von Baur

If they create the light saber, can the Death Star be far behind?

"What motivated you to do the many things you've accomplished?" Sorry, but the answer to this is simple and universal. Anything that any of us has done, great or not-so-great, comes down to being in the right place at the right time and having the mindset of, "If not me, who? And if not now, when?" Either one without the other and you're a spectator to history. Both and you make history.

EWW!! Sounds disgusting. Chinese proctologist: Way Up Yu

I heard about that. I'm just north of you, southern Missouri. The price of living in the midwest.

Is anyone else sick and tired of the solemn (read that "funeral dirge-like") and personalized (read that "lots of notes that weren't in the original") renditions of The Star Spangled Banner being sung at sporting events these days? I just witnessed...make that suffered through...the opening of the Blues/Blackhawks game (not my fault...a lightning-caused momentary power interruption sent my satellite receiver into reset and when it was done that's what was on and I was in the kitchen making a sandwich and couldn't change channels). This moron, who is probably some sort of opera singer, started out a little slow for my taste but at a reasonable tempo. When he hit "And the rockets' red glare" he slowed down. He slowed even more as he began the last stanza and more still as he sang "o'er the la-a-a-and of the free-hee-hee" (I'm not joking, that's what he said). Honestly, he sounded like he needed someone to stick a key in his back and wind him up again. I wasn't sure he'd make it through the whole song. I can sing it all in about a minute and a half. I've heard people take nearly five minutes. More than two and you're losing your audience. Sure, they'll cheer when you're done...because you're DONE!!! Note to all you "artists" out there who want to do something with MY* national anthem: it's not a funeral march, it's a song of DEFIANCE! When Key wrote those words the United States was under attack. Fort McHenry was being bombarded ("the bombs bursting in air") by naval artillery, including the new Congreve rocket ("the rockets' red glare"). The poem was a kind of nose-thumbing, a kind of trash-talking. He was saying, "You think you're big and bad? You know where we are and we ain't goin' nowhere. Come get some." By the way, he wrote it while he was being held on a British ship. Right under their noses. Talk about defiance. Another thing. It was first published not as a song but as a poem. But the music it was set to wasn't made later to fit the words. It was an old English drinking song. And I don't think that was an accident, I think Key wrote the poem to the meter of the song because he wanted to invoke the kind of bravado and euphoria that goes along with people having a good time and maybe getting a bit drunk. Have you ever walked into a bar and heard a lot of mopey, depressing music? I haven't. If you want to trill a little...a little...that's one thing. But when you're singing twice as many syllables as Key wrote there's something wrong. Bottom line, sing it like it was written and like you're in a bar with friends, not like you're in a church. *(I called it MY national anthem, but I'll share it with anyone who likes it. Just don't break it while you've got it, ok?)

to Milktrout: What the heck is a milktrout? Sorry, had to be said. But seriously: Read my fourth paragraph: Fact-Key was a lawyer and therefore good with words. Fact-He'd been held on a British ship all night. Fact-The tune The Star-Spangled Banner was set to was a popular British drinking song at the time. Fact-The tune is somewhat awkward. Fact-The lyrics fit the tune rather well. In fact, IMO they fit it better than the original words. Reasonable supposition-There may have been some drinking going on among the British sailors. If so, there may have been some singing. If so, that song may have been sung. Given all that, I think it's safe to assume that Key wrote the words to fit that particular tune. Or at least with that tune in mind. I don't know, I wasn't there. For that matter nobody alive was there, except maybe Shirley Maclaine (how many of you get that reference?). But as I said...I think we can assume that. To fallenphoenix: I know the feeling.

Yeah, but I bet it wasn't as funny.

Agreed, Whiteknight. How would Bruce Springsteen's fans like it if we crooned "Born to Run" like a ballad? Or the Stones' *Paint It Black"? Maybe we could do "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in a more Japanese style. There's a reason the songs became hits in the way they did. Change anything and you change everything. **edit** Oh, and that tune may not be easy, but I disagree that it's not "catchy" (as in recognizeable). All you need is the first three notes and you know what it is.

What you may not understand is that "Drone" is Portugese for "diver". That's their entry for the Olympics diving competiion.

Just stay out of gun range and you'll be ok. All their rockets are Hung.

Then, what? Should we let Glen Miller (white supremist who recently killed three people at a Jewish center and retirement village in the Kansas City area and shouted "Heil Hitler" from the police car when he was arrested) because his tally was so low? NO!!! Wrong is wrong, whether it hurts one or one million. Any other stance is unsupportable by a reasonable individual. BTW, all of Miller's victims were white protestants, the very group he purported to be "protecting". So not only is he an idiot, he's an incompetent idiot.

I agree with JediMaster's first post up to the point of a military demonstration of power. I think the Chinese are smart enough to understand that offensive military action, even just for demonstration purposes, is bad for everyone, even the victors. At least I haven't seen anything from their leadership to suggest otherwise. And they've seen the response when the US is attacked. This is probably more likely to keep Putin from getting any aspirations to his east.

That would be impressive if these Turkish firefighters hadn't done the same thing with a car!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54f4hv9JhwQ I remember seeing it on a Mythbusters episode a year or more ago. Maybe Mad Vlad should work on getting better cable TV in Russia instead. They wouldn't be so far behind the times.

