Apparently, the EU thinks that it won the Olympics.
EURO chief Romano Prodi last night hailed Britain’s haul of Olympic gold as a triumph — for the European Union.And he warned our athletes will have to fly the EU flag as well as the Union Jack at Beijing in 2008.
If the Brits had any spine left, they’d tell the EUropussies to shove it. But then, if the Brits had any spine left, they wouldn’t be disarmed and facing worse violent crime rates than the U.S.
From the Instapilot at the Donovans, blogging on a completely different subject, I get a reference to someone else who has problems with First Command. Fortunately for you, he’s a lot more articulate than me. I will note that he comes to the same conclusions as I did, e.g. USAA rox0rs, First Command sux0rs (well, not in those words…).
First Command’s most often cited flagship fund, Fidelity Destiny, ranks in the bottom 20% of the large growth category over both the trailing 5-year and 10-year time periods.Fidelity Destiny—a large cap fund—also trails the S&P 500 by an astounding 5% per year over the last ten years.
It’s underperformance is consistent over almost any trailing time period you’d care to name.
He’s going on the menu bar…
The Imperial Armorer has a nice post up about the Zoo’s birthday. The thought’s nice, but I’d have to say he’s a couple of months late:
On 1 April 1954, President Eisenhower signed the bill which created the United States Air Force Academy. The first class entered in July of 1955.
At least, that’s the official history is. Of course, he’s an old ground pounder, and they’ve been a little behind for the last couple of decades. 
Now that there’s a Zoomie on board, I think it’ll all get straightened out.
Now, as far as the comment about campuses, I’ll go with USAFA’s anyday, especially in the rear view mirror. I almost went to USNA, and the campus is very pretty, but it can’t match the mountains in winter. Besides, any comparison of the service academies has to mention the fact that the only reason the Army-Navy game is so big is that they rarely, if ever, manage to win the CinC’s Trophy…
MTV, ROLLING STONE and the rock and roll establishment—past and present—have cast their vote, and their man is John Kerry.So on Sunday night when John Kerry’s daughters were announced to speak at the annual MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, the MTV youth were expected to welcome his daughter’s as pop culture princesses.
Instead, in an era of the unexpected, the daughters of the Democratic candidate were met with a resounding wall of boos at the filming in Miami.
From the moment Alexandra and Vanessa started speaking, the boos outweighed anything close to cheers, and the reaction turned worse when the daughters asked the VIACOM youth to vote for their father. So shocked by the reaction, the taller of the two daughters tried to ‘shhhhhh’ her peers to no avail.
So, I am headed out to South Korea again to spend some time with Otter. Around the same time is the Prerelease for Champions of Kamigawa. I was looking on the WotC site, and they have a couple different ones listed. Of course, I expected Otter to flip out when I mentioned going to play Magic over the only time I will be seeing her for the next five months. Instead, she said that as long as I found the directions, it would be ok. My jaw dropped, but it made a lot more since as the conversation went on.
I’m being used. Since I will be in town, she is able to get out of several events such as the Air Force Ball and the Air Show. Basically, as long as I keep her off base, she is/will be a happy Otter. Since a happy Otter means a very happy uruloki, I’ll be doing my damndest to keep her out. 
And if it means that I get to play Magic, BONUS!!!
Once again, a lack of posting since I was doing home work until 2330. Why am I doing this again???
The Olympics are often held up as a major symbol of peace. Now, one of the preliminary designs for the stadium has some symbolism all its own…
Of course, I may just be me, and noone else sees what I am seeing…
Backcountry Conservative is putting together a list of those bloggers with military experience. You would think that the MilBlogs would be the primary source, but there are mistake even there, such this site, home of two active duty bloggers (ok, one and a sometimes) being listed as a friend. Oh well, I guess I am such a REMF that it doesn’t count.
For the record: I’m USAF, active 2001 to present, and lil’ bro is USMC active 2002 to present.
Oh yeah, and he just got sent over to Iraq. I sure wish I could be help over there…
The current list of military vets from BC is below:
Jeff Quinton, S.C. Army National Guard: 1996-2003, Intelligence Analyst.
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, U.S. Army: 1989-92, Artillery
John Cole, U.S. Army: 1990-1992, Combat Armor Crewman; WV Army National Guard: 1992-1996, Combat Engineer; 1996-1998: Combat Armor Crewman.
Chris Short, U.S. Air Force: 1999 – Present, Communications Computer Systems Controller.
“Timekeeper”, United States Navy, 1987-2004+:Aviation Anti-Submarine Warfare Technician/Avionics Technician.
