Capitaine Vengeur

I agree with some posts on the CNN blog. Deportation to Canada would be fine. Especially in some places like Ellesmere Island where their beloved Canadian flag will never be burnt and will always proudly float straight horizontal... due to ice!

Was he downed from the skies, or shot from the ground, nobody knows. But he made the skies fear him, and the ground mourn him.

I would have expected General U to use U-boats rather.

Promise of Heaven...

Vaguely heard of some (non-Iranian) promiscuous women that were themselves enough of earthquakes to have the Richter magnitude scale raise to 13.0.

Bof! I think that Al-Qaeda just runs like any other army, firm, administration, or church: the top-ranking personals are the most symbolic, but the less useful...

The human cost of a war, at most if seen only from the victor's side, is not a sufficient data in itself to make a war just. The Nazis didn't lose but 150 KIAs to conquer whole Yugoslavia in 1941, but seeing what they did there later, it's not really the archetype of a fair war. Actually, it's usually up to the victor to decide if History will see a just war or not, and here, the Germans lost in the end. By the way, staying in WWII Yugoslavia, the Nazis suffered much heavier casualties after their easy conquest, when trying to garrison a generally inhospitable country who was an artificial aggregate made of several opposing ethnic groups with ancient grievances against each other, several opposing political ideologies, and several opposing religions. They then discovered that they had opened the Pandora Box after having blasted the late volens nolens accepted central authority. Actually, all of these data make me think of the situation of Iraq after 2003.

Very soon: "The Hindenburg" II, the remake.

Ich hatt' einen Kameraden ...

I've enjoyed Robin Williams as Popeye, but he doesn't seem to have cleaned up his facial make-up since. How deep can some actors stay linked to their favourite character? On the other way, I've read that as an old man dedicating his book "Baa Baa Black Sheep", Greg "Pappy" Boyington once said to some women at a conference: "Do you recognize me? I'm Robert Conrad... in old!"

Yes you can!

You should have written your three lessons in giant, bold, and underlined type. One will never repeat often enough how vital they are.

Confirmed, sir. I've just seen yesterday the episode of Dr House (#18/5) where this well-known philanthropist faces such a mystery cat. First hypothesis: the cat can smell kidneys or liver deficiencies, or his visual spectrum entitles him to see colors the human beings can't. But that doesn't explain why the cat stays close to those who are going to die. Solution: the cat is searching for heat, so he stays close to people with hot fever, or those who are given a warming blanket (in both cases, often people on the edge of dying).

No spiders at me. The bugs are so fat that they threaten them.

Hard to choose, as each era has its own pros and contras, but most especially both the extreme ones: WWI pros: dream-like impression to feel suspended in the air behind your enemy while flying at very low speeds, easy landings at low speeds provided the winds are not against you, instinctive flight with few instruments - Be a bird, not a machine WWI contras: hardly recoverable loss of control on some vicious models, no radio navigation, no radio at all anyway, and worse of all, no parachute! 1980+ pros: useful HUDs, helpful radio navigation, trustful missiles - The electronics work for you out of combat situation 1980+ contras: high speed landings; too high speeds for gunfights; the enemy too enjoys trusful long-range missiles that most often beat any of your ECM; the modern radar missile-locking process needs too many successive steps in combat situation for a small brain like mine, especially on LOMAC, and requires more acquired reflexes than pure instinct (I find much more pleasure in a successful instinctive gunshot with high deflection, even if not decisive, than in a decisive missile hit at long range) The pros and contras melt more and weigh less on the three other eras. They don't disgust me of WWI, not at all, but otherwise, I rarely fly something more modern than a F-4E. Besides and rather than WWI, I largely enjoy WWII (Il-2 1946 or BoB II Wings of Victory), with some frequent digressions to Korean War and 1960s-70s (Israeli Wars rather than Vietnam). Both in WWII and Korean War, I can find my favourite weaponry, the American one with the six .50 pack: no need to deal with different guns and their associated ballistics at long ranges (the Me-109E, Zero or Spit V-IX are nightmares), sufficient punch against almost any aerial target, and sufficient duration of fire.

Pirates of the Carribean, huh? You know, out of fiction, such a thing can have really happened. In 1635, Pierre Le Grand, a French beginner pirate sailing a pitiful boat on the edge of sinking, with 28 villains on board, had the chance to cross the path of a four-masts Spanish gallion, with a large marine contingent and 54 guns, each of them big enough to sink the French boat in one shot. The Spanish sentries looked at the approaching pitiful hulk with passive contempt, then paid no more attention, but when the assault began, it was swift and merciless. The pirates directly headed to the officers' quarters and captured them, including a Vice-Admiral. The giant ship then surrendered to the bunch of rogues. Besides the ship and the precious hostages, the pirates captured an impressive treasury in gold... and retired from piracy. History is always full of lessons... especially for those who contempt them.

Good job, Tromp. I've never heard before of this glaucous tale of gays, but if all gay military were so efficient, I'd like to have all of our own military as gay as the Spartans!

Well, it would indeed be a better thing to take him alive to be judged. It would prove that you are still on the Light side (ie Constitution-linked countries), and not afraid of him.

Terrible news ! Sounds like if Poland is beheaded... Sad also for the relatives of the victims of Katyn. These families have harsh fates...

Try a blondes joke in Sweden, and you'll soon find your balls cooked with lingonberry jam !

Very interesting testimony, indeed. It breaks with the common picture of unhuman creatures led by no rational motives, and dominated by pure evil. The Americans used to draw the same picture for the Japs during WWII, and old ideas die hard. And now that the Japanese make business, drink whiskey, colour their hair, in brief ape the Westerners rather then beheading their neighbours, they are good friends. I don't think that one day the Afghani will fall down to such a decay and abdication of pride (can't imagine them BBQing pork ribs while burping their ale and discussing NBA in front of their disused caves), but trying to understand each other would already be a great step forward. Such testimonies (if backed by serious inquiries about their truthfullness, of course) could greatly help. The Japanese example has been quoted yet, with the mutual incomprehension, the Japanese believing that the White barbarians would torture them, rape their wives and cute their children in pieces if their homeland was occupied. But the situation was simplified by the fact that the Japanese obeyed to one single voice. The Emperor once said: "Asia is ours. Get the Whites out, clean Asia from their ungraceful presence. Show no mercy to them, neither to the Asians who would not bend fast enough. Your own lifes don't matter." The Japanese thought: "The Emperor said it. Right." The Emperor then said: "End the fight right now. Our enemies are now our friends, and they'll come to friendly occupy our land. Indeed, they are an unaesthetic and noisy nuisance, but you'll have to bear it." The Japanese thought: "The Emperor said it. Right again." Such a simple solution is impossible in Talibanistan. There is not one single commanding and obeyed voice by God's Grace, but as many voices as there are warlords or local leaders, and these are obeyed only as long as they stay respected, by their charisma, courage and leadership, or simply by insuring feeding to their followers and their families (extorting money and goods to peasants and travelers, growing poppies fields and harvesting opium, etc). If one leader fall in disgrace or under bullets, some more will be eager to conquer the hot seat (by the way, one of my favourite war movies is still "The beast": shows how to become a Khan under fire).

Sorry to write here in English, but this question is intended for Italians only. I'm preparing a "Coalition Medals Pack" for Operation Desert Storm's non-American flyable air forces (AMI included). Searching for some medals for service, I have found the Medaglia (d'oro/d'argento/di bronzo) al Merito Aeronautico, or the Croce (d'oro/d'argento/di bronzo) al Merito dell'Aeronautica. Seeing their ribbons, they happen to be the same decoration. What is the real name? Are both of them OK? If there have been changes in designation, what was the actual name in 1991? Also, I could only find these medals' ribbons, not the real ones, even when searching on Italian websites. Do they look like round medals, or crosses like the army's ones for merit? Could you tell me where I could find some fine pictures of the real medals (the real ones, not the nastrini)? Grazie mille, amici.

Very...rrhmh...Scandinavian, indeed. Will the Americans upload some of their traditional pictures of hyperbusted Californian chicks sensually playing with their M60s? (NRA trademark)

I'm applying right now for a circumcision !!