Sitting on the front porch wearing my pajama bottoms and bathrobe, drinking a couple fingers of Bunnahabhain, waiting for the thunderstorm. It occurred to me I must look absurd.
I’m dipping my finger in the ice because I managed to injure myself once again today, this time with a rubber mallet while putting together a work bench. No, I did not stutter. I hurt myself with a rubber mallet. At this point in my life, the only thing I’m really missing are a big red nose, funny shoes, and a clown car.
Davis X. Machina
Is there an open PA seat in the US Senate in 2012?
Anonymous At Work
Drink like you’re Irish and it’s St. Patrick’s Day. That will take care of the red nose…
PurpleGirl
I can’t drink booze but sitting on the terrace after dinner might be nice.
Vibrant Pantload, fka Studly Pantload
“the only thing I’m really missing are a big red nose, funny shoes, and a clown car.”
That’s what the comments section is for. Silly rubber-mallet-wounded goose!
AkaDad
Is “clown car” a euphemism?
gypsy howell
This is why I love you
General Stuck
jeebus, you have learned nothin’. Rubber Mallets are not for fingers, they are to brane oneself when that is needed. Cheap shock therapy. If you had aimed it at your noodle, you would be doing Quantum Calculus about now, and your fingers would be in fine nose picking form. What they were made for. double jeebus.
AAA Bonds
Thank you so much for sticking to your position on Libya, John. It’s going to get harder and harder as more Democratic public figures decide It’s Okay When We Do It.
Ahasuerus
How does the Bunnahabhain compare to Glenlivet?
And how exactly does one “sutter”? Can one do it whilst mopping naked? Condolences on the finger, in any event.
Just Some Fuckhead
Sounds like someone needs a hug. C’mere. Ooh, gotcha with the hand buzzer. Just kidding. Oops, water in the eye from the flower!
Mark S.
Don’t blame the clown!
JPL
Hopefully Tunch doesn’t lock John out of the house. You know he wants to.
Nicole
Clowns are scary.
maye
Sounds like it finally warmed up back there. Or else you’ve had more to drink than you’re admitting.
paradox
These days when I dress up I put on a fresh pair of sweats. I’ve been stuck at home sick for years and I could give a shit what people think.
One fucking time I went to the voting booth in my sweats, this asshole had some line issue and then said “and look at the way you’re dressed.”
He was surprised when I told him he must be a Republican (correctly), only they would be asshole enough to judge me on my clothes.
I’ve seen chicks at the grocery store in curlers, no one seemed to take offense, so I wear my sweats almost all the time, they’re comfortable.
WaterGirl
There are women who still use curlers? Seriously?
Jack
Just remember when commenting, there is NO rule six.
Just Some Fuckhead
@paradox: I think it’s rude to say something like that to someone but it’s ok to laugh at them quietly, right?
Old Dan and Little Ann
I would drape myself in velvet if it were socially acceptable.
Warren Terra
Wait, you don’t have those? Well, there goes my mental image.
Mike in NC
I heard Glenn Beck say that Obama wants to take away our rubber mallets.
stuckinred
@paradox: I switch from my sweats to my 42 year old jungle fatigues for special occasions.
burnspbesq
Can someone explain why, of all the fights he could have picked, Christie chose this one?
http://my.earthlink.net/article/ent?guid=20110317/ca404d72-2310-4764-ba18-4c08e9e01735
Left Coast Tom
I denounce semi-truck drivers who head over snowy mountain passes without chains, and jack-knife, blocking the road for 90 minutes. Then the non-jack-knifed truckers without chains driving down the pass at walking-pace – I denounce them, too. I think this is far worse than the broccoli mandate.
jl
John Cole said:
“At this point in my life, the only thing I’m really missing are a big red nose, funny shoes, and a clown car.”
If he released an authorized picture of himself, I am sure some adoring commenter could photoshop that up for Cole. If some one has not already made the offer.
If there is no offer above in the comments, then I think this blog community should be ashamed of its ingratitude towards Cole.
I would offer to do it, but I don’t know enough photoshop. But I always try to be helpful.
srv
I think everyone has missed the most important statement:
What, exactly, is this bench for? This is a strategery doomed for failure, anguish, and much blood. Like your own private Libya.
I suggest a treadmill. If you’re too lazy to bathe, get dressed or work out, you could put the dogs on it.
West of the Cascades
This blog is your clown car.
Erik Vanderhoff
How is the Bunnahabhain? I decided that all I want for my birthday is a bottle from every Islay distillery so I can figure out if there are any I like better than Laphroiag. So far, Lagavulin and Bowmore are not as much to my liking (though they’re still good!).
mclaren
Perusing a book from my library, I happened across the ultimate blog comment about John Cole:
Enzymer
So sorry to hear of yet another ridiculous attempt to hurt yourself. Don’t you do anything normal, like trip over your shoes or hit your thumb with a hammer? I’ll need start posting all the ways my sister’s father-in-law hurt himself in the 35 years since she got married… Let’s start with got bit by his horse.
Seriously.
Love your taste in post trauma medication. Love that Bunnahabain (sp??).
SIA
You’re adorable today John.
John Cole
@Ahasuerus: I like it better than Glenlivet. Think of a less peaty Laphroiag.
srv
@Enzymer: #shitjohncolehurtshimselfdoing
“I’ve just managed the unpossible. I think I broke a finger with a rubber mallet while assembling a work bench”
stuckinred
Anyone drink Tullamore Dew any more?
soonergrunt
This is why I come here. It’s like going to the state fair. I feel better about myself. I know that no matter how bad my life might get, at least I’m not that Cole guy.
Cat Lady
Fucking clowns. How do they work? Really, though, how? Who ever saw a clown and laughed at them? I’ve never met a person who has ever been entertained by a clown in a good way. Everyone everywhere hates them.
jl
All Whiskey or Whisky, or whaterver you want to call it tastes like rancid frying oil to me, and I find it disgusting. So, I prefer whatever has the coolest classiest sounding name.
I am a proud Glenlivet drinker, when forced to down that kind of miserable swill.
HyperIon
@srv wrote :
Exactly. I’m checking out workbenches myself.
So Cole, got any tips on where I can score a cheap (say, less than $300) workbench?
schrodinger's cat
@Cat Lady: I find clowns scary. I hid under the chair when my dad took me to see the circus when I was little. Clowns give nightmares.
stuckinred
@jl: Tullamore Dew is about as classy sounding as it gets.
schrodinger's cat
@HyperIon: Craigslist?
Murphoney
@John Cole: “I’m dipping my finger in the ice” led me to the thought of if you haven’t ever left a partial hand print in a blob of semi-molten solder, you can count yourself at least that lucky…
just in case that helps any.
stuckinred
Anyone ever done the rear axle bearings on a 12 bolt spicer differential?
Just Some Fuckhead
The “no poofters” post is bringing up ads for gay dating sites. Sometimes I hate this world.
joe from Lowell
@AAA Bonds:
When we do what? Invade a country without UN resolution, unilaterally, without support from our allies, for the purpose of occupying it with hundreds of thousands of ground troops,with almost the entirety of the operation carried out by American troops, and without the permission or support of any significant faction of the locals?
People who believe it is a virtue not to consider the specific circumstances of a military action before drawing a conclusion about whether it is a good idea really don’t have anything useful to contribute to a discussion of whether a particular military action is a good idea. It’s like a vegetarian telling you that you shouldn’t buy a particular cut of fillet. It really doesn’t tell you very much about that fillet.
Roger Moore
@John Cole:
Isn’t that contrary to the whole point of Laphroiag?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Cat Lady:
Agreed. I don’t find them scary, just.. potentially dangerous.
sukabi
At this rate John, it may be good you aren’t in a relationship… you might break something you don’t want to…
Cat Lady
@schrodinger’s cat:
So far, my lifetime anecdotal clown poll is 100% against. I’m comfortable stating for the record that everyone hates clowns. John Wayne Gacy – Exhibit A.
eemom
I had my issues with Olbermann, but whose the fuck idea was it to put O’Donnell in his time slot? The guy is a wannabe drama queen with absolutely zero capacity for drama.
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Isn’t it rich?
Isn’t it queer,
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.
Oops, hope I don’t get banded
Odie Hugh Manatee
Yeah, I’ve seen the picture of you in the earlier post where you’re either telling us that we’re #1 or you’re showing us the finger you smashed.
Damn, and I thought we were #1!
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred:
I don’t even know what you said. Did you try googling it?
stuckinred
@stuckinred:
Send them in
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: That was sublime they way you used a cool song to weave several of today’s themes together, topped off with a shot. We may be falling in love.
slag
@Cat Lady:
They just get elected Senator and the rest is easy.
ColleenSTL
There are many downsides of aging (maybe mostly downsides?) but one of the upsides is no longer giving a shit about …. how I look sitting out on my own fucking front porch, whether or not you agree with me, whether or not you think I run things the way you think they should be run…
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yea, there is a really good video of it but I’m a little shaky on the procedure of removing the spider gears and shims to get to the c-clips that hold the axles in. Just figured maybe some gear head was around.
Angry Black Lady
Glad you took my advice, yeaux.
Ukko
Found out today that our 6 year old Bernese Mountain Dog has pancreatic cancer that has spread basically everywhere. How do you know what to do and when? I knew this day would come but I cannot decide, I don’t want to rush her or drag things out. Whatever I think is right feels wrong.
