Huh. Brazen, but spectacularly unsuccessful, judging by what actually happened.
Brazen, but spectacularly unsuccessful
My foray into sculpture was the same.
Yeah, maybe he was running out of money, and who couldn't use another 5-6 million dollars, but the choice between risking public trial and inprisonment for the massive theft and murder regime that you ran and not getting some extra cash that you haven't had access to anyway seems all out of whack. I think at least part of his calculation must have been based in a belief that Haitians secretly loved him and, in light of the current earthquake and cholera allowing regime, would cry out for his return.
It would not be inaccurate for some to say that that article is a masterpiece of understatement.
Alloys are tricky hard
Stanley needs to study his metallurgy.
Brazen, but spectacularly unsuccessful
It ain't over yet. The US has a solid track record of ensuring the safe comfortable retirement of the most brutal dictators, and Obama is already looking forward to Dubai.
9: bob, he's from Kenya, not the UAE.
10:Big money knows no nationality, respects no borders.
And the safe place for retired thieves must be somewhere with the last petroleum resources, making it unnukeable.
11: I enjoy how this postulates leaders who are both evil and ignorant of the neutron bomb.
Just so you know, bob, Dubai doesn't have any petroleum resources to speak of.
...or so the mullahs would have you believe.
I think I just got the best date numerology e-mail ever.
(This is passing around the Internet - does it work for you?)
This year we will experience 4 unusual dates ... 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 ...
Now go figure this out ... take the last 2 digits of the year you were born plus the age you will be this year and it will be equal to [drumroll ...(JPS)] 111.
Give it a try.
Fucking numbers, how do they work?
To be clear, it doesn't work if you weren't born from 1900 to 1999.
I guess Duvalier's quarter-century in exile made him underestimate his chances of capture. I'd be interested to know if it's because he's out of touch with politics, or because rule of law has improved marginally.
15:Oh good grief
"Its oil reserves are ranked as the world's sixth-largest"
Like saying Riyadh has no oil, not really, Dubai is closer to the fields.
The UAE has plenty of oil overall, but each emirate is largely autonomous; "Dubai's oil reserves have diminished significantly and are expected to be exhausted in 20 years." Abu Dhabi has the vast majority of the oil reserves.
The point is what place on Earth will be safer, and perhaps viable, when the shit comes down. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, UAE are close enough to oil that enemies will hesitate to attack them for quite awhile. The local experiments with high-rise and underwater living continue. Maybe it can be domed. The oil can be use for algae proteins.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, the islands, the carrier groups in constant rotation...the circle of protection is being subtly developed.
Who knows how many can survive the apocalypse there? Obama's kids will get an invitation. Your kids won't.
But I don't even have any kids!
So, let me get this straight now: All the rich authoritarians are going to have to go live in compounds in the desert on the other side of the world, and they'll take the army with them, and we won't have a petroleum-based economy anymore? I'm not seeing a downside.
25:Loss of Reflectivity in the Arctic Doubles Estimate of Climate Models
Did I mention Dubai's experiments with underwater habitat?
I don't know about prevailing winds and fallout. The "rich authoritarians" may need to expend the nukes before getting on board the planes just to be sure they nukes aren't aimed their way after they leave.
26: Global warming makes our world leaders want to relocate to one of the hottest sea level cities on the planet?
27: Underwater, Moby. Jeez. As if bob isn't being totally clear and sane.
bob, you're really, really upset with Obama, aren't you?
I suggest that this recounting of a proposal in Vermont to amend the US Constitution to state that only human beings -- not corporations --- count as persons is more interesting.
Maybe it can be domed
Wait, like some sort of, what do you call it? Ah, yes: a bio-dome? I'm sure our good friend Pauly will make space for us all. He loves us, you know.
Do you at least retain the movie rights, bob?
29:I accept the existence of radical evil and the sociology of lifeboats. I've read Jared Diamond.
Radical evil would try something simpler, like using a neutron bomb to clear out some place that has fresh water or a tree.
32: Is that Subway Jared or some other Jared? The jeweler, maybe.
some place that has fresh water or a tree.
Another optimist, like Kunstler.
Aha! Jared Leto, I guess. I had totally forgot about that guy.
30, 31: The movie is fearful prospect: we'd have Halford running around in the dome trying to bring a class action suit and babbling about IP rights, and various people nattering on about grammar, fashion, and what's done and not done, a fair amount of fretting about personal space and what, really, can be asked of one, and LB periodically saying, "I can't say it's wrong, but it sure doesn't look good."
On the other hand, a reasonable amount of cooking and music.
In some people's world the sky is always already falling.
"In a world where the sky is falling, can two people make it to the safety of the biodome before they run out of gasoline."
