Love him or hate him, this is a great political headline

Dick Cheney has fifth heart attack, only two horcruxes remaining.

Pictures from Marjah, Afghanistan

The Denver Post reminds us that there’s a war going on in Afghanistan.

I don’t give FDR enough credit

I’m not a fan of FDR, but here are some reasons I should give him some credit:

FDR could have nationalized the banks in 1933 and war industries in the 1940s. Instead he prevented runs on the banks and called in captains of industry to help run the war effort.

 

Fluent in German, he listened to Hitler on short-wave radio and recognized by 1938 that he was a monster that must be destroyed. Alerted by Albert Einstein’s letter to the possibilities of nuclear fission, he said, "We can’t let Hitler get this before we do," and authorized the spending in secret of something approaching 1 percent of gross domestic product on building the atomic bomb.

 

His judgment in picking military leaders — Gens. Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Adms. King and Nimitz — was unerringly brilliant. His decisions to invade North Africa in 1942 (against all military advice), to concentrate on the European theater and not the Pacific in 1943 (against the Navy’s urging), to stage the cross-Channel invasion in 1944 rather than 1943 (despite British and Russian pressure) all look very good in retrospect. It wasn’t so easy to make them at the time.

ShadyURL

URL shorteners are all the rage. Tinyurl, TR.IM, Bit.Ly, and the list goes on and one. But there’s a new player in this space—ShadyURL.  Instead of shortening a URL, ShadyURL makes a URL “suspicious and frightening.” For example dr5.org is http://5z8.info/autoinstall_l8m1_how-to-stop-immigration-for-good.pdf. 

What I love about Sarah Palin

My favorite thing about Sarah Palin is that her mere existence drives many lefties into braindead apoplexy. The latest example is that lefties are losing their minds when they learn that Palin’s grandson has received healthcare through the Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center. They believe it is hypocrisy for Palin’s daughter to use government-provided services.  I guess they think that Tripp Palin shouldn’t go to public school, or ever set foot on public lands, or use public roads…

Interesting video about the 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest

This video made reingnited my interest in Mt. Everest and mountaineering in general. Here’s the description:

Dr. Kenneth Kamler recalls his harrowing experience on a climb towards the summit of Mt. Everest in 1996 when a lethal 2-day storm kicked up. The event, documented by writer Jon Krakauer in his bestselling book Into Thin Air, would lead to the deaths of eight climbers and leave several others — including Kamler — stranded and fighting for their lives.

In this presentation, Kamler explores the effects of the disaster, the rescue, and the relentless drive of human survival.

Check it out.

Only 6% of Americans think the Stimulus bill created jobs

Wow! The Democrats really, really, really screwed up with the Stimulus bill last year. A New York Times/CBS poll found that just 6 percent of Americans believe that it created jobs.

I thought maybe the Dems were being strategic and structuring the stimulus so that money money would be spent this year, helping to heat up a warming economy and would therefore help them in the 2010 elections. But the stimulus hasn’t work to create real jobs or as P.R. to make people think it created jobs.

But I’m just shocked that ony 6% of Americans think that it created jobs. That tells you why the Democrats are struggling right now.

Did the Olympics help bankrupt Greece?

It appears that the 2004 Summer Games might have helped bankrupt Greece.  Let’s hope the Canadians, and especially Whistler, B.C. haven’t overspent for these games. 

Metallica and Journey—Together at last

Top Gear’s Scirocco ads

James and Jeremy set out to make an ad for the Scirocco TDI.