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Too bad I quit drinking 17 years ago!
Josie
I’m really fearful that said workbench will only lead to more frustration and more injuries. Stay with the rubber mallet and don’t use anything more lethal.
Cat Lady
@Angry Black Lady:
Plz spell phonetically for us rubes. kthx.
Angry Black Lady
@Cat Lady: Don’t you mean “rouxbz”?
stuckinred
@Ukko: @Ukko:
Here is
Living With Pets With Cancer
We found it very helpful in our cocker’s 2.5 year fight with cancer. We made a decision on what we would and could do with our vets and they helped us know when it was time. Once the lymph nodes were gone so was he. Whatever you decide TRY to take it easy on yourself, they know, I know they do.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: Seriously, how’d we ever do anything before Google? I remember the old Chilton manuals because my dad was a mechanic but those things were practically greek with their tiny exploded parts views and big words.
Now, ya can just watch someone do it on Youtube.
I built an arcade machine and a jukebox, re-covered my pool table and made awesome dinners, all from teh google.
Svensker
@burnspbesq:
Why? It’s an egregious misuse of public funds and trust, and very typical of NJ. The guy is also a celebrity of sorts now, too, and probably folks are talking about his house. Christie’s right to go after him. A whole lot of those assholes in Franklin Lakes should go down.
BombIranForChrist
“Bunnahabhain” sounds like the name of a Victorian Era villain from the Far East after that Terrible Business in India, wot.
Chris Wolf
Sitting on the front porch
Chillin’ on the front porch
Partying partying
Partying partying
Looking forward to the weekend.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred:
I might quit in 17 years.
El Cid
Anyone else see this? Via Wonkette:
Freedom. Limited government.
This will definitely help Republicans solidify their base among Scrooge-Americans.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred:
There used to be an awesome gearhead on the premises, Conservatively Liberal aka Doug something or other.
Erikthe Red
Hey, I’M not gonna laugh. A rubber mallet isn’t really all that soft.
Corner Stone
Well, you’ve already got a driver for one.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Just Some Fuckhead:
DougL, lives in Oregon, smokes dope like a fiend. (I checked my Google maps database.)
Svensker
@Ukko:
No advice, but plenty of sympathy and good thoughts. Do you have a good vet?
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yea, I have the electronic copy of the Chevy Truck Shop Manual. The version I have has a proprietary viewing software called Paperport Viewer that totally sucks. I ordered the newer version that is in searchable PDF format so I hope I get it soon. I have the Chilton’s for my rice burner and chrysler van and it’s helped me do shit like electric window motors but under the hood is too much. If I take the radiator and cowl out of my 66 chevy truck I can stand inside the engine compartment!
MikeJ
@BombIranForChrist:
When I first moved to Eburgh I went in a bar and told the bartender to gimme a scotch the name of which I could not pronounce. He poured me Bunnahabhain and said *I* can’t pronounce it.
It’s not actually that hard as Scotch names go. He was probably a gap year Aussie now that I think back, so what the fuck would he know?
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Imagine what a jerk I was when I drank! (:
Just Some Fuckhead
Any way I can throw a tantrum and get m_c unbanned?
I know, I know. I’ll stop.
Anyone remember Michilines? She made m_c look like a girl scout.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred:
God bless you. I’m only that way in the morning for about 4 to 6 hours.
jl
@El Cid:
I thought your comment must be some sort of joke at first. But, from the link:
“…families on MFIP – and disabled single adults on General Assistance and Minnesota Supplemental Aid – could not have their cash grants in cash or put into a checking account. Rather, they could only use a state-issued debit card at special terminals in certain businesses that are set up to accept the card.”
Note, always follow the money: “special terminals in certain businesses”
So, now I am curious about who are the crook contractor who will setting up the special terminals, and how much payola had to go to the WI GOP for the privilege of ripping off the poor, widows, orphans and disabled people?
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: What time zone?
vtr
Am I the only one for whom single malts taste like chemicals. I love Scotch, but only blends. Especially Bell’s which is not available south of Canada.
Cat Lady
@Angry Black Lady:
I’m good with the creole, I need help with Scotch/Irish/Welsh. There’s a scene in the movie Leap Year where Amy from Boston goes to Ireland and asks the Irish bartender, whose name Oeghan is on the back of his shirt, for a beer. She says Oh-ee-gan, can I have a beer? He says “it’s Owen”. I love Scotch and bourbon, but I need a clue. How do I ask for a shot of Bunnahabhain?
sukabi
speaking of broke things… how can a several nuclear reactors that are surrounded by rubble and aren’t under control — don’t even have the capacity for electrical input at this point — and have been spewing radioactivity constantly for the past week, be considered to be on the same level as Three Mile Island? does this make sense to any of you guys?
and before someone says HuffPo… I’ve seen the same claim made several places….
stuckinred
68 fucking team and my two play at the same goddamn time!
HBuellA
@Ukko:
I am very sorry for your pain and I have been there myself twice with my pets. There is no easy answer to it.
John, if your finger is broken, you need to have it looked at by a doctor or it may heal in an awkward position.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: I’m a Ford guy.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: ET, followed by CT, followed by MT, followed by PT.
redactor
Wow, that’s awful and–wait, what? Ice in Bunnahabhain?
(Pronunciation guide, BTW, as requested upthread: BOON-a-hahv-en)
Ben Mays
Bunnahabhain is a fine drink. We also use the Balvenie for medical purpose.
Francis
After 18 months, I just GOT A JOB!
I
HAVE
A
JOB!!!
[dance of joy / dance of joy / dance of joy]
[gopher dance {from the movie Caddyshack} / gopher dance / gopher dance]
I’m alright
Nobody worry ’bout me
Why you got to gimme a fight?
Can’t you just let it be?
…
MikeJ
@Cat Lady: Prounouce it like it’s spelled.
Boo Na Ha Vin
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Here’s mine
stuckinred
@Francis: For your viewing and listening pleasure.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Francis: Congratulations on not being a luckie duckie anymore!
Calouste
@El Cid:
There wouldn’t accidentally be another law put forward by the Republicans to make it a felony to be on the street with less than $20 in your pockets (aka vagrancy law)?
Suffern ACE
@El Cid: I guess they’ll be keeping their money in their shoes, then.
As if poor people aren’t under enough pressure.
sukabi
@jl: mam, there will be a 25% surcharge every time you use your FoodStamp card….
seriously, this has been going on in some states for quite a while… I think there are regulations forbidding charging the individual households a use fee… but I think that it’s not very well enforced…
Josie
@Ukko: I’m so sorry about your dog’s illness. I know how painful that is for you. The only advice I can think of is to make sure you have a good, compassionate vet and follow their advice.
@Francis: Congratulations. Time for a celebration.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: Nice.
kdaug
Trust you have the mop close by?
noodler
Front porch! “Sitting on the front porch wearing my pajama bottoms and bathrobe” JC isnt there a HOA rule against this? Is there a couch out there?
Just Some Fuckhead
Tonight is billiards night so I’m going to drop off soon. It’s a shame the best days around here are the worst for John. I dunno but there might be a lesson in there somewhere.
Left Coast Tom
@El Cid: So if I travel to Arizona, I’m supposed to have my passport with me in case I’m pulled over for speeding (I have a US birth certificate, but I’m suspecting only the copy retained by the relevant county clerk would be acceptable, and I don’t have that for obvious reasons). If I travel to the People’s Republic of Minnesota, what document am I supposed to use to prove I’m _not_ receiving public assistance from Minnesota?
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Here she is naked.
stuckinred
@Left Coast Tom: Sno Balls!
Just Some Fuckhead
John, FYI, I read both yer posts to Mrs. Fuckhead and she laughed out loud. That’s a real coup because after twenty something years of marriage she just glares angrily at me most of the time.
MikeJ
@Just Some Fuckhead: I consider that the hours I spend with a cue in my hand are golden. Help you cultivate horse sense and a cool head and a keen eye.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: That’s great. As a rule, I don’t work on anything bigger than me because I need to be able to break it into a thousand tiny pieces when I get pissed off.
Just Some Fuckhead
@MikeJ:
We just shoot pool.
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Ol Vigginy huh? My bride is up in her home in Appo as we speak.
AhabTRuler
@Cat Lady: I don’t know, and I fear that this will only cloud the issue further.
kdaug
@stuckinred:
Got a jug in the freezer.
stuckinred
@kdaug: That dog’ll hunt. Off to live and die with the Illini!
scav
@El Cid: There’s also the little side benefit that this means the govt will be able to track their every purchase and make sure they’re not eating anything flavorful or un’mercan.
licensed to kill time
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Don’t ever change, Chingacabeza de las carcajadas.
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: Yeah, old Virginia here. My peeps founded the country so you Irish fuckers could ruin it.
ETA: I mean that in the best way possible.
srv
@joe from Lowell:
You must really love the smell of those napalmed strawmen in the morning. Obviously the useful and virtuous commit to a war with no end strategy, other than a dream of destabilizing [insert latest Hitler here] and creating a vacuum which will be filled by freedom unicorns or something. Or people who think wars can be won with no fly zones, since there’s such an extensive history of that working against dictatorships.
I suggest a new motto for you neu-neocons in this latest Pottery Barn adventure: “If we break it, we will just run away!”
