Debt Ceiling Shenanigans

"Even though the steps are called “emergency” measures, they have become employed so routinely during recent fiscal standoffs that Congress often waits for the emergency steps to be exhausted before beginning negotiations on raising the borrowing limit."

Source: The Wall Street Journal, House Debt-Ceiling Plan Would Ban ‘Emergency’ Measures

America's Response To 9/11

"...the decision to respond to 9/11 as an act of war rather than a crime was arguably Washington's greatest foreign policy blunder ever."

"...going to war was the only way they [Al-Qaeda] could possibly become the "holy warriors" they imagined themselves to be. It was, quite frankly, America's military response to 9/11 that created al Qaeda as a military force and legitmised [sic] its bogus claim to the mantle of being called "holy warriors"."

Source: Al Jazeera, Obama's Crackpot Realism and the Real Crime of Edward Snowden

The majority of this article is actually not about Edward Snowden, nor should it be.  I think that the author added Snowden to the articles title merely because articles about Snowden are in vogue at the moment.  It would have been better had the author left him out entirely as I feel like the author is conflating two issues merely to get more people to view/read his article.  ...Isn't that trolling?

FYI: The article is not worth reading
Disclaimer: I make no claims implicitly nor explicitly as to agreeing or disagreeing with the above quotes.

Peace

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends.  You talk to your enemies."
   - Moshe Dayan (May 20, 1915 - October 16, 1981) Israeli military leader and politician

Source: Wikiquote

Red Bull: By the Numbers

Commands 43% of the US energy drink market.
Sold 4.6 Billion Cans of Red Bull in 2011.
2011 revenue of $5.5 Billion, a third of which the company says they put back into marketing.

Yes, now I understand how RB can afford to do so much cool stuff.  Keep on, keepin' on!  I would be curious how Monster's numbers would stack up against RB's?

Source: Newsweek, Red Bull Goes to Space

Do Not Confuse the Two...

“The criminality is astounding ... You have a complete confusion between principal and principle.”

   - S.B. Lewis (Jan 27, 1939 - present) speaking about corruption within banking and the stock market

Quoted from NYT: A Lonely Redemption

Occam's Razor

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.
   -William of Occam (1300-1350)

Some how, references to Occam's Razor seem to keep coming up in my life...

La Guerra

If we are more affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.
-- Edward Gibbon 


The following quote is from an article in the NYT published Oct 22, 2010 and titled: "A Grim Portrait of Civilian Deaths in Iraq"
"Civilians have borne the brunt of modern warfare, with 10 civilians dying for every soldier in wars fought since the mid-20th century, compared with 9 soldiers killed for every civilian in World War I, according to a 2001 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross."