Among the last 100 visitors are those from these inn-teresting places:

-army.mil "USAAISC." No idea what USAAISC is.
-University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic.
-University of Washington.

Open your mouth, I need to spit.

We must try.

One person, under the right circumstances, can make a difference in this world. Morally flawed, therefore aware of the right thing to do; cowardly, thus knowing the difference from courage, we want to survive-and to win though surely we will lose and die. One man, standing alone, can stop a column of tanks-when the common morality of the men in the tanks stops them. We must try.

Below are excerpts from two thoughtful, heartfelt articles on Rutgers. The first is by David Roth, who  is from and loves New Jersey. The entirety of Mr. Roth's article can be found here: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/49067714/

The whole dreary joke at Rutgers is based on a series of similarly slack assumptions, that big, winning, money-making sports teams are worth compromising and compromising again in order to get; that big-dollar television contracts and a general grasping upward mobility are obviously good in themselves and must be pursued. And underneath all that, here and in every other Tale of Jersey, is something truly despicable and tough to laugh at: the willingness to ignore basic and obvious human consequences in favor of dim selfishness and illusory material gain. It's a joke, the whole dumb long-running thing, but it's not really all that funny.

The second article is by Dan Levy, a Rutgers graduate, and is titled "Athletics, Academics & Ethics: Why I'm Finally Cutting Ties with Rutgers." After these excerpts from Mr. Levy's article are some comments.

http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1656858-athletics-academics-ethics-why-im-finally-cutting-ties-with-rutgers

Over the last two months, Rutgers has gone from a largely ignored academic institution with mediocre intercollegiate athletics to a national laughingstock.

Rutgers was the longest relationship of my life, outside of the one with my immediate family. I was a part of Rutgers three times longer than my kids have been alive. I was a part of Rutgers for nearly twice as long as I've been married. Rutgers is all I know. 

I'm done with all of that now. 

I just don't want to be a part of it anymore. I don't want to be embarrassed to be associated with a place that would handle this situation the way it did.

After the Penn State scandal broke, and before sanctions were announced, one writer suggested that individual schools independently sanction Penn State-by refusing to play them. What a brilliant idea! Forget what the NCAA might do. Alma Mater Tech, you're scheduled to play Penn State the first game of the year: You say you disapprove of the way Penn State has conducted itself for fifty years? Then don't play Penn State! Boycott Penn State! That is what young, courageous Mr. Levy is doing with his own school. 

Gordon Gee should be fired.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and enemies, please join me in giving a Public Occurrences welcome to Ohio State University president Gordon Gee!

Gordon Gee has a small pee-pee, eats paste made of nose dirt and wears bow ties so tight that they constrict the flow of blood to his head resulting in irreversible brain damage. This qualifies Gordon to be president of The Ohio State University. Which is a member of the same "conference," or group, of universities as The Pennsylvania State University and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Gordon is an asshole.

Today The Associated Press publicized remarks Gordon made at a meeting of Ohio State's "Athletic Council" in December.

On the University of Notre Dame du Lac, which had spurned entreaties of the Big Ten conference in favor of another:

"The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they're holy hell on the rest of the week. You just can't trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that. Notre Dame wanted to have its cake and eat it, too.”

Literally, he said that.

The athletic supporters tittered. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

On the University of Louisville, which joined the same conference as Notre Dame, Gordon said the Big Ten:

"[would] make certain that we have institutions of like-minded academic integrity. So you won't see us adding Louisville."

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. (En passant, as we French scholars say, when a previous head tackle football coach of Ohio State got hooked up in a scandal and Gordon was asked if he had considered firing him, Gordon said: "No, are you kidding? Let me just be very clear:  I'm hopeful the coach doesn't dismiss me." (pps, the coach was later fired) Ba-da-bump.))

On another conference adding universities, like Notre Dame, that the Big Ten coveted:

"You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we're doing,"

Ha, etc.

And finally, on the head of his own conference:

"No one admires Jim Delany more than I do. I chaired the committee that brought him here. Jim is very aggressive, and we need to make certain he keeps his hands out of our pockets while we support him."