Dems with the morals of two year olds.
schrodinger's cat
@Just Some Fuckhead: I thought it was the people in Massachusetts.
soonergrunt
@Francis: I am so very happy for you. Very few things do a person’s pride and sense of self-worth good like having somebody else value your work product enough to give you money for it.
The Gopher Dance
Ukko
Thanks for the link I will look into that. I have a wonderful vet, both if our dogs have had some little cornice thins that bring us into the office every couple of months and they love our dogs. I know everyone says that but they were obviously devastated by the diagnosis.
We noticed that she was jaundiced, and that is what brought us in. She I don’t think she even has a couple weeks. I have sat beside my dying relatives one several occasions, this is harder since I have to be in control. She is being very stoic and not giving me any hints.
schrodinger's cat
@Francis: Congratulations!!!
Mark S.
Hey, the moon does look pretty big tonight.
MikeJ
@Mark S.: And still NBC’s story on the supermoon was, “some people say it’s the end of the world, some people say it’s not. What do we know? Everybody has an opinion!”
Jesus fuck I hate our media.
Fourlegsgood
I’m sure u look dashing
Fourlegsgood
@mark s
My god!! It’s full of stars!!!
Cat Lady
@AhabTRuler:
I was only able to make it through half of that until I found it deeply disturbing, and I’ve added it to my anecdotal “everyone hates clowns” as Exhibit B. 2093 people liked it, and 145 people disliked it. Do 145 people like and enjoy clowns, and found that disrespectful to clowns? Or do 2093 people like and enjoy clowns and are happy to see that video extolling the sick twisted scary virtues of clowns? This is one of those questions that humanity, parents of young children, Barnum and Bailey and McDonalds will wrestle with for eternity.
Warren Terra
Appropriately enough, today is apparently Red Nose Day in Britain:
asiangrrlMN
Oh, Cole. I do so worry about you. Your ability to hurt yourself in weird ways far surpasses my own. And, that’s saying a lot.
@Cat Lady: I. Hate. Clowns. They are creepy and skeery.
And, my take on the Republicans wanting the IRS to get up all in wimminz’ uteri.
Dennis SGMM
@stuckinred:
When I want to shake people up I wear my forty year old Mekong Delta tiger stripes. Works every time.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Just Some Fuckhead:
And I’m not awesome. Just moderately neat. :)
@stuckinred:
Pulling the C-clips is a breeze. With the differential securely on jack stands and wheels off of car, place a drain pan under the ‘pumpkin’ (center section), remove all bolts except for the top two (just loosen those two a few turns), gently pry the inspection cover from the case using a big regular-blade screwdriver. Start prying at the bottom and work your way around the case to break the cover free. Don’t try to pry it off at one location because you will distort the cover gasket area. Be careful not to scratch the gasket area either (pretty hard to do but still be aware).
Once the differential has drained, remove the top two bolts and pull the cover. Get a small clean rag and wipe the remaining oil out of the bottom of the housing, taking care to avoid slicing your well-oiled hands on the sharp edges in there. With the transmission in neutral (auto and manual), turn the driveline while watching the center of the gear housing. You will see the pin going through the carrier that retains the spider gears and on one end of the pin you will see a bolt that holds the pin in place. Remove that bolt and you can pull the large pin out, push the axles in (one at a time), remove the C-clips and remove the axles. Assembly is the reverse, making sure to clean the pin retaining bolt (threads) and the threads for it in the carrier and then using Loctite Red threadlocker when you assemble it.
Cautions:
Once you remove the pin retaining bolt, the pin may slide right out so be ready to catch it if it does!
The spider gears and shims will stay in place as long as you don’t rotate the side gears (that the spider gears engage) or the carrier/driveline. If you need to rotate the carrier while the pin is out, make sure to turn everything as one unit. If the axles are in, they will impart a drag to the side gears if you move the carrier by turning the driveline, which would make the spider gears shift out of alignment with the holes for the large pin.
If the spider gears get out of alignment with the pin holes, just carefully rotate a side gear in the direction you need to realign the spider gears/holes.
While the pin is out, be sure to inspect it for scoring or wear in the areas that the spider gears ride. If needed, replace it as it’s a cheap part (usually less than $25.00).
If, by chance, the spider gears fall out, don’t panic! Just keep each gear and its shim together (easy to do because of the suction from the gear oil) and put them back in place. The trick to replacing them is to put one in place and turn it inward a bit to hold it, then put the other one in place so that it’s 180 degrees from the other. Then you rotate the whole gear assembly to align the spider gears and pin holes.
It may sound complicated but it’s really pretty easy to do as long as you pay attention to the details. I have done numerous diffs and rarely ever move the gears out of place. Just remember to pay attention to the carrier and side gear drag if you need to rotate it with the pin out. Generally, if the axles are out then you can move the carrier without displacing the spider gears. It’s when the axles are in and you are trying to put the C-clips back in when the spider gear hassles start.
Good luck and if you have any questions, if I’m around I’ll be glad to help.
MikeJ
@Dennis SGMM: I go by the VFW hall wearing my black pyjamas, sneakers, and coolie hat.
Jay C
@burnspbesq:
Dunno: gotta be some sort of “Jersey thing”. I mean, it’s Chris Christie: he’s going to pick fights for whatever reason: this is as good as any…
Dennis SGMM
Sky note: tomorrow night will be a “Super Full Moon.” The moon will be closer to the earth than it has been in eighteen years. The practical effect is that the rising moon will look around twelve percent bigger than it usually does. For the full effect, take a walk just after sunset when the moon is rising.
Suffern ACE
Clowns are ok, but I prefer buffoons.
Corner Stone
It may be just me, but I own neither a bathrobe, nor any pajama bottoms.
Suffern ACE
@MikeJ: Clowns OK, buffoons better, news anchors…blow me.
Ruckus
@stuckinred:
Not in a while but it is good stuff.
Dennis SGMM
@MikeJ:
If you aren’t wearing your Dunlop sandalss I won’t fall for it. (Link to Tom Paxton’s estimable “Vietnam Talking Potluck Blues”)
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Thanks! I’m building up to doing it myself, I’ve put 2 3 speeds in it so I think I can do this.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason (formerly frosty)
@Ukko: Regarding your dog with cancer: We put our German Shepherd down when we got the diagnosis, but that was after a couple of weeks of her being obviously ill and finally having internal bleeding that didn’t go away with treatment. It took a few vet visits to get the diagnosis of liver cancer that had spread everywhere. In some ways it was a relief to know.
It’s a very tough decision. For the three dogs that we’ve outlived, I’d say there was only a two or three week range between the earliest and latest date to let them go. The vet would have gone early, we hung on late.
sukabi
@MikeJ: last night on my email front page there were “Fact or Faked” stories… and an intrepid team that was going to set the record straight… on the menu … The Moon Landing … Bigfoot ….and a couple other things… I swear they’re hoping we’ll either die from stupidity or kill ourselves trying to escape it.
Dennis SGMM
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I wrenched my way through college. Brilliant walkthrough!
Cat Lady
@Corner Stone:
Do you wear a clown face? That would explain a lot.
asiangrrlMN
@Ukko: I don’t have any advice for you–just sympathy in this difficult time.
MikeJ
@sukabi: As long as they unambiguously came up with the right answer, I don’t mind them “asking” the question. But they have to actually give an answer and not pretend that everybody’s opinion is worthwhile.
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I guess I should ask you about my diagnosis. I get very intermittent whining. I jacked up both wheels and ran it and got the whine in the rear driver side. I’m assuming wheel bearing. I’ve owned it for 25 years so I know it’s been at least that long. The rear end oil appears very clean and no leaks from the seals. I’m reading some about “repair bearings” that seem to have the oil seals built in but they have a bad rep.
stuckinred
@asiangrrlMN: hi, illini killing unlv right now!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred:
Now that I don’t do it for a living I enjoy cranking on the wrenches. The only thing I take our cars to the shop for are tires, everything else I do (yes, even the alignments). It saves a bundle of money for repairs and it keeps the hands/mind busy. I’m currently pulling the top end off of my motorcycle (leaky gasket) and designing an alternate electronic ignition system for it using common off-the-shelf parts (Mopar pickups, GM HEI modules) to replace the unobtanium parts they have on them now. I did the same for the charging system (Bosch regulator adapter) and anything I can do to ease on the road repairs is a big plus!
@Dennis SGMM:
Thanks! I’m a detail oriented person so I remember the little things that need to be paid attention to. Putting it all together in a way that is useful is a real challenge. The old ‘I know what I mean, why don’t they understand that!’ …lol! Taking stuff apart is usually the easy part, it’s the details and reassembly that will kill your repair job.
Sometimes having a lot to say is good, especially if you can put it together in a way someone can clearly understand you! :)
Davis X. Machina
@jl: Not necessarily a separate system. Most states, even this small and stingy one, have their benefits loaded on swipe cards — although Arizona is making theirs blaze orange, so you can see who the leeches are. They go right through the same scanner debit and credit cards use. Three choices — Credit, Debit, EBT, come up on all of them.
Conservatives used to love this, because in the computer the system can prevent the EBT balance from being used for certain categories of stuff, based on their SKU’s.
Clients liked it better than vouchers, or food stamps, because it looked like they were paying the same way as everyone else.
John
Did you know that the tweets that are published in conjunction with your blog posting are doubled up?
Just thought you’d like to know.
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I have a new 4 bolt main 350 in my truck but I left the points/distributor in it. I keep looking at those petronix jobs but haven’t pulled the trigger.
asiangrrlMN
@stuckinred: Yeah? I bet you’re happy. I’m watching the beginning of Wash/GA.
stuckinred
@Dennis SGMM: Wasn’t it!
stuckinred
@asiangrrlMN: With the way Illinois has played this year I will not relax until it is over. UCLA had a 23 point lead on MSU last night and barely won. I have the pucker factor.
kdaug
@MikeJ:
Roger that, chief. Play league on Tuesdays. And it is not (entirely) just an excuse to go out to drink.
slightly_peeved
@srv:
Well considering how many countries have done this for the US in recent years, it might be nice if the US was actually willing to help out their allies for a change.
The dialog in America on both the right and left regarding the action in Libya is incredibly patronizing. The argument seems to be whether the US should instigate an aggressive intervention in Libya, or offer no assistance – the idea that they could assist in an action run by another country, in the way that many other countries have assisted the US, is unthinkable.
(Edited to tone down the hyperbole a bit)
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Ukko: I’m so very sorry. You just know. A good veterinary practice can guide you as well, since they will be familiar with assorted signals. It’s never easy.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred:
Odds are you have nailed down your problem if the bearings haven’t been touched in the time you’ve owned the car. As far as the bearings go, only use Timken bearings. You want OEM level quality or better and Timken will give you that in a solid product. Regarding the seals, any good seal (eg: National, KOK, etc.) will do, just be sure put a thin layer of Permatex aviation sealer (or silicone in a pinch) around the outside of the seal prior to inserting it into the housing, and to be sure to oil the seal lip prior to inserting the axle.
When driving the bearings in, be sure to drive it on the outer race the bearings are mounted in (to seat the bearing in the housing) and to not scratch the housing where the bearing seats while inserting it.
ETA: Be aware of the spring on the back side of the seal lip! When inserting the axle, make sure to keep the weight of the shaft off of the seal so you don’t distort it and dislodge the seal spring. Things get really messy, really fast, when this happens!
jenn
@Ukko:
I’m so sorry. I have no good advice. I do have to say, though, that before my old girl died last year, I was always skeptical of the folks who said, “when it’s time, you’ll know it,” but man, when it was time, I knew it. Best wishes to you all, and scritches behind the ear for your pup.
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Here’s the video, the way he rotated to get spider gear 2 out made me nervous. I guess I don’t really need to yank those gears, just push the axles in and drop the c-clips.
cbear
@Cat Lady:
I was ok with them until that John Wayne Gacy guy came along. That kind of put me off my feed.
Of course, these days he’d barely make a ripple in the Gooper gene pool. (and he was a Republican)
scav
For anybody needing a smidgen of good news, they found a survivor in Japan. Young guy (20s) named Katsuharu Moriya, stable, shocky and can’t or couldn’t talk.
Oh, and for Whovians, it’s Red Nose day (yes!) in the UK and there’s a 2-parter Steven Moffat episode up on YouTube.
asiangrrlMN
@stuckinred: I hear ya. There have been some up and down games in the first few rounds.
@scav: I briefly smiled when I saw that news. I’ll take it.
Calouste
@slightly_peeved:
__
Egocentrism is the defining trait of America, both on a personal and a national level.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred:
I’m still kinda old-schooling it on my Mustang with a Ford dual point distributor (centrifugal advance only, no vac) tied into a MSD 6T box with the adjustable rev limiter and dash mounted timing control. The Pertronix kits are good for the money and easy to install. The only thing I don’t care for is that they are hard to find parts for if you are on a road trip and the module toasts. Other than that it’s an excellent ignition unit for replacing points (Ignitor) and the Ignitor II is even better (performance-wise).
I run the points still because if the MSD unit on the car fails (and it has, once) I can flip three switches and I’m back to running the dual points, ballast resistor and coil setup. It saved my bacon once and I’m sticking with it!
That and if The Big One ever gets dropped, my car will be one of the survivors in the Mad Max post-apocalyptic world!
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: my decision was not that educated! I left the 2 barrel on for mileage and was then told a quad was better if I kept my foot out of it.
Svensker
@Corner Stone:
Really long T-shirts, me hopes.
Suffern ACE
@slightly_peeved: So the pacifists, anti-imperialists, and isolationists need to just sit on their hands (again) and calm down (again) while others promote policies that go against their principals because noted humanitarians Sarkozy and Cameron want to lead the intervention this time? Because it will be easier to win this time so the humanitarian effort is worth it?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred:
Yeah, there’s no need to drop the gears unless you suspect they need replaced. The carrier side and spider gear installation is the easiest thing you can do on that differential. It’s pretty hard to mess it up since there are no adjustments necessary when replacing the axle seals & bearings and the oil was clean when drained; just pop the side gears and shims in, pop the spider gears and shims in, slide the pin in place, Loctite the bolt and crank it down.
dlnelson
I have not had time to read comments, but I love a funny guy, you are the best. Have a great night.
Anne Laurie
@Cat Lady: In the Discworld (Terry Prachett), the purpose of clowns is to make everybody else feel better about their lives — you may be starving & ground down by the system, but at least you aren’t reduced to letting people hit you over the head with a
rubber malletpig bladder or pour custard down your pants.As for The Grand Gaelic Tongue, sercon lit’ry critic person Hugh Kenner has an essay about how “Olaf the Dane” ended up being called “Hamlet”. It involves monks with bad handwriting, a trip from Dublin to Lancashire by way of Britanny, and the fact that the Gaelic spells “Olaf” as “Aoilaibh”…
However, if you liked Leap Year, may I recommend The Matchmaker as a much better movie, especially for us Massholes?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred:
If you can, get a spreadbore 4 bbl intake and bolt a Carter ThermoQuad to it. If you ever go that route, let me know as I’m an old hand with Carters and the TQ small primary, large secondary spreadbore pattern and venturi design is excellent for good mileage. The Rochester QuadraToilets are fair carbs but they need mods to make them almost as good as a TQ.
I have run a Holley 750, Carter 625 AFB, Carter 600 AVS and a ThermoQuad 800 on my built 351 Windsor and have got the best performance and mileage with the TQ. I finally settled on the TQ because of all of the repair and calibration work I have done on them in the past. Damn near everything on that carb is easily adjustable and the phenolic center body keeps your fuel cooler on hot days while idling.
Good carb and I hear that Edelbrock is bringing it back into production like they have the AFB and AVS carbs.
Corner Stone
@Svensker: Nuh-uh.
El Cid
@Suffern ACE:
We’ll make sure to have a lot more of those terahertz scanners and x-ray backscatter scanners from airports but for the poor to be herded through.
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: roger
soonergrunt
@slightly_peeved: It’s our experience with Bosnia and Kosovo as the most obvious, where the Europeans desperately wanted to do something about the security issue right on their doorstep but wouldn’t go unless they could hide behind the US.
Somalia was more of the same, only most of those complaining that “somebody should do something” were looking at us and had no intention of doing anything themselves. That should’ve been the clue.
So don’t give us the crap about the US should be willing to help out their allies for a change.
For the entirety of my career, it has been a series of incidents of our so-called allies declaring that somebody had to do something, and if the US showed the slightest reticence, a whole bunch of shit about “the US abdicating it’s global leadership role” and so on and so on and on and on and on.
This is what our so-called allies do. They want something done, then they want us to do it for them. Sure, they’ll commit forces. It won’t be enough forces to make a difference one way or another, operating under restrictions so tight as to make their presence totally irrelevant, and those forces will have be logistically supported by us (at our expense) but hey, thanks for the infantry platoon that can’t even protect themselves because their neither trained nor equipped to do so in an area that NATO doctrine demands a battalion. Then if there’s a problem, our ‘allies’ sitting around and telling each other and us that it’s entirely because of the way we do things.
Having been stationed in two European countries, and worked extensively at the battalion and brigade level with forces from NATO, and having paid pretty close attention to European press over the years, I can tell you that the main reason that Europe values NATO seems to be to keep a significant portion of US military forces in Europe where they can be used to defend European countries’ interests, when those self-same countries will not expend the resources to defend their interests themselves, and to have a say in how those US forces, that are raised, trained, equipped, and maintained by the US taxpayer are used, often to the point of thinking they should have a veto over American use of the American military.
Fuck that. It’s Europeans who want this. Do for yourselves for once, and see just how hard it is.
El Cid
Robert Fisk notes a number of possible developments of military intervention into the Libyan civil war. (He’s the only one I’ve seen pointing out the Senoussi role in leading the armed opposition.)
It’s additionally interesting, because I just don’t see much of this. Discussion is typically about whether or not you support doing something and the moral correctness of doing so and so forth.
sfinny
So the good news is Yay! to Francis on the new job. Congratulations!
The bad news is a sad circumstance for Ukko. I am so sorry about your beloved dog.
And something about the whole comment situation pissed off John? Think I will avoid looking back and remain a lurker/occasional dipper.
Punchy
John, find yourself a woman. Then maybe you can picture HER in PJ bottoms, bathrobe, and three fingers deep…..uh…nevermind.
stuckinred
Oskeewow!