Blaster, U.S. Army: 1988-1992, S.C. Army National Guard: 1992-1995.
Charles Fenwick, United States Navy: 1999-2003, United States Naval Reserve: 2003-
Swanky Conservative, U.S. Naval Reserve: 2003-
SGT Hook, U.S. Army: 1987 to present, CH47 crewdog/first sergeant
Mike Dayton, U.S. Navy: 1983-1989, Electronics Technician
Andrew Olmsted, Army National Guard: 1988-1989, Infantry; U.S. Army: 1992-2002, Armor; U.S. Army Reserve: 2002-Present, Armor.
Jeff Miller, U.S. Navy: 1977-1997, Aviation Avionics Technician.
Chris Regan, U.S. Air Force, 1993-1997.
Bryan Preston, U.S. Air Force, 1993-1997.
Jim (of Parkway Rest Stop), U.S. Army: 1968-1970, Military Intelligence.
James Joyner, U.S. Army: 1988-1992.
Russ, TacJammer, U.S. Army: 1986-1992, Military Intelligence.
Michael, The Common Virtue, U.S. Army ROTC: 2003-Present.
Puddle Pirate, U.S. Coast Guard: 1990-1999, Deck Watch Officer.
Chapomatic, U.S. Navy: 1985-Present.
Michael Kozak, U.S. Army: 1994-Present, Microwave Systems Operator Maintainer.
John Donovan, U.S. Army: 1977-2000, Field Artillery.
Beth Donovan, U.S. Army Reserve: 1976-1978, Behavioral Science Specialist.
Blackjack, U.S. Air Force: 1990-Present.
Intergalactic Capitalist, ND Air National Guard: 1977-82.
Al Maviva, U.S. Army: 1987-1995.
Maj. Sean, U.S. Army(?): 19??-Present.
Bert Meyer, U.S. Army: 1972-1976.
B.C., U.S. Air Force: 1984-1994, Airborne Linguist.
Frank LoPinto: U.S. Air Force: 1975-1979, Computer specialist.
Stephen LoPinto, U.S. Army, Combat Medic.
Joel Gaines, U.S. Army: 1983-1994.
Phillip Carter, U.S. Army, CA National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve, Military Police.
Don Sensing, U.S. Army: 1977(?)-1995, Field Artillery.
Porphyrogenitus, U.S. Army: 2004(?)-Present.
Flit, Canadian Army Reserve
Scott Boone, U.S. Air Force: 1981-1985, Radio Tech – C-130H
Bill Roggio, U.S. Army: 1991-1995, Signal, NJ Army National Guard: 1995-1997, Infantry.
Mr. E, U.S. Army: 1995-2001, Multichannel Transmission Systems Operator-Maintainer & Telecommunications Operator – Maintainer.
Murray, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment: 1984-1997.
Wind Rider, U.S. Air Force
Cpt. Scarlet, U.S. Navy
Tom Paine, Israeli Defense Force
Juliette Ochieng, U.S. Air Force Reserve: 19??-2003.
The SmarterCop, U.S. Air Force: 1991-2000, Computer Programmer.
Jim Peacock, U.S. Naval Reserve: 1987-1995, Operating Room Technician, Hospital Corpsman.
Anybody with half a brain has seen the increasing desperation from Iran as we successively surrounded them with democracies, albiet nascent ones. Now, they’rereacting with fear.
Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani warned that Iran might launch a preemptive strike against US forces in the region to prevent an attack on its nuclear facilities.“We will not sit (with arms folded) to wait for what others will do to us. Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly,” Shamkhani told Al-Jazeera TV when asked if Iran would respond to an American attack on its nuclear facilities.
I believe that the reason that they are saying this now at this point is that they do not yet have nuclear weapons. By ralking about taking the first step, they are, however, hoping to delay us before we (or the Israelies) stop them permanently. If they did try any conventional attacks, the thing that they most want not to happen will probably happen since the only place they can strike us is in Iraq. The Iraqies would probably band together a lot faster against their traditional enemy (Arabs vs Persians).
Of course, if they think they can get away with it, they may be starting a bloodbath which will dwarf our current casualty situation and most likely decimate their population even worse than the Iran-Iraq war did.
Sorry for the absence, let’s just say when you’re writing four to six hours a day on thesis stuff, it’s not the biggest priority to do the blogging thing. Yesterday, I came home, sat down on the couch to relax, and woke up about 2 or 3 hours later. Don’t remember falling asleep, and I was still tired when I woke up. I really need to win a lottery so that I don’t ever have to work again.