Think The Road, but with a car, no kids, and a PG-13 length topless scene.
The dome needs more dancing.
Cue Ogged (pbuh): No dancing! Also no plants!
If Ogged wants, we'll make it a hard "R" rating, but we'll be losing some of the audience there.
I think we're talking past each other, Moby. Never mind Ogged. I'm thinking of a bio-dome populated by unfoggedtarians, but the moment has sort of passed.
For us to be talking past each other, you'd need a plausible reason to think I was worried that anybody understood what I was saying.
I'm thinking of a bio-dome populated by unfoggedtarians Jessica Biel, but the moment has sort of passed.
"The days grow hot, O Babylon!
'Tis cool beneath thy willow trees!"
Dansons la Carmagnole!
Vive le son! Vive le son!
Dansons la Carmagnole!
Vive le son des canons!
45: Or maybe both. Jessica Biel Eats Chocolate Covered Bacon & Remains Looking Beautiful While Doing So.
Ruination day,
And the sky was red.
I went back to work,
And back to bed.
And the iceberg broke,
And the Okies fled,
And the Great Emancipator
Took a bullet in the back of the head...
We are the Folk Song Army
Every one of us cares
We hate poverty, war, and injustice
Unlike the rest of you squares
If the world runs out of fuel,
Pittsburgh will finally deliver.
Yunz must tote your own gruel,
But I have a big f'in river.
I like my beats real fast and the bass down low
Bass down low
Bass down low
I like my beats real fast and the bass down low
Whoops, don't know where those "reals" came from. Scans better that way to me. Guess that's why I am not Dev.
I met an anarchist in Tompkins Square Park.
He was an angry man, spinning words so dark.
He called for death to rich men, death to Yuppies, too.
Death to art fags, bourgeois blacks, death to
landlord Jews.
Kill the bankers, kill the cops, kill
him, her and me.
Kill them all for CBS, NBC, ABC, TBN,
CNN, HBO, "Life At Five," MTV Spring Break Party
Weekend, Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo, Oprah, Arsenio,
Regis and Kathy Lee
I was standing down in Jerusalem Town one day
singing... I am the way
I can walk on the water and I can raise the dead
it's easy.... I'm the way
don't tell nobody but I kissed Magdalene
right on the mouth
I said Mary it's okay I'm the way
Every son of God gets a little hard luck sometimes
specially when he goes around saying he's the way
I am the way
48: So if Obama and family are scheduled to be in the Middle East on April 14th, wait to pay your taxes.
Must I make ready
To live in breezeless dome home?
Armadeddon old.
53: Found a version on YouTube, worth a link.
I bet you don't even use a rubber.
carrier groups on constant rotation
Rotation from...Norfolk, Mayport, Everett, and San Diego? Who's doing the 18-month long every three years Refuel and Complex OverHaul (RCOH) in this scenario?
Alex it is impolite to interrupt someone when they're masturbating.
Armadeddon old.
We drove by Armageddon when I was in Israel. It's a pretty small and not particularly distinctive hill.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, the islands, the carrier groups in constant rotation...the circle of protection is being subtly developed.
Because, heaven knows, the logical conclusion to being surrounded by Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia is "At last I am safe within my circle of protection!" Certainly you're safer there than in, say, Belgium, which is merely surrounded by very rich, stable, democratic nations with the most advanced militaries in the world.
The "experiments in underwater living" line presumably refers to the fact that the Nakheel World archipelago, now mostly uninhabited, is slowly slipping below the surface of the sea.
62: I think the underwater line refers to bob's plan to lead us to salvation in deep-sea harmony with the mermen and mermaids, each one of us atop a "sea unicorn" (which is just a seahorse to whose head bob glued a paper-towel roll, but gosh they're cute).
Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.
Mind you, the paper towel roll doesn't half get soggy once it's been in the sea for a bit.
If you buy the good paper towels, the center tube is plastic-coated.
66. Oh, good. So, we can all contribute to this.
To be fair (and balanced?), I should point out that I invented 66 just now.
Big business is already trying to thwart the plan with tube-free toilet paper. This is our Alamo.
Don't click the link, bob, your head might explode.
Why does the tennis court have to double as the helicopter landing pad? That seems potentially inconvenient. Not hugely inconvenient, maybe, but it's the sort of inconvenience I wouldn't expect on something in the $1,000,000,000+ price range.
Escape from that with 30 degrees of heel after this week's elected member for navigation of the Libertarian Committee runs it into a rock/hurricane/Liberian-registered supertanker/Dover/whatever.
Do you get your own toboggan as an extra-cost option?
72:BOOM!
You coulda warned me betta.