Cat Lady
@Anne Laurie:
I saw The Matchmakers years ago and have forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Love Milo O’Shea. You know what’s my favorite Irish Boston movie? The Verdict. Milo O’Shea as the bought and paid for judge, who wants nothing more than to stay bought, but alas. The Brahmin law firm with James Mason and his army of yuppies, and drunk ambulance chaser Frank Galvin going to Irish wakes for business. That last scene with the phone ringing. Paul Newman FTMFW, RIP.
Steeplejack
Cole:
Great, you have become old man McNabb, the archetypical (but never seen) “Get off my lawn” cranky neighbor on All in the Family. Occasionally one of the main characters would mention “old man McNabb” or tell some story about him. The one I remember is when he fell asleep smoking in his La-Z-Boy and set it on fire. He dragged it out into the yard, but his dog, equally old and crazy–and probably a beagle–dragged it back into the house.
I could see Rosie doing this.
FlipYrWhig
@stuckinred:
You’ve come to the right place.
Oh, automotive…
Nevermind.
Davis X. Machina
@Cat Lady: I loved The Verdict. They took loving care of some details — Frank has a B.C. class ring — and others were laughable. I watched it in Atlanta and started giggling when they tried to tell me that G Street in Southie — there’s no mistaking that hill — was in Arlington…
stuckinred
@FlipYrWhig: Nice!
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Hiya. How you be?
sfinny
Intermittent whining made me think of several people I work with. Then I also realized it was a car thing.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
OMFG. That’s you?? Asshole! We’re going to have to work through this one.
stuckinred
@Just Some Fuckhead: Dude knows his shit, zactly the bump I needed to jump on it myself!
NineJean
@Left Coast Tom:
So, did you get stuck on Siskiyou, or was it Snoqualmie? But doncha know, the highways are built
& paid forby the trucking companies, because those highways are soooo essential for their business….Oh, and BTW, I’m happy to denounce broccoli. Brussels sprouts are just so much more tastier! [or something…]
Just Some Fuckhead
@stuckinred: I know my commenters.
Just Some Fuckhead
Except the ones I didn’t know I knew.
Just Some Fuckhead
But technically I knew them, I just didn’t know I knew them.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Hey! Just got ome from work a little while ago. Decompressing and trying to catch up with the threads. Lotta stuff going down today. Heh. How you doin’? How’s the campaign?
stuckinred
@NineJean: I went to the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter than Air Fair in Sultan in 68!
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
When and why, exactly, did M_C get banned? I thought I had been keeping up with the threads, but I missed it. I’m sorry to see her gone. I didn’t think she was that bad.
ETA: Holy shnikeys! Is it possible that using M_C’s real name gets your comment sent down the oblivion hole? Seems like that happened to my first version of this comment.
Cat Lady
@Davis X. Machina:
Yeah, like the scene in Good Will Hunting where Will rides the Red Line to work in the morning all alone. Yeah. No. But, it’s balanced by the scene in the MIT physical plant when the supervisor says to insufferable prick Prof. Lambeau “which building is your building”. That guy is my kind of
union thugguy. Props to Ben and Matt for the real working class touches in that movie.WallyWorldWarrior
Hey,
Two posts in one day from me. I prefer to lurk and just soak the ideas shared by this blog and other places into my head, where I can think about them for awhile before commenting from my gut instinct. I find my instinct is rarely wrong, but does seem to take out bridges that might have to be crossed in the future.
However, I can’t let the support from other commentators from the Krugman morning thread go by without a thank you. It helps. My thoughts are with everyone who also find themselves underemployed/unemployed. May we all find jobs that are worthy of us soon.
It’s been a long day at work and home pulling double duty for an elderly parent. My second customer of the day screamed at me because the card scanner at my register ‘ate” his debit card and ruined it. My fourth customer of the day tried to use a “fake” gift card. She scanned it twice and asked me to scan it twice, which I did(Yes, Wal-Mart believes the customer is always right, even when they are trying to steal items), when I handed it back to her, and very politely asked would she like to choose a different method of payment, she threw the card at my face, and then the money down on my conveyor belt.
I did get this sweet little almost three year old boy at my register. He was buying a toy train roundhouse because he hadn’t had any timeouts for whole week. We carefully put the roundhouse toy in a big bag together, and discussed why Percy was so nice, and James so cranky,(for the record James just needs some more sleep and a good “poopie” and then he would be better, according to all the grandmas in the world) and how much hard work being good all the time is for almost three year old boys.
So, thank you again. Rest well everyone.
Steeplejack
@Francis:
Congratulations! Now don’t fuck it up.
Little Boots
John, would you please stop hurting yourself? please.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Steeplejack:
No idea, Steep. I’m the last to find out anything around here. Hell, I’ll prolly be the last to find out I’m banned. :)
Go read the Something Has To Give and Lighten Up Francis threads in their entirety. Wash your eyes out with soap when yer done.
It’s been an interesting day.
stuckinred
time to supinate
Little Boots
someone got banned? ruhroh.
Little Boots
well this thread died in a hurry. it was just getting juicy.
jnfr
@Ukko:
I am so sorry to hear that. It’s very hard to know when to let them go, and both a curse and a blessing that we do so.
My advice (cat person hear, and have seen several pass over the years): if you have a picture of them in their prime, take at least a look at it. It’s easy to miss the decline over time when you want so much to keep them. But if you recall them in prime health, it helps you to measure how far it’s gone.
Hang in there.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: I’m watching some hoops. The campaign goes slowly, but inexorably. Kinda like the tides. Figging tides! How do they work?
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Well, as the esteemed former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, there are known unknowns and unknown unknowns. Something like that, anyway.
gnomedad
@scav:
OMG, thanks, those rocked! As a public service:
Space
Time
jnfr
@WallyWorldWarrior:
And good to hear from you again.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
I wouldn’t have pegged you as a hoopster girl. I thought you were football all the way.
Where’s Yutsy tonight?
dww44
@WaterGirl: Yep, they are. Not that I am any gauge, but I’ve noticed them being used with greater frequency in hair salons. Mostly the really really big ones.
Suffern ACE
@dww44: The curlers, salons or the women? Which are really really big?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Whoops, I messed up! I’m really moderately neato, my mistake.
@stuckinred:
Glad to have been a source of inspiration for you. It’s grimy work but there’s something about working with my hands that I really enjoy. Some people just don’t understand wanting to get grimy, filthy and risk bodily injury and then call it fun. It’s like working on a crossword puzzle that has an outcome that really matters. The technical specifics of various electrical and mechanical systems, and their interactions, are interesting to delve into. Not just the ‘how’ something works or is assembled but also the ‘why’ of it. Why it was designed the way it was, its design deficiencies, the historical development in addressing those deficiencies and the like. My specialty has been troubleshooting systems, not only finding what failed but why it failed and what can be done to prevent future failures.
Too many people focus on finding a problem and fixing it, possibly ignoring something else that may lead to an early failure of the repair. In the case of your axle bearings, you state that the gear oil is clean, which means that it’s more than likely that your carrier and pinion bearings are in good shape. The only wear parts you need to pay attention to are the ring and pinion gear faces (tooth engagement deep & centered), the surfaces where the spider gears ride and the bearing/seal surfaces of the axle shafts. If those pass inspection then the axle bearing job is going to be a breeze.
And yes, I’m one of those people who enjoys reading engineering notes and technical manuals…lol!
redshirt
Hey Cat Lady – check out my blog,here. I somehow stumbled across an autographed photo of JWG in full clown get up. The very definition of scary clown.
Were clowns ever fun? Or, as I suspect, the concept of clowns has been terrorizing people for hundreds of years, yet we all pretend this is not so. Why? Who knows? No one knows how they work.l
dww44
@Suffern ACE: The salons I frequent aren’t situated inside WalMart. The curlers are really big ones. No ‘little-old-lady getting-a-permanent” sized ones observed.
Fuzz
@Ukko:
I’m sorry to hear that, we had a Bichon named Ben die of cancer back in 2007. Like others I have no good advice but I do know how you feel.
:O(
Cat Lady
@redshirt:
Jeebus gawd. OK, I’m going to sleep on the couch with the lights on tonight. What Would Pedophile Jesus Do? In what scary corner of the intertubes did you find these abominations? I rest my case that there are no good clowns, anywhere.
Love your blog, BTW.
DFer
Who stands for the working class?
In New York City, nobody, not even the working class.
Mnemosyne
@Ukko:
When our cat Natasha was dying of cancer, our vet had some great advice: as long as she still had decent quality of life (she was eating, drinking, peeing and pooping), then there was no need to put her to sleep. It would be when she stopped wanting to be around us that it would be time to euthanize her.
Of course, Tashi was a tough little girl. The night before she died, I was petting her when she heard Boris (the other cat) eating in the other room and she got up to chase him away from the dish so she could eat. She fought so hard right up to the very end that we didn’t want to cut things short.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack:
Banererated. Well not really. Just catching up on epic threads and about to go make and consume a quesadilla.
@asiangrrlMN: Tide goes in, tide goes out. Tide goes in, tide goes out.
Hi hon. I get stuck in a tube on Sunday.
Warren Terra
@gnomedad:
Thanks for the links. Hilarious, very Moffatt/Smith/Gillan.
