This is by no means original - I will give Canonico credit for the joke - with victories over Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, Syracuse is now the men's basketball champion of the Big XII conference. heh heh
UPDATE: Word is we took another shot at Saddam tonight and may have been successful. Could it be? Might we be finding his remains in much the same way as we dug Chemical Ali (or what was left of him) out from under his house in Basra? I sure hope we got Saddam in someone else's house, because I want to leave the gorgeous toilets in place.
Except, of course, for those who regard the enormity of the Administration’s perfidy as worse than anything that springs from foreign soil. I heard again on the radio today a series of talk-radio callers who believed that Bush could be as bad as Hitler, and they all pointed to his unnerving combination of religious faith and willingness to use military power. It makes me laugh, really - one of my favorite clips I saved from the TiVo is some tall scary Iraqi guy in a uniform, replete with meaningless medals, insisting that God is on their side - and he’s waving an automatic rifle at the assembled journalists. Has the President ever done this?
Well, not literally, but metaphorically, he’s -
Whatever. I remember what Robin Williams, the intermittently amusing hairy-backed hyperbabbler, said last week about Bush: “He's like 'We have to get rid of dictators,' but he's pretty much one himself.”
If someone invaded America tomorrow, how many big public posters would they have to tear down? How many airports and hospitals and highways would they have to rename?
The gun is the same, the bullet is the same except the slug is rubber instead of lead. It works because of basic physics.
Lead is really dense (11.36 g per cu. cm), therefore, lots of mass. Rubber is not very dense (1.5 g per cu. cm, so very low mass. Assuming the muzzle velocity is roughly equal (this may not be a good assumption for many reasons, but we have to start somewhere), apply the law of conservation of momentum and Newton's second law and you'll see what happens. The lead bullet hits the target with about 8 times more force than the rubber.
They came out with these a few years ago to reduce the number of shooting deaths by cops. The idea is it won't kill you, but it will knock you down and hurt like hell.
I looked those values up in one of my textbooks that I have hear at work.
They are pretty good ballpark numbers. Speaking of, here's some [very]
rough math....
Assumptions:
2 cu cm slug (about the size of a .45 round)
Muzzle velocity (v): 2000 feet per second (a rough estimate)
target impact time (t): .01 seconds
Drag slowing the bullet down after it leaves the gun is insignificant
mass (m) of lead slug: 22.72 g
m of rubber slug: 3 g
Momentum (P) = m*v
P of lead: 13.85 kg-m/s
P of rubber: 1.83 kg-m/s
Force (F) of impact = P/t
F of lead = 311 lbs (1956 psi)
F of rubber = 41 lbs (258 psi)
Question answered.
Now, does the heat of the charge deform the rubber in any way? Hmmm...
Lots of stories today about all of the weapons and missiles that are being found that Iraq supposedly "doesn't have". Maybe we need Hans to come inspect the situation.
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 12:58:12 -0500
From: Nichol Subject: Yahoo! News - U.S. Says It May Have Found Iraqi WMD Storage Site
To: mail@johnmackeygreene.com
Heard about the missiles this morning on the radio. The barrels are new. Sure makes 'W' look good and 'Old Europe' look bad if it turns out to be true.
How the hell does a "rubber bullet" work? I presume it's either really slow or really soft so as not to puncture the skin of the target, but how? Is it a different gun? Anyone have any insight? A quick web search didn't get me anywhere.
MSNBC has David Kay on right now, a former UN weapons inspector. He just outlined a "nightmare scenario" where Saddam organizes a "demonstration" of women and children and other civilians and then gasses them in front of journalists (remember, the Black Knight promised martyrs this morning). Naturally, the western press will see it for what it is, a cooly calculated act of terror, but Kay is worried that the Arab world would see it as an atrocity on the part of US troops and react extremely. That is pretty scary.
So you are hearing about this tape that was release today? I hear of this. This tape say Saddam have ties to Osama. I HAVE NOT KEEPING THIS SECRET!!!! I am telling you this, this "spy" that America have in Iraq is not spy, he is Xanga reading!!
