RANDOM THOUGHTS #16
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself.
1. Most people don't understand that wars get their names by popular consensus of historians, not by the International War Naming Committee. A war known by one name in one country may be known by another name in another country. Russia, for example, refers to World War II and the Great Patriotic War. World War I was of course not called that until World War II started. It was known as The World War because war was going on all around the world, but there was very little of the war in the Pacific (a few Japanese landings on a few German islands). The American Revolution wasn't a revolution at all (the French Revolution and Russian Revolution were) but the name American War for Independence is awkward. Texas has the same problem in that the Texas Revolution was technically the Texas War for Independence. The war between Iran and Iraq was known as the time as the Persian Gulf War, but is now known as the Iran-Iraq War because most people think that the Persian Gulf War was the one in 1991 (Desert Storm), which is also known as Gulf War I and as The Kuwait War. The invasion of Iraq by Bush #43 is variously known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, Gulf War II, and The Iraq War.
2. New scam I have seen of late: Your IRS payment was rejected. This takes you to a website to clear up your tax situation, which of course is not the US government at all, but criminals who want your name, address, social security number, bank account number, and so forth.
3. I don't think anyone can actually understand The Lord of the Rings without reading the Harvard Lampoon book Bored of the Rings.
4. I said it before but it needs to be repeated. Note to Project Runway: gray is not a color.
5. I love Zingers (not that I am allowed more than one pack a month on this diet) but I would actually prefer them without the cream filling. Same thing for Twinkies and Cupcakes. I like the cake. I like the frosting. I see no point in the cream filling. It's just messy and has no flavor.
6. You actually cannot see the Great Wall of China from orbit (not without a good pair of binoculars) but you CAN see several large open-pit mines from orbit (without the binoculars).
7. A few days ago, I was using the PC in the other office to check what Jean did on Facebook, when a screen popped up listing a bunch of viruses that had infected that computer and wanting me to "click here to purchase virus removal and protection software". Having been told what to do, I ignored this and reported it to Leanna, who had Mike run a scan that said there were no viruses. Leanna said that the original scan that "popped up" was itself a viral attack and a scam.
8. I don't know for sure, but has any city in the world other than London put up a monument to a woman who burned the city to the ground? (I refer to Boudica.)
9. The Department of Justice allowed a deadline to get ballots to military personnel to expire without doing anything about it, denying hundreds of thousands of soldiers (80% or more of which will vote Republican) the right to vote. This is political corruption of the highest order if not criminally negligent.
10. James Madison, who wrote most of the original constitution, said in Federalist Paper #45 that the federal government was limited to "principally on external objects, such as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce." Ok, where in all of that do we find welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or the EPA?
1. Most people don't understand that wars get their names by popular consensus of historians, not by the International War Naming Committee. A war known by one name in one country may be known by another name in another country. Russia, for example, refers to World War II and the Great Patriotic War. World War I was of course not called that until World War II started. It was known as The World War because war was going on all around the world, but there was very little of the war in the Pacific (a few Japanese landings on a few German islands). The American Revolution wasn't a revolution at all (the French Revolution and Russian Revolution were) but the name American War for Independence is awkward. Texas has the same problem in that the Texas Revolution was technically the Texas War for Independence. The war between Iran and Iraq was known as the time as the Persian Gulf War, but is now known as the Iran-Iraq War because most people think that the Persian Gulf War was the one in 1991 (Desert Storm), which is also known as Gulf War I and as The Kuwait War. The invasion of Iraq by Bush #43 is variously known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, Gulf War II, and The Iraq War.
2. New scam I have seen of late: Your IRS payment was rejected. This takes you to a website to clear up your tax situation, which of course is not the US government at all, but criminals who want your name, address, social security number, bank account number, and so forth.
3. I don't think anyone can actually understand The Lord of the Rings without reading the Harvard Lampoon book Bored of the Rings.
4. I said it before but it needs to be repeated. Note to Project Runway: gray is not a color.
5. I love Zingers (not that I am allowed more than one pack a month on this diet) but I would actually prefer them without the cream filling. Same thing for Twinkies and Cupcakes. I like the cake. I like the frosting. I see no point in the cream filling. It's just messy and has no flavor.
6. You actually cannot see the Great Wall of China from orbit (not without a good pair of binoculars) but you CAN see several large open-pit mines from orbit (without the binoculars).
7. A few days ago, I was using the PC in the other office to check what Jean did on Facebook, when a screen popped up listing a bunch of viruses that had infected that computer and wanting me to "click here to purchase virus removal and protection software". Having been told what to do, I ignored this and reported it to Leanna, who had Mike run a scan that said there were no viruses. Leanna said that the original scan that "popped up" was itself a viral attack and a scam.
8. I don't know for sure, but has any city in the world other than London put up a monument to a woman who burned the city to the ground? (I refer to Boudica.)
9. The Department of Justice allowed a deadline to get ballots to military personnel to expire without doing anything about it, denying hundreds of thousands of soldiers (80% or more of which will vote Republican) the right to vote. This is political corruption of the highest order if not criminally negligent.
10. James Madison, who wrote most of the original constitution, said in Federalist Paper #45 that the federal government was limited to "principally on external objects, such as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce." Ok, where in all of that do we find welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or the EPA?
posted by Federation Commander at 8:06 AM
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