The Cost of War: $400 a Gallon Gas

Parachuting a barrel of fuel to a remote Afghan base takes sharp flying skills, steady nerves and flawless timing.

It also costs a lot of money—up to $400 a gallon, by military estimates.

But the Pentagon is stuck with the expense for the foreseeable future, especially given the recent deterioration in U.S.-Pakistani relations.

"We're going to burn a lot of gas to drop a lot of gas," said Capt. Zack Albaugh, a California Air National Guard pilot deployed with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron.

Much more at Wall Street Journal

     Be seeing you

Found It At Last!

The above photo is of an Amazon warehouse.

I believe you can find the Ark of the Covenant near the upper right corner.

Giant Albino Carnivorous Snails

Recently found in New Zealand, they grow to be about the size of a man's fist and live up to 20 years.  Of course they still move as slow as, well... a snail, so still not very scary. If Uwe Boll is reading this they probably won't make for a very convincing threat in a horror movie. I mean, that leading woman would have to be running in spike heels and fall and break her ankle. Even then she could crawl faster than they move. 

Better carry some salt anyway, just in case.

Be seeing you.

Looking Forward To The Election

The pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Force In The U.S.

We produce so much military hardware that eventually the robots and the M-16s, the grenade launchers and the armored vehicles start to pile up. It's hard to convince Congress you need more when you still have a warehouse full of the stuff in unopened crates. That sort of thing might lead to *gasp!* budget cuts. Fortunately for the Pentagon there is something called the "1033 Program". It allows the military to give military-grade weapons directly to police departments all across America. This year it amounted to over $500,000,000  worth of military gear.

1033 was passed by Congress to help police with the wars on terrorism and drugs but, despite a 40 year low in crime, the police are snapping up then weapons like never before. This years orders set a record. Next year's are already up 400% over that.  Considering that the increase in orders for heavy weapons coincides tidily with the heavy-handed response to the Occupy movement in many cities and it seems a chillingly ominous trend. 

Tim Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's project on criminal justice told The Daily, “The trend toward militarization was well under way before 9/11, but it’s the federal policy of making surplus military equipment available almost for free that has poured fuel on this fire.”

From The Daily:

Thanks to it, cops in Cobb County, Ga. — one of the wealthiest and most educated counties in the U.S. — now have an amphibious tank. The sheriff of Richland County, S.C., proudly acquired a machine-gun-equipped armored personnel carrier that he nicknamed “The Peacemaker.”

This comes on top of grants from the Department of Homeland Security that enable police departments to buy vehicles such as “BearCats” — 16,000-pound bulletproof trucks equipped with battering rams, gun ports, tear-gas dispensers and radiation detectors. To date, more than 500 of these tank-like vehicles have been sold by Lenco, its Massachusetts-based manufacturer, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel. 

The more insidious problem arises a couple of years after a department loads up on all of this heavy weaponry. They notice it is just sitting there unused. Someone says, "Waste not want not." and the arms begin to creep into routine police work. Then it is only a matter of time when someone finds a reason to use them on a suspect. 

Source: businessinsider

Skiers Adapting To Global Warming?

msnbc via twentytwowords

Man Arrested For Refusing To Tell Cop Where He Was Born

                             Ihre Papieren, bitte!

 " Vesselin Dittrich, 64, of Hoboken, said he was involved in a conversation in the PATH station in August 2010 with a woman who yelled at him for supposedly looking at her tattoos. The woman summoned a police officer, who told the two to disperse. Dittrich says that the officer said there would be no charges, but asked to take down Dittrich’s information anyway.

Dittrich said he provided information from his driver’s license, but when the officer asked what country he was from, he declined to answer, believing it to be irrelevant and unconstitutional. He says the officer issued him a disorderly conduct ticket for “refusing to provide pedigree information.”"

    Dittrich, an American citizen who was born in Bulgaria, has stood on principle and refused to accept a small fine in exchange for a guilty plea. After over a year, he will go to trial December 13th.

    The prosecution is asking for jail time.

    Much more at the link.