Anycream, I was sitting in my bedroom playing the Parappa the Rapper (this is good time) when the phone ring. I pick it up and it is Fidel! I am not hearing from him in so long! He say he is in town and want to visit, but I say "Weapon inspector are in my living room!!! You cannot come today" but he say "Sneak my in the back" and so I say "This I am not gay!!!" and we laugh, and have good time. Then I let him in the back door, but my dog who is named Al-Jazer Timberlake (I call him J for shorting) he barking and barking, he does not liking Fidel, and Fidel is afraid of dog even though it is pomeranieaneianeina (how you spell this?!?) but the inspectors say What is this barking?? So I say that J is being weird because his feeling are hurt because Osama call him stupid. So they say "Okay. We find this nuclear warhead under your couch. This is yours" and so I say "No, this is not mine! Why am I keeping warhead under couch? This must not be mine. Put it back, I take care of this." And so they put back.
OMG I am rambling so much now!!! I end this now. OH, I forgetting, I am having party this Saturday for my peepings. Everyone invite, but bring your own anthrax!!! lol j/k. But seriously this party will be kick-face!!!
I got a few emails yesterday in response to my link to "Kim Jong Il's" blog - most of them were pointing out various blogs purported to be from "Saddam Hussein". The best one is here. Excerpts are below. very very funny
Friday, March 28, 2003
Hello. This is Saddam Hussein. I am sorry that I have been away for so long, but I have been busy, what with the war and all. So how is everyone? I hope you've had a good couple of weeks.
I'm sorry if I seem a little different, but this war has really changed me. Rumors of my death and supposed "Saddam Lookalikes" have been greatly exaggerated. I assure you, I am not a lookalike. I am Saddam Hussein. I swear to god I'm not David Arquette. Seriously.
Anyway, I have to go now. Courtn-- err my many wives want to go out and get trashed in LA tonight. I'll talk to you all later.
Saddam "Not David Arquette" Hussein.
1:22 PM - 63 eprops - 55 comments - email it
Thursday, March 20, 2003
I AM CRAPPING PANTS!!!!!
3:04 AM - 121 eprops - 101 comments - email it
Also - MSNBC is on in the background here in my living room, and Chris Matthews is commenting on today's Iraqi TV images of "Saddam" wandering around Baghdad "today". Unless I have just totally missed some news in the past 2 hours since I left work, why the hell is Matthews taking this seriously and acting like that really without a doubt is Saddam Hussein? Give me a break.
Yet another example of something funny that I didn't think of first:
DEAR SIR/MADAM,
I AM UDAY HUSSEIN, SON OF THE LATE HEAD OF STATE OF IRAQ, PRESIDENT SADDAM HUSSEIN. I AM CONTACTING YOU BASED ON THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER OF MY LIFE AND THAT OF MY FAMILY IN THE HANDS OF THE PRESENT AMERICAN-LED REGIME...
The following joke — said to be current in Iraq — has been making the rounds here:
"The eight Saddam body doubles are gathered in one of the bunkers in downtown Baghdad. Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, comes in and says, 'I have some good news and some bad news.' They ask for the good news first.
"Aziz says, 'The good news is that Saddam is still alive, so you all still have jobs.'
Everyone knows that I am naturally hostile to professional basketball as a spectator sport - I cheer for the rockets and Yao Ming and I don't dislike basketball - I just don't understand how some people can get so worked up over it with all of the irresponsible teenage millionaires and gaudy stupid behavior and over the top attitude. I will admit that now.
And as I have explained in this space many times before, I especially don't get what the big deal is about LeBron James - to me he just epitomizes all of the bad things that I don't like about the NBA and general basketball culture. Sure, he can play basketball well, but a black kid who can play basketball well is not THAT uncommon, and even more than that, he's just in high school.
"He may think he's great enough to be on this level now," [Michael] Jordan said. "But when he gets on this level and plays against guys who've been competitive and very good on this level, he's going to find it's a big difference from that 5-10 high school kid."
"I think he's talented for 18 years old," said Jordan. "Once he gets to this level, I don't think he's in the upper echelon of two guards or small forwards. I think he's toward the bottom -- respectively so, because there's so much about his game that he's going to have to adapt to. He has unbelievable potential. I think that's what everybody is looking at, everybody is raving about. But he hasn't played against competition consistently, college or pros. He's played against high school kids ... You have to give that some credence."
