Counterpoint

My bipolar condition is kicking in right about now.

A little something from the Commentaries of the Maud'Dib (if you don't know who that is - your loss...)

Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.

I write this as I look at mountains. I see Iron Mountain, dominating the large window frame. I see the runs of Dreamscape and Dreamcatcher to the right and the runs of PCMR obscured by the diminutive bulk of Quarry Mountain. Bald Mountain is obscured in the clouds...

Snow blankets the earth, outside is filled with the noise of the highway, with the smells of nearby restaurants comingled with that of the highway. Here I sit, before me a picture of serene, stark beauty, cold in its depth, warm in the body and cold in the heart. My solitude is punctuated by little, only the tapping of the keys, and the muttering of voices behind me.

What does this reflection indicate to my soul, what truths from it do I glean?

Yep, that's right - life fucking sucks, (but I'll qualify it with) at times. Then in the next moment you remove yourself from your own self pity and shame and realize that the world doesn't give a shit if you're happy or not. Happiness is like the lands of Elysium. Something we all can attain in death, but we only get fleeting glimpses of it in life. I have determined that happiness is what you make. It's not a state that we wretches naturally dwell in. The gossamer sheen it places on moments in life are what make us pick ourselves up and in the immortal words of the Chairman of the Board "...get back in the race. That's Life. And as funny as it may seem, some people get their kicks stomping on a dream..."

To again hold her hands and look into her eyes on the shores of the sea.

Crazed American, out.

On Life

The Crazed American opines:

Life - sometimes it fucking sucks.

That is all.

Crazed American, out.

More on the NorK launch

via Drudgereport.com:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/15/us-failed-to-use-best-radar-for-n-korea-missile/

So, according to the story Defense Secretary Robert Gates denied Northern Command from using the SBX, a very expensive, highly capable, and extremely advanced anti-missile radar. Our best radar system out there.

"Why that dirty rascal! He's endangering us!" Some people would say.

Some people would say that, and some people would be wrong...

I agree with Secretary Gates. Why not use our best, most advanced, most capable radar system?

Easy, probably because the Russians and the Chinese wanted us to use it, so they could analyze the response a signals and energies that it generated. The more knowledge that they have about the SBX system, the more likely they are to be able to generate an effective deterrent or countermeasure, that would allow them to at least reduce it's effectiveness, should the big balloon go up and the "powers that be" decide it's time for us to live in the Stone Age again.

Also, I agree that Secretary Gates said that we didn't need to use it. The NorK Missile was very primitve, so using the SBX to track it would be like using a high powered searchlight of 500 billion candle power to look for an elephant in a room with you. A small flashlight would be just as effective. I'm quite positive the US Air Force and the US Navy kept a very close eye on things, with pre-existing systems. Not to mention, the pre-exisiting systems were on Anti-Satelite SM-3 armed Aegis Cruisers.

Good call. No reason to give the Chinese and the Russians a look at an "operational test".

Shrewd. Kudos.

I still think we should bomb the launch facility, especially now that the NorKs have promised to continue missile testing and have vowed to restart their nuclear research.

Interesting times,

Crazed American

Here we go...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_nkorea_missile

The NorKs launched their bird. Looks like nobody did nuthin'.

Diplomacy in action. The chess game begins, now. NorK's start exporting medium range ballistic missiles, now. The Iranians get to use some of this tech, now.

Iran can now hit London, folks...

I ask anyone - the NorK's said this was for a communications satellite launch - not a test of MRBM's. Let me guess no satellite?

F-ckers.

And we did nothing. Now, let's scold them some more.

Crazed American Quote of the Year:

People - individuals, they can get together with other individuals and build great and terrible things, like babies, moon rockets, symphonies, atom bombs. Countries and nations, act either like petty children or like base animals. The larger the group of people, the lower their behavior.

F-ck it. I spent two days of skiing in some of the best powder conditions that I've seen in a while. I spent quality time with my child.

My country is being run by amateurs and the corrupt (no favors, I mean the absolute lot of them). The Crazed American is thinking about running for elected office, or heading for the hills, haven't quite figured out which. Let y'all know real soon, like.

That is all,

the Crazed American

Still here...

What with the US government passing a 3.6 trillion dollar "budget", the NorKs getting ready to touch off their "Roman Candle", the Chinese government confident enough in their new "SuperCarrier Killer" that they leak it to the press, and other, not too pleasant things happening in the Crazed American's personal arena, I've been a tad preoccupied.

Apologies.

Hopefully in a few days I'll be able to post a snarky comment about the failed NorK Missile. Or a realtively deatiled analysis of Japanese Air and Ballistic missile defense. Or a snarky post about Michelle Obama giving the Queen of England a nice big hug (according to about oh, three thousand years of accepted protocol, you do NOT hug a sitting Monarch - sh*t, even I know that). Oh, and Mr. President, the Queen already had an iPod.

Maybe I already got the snarky Obama post out of the way.

Freedom and Liberty,

The Crazed American

Oh, joy...

http://closingvelocity.typepad.com/closing_velocity/2009/03/aloha-north-korea-announces-detailed-missile-flight-plan.html

And I have stolen McKittrick's graphic as well. All credit goes ti him, I take none - just tryin' to get the word out, brother...

Great - wonder what SIOP says 'bout the NorK's lobbing missiles at us.

Guess thas might fit under the "engineered crisis" that Joe "gimme a f--kin' break" Biden was talking about right before and after the election...

As Dirty Harry used to say: "Marvelous."

Good.

Japan warns it may shoot down North Korean satellite launcher

Read the rest of it here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/13/north-korea-japan-nuclear-missile

The Crazed American is all for allowing Japan to defend itself. Now let's sell them a boat load of F22's. All profit to go to reducing the national debt, and it keeps the bloody NorKs off kilter.

Good hunting, JASDF...

Sorry

Apologies for not posting. Too busy preparing for the coming societal collapse, or the writing of my book, whichever comes first.

Hopefully the book.

F--k it.

I think I may be done with the whole "follow the news" thing. Fu-k it - I think I may be all for letting "Rome" "burn".

TARP was a bad thing.

The "Stimulus" is a bad thing.

This:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/science/earth/19epa.html?_r=1

is a very bad thing.

THE SCIENCE IS NOT SETTLED.

This is noting but a method to further damage an already crippled economy. They will be able to control everything now. the horizontal and the vertical.

Thanks for making me sound paranoid.

Thanks for trying to regulate a natural by product of life as a pollutant.

I officially reserve the right to smugly say, "I told you so".

Hasta la pasta,

the Crazed American
Opposition Website author and soon to be fugitive from "justice"

M4 Training

A video - excellent stress inducing firearms training. Not for the faint of heart (NSFW - language), or people who don't like South African "contractors".