Ha.

What 

        an 

            asshole. 

"Father of Shot Man Linked to Boston Suspects Wants FBI Tried."-Reuters.

Sir, we take your concerns seriously, we will look into this, think about it and get back to you.

Okay, we've thought about it. No.

Love art. Loveitloveitloveitloveitloveit.

info@artbetween.org via pmt.perfora.net	8:26 PM (15 hours ago)
to me

You are warmly invited to participate in:

SCREAM

Venice  Biennale  2013

Performances:

May 31:     US Pavilion, Giardini - 4pm,

                   British Pavilion, Giardini  - 5pm

June 1:       German Pavilion, Giardini  - 4pm   

Chinese Pavilion, Arsenale  - 5pm

June 2:       Piazza San Marco  - 4pm

                   City of Venice - 5 pm onwards

 I sensed a great, infinite scream run through nature, Edvard Munch  (1892 ) ­

Inspired by Edvard Munch's most famous painting 'The Scream', Mad For Real's eponymous performance reactivates this iconic picture into a live, vocalised expression of contemporary angst. Whereas Munch's screams came from the madhouse or the abattoir of the 1890s, Cai Yuan and Jian Jun Xi's Scream invites participation 110 years later in a globalised context of economic and social uncertainty. Resonating with well-known texts of Chinese modernity since the May Fourth movement, such as famous author Lu Xun's volume Call to Arms () of 1922, Mad For Real's Scream reaches across time and culture into a single, communal burst of humanity.
www.screamforreal.org
www.madforreal.org

"Windows 8: Start Button Returns With New 8.1 Update."-Telegraph.

Everything that I have worked for, everything that I have hoped for, everything that I have believed in during my public life has crashed into ruins.

You have sat here too long for any good you are doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! 

If there are crueler words that man has spoken to man I do not wish to hear them. Those are the words of Leo Amery, May 7, 1940, addressed to the man-Amery's friend-who spoke the words at top on September 2, 1939, Neville Chamberlain. Six months later Chamberlain was dead.

Men Are Such Cockroaches

These are all in the Top Ten search keywords for today:

-ayaan hirsi ali
-chinese military women in uniform
-china women military
-kiribati women
-mermaid occurrances (sic)
-naked stewardesses

That is unbelievable. If it wasn't for "fat north korean leader" this would be a complete waste of a day.

"The Rutgers Way."

Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal asks:  "What if Rutgers is Everyone?"

What if this fiasco could actually change something? What if the mess in the athletic department at Rutgers could trigger a cultural shift, or at least hit the pause button, on the consuming madness of college sports? What if it provoked a reconsideration of the whole crazy thing—how students playing games for schools has become such a craven business vulnerable to envy and greed and poor judgment?
...
What almost always drags these colleges down are the very things they are pursuing: wins and attention, but mostly money, money and money.
...
What if this could happen? What if this kind of thinking was possible? What if this could be a launch pad to re-examine the whole flawed passion that is college sports?

It's probably just hopeless. And it's definitely naive.

"Police: 'radical' Muslim confesses to stabbing French soldier."-Telegraph.

You wouldn't know it was another attack by Islam if you read The New York Times headline: "French Police Arrest Suspect in Attack on Soldier."  It starts with fear. Fear produces cowardice. Cowardice produces, is almost synonymous with, appeasement. That is what The New York Times is engaged in: appeasement, despicable appeasement. 

I would like to apologize...to Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali...for having an organism in the middle of her article...I did not know that Ms. Ali was of the female persuasion...Nor did I know that Ms. Ali was so attractive...Not that having an organism in the middle of any article is ever justified...

I would like to apologize...to Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali...for saying she was "so attractive"...If any apology is necessary...Since President Obama apologized for a similar comment...Ms. Ali is brilliant...Which is what the president said...When he had to apologize...So I will too...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

My hero.
What a courageous person.

"The Problem of Muslim Leadership," Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wall Street Journal.

