Oh no! We suck again!

Well, the USA national soccer team made a mockery of U.S. Soccer once again. Landon Donovan, my most despised player, proved to be entirely worthless, the team is unmotovated, boring, and has no fire. Despite what ever great things head coach Arena has done for U.S. soccer, he himself has no presence and no personality, and that is completely reflected in the way the team behaves. What a joke.

Below is an MP3 for your amusement from the Waterboy. Enjoy!
http://www.moviewavs.com/0085934086/MP3S/Movies/Waterboy/ohnowesuckagain.mp3

I'm afraid this battle station will be quite operational when your friends arrive.

Collier sent me this and titled it "Operation Can O' Whoop Ass."

The USS Abraham Lincoln, USS Kitty Hawk and USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike groups steam in formation during a joint photo exercise (PHOTOEX) in preparation for Valiant Shield 2006 on Sunday, June 18, 2006, in the Pacific Ocean. The PHOTOEX featured 14 ships as well as 17 aircraft from Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corp including a B2 bomber. The Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group is currently participating in Valiant Shield 2006, the largest joint exercise in recent history. Held in the Guam operating area beginning June 19-23, the exercise involves 28 Naval vessels including three carrier strike groups, more than 300 aircraft and more than 20,000 service members from the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Jarod Hodge)

Yet another page from the Somalia file

I find it hard to believe... but here's yet more fantastic news coming out of Somalia.

Group linked to al Qaeda tightening grip on Somalia

An Islamist group with ties to al Qaeda is quickly solidifying its grip on parts of Somalia and moving toward setting up a Taliban-style Islamist regime in the country, according to U.S. officials familiar with events in the region.

Not so much fun with Google Earth

Ames tells me that I need to post happier, friendlier things on my blog. I fully agree. But then I sit down at the computer and read this:

"N. Korea set to Test-Launch Missile Capable of Hitting the United States"

Well that's nice. So I load up Google Earth and do a quick measurement... from N. Korea to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska (which I assume is what they are talking about) is about 2500 miles. Needless to say, the continental US is much further away than that.

However, for those of you that haven't been following, N. Korea is in a complete economic shambles, and has a giant energy crisis ongoing. They could really use some energy. No energy, but long range missiles. Hm....

See, there's this other country... a South American country named Venezuela, which is also convinced that the USA is getting ready to invade it at any minute. They've said they plan to continue to use their oil profits to arm themselves against a US attack.

Oh - did I say... Oil Profits? Oil - as in the primary source of energy used by the modern world? Yes. I did say that. So lets see - there's a country with long range missiles, nuclear weapons, and no oil... and a country that wants weapons to deter the US and has oil... hmm...

So with a little more Google Earth research, I drew some lines from Venezuela to the US, and found that, more or less, you can draw a trapezoid from Texas, to Chicago, to Maine, to Miami. Anything within that area could be hit with a N. Korean nuke that was sold to and stationed in Venezuela.

And no sooner do I do that bit of research, but this headline hits the Drudge Report:

"North Korean threat prompts US to Activate Missile Defense System"

Maybe I should just move to New Zealand.

And from the Somolia file...

Here's yet more good news from the results of spreading Islamic fascism:

Two die as hardline Islamists ban World Cup
[Mogadishu]
Hardline Islamic courts shut cinema halls and barred residents from watching the World Cup, prompting scores of civilians to protest the ban in which two people were killed, court officials and residents have said.

Iran bans The Economist...

...because, on a map, they labeled the familiar waterway near Iran "The Gulf" instead of the more common, and what Iran seems to prefer "The Persian Gulf".

If that's not a good reason to ban a magazine, I don't know what is. Down with freedom of speech!

Full Article: http://tinyurl.com/m395q

Geeking out with Google Earth

I put together a list of the airports I've flown to, and saved them in Google Earth. Now there is a quality use of my time. :)

The nav menu on the right points to it now too. I've not used idisk before, so if it asks you for some kind of password or something, please let me know. You will need Google Earth installed to view it.

http://idisk.mac.com/jeff.ready/Public/pilotjeff.kmz

There are two things I can't stand...

... racial intolerence, and the Dutch! LOL @ this:

Dutch Evangelicals calls for pray-in against the Devil


http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/06/05/060605122726.5i4vny6k.html

Remember Black Hawk Down?

Does anyone remember Black Hawk Down, the story of American troops having a bit of trouble in a "peacekeeping" mission in Somalia? I'm sure some of you do, as it was a great book and a movie that came out in 2001. After getting a handful of troops killed in a raid-gone-wrong, we largely withdrew from the country under intense public pressure.

In any case, back during the actual events in the late 90s, there was much talk about why we were there, what purpose did it serve, how did this help America, etc.

If you were a doubter, then here is your answer, and further proof that the American public, or at least the American media establishment, does not have the stomach to actually fight for the protection of America or our way of life:

Mogadishu - Somali Islamists on Monday declared victory over a United States-backed warlord alliance in Mogadishu after four months of bloody fighting, and prepared to take over the lawless capital.

Having captured nearly all of Mogadishu and a key warlord supply line on its northern outskirts at the weekend, the Islamists were set to formalize their seizure in a surrender and handover meeting with remnants of the alliance.

And so I present to you, the next Afghanistan. Ugh.

The Word of the Day

nomenclature |ˈnōmənˌklā ch ər| (noun)

• the devising or choosing of names for things, esp. in a science or other discipline.
• the body or system of such names in a particular field : the nomenclature of chemical compounds.
• formal the term or terms applied to someone or something : “customers” was preferred to the original nomenclature “passengers.”
  

Geeks rule!

Find Italy. Go east, then south.

I found a National Geographic study released last month which reveals some fun stats about people's lack of even basic world understanding. In their survey of 18-24 year olds (which would be the crowd to have most recently studied this stuff, you would think), they found the following:

• 33% could not identify Louisiana on a US map
• 88% could not find Afghanistan
• 63% could not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map of the middle east
  
• 75% could not find Iran or Israel on a map of the middle east
  
• 44% couldn't find the Middle East at all
• 50% could not find New York on a US map
• 56% couldn't find Ohio
• 44% estimated China's population to be double that of the US
• 54% couldn't identify what continent Sudan was in (10% said Europe!)
  
• 75% could not find Indonesia
• 75% didn't know Indonesia was a Muslim country (PS - it's the largest Muslim country in the world, oh geographically challenged citizens)
• 48% think that China exports more, when measured by dollar value, than the US
• 34% could not identify which escape route, in a hypothetical scenario, directed them to the northwest when using a map and a compass rose! (page 18 of the report if you want to see how easy this one should be)
• 66% did not know you would travel south to get from Japan (in the northern hemisphere, P.S.) to Australia (in the southern hemisphere)
• 51% could not find Japan
  
• 30% thought the population of the US was over 1 billion people
• 74% thought English was the most common native language in the world
• 30% said the most heavily fortified border in the world was between the US and Mexico
• 50% thought India was a muslim contry
  

On the "positive" side,

• 70% could find China (of course, so can Kaitlyn, and she's FIVE)
• 59% know that the Amazon rainforest is in South America (well done class!)
• 51% could find India (again, nice work)
• only 6% thought India was the world's largest consumer of oil (but just who are you people?)

So, the next time Hawkins lets us know where he is, he'd better put up a map on his blog, as well as instructions on how to use it.