Diem to the Minh to the Khanh to the Thieu
 

Is there something you are implying about that photo that I am missing? It is labelled as a Viet Cong officer shooting a man (which is what I always understood it to be).

Diem to the Minh to the Khanh to the Thieu
 

That was some high S Vietnam official shooting a suspected Cong guy. The publication of the photo here caused people of Icantread's ilk to question whether our allies were really good guys, given that one of them shot a guerrilla w/o a trial.

Diem to the Minh to the Khanh to the Thieu
 

It was mislabled in the URL (but not on the site itself) by the person who runs the site I found it on. Who, incidentally, sounds like someone who would enjoy a few beers with Slave and Sam Kinison's character from Back To School.

eta: sorry, Sam.

Diem to the Minh to the Khanh to the Thieu
 

Hm.. well.. chalk that up to the greatness of American public school education.

Of course, the war only ended twenty years (for us) before I graduated high school, so how could we really expect up to date text books. But as least I learned a lot from watching Good Morning Vietnam in class.

Diem to the Minh to the Khanh to the Thieu
 

I understand the enduring comic value of plays on Weed's name, but know that there's an inflection point where they cease making any fucking sense to the broader polity, and become more clearly amusing only to the onanistic circle of devoted authors who pen them.

Carry on.

global warming, illustrated
 

It's called geothermal energy, and last I heard, it's only very theoretical at this point. There are places where the Earth's internal energy is very close to the surface and easy to tap. Of course, those places tend to be characterized by volcanoes and geysers. I don't think they've come up with a way to get the energy to places that aren't dangerous yet.

Weren't the Manicheans from Iran?
 

Any "idea" that involves coddling terrorists, their supporters and wannabes, deserves killing - so we can agree on that point.

global warming, illustrated
 

Google "geothermal loop" and you'll get a series of systems for homes and businesses based on geothermal energy. They're commerically available, and some are even self-install. There are also tax credits available.

global warming, illustrated
 

It's the dismal science.

Whatever you think of economics as a discipline, the question of whether inequality is increasing is an empirical one.

That is, of course, exactly what many conservatives want you to think, on a range of issues from evolution/ID to global warming to inequality. Who are the lefty partisans peddling junk science and trying to create uncertainty on those issues?

You can find lefty hacks peddling junk on other issues -- Michael Bellesiles' "research" on colonial gun ownership comes to mind, but he was abandoned by the academy once his hackery became evident. On the issues I named above, people like Reynolds are funded by conservative-aligned interests -- corporations and the religious right -- who have good reasons to confuse and forestall science. Where do lefties have analogous interests? I'm not saying it never happens, but off the top of my head I can't think of an example.

That is a whole separate conversation that I don't have the time to get into now. Suffice it to say that once you acknowledge that inequality is rising, the next question is: why? To the extent that governmental policies are to blame, even a libertarian should be able to see that the benefits of government action should not go dispropotionately to the most well off.

Does Adder live in Wisconsin?
 

Think of it as a sign of intellectual desperation.

Talk about Know-Nothings
 

Buckley, as always, makes good points.

His conclusion is suspect though, given the remarkable job the UN has done "brokering" the peace in recent conflicts such as the Sudan and Lebanon.

Perhaps Ki-Moon will do a better job than his predescessor - it sure wouldn't be difficult.

breaking...............
 

Math is hard.

SOTU
 

Good idea. Lying about the supposed ties between Iraq and al Qaeda worked for him before.

Throw-off lines
 

"Intellectual desperation" is more akin to saying you "support the troops" - in order to avoid some social taboo - when declaring their mission to be wrong and giving succor to the enemy - is the furthest thing from supporting the troops.

SOTU
 

Hundreds of pages of translated documents show that the Hussein government had open ties and dealings with Al Qaeda members - which is not the same as saying Iraq was responsible for 9/11, which, again, the Bush government never did.

But hey, "bush lied, people died" sounds a lot better, and makes for a great bumper sticker.