Today is not a good day; I just heard that the mother of one of my friends at work is in the hospital, and shall be removed to hospice shortly. She has about two weeks to live.
I needed a bit of levity today.
Be thankful for what you have and hold close those dear to you.
BZ
From ABC News:
With European law enforcement officials warning of an imminent holiday terror attack, Web sites associated with al Qaeda announced today that the group’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is about to issue a new statement entitled “the truths about the clash between Islam and atheism.”
In the meantime, British MI5 intelligence authorities admit there are “dozens” of Islamist suicide bombers rambling around Europe and Great Britian.
What do I mean by numerous (plots)? Five? 10? No nearer 30 — that we know of. These plots often have links back to al Qaeda in Pakistan, and through those links al Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers,” said MI5 Director General Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller in a speech at the University of London.
Secular societies are threats to Islam. Europe is the secular hotbed of western culture and, therefore, a massive, massive target. Yet Great Britain and other portions of Europe continue to cater to Islam.
A bit of what I call “Survival Hypocrisy,” that.
BZ
Can anyone give me one reason why the blithering idiot Terrell Owens should ever play football again?
See this. Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell “Conehead” Owens spit in the face of Atlanta Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall during a game yesterday. Owens was fined $35,000. Big, fat, friggin’ deal.
What a complete moron. The Cowboys get what they deserve.
This useless excuse for a human being should be permanently banned from any football organization. He has proven, time and again, that he cannot be trusted to be anything more than a pouting, mentally defective thug.
BZ
So there I was:
Witnessing the “falling apart” of a Union Pacific train originally sent from Roseville, Fornicalia and expected to terminate in Sparks, Nevada.
The train in question was an “auto rack” which consisted of a number of railroad cars carrying numerous vehicles from the San Francisco bay area — the receiving Port of Oakland the likely recipient, or perhaps Martinez, where the vehicles are held in multiple rows. A dedicated “auto rack” train is not necessarily by itself predominantly heavy, but it does make up for its weight in length.
This train had stopped in Colfax and the lead Union Pacific unit, a relatively new General Electric C44ACCTE (Controlled Tractive Effort), # 5817, was dead on the vine. There were five locomotives up front and, with some clever manipulation and switching, the newest unit was placed on point. This turned out to be an EMD (Electro Motive Division of GM) SD-70M, number 3853. I suspected the crews wanted this unit on point for a number of reasons: its clean exterior indicated little usage in tunnels and, being a newer unit, its heater might be worth selection, as well as its newer seats, toilet and interior.
Works for me. It was marvelous to watch these switching moves.
At this point, in Colfax, there was already one “bad order” unit, the GE # 5817. I shot numerous photos of this train in Colfax and then headed up the hill to the Secret Town area. The rain turned to flecks of snow and then to bits of ice. Oddly enough, though not prescient in any way, I managed to stop at the precise point where the train halted. The young engineer climbed out of the cab with his conductor and fireman trainee and examined another unit. It would appear that the elder SD-40 unit #3027 had died as well.
Once this was realized the train continued with EMD 3853 on point. I’ll not forget the radio traffic between the engineer and the Union Pacific dispatcher:
“So I’ve got two dead units. And the others load when they want. I can switch them to Run 8 and they might load and they might not. I’ve got Monsters On The Wing like the Twilight Zone.”
Monsters on the Wing indeed; that Twilight Zone episode featured a young William Shatner gripped in the heart of confusion when he realized there was some sort of creature determined to sabotage the plane upon which he rode, peeling off nacelle parts.
In the High Granite, I heard a transmission from this train that said “I think I’ve got another dead one.” Meaning that of the five original units allocated to this engineer, two were clearly dead, one was questionable and two were fully functional.
And pushing on his rear was the UP flanger set consisting of GP-38 units 572 and 583, into an area where younger engineers do not travel: communicating with a live Pusher Set instead of a dead consist of one or two GE DPUs (Distributed Power Units).
Blogger will not let me load photos, which I so desperately need now.
BZ
A confrontation between the US and Iran simply seems imminent to me, and appears to be only a matter of time before it occurs.
Iran, as you must all realize by now, is the Puppet Master pulling many if not all of the Islamist strings in the Middle East.