The entire article by Ms. Ali can be found here: http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-240773/

"Another Islamist terror attack, another round of assurances that it had nothing to do with the religion of peace. I’ve seen this before. A Muslim terrorist slays a non-Muslim citizen in the West, and representatives of the Muslim community rush to dissociate themselves and their faith from the horror. This happens every time. Muslim men wearing suits and ties, or women wearing stylish headscarves, are sent out to reassure the world that these attacks have no place in real Islam, that they are aberrations and corruptions of the true faith.

But then what to make of Omar Bakri? He too claims to speak for the true faith, though he was unavailable for cameras in England last week because the Islamist group he founded, Al-Muhajiroun, was banned in Britain in 2010...Michael Adebolajo—the accused Woolwich killer who was seen on a video at the scene of the murder, talking to the camera while displaying his bloody hands and a meat cleaver—was Bakri’s student a decade ago, before his group was banned. “A quiet man, very shy, asking lots of questions about Islam,” Bakri recalled last week. The teacher was impressed to see in the grisly video how far his shy disciple had come, “standing firm, courageous, brave. Not running away.”

Bakri also told the press: “The Prophet said an infidel and his killer will not meet in Hell. That’s a beautiful saying. May God reward [Adebolajo] for his actions . . . I don’t see it as a crime as far as Islam is concerned.”

The question requiring an answer at this moment in history is clear: Which group of leaders really speaks for Islam?

...

Some refuse even to admit that this is the question on everyone’s mind. Amazingly,...some continue to deny any link between Islam and terrorism.

[Ah, ah, ah. Excuse me, I just had an orgasm.]

One can only wonder at people who can be so exquisitely sensitive in protecting Islam’s reputation yet so utterly desensitized to a hideous murder explicitly committed in the name of Islam.

...

...[S]omething more is desperately required: genuine recognition of the problem with Islam.

...

...[L]ast week the Guardian newspaper could still run a headline quoting a Muslim Londoner: “These poor idiots have nothing to do with Islam.” Really? Nothing?

[That is also what Prime Minister Cameron said:  "There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act."]

I don’t blame Western leaders. They are doing their best to keep the lid on what could become a meltdown of trust between majority populations and Muslim minority communities. 

[I do blame and I have blamed Western leaders like Cameron and Obama. They are lying to their people.]

Of course, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not terrorists or sympathetic to terrorists. Equating all Muslims with terrorism is stupid and wrong. But acknowledging that there is a link between Islam and terror is appropriate and necessary.

...

I wonder what would happen if Muslim leaders like Julie Siddiqi started a public and persistent campaign to discredit these Islamist advocates of mayhem and murder."

I'm overwhelmed. Speechless...well, not quite speechless (I'm a lawyer)....Yeah, speechless, I have nothing additional to say. 

Last summer New Jersey governor Chris Christie gave the keynote address at the Republican National Convention. 

Christie's speech was a spirited call for the rejection of Barack Obama and the election of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. His concluding sentence was:

"You see, Mr. President, real leaders do not follow polls. Real leaders change polls."

In late fall Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey. Governor Christie worked untiringly to help the people of his state recover. Shortly after the hurricane struck the president visited to show moral support to Governor Christie and the people of New Jersey and to offer the enormous assistance of the federal government.  The president was greeted on the tarmac by the governor:

The president listened:

 And he cared:

It meant a lot to the people of New Jersey and to Governor Christie. Christie praised Obama afterwards and the Republicans went nuts. Some, many, still blame Christie for causing the loss of the presidential election. When some Republicans in Congress voted against the disaster relief proposed by the Democrats Christie went nuts, directly blaming Republicans and naming House Speaker John Boehner. Christie almost certainly doomed his own presidential prospects as a Republican with that but his popularity in New Jersey has since soared and the president of course was reelected.

Today Obama went back to New Jersey:

"You see, Mr. President, real leaders do not follow polls. Real leaders change polls."

I think Penn State people are under sway of the Koran, I think I read that somewhere. I could be wrong. I said I think.
Good night, Penn State people. Rutgers people. All you people.

"10 Arrested So Far in British Soldier's Killing as Muslims Fear Backlash."-CNN.

Ten!