RossInDetroit
This is the only good clown I ever knew. Bawdy and fearless.
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
“Banererated”? WTF?!
ETA: Just got caught up on today’s blog rules / banning / “you’re a dick” “no, you are” threads. There’s an hour of my life I’d like back.
Can’t we all just get along?
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: I’m back. I like college hoops. NBA, not so much these days. I like football and baseball, too. I was going to say I think Yutsy is avoiding me, but there he be!
@Yutsano: THERE YA BE! Sorry about the tube on Sunday. Is this a diagnostic thing or a fix the hip thing?
@Steeplejack: He’s joking–methinks.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
FYWP! Screwed up my edit.
Can’t we all just get along?
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
I just want to know what the word means.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: It means to be banned–ooooooh, Sade…..BRB
P.S. I’m trying to shift my sleep schedule so I’m in bed by 1 a.m. Central whatever Time. That’s why I haven’t been holding down the late-shift so much.
RossInDetroit
Missed most of the hysterics over blog comments, so apologies if someone’s already noted that DC Comics has closed all commenting after a flame war over whether Flash or Superman is faster.
asiangrrlMN
And, I think we really need this song tonight. Moar
cowbellsgo-go dancers!@RossInDetroit: OK. That was funny. (Superman).
kdaug
@soonergrunt: Wasn’t there something in the founding documents about a standing army? Something like “thou shalt not”? Maybe Jefferson?
scav
@RossInDetroit: I don’t know, how much of it was actual hysterics and how much of it was just snarky arm-waving and venting after a generally shitty week plus?
Martin
@El Cid: Interesting writeup.
There seem to be two assumptions that the coalition is banking on:
1) Loyalties to Gaddafi outside of his family and innermost circle are quite weak, and almost no other nations or ethnic groups are loyal to Gaddafi. His power is derived almost completely from fear. They’re banking that if they can take some of that fear of retribution from Gaddafi away, and combine it with some ‘you should worry more about the Tomahawks than Gaddafi’, that his support will weaken at least enough that the rebels will be able to overpower him.
2) In order for that to happen, this isn’t an endeavor to merely protect civilians. I think France, at a minimum, is fully prepared to serve as the air force for the rebels clearing a path for them to take Tripoli.
There’s no question that ‘cease fire’ isn’t the UN goal. The goal is to remove Gaddafi. Will we look the other way if tribal justice appears in the endgame – we sure will.
What drives me so crazy about Sully and the others saying ‘Why Libya, why not XXX’ is that they all seem to weigh moral, and only moral factors – as though achieving a positive outcome in Libya is precisely no harder or easier than doing the same in China or Haiti. Every scenario is different, and there are some things you can do externally and some you cannot, and even those things you can do, cannot always be done easily. I suspect the international community would love to aim for the same outcome in Bahrain, but that (effectively) means airstrikes against Saudi Arabia, and even if we did manage it, the population of Bahrain is so small, that the only way to preserve democracy there is a permanent occupation to hold off Saudi Arabia. And even that overlooks the very obvious fact that Saudi Arabia responds to diplomacy whereas Gaddafi effectively does not.
Morally, we likely have the same attitude, but one scenario has a likelihood of success and the other does not. And that’s the bottom line of pretty much every endeavor.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m down with that. Been trying to get more (and better) sleep myself.
Had a question for you, based on a NYT article I saw today. Do you find that tai chi has an effect on your depression?
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Yes. Without a doubt. However, caveat–I’ve been doing it for nearly three years, and it took roughly a year before it kicked in. Now, I do some student-teaching in class, and that does wonders for my confidence. I know you’ve done it before. I would urge you to do it again.
ETA: I’m going to bed now. Good night, Juicers.
RossInDetroit
@scav:
I meant in the sense of being amusing. I take very little on this blog very seriously. I mean, come on…
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Okay, you have officially passed me as the promoter of record for this song/video.
Good to know that if I get hit by a meteorite tomorrow my legacy will live on.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Good night.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Both. New ortho wants a better look at what’s going on in there and to figure out the best approach for it. No big deal, it’ll get me out and motivated to do shtuff on Sunday.
Lexie is relentlessly attacking my shoe. It must have sinned against her in some way.
scav
@RossInDetroit: well, yeah, but people keep surprising me. I’m entirely agnostic as to the relative airspeed velocity of superheros and swallows.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Okay, that trip to YouTube inevitably took me down the Floyd hole.. I ended up on Brasil ’66, “Chove Chuva (Constant Rain).” That could be it for me for the night. Sweet bossa nova.
slightly_peeved
@soonergrunt:
The UK committed significant resources to both Afghanistan and Iraq. The leaders of the UK paid a significant political price for this support, and one of the arguments advanced in favour of supporting the US was the maintenance of the relationship between the countries.
According to the BBC, British Typhoon and Tornados are being readied in case operations over Libya begin. From all reports, they’re doing exactly what you ask – and they’ve been doing that, to their own cost at times, for the last decade.
If this were 1999, post-Kosovo, I’d agree with you. I don’t think it holds water when applied to the UK, post-Iraq.
Steeplejack
@Martin:
Good points. Nuance, we do not do it
so well.Mark S.
@Martin:
Exactly.
I also liked this part from the article Cid linked to:
I guess it’s too risky to intervene in a country where it takes longer than a day to take out their air defense systems.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Steeplejack:
You are being hurtful, Steep, and not fostering a positive environment for emotional development. While not technically against the rules, it can certainly be argued that it violates the spirit of the first tenet of of law as laid down by HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS.
Ultimately, Steep, you have become everything that you once abhorred.
Yutsano
@Just Some Fuckhead: Meh, you’ll get over it. And if not I reserve the right to call you delicate wallflower for all eternity.
slightly_peeved
And sorry to double post, but I’m not saying the US should escalate their committment to any Libyan operations. I think there’s a strong argument for the US taking a back seat, assisting but rejecting calls to lead the operation. But very few people are making that argument in the US – it’s either run things or not be involved. If you want Europe to not ask the US to run things, insisting on running things every time the US is involved is not going to help.
Suffern ACE
@Mark S.: To be fair, he was responding to a question about how effective calling an airstrike would be now when the rebellion appears to be collapsing. The risk is for the rebellion. This was after Col Q said that he would crush it in 48 hours.
The idea that there is this super duper delta force that can unpack “generic overthrow of government type one” from a box in hours is one of those myths that the public has.
slightly_peeved
@Suffern ACE:
Since when have American Isolationists sat down and shut up? It seems American Isolationists get a pretty good hearing whenever it’s not the US proposing the military action. I remember hearing the isolationists having a good go at Clinton over Yugoslavia. And that’s sticking to recent history.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
That applies to so many of the arguments that erupt here, doesn’t it? The practicals vs. the windmill-tilters.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: Don Quixote is not an instruction manual. Then again neither is 1984 or The Handmaid’s Tale.
cbear
@Just Some Fuckhead: I’ve been off the grid since last nite and want to be sure I understand the new rulz.
For instance, if I call someone a “twat” but write it with an English accent–do I get banned for being sexist???
I’m so confused.
cbear +10
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Nooooo! [Homer Simpson shakes fist in crane shot]
bago
@Just Some Fuckhead: So there’s the known knowns…
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
I keep meaning to read Don Quixote, especially if I can find some good Sparknotes or something to help me along. From all accounts, the Don Quixote of popular culture does not bear much of a resemblance to Cervates’ Don.
Martin
@Mark S.:
@Suffern ACE:
It appears that in a move of desperation on our part, we gave the impression that we could strike within hours, if only to force Gaddafi’s forces to prepare for that rather than continue their movement. No doubt those tank drivers know what will become of them once the planes arrive overhead. We’re really fucking good at killing tanks. They need to think that it’ll come at any moment if we hope for them to back off.
But yeah, these things take time to plan – and the more multinational the effort, the more time is needed. But if they’re going to do something, they need to step it up. Gaddafi is trusting that once they get into the cities, that our ability to help will be greatly diminished, and they’re pretty close to accomplishing that.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: It’s a good book actually. It caused a massive sensation when it was first published for it disrespectful tone of the noble class. The translations sometimes suffer though.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Edith Grossman did a translation a few years ago that scraped a lot of barnacles off the hull. Highly recommended. I’d go with that or Burton Raffel’s translation from about 10 years ago. There’s a pretty good comparison of the two in the Amazon comments for the former.
The pop-culture image of Quixote is not so much wrong as just incredibly trivial and one-dimensional.
(Sorry to geek out: literary translation and the issues thereof are a pet subject of mine. Even though I majored in the universally reviled subject of journalism in college, I sort of minored in Spanish, which culminated in a whole semester class devoted solely to Don Quixote. Ecstasy.)
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: I know there are some absolutely atrocious translations of Cyrano de Bergerac in existence. Though amazingly enough there are a couple decent English ones of Genji Monotagari.
EDIT: FYWP.
scav
@Yutsano: Which Genji is your favorite? I’ve got three but I usually bounce between the Tyler and the Waley but, as I’ve no Japanese at all, have exactly no basis upon which to really judge.
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
This reminds me that I need to run down the great essay on translation that some guy wrote as an introduction to an edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy. (Can’t remember his name, but I can picture the cover of the book. Think it was a Penguin edition.) He went from the specific problems of Dante (every other word in Italian rhymes–English, not so much) to the more universal issue of trying to do a translation that walks the tightrope between “technically correct” and “capturing the spirit of the original.”