I've been using a Logitech G-940 for a couple years. Force feedback stick, split throttle for multi-engine control, rudder pedals. Not bargain-basement but definitely worth the investment, IMO. Being able to "feel" the control surface pressure is as valuable to the experience as Track IR is visually.

Jimmy Carter cancelled the B-1 when TASS reported that the then-USSR already had fighters capable of bringing them down quite easily. Turned out later to be a complete bluff. I'll wait for other confirmation of this "news" report, thank you.

My apologies, Gepard. Of course it was the Reichstag. Not so much a lack of understanding German history as the mistake of a fuzzy mind (see note at the bottom of the post about when it was made). I consider Hitler's attack on leftists purely political, done to curry electoral favor. Going after homosexuals, Jews, Gypsies etc was part of his "purification" of the human race of "undesirables". IMO, not the same.

G -1...G -1 What the heck. It's her mother-in-law's plane. She can do what she likes, I suppose. **edit** Besides, why not let women into the cockpit? We're always trying to get into... never mind.

On the anti-semitic angle| The pro-Russian factions say it wasn't them, it was someone trying to frame them. This may be the case or it could be damage control ("oops, we f**ked up") or it could be a red herring, a la the Chancellory fire in Berlin that Hitler used to stir things up. And Hitler's first (chronologically, not order of importance) real target was homosexuals. So there's a very similr timeline going on here. IMO, Western Europe's military weakness (if it truly exists) stems from allowing the US to provide the real threat against the USSR during the Cold War. The NATO allies couldn't hope to match Russia's spending, the US could, so Europe put up nominal support while focussing on their economies, both individual and group. The result is that the US economy has been weakened by defense spending while Western Europe hasn't had to shovel as much money into that pit since Big Brother will come to their rescue if necessary. The fall of the wall feuled a feeling that there's no need to spend as much on defense or worry about a major war. Unfortunately, it seems there's at least one dinosaur still wandering around out there who could see this as an opportunity. I worry about this. I don't think it would develop into a World War because I don't think the Asian countries will get involved (unless China jumps in at the last minute to snatch up portions of Siberia the way Russia finally declared war on Japan a few weeks before they surrendered in 1945...after whining about the West not invading Fortress Europe as soon as Hitler launched Barbarosa, btw). But it could get nasty, all the same. Russia still has nukes, and Putin strikes me as the kind who would, seeing his cause lost, deploy them in an "If I can't have it nobody can" attitude. **editted for spelling. I really have to stop posting at 5:ooAM**

Palpatine: Japan made the mistake of confusing a desire not to fight for weakness and an unwillingness to fight. And they paid for it. Take a look at a narrative of what's been going on. First replace the word "Putin" with the word "Hitler". Then replace "Russia" with Germany". Then replace "Crimea" and "Eastern Ukraine" with ""Austria", "Sudetenland", "Czechoslovakia", and "Rhineland" and what do you have? A history lesson!

Maybe that's the problem, here. Putin's tired of Ukraine having all the good beavers.

I saw the same program a year or two ago, MAKO. As former special forces I was in agreement with you, particularly in light of the stories I'd heard about the "private contractors" in Sierra Leonne. But in that same program they pointed out some of the excesses Crazyhorse talked about (unless they re-edited the show, which is happenning lately). If they're going to play by reasonable rules (not necessarily the extremely limiting ROE that the military is forced to abide, but reasonable rules) I'm ok with it and I say use them as much as is necessary. It saves soldiers, not all of whom want to be in combat or are particularly good at it, either case detracting from the effectiveness of a unit and its survivability. But it seems they go above and beyond in a bad way too often. And by too often I mean ever. And please don't lecture me on "Combat is different." I'm well aware of that. But you must also be aware that there are and must be limits beyond which we cannot allow ourselves or those representing our interest to go. Otherwise we end up like the "unidentified peace-keepers" that "helped" Crimea secure a "fair and impartial" election. I only have news reports to go by. I've never witnessed any of these actions first-hand. Crazyhorse says he has and I'm willing to take him at his word. And when coupled with the news reports and documentaries, the evidence becomes compelling if not overwhelming. **edit** To Crazyhorse: I think it unfair to state that a mercenary's only loyalty is to money. He's doing a job for which he gets paid, that's true. But aren't we all? And sometimes our jobs call on us all to do things we don't like or wouldn't normally do. I know it's true of me. If you can honestly say otherwise you're a lucky man. But I don't think that in itself makes someone a bad person. And, unlike the military, a "private contractor" (mercenary) has the option to turn down any job he doesn't care for. I'm sure many, of not most, of them are good people with high moral standards which they wouldn't violate for any amount of money. But then, I like to think the best of people.

To stay with Dave (and I'm working from memory, so I apologize for any errors, but the gist is there), "The Russkies don't take a dump without a plan." Would you have? I wonder what kind of meal he got before he took off? In Japan it was ceremonial sake. In the US a doomed man is given whatever he likes.

DEFUNCT MY A**!!! Get outta my back yard!!!!

Ya can't jam a bullet.

Stop going to the latrine when it's your turn to buy the drinks.