Blogfather Hugh Hewitt features a link on his blog which portrays information by historian Arthur Herman dealing with solutions to the Iran Issue. I read the article (Getting Serious About Iran: A Military Option) and was sufficiently impressed that I wish to portray a portion of the article here for your perusal and input:
The first step would be to make it clear that the United States will tolerate no action by any state that endangers the international flow of commerce in the Straits of Hormuz. Signaling our determination to back up this statement with force would be a deployment in the Gulf of Oman of minesweepers, a carrier strike group’s guided-missile destroyers, an Aegis-class cruiser, and anti-submarine assets, with the rest of the carrier group remaining in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. Navy could also deploy UAV’s (unmanned air vehicles) and submarines to keep watch above and below against any Iranian missile threat to our flotilla.
Our next step would be to declare a halt to all shipments of Iranian oil while guaranteeing the safety of tankers carrying non-Iranian oil and the platforms of other Gulf states. We would then guarantee this guarantee by launching a comprehensive air campaign aimed at destroying Iran’s air-defense system, its air-force bases and communications systems, and finally its missile sites along the Gulf coast. At that point the attack could move to include Iran’s nuclear facilities—not only the “hard” sites but also infrastructure like bridges and tunnels in order to prevent the shifting of critical materials from one to site to another.
Above all, the air attack would concentrate on Iran’s gasoline refineries. It is still insufficiently appreciated that Iran, a huge oil exporter, imports nearly 40 percent of its gasoline from foreign sources, including the Gulf states. With its refineries gone and its storage facilities destroyed, Iran’s cars, trucks, buses, planes, tanks, and other military hardware would run dry in a matter of weeks or even days. This alone would render impossible any major countermoves by the Iranian army. (For its part, the Iranian navy is aging and decrepit, and its biggest asset, three Russian-made Kilo-class submarines, should and could be destroyed before leaving port.)
The scenario would not end here. With the systematic reduction of Iran’s capacity to respond, an amphibious force of Marines and special-operations forces could seize key Iranian oil assets in the Gulf, the most important of which is a series of 100 offshore wells and platforms built on Iran’s continental shelf. North and South Pars offshore fields, which represent the future of Iran’s oil and natural-gas industry, could also be seized, while Kargh Island at the far western edge of the Persian Gulf, whose terminus pumps the oil from Iran’s most mature and copiously producing fields (Ahwaz, Marun, and Gachsaran, among others), could be rendered virtually useless. By the time the campaign was over, the United States military would be in a position to control the flow of Iranian oil at the flick of a switch.
An operational fantasy? Not in the least. The United States did all this once before, in the incident I have already alluded to. In 1986-88, as the Iran-Iraq war threatened to spill over into the Gulf and interrupt vital oil traffic, the United States Navy stepped in, organizing convoys and re-flagging ships to protect them against vengeful Iranian attacks. When the Iranians tried to seize the offensive, U.S. vessels sank one Iranian frigate, crippled another, and destroyed several patrol boats. Teams of SEALS also shelled and seized Iranian oil platforms. The entire operation, the largest naval engagement since World War II, not only secured the Gulf; it also compelled Iraq and Iran to wind down their almost decade-long war. Although we made mistakes, including most grievously the accidental shooting-down of a civilian Iranian airliner, killing everyone on board, the world economic order was saved—the most important international obligation the United States faced then and faces today.
Mr. Herman advocates clear, specific, ulilateral and immediate action.
Considering the information the Saudis have proffered regarding their take on defeating Iran should the US pull out of Iraq (see my post on this) — should Herman’s point become US policy regarding both Iran and Iraq?
My opinion?
This needs to fly and it needs to fly NOW. No one, no nation, possesses the inherent air and sea superiority that we possess now, despite our being down in count on Blue Water vessels as compared to the 80’s.
Who depends on Iranian oil? Would it surprise you that this might be China?
The US in Chinese clutches?
How about China in US clutches?
And instead of the United States becoming REACTIVE — just as GWB grasped — how about the United States becoming PROACTIVE?
COMPARISON OF THE MANUALS:
The United States decided it was time to update their Counter-Insurgency Manual.
Al Qaeda already has a training manual.
As my college instructor once said: “Compare and contrast.”
BZ