Islam as it is practiced and preached today is the enemy. As it is practiced and preached today in Great Britain, in the United States, online. Not just in those Muslim countries "over there." That was the message of the Boston Marathon bombings and of the murder of Lee Rigby. British Prime Minister David Cameron is absolutely wrong that the Rigby murder was a "betrayal of Islam." It was entirely consistent with the teachings of the Koran! Until Islam stops preaching as it does there will be more Muslim bombings, more murders done in Islam's name, and more Muslims, who absorb the Koran's hate but who do not act on it, who live in inevitable fear  of a "backlash." Muslims do not have the courage nor the intellectual honesty nor the moral fiber, to reform their psychopathic "religion." David Cameron and Barack Obama haven't the courage or honesty to do it either. It must be done: the hateful ideology of Herr Hitler was outlawed; the state of Prussia was abolished for all time!  The Koran as it is written is as Islam is preached today. It must be outlawed. The Islamic preachers must preach an interpretation of those Satanic Verses much differently or they shall preach no more. Their mosques, every one of them, far as the Western writ runs, should have state monitors in them and any preacher violating the teachings of the new "reformed Islam" shall be improsones and their offending mosques shuttered. This should be done on order of the Western states. Islamic websites should be shut down, as Britain is now doing, their recalcitrant preachers and followers driven underground, or imprisoned.  There will be deaths on both sides, there will be more Muslim dead. As the Muslim Brotherhood's slogan has it, The Answer is Islam. Islam as it is preached today must be ended.

Good night, Islam. 

"The Rutgers Way."

Oh God.

There is this university in America, "Rutgers."

Rutgers is one of those big, good, not great, universities in America that plays "big-time"
college athletics. It plays college athletics...good, not great. Rutgers is a member of the same group of universities as Penn State. The group is called the "Big Ten;" it has twelve members. They count good not great.

The following things of the bird pump variety have occurred at Ruptures-just in the past few months:

1. The head men's basketball coach was caught on tape verbally and physically abusing players.

2. The "athletic director," and the president of the university saw part of the tapes-could have seen them all if they were interested (weren't)-suspended the coach for a brief spell and told him not to do it again on account of it was not "The Rutgers Way" (I am not making that up.).

3. Others, members of the pencil school profession, lawyers, politicians, were interested in viewing all of the above-referenced tapes, (did) and had a more unforgiving opinion of what they showed about the above-referenced "Rutgers Way."

     A.  After a period of reflection the coach was fired.
     B.  After a further period of reflection the athletic director "resigned."

4. Came then time to hire a new men's basketball coach. Ruptures decided to hire "one of its own," one schooled, literally, in The Rutgers Way, a graduate of its own self. Except he didn't, like, actually "graduate" from Ruptures, or any other, like, university. Which did not disqualify him from being head men's basketball coach of course as that would not be "The Rutgers Way."

5. Came then time to hire a new athletic director and Ruptures chose a woman of the female persuasion who used to be a head (women's) volleyball coach at another university.

6. Comes now a seventeen year old letter written by all fifteen then-members of the aforesaid (women's) volleyball team accusing the former head volleyball coach of verbal (and a little) physical abuse. The letter (unearthed by a member of the above-referenced pencil school profession) was of the "either you go or we all go variety," in response to which the head (women's) volleyball coach went, eventually ending up at the above-referenced "State University of New Jersey," Ruptures.

7. Ruptures has announced its intent to "stand by its (wo)man" (The Way) and said woman has announced her intent to stand by her Ruptures. Chris Christie, the like, governor of the State of New Jersey doesn't want to stand this anymore, wishes to "talk" with Rutgers about this and Governor Christie is...pointed in talks of this variety.

8. Will come the time when the "new" athletic director at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, will go the way of the "old" and she will be joined in the (temporary) unemployment line by the president of the aforesaid Rutgers. It is "The Rutgers Way."

Muslims against Crusades? This is for Crusades against Muslims.

I am for war against Islam

"Ladies and Gentlemen, THIS is Niagara Falls."

