A Second Hand Conjecture

Here’s wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat well and be merry.
From the Staff at ASHC

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Or lack thereof:

What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Midland

“You have a Midland accent” is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston […]

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Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous!
You drink everyone under the table.

Who’s Your Inner European?
 
I saw this over at McQ’s. Frankly this surprised me. While, I think it fits, the questions led me to answers I figured would send me somewhere else. Of course I used to be Irish on my mothers side, until I […]

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Heh. Of course there is some evidence these tactics might work.

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Brian Doherty accepts the possibility of victory, however defined, and then goes on to argue that that still does not make the invasion a good idea. I have some quibbles, but for the most part he is right. While he makes some trenchant arguments against taking positive lessons from Iraq, his answer for how we […]

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Posted alongside many other things at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

Barry McCaffery, who lost the drug war on two continents and failed upward to a professor’s post at West Point, is applying his strategic expertise to the Air Force. He thinks USAF needs hundreds more F-22s (at $340 million each, and still riddled with decades-old […]

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Just a few of good articles to read this weekend:
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(1) Robert Tracinski, Real Clear Politics, The Historic Significance of Atlas Shrugged —
“October 10 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand’s classic novel Atlas Shrugged, so in the coming week we can expect to see a flurry of articles about […]

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I’m headed up to New York for a (not) relaxing 4-day weekend. So no news brief tomorrow. Or Monday… but lots of great stuff will be there (or not) over at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

Fabius Maximus has posted his latest essay on the Long War, and our prospects for the future. I mostly agree […]

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I’m in in ur browser, killing ur time, over at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

We’ll see if the CSIS Smart Power blog has anything interesting to say. So far, it’s nothing new, or at least nothing interesting.
Michael Kinsey on the childish antics of MoveOn.org… and how it’s highlighted the politics of umbrage.
Salam Adil at Global […]

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Most likely sober over at The Conjectuer.
Defense & The War

We still haven’t figured out how to bolster the Afghan police properly.
Michael didn’t like me accusing Blackwater employees of a “history of murdering civilians,” nor did he think I was right in claiming PMCs in Iraq operate outside the law. While he may be technically correct […]

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Austin Bay makes some good points today on what Petraeus’ report to Congress will likely entail, and why it is important.
Petraeus’ report is a creature of this instantaneous and pervasive media. For better or worse, he is responding to the condition and using the condition.
War doesn’t operate on media time or political calendars. Petraeus’ report […]

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But the Iraq war is lost, he needs to buck up and keep listening to the Democrats…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070829/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_070828233021;_ylt=AoCk9gzhUvXd3Kl5S9qQA78E1vAI
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, and it will no longer attack U.S. and coalition troops, aides said Wednesday.
The aide, Sheik Hazim al-Araji, […]

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McQ reminds us that we lost a true legend 17 years ago today. He offers a suitable paean to guitar master, but I wanted to contribute a taste of what I think may Stevie one the best of all time. From MTV’s “Unplugged” series:

and from the American Caravan, the “Oreo Cookie Blues” (with […]

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Teaching your girlfriend that thing you said you like over at The Conjecturer.
Defense and the War

The reconciliation deal is of course welcome news. Lance urges proper caution (in particular because the Baath Party is none too pleased with the changes in de-Baathification), as Maliki has proven a marked ability not to hold these together. I […]

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I, for one, am happy with this result. The man clearly had no control over his department and revelled a little too much in novel legal theories rather than hard analysis.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced his resignation today, ending a controversial cabinet tenure that included clashes with Congress over the firing of nine […]

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In ur X, Y-ing ur Z at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

Mark your calendars: GIT Rockin’, the Battle of the GovernmentIT Bands, is coming up on October 18 at the State Theater in Falls Church. It is for both rockers and enthusiasts, but I know what I’m looking forward to: The DISA-Peering Act, and not […]

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Hat tip: Tyler Cowen.
Much more here. For those unfamiliar with Trompe l oeil go here. This site has some background on the artist featured in these photographs and other interesting examples.

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As always, repeated at The Conjecturer.
Defense

Quote of the Day definitely goes to Anthony Cordesman, who accompanied Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack to Iraq. His take? “[T]he US now has only uncertain, high risk options in Iraq. It cannot dictate Iraq’s future, only influence it, and this presents serious problems at a time when the […]

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If you take a gander over at the right side of the page, you may notice that we’ve updated the blogroll with one new category (Milbloggers) and several additions to the Legal Morass category. Take some time to browse through the links and enjoy the fine commentary.
If you have a blog that […]

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McQ beat me to it on the campaign to discredit General Petraeus as an Bush administration hack. This is doubly ironic considering Petraeus’ long standing and cogent criticism of the way the war was being fought. A man so devoted to changing things he bucked traditional combat doctrine and pushed hard, with career risk involved, […]

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Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense

The nasty business of involving yourself with the Sunni militias. And 85 people were killed after a bomb exploded in Kirkuk. But there weren’t Coalition casualties, so clearly THE SURGE is working.
Much like with General Pace, it appears General Petraeus is on track to be Bush’s sacrificial lamb. Of course, he knew […]

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For those amongst you looking for more from Fred Thompson RedState has a series of interviews for you to listen to. Fred starts with a discussion of his potential candidacy and Scooter Libby. He follows with his views on Iraq and ends discussing being a fiscal conservative, and what he’d do first as President.
He is […]

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It seems that we rather quietly passed our first anniversary, and reached our 1,000th post, all without the requisite kudos and fanfare. Over the past year, ASHC has grown from just Lance (with a few posts from Robby), to a triumverate, then there were four, and now we are 4+. Along the way […]

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At least according to this website.

Why are we blessed with this scandalous rating?
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
* suicide (9x)
* bomb (5x)
* torture (4x)
* dick (3x)
* gun (2x)
[…]

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To all of you fathers out there raising your kids, here’s wishing you a happy Father’s Day. Now that I too am a father, I have a much greater appreciation for the devotion it takes. So, in partial payment of the incredible debt due to the man who helped raise me, the only […]

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Or the clean mountain air…

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Martin Luther
Sometimes you just have to remind yourself that there’s more to life then the daily squabbling of the chatterati about the daily news.

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This lovely angel is Tania Derveaux, the NEE party candidate for the Belgian Senate. Nee is the Belgian equivalent of “None of the Above.”
Tania has a problem with the dishonest and unrealistic promises most politicians make while running for office:
It started with our response to incredible claims that were made by other parties in Belgium, […]

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This has been pointed out elsewhere, but according to Secretary Gates:
a short-term funding bill would be very disruptive and “have a huge impact” on contracts to repair and replace equipment. The Defense Department, he said, just doesn’t “have the agility to manage a two month appropriation.” […] …if Congress votes again in July, but rejects […]

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It’s funny how sometimes its the little one-off posts that generate so much attention. The “Hoos for Hokies” post featuring pictures of Beta Bridge in Charlottesville has garnered a huge number of hits and one commenter even requested info regarding procuring a Hoos for Hokies shirt to sport around Wytheville, VA. Towards that end, in […]

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My wife (a University of Virginia girl) just sent me these pictures of Beta Bridge in Charlottesville, VA where the University of Virginia is located.

Beta Bridge is a small bridge located on Rugby Rd. that runs past most of the fraternities and sororities. It is routinely painted and re-painted.

For those who don’t know, there […]

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