Despite my perplexion with the "big deal" about the NBA, I do have to admit that I have always had a lot of respect for MJ for a lot of different reaons. Add one more reason to that list now.
Oooh! Speed Racer, LOOK OUT! Just a random observation... It's really starting to annoy me how much Chris Jansing, the daytime anchor on MSNBC, looks like something straight out of a Japanese anime festival - big round eyes and a little mouth. What's worse, MSNBC sometimes has a small glitch in their sound feed that makes the lips move differently than the sound and kind of contributes to the cartoon effect. Ugh.
I don't know her from Adam and I am sure she is a good newscaster and a professional... so none of this is meant personally. Of course.
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 15:28:13 -0600
From: "Bert Greene" Subject: Re: Pearl Jam
To: mail@johnmackeygreene.com
I read about this right after the concert the other night. No big news there - Eddie has always been pretty anti-Bush. I am into Pearl Jam soley for the band's music and not for Eddie's politics, though, so it doesn't really bother me that much.
I do find it funny how Fox characterized the incident, though. The original report of the concert I read said that Eddie hung a George Bush mask from the microphone stand. Somehow, when Fox reports it, it becomes that Eddie "IMPALED" the mask on the microphone stand. Good to see that Fox is not above a little sensationalism what major news channel isn't?).
How ironic is it that the two concerts I have tickets to right now are Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks? Man, if I didn't know any better, I would think I was a pinko anti-war commie who supports terrorism...
Jonah's take on the "Blackhawk Down" school of military strategy, courtesy of The Corner:
SPEAKING OF "BLACK HAWK DOWN" [Jonah Goldberg]
It seems to me the coverage of these reports that the Baathists have been studying the incident to figure out how to fight US forces has been way off-kilter. Telling your troops to emulate an event which required lobbing troops at American soldiers like they were tennis balls at the Williams sisters would not inspire confidence. Also, telling them "it helps if you get really, really high before you attack the Americans" would not be a morale-booster either. Besides, while they were prepared, American forces still didn't go into Mogadishu expecting that ambush. Imagine how much more lopsided it might have been if the Americans knew it was coming -- like they do in Iraq.
I also went to the game on Tuesday night - opening day - and forgot to share my observations yesterday, so here they are:
1.) Julio Lugo is going to be my whipping boy this year. He is officially inheriting the role that Jay Powell had three years ago (although I am not so sure Bruce Chen might not have inherited the sorry-assed reliever spot already)
2.) Jeff Bagwell has his groove back - just don't ask him to do anything but hit.
3.) Enron Fie- errrr, Minute Maid Park is already starting to show its age, or at least the novelty has officially worn off for me.
4.) They did not raise the price of beer. I was shocked. (though not as shocked as I still am that beer at a baseball game only costs slightly less than beer at a strip club)
5.) Why in the hell would they not open the roof on a mild April night in Houston? Huh?
HTML jocks - if you can help me figure out out to fix this strange mystery double spacing that popped up in my template when I added a table cell to try and indent the margins on my post, send me an email.
UPDATE: A couple of people emailed to say that the problem didn't appear to be the line spacing. Instead, they thought the font had somehow changed. I played the code a little bit and I think it's fixed. Please give me some feedback if the formatting still appears to be off, but I think I got it. I also updated the format of the posts a little bit for readability with the faux-indent and some color changes. Tell me what you think.
I won't even presume to say that I understand international diplomacy or the theory of warfare or the "rules" of war. I don't have any experience with it, for sure. But, at the risk of sounding seditious or anti-war, why in the world do we expect the Iraqis to play fair? We are the ones attacking them, and surely, even if the civilian population does not support the regime, there are people fighting on its behalf at a supreme disadvantage. Why do the leaders of the US forces act so incredulous or angry that the Iraqi forces are just doing their best to offset that advantage? I realize it's more complicated than that, but I simply find it kind of a waste of breath for our commanders to complain and get so worked up. We are fighting bad people... that's why we are fighting them! Why expect anything more from them?
Not sure how I feel about this one: Court: Man can bark at dog The dog in question is a police dog and if he did disturb or agitate the dog, I can see the policeman's point. Of course, why didn't the cop just yell at the kid and scold him instead of throwing the guy in jail?
Let's talk poker! Anyone who plays poker for a few minutes can figure out quickly that the essence of the game is a decision about risking money and that it's a completely different game once you play for money and not for fun. Decisions MEAN something when they take money out of your pocket rather than matchsticks out of your pile - ask Mac'r White how much more she appreciated the game last summer when she played for real money one night instead of the free chips we gave her at "poker school".
That said, I think I have played the game enough to where I'm no longer satisfied with smaller stakes or structured limits. Those brakes on the game limit the very nature of the game - they make it too easy for opponents to get by with bad decision making and there is no way for the person with the advantage to maximize that advantage to the fullest extent*. Craig Friou has been playing pot-limit poker in Scotland for the past couple years and he reports that while the liquidity requirements are a little daunting, the game is immensely more challenging and enjoyable because the limits don't get in the way. I think I'm starting to see that as well.
I have two problems though - I don't have the funds or the liquidity to play at higher and more dangerous limits, and more importantly, I'm too impatient and not nearly observant enough to have the right mix of skills that come into play when the gloves are off. Read this and you will understand.
* For people who want an example, here's a specific one: Two weeks ago I was playing in a limit game at Harra's downtown casino while on a weekend trip to New Orleans. During one specific hand, I was dealt the best hand that was possible up to that point in the hand (a high straight), but with more cards left to be drawn. The possibility existed that someone else could draw a better hand (a flush or a full house or a higher straight than mine) with the remaining cards and thus beat me in the end, but the structure of the game limited the amount I could bet. Twice I bet the max ($12), another player called my bets both times, and in the end he managed to draw two cards that ended up beating my hand (with a flush), just as I had feared. This was because to him (unlike me), $12 obviously wasn't a lot of money and he didn't mind risking it on the off chance that he might get lucky and get the two cards needed for the flush. Had I been able to bet more, say, $100 or more, he might have thought twice about the possibility that he might not have drawn those two cards and thus would be losing those bets. In that case the hand would have ended early and I would have won based on my strength at the beginning. That didn't happen, though, and I lost because the structure of the game limited my ability to take this advantage. This was purely an economic decision on his part and is one of the reasons why I love the game of poker, no matter what the stakes.
My response to the roommates - read the post below, first:
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003
From: John Greene
Subject:
To: Roommates
Bobby, are you really equivocating between the US Government and Saddam Hussein, Communist China, Cuba, North Korea, Putin's Russia, any Banana Republic in Africa, Indonesia, Iran, Singapore, Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Venezuela, or really, ANY other country in the world?
Are you serious? Do you really think our government is no better than any other? Not just that, but our *system* of government, through HISTORY?
Do you really think that the lights over your head, the clothes on your back, the car you drive, the food you eat, the innoculations that protect you from disease, the wealth of your parents, sanitation in the city you live in, and the education you are receiving have NOTHING to do with the quality of the governmental system in the United States?
Really?
Then this came:
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003
From: Jimmy
Subject: RE: question
To: Roommates
this one cracks me up big time.
So I clarified:
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003
From: John Greene
Subject: RE: question
To: Jimmy
I wasn't trying to be funny, I'm serious. I might get suspicious of the government sometimes, I might get nervous sometimes, but I am a big believer in empirical evidence, and whenever I go overseas I am reminded of just how much better life is in the United States - IN ALL AREAS (material, health, spiritual). That is empirical evidence. Proof. And the one thing that's different between my country and all of these other places, is the government.
We are free to make a profit for ourselves and spend our money in whatever way we desire, we are free to pursue whatever activities or vocations or education we may choose, we are free to practice (or not practice) whatever religion we choose, we are free to say whatever we want about whatever subject. In short, we are free to live our lives as we choose.
If life is so much better here than anywhere else (and don't feed me any crap about "spiritual bankruptcy", we can live whatever life we choose), and the government is different due to those reasons, isn't it logical to assume that the quality of life here is due to the government?
I am serious. I remind myself of this whenever I start to complain or have doubts. Many of these protesters and academics seem to miss this point - they bitch about the US without realizing that they are only free to say those things and act the way they do BECAUSE they live in the US. It makes no sense to me when they say these things and it automatically discounts their opinions to me because they are missing such a logical conclusion. 99% of all the crap they say is theatric hyperbole meant to make themselves sound intelligent and it pisses me off.
Occasionally my college roommates and I will get into protacted email debates about certain spiritual or philosophical questions. Lately, we've been doing it a lot with issues pertaining to the war - we all have differing opinions on some of the aspects surrounding the current political climate and the motivations and tactics used by the American government and President Bush. Lately, these debates have been a bit of a group attack at one of our roommates who has a public policy degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He seems to be a little more on the United Nations side of things - basically arguing that U.S. action without UN approval is less desirable than action with the UN's blessing. He makes some very good points and he's a very thoughtful guy and it's quite enlightening to hear some of his arguments. I am very appreciative to have him as a friend and as a debate partner.
That said we have a serious debate going on this morning that started with this question from another of the roommates, Jimmy, who tends to start these debates and egg everyone else on. For the record, we have a good mix of people. Jimmy is a true businessman who works in private investments, Bernie is a software engineer, Josh (who checks his email about once a week) is a med student, Dan is a pastor at a church in New York City, Bobby is the guy I describe above, and you know me. One thing we all have in common is that we are Christians, of varying zeal, and that tends to shade our debate. Generally, Jimmy and Bernie and I are on the same side in these debates, Bobby argues the other side, and Dan is typically on the fence. Josh is too busy with med school to participate, but he's typically the most thoughtful of all when he does contribute.
Date: Wed, 2 Apr
From: Jimmy
Subject: question
To: Roommates
Can someone explain to me how you can be protesting against the war in the streets and at the same time say that you support our troops? Maybe I'm too simple-minded, but I don't get that one. My logic is, when the troops see you protesting on TV and they're out there in Iraq doing their job, they don't feel supported.
There was some debate on this topic, but the debate eventually ended up revolving around the question of whether or not we as citizens trust our government. As our resident fan of Fox News Channel, Bernie explains:
I didn't read your response past the first sentence. You, as a pastor, must understand the difference between "blind" faith and faith based upon something real. Even God doesn't ask us to follow him blindly. Jesus said (paraphrasing) "Taste and see that I am good."
I don't have blind faith in anyone. I make what I feel to be sound judgments based on what I read, see, and observe over time. I listen to well-educated military leaders whose principles I understand, then I flip channels and listen to scores of ignorant protesters that can't even find Iraq on a map. No contest.
And, I have watched what Bush is doing. He is doing what is right for the country, and he has, for the most part, sound, guiding principles. He may not be the sharpest tool in the shed during a debate, but he is a fine leader and, when it comes down to issues that I can't be 100% sure on, from what I have seen from him so far, I would tend to believe him before anyone lying down in the middle of Broadway in NYC.
We went back and forth on that one - basically can we or can't we trust the US government - until Bobby summed it up:
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 11:18:33 -0500
From: Bobby
Subject: RE: question
To: Roommates
Jimmy,
I think you are misconstruing my stance. I'm not trusting/mistrusting the intent of the US more than any other government. Governments, in general, are not the pillar of accountability and trust. The US government should not be held in such high regard just because it is the vanguard of democracy.
Uh oh, I just noticed another email directed towards me...I'm going to read that...
And you all know me very well... I just had to respond to that one... it's coming soon... :-)
Protecting the Iraqi people, as the peace movement rightfully desires, is one helluva lot more complicated than merely shielding them from the collateral damage caused by U.S. bombs. (That is, unless you really believe that America is the “greatest terrorist state in the world,” as is so often repeated on KPFK’s drive-time shows. If your world-view is that facile, then indeed we have little more to discuss.)
Go read the the whole piece and all of the articles he's linking to. It's all very enlightening.
Oooh! Speed Racer, LOOK OUT!