This is only a four-second video. It was taken by Carmen within 6 feet of the point at which the Niagara River drops over the Horseshoe Falls. The lack of detail gives this video great, dramatic force. The water going over the Falls is black, you cannot see the river bed and you cannot see the base of the Falls, one hundred or so feet down but obscured by the mist. And the only sound is the roar. The lack of detail makes the video ominous. When I first saw this, it gave me chills up my spine...and I don't get spine chills often. This is the best video I have seen that captures the awesome, dreadful power of the Niagara Falls. 

There they are. In the new kits for the 2013-14 season, against the skyline of the new City.
MCFC+NYCFC.

Below are additional remarks by British Prime Minister David Cameron on the Muslim murder of British soldier Lee Rigby:

"This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country. There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.
...
Britain works with our international partners to make the world safe from terrorism. Terrorism that has taken more Muslim lives than any other religion. It is an utter perversion of the truth to pretend anything different. That is why there is absolutely no justification for these acts. And the fault for them lies solely and purely with the sickening individuals who carried out this appalling attack.
...
 ...Ingrid Loyau-Kennett who confronted one of the attackers on the streets of Woolwich yesterday afternoon. When told by the attacker he wanted to start a war in London...
...
But one of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives. And that is what we shall all do. Thank you."

And this is from the Daily Telegraph today:

For the main suspect in Woolwich, Michael Adebolajo, the evidence against the “lone wolf” thesis stared us all particularly hard in the face. Like no fewer than 28 Islamist terrorists – just under a fifth of all those ever convicted in Britain – Adebolajo had clear links with the radical group al-Muhajiroun and its central figures, Omar Bakri Mohammed and Anjem Choudary.

He was a familiar figure at their demonstrations, and those organised by their front groups after al-Muhajiroun itself was banned. The Sunday Telegraph today reveals new video of what appears almost certainly to be Adebolajo speaking at a Muslims Against Crusades rally against the Pope at Hyde Park Corner in September 2010.

“Your Pope is a paedophile,” he proclaims. “Embrace Islam and you’ll be safe. Embrace Islam, because if you don’t we give you the threat of Allah, the almighty. For us, our call is martyrdom or victory.”

At other rallies, Muslims Against Crusades held up banners actually calling for British soldiers to be beheaded. One could, in a sense, say that they announced this murder on YouTube.

Sporting News.

 

Bayern Munich have won the Champions League, defeating their great domestic rival Borrusia Dortmund, 2-1.

Good night, Sinofsky. Rest
                                            in
                                                peace.

Hadn't been on that 'puter in a long time. I couldn't work on Windows8. Carmen, who bought it for me, poor thing, took it home. We talked about putting it on Ebay or waiting for 8.1. We both were on it for about 30 minutes tonight and turned it off in disgust. Steven Sinofsky, have a nice life in pizza delivery. Punk.

I want to place my hands around his neck and squeeze really hard.

"Massive Russian Earthquake Felt 4000 Miles from Epicenter."-Washington Post.

Rooski!  I tell you no arrest American for pee-pee spy. I tell "we send other meteor!" So we send earthquake: Sue me, Rooski. Ha-ha-ha-ha. See if you collect one pee-pee ruble for send earthquake and no meteor.

(This was a massive 'quake, 8.3 on the Richter scale. Fortunately, it struck under the Sea of Okhotsk, which the Post describes as "way off by the Pacific Ocean."  There are no casualties.(Therefore, I can make fun of the Russians.))

Indonesia, 9
Romania, 4
Germany, 1
France, 1
Poland, 1

Those are the locales of pageviewers, and all the locales there are, in the last two hours.

Good night, Bubble...Bubble? It's a robin's egg in a Soviet birdbath. Hideous, hateithateithateithateithateit.

                                                                               No.

                                                                                 ?

"Hirshhorn Director Plans to Resign After Board Splits on 'Bubble' Project."-Washington Post.

?

Art.

Love art. Loveitloveitloveitloveitloveit.

Sporting News.

There was an experiment conducted on a bird in an air pump last night in Miami (FL).

The world champion "Heats" trailed the Indiana "Pacer" by one point with 2.2 seconds left in an important basketball game.

