pointed stick"?

Agree with that. It occurs that Christie could be playing the long-game calculation that by nomination time, GOP primary voters may finally have had enough of losing the general election, and that his name on the ballot could be what turns out moderate voters in enough numbers to offset the extremist voters who tend to dominate the primary process.

There is another phrase for it: the banality of evil. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil

Good. I have had good impressions of everyone I've worked with at Cat, and of the company culture. This article sounds in keeping with all that.

No bacon ice cream? The above is reportedly a Photoshop job, but I did find this recipe, which actually sounds all right: Bacon Ice Cream Makes about ¾ qt (¾l) 5 strips bacon 2 teaspoons light brown sugar 3 tablespoons (45g) salted butter ¾ cup (packed) brown sugar (140g) 2¾ (675ml) cup half-and-half 5 large egg yolks 2 teaspoons dark rum ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract To candy the bacon, preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Lay the strips of bacon on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or aluminum foil, shiny side down. Sprinkle 1½-2 teaspoons of brown sugar evenly over each strip of bacon, depending on length. Bake for 12-16 minutes. Midway during baking, flip the bacon strips over and drag them through the dark, syrupy liquid that’s collected on the baking sheet. Continue to bake until as dark as mahogany. Remove from oven and cool the strips on a wire rack. Once crisp and cool, chop into little pieces. (Bacon Bits can be stored in an airtight container and chilled for a day or so, or stored in the freezer a few weeks ahead.) To make the ice cream custard, melt the butter in a heavy, medium-size saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and half of the half-and-half. Pour the remaining half-and-half into a bowl set in an ice bath and set a mesh strainer over the top. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm brown sugar mixture to them, whisking the yolks constantly as you pour. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over low to moderate heat, constantly stirring and scraping the bottom with a heatproof spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the half-and-half, stirring over the ice bath, until cool. Add rum and vanilla. Refrigerate the mixture. Once thoroughly chilled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add the bacon bits during the last moment of churning or stir them in when you remove the ice cream from the machine. http://bacon.wikia.com/wiki/Bacon_Ice_Cream

...chocolate-dipped bacon with sprinkles!

http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2013/jun/12/guantanamo-bay-doctors-ethics-force-feeding

I am now having to suppress 3 or 4 remarks.

Not a joke in the least.

For hitoall...

You actually don't like sex, do you?

Perfect descritpion of

Drones for Christ by David Swanson | July 2013 How Jerry Falwell's Liberty U.—the world's largest Christian university—became an evangelist for drone warfare. LIBERTY UNIVERSITY in Lynchburg, Va., was founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell. Its publications carry the slogan “Training Champions for Christ since 1971.” Some of those champions are now being trained to pilot armed drones, and others to pilot more traditional aircraft, in U.S. wars. For Christ. Liberty bills itself as “one of America’s top military-friendly schools.” It trains chaplains for the various branches of the military. And it trains pilots in its School of Aeronautics (SOA)—pilots who go up in planes and drone pilots who sit behind desks wearing pilot suits. The SOA, with more than 600 students, is not seen on campus, as it has recently moved to a building adjacent to Lynchburg Regional Airport. Liberty’s campus looks new and attractive, large enough for some 12,000 students, swarming with blue campus buses, and heavy on sports facilities for the Liberty Flames. A campus bookstore prominently displays Resilient Warriors, a book by Associate Vice President for Military Outreach Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Robert F. Dees. There’s new construction everywhere you look: a $50 million library, a baseball stadium, new dorms, a tiny year-round artificial ski slope on the top of a hill. In fact, Liberty is sitting on more than $1 billion in net assets. The major source of Liberty’s money is online education. There are some 60,000 Liberty students you don’t see on campus, because they study via the internet. They also make Liberty the largest university in Virginia, the fourth largest online university anywhere, and the largest Christian university in the world. More than 23,000 online students are in the military—twice as many as students who live on campus. Liberty offers extra financial support to veterans and those on active duty, allowing them to be credited for knowledge learned in the military and to study online from a war zone. Liberty has been turning out “Christ-centered aviators” for a decade. In fall 2011, Liberty added a concentration in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones), making it one of the first handful of schools to do this. Now at least 14 universities and colleges in the U.S. have permits from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones, and many institutions, including community colleges, offer drone training. If one chooses to concentrate studies on piloting drones, the load will include a half dozen courses on “intelligence.” Liberty students can also pick up a minor in strategic intelligence and take courses in terrorism and counterterrorism. (Liberty’s school of government brags that Newt Gingrich helped develop its course on “American exceptionalism.”) Currently, the vast percentage of drone pilots are training for war, but that is widely expected to change in the next few years. Congress has instructed the FAA to integrate drones into U.S. domestic airspace by September 2015. Liberty’s School of Aeronautics has six faculty members, five of whom have spent 15 to 30 years in the military—four in the Air Force, one in the Navy. Dave Young, dean of the SOA, spent 29 years in the Air Force and retired as a brigadier general. Last summer, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed Young to serve on the Virginia Aviation Board. “[Drones] are going to be a viable part of the aviation industry,” Young said in a Liberty Journal article last summer. “It offers a grand opportunity for employment during a time when college graduates are entering a highly competitive job market.” He also acknowledged that the technology could be misused. “Our mission is to produce graduates who are not only skilled, but who are going to go out in the world as strong Christians,” Young said. John Marselus, SOA associate dean, concurred. “We want to have graduates serving the Lord in this area of aviation,” he said. I exchanged emails with Young about Liberty’s drone program. He described it as a four-year degree program in Unmanned Aerial Systems and said that it includes “flying UAS vehicles in an authorized and controlled environment.” But, he added, “the focus on the program is not only on actual drone operations, but the command and control aspect, management of resources, and the various missions that UAS are capable of supporting.” The Virginia legislature recently became the first in the nation to impose a moratorium on drone use—lasting two years. That might have been a concern for Liberty. But before he would sign the bill, Gov. McDonnell made some exceptions to the drone ban, including emphasizing quite strongly that educational drone programs, including Liberty’s, would not be affected. “We very much appreciate the governor’s continuing support of the development of the Unmanned Aerial Systems presence in the Commonwealth,” Young wrote to me. “Particularly as it is a rather contentious issue due to the lack of understanding concerning the missions UAS can perform that aid the public at a much reduced cost.” I asked Young about drones’ most common use today, namely war fighting. “Is that kind of drone use Christian?” I asked. “I can only offer my perspective as a Christian,” he replied. “UAS are like any other aerial vehicle that can be used for a variety of missions including law enforcement, aerial surveillance, search and rescue, and crop spraying as well as for military reasons. As a former military combat aviator, I believe that UAS can be employed just like a manned aircraft and that there should not be a distinction between the two.” A brochure promoting the Liberty School of Aeronautics features a photo of Dan McCready, First Lieutenant USAF, who is quoted, “Since I was very young, I’ve dreamed about becoming a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Liberty’s aviation program gave me the opportunity to make my dream a reality, helping me to realize that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Tim Carentz obtained his undergraduate degree from Liberty, works for the Air Force now, and is pursuing a master’s in divinity from Liberty. Carentz told me he could not speak for the Air Force, but as a Liberty student and a pastor he believes “it’s biblical to have a national pride.” “I believe authorities are put in place with the approval of God,” Carentz assured me. “If he didn’t want them there, he could easily remove them.” He also discussed how good members of the military can be and how there are opportunities for evangelism. “If there were no Christians in the military, how would they instill love and discipline?” he said. “There are people pulled right from the ghetto who have nothing and who come into the military. And maybe their first supervisor is a Christian, and he takes them to the foot of the cross and leads them to Christianity, and they share that with their family, and you save generations.” At Liberty, the military is considered a tool for Christian missionaries. But what, I asked, about killing people with drones? “I can understand why some support [them], and I can understand why others don’t support [them]. Our job is to pray,” said Carentz, “and to understand that things will continue to get worse until Christ returns.” Richard Emery obtained a bachelor’s in finance from Liberty and went to Afghanistan with the Air Force. But Emery left the military in 2010. He told me he was troubled by what he saw as a pursuit of vengeance rather than justice. “I’ve thought about this a lot, how we’re supposed to be forgiving and yet fight wars against enemies,” he said. “We blame Osama bin Laden for what happened on Sept. 11; one time I was in Japan, and they had a picture of him in a urinal. You were supposed to pee on his face. I thought, ‘I don’t feel right about this.’ I’m not going after some kind of vendetta. I just want to bring justice. You’re supposed to be forgiving, but you’re supposed to do your job. I’m not going over there holding a grudge against Osama bin Laden. All the people we’re killing, you know, I’d like to see them get saved.” “I have no problem taking another person’s life,” said Emery, “if it would promote peace and liberty and the interest of the country we’re in. I have no problem giving my life for it. I’d end up going to heaven, so it doesn’t really bother me. But it becomes a problem when I start to doubt what we’re there for.” Emery proposed the nuclear bombing of Japan as a model for how Afghanistan should be handled. “It was painful, but we dropped a couple of atomic weapons and they quit fighting, and now Japan is one of our closest allies.” Emery expressed general disagreement with President Obama on “moral issues” until I asked about drones, and then he praised him. “They’re cheaper. They’re effective. They’re tiny,” he said. “The difference between an F-15 and a drone is just the cost. If a baby is killed by a drone or an F-15 or a gun, the problem is with the intelligence, not with the drone.” Emery, however, was clear on one thing. He doesn’t want drones patrolling our own skies or listening in on our cell phone conversations. In the view of this graduate, and others at Liberty, that wouldn’t be a godly thing to do. David Swanson, host of Talk Nation Radio, is the author of War is a Lie and When the World Outlawed War. http://sojo.net/magazine/2013/07/drones-christ