I am not a translator, but in the last 10 years we have seen some really good revisions of classics, e.g., Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s translations of the Russians, various revisions/retranslations of Proust, Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf. It’s all good.
Yutsano
@scav: I had to remind myself who was the translator as this was in college, but it was Waley. He gets the actual gossipy tone of the courtly ladies down well even if it’s not direct. I might have to check out that Tyler translation though. Boku wa nihongo o hanashiemasu kedo, Genji Monotagari nihongo ni yomanai. It’s kind of like reading The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English. A few things look familiar but it still seems inpenetrable.
scav
@Yutsano: Sometimes the impenetrability only enhanced my immersion in the book. It was like being in a foggy landscape and then there’d be a movement of wind, a thinning of the clouds, and I’d suddenly recognize what was there for just long enough to situate myself.
Yutsano
@scav: I admit part of my attraction to Japan was that Genji Monotagari seemed so…familiar. Like I had lived exactly like that though I have never been near Japan ever in my life. Part of that is the genius of Lady Murasaki (that surname is considered sacred in Japan) and also the credit of good translation.
Martin
@Steeplejack: In college I had to translate a chapter of The Iliad. Initially I looked forward to it – I knew the story well and Greek was starting to get less difficult, but a few days into it I started to dread the assignment. Even knowing the story and having permission to look at other translations (I was warned they wouldn’t help) I realized that many translations took considerably liberty with the detail of the effort. Effectively, you can translate at the sentence level or the paragraph or even the chapter. I didn’t need to attempt rhyme or meter (this wasn’t a poetry class) but the older the work, the less we understand the idiomatic elements of the work, and the less overlap there is in word availability between source and destination. It was a constant challenge to decide whether it was more important to translate to keep the story flowing (which I routinely didn’t do because I knew the story, damnit) and to translate to extract detail that I never saw in the versions I read (which was interesting to me).
I did well on the assignment, since the goal was to gauge how well I could read the original, more than how well I could rewrite the original, and while I was commended on a reasonably accurate translation, it was barely readable because the story simply didn’t come through. There was no flow to it. It was a mess. It might have served well as a first draft, because all the elements were there, and then rewritten to produce a decent story, but in a lot of ways it wouldn’t have been what Homer wrote (or at least what everyone read in the 5th century, since I was translating a fairly early writing of the work). And for the guys like Lattimore who were trying to preserve meter as well, shit – that just seems nigh impossible to me.
Martin
@Steeplejack: Oh, and one of the reasons why some modern translations are good is that there are now databases of classic works. The greek database was largely completed about a decade ago – all works prior to 1200 AD. For translators, they can now take a passage that they aren’t certain of the meaning, and find identical or similar passages in other works during the same era and compare their meaning. It’s really helped to better understand what the author was originally trying to communicate.
Steeplejack
@Martin:
I’ve been thinking more about this as I get ready to go to bed (which I will do after this). Pevear and Volokhonsky have a good introduction to one of their translations of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky where they talk about the pitfalls of translating even trivial bits of everyday language. Sort of like whether to translate a line as either “Damn your eyes, sir!” or “Hey, fuck you, asshole!” There’s a tension between what the tone is in the original (for its time), what tone is necessary to convey that to us now and even what tone conveys the meaning to us now but still preserves the necessary illusion that we are reading something “foreign” and from the past. It would feel strange to read a Tolstoy that sounds too “modern” and too “American.” (I.e., “Hey, fuck you, asshole” doesn’t work.)
I can see all those problems multiplying exponentially as you go farther back in time to Homer and the “dead” languages.
Steeplejack
@Martin:
Good point about the databases.
As a software weenie myself, I have thought that it would be invaluable to break down a work you are translating into a database of individual sentences. A certain percentage you could knock out automatically (“‘Pass the peas,’ she said”), another percentage would be relatively easy (“It was a dark and stormy night”), and then there would be the really gnarly stuff. You could work on individual pieces in a nonlinear way, then rebuild the whole narrative as needed to work on continuity and to see where you stand. (Different colors for text at different stages of the process?). Fascinating.
Will check back (later) in the morning for any further deep thoughts.
Martin
@Steeplejack: I worked on the greek project a fair number of years ago.
The text was broken down into 3-word triplets in the index, with a stemming algorithm applied (and adjusted by hand) so that it would capture root forms. By eliminating the noun declension and all of the verb tenses and variation (mood, person and voice, beyond tense) – and these things varied substantially from 5th cent. BC to 13th cent. AD, but you could quite effectively find passages and obscure nouns and verbs. The original parsers were VERY slow. The project started in the 70s using an HP-1000 personally modified by David Packard (son of the HP founder) to handle greek, and seek and processing on 12″ hard drives was very slow. The first really effective PC version had a dedicated 68K processor, which was amazingly fast compared to any previous means of accessing the data stored on CD-ROM. Coding the text was quite difficult because of how non-standard the original writing was – none of this was printed with movable type, and they sourced the earliest versions they could, so they’d deal with shit scribbled in margins, decorative type elements, and all that. They had the proliferation of dialects and mixing with other languages that came with the spread of the New Testament, etc. As a cataloguing exercise, it’s a nightmare, and they’ve been working on it for 40 years.
But because there are (essentially) a fixed number of Greek works that survived, you can legitimately have a searchable database with every written work that survived. A sister project at Duke focuses on papyrus in a variety of languages including Greek. They have written letters, government documents, contracts, etc. They’re a more technical operation because so much of the papyrus is so hard to read. Another sister project in Germany is doing the same for Latin works.
Sko Hayes
Wow,reading these posts is like standing the in the mddle of a party, and hearing 15 different conversations going on.
Car repair. Greek translations of the Iliad (I read it in Latin class in HS), different brands of scotch whiskey (tastes like turpentine to me), clowns, Libya, sick pets, amd almost everyone ignores the fact that John has hurt his finger!!
(I’m thinking back to the scene in “The Sound of Music” where the youngest child holds her bandaged finger up to her stern father, hoping for sympathy. With half a dozen children in the family vying for attention, her injured finger is soon relegated to the back burner as the family proceeds into the house).
Poor John. Hopefully the ice and the alcohol made you feel better.
soonergrunt
@slightly_peeved: That’s ONE european country. It’s a start. Barely.
@slightly_peeved: If you want the US to not expect to run things when we’re involved, perhaps you should grow your capabilities so that you can actually do more than show up with a few guys while the vast majority of the expense and risk is borne by us.
I used to be an internationalist. Then after two decades of watching my country involved in multiple instances of dealing with European countries in particular, and other countries all over the world, I came to the conclusion that what the vast majority of the rest of the world, and Europe in particular wants is for American national resources, whether money, or personnel, to be used the way they want, for their interests.
Svensker
@Steeplejack:
.
Good one.
I’m so old, I remember when Brasil ’66 was modern.
soonergrunt
@soonergrunt: And while we’re on the subject, I have one more for you, rather recent.
Darfur. Everybody agreed that bad shit was going on there, but nobody wanted to call it the genocide that it was because that would require, under international law (that they promulgated), to intervene. But we all know how that worked out. The Europeans running around saying variations of “well, it looks like a genocide, and it smells like a genocide, but we’re not sure if it’s a genocide or not. Somebody (hard stare across the Atlantic–at Canada, perhaps?) should do something! The US was a little busy at the time. So, tell me all about the grand European intervention in Darfur to end the genocide and how much better that ran because the Europeans did it. Cause I missed that.
Tell me, is it any coincidence that Europe is all het up over Libya to the point of wanting (the US) to drop bombs now that we’re steadily disengaging from Iraq and have some capability freed up, when they did everything they could do to avoid doing anything about Darfur when we were tied up in Iraq? Or does it have anything at all to do with the fact that most Libyan oil goes to European diesel?
Robert Sneddon
@slightly_peeved:
It may surprise most Americans but it is a fact that nearly every military force in the world other than the US is a defensive entity and not capable of lauching large-scale offensive military actions. They are simply incapable of supporting a giant logistical and military force outside their own borders. Some other countries have a limited amount of capability in this regard; France and Britain come to mind but other than those two old Empire powers the rest don’t have large navies and military bases in foreign countries that can be used to stage attacks on nations and peoples thousands of miles from their own borders as the US does on a regular and ongoing basis, for decades at a time.
soonergrunt
@Robert Sneddon: Actually, Robert, it doesn’t surprise me. It may surprise you to know that those “purely defensive” forces, for the most part, are utterly unsuited even to that limited mission.
They depend upon us to do for them not just for any adventurism to which they still occasionally wish to engage in, such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Darfur, and Libya, but for their own territorial defense in most cases. This dependence extends to the fact that if we don’t go, it probably isn’t happening, like Darfur. Still no bombs falling on Libya, fwiw.
And as far as I’m concerned, if the Europeans want to keep the expenditures down because that’s what they want, or they believe it is best for them or whatever, that’s fine. I just would like them to stop trying to use the US military for their offensive forces. Failing that, I’d like them to pay for it, or at least thank us every so often.
I’m sure that during the cold war, it made sense for us to keep forces deployed all over the world, and in the short term of the cold war it did. But other than that, it hasn’t gotten us anything. No lasting gratitude, no resspect. Nothing but more and more of “what have you done for us lately” and “how dare you do things we don’t approve of” All that blood and treasure, wasted defending the interests of people who not only won’t defend their own interests, but have come to believe that they are entitled to us doing for them.
Suffern ACE
@Robert Sneddon: There are more than a few who realize that, are appalled by the size and scope of the beast, would like to have a “defense only” military, and those people might not feel that a such a reduction will ever come if we’re always giving people a chance to beat on war drums.
Paul in KY
John, last year I was drunk on ‘Calipower’ & I made an ass of myself by preemptively talking smack before the UK – WVU game. We all know how that turned out.
Anyway, I won’t make that mistake again. So, best wishes on a well fought game & may the best team today emerge victorious.
I’m off to walk, hope all the BJers have a great weekend.
slightly_peeved
It’s the country leading the forces in Libya, so it’s the relevant country in this case.
My country instituted a draft so that it could help the US in Vietnam. It sent most of its young men to die on the other side of the world in conflicts that would never touch us. I think you’re incorrectly assuming what country I am from.
slightly_peeved
French military jets over Libya
So Britain and France (who, as another person pointed out, have always maintained a significant military and been willing to deploy that military overseas) are risking their people and planes. Funnily enough, this possibility was never acknowledged in the hundreds of previous posts on this issue.
soonergrunt
@slightly_peeved: And what country would that be, not that I’ve assumed anything or that it matters to the point here.
Can your country, or any of the other countries involving themselves in the Libya thing project the kind of force, both combat and logistical capabilities to conduct sustained air to air and air to ground warfare, with all the other needs those missions imply?
NONE of the countries that were involved in Viet Nam on either side can do that except us.
The Europeans might be able to cobble something together, but I doubt it.
soonergrunt
@slightly_peeved: So the world just changed. Now let’s see it change for good.
Suffern ACE
@soonergrunt: There really isn’t much reason to believe that French, British, Canadian, and Norwegian pilots shouldn’t be able to clear the skies. Honestly, France alone should be able to do that.
soonergrunt
@soonergrunt: Unless, of course, they had significant US help, which would make it very much like every other military operation European forces have been involved in since they were on the wrong side of the Suez crisis in 1956.
Well, there was the French in Indochina, post WWII, and the British all over the fucking world suppressing indigenous peoples in their colonial possessions, but those mostly didn’t work out too well either.
soonergrunt
@Suffern ACE: Without US forces? I would say that I doubt that very much, but it looks like we’re not going to find out.
Color me not surprised.
And the moment that one of those planes inevitably kills the wrong people, then Balloon-Juice commenters will all post about how horrible and blood thirsty or reckless or incompetent the RAF or the French Air Force or the Norwegians are.
Oh, jeez, I slay myself.
stuckinred
@soonergrunt: Armor is already inside Benghazi, collateral damage comin right up.
slightly_peeved
soonergrunt:
That country would be Australia, and that point regarding the draft is that my country has shown a willingness to assist the US – to the point of instituting conscription in cases – in any of its conflicts, in addition to supporting UN missions. The UK has shown a similar willingness in recent years. Since the UK has shed blood and spent money in the US’s interest, I think portraying them, and by extension the Libyan effort, as a group of moochers is unfair.
They appear to be in the process of doing it right now; haven’t seen anything about US planes flying over Libya yet. EDIT – the quote from Sarkozy say the US is “supporting” military action; no reports that they’re flying.
stuckinred
Dude on CBS says 100 cruise missle’s coming shortly.
stuckinred
@slightly_peeved: The RAR boys up the road from us were great!
Davis X. Machina
@Martin:
I learned to write code — Ibex/Ibycus — on that very machine. It was easier to teach the classicists to write code than to teach the comp/sci types Greek.
slightly_peeved
@stuckinred:
Good to hear :). Anyway, to bed for me. Goodnight all.
kdaug
@Sko Hayes: Welcome to the party.
soonergrunt
Oh, here’s a total surprise that no one could possibly have seen coming:
US Naval forces strike Libya with cruise missiles–from the article I linked earlier:
As of 2:45 PM US CDT, US government confirmed that American strikes have taken place in significant numbers.
Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, version C and C (TLAM-C, TLAM-D) cost about $600,000 each. The US fired about a 100 of them for a cost to the US taxpayer of $60,000,000 not including the cost to move the launch platforms within range in the first place. And that’s only phase I.
WaterGirl
@soonergrunt: shock and awe in libya?
Edit: I’m kind of shocked by the cost.
soonergrunt
@WaterGirl: If you think that’s expensive, think about how much we spent moving the ships and submarines around. Driving a missile cruiser is not cheap, and this strike came from multiple platforms.
I’m watching an Admiral at the Pentagon discussing the fact that the US will provide aerial refueling assets in addition to other ‘command and control and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.’
As to ‘shock and awe,’ I can tell you from personal experience that it is, in fact, shocking and awe-inspiring, to witness an air-strike. I strongly suspect that being targeted by an air-strike is somewhat more so.
Corner Stone
@soonergrunt: I think that guy said 112 missiles fired, and he made it seem like the UK got off a few.
But I agree with you in general, the US just literally lit $50M on fire.
WaterGirl
I may be naive, but I am hoping this can be over in a matter of days, with the ending we want.
I don’t like it, but I don’t completely hate that we’re involved in Libya; they asked for help and we are not doing this alone and we are not taking the obvious leadership role (even if the impact of the air strikes will be higher than the impact of what the french are doing, for instance). If we go in with ground troops, well, that’s the line I think is crucial not to cross.
I would be terrified of getting into a third war if this was W. or even Clinton, but i still trust Obama, and he’s not stupid, even if I do hate some of the choices he’s made lately. I suspect Obama knows we have a lot to gain in terms of respect by the rest of the world if we can walk the right line on this one, participating but not running the whole thing. I think this is a test for us in a lot of ways.
BTW, I loved the idea someone had on here the other night, that there should be a separate EXTRA tax when we are at war.
WaterGirl
@soonergrunt: I intended my comment in 298 as a reply to you.
soonergrunt
@WaterGirl: I do NOT believe that a No Fly Zone will achieve anything except blow up some Libyan runways and a few SAM sites and burn up a lot of jet fuel.
The Libyan military is a lot more powerful than the rebels, and it will take heavy air strikes against those formations. That may stop them, but probably not. Ground combat forces can be remarkably resilient to air attack. Logistic units like refueling trucks tend to be quite a bit less so.
During Desert Storm, we pounded the hell out of the Iraqi military for 30 days. We bombed everything that moved, more than once. There was one Iraqi tank battalion that my unit came across. It started the war with 30 tanks. After 30 days of near daily bombardment, they still had 27 tanks operational when we met them.
@WG, 299–got it.
@Corner Stone: The Admiral briefed that one British submarine was involved. That means six torpedo tubes and maybe two shots from each tube. In any event, there’s a good chance that the stuff we destroyed with the TLAMS probably cost less than the missiles used to destroy them.
WaterGirl
@soonergrunt: Well, shit. The decision makers have to know at least as much as you do (not being snarky here) so what do you think they are thinking? I can’t believe Obama would get us into another quagmire; he’s just too smart for that, i think.
WaterGirl
@soonergrunt: Well, shit. The decision makers have to know at least as much as you do (not being snarky here) so what do you think they are thinking? I can’t believe Obama would get us into another quagmire; he’s just too smart for that, i think.
Edit; I did not submit that twice, I swear. FYWP
soonergrunt
@WaterGirl:
Well, I do think that the US intends to not invade. As an aside, I don’t know what force we’d actually invade with anyway. A Marine Expeditionary Unit doesn’t have the staying power, and the Army is worn out.
MSNBC talking head I’ve never heard of said a few minutes ago that (paraphrasing) the French are resigned to Quadaffi staying in power and just want to protect the nascent movement in eastern Libya that they’ve already recognized.
Now, having said all of the above, please remember that these things almost never end the way they were envisioned by their beginners in the first place. Mission creep is a mother-fucker.
If I had to bet, I’d go with Ghadaffi going all out now to wipe out the rebel forces in and around Benghazi now. He has absolutely nothing to lose by doing so, and if he succeeds quickly, he takes away the West’s perceived reason for intervention.
WaterGirl
@soonergrunt: I am in complete agreement with your take on mission creep, even though my experience with mission creep is in the context of database design and web design.
I have to say that the logic in paragraph 2 completely evades me. They are resigned to him staying in power but we are doing this anyway??? So what, do we stay there forever, protecting the rebels? Because otherwise, there’s still the same bloodshed at the end of the road, and all we’ve done in the meantime is spend millions and millions and millions of dollars, and probably shedding some blood of our own, all with the same result?
Please tell me I am missing something that would make sense of this.
soonergrunt
@WaterGirl:
[crickets]
I got nothin.
Let’s take it to the new thread.
chauncey1186
Damn, Cole – I think I love you.
Pseudonym
@soonergrunt: The UK was able to project quite a bit of force in the Falklands, with all the logistics that required, though that was during the Thatcherite defense buildup. Libya’s a whole lot closer to Europe though. To be fair, these days I think most NATO countries and other US allies are shaping their militaries based on the goal of being included in coalition warfare, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the US itself preferred its allies without independent expeditionary capability.