What to do?

Now I, Benjamin Harris, am not a basketball coach. However in this instance my amateur judgment was aligned with that of the "Heats" coach: get the ball to a fellow named LeBron James, the best basketball player in the world. That judgment aligned also with that of 99.999% of people in the world. It did not align with the judgment of the Indiana coach and "Paul George," the individual assigned to, like, "guard" LeBron James. The Indiana coach, "Frank Vogel," had the judgment not to have his 7-foot tall shot-blocking player in the game for the final play and "Paul George" guarded LeBron James perfectly well--until the play started, at which point "Paul George" let LeBron James catch the basketball and then waved at LeBron James like a matador as Lebron James ran past him and scored the game-winning basket.

?

How in the world did that happen? I don't know.

“There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act."

                                                               -British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Islam in Barbaric Attack in Britain.

Islam has attacked in Great Britain again. A car rammed a person, some reports have it a British soldier, near a barracks and with shouts of "Allahu Akbar," two Muslims butchered the victim with bladed weapons. "You  will never be safe. Remove your governments!" yelled one of the Muslims while displaying a bloody weapon.

"Unexcited? There May Be a Pill for That."-New York Times.

Miller, a study coordinator, began a short interview, typing Linneah’s replies into a database that the medication’s Dutch inventor, Adriaan Tuiten, will present to the Food and Drug Administration this summer or fall as part of his campaign to win the agency’s approval and begin marketing what might become the first female-desire drug in America. “Thinking about your desire now,” Miller said, “would you say it is absent, very low, low, reasonable or present?”

"Low."
...
Later, after her appointment, she told me that in fact she has orgasms pretty much every time she and her husband have sex — that wasn’t the problem. “There’s something that’s stopping me from wanting it,” she said. “I don’t know what it is. I can’t tell you what it is.

So, she has organisms--"that wasn't the problem"--she didn't want to have organisms.

Oh, God.

Americans are a sex-obsessed people.

"Thank you, Sheikh Mansour."

The world's greatest owner in team sports, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayad al Nahyan.

"Manchester City and Yankees to Own M.L.S. Club."- New York Times.

The Blue Moon is rising over the Big Apple. "New York City Football Club" is a reality. The city and the league could not have a better owner than Sheikh Mansour (75%).  And Sheikh Mansour, MCFC, and MLS now have a presence in the greatest city in the world.

"Russia Angry Over 'Stolen' Eurovision Votes."-Reuters

Rooski! I with you in this fraud! (Rooski know stolen votes: Poot-poot (Ahem)). Nobody cheat Rooski! Rooski, swine Azerbeijan, send them meteor. We lend you ours. Or send them gulag! Send all swine Azerbaijan gulag, Rooski. No peace without the justice!

Good night.

"Miguel Nearly Breaks Woman's Neck With His Crotch At Billboard Awards."-starpulse.com

No, I didn't frigging see that! Frigging MISSED IT, okay? I don't even know who the hell frigging Miguel is!!!! Never frigging heard of him!!!

Billboard 2013 Music Awards.

And now for the Billboard 2013 Music Awards. Justin Bieber...What? I follow this...won best male artist but presenter Miley Cyrus did not concur: 
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=pjjygk-WW9k&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dpjjygk-WW9k

You guys just do not give me enough credit. Miss the BBMA's? Sheet, man it's my favorite night of
the FRIGGING YEAR! Wouldn't miss it for A MILLION FRIGGING DOLLAR BILLS!!!!!!!!! Miss pop music awards? No, man, FRIGGING NO!!!! My frigging eyes were glued to the FRIGGING TV!!!!!!!

"Poll: Ruckus Over Benghazi, IRS Is Driven By Politics."-USA Today.

Sixty percent say the Congressional investigations into Benghazi are more about Republicans trying to score political points.

Oh well.

Wonderful Dagestan!

But Dagestan isn't just about the beaches. Makhachkala, the capital, is also a popular tourist destination. The police are friendly and assist even in cases of routine car trouble.

Images: The second, seventh, and sixteenth Google Images under "Dagestan capital."

