Scary

A map of single men vs. single women. It looks like all the single men are on the West Coast and all the single women on the East Coast.

40,000 + more single men in LA than women. No wonder...

But Don't You See

Of course, drawing down in Iraq is the goal. When it is reasonable to do so. Articulating it in these terms is the correct way to approach it. But not for most liberals - they want capitulation, they want to pull out of Iraq in shame of what we did. It would not be enough to pull troops home in a reasonable fashion - it needs to be accompanied with castration.

Ridiculous

Sullivan and a lot of other think it's totally foolish to stick in Iraq. That doing so requires lying to ourselves about the possibility of "success" there.

But how is it not equally foolish to say we've lost two wars - against AQ and in Iraq? Does our society look like a loser of a war? If we've just lost, I'd say everyone should be so lucky.

Iraq Debate Hiatus

I thought after the appropriations went through, the Iraq debate was on hold until September when Petraeus is scheduled to report. Here is an article outlining how the surge is working already.

At this point, whether one agrees with the war or not, it seems reasonable to wait until September to get the report from the ground...and then decide from there the best strategy.

UPDATE: Ouch - yes, that does put a hole in the article. But I still agree with it.

100 Years Time

Does what happens now and in the next decade in Iraq matter for the next 100 years? I've always thought so. I guess that's where I agree with Al Queda and not with most Americans. It seems to me most Americans think what happens in Iraq doesn't matter much in the scheme of things. Not unlike Vietnam, which when all things considered, doesn't matter much to the world, just to the American psyche. And of course, to the Vietnamese and a few neighboring states - Cambodia, Laos, etc.

And the article is right - Bush seems to be wrong on a lot of things, but on what I believe to be the biggest issue facing America (and frankly, the world), today, I think he gets it right.

Oh well.

How I Know I'm Not Gay or Homophobic

In hindsight, I'm surprised this hasn't come up before at my Netflix position, but today I got my first gay softcore porn film. In the que it appeared as "Sideline Secrets," and I thought - cool, maybe a documentary about coaching. Stupid idiot.

So I start watching and I quickly realize this is a gay coming out drama. Fine. Then ten minutes in, we get a masturbation scene. Unartful and unpleasant. Again, fine. Then, we get a shower scene. How are we brought into the scene? A close up cock shot. WTF? Totally gratuitous. Unnecessary.

Have I ever complained about gratuitous violence, boobs, vaginas? No. Does this make me a hypocrite? I don't give a shit.

I was tempted to opt out of watching, but either my work ethic, curiousity, or shame (of maybe being too homophobic) forced me to trudge through. And there were lots more fantasy sequences, unnecessary shirt removals, ass rape, blow jobs, random nakedness, and a whole lot of showers. These gays were very clean.

There were time where I was not paying close attention to the image, but rather the clock in the corner because yes, I had to look away. Luckily it was softcore.

BUT...through this experience, I have come to conclude that I am not homophobic. Why? Because while watching this movie I found nothing morally repugnant about the characters, I felt no ill will towards them or their actions (except for the ass rapist), and at times I sympathize with a gay guy longing for someone or being ostracized.

But before admitting to being open minded, one factual problem remains - it's gross!Low budget pimply faced, ugly assed gay dudes making out with each other, naked and hairy and gangly and in threesomes in bathtubs is motherfucking disgusting to look at. Objectively.

Would it be equally gross if fat, hairy, cherubish women were doing the same? No, not equally, but still gross. Girls are prettier than guys. Sorry. They are. Guys are better at sports. They are faster runners. Girls are softer, prettier, more pleasant to look at. I'm freaking sorry, it's true, and it's not homophobic.

Anger

Isn't the desire to leave now Iraq just anger and bitterness towards the Bush administration ineptly handling the situation?

What Are We Going To Do?

Fight these savages everywhere? Well, yes.

That's A 50 Year Old



Like Sullivan, I'm allergic to self righteous pop stars, but this is just plain badass.

Jeans

Been needing a new pair of jeans for awhile now. Sometime ago, I decided against fashionable, expensive jeans in favor of Levis since I like them good enough and my last fashionable pair of jeans ripped apart at what I thought was a premature age for jeans to die. But since I don't shop very much, I'm not too savvy about what different stores offer. In short, I didn't know where to go to get Levis. I thought a mall would surely have them, so while in Glendale today, I stopped by the Galleria area and went into Nordstrom. To put into perspective, Nordstrom has always basically been my home base for shopping, resulting from the proximity of the department store to my house while growing up. At this mall the two main stores were Nordstrom and Macy's and the Nordstrom men's section was a tad better than the Macy's. They used to have big sales once or twice a year and you could load up on good clothes for fairly reasonable prices.

