Gbagbo fighters patrolling Abidjan: No wonder they lost! Call that stubbie a Technical?
Today the action moves south, off the Libyan beaches and into the rain forest of the Ivory Coast, where rebel forces have just taken the big city, Abidjan. It just cheers me up to write a good old-school line like that: “Rebel forces have just taken the big city…”
But although they moved fast at the end, it’s been a long, slow wrestle in Ivory Coast, with the Muslims from the North getting stronger year by year and the old French-trained coastal Christian tribes losing out so slowly they couldn’t believe it themselves.
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Rebels doing what they do best: fleeing.
Libya is such a pitiful mess that it should keep the scriptwriters going for years.
For the dummies, you’ve got a good and evil story, with Qaddafi as the bad guy. Somewhere in Hollywood, producers are hitting scriptwriters on the heads to help them come up with an inspiring title for the upcoming Libya flick. I’m betting they’ll go for something automotive, thanks to all those pictures of Libyan rebels commuting to battle in their SUVs.
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Khamis The Intern: Who In Their Right Mind Would Give Up Something This Promising?
The funniest story to come out of the Libya video game yet is the news that Qaddafi’s son, Khamis–one of however many the old man popped out in his big tent (Qaddafi is the original believer in the big-tent theory, with girls of all nations in the various tent zones)–has outraged the LA engineering firm called AECOM that hired him by going home and shooting down heroic rebels.
Two things: I guess this is the final word that the protesters or rebels are the heroes. Everbody got that? Synchronize your moral compasses to True North and Total Goodness. (more…)
How much would you pay for this dead reb?
First a quick clear-up on something I said yesterday. These clear-up urges seem to come with the daily posting territory. Every night I go to bed thinking I should’ve said something better, or added a link, or something like that. But the good part is, I can come back the next morning and do it.The point I wanted to clear up today was why V/STOL technology is a sensible design cost for some planes and not others. We were talking about the Harrier, where it’s not a good idea. That’s because the Harrier is a fighter, and as inflight refueling gets better and better, the need for good shock absorbers and V/STOL on a fighter goes down, because a fighter has no reason to land on what those Gettysburg guys would call “bad ground.” (I never heard people talk about “ground” as much as in that movie; it was like listening to landscape gardeners in uniform.) In fact, if a fighter or fighter pilot touches the ground at all before it gets home, something has likely gone seriously wrong.
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If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s an 80s revivial. You’re in Safeway stocking up for the night and start feeling rotten without knowing why. Then you catch a familiar syrupy drama-club vocal and you realize, Oh yeah, it hey’re playing one of those 80s revival songs on the muzak.
That’s how I felt this weekend when I saw a picture of the USMC Harrier AV8B “Jump Jet” (even that sounds like an 80s band), a classic 80s freak of procurement infighting. The Harrier is getting its picture on the news because it’s supposedly “hitting targets inside Libya.” What it’s actually doing is showing the flag, and I don’t mean the stars and stripes. I mean Marine Corps Air Wing. The story of the AV8B is just one long series of turf wars. As a weapon of war, the AV8B is a joke, but as a turf-weapon, a blunt instrument for the Corps to whack the Navy with, it’s a killer.
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Sunday, the day the Lord appointed for revenge. And who better to practice on than the Luzer who reviewed my book back in 2008? Luzer is actually his name. Seriously, Daniel Luzer. Luzer reviewed my book for some goody-goody lefty magazine called Mother Jones.
I don’t know that magazine, “Mother Jones,” but I know I’d hate it.
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My first Saturday blog. I promised seven days a week and I’ll deliver. To be honest “giving up my weekend” is not as much of a sacrifice as people seem to think. It’s not like I’m closing down all the local clubs, hitting the slopes at Tahoe, whatever. A good Friday for me is: Put Gettysburg on and watch Pickett’s Charge three or four times. I’ve been reading Shelby Foote’s Dixie-sucking histories again and they piss me off so bad I can’t get enough of seeing double loads of canister blast that fence, sending those big babies from ol’ Virginny flying up in the air to rethink their position on the constitutionality of secession.
But since Saturday seems to be an excuse to slack off for most people I figured I’ll take advantage and keep my Sat entries pretty fast. So just a couple of things. (more…)