Dagestan Occurrences.

The "Republic of Dagestan," home to our friends the Tsarnaevs, was hit with a bomb its own self today. A car bomb killed eight and wounded twenty.

Image: The third Google Image for search keyword "Dagestan beach." Chic.

"Chinese Hackers Resume Attacks on U.S. Targets."-New York Times.

Same Shanghai army unit, 61398.

It's good to have enemies.
That's the last maxim for the day. :) Good night, folks.

When lawyers try a criminal case in America they are very alert to what their opponent says and does  since, overwhelmingly, what your opponent says and does is designed to hurt you. It's very much a zero-sum game.

Russia's thinking re Syria is also zero-sum. The US is Russia's enemy, the US is anti-Assad, therefore it is in Russia's interest to be pro-Assad.

Not everything one lawyer does in a criminal trial hurts the other lawyer's case. You don't have to be very experienced to realize that objecting too much annoys the judge and the jury.

And then there's this. Sometimes one trial lawyer is really good. Good trial lawyers know how to plant credible disinformation in the opponent's mind. In some rare instances a really good trial lawyer knows his opponent so well and has the credibility and the rapport to actually suggest a strategy, appearing to make a slip, but in reality knowing that the other lawyer's zero-sum thinking will cause him to do the opposite. The good lawyer's advice really is in the less-good lawyer's interest to do. But the less-good lawyer thinks in zero-sum terms and so does the opposite. Occasionally, criminal trials turn on such things.

This morning it was Colombia for no apparent reason, right now there's a spike in readership from China, for apparent reason.

China, Russia.

During the Cold War the scales fell slowly from American eyes. "Monolithic communism" was a corpse difficult to keep buried. Nixon, of all people, drove a stake through its heart. The argument for the opening to China was that it was in America's interest to attempt to leverage the wedge that existed between the PRC and the Soviet Union. There is consensus, though not unanimity, that rapprochement with China has been good for America. I am among those who make the consensus non-unanimous but that is done with the perfect vision of hindsight.

We have an opponent in China, which is competent. But she is unsure of herself. This is so new to her that she is still looking for guidance. She does not respect the US, nor does she trust the US. Those three, lack of complete confidence in herself, lack of respect for the US and mistrust, feed each other.

We have another opponent in Russia that is incompetent. She is sure of herself, though. She believes herself to be a competent, great power. She relishes the days when she was the great enemy of the United States for the imprimatur of greatness ran wide.

And so China is now more open to Russian influence and Russia is open to any agreement with anyone, but especially with competent, independent China, to frustrate any aim of its great enemy, the United States.

The view here is, on the whole, this is not a wholly bad thing.

"Russia Sends More Advanced Missiles to Aid Assad in Syria."

There are these maxims in English: "Bad money drives good money out" is one. Another is "Water seeks the lowest level."  China is a more capable civilization than Russia. As an American, I think it is good that China and Russia agree more on things. Chinese-Russian geopolitical harmony is in keeping with the trial lawyer's maxim, "Never interrupt your opponent when he is making a fool of himself."

Image: The Russian and Chinese ambassadors to the United Nations congratulating each other on their joint veto of sanctions against Syria in February.

"Russia Sends More Advanced Missiles To Aid Assad in Syria."-New York Times.

There is not "deep depth" to Russian political calculations. They are aiding Assad because the US is not. There is not great competence in Russia, wasn't when it was the Soviet Union. I don't think the US takes Russia very seriously and I think that's about right. 

Let's carpe the diem.

A good, productive day. Fun too. I think I will sleep well tonight.

Eurovision 2013 Song Contest.

And now for the Eurovision 2013 Song Contest results. Denmark, What? I follow this. through Emmelie de Forest Ah yes, Emmelie. won the Eurovision 2013 Song Contest with her performance of  "Only Teardrops" with 281 points! Wow, 281 is a lot of points. An exuberant Poznan for Ms. de Forest and for DENMARK! Here is the youtube link http://www.youtube.com/embed/k59E7T0H-Us?autoplay=1

Ladies and Euros YOUR Eurovision 2013 Song Contest Winner!