In Nordstrom today I look around for jeans. I'm not joking, the least expensive jeans I found were $180. For jeans. What happened? I remember when there were a only very few brands that could pull of this ridiculous overpricing. I consider $80 jeans expensive - so there was no way I was going to even try on one of these uber costly jeans. I ask the gay guy wearing a Ben Sherman suit if they had Levis. He said, "No. Try Mervin's." He tried not to be insulting, but I don't think one can say "Try Mervin's," while dressing nicely without being insulting. So I did. Sure enough, Mervin's had loads of Levis - on sale. Granted 80% of them were lame, but I found two cuts I liked and got a couple of pairs. Total price: $69. For two. That's what I'm talking about.

A Problem We Face

We can't bomb Waziristan back to the stone age, since they are already in it.

Interesting Point

Sure, Americans see it as a right to dissent and see things from another perspective...even the perspective of our enemies. The irony, of course, is that our enemies don't care whether we dissent or not - they dislike us all equally.

Wine Country Chronicle

9:30am - Scheduled departure time.

9:45am - Everyone arrives - Jake, Phil, and I. We debate who will drive. Phil's car has a busted headlight. My car is stick shift and has no ipod connector. Jake is hungover. Jake drives.

10:00am - Stop at Western bagel. Eat bagels in the car - fairly messy and difficult.

10:45am - Get caught in massive traffic on 101.

12:30pm - Stop for gas and McDonalds.

1pm - Massive traffic thins out after Ojai.

1:45pm - Drive past a huge Indian casino.

2pm - Stop at Kalyra Winery, where Miles and Jack meet Stephanie in Sideways. Get a tasting for $7. Lots of girls. We see a bachlorette party dressed in all pink tank tops, but do not talk with them. I can't remember all the wines we taste. We started with a Chardonay and another white followed by four reds and two dessert wines.

2:45pm - We head towards Lompoc and drive through Solvang, a kitchy tourist town, where the Hitching Post is. We decide it might take too long to drive out to Lompoc and want to hit as many wineries as we can before 5pm, when most close. We turn around and head towards Los Olivos.

3pm - We decide to hit the next winery we drive past, regardless if it was in Sideways. We stumble across Rideau Winery. This place is nice. Cheese samples, artichoke dip, free jumbalaya. Of course the wine tasting costs $15 and no bottle is under $60. Similar to Kalyra, we start with a Chardonay followed by another white and onto the reds, Pinots and Syrah's. The wine was tastier but in small portions. This winery is total luxury in the the middle of the country. The pourer is a young girl with pretentious, albeit probably good, taste.

3:45pm - Lincourt winery is right down the street. We hit it up. This is my favorite winery. The wine area is small and so people don't linger at the counter and have to move about, creating a more social atmosphere. It pays off as we get to talking with a group of young girls from LA. They take our picture - the one posted above. They have a wine tour guide whose been taking them around to avoid driving. Good idea. She recommends a winery right up the street we can hit right before closing. We agree to possibly meet up with the girls later at the Casino or the Hitching Post. I think the lady pouring wine must like me because she pours my glasses consistently larger than Phil's.

4:45pm - Just before closing we find Blackburn winery. Only us and a couple remain. We are feeling a little saucy right now. We ask about Sideways and the pourer and the other lady tasting didn't like the movie. I got a bit hostile and defensive. We drank wine and it was clear the owners wanted us out of there right at 5pm. We drank quickly and were off.

5:30pm - Excited because of the potential of meeting up with ladies later in the evening, we decide to change our hotel reservations and find one closer to Solvang, the Hitching Post, and the Casino. We stop at cutesy motels, figuring they can't be too expensive. The first one is $200 (our hotel in Lompoc is $125 with two double bets) and has a pool. The one next door is $150. We take it and plot to break into the pool next door later on.

5:45pm - Get our stuff into the hotel and clean up a bit.

6pm - Hit a tasting room right down the street. We get generous pours and each of us try the different types of grapes we liked during the day. They poured the wine into a little glass thing and then from that into the wine glass.

7:15pm - Try to get into the Hitching Post early. It is busy and we can't. We decide to drive down the street to the hotel where Miles and Jack stay and drink beer at the sports bar.

Sports bar - we get a pitcher of beer and play cut throat. Jake dominates the game. The girls haven't called and we regret not getting their number. Stupid.

8:45pm - Hitching Post. We get a nice seat and the atmosphere is just like the movie, with a little bit darker light. We order Pinot and steaks. Yum. Food is good, except I think I chip off a piece of a molar. We get into a big argument about whether Death Proof is a good movie. Other patrons can definitely hear us and must of thought we were obnoxious.

10:25pm - Girls still don't call, they must have met other guys. We head towards the Casino. We drive along dark highway roads, but the full moon illuminates the surrounding hills. We finally figure we went the wrong way. We turn around, head back, and find the Casino. We totally passed it.

Casino - the place is packed. This area is pretty sparcely populated, so it is incredible to see how many people are in the Casino. There is no drinking allowed. We get cash from the ATM. I play blackjack for $10 a hand and get up $60. Then I lose massively and start betting bigger (I know it sounds stupid, but sometimes I play against the grain) and end up getting down $50. I quit. Jake plays 3 card poker and wins around $60. We hear a rumor about a bar.