A Polish spike right now. Poles-and only Poles- in the last two hours.

After Islam's September 11, 2001 attacks on America the British government lent to President George W. Bush a bust of Winston Churchill, which Bush displayed in the Oval Office. The British offered to extend the loan when Barack Obama became president. Obama had the bust removed from the Oval Office.

"The unity of Islam is remarkable. There is no doubt that Libya, to whom we have paid £5,000,000 a year, like Jordania, to whom we have paid £10,000,000 or more, are whole-heartedly manifesting hostility."
     -August 9, 1956 letter to his wife, Clementine.

Speaking of professional basketball, as we were at 8:48 this morning, exuberant congratulations to Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player, and the city of Sacramento for the "Kings" will stay put. The mayor, the city, a new investor and the league's commissioner worked against considerable odds to prevent the sale and relocation of the franchise to Seattle. They succeeded.

I am not a slug today. By all rights I should be. I am slug-free and proud.

Sporting News.

The Charlotte "Hornets" are a step closer to resurrection. The 1988 National Basketball Association expansion franchise with the distinctive Alexander Julian uniforms, distinguished nickname and huge following were mismanaged into relocation in 2002. The void in the Carolinas was replaced by another team that has set the standard for ineptitude. Ominously, Michael Jordan will continue to run the franchise but the "Hornets" brand is one step closer to return, replacing the odious "Bobcats." Maybe that will bring the buzz back.

I cannot sleep and the fatigue will come tomorrow when I must be in the office at 10 am and I will not rid myself of it all day. Coming back from a small vacation I felt more alert than I had in awhile. This energy lasted through Wednesday, dropped noticeably on Thursday and Friday I was useless. Fatigue makes cowards of us all and tomorrow will be a fatigued day and I will be a coward. I do not know why this happens. My eyes are sore from the dryness that comes from lack of sleep. I left bed with Carmen for she is asleep and I am tossing and will wake her. Two cowards we do not need, one we may overcome. It is always me. Carmen is the hardest-working human being I have ever met. I will go the guest bedroom now and try to sleep and to get enough of it to not be a slug tomorrow. But that has happened before and I know what to expect. I do not know why this happens to me. My eyes are tired and red but I have not slept so far tonight. I will try now but I expect an unsatisfactory day tomorrow.

Oh well.

Having just been in Canada and having expressed the sentiment, apocryphal, that I would need crack to readjust to life when I got back to the US&A,unfortunate sentiments, unfortunately expressed, totally apocryphal,--but timely--one can imagine the jolt I received today that someone named "Rob Ford," who looks like a blood relative of Rush Limbaugh, was the actual mayor of Toronto-in-Canada, and that there is, allegedly, an actual video of "Rob Ford," actually-allegedly-smoking alleged cocaine of the crack variety. One can imagine that one did not expect the mayor of Toronto-in-Canada to be on any substance more potent than coffee "...regular...percolated." One can imagine that, can't one?

Image: Mayor Ford with some alleged supporters of the Hoodie persuasion, one of them allegedly of the deceased persuasion at the current moment in time.

I assert the legally-recognized affirmative defense of entrapment on that: The government cannot give a law-abiding citizen a picture of an officer conducting roadside tests AND THEN a picture of Drinking Bacchus AND THEN a picture of a guy holding an umbrella over the president's head...Arright fine! Maybe it's not "legally" entrapment but the argument's the same. Reuters is pretty close to being an agent of the gov...Wait, PLUS, it's legal impossibility: there's ground separating the imbibing cherub and the president's head.  Ha-ha-ha. The defense rests you make me sick.

Arright fine! Maybe I did but I MISSED. I couldn't align the two images correctly. The urine stream is almost-but not quite-aligned with the smokey's head and unless I am very much mistaken this is an offense in which the attempt and the completed act do NOT merge. So...there.
                                                                          

I did NOT deliberately position the smokey underneath the urine stream of Drinking Bacchus. Now you're casting aspersions on my asparagus. It was just an unfortunate juxtaposition.

That's Reuters' photo of the day. That's awesome.