11:30pm - We try to find this bar and get lost in a small town with about 3 streets. We drive up and down the blocks and see about 1 person. We drive back towards the main road and stop at a gas station. Jake asks random people driving in cars where the place is. We get directions. We stumble upon a parking lot and see a place with people streaming out the front doors drinking.

11:45pm - We roll up to the bar and bad pop music plays on the dancefloor (yes, there is a dancefloor). We see the girls in the distance...with two other guys. They charge us $5 at the door. Should've been a sign. We enter and somehow Phil gets lost. A really thick guy comes up to me the minute I walk in the bar and asks whether I have pepper spray. I say no. He pushes me aside and says get outta my way. I had no idea how to react. I order beers. Jake is angry at the situation. Phil comes in with the bouncer and it turns out our IDs had gotten switched around. We get our beers.

12am - We start talking to the girls again, but it isn't nearly as fun with competing dudes and the ever present feel of a fight about to break out.

12:15am - We leave.

12:30am - A final stop at the Hotel sports bar with the pool and a final beer. We ponder how we handled the situation with the beef cake who was looking for a fight. We are miserable, drunk, and tired.

1am - Back at the hotel we watch The Bodyguard and The Thomas Crowne affair until we fall asleep.

10am - Breakfast at the nice diner across the street.

Head home.

A Timeline

Of Hamas.

This is a detailed timeline of different Hamas tactics employed in their early years that paved the way for the organization. So many Americans think these jihadist organizations spring up as a result of Israel or American foreign policy, when in fact, they are calculated movements designed with a specific purpose in mind and a long term strategy. To effectively combat them, we need to knock at their weak points and frustrate their their short and long term strategic goals. Then they will wither away.

London and Glasgow Terror Plots

CBS news reports that the plotters were recruited by AQ in Iraq.

This event strikes me as rather significant on several levels. When I first heard about it, I was surprised that highly educated medical professionals with decent jobs would be willing to engage in terrorism. In the past, there have been highly intelligent terrorists, namely Mohammed Atta...who acted as ringleaders for big plots, but most of the guys involved were idiots. The most notable example being Richard Reid, the half retarded shoe bomber. I can see a fanatic like Atta, a dedicated and celebrated jihadist throwing his entire life into the jihadist cause. It gave him purpose, meaning, celebrity, and the satisfaction of a job well done. Perhaps he could not achieve any such fame or glory in any other profession. And I can see how idiots can be talked into anything, including blowing themselves up.

Additionally, I even understand the home grown terrorists, second generation immigrants feeling ostracized in their home countries turning to radical acts of violence in a late teen, early adult thrashing out of displaced masculine values. They see the news get crazy ideas and influences from terrorists. These types are not dissimilar from the Columbine shooters in America.

But this third group, the group caught in London and Glasgow, is a bit worrisome to me because I don't quite understand them. Here are guys with lives and professions who presumably get some type of satisfaction from their work and seem to be doing fine and well in their adopted country. They are obviously all rational, intelligent human beings, and must be able to see through the transparency of the stupid jihadists. Fine, they have a beef with Britain and probably the West at large, but they must share a similar beef with a silly ideology like Jihad. But furthermore - even if push cames to shove and they would choose Jihad over the West - committing to an act of terror (and a relatively small one at that), almost seems not worth their talents. This strikes me as odd and frankly, irrational.

On the last level, they failed. It seems like total dumb luck from the article that the bomb simply didn't go off with the cell phone timer. Hey, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often, knowing how often my alarm doesn't go off or my computer stalls or I drop a call. But if I were plotting a terrorist attack, I'd know damn well I got one shot at it and would make damn sure to see it through. These guys failed in that regard.

But anyhow, the CBS report above says they were recruited by AQ in Iraq to infiltrate Britain. This makes more sense to me, that they weren't in Britain by choice, but because of the mission and hence kept their heads down and appeared to be good citizens. This puts them in the Atta category and not some new category of Jihadist style. I'll try to keep up on the story and developments.

New Genres

The Jihadists are exploring a new genre of filmmaking, moving away from the pornographic beheading horror pics into pornographic gay sex pics. Good for them.

If They Weren't Filmmakers...

Peter Bogdanovich - Professor of Literature
Lars Von Trier - Serial Killer
Quentin Tarantino - Comic Book Store Clerk
David Lynch - Weatherman or Painter
Werner Herzog - Explorer
Michael Mann - Safe Builder
David O'Russell -
Woody Allen -
Steven Soderburgh -

to be continued

Jihadists

Walid Phares outlines how understanding Jihadist ideology and techniques explain the recent events in Gaza.

Learning From Mistakes

We know Al Queda adapts, but so do we. How US commanders are taking past lessons from Iraq and employing them successfully against the enemy.

Leave It to HBO

To come